by M. D. Cooper
Mira asked.
It was easy to tell that Aqua was annoyed from the feeling of frustration that came over the Link.
There was a sullen pause, and then two words.
“You’re in the clear for now, Greg,” Mira said. “Aqua is going to determine if it’s worth putting you out there. But if she does, I’ll assign you to help. We can’t have our ship operating with incorrectly calibrated graviton emitters, and we only have a few days to square this away before our next jump.”
The technical sergeant sighed. “OK. I mean, I’m happy to help, she just kinda rubbed me the wrong way the way she said you volunteered me. Sorry I came storming in here like a child.”
“Understandable,” Mira replied, taking a seat across from him. “Is there anything else going on that you’d like to talk about? I’ll admit that it seems like a bit of a strong reaction for the first instance of an altercation between you two.”
Greg shook his head. “Nothing specific, nothing big, just little nits, you know? I think something’s eating at her, and she’s taking it out on others. Not sure how Lorra’s managing so well.”
Mira found herself wondering the same thing. “I don’t know, but we’ll get ourselves ironed out. It’s not uncommon for new crews to have a few hiccups along the way.”
“Fair enough,” Greg said as he rose. “I’d best take care of a few things, if I might get roped into helping engineering. Ma’am?”
“Of course,” Mira nodded. “Be on your way.”
He ambled out of the galley, and Mira returned to the prep station to check on the ribs. They were coming along nicely, so she decided to let them finish. If there was time for a meal, then they’d have them fresh. If not, they wouldn’t suffer much from a flash freeze for later.
Mira knitted her brow.
Janice didn’t respond for a few seconds.
Janice laughed at the statement, the sound echoing like ice cracking on a lake in the winter.
CHAPTER 12 - KRAI
GALACTIC DATE: 412.12.147
LOCATION: Far Patrol Shell, XI Phrysi
REGION: Void, Mass Conformity Qa-Loar
Krai shifted on kes cradle, studying the knowledge its travelshell’s eyes brought forth. It wasn’t engaging in the least—nothing had changed in cycles, and je had begun to wonder if je should leave Qa-Loar and return to the Far Patrol with what je had learned.
At least the stranger’s ship left without issue. That means one didn’t set off any alerts at their mining facility and did not make them aware of the X’Liy.
Je found keself wondering if the strangers already knew of the X’Liy. One could imagine a scenario where the Far Patrol had kept this knowledge from passing into the home oceans, worried that it would cause panic in the inclusions.
Playing out what those scenarios looked like, Krai missed the first alert that appeared on the knowledge feeds, a blip at the edge of the mass conformity that suggested a travelshell was present.
Nearly a tenth-cycle later, another alert appeared in the streams, this one at a higher priority, breaking into kes imaginings and bringing kes back to full awareness of kes surroundings.
A shell, it must be—smaller, I think, than the stranger’s ore hauler.
For a moment, Krai wondered if it was another X’Liy ship, but je dismissed that thought. Only the Far Patrol would venture so far from the home oceans, and je had not been gone long enough to warrant any search for kes.
A new concern came into kes mind, a fear that the stranger’s ore hauler had indeed spotted Krai’s interference, but rather than investigate themselves, sent a peace patrol shell. If the stranger’s peace patrol was anything like the X’Liy’s, things were about to become much more complicated.
Krai pinged the nearby probes je had deployed around the fluid orb in whose shadow je hid. None of them could see Phrysi, which meant that the strangers should not be able to see kes. Not that je could be certain their shell-eyes operated at all like kes own.
Momentarily reassured that the strangers wouldn’t immediately spot kes, je plotted a number of outsystem vectors and burn profiles just on the off-chance that kes ship was detected.
Over the next few tenth-cycles, any doubt that the new shell was one of the strangers’ disappeared as Krai’s remote eyes tracked its path across the mass conformity.
Much to kes surprise, the new shell did not make for the mining site on the dead orb. Instead, the ves
sel held to a vector that brought it around to the far side of the mass conformity, a route that would bring them within several span-measures of kes location, but nothing so close as to be considered an intercept.
Just chance that they’re here. This must be the strangers’ far patrol—hopefully not their peace patrol.
The thought did not completely assuage kes fears, and je began to consider what conflict might arise between the shells should the stranger’s see kes.
It was clear that the strangers’ shell also possessed mass-force protection, though it was activating and deactivating in a rather curious fashion.
Perhaps something has gone wrong with their shell, and it is damaged?
Curiosity got the better of kes, and je sent a remote eye on a course that would bring it closer to the strangers’ ship.
The eye gave a better picture of the vessel, and Krai marveled at its simplistic congruity. It looked nothing like the ore hauler, which was clearly utilitarian in nature. Nearly as wide as it was long, Krai was reminded of a bottom drifter, one of the creatures that swam close to the ocean floor, mouth and eyes looking down, ever searching for its next meal.
Je had tangled with those beasts in the past, usually by accident. Their three spiny tails were nothing to trifle with; just one could pierce an X’Liy’s thought-mass and end a one’s life.
The fact that the strangers’ shell so closely mirrored something that was frequently a threat didn’t strike kes as a coincidence. It was clearly a predatory craft, and should it learn of Phrysi’s presence, there was little doubt that it would strike—especially since it had suffered damage.
I must prepare for combat.
CHAPTER 13 - MIRA
STELLAR DATE: 12.30.8959 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: OASS Inquiry, 155AU from system primary
REGION: Regina System, Outer Alliance
“There.” Mira pointed at a glint of light on the forward display. “There’s our little errant scan return.”
“It’s big,” Janice cautioned. “We’re still three light seconds and a long way from the primary, near that swarm of dark matter.”
“Big, or could be exceptionally reflective,” Brock suggested.
“Do you think that’s the case?” Mira asked the ensign.
He shrugged. “I guess not. Folks would have spotted it, and it’d be on the charts.”
Mira nodded, hand to her chin as she considered why it wasn’t. Though Regina was only a few light years from the Bysmark System, it had only seen settlements in recent decades—mostly on rocky moons orbiting the gas giants.
Further insystem, terraforming teams worked on the one terrestrial planet, carefully nudging it into a more temperate orbit while introducing hardy forms of life and adding water to create oceans and atmosphere.
The Inquiry’s original route would have taken them close enough to watch the work in progress—possibly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—but investigating the anomalous routes in the system’s far reaches was far more important.
There’s always the return trip. Might be able to swing a flyby then.
“OK,” Brock said after a minute’s silence. “I calculate it to be at least fifteen kilometers long.”
“And…” Janice prompted.
“And what, Lieutenant? I can’t really see much else about it from here. There’s just not enough light.”
Janice shook her head. “It’s rotating, Ensign. You can tell from the slight blue shift on the bottom and the red shift on the top.”
Brock’s lips formed a wide ‘O’, and he reddened. “Umm…yes. That. Oh! And it’s reflection is highly consistent, too.”
“So,” Mira tapped a finger on her chin. “It’s either a station, or someone spun up a rock.”
“Fast spin on a rock,” Janice said. “But then again, the Outer Alliance hasn’t really been around long enough for people to be able to build stations that large in secret.”
“Or to find derelict ones,” Emma added.
“How’s our stealth look?” Mira asked, deciding it was best to move away from speculation.
Brock glanced at his console. “We’re as dark as can be. Even the probes we deployed yesterday can’t see us anymore.”
“Good.” The commander nodded before reaching out to Aqua over the Link.
The engineer didn’t sound put-out by Mira’s inquiry—she seemed almost pleased, for once.
Small mercies, Mira thought.
Mira turned her attention back to the bridge, where Brock and Emma were having a conversation in low tones regarding the safest distance to maintain from the object. She glanced at the AI to see Janice watching the siblings with a surprising intensity.
Mira said, nodding as she considered what that would look like.
The commander leant back in her chair, considering whether she agreed with that statement. So often, people presented the most common behaviors as the only behaviors—something AIs were not immune to.
The AI’s gaze slid from the twins to Mira.
Janice’s jaw clenched, and Mira began to wonder if she’d have to order the AI to let it drop, when she shrugged and said,
Determined to mark an end to that conversation, Mira rose from her seat and walked to the bridge’s holotank, where she activated a three-dimensional view of what she was now certain had to be a space station.
“It’s just too regular to be an asteroid,” she mused before glancing at Janice. “Is there anything on record that fits the profile?”
“What? Like a lost colony ship?” the AI asked with a laugh. “There are a few stations that are rough matches, but as of our last records updates, they’re all accounted for. Not that anyone has the tech to jump a station like that.”
Mira nodded absently. Normally, ships over six kilometers in length couldn’t drop into the dark layer for FTL travel—except for the two colony ships that had made the journey to what they named the Outer Alliance. Through means that had never been shared, those massive craft could transition with ease.
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br /> “What if someone figured it out?” Emma asked. “I mean, our engineers did during the exodus. It stands to reason that others could as well.”
Janice shrugged. “I suppose. Either way, for our purposes right now, it doesn’t matter how it got here, we’re just taking a look-see.”
“Exactly.” Mira folded her arms across her chest. “Just a little splotch of darkness drifting across a sea of black.”
“We’ll be at our closest approach in an hour,” Emma advised. “Permission to grab some coffee, ma’am?”
Mira laughed. “Granted, but only if you get me some.”
“And me,” Brock added.
Emma rolled her eyes. “I’ll just bring a carafe. How’s that sound?”
“Perfect,” Mira replied. “Oh, but bring some of the cookies I baked last night. They’re perfect for dipping in coffee.”
“You got it, Commander. Coffee and cookies coming right up.”
* * * * *
An hour later, Mira still stood at the holotank, eyes glued to the visual that was slowly taking shape as the Inquiry’s passive scan raked in the stray photons bouncing off the object.
“Sooooo…” Brock drew the word out. “Who’s gonna call it?”
“Call what?” Mira asked, knowing all too well what the ensign was getting at.
He half rose from his seat, gesturing at the holotank. “That we’re staring at an alien…station? Artifact? Like…what the fuck is that?”
“And just as importantly,” Janice rose from her seat and joined Mira at the tank, “why are there Outer Alliance merchant ships docked with it as we speak?”
The commander folded her arms. “It doesn’t have to be alien. Yes, the architecture is strange, I’ll give you that, but it’s just a three-segment rotating cylinder with stationary docking areas on either end. We have stations that are quite similar.”
“Sure,” Janice said in a tone that indicated she didn’t buy Mira’s rationale one bit. “But those stations are shiny and new. Look at this thing, it’s ancient. It’s hard to guess an age without active scan, but from how pockmarked the surface is, I’d say it was made before humans learned how to make fire.”