[b][i]Two hours later[/i][/b]

“Latanos, Curious. We’re lined up, our drives are hot. We’re ready to jump.” The frigate’s communications officer reported, seeing her jump-prep screen lit up comfortable red, with the two big icons of Master Engineer and Commanding officer approvals checked as well.

“So are we.” the Narix cruiser responded, lined up behind the Faira Frigate. Time to see what the drive would do. Likewise on board the Curious, the exchange Narix found something to hold onto before the jump, remembering the warnings. “How long do you expect the jump to take, Curious?” the communications officer relayed helm’s inquiry.

“We were not able to determine where it goes - anytime from minutes to several hours.” Eridae answered form her navigation console, reviewing the probe reports. “Be advised, the probes report an asteroid field on the exit of the node. Have your point defenses ready, and have your ships stay close to the Curious, Ingenuity or Adaptability in case it’s so dense we need to extend the shields over your ships.”

On the Latanos, Omicri emerged from it’s jump drive, a case with tuning equipment in hand and a few bitten-through wires hanging from her muth: “Drive synchronizer installed and tested, we’re as ready as we’ll get, Primarch.”

“Thank you, specialist. Gunnery control, ready swarmers and fragmentation twins. Focus on the discoveries.”

“PDCs ready.”

“Point defense standing by.”

With both frigates prepared, Ascari turned to the communications station and nodded. “Send us through, Curious.”

With Zana acting as the other shift’s CO, both Astra and Zana would be in the helm’s chairs on their shifts. Eridae fed her the necessary course telepathically and Astra reached out with her mind for the communications system and the jump drive. OVer the comms, her mind found the drive on the Latanos as well, and she gave the signal to jump.

Every ship filled with the low hum of their drives, and a bolt of a mindstorm reached form the Curious to the Narix Cruiser, the storm spreading from the Faira frigate and encompassing it. A large window torn open in front of the assembled ships and they were pulled in a second after. Astra was paying attention especially to the Narix ship, adjusting the parameters of their drive to make the ride the least bumpy for them as she could. Still, the Curious itself shook like a loose sheet of metal in the wind, meaning that the Narix were probably getting their feet knocked under form them. All ships made it into the corridor though. “Entry successful, all ships report.”
“Ingenuity, all celar.”
“Adaptability, drive is running slightly hot, but within safe parameters.
“Cruiser wing Aleph, flying smooth.”
“Cruiser wing Beth, all clear.”

Technician first class Ertanax suddenly found herself getting to know the engineering’s floor rather well. Once the shipquake died down, she jumped back to her feet, now understanding the Faira reaction when commander Astra first demonstrated the jump chime.

On the Latanos, chief engineer Adaris looked over the knocked over chairs and miscellaneous unsecured items strewn about his engineering section and his expression betrayed mixed feelings. “Right. Let’s take notes and improve before repeating that.” he murmured, righting his chair and sitting back down. “Everyone good?”

The same question was spoken several hundred meters towards the bow of the ship in the CIC. Making sure all was within safe parameters, they contacted the Curious. “All is well on our end. Are we correct in assuming exit is going to be much the same?”

“Smoother. I’m learning how your drive reacts as we go.” Astra reported back shortly, and Prefect Linsis would understand why. Astra was in the helm’s chair, reclined back, with each of her antennae hooked up to individual control port that acted as a nervous system going throughout the ship, making the Faira almost one with it.

“We’re lucky it’s the commander piloting on the jump.” Omicri grunted as she picked herself up form the corner of the room, “Lieutenant Zana is good, but she’s used to jumping just one ship.”

“You mean this is considered good? I’d hate to see your B-team.” Adaris groaned as he pulled up a view from one of the external cameras, showing the Curious amidst the swirling red and white tunnel walls. “Now that’s something new.” he noted the difference between the standard white and blue corridor.

“For a first time jumping a drive that wasn’t designed to be sync-jumped in the first place? I expected us to take flight, not be knocked off our feet. The Commander’s something else. But with a ship you know? You wouldn’t even notice the transition.” Omicri grinned. She remembered the first time she tried to jump a ship before she chose engineering as her path. The poor cruiser crew had to tighten bolts for a week.

“Well thank you for sharing that information. Next time, a few hour earlier.” Adaris said at the mention of ‘taking flight’ and switched the outer camera view to security footage from the galley, where the cooks were ankle deep in plates, bowls and other utensils. “Good thing they are made of metal.”

[b][i]Four hours later, unknown system[/i][/b]

The window deposited the ships into normal space, more smoothly as promised, this time the ship only vibrated like a subwoofer. Immediately the point defenses on the Faira ships started targeting the offending pieces of something surrounding the node. Something, however, wasn’t right. “All ships hold fire! Latanos, have your ships move closer to ours so we can protect you with the shield, do not fire on the objects!” Astra ordered, pulling up a visual.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing? This is debris, not rocks.” she asked rhetorically, looking at the light blue shades with purple accents of bits of something that definitely didn’t grow in nature form the looks of it.

“Copy, hold fire, hold fire! Tighten formation.” the ships rearranged quickly, the science vessels cuddling up between the Curious’ engine pylons.

“Curious, Prospector. If we get some of that debris on board, we could use our refinery module to make a preliminary scan of it before the ship equipped with a tech lab arrives. If we transmit our deckplans, could one of your crew do that? Preferably a small piece if possible.”

Astra acknowledged: “Affirmative, standby to receive. Sector control, pick me a piece.” she ordered, and soon a set of coordinates was delivered. Within few seconds, the piece was safely on board the Prospector. “We need to secure the node for travel. I’m detaching all drones from our hull to tow the debris off to these coordinates for storage so we can look at it later. Can your fighters assist, Latanos? There is a lot of garbage out there to collect.”

“They’ll be in space in about two minutes, Pillagers are launching as we speak. Note we only carry 32 craft. Prospector, how long until you know more?”

“Give us a minute, sir. Though until the Archeologist arrives, all we’ll be able to tell is the age and composition.” a few seconds later, the Prospector sent a broadcast message containing several pictures of the debris.

“Commander, I recall a mention of debris discovered by your species centuries before we met. Could this and whatever you found belong to the same species?” Ascari wondered.

“No, no. This even looks completely different. If you date this further than eight thousand years though, it is possible it is form the same period though. If they used same mode of FTL travel that we do, this is relatively close in proximity, and something had to shoot down the debris we found. This could be them. I’ll have some of my drones scan for weapon signatures, perhaps it was our guys who did this.” Astra noted.

“Primarch. Commander.” Farsa said, her eyes almost looking like they were glowing, “There is something… Familiar in this system.” the Oracle notified.

“Fleet, Prospector here.” the Prospector’s CO’ excitement was flowing through the speakers, “We don’t have the specific makeup of the debris yet, but get this: Foreman just reported this debris is between eight and nine thousand years old! The Archaeologist will know more. How far behind is the rest of the fleet?”

“Trailblazer, anything on your passive sensors? Can you specify, lieutenant? A subspace signature? Pattern in EM radiation?” Ascari moved to the sensor station.

“The softer ships have jumped ten minutes delayed, enough for us to sweep the yard.” Astra commented, now searching for what Farsa reported herself. “I can feel it too. It’s like… a weak beacon of our FTL comm buoy. It is a mindspace signal or similar, not in normal space. Primarch, can you confirm with your subspace sensors? We’ll need to spread out to tetrahedralize it’s position. But there’s something else along with it, I’m not quite sure what, but I’ve seen records. It’s possible something similar to what was found on the homeworld is here as well.”

“You’re right, subspace scopes are a mess. Almost like a weak jammer of sorts.” Ascari relayed what the sensor officer reported. “Our frigates are ready to jump immediately, maybe spreading out will give us a better idea of what we’re dealing with and more importantly, whereabouts its source might be. Shall we send them out?”

“And if they aren’t all long dead, vector their jump and decide to go on a hunt?” Astra asked, “Our standard method is to clusted the smaller ships around the node until the system is considered safe and scout out using the larger ships that could hold their own. Primarch, both the people that left the debris on our home and these, if they are what brought them down, are technologically superior to both of us. I’d rather not have your frigates vaporized by a leftover automated defense system form a war long gone, even if they are dead. What’s your standard scouting method?”

“Determine whether there is something in the system, which we can be quite sure there isn’t, secure the node using larger ships, because the node is the lifeline back home, and use smaller ships, such as the Privateer, to explore. We are dealing with subspace interference, as far as we can see, the system is clear. And unless whatever threat there might be can cripple or destroy the ship in about four seconds, the Privateer can jump away. Seven times, if need be. Or we can sit here, not knowing what is what and wait for others.”

“I would not say we can be certain there is nothing here at all, just the existence of the signal suggests otherwise, but have it your way. Meanwhile I want the Oracles to keep searching.” Disentangling herself from the ship, Astra got up and walked to the central projector, marking the node on it as well as the star. “Planets?”

“Negative.” Lieutenant Cartis reported, “Not even asteroid belts. There is something wrong with the star though. The mindspace echo should be more or less a spherical ripple, but it’s very erratic. Worryingly, no sign of another jump node yet.”

When the report from Latanos’ sensor officers, confirmed by the Trailblazer indicated no planets, an annoyed growl escaped Ascari’s throat. He had intended to have the frigates use planets as sort of cover. If something threatened the frigate where  it jumped, it could jump to the other side of the planet to seek cover. Without planets, jumping a ship anywhere would too dangerous, like running into the middle of a parking lot. “Engineering, cooperate with the sensors officer and see if you can do something to unfuck our subspace sensors. Oracle, let us know once something comes up.”

“No node, or is the signal interfering too much?” Astra asked, linking the conversation to Farsa on the Latanos as well - perhaps between the three of them they would be able to find something else. “Ingenuity, I want you to take on two wings of drones and jump close enough to the star to get a more detailed reading. Maybe the presence of nodes could be conditioned by a certain type or mass of a star. We know next to nothing on how they form and stabilize. Adaptability, have your oracle constantly monitor the node we came through, I do not want the door slamming shut on us.”

Signing their affirmatives, the Ingenuity prepared to jump. “Fifth fleet, do you want anyone coming with? We think the solar emissions will hide us well enough, but they will charge you to crisp without a shield, we would need to dock for the jump.”

“No need, we’ll keep working on the subspace interference on this end. We’ll also let you know if the Prospector finds something interesting about the debris.”

As the unknown debris around the jump node were cleared away, the small craft started bringing pieces of debris with them on board, dropping them in the hangars before heading out again. Deckhands with heavy exosuits then moved them to cargo lifts that brought them to storage.

“Have you picked up any indication of a jump node yet? We’re still mostly blind when it comes to subspace.”

The Ingenuity disappeared in a mindspace vortex, on its way to the center of the system. “None. Only discrepancies from the star. It could be very young, it could be dying, we’ll have to see when the Ingenuity reports back. No need to bother the Admiral yet though, there seems to be pathetic little of interest here but the signal.” Euris answered from the chair few meters away. “Waste of time being here.”

“What if its a dead end? We were not able to find any other route, excluding whatever lies in Narix space.” Farsa quipped next to the navigator.

“Then we’d have to invest in alternate means of FTL travel.” the Narix navigator replied, keeping silent about the fact that besides Naris itself, there was no Narix space, and even Naris only held one node they were aware of. Unless they could learn more about subspace from this system and perhaps discover nodes that were hidden to their detection methods at the moment. “But perhaps this system holds some interesting secrets. Look here, weird subspace interference and alien debris neither of our species have ever seen. Maybe connected, maybe not. If so, how? Maybe the aliens used some sort of subspace beacons instead of naturally occurring nodes and we happened to stumble upon one? Or there is no way out and we will all die horribly as resources wear thin and we turn on one another to get our hands on whatever is left. Don’t you love the thrill of unknown?”

“Heh. Artificial jump node. If that is true, we’ll [i]never[/i] get the commander out of this system until it’s understood.” the XO snickered. “Well, there might be a way hidden in our home system. It is so unstable mindspace region that properly scouting it would take our entire military a hundred years or so with the density of sensors we’d have to field. So we didn’t bother too much yet and went the way we knew where something lies.”

Meanwhile on the Curious, Astra’s head snapped back. “Ah! It’s not in normal space at all, that’S why it’s so strong and yet we can’t find it. Somehow, whatever it is, is keeping itself within some sort of looped jump, or perhaps it just jumps back so quickly we can’t notice it dropping into normal space. I don’t know how it does it or why someone would build something like it, but that’s what it’s doing. Maybe it’s just that, a navigation beacon.”

“If so, it’s not compatible. Shame. Some time ago, some of our scientists proposed a concept of an interdictor ship. A vessel that could interrupt the formation of a stable jump point within a certain area, but it never got past a theoretical concept due to insufficient power generation and lack of understanding of subspace at the time. Has something like that been tried by the Faira?” Linsis inquired.

“We have not investigated the possibility of neutralizing a jump window completely, but altering it? That happens all the time. If a wake jump desynchronizes, the ships are going to emerge from individual windows easily 50 kilometers apart from each other due to the motivators interfering with each other. I suppose the effect could be utilized on purpose.” Eridae offered the thought, “It would certainly be a pain in the antennae if instead of facing the target, you would emerge behind it with your back towards it.”

“If we learn something about the unknown’s jump drives operation from the debris, could this, assuming the debris and the signal belong to the same species and assuming the commander’s looped jump hypothesis is correct, be used to disrupt said jump loop?”

“I can’t tell, too many ifs. This is a question for the inventors, Faira with special talent for understanding the workings rather than usage of mindspace. Them or the Commander.” the Faira shrugged the thought off.

“Curious, Ingenuity. We have a visual on the star, it seems to explain everything. See for yourself.” came from the comms, distorted by a lot of static. Alongside came the image of the star.

[center][img]http://en.es-static.us/upl/2011/11/SAO_206462.jpg[/img][/center]
Astra looked at the star in bewilderment. “It’s hideous, what is this? A star embryo?” she frowned her face. Inputting some simulations into the ship computer, she had accelerated time scale and watched the development of the system into the future. “It is! No wonder there are no planets, they haven’t formed yet form the two ‘tails’ of the star.”

That wasn’t something one would see every day. Still, it got them nowhere. “Great. Better a star that’s yet to be useful than a star that’s soon to obliterate its system, but that still doesn’t solve our problems.” The thought of being stuck in a useless system was far from what Carthus had envisioned. As if on cue, engineering reported over the intercom.

“Command deck, engineering here. We’ve cleared the scopes a bit, but are unlikely to get any better results. There’s simply too much garbage coming in. If we try to filter out more of it, we might just as well shut the sensors off and not bother at all.”

There was a very strange reaction to what Carthus said form his Faira crewmembers. Notably, the sudden halt of any motion or work being done. Aurigae was the first one to shake off the anger, dread and angst. “Everyone, if you need a moment, dismissed.” Euris managed to stay in her chair, but Farsa bolted out of the deck. Aurigae shot Carthus the most killing look she could, coupled with a slight shake of the head. [i]Don’t ever say that again.[/i]

There was something that would have to be discussed later, namely the executive officer dismissing specific crew members without a given reason. Noting the glare, Carthus went over his last few statements, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

“The fuck…?” Farsa’s Narix co-worker looked around himself with a bewildered expression, eyes scanning the deck for answers.

Aurigae tapped into secure line to Astra. “Commander? The Primarch had on a fluke referenced a supernova, some of the crew couldn’t quite contain it. I’m afraid the Homeworld is out.”

“Copy.” was all Astra said before she materialized on the Lanatos’ bridge. “Primarch, a word, please.” At the same time, Virgo would have been receiving a signal to be ready for deployment on moment’s notice, if things got ugly.

Turning to ask Aurigae just what was she doing, Carthus found himself staring at the commander. “Did you have to? I mean, at least a heads-up?” he shook his head. “Follow me out.” he gestured to Astra. “Captain, you have the deck. Try not to send half the crew on a vacation, we’re still in unknown territory.”

Leading Astra out of the CIC onto an empty hallway, he leaned against the wall. “Well, what is it?”

“You seriously haven’t figured it out yet?” Astra sneered, “Well, that’s good for now, but I can’t guarantee no one would make that link. Think, Primarch, what is the one thing that you were told that could send our people into a melancholy attack?”

“Melancholy attack? Nothing. Rear admiral Libra merely requested your homeworld not be brought up, not supernovae. And I did just that - not once was your homeworld mentioned. I don’t blame you for not telling us the whole story, if I understand it correctly, I merely think flying off the handle at the mention of something maybe three people have figured out is related and then looking like it was our fault is a little odd.”

“No, no I don’t blame you for it, although it creates a bit of a problem nonetheless. And you are correct, mentioning the homeworld would probably cause a melancholy attack, it’s just that accidentally nailing exactly how it happened probably has poor Farsa now reeling in mental agony, because she is very much remembering every single one of her family that [i]burned[/i] on the homeworld when our star [i]went[/i] nova.” Astra explained to the slightly thick skulled Primarch. She was only handling it this well because she didn’t really remember the homeworld herself.

[i]”She likely has it worse now than they ever did.”[/i] He thought, but even someone like Carthus would never say that out loud. “It is as you said - [i]accidentally[/i] nailing it down. Eight minutes ago, the person closest to figuring this out was ambassador Taranis, and even she was ligh- leagues away from the truth.” He stopped himself short of using a space-related analogy. “I can keep this a secret if that is your wish, but incidents like this come a Numisma per pack. If that is all, I believe we both have ships and crews to attend to.”

“While I appreciate the promise, I don’t think it can be contained, not with your command staff present for it. It was just a very unlikely coincidence. I’ll have to pass this up to see what plans for disclosure they might have had. I’ll take Farsa off your hands if you’d like. She won’t be of much use today I’m afraid. She’s lost two daughters and a son there.” she excused the Oracle.

“While I’m here though, there seems to be nothing of interest than the anomaly itself for the next several millions of years. I suggest we get a move on with finding it and go home figure out where to go next. I have the Ingenuity at the star, the node is on an ecliptical orbit, I can take the Curious to a polar orbit and we can determine the position.”

“Until we get back, it can be contained within the Fifth fleet to give you time. All outgoing messages are monitored. Don’t worry about the oracle, give her time to recover and then let her decide whether she stays of not.”

“Very well. The Trailblazer is at your disposal, it’s equipped with extensive both active and passive sensor suites, more eyes see more things. Meanwhile, we’ll continue collecting the debris for the boffins to pour over back at Opportunity. We’ll be ready to jump should our presence be necessary.” turning to get back to the CIC, he paused mid-step. “Should I relieve some of my Faira crew to check on the lieutenant, or is it best to leave her alone? I’m at a loss dealing with my ow people, let alone another kind.”

“Focus your efforts on the debris. I’d be interested if you could try to reconstruct how they all fit together, it might give us a better idea on what we’re dealing with.” Astra sighed, “It’s better to leave her, she’s having a very private moment and none of us know her well enough to provide any release, unfortunately. I’d appreciate if you could limit the information as much as you can, I’ll give you a call as soon as I know what more does the admiralty want.”

[b][i]Later at the anomaly site[/i][/b]

“What happened here?!” Astra said, barely audibly. There was what she could only identify as remnant of a ship, but a remnant of the most strange shape - almost as if someone took a destroyer sized ship and cut it in half, with the other half nowhere to be seen. Furthermore, there was no sight of anything that could have caused the damage to the ship in question.

The construction of the ship seemed consistent with the debris they found at the node, providing some answers to that mystery at least. “Latanos, Curious. Can you make anything of this? I can confirm the interference is in fact not coming form the remnant of the ship.” Astra hailed over.

“Wild guess would be a jump drive malfunction. Simulations suggest this could happen if a ship was halfway in or out a subspace window upon its collapse, but we never put that theory into practice for obvious reasons.” communications relayed the jump engineers message.

“Can you detect anything worth sending an away team for? Or do we wait for a larger science detachment to thoroughly examine the derelict?”

“Ship sheared in half?” A shiver ran through Astra’s back, “That’s a terrifying prospect. Half of the crew exposed of vacuum and without power, half had god knows what happen to it when a corridor collapses on you. Wild guess, their atoms were turned into energy and blasted back into normal space. It could account for the scattered mindspace field around here. With only a relatively light infant star stabilizing it, it’s a wonder the node we came through is stable enough for travel.”

Looking at a magnified image of the open section of the ship, Astra snickered: “Other than the massive want to see it for myself? No, not really, but I don’t see anything more useful to do for an exploration fleet that has nowhere to go to do. Unless you can point us in a right direction…” she trailed off, understanding that if there was a way and it lead through the Narix home systems, they would not really want a warfleet passing through. “If nothing else, finding and analyzing it’s sensor logs would be interesting, assuming we can understand a thing.”

“I reckon we’ll have about as much luck understanding anything as when we first met.” Carthus snickered. “But it’s worth taking a look for the technology alone, even if it’s vastly different. The rest of the fleet should be here momentarily, we’ll direct the Archeologist to you as soon as their jump drive cools down. If you need someone to go first and direct you to mindjump there safely, centurion Ursitis’ squad can spacewalk over, just point them to an airlock.”

“There is plenty of visible area where we can jump to, no need to do that, but I think it would do the Marines good to go in together.” Astra noted, passing the orders to Virgo. “I think we have located an airlock, we’ll see if Virgo’s squad can get to it and open it, it would be the safest part for the science ships to dock.”

[b][i]Curious’ cargo bay[/i][/b]

“Pack up people, we are going out to the wreck! I want squads with engineers to get ready to go over, everyone else on standby!” Virgo hollered over the training ground, and the Faira complement started filing off into the armory to re-equip.

“You heard.” the centurion shouted at his squad. “Lindus, Arruna, grab your tools. Someone get my air pack.” he continued handing weapons to the passing Narix. Although the ships electronics would be completely different from theirs, the engineers opted to bring their electronics kits with them, among other tools of their trade.

“Plan of attack, sir?” the centurion asked virgo, attaching the extended air supply pack to his suit.

“I am expecting automated defenses of unknown strength. Heavy Faira on point, engineers behind, rest trailing and securing cleared areas?” She suggested, wanting the Centurion’s opinion. “I suggest we insert here,” she displayed a section of the ship where a corridor opened up to space.

“Open corridor is sound, one less obstacle to cut or melt through. Have those above us bothered to share the ships temperature? Is it cold, or could it still have power?”

“It’s dead, probably no atmosphere either, not unless they have internal airlocks. That we can open and cycle through.” Virgo frowned, putting on her helmet. “If their materials and architecture is too tough for us to get through, we’ll have to go over the outside hull to the docking port we need to secure and open, so somebody should bring a pack of cards.”

“So if it’s dead in space, there’s chance automated defenses are dead as well. No problem with atmosphere until someone’s torso or helmet gets damaged. Going over the hull isn’t a problem, just a mild inconvenience if the surface has no magnetic surfaces on it. I’m worried about opening the airlock since the ship has no power. I’d rather avoid the use of demo charges.”

“I was thinking lasering through. We’ll see, maybe a crowbar will be all that is needed. Sign off on air seals! We need the rear airlock open to see out!” she called over the comm system to all squads.

The centurion checked the seals and switched to closed-circuit breathing. “Worst comes to worst, the Curious could make us a new door. But let’s try the exposed corridor first. Are you jumping us over, or do we go the commoner’s way in?”

“If you’re comfortable jumping, we’ll pack you with, otherwise, we’ll wait and have a snack until you get to us.” Virgo grinned. Green flash then lit up the cargo bay, signalling everyone to either leave or put on a helmet. In thirty seconds, it started to blink, and after that it stayed on again and the airlock opened out, the atmosphere being sucked out through the vents before. Virgo walked over with two of the squad leaders, pointing out the landing points to them with a laser target. “We’re ready.”

Looking over his squad once more, the centurion raised his thumb. “Ready. Let’s see what the old tenants left behind.” The squad stood in a diamond, each soldier bolt upright, excited at the idea of being teleported to a derelict alien ship to see what it had to offer.

“CO, we are ready.”

“Red out, Red out.”

Nodding to the two squad leaders, they raised their arms to jump their squads, while Virgo would be jumping the Narix herself. Half a second later and a flash of white and red, they would all find themselves brushing lightly against the floor of the derelict. Tapping her heels together, Virgo tried the magnets in her boots and was displeased when it did nothing whatsoever. “Grab a hold of something, this thing is made out of some kind of crystal that doesn’t react to magnets.”

“This system does not seem to take kindly to us.” one of the engineers grunted. Grabbing a hold of some exposed tubing and pulling himself towards the wall, he tried some of the looser tubes until one finally gave in, stuffing the tube into a pouch.

“It’s a corridor, means one way forward. Lead on, sir.”

“Jumpers, how are you?” Virgo asked, getting back that exfiltration will be possible in fifteen minutes. “You heard the ladies. Aleph and Beth points, go forth. Engineers in the middle, rest take up the back. Zarya, Sorya, guard the entry point.” Virgo ordered, taking the last place.

The two Faira on point had shields raised, that looked more like heavy riot gear, only forming a slab in front of them than a full bubble. The shield sent orange light forward, reflecting on the crystalline wall ahead. Other than the dancing lights, there was no sign of motion. “Door, looks heavy.”

“On it. Arruna, cutter.” the two engineers set up their equipment and soon, the hallway was filled with rapidly cooling splinters as the grinder bit into the door. Progress was slow, but visible, and in about 50 seconds, the door gave way, pushed inward by two soldiers before their hasty retreat behind the heavy Faira.

“At this rate, it’ll take a long time to get to that airlock, not to mention the grinding disc is only good for one more door before it goes, and we only brought four in total.” The engineer regretted leaving plasma cutters on the Curious, but who knew if this material was even conductive.

The group advanced further, engaging their helmet lights as light from the outside started to vanish. Virgo tracked their progress throughout the ship, wondering if they entered the express lane from the rear of the ship to the front. “No side rooms, nothing?”

“No, ma’am. If so, we can’t feel any. The whole thing is dead and lightly irradiated. Those walls are also hard to feel through.” a Faira engineer reported.

One of the Narix medics paused mid-step. “Wait, what? Did some dimwit seriously forgot to install radiation monitors as part of the suits?”

“I said slightly. As in mild levels of alpha radiation.” the engineer rolled her eyes, “Besides your side made the equipment on your suit, we did just the motion assistance and armor… for what good our armor will do, apparently.”

“That’s the most infuriating part, that it somehow slipped their minds.”

“Are we sure this is even a crew corridor? No side rooms, no intersections, no apparent lighting or ventilation… What gives?” someone else wondered out loud. “Closest analogy I can think of is some sort of hyperloop or similar form of transportation. Rectangular, for some reason.”

“What kind of transport system would leave itself irradiated after eight thousand years since it’s last use?” Virgo asked, having one of her engineers pose a theory: “Weapons system?”

“A chunk of the ship is unaccounted for, and this wreck has been exposed to space in the vicinity of a forming star for who knows how long? Closest estimate we have is 8000 years, and that’s by a refinery crew. Or do you think we’re walking down a barrel?” the marine continued, suddenly feeling a little uneasy.

“Did you see the size of that bulkhead? Unless there’s an opening elsewhere, I don’t see how any radiation could bleed through.” The engineer said. Virgo shook her head: “If this is a barrel, then one, the source of whatever it was firing is gone with the rear of the ship, seeing as this is going along the spine. Two, there needs to be a maintenance access at some point.”

They reached another door, this time Virgo’s engineers burned the slabs off of the mechanism and forced it open. “Woah… is that a fighter?!”

“Looks too small. Maybe a missile?” Virgo suggested, “Stay clear of it until we know it’s not armed, whatever it is.”

“It’s ugly, that’s what it is. Maybe a torpedo, or a drone?” the centurion offered. “Think we can get it outside somehow?” looking back at the door and the corridor, comparing the door and the object. “With care, maybe...”

“I don't think it’s supposed to be here!” One of the heavies called from the front, shining a light into a gaping hole that opened into a hangar bay filled with more of the objects above.

“Mystery solved.” Virgo said, floating herself up to the hangar, “And I found what looks like the airlock. We’re too deep in, though it might lead up to the one we have seen on the surface. Care to see if you can bring it to life?”

“Great, more of these. Packed up, ripe for the taking. It’s like finding the teacher’s sacred texts in elementary school.” one Narix marine chuckled as the engineers floated towards the airlock. Discovering something resembling a service panel and getting it open with some difficulty, he shone his headlamps at what lay inside, uttering a curse the translators didn’t recognize. “Not good. Whatever happened here probably caused a fire even before they lost atmosphere. It’s all charred, and there’s melted… something on the bottom of this.” he scraped a bit of the hard, brittle substance off with his knife, stowing it away. “Do we try forcing it open, or go straight to burning through?”

“The science ships won’t be here for hours, let’s try finding the motors or whatever makes this door tick and set up our own control interface, however rudimentary.” the Faira engineer replied, pulling out an ultrasound probe from her suit and touching the paneling around the door. “There’s a large hole here. They just build their damn access panels so seamless I can’t see it when I am staring right at it.” the Faira complained, giving it a good whack with a crowbar, finally snapping whatever was holding it up, the panel floating off. “Ah, look! Good old timing belt and some sort of power operation. We’re getting somewhere.”

“Funny, I always thought of your kind as methodical brainiacs.” the engineer noted as he watched the Faira swinging a crowbar around. “There goes that illusion.” Floating over to the hole, he redirected the panel into a corner noone was at. “Knowing our luck in this system, there’s a catch somewhere. Usually, these things are built in pairs if one breaks down. Lindus, check the opposite side.” He tried the belt with his hand, bits of its surface peeling off as he touched it. “We might have to improvise some replacement parts too.”

“As with most things, it varies from one to the other. And hey, I could sit here all day analyzing how this stuff works so I can repair it, or I can just weld a crank onto a pulley and be done with it and move on. You don’t necessarily need ‘perfect’, you just need ‘working’.” The engineer grinned, “What did you say your name was?”

“Technician second class Cornyx Arruna, whatever you need that for now.” he swallowed a remark about the rank, name and other information written on his chest plate, helmet and shoulders. “So about welding the metaphorical crank: door’s quite big and the belt has seen better days.” On the other side of the door, Petrus indicated that he failed to find any trace of a similar access panel. “Aaaand it looks like not everyone builds stuff in pairs. What did I say about our luck? But aside from the belt, this looks to be in decent condition, at least on the outside. Can you see anything holding it together so we can take a peek inside?”

[i]Private channel.[/i] the Bitching Betty in Arruna’s suit would announce. “Specialist Gofree. Sorry, I’m not in the habit of learning new names that have a prospect of just coming and going. Anyway, there might be a second mechanism accessible form the other side. I think I can just about reach for where the belt went, it looks like a gearbox. I might be able to-” Gofree said as she reached into the mechanism, turning the gear and watching the door open ever so slightly. A few more twists and a crevice big enough to see through opened. “Well, we can operate it manually, but if you can snap a few photos of the belt and give them a length, the engineers on the Curious can fabricate a spare in just a few seconds.”

Pulling the tattered belt out, Cornyx ran it in front of his helmet camera before measuring its length. “Curious, away team. We’re making decent progress with what could be a way inside, but this place has seen better days. We could use a replacement belt for a mechanism to open the gate, 170 centimeters long, triangular notches on the inner side. Sending visual now, away team out.” Wrapping the belt into a neat bundle, he turned back to Gofree. “Is there someone here who could send this belt back to the Curious?” he inquired through the private channel. “Having a video of it is nice, but having the original is even better.”

Peering through the partly-opened door, Lindus let out a low growl. “Wanna hear something funny? Another door, same as this one. If you can open it by, I don’t know, forty more centimeters, I could squeeze through and start on the other side.”

“Just don’t start a fire in there.” Gofree said as she kept twisting on the gear, while one of the Faira left to guard the landing zone came and gave them the manufactured belt, suggesting it was made in a couple of seconds. When it was mounted, the engineer went over to what seemed to be the motor, looking at anything wire or tube like that would connect to it. “Looks like they were using some gel filled tube as power conduits. I don’t know if it was supposed to phase shift to conduct electricity or if it’s hydraulic. Should I just pour some amperes into it and see what it does?”

“No fires, my word, but someone make sure you have a chisel, just in case.” Lindus shot back, worming his way to the other side of the door.

“Just don’t start a fire.” Arruna grinned at the mention of ‘just pouring some amperes in’. “Start low, from what I’ve heard, the commander would not appreciate you burning out a working alien motor.” If that didn’t work, it might as well come to a literal crank.

Nodding, Gofree linked up two electrodes to her suit’s power outlet, turning the virtual knob way down before sticking the business ends into the strange conductors. Nothing happened at first, but then as she increased the voltage, the gel inside the tubes started to liquefy, and something akin to lightning was starting to slowly rage inside. Forced to keep the open tubing upright so the conductive now-liquid didn’t drip out, she noted nothing was happening still. “Well, I think it’s safe to say this is what supplies power, but probably not the control impulse.” Gofree noted, “Is there any change to the control interface? Also, this stuff seems to work like a battery or capacitor rather than a wire. Genius when you think about it. If your power source fails, there is enough energy left in the sheer volume of conductors to run critical systems for some time. Bitch of a warm-up though.”

“We’re learning something new. Great, that means this field trip is already paying off. Genius indeed, but unfit for use where size is a concern.” Arruna thought out loud. “It came to life, that’s a step forward, but nothing else. Also, take some of that mystery goo with us. Since we’re already robbing their graves, it’d be a shame to come out with empty pockets.”

Then an epiphany struck him “Desloas, a minute?” he called team three’s pointman. “Give me your snake cam.”

The pointman threw the inquired object - a 60 cm plyable tube with a camera on one end and a small screen on the other - to the two engineers. Bending the camera end 90 degrees and activating a pair of light emitting diodes, he stuck the bent end behind the motor. “Aha! Look here.” he pointed a the screen, indicating two outlets similar to the one they’ve just tested, but smaller. “Maybe one of those two?”

“These guys didn’t really design for maintenance, that or they were rather small and nimble.” Gofree frowned as she tried to fiddle with the other two tubes and electrodes. “Huh, wire. Copper I think. You might be right.” she said, giving it a small jolt. The motor twisted for a little while and then stopped. “Well, we have a dead man switch.” She said as she put on the new belt, fastening the electrodes to the control wires and leading the electrodes up to hand level, taping them to the wall and marking the current directions for open and close. “Technician, any luck finding access on the other side?”

“Nothing good. Same setup as on your end, but something’s leaking out of the motor. At least the conduits seem intact. The control ones, that is, can’t see the power cable from here. Going to need that snake camera. At least you two have figured out how to make it move.” disappearing up to his shoulder in the machine, he found the gearbox and tried turning it. The gate moved smoothly. Making her way through the first gate, team two’s leader shone a light through the gate. “Looks like another section of the hangar.” sweeping the light to the right, she added: “Half of it, anyway.” She found herself staring at a roughly circular hole at least ten meters in diameter. “That could be used as an entrance.”

“We’re looking for something undamaged enough to hold a docking ring.” Gofree said as she peeked through at the massive crater.

Virgo made her way through now that the door was open, shining some light onto the other side of the hangar section. “Centurion, would those fit the description of the ‘bombers’ your pilots on the Explorer mentioned?” she pointed at a large craft with massive tubes in two side pods. “Also, we have another door. Technicians, if you would please tend to it. Specialist, I want you to scan the residues on that hole and get it’s layout. I want to know if that was caused by enemy weapons fire or internal explosion.”

“It’s definitely from the outside by the geometry of it. I’ll have a looksee if I can get a weapon signature.”

Virgo floated herself over to a specimen of the strikecraft that seemed undamaged, feeling around the cockpit for any sort of release. “We should ferry some to the Latanos for examination.”

“At least we don’t have to go all the way back to where we came from if we want in or out. If we seal the hole that connects the first hangar with the barrel, that could still hold atmosphere.” the centurion noted before floating over to one of the undamaged craft. “Yes, those could be that. Don’t look like they’re intended for atmosphere either. Getting them out might be a bit problematic, unless you can jump them away.” He made his way around the back. “And judging by the massive engines on this thing, either it’s very heavy, or was built to be nimble.”

“Looks like the previous door was busted by whatever made that hole, this one is almost in pristine condition.” Arruna hollered from the gate. A few seconds later, the door opened, exposing the hangar to open space through originally intended means and opening a clear view of the distant star to the away team. “That will do. Should we start setting up a bridgehead here, or do we explore further?”

“I want Specialist Gofree’s team to stay here and work on analyzing the puncture and reinforcing the docking port, rest form up, we’ll see what else can find. Already this is a motherload, now I am thinking let’s see some weapon systems and command and control.” Virgo said, pointing her arm in the way she intended to continue, “Also, look out for corpses.”

As the door Virgo indicated was on the opposite side from where the hole was, it opened with little help, revealing another door. Powering the first door brought the whole chamber to life, but the other door refused to move. Only after closing the first door did air rush into the chamber. “An airlock!  Splendid.” The soldier checked the atmospheric readout of her suit. “ It’s freezing here, big surprise, but the next section might be warmer if it’s pressurised too. 17 percent oxygen, mostly nitrogen, higher amounts of methane, but still within limits.” When the air pressure stabilised, the second door opened, revealing a pressurized room with several rows of what looked like terminals all facing the same side where an elevated platform was. “A briefing room for the pilots?” the pointman guessed after scanning their immediate surroundings.

“Briefing room with an airlock to the hangar? Is that something you’d do? Seems to me like an overkill, but then again, we wouldn’t know. Methane you said? Well I’m keeping my helmet on.” Virgo snorted, not wanting to deal with the smell. “I can’t feel any reception point for telepathic control, then again, maybe if we had an Inventor along they could do better job. Door opposite, let’s move along. Keep us apprised if you find something that looks like a control console.”

“It would make some sense. Tell the pilots what’s expected of them here and then straight to their craft. Alternatively, it could be an air traffic control center or a place where deckhands filed their paperwork.” the pointman guessed, pushing some random buttons on some of the terminals, getting a mild shock from one of them.

Getting accustomed to the way the alien doors worked, the pointman opened the door and gazed into a pitch-black corridor. “Oh, I’m not going, it’s dark and scary.” she chuckled.

“I wish you’d lose the bad jokes, Agritis.” the centurion pushed his way past her, the darkness completely overtaking his helmet lamps after a few dozen meters. “It’s a sad day when even Starlight Unlimited products fail you.” he fished out a red chemlight from his vest and taped it ot the door. “Exit’s marked. Pick a direction, sir.”

Virgo, however, stood still save for her eyes darting forward. “Tell me you heard that.” She asked in a hushed tone, fingers flying over her suit’s controls as she deployed ehr heavy shield and walked to front. “It sounded like… something between a scream and an air vent.”

“Maybe the hull creaking?” pointman Agritis whispered a guess. A guess, or a wish? “Who knows what being cut in half does to a ship?”

“Whereabouts did it come from?” the centurion asked. “Can you point out a direction?”

“Dead ahead.” The whooshing and thumps were now audible even for the Narix hearing to pick up. “I don’t think we’re alone here. Automated defenses perhaps?” Virgo said, raising her shield in front of the company, her weapons tracking but yet cold. Then it hit her antennae. “I can feel some strange quantum pulses coming from there.”

[b][i]*screaaaaaaaaaach*[/i][/b]

“Squad, motion trackers!”

“Motion, eighty meters ahead and closing.” the HUD readouts showed six dots zig-zagging towards the group.

“Team four, rear guard.” Ursitis’ team hugged the right wall, lord-legionnaire Edora’s team two took right. Lord-legionnaire Tarvis’ team remained in the middle of the hall while lord-legionnaire Vanir’s team turned 180 degrees, eyes glued to their HUDs. The thumping and screeching grew louder.

“Specialist Gofree, heads up, we have six unknowns on the ship.”

The centurion loaded a starshell into his underslung shotgun and fired it into the dark hall. The round ignited some four meters from them and illuminated the hall along its flight path with orange light until it hit a wall and came to rest nest to it.

“Fifty meters.”

Virgo was frozen to the spot, her shield raised, eyes gazing at the glowing red points of what she was only assuming to be eyes on the disgusting, unshapely creatures that closed in on them. Who were they? Was this their ship? Were they the ones who killed it? Were there more? And those nightmarish, hissy screams they made. If there was a manifestation of dread in physical form, the Master of arms was sure they were it.

All the questions came to a halt with the thirty meters warning and a pair of white claws deploying around the appendages of the uglies. “Unload on ‘em!” Virgo shouted as her shoulder-mounted cannons switched to pulse mode and spat blobs of plasma onto the incoming enemy.

The muzzle flashes of Narix weapons filled the corridor with light. Few would complain about noise and stench now. Yet in spite of the sheer volume of fire the combined boarding party put out, the nightmarish abominations that seemed to have crawled out of the deepest abyss of one’s fears advanced seemingly unhindered. All but one of team four abandoned their rear guard post to face the imminent threat.

“Bury them!” the centurion called. The marines responded with a volley of impact grenades, scoring several direct hits due to the lack of gravity.

“Snare! Vanguard upfront!” Virgo called and the two heavy Faira rushed past her, throwing cylinders that were reminiscent of the Narix grenades, only upon contact they coated the abominations with the hardening foam technician Lindus was so fond of. The heavies then raised their arms palm forward, raising a shield wall, the storm surrounding it revealing they were further enforcing it with their psychokinetic abilities.

Dropping her heavy shield and replacing it with the personal one, Virgo called up her tactical HUD and retracted the cannons back into the suit. The nightmares paid almost no attention to the foam, what must have been brutal strength forcing right through it. “Commander! We woke something up!” she hollered over to the comm suite.

“We know! Get your people out of there, now Virgo!” was all the commander responded before the line cut off.

“Fall back to the engineers! LZ team, meet us there!” Virgo hollered, ready to jump and mindspike an ugly insect if they got too close.

“Two, four, fall back to the door.”

“Two, bounding!

“Four, bounding!”

Eight narix marines turned and made for the door marked by the red chemlight before firing again.

“Set, go!”

Turning to Virgo, the centurion pointed at the door: “Today?!”

“Vanguard, fall back!” Virgo shouted at the two heavies still holding the shield up as the creatures were now crashing into it with mighty thuds. For what it was worth, the heavies held for the first two before choosing to activate their RCS packs and zoom past Virgo into safety. Deploying her mindspike, Virgo managed to skewer one of the monsters from head to the hind leg, but the suit’s sensors then blared a thermal warning. Looking up, she saw two of the creatures charging something white and very, very hot. Opting not to find out what it was, Virgo also rocketed back.

“Make a hole!” Gofree’s voice shouted over the intercoms as the engineer and one of the LZ guards passed through and tossed something into the hallway, slamming the door behind it and ordering the Vanguard to raise the shield again, which they promptly did. A thunderous boom then shook the shipwreck and bent the door in it’s frame, though the shield held it up. “Ordnance form one of the bombers. We need to go! The Curious is engaging unknown ships!” The engineer noted, and the group got hasty assembling themselves into a tightly packed formation for the jump back to the mothership.

Throwing any semblance of safety regulations out of the window, the eight remaining Narix followed the Faira example and made their retreat via EVA packs. Regaining their composure, they barely noticed two additional Faira before the door threatened to enter the room.

Quickly counting heads, the centurion confirmed the presence of all his brethren. “We’re set, waiting on you.”

The three Faira had to work in conjunction to jump the group that soon, but with a helping mindspace tether form one of the transport specialists on the frigate, they eventually managed. They would soon find out though that they weren’t as safe as they thought.