[b][i]Exodus - Faira Nebula jump node, three days later[/i][/b]

The engineer raised an eyebrow in surprise when, upon the shields activation, his instruments indicated numbers that would normally be considered the far red zone. “Good thing we thought to gut the ships and replace the entire power grid.”

The Fifth’s ships were now speckled with shield projectors in hexagonal covers, likely souring the ships’ appearance even further to the Faira. Perhaps worse off of the fleet were the Privateer-class, that had to have their aft dorsal and only ventral 2 meter turrets removed to make space for the shield projectors.

“Command, engineering. All’s well back here.”

The primarch received the message and opened a channel to the commander of the Faira Home Fleet. “Admiral Sola, this is the NSS Latanos. We are ready to go through. Are we clear to proceed?” Though the jump would take about two hours, arriving unannounced could lead to problems.

The message took quite some time to arrive, and when it did, it was quite distorted. “All clear, Primarch. Your escort is standing by at the node exit, in case your shields fail during the transport. We recommend not using the synchrodrive this time, it would be a mess to find you all in case of a desync. I am forwarding a list of ships waiting for you, assign your ships to them by matching class. If their shields fail, our ships will cover for them until they repair theirs. Well… travel safely.” the admiral said with not much confidence.

“Well she knows how to inspire confidence in the troops.” a sensors officer grumbled as the jump windows swallowed the Narix ships.

[b][i]Faira Nebula, two hours later[/i][/b]

“Ladies and gentlemen, the fanatics were right after all - we’ve found the Void.” one of the helmsmen said with a great deal of sarcasm upon reaching the Nebula, momentarily forgetting the presence of several Faira on the deck. The fleet broke formation, each ship seeking the Faira ships that were assigned to them.

“All safely through and all drives ready. Admiral Sola, we may begin once we get at least 2500 meters from the node.”

“Very well, Primarch. I am sending data on the already explored parts of the Nebula, as well as a meteorological software that might give you some warning about an impending neutron flare or a particularly strong gust of wind in the nebula gas. If you hear it blaring, drop everything and crash jump. Familiarize your helm with the sound, there might not be time to give the order. I will leave deploying your ships for maximum sensor coverage to you. The areas the Steadfast group will scan are already marked as explored. The Eternal group is going to be standing by at the node, which is our emergency rally point for this operation. Should you have any trouble, attempt to jump there. Failing that, a ship form the Eternal group will be ready to assist on moments notice. Good luck.” The admiral signed off, her own battlegroup anchored near the civilian fleet also marked on the TacMap, along with an asteroid belt where Faira’Erea used to orbit.

“Right, I immediately see the expected sensor coverage problem.” the sensor officer called, “Range has gone down by about 40%, navigation is going to be a mess. Subspace sensors are completely useless, If I tried to filter the noise out, the DSP would wipe any signatures as well. I trust the good lieutenant and her peers will keep us safe, since you know best what to expect.” he noted, turning to Farsa with an encouraging gesture.

“Do not push the engines. Twice the speed of light is perfectly fine, it will give me more time to feel the path ahead and it will generate less turbulences behind us. It will rattle enough as is.” Farsa said, leaning back in her chair and sinking into a mindspace trance, only allowing Euris to communicate with her telepathically, needing complete focus. “We are good to go.” the latter reported, plotting the Latanos’ course on the map.

“Very well then, others have gone. Let’s not lag behind.”

A subspace window formed and swallowed the ship whole. Intrasystem travel that took more than four seconds was odd at first, but none of the crew had given it much thought, too occupied with bracing themselves lest they be swept off their feet. Still, it was better than when they first tried the slaved drives.

Exit was a little worse, the helmsmen having their hands full for a few seconds to counter the unexpected drift on exit. After a few jumps, they would get the hang of it.

“Sensors, anything?” Farsa said from her station, sounding slow and weak. “I can barely see a light minute in this area.”

Euris grunted from her console: “Zilch, just like everywhere else in this forsaken land.”

“Engineering, the shield just took a massive hit from the lightning and dropped 60%. I could really use more power, do we need to run all of the engines, considering we are not going full gas?” Omicri radioed in, sounding displeased.

“We could lose the secondaries and number two main if it would help. If you need more, disable life support in storage and hangars with prior warning.” the primarch replied. “We’ll wait for the drives to fully cool down before making our next jump, the extra jump might come handy here. Engineering, be ready to restart the Number two main if we need it. Helm, jump when the drives are ready.”

“Drive output modified, we are running without main two. Aux are still running, shield recharge boosted to maximum the conduits can handle.” Omicri called over, “Adept, should we shut down the hangars anyway and decrease the output of the plant to be on the safe side?” she asked the home field engineer.

“Leave the hangars for now, have the power section shut down the storage bays except the refrigerated ones, no need for lights, gravity and ventilation there.” he replied, trusting his Faira colleague to maintain her native technology. Well, semi-native. If they met those the shielding tech truly belonged to, there would be trouble. “Shut down the hangars as soon there’s trouble with the shield though.”

“We can’t shunt any more power into the shield without the pipes melting and liquid voltage flowing freely through the halls is not something I want to clean up.” Omicri grunted, “If we do not have enough power, we just need to raise the output then again.”

“Engineering reports good to go.” Aurigae reported, looking at the TacMap. Their path was taking them to an area the Curious went through once. “Primarch, there used to be strong gales in that area, it is possible some of it will bleed through.”

The primarch nodded. “Helm, you heard. Take that into account on exit. And shipwide seatbelts.”

The ship jumped once more, this time the exit was somewhat better. The XO was right about the gales, as they leaned into the ship with great force.

“Slight X and Z axis drift, compensating.”

“Do you need more engines?”

“We’ll manage.”

“Engineering, how’s the shield and reactor holding up?”

“All taxed but holding, shield, power, engines, gyro is in a twist.” Omicri reported.

“Something’s...” Farsa hissed from her station. She didn’t finish before Euris took over, “Jump! Collision alert, jump, now!” The gales have sent one of the asteroids from its orbit.

Both helmsmen uttered quiet curses of the largest caliber and the ship lurched forward as it jumped. Exit was the worst the ship has ever seen, more akin to a jump drive failure. The cruiser emerged spinning in two axes and the maneuvering gyros strained to bring the ship back under control. Most unsecured things and crew were sent flying.

“Oracle, are we safe here?”

“Terribly sorry about that, this place doesn’t take kindly to crash jumps.” one of the helmsmen called over his shoulder, “Navigation, mind telling us where we are?”

“Not the node, I’ll tell you that much.” the officer sunk into his instruments for a moment before turning back to face the command crew. “Almost halfway across the system, the fuck happened here?”

“Ah, sorry, my bad.” Euris pipped from her station, “Training kicked in, I plotted in a rendezvous point alright, the standard one rather than the node. If you’ll look to the right, you’ll see the Civilian fleet. 
I already informed the Sentinel about the hiccup before they started warming the cannons, they are asking if we need repairs. They also packaged in data form the other patrols, adding to TacMap.”

“We’re mostly here.” Omicri reported, “The drive will need to cool down and I think Swarmer two didn’t come out of the jump with us, but we seem to be fine otherwise. Shield had some time to recharge and is holding on full power and this area is stable, we’re safe.”

“How did we lose a Swarmer?” the gunnery officer asked in resignation, “You do realize this ship doesn’t have many of those, yes?”

“Give me a… aha, the logs report a power surge that likely set off one of the missiles, causing secondary explosion of the entire load. Maybe we should put the turrets into loading position until we need them?” the engineer theorized, “Won’t know for sure until I see it from the outside, might as well be a diagnostic system malfunction though. In either case it’s not responding to controls. I’ll send a DC Team to have a look. Other than that, we have to stow every tool and crewman again down here.” the engineer grunted.

“Damn it, that shouldn’t happen. Starboard fore batteries, was that swarmer armed?”

“Affirmative sir, we armed it se soon as we saw the asteroid on screen.”

“Right, safeties on, those disconnect the firing mechanism, that should prevent that in the future. And stowing everything is a matter of the entire ship.” The Latanos’s cooks were getting fairly annoyed at the notion of subspace and Faira together by this point. When those two mixed, the kitchen turned to a mess.

“Pulling them into loading positions just retracts them into the hull, I’d rather not have them go off there. Munitions rack wouldn’t take too kindly to that.”

“If that is all, that is a no with a thank you on the repairs.” the primarch ended that conversation. “Once the drive is cold again, resume our patrol. Any other ships encounter problems?”

“The privateers are getting tossed a lot in the gales.” Aurigae read from the reports, “The Sharlatan has suffered a complete power failure and was towed to Exodus for repairs by the Eternal. No casualties. The oracle assigned to the Hama is a trainee for a vessel of that size, so they are getting rather rattled in FTL, I’m sending them the cookbook we are using. They are reporting surges over the ship as well.”

“It might be the new power distribution system. Our knockoff mystery goo only has the conducting part, not the capacitor function. It might have been a stabilizing feature. Maybe we should install surge arrestors to key systems once we finish here, at least until we get that sludge right.” Omicri suggested.

“Primarch? We have not received anything from the Independence since they left. Displaying their patrol route now.” Aurigae noted, putting up the path on TacMap. By this time, the Independence’s patrol would have been taking them between the asteroid belt and the star. “Hmh, could be nothing but interference, that close to the star is still okay even for a Privateer, but their commsystems might not be able to punch through. Should we notify the Eternal to investigate?”

“If they can spare the time, yes. If they ran into trouble here, the Privateer’s ability to hop around might cause more harm than good, as we’ve seen. The loss of the Sharlatan also leaves us without our most experienced frigate crew.”

“No spontaneously exploding turrets?” the gunnery officer wanted to know. “If that’s something that happens often, I’d rather have someone pour over it before such a power spike hits one of our nukes.”

“Might want to unload them. If the problem is in the conduits, I can not guarantee no surge. They are built sturdier than the swarmer rockets though, so it should not trigger them. A hot enough arc might melt through the containing vessels though, I’d rather not have to decontaminate the ship. Next time somebody wants to slapjob a new system onto an existing design in a hurry no less, we should say no.” Omicri shrugged to the camera.

“The entire Eternal group has been designated SAR, notifying them now.” Aurigae said, sending the message. In a minute the answer came through: “Latanos, Eternal. We can not approach the area. It appears there is a neutron flare happening there. We hope the Independence has already made it through, or at least managed to crash jump. I don’t think even a Meteor or Warlord could survive getting hit by that.”

“I did protest this alien shit on my ship, you try arguing with [i]him.[/i]” Adaris whispered to Omicri off comms.

“Damn it, Erixa was known for taking unnecessary risks. Too curious for his own good, and his crew.” the primarch growled. “Nothing we can do for them now. Ask them if they can jump a few waypoints ahead and see if they made it through before the worst of it. I’d like to avoid such trouble in the future. Sensors and oracles on high alert. Engineering, are we ready to jump?”

“Thirty seconds. I am going to focus on maintaining the power grid myself. Hopefully that’s enough.”

[b][i]A week later, Faira’Dea morale sector[/i][/b]

“Damn it all to a black hole!” Farsa growled at the table where the Curious crew was having their reunion. The Civilian fleet has become all but home to the Fifth fleet and Vanguard as well. Yesterday the last sector was finally scanned, only for no new jump node to be discovered. Add to that the loss of the NSS Independence, vanishing without a trace, and the loss of everyone on board the ECR Seer, the crew’s lives ended in a lightning storm when their shield failed. The ship was pulled back with all of it’s systems fired beyond repair. “All this and nothing!”

“This is really a miserable week. The upgrades to the Curious have backfired, not even the upgraded reactors can reliably power that thing, and that is without the other main gun. We’ll be lucky to get it moving this month. On top of that, we need to re-equip the fifth again with safer power distribution system.” Astra groaned.

“Do we really have nowhere to go? Have we looked everywhere? Perhaps some recalibration in the sensors…” Omicri suggested, but sounded defeated.

“Well…” Aurigae pipped up, “There are hollow places between the spherical zones where we looked in the Nebula.”

“But a node is a lear vortex or tunnel if you will in the fabric of mindspace. We have covered the nebula in a pattern that it would have intersected another area if it lead outside of the system. And we can not possibly explore closer to the neutron star, that’s suicide. At least, not until the Singularity is finished in, oh, a couple of decades.” Farsa thrown her arms up.

“Yes, but what do we have to lose? All those ships and nowhere for them to go?”

Astra nodded slowly: “Maybe you’re right. We should go over all of the systems with a fine comb. If nothing else, some of the unknown wreckage could have given us a slip. And we should scan Naris in high detail as well, maybe there is an Ancient ship landed there as well. And there is just the person that we need to talk to.” she nodded towards Libra who has just arrived, having been called home to an assembly of the entire admiralty.

The Faira were not the only ones whose mood was approaching the freezing point. Even the Narix National Newscast couldn’t find even the tiniest shred of good news in the fruitless exploration of the Nebula and the loss of the Independence. All but the most optimistic or emotionless individuals of the Fifth have sunken into resigned melancholy, a state that has even infected the Alchemist.

Not only was Runa tasked with letting the families of the Independence’s crew, OEP personnel included, know their loved ones have vanished without a trace amidst a neutron flare, now everyone knew it was all for nought. She couldn’t help but think about a question admiral Cygnus asked some time ago: [i]“If we are stuck in this region of space, what future is there then?”[/i] Those thoughts were immediately followed by what she thought of at the time that question was asked: [i]”An inevitable war over the remaining resources that would allow the victors to endure for a few more years before their unavoidable death.”[/i] As more of the nebula was explored without finding anything, she found herself more and more often in such a gloomy mindset. The invitation to travel to the Nebula was almost a salvation. But as she agreed to going, her gaze fell upon the NSS Independence memorial aboard the Alchemist. Since then, she’s been going through dried meat at a rather rapid rate in a futile attempt to ward off her worries about traversing the Nebula. She must have been an amusing sight to the Faira.

“Admiral! Ambassador! A moment!” Astra called over, the Curious’ crew forming a small hush hush circle around the two, with Astra explaining Aurigae’s thoughts to them. “That is going to require a lot of ships, and we have them all lying around doing… what exactly? Guarding against ancients that didn’t show up from within the system in a week, and there is no way for them to arrive form without. None of us are an admiral, we don’t have a voice in the assembly, could you-”

“Done.” Libra said with a nod, “I think I can get all the civ admirals on board with this, and I’m sure admiral Cygnus will join as well. That’s still a tie, the civ admirals only count for one voice… hm…” Libra scratched her chin in thought.

“Didn’t the Nightmares of Terminus only show up AFTER we baited them out?” Runa inquired. “Can we be sure there are no more hibernating anywhere around? And how much do we know about their jump drives? A month ago, mounting subspace motivators onto a fighter and powering them to make the jump was considered impossible among my people. Who’s to say just because we can’t get out that they can’t get in?” She knew a civilian’s opinion wouldn’t hold much water, but keeping silent could be way worse.

“There is no jump node. Not a weak one, not a young one, not a collapsed one like in Terminus. Nothing, just turmoil that would shatter any ship we have.” Farsa moped.

“All the more reason to look.” Astra said, “The Demon managed to hide from us just by staying cold in a concentration of rocks, pretending to be one. If we can find the Ancients and get a jump on them before they activate, all the better, but I am mostly hoping for another vessel of the unknowns, we can not breathe life into the computers of the wreck in Terminus no matter how hard we try, but their tech beats out even the Ancients in the area of subspace. If there is hope, I think it lies with them… Or generational ships, but we are not that desperate yet.” Astra explained.

“So, what is it you’ve came up with? Go over all five systems again, but more thoroughly and looking for wreckage instead of jump nodes? That could work, how can I help? We have the First Fleet dedicated to Naris, I think its 132 ships and their strike craft shouldn’t have much trouble going through the system. We could enlist the help of civilians if we get desperate. As things stand, the Fifth is, barely, our only fleet capable of navigating the Nebula. To be precise, twel- eleven ships of the Fifth. That leaves 66 ships of the Second and twelve Guardians from the Fifth to help scour Exodus, Opportunity and Terminus. Unless you can cover the Nebula by yourselves, which would free up the rest of the Fifth and allow us to start right away since the power grid refits could wait.”

“Details can wait until we have an approval for the operation. We’ll need the Meteors and the Comets for the nebula, the rest can not get into the most hazardous zones, that includes slapjob shielded Warlords. The rest we should send out to Terminus, there is the largest chance of finding more of the Unknowns there.” Astra noted, “Just put the idea in their heads.”

“You forget commander, you have been ordered to attend. You may be able to convince them personally.” Libra said, “Speaking of which, we should go, put that Narix swill down, it doesn’t help us feel any less gloomy.”

“Tastes great though.”

[b][i]Faira’Dea; Assembly hall[/i][/b]

It took two hours for the Assembly to get through it’s regular stuff, before Astra was called in. To Runa, who was invited to attend as a voice from the other party of the Alliance, it was most likely sleep inducing.

“Moving on, I call forth Commander Astra.” Lira, presiding over the Assembly, called her forth. As she was told, Astra walked into the middle of the semi-circular sitting area, standing in salute briefly until she was relieved. She then delivered reports on the research into the Ancient jump drives and the systems of the unknown ship. “As you can see, despite the research providing a tremendous advance in our understanding of Mindspace, it puts us no closer to leaving the local cluster. The only possible route encountered is a collapsed node in Terminus, which we are no closer to stabilizing, despite the successful development of an intrasystem jump gate. Which is why I ask the Assembly to spare every ship we can to search for more relics of the unknown race, including the Home fleet.”

There was quite some murmur, including some disapproval form two of the civilian admirals - obviously Libra couldn’t get everyone on board. Astra looked towards Runa in hopes.

There appeared to be some disagreeing voices. Could she say something? Should she speak up? Talking out of order at such a gathering could at the very least be perceived as rude. Why didn’t she ask Libra about this? She cursed her broken composure since she entered the Nebula. How was she supposed to work like this? Then she caught Astra’s gaze. Though she still wasn’t particularly good at reading Faira body language and facial expressions, in part thanks to the suits, the look on the commander’s face almost looked like a plead for help.

Seeing that nobody was speaking to the assembly as a whole, Runa stood up, clearing her throat to alert the buzzing assembly. “If I may, I’d like to point out that, to my knowledge, neither side has put forward [i]any[/i] suggestions regarding our next course of action. While it may not be the best course to take, it’s the only one we have so far that doesn’t have our fleets sitting on their hands doing nothing. Following the loss of the Independence, the Republican Starfleet has 221 warships, 120 science ships and countless dropships capable of reconnaissance at its disposal. In two or three days, most of these could be sweeping our systems for anything that could help us. Aided by your fleets, if there is anything of note in these few systems we inhabit, finding it would be a matter of weeks at most given such a concentrated effort.”

“It bears thought. Are you speaking in definite terms, Ambassador, or can you make that happen on your own word?” a male Faira with a ‘R. Adm. Merkur’ nameplate on his desk shouted over the silence. “If not, I suggest you go make your calls to see if your leaders are actually willing to commit to that. I propose we move to the next item of the meeting.”

At that point, Astra shot the rear admiral a sparkly glance. One could not leave unnoticed that they were the only two Faira any Narix has ever seen to have blue markings.

Lira nodded, seeing the underhanded tactic the civilian admiral used, acting on his foreknowledge of events to come. And wholeheartedly agreed to it. The Assembly has always been divided between the Patrol and the Vanguard, and on the other side the Home and Civilian fleets. And with odd number of voices, was it any wonder it took them hundreds of years to reach out? “The assembly moves to promote Commander Astra to the rank of Rear Admiral as a commanding officer of the newly founded Strike fleet.” [i]And with another admiral settling the tie, we can finally make a decision in one day.[/i]

Astra’s mouth dropped. She expected to be given the command of the Singularity, all things considered, but she never thought they would give her the whole fleet to go along with it, rather to be attached to Vanguard. So gobsmacked was she that the admiral had to remind her she had to accept the promotion before they could move forward.

Unaware of the impaired hearing of Faira males, she spoke in her normal tone. “I am but a humble civil servant, rear admiral. However, none of us wish to be stuck here forever. Both lord-commander Zorea and primarch Ascari have already pushed for thorough exploration, as have two out of three military and all three industry councilors.” Though Runa was not aware of the faira political predicament, it was exactly for that reason the council was established with nine members. “Had I not been invited here, It’s likely I would have been waiting for rear admiral Libra’s return with orders to discuss a similar proposal anyway. If your side agrees to it, there is nothing standing in the way of enacting this plan, maybe outside of getting the Fifth out of here.”

The commander’s, or rather the rear admiral’s promotion came unexpectedly. When she was asked to come to the Alchemist, at least the legate telling her had the decency to offer her a seat. And Runa needed it, though Astra was likely made of sterner stuff than she was.

“I accept. What is the build plan? The Singularity itself will not be ready for a while now.” Astra inquired.

“The build orders have already been delivered to the Faira’Karte.” Merkur answered, “The Singularity will, in the interim, act as a flag ship once it is complete, with a slightly expanded assets to a normal fleet lead by a Meteor class due to the Strike fleet’s combat orientation. Six corvettes and two cruisers in the Singularity’s group, and three frigate groups with three corvettes and six cruisers each.”

As if the sparkle in Astra’s eyes could get any bigger. She would command the - one day - largest fleet of them all? An honest to stars [i]battle fleet[/i]?

“Until the Strike fleet’s destroyer is complete.”

At this point the fresh admiral was ready to faint, if they physiology allowed for it. Of course, she understood. She was an Ascendant. She was the logical choice.

Lira then picked up: “You need to start picking your personnel immediately. You can choose from the reserves, train new crews, or pick from Narix volunteers. Now, returning to the previous point-”

“The strike fleet stands for the proposal. Ambassador, please convey the decision to your government.” Astra finished with a tug of smile on her mouth as an attendant came to swap out her insignia.

[b][i]Back in break room[/i][/b]

“No… way!” Libra hollered as soon as the door closed beyond them. “I was out of the Assembly for too long it seems, how did I not know about this?!” She said as she tackled Astra in a hug.

“Congratulations comm- rear admiral, sorry.” The ambassador chose to keep her distance out of respect. “If the Nightmares were scared to come out before, I can’t imagine what they’ll do when this news reaches them. You truly received no indication of this, either of you?”

“Thank you. I knew the Singularity would be my ship, I’m the only one capable of interfacing with it’s control systems. But the promotion? No, not really.” Astra explained.

“A PROWHAT?!” The Curious’ crew roared as one as they overheard them as they overheard the approaching trio.

“Somebody’s handing out ranks and we weren’t told?”

“You know what that calls for?”

“NO! No more drinking with you, I still remember the night after the Demon blew up all too well”

“Lucky, you, I [i]don’t[/i].”

“You two are weak.”

“So, what do we call you now? Rear admiral, fleet admiral?”

“And where’s the fleet?”

The break room was filled with a cacophony of voices, questions and words of congratulations.

“Actually, that makes me wonder: Does your fleet have any traditions related to promotions, official or unofficial?”

“Or do you follow the school of lord-commander Eudorian and turn into an android upon reaching the top ranks?” someone jested.

“We go back to work!” Libra and Astra shouted over the cacophony as one. “That said, I do have some opening. A Lot of openings. No ships to put you all on yet, but you can start on training for the equipment. Shoot, I need to create all the simulation programmes for the new classes.” Astra facepalmed.

“Said openings free for all of the Alliance to fill, courtesy of a mountain of paperwork and talking by yours truly.” She pointed to herself and Runa, “You are as of today allowed to ask for a citizenship in our nation and eligible for service. I believe the rear admiral will have a list of vacancies posted on the FleetNet tomorrow?”

There was an excited buzz among the Narix in the crowd.

“Oh no.” Runa half-complained, half-laughed. “I want to sleep when I get back. I haven’t been able to get a good rest since I came here. And that’s just the transfer papers, not to mention the citizenship paperwork. And how many people will be interested. And the public reaction to people getting Faira citizenship, that’s a big unknown. Woe is me and everyone involved. I’d better get on the first transport back to Opportunity so I can sleep a little before it starts.”

“Do you not have any other ambassador?” Aurigae asked, “Perhaps you should ask for citizenship first and give up your old. We do not slavedrive like that… anywhere but in Vanguard fleet.” she snickered, earning a chorus of eyes and raised glasses.

“Words to live by.” Libra said, grabbing one of the glasses to try herself.

“We do, I just happen to be the head of it all. You’re right, I need a vacation.” Runa herself reached for a glass. “I am afraid I will have to reject that offer, I am perfectly happy with my current citizenship, but nothing is without its cons. For example, you were right, this system is, as I heard someone put it, an [i]acquired taste[/i].”

“So, rear admiral,” Runa switched to another topic, secretly hoping both heads bearing that rank would turn, “What’s your first step among the top tier? Designing your own ship? Wait, you’ve done that already. There’s no stopping you, is it?”

“None of them have figured it out yet? Stars, they are all a little bit Ascari, aren’t they?” Astra smirked, causing Libra to facepalm: “No, none of them can think and associate faster than ten of their peers combined. None of us can either, in fact. Stop benchmarking people to yourself, you know you’re the abnormal case here.”

“Figured what out, your status of an ascendant? Can’t see how that would be related to your next immediate actions as the commander of a newly founded, yet unformed fleet.”

“It is related to everything they have me do really. I can fold mindspace the best of us, so what I need to prioritize is researching into artificial jump nodes. Hence why I need all the data on the Relic jump drives, or better yet their knowledge library. They seem to beat even the Ancients in that game. Failing that, try, try, try again on my own, but I won’t rest until I get us out of here or all the stars go dark.” The rear admiral said darkly. “Being a fleet commander will always be secondary to that. The rest of the admiralty won’t have it otherwise. Hence why I think they only promoted me to the junior rank despite giving me an entire fleet.”

“If that’s the case, why give you a full battle fleet instead of maybe a Comet, some Pulsars and a load of Nebulae to fulfill the purpose of science vessels? Barring the fact that, if I understand it correctly, you’re the only one that can utilize The Mom properly.”

“Well, a large crew is able to utilize it properly, although not with such efficiency. Also, ‘The Mom’?” Libra raised an eyeridge at the nickname. “Honestly, this freak designed an interface that would basically integrate her organism into the ship. How long did you say for getting in and out? A week?”

“Give or take.”

“Mom stands for ‘Mother of missiles’. It’s what the construction workers have taken to calling it due to its shape. And I can’t help but hear my civilian mind screaming ‘design flaw’ at the mention of that. What exactly do you intend to do if you have to abandon ship? Jump yourself away with a part of it?”

“If that ship falls, we have nothing to stop whatever killed it. I wouldn’t pay that much thought, since in that scenario we are done for.” Omicri grunted, “With the latest package of upgrades the Comma- Rear admiral issued, the survivability of the hull has gone to the same numbers as the shield, effectively doubling it’s durability.”

“Yeeees, although I would be interested in hearing more about a certain project beginning with H.” Libra whispered to Runa.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the Seer and the independence were shot out of the sky by a hostile force. To our knowledge, their untimely ends were caused by malfunction and bad timing respectively. Who‘s to say the Singularity can’t go up in flames due to engineering errors or other hazards?”

“Testing before deployment, what do you think, that I am going to entangle myself in a deathtrap of my own design? Give us some credit.” Astra growled.

She leaned toward Libra, lowering her voice. “And how would you know about that, pray tell? I have only been told two days ago. I assume you’re referring to Project 4201?” The designations their military could come up with were sometimes more otherworldly than the Faira. What was wrong about calling it the Halcyon as it would be, if ever adopted, known anyway?

“The bastard child of the Warlord and the Singularity. So far it’s only a paper design, mean to to be able to engage the likes of the Demon-class and come out intact. Given that ship’s armor, some were worried the Warlord might not cut it. And with the Singularity being built in our backyard, people started taking notes.”

“Well, word bleeds through, even if I wasn’t asked for research files on the Singularity’s shielding system and to consult for it’s application.” Libra smirked. “I just asked Minister Ertanax directly. We’re happy to provide the notes, it will go much more quickly if secrecy is dropped at least on the command level.”

“I don’t think it was not kept secret to keep it from you, but rather because we still don’t know if we want to build this thing. If we told you about every such project we had in the past decade, you’d refuse to even let me on board no later than day two. But since they told me, I guess there is hope for it yet. If you want the specifics, I could ask lord-commander Zorea once I get back. Legend has it it would go to his fleet.”

“On the topic of shields, I don’t think you’ve heard the last of that. With the Fifth’s retrofits and all, other fleets will soon want shields too, and not these hurried experiments that are the Fifth’s shields. And with the new fighters using AIs, there are talks of loosening the AI ban, and the military is guaranteed to jump that.”