ShipCore

USD: 43 days after the battle of Dedia IV

Location: Nu Crateris, Eastern Continent, SRS Heaven’s Fire

Heeler growled in triumph as he watched the large fiery rock rocket through the air high overhead. The asteroid tumbled through the atmosphere, leaving a great tail of flame behind it as it sped toward his ultimate target.

He pushed himself as high as his clitters could lift him and raised his tentacles into the air to enjoy the steady, warm breeze washing over the entire area.

Ash clumps fell from the sky as debris from the dozens of prior impacts slowly found its way back to the ground.

A single frantic Queen cried out, harassing him and ringing him with mind-thoughts. She was the last of the ones who had sought to take him into her nest so she could force him to mate with her.

He savored her fear, her realization of incoming doom from the heavens.

It was difficult for Heeler to transmit mind-thoughts over a distance, unlike a Queen. But with the help of H32, he squeezed his mind-thought organ until his mind vibrated with pain and roared out across the world as loudly as he could.

The shrieking of the doomed Queen only increased, right until the rock slammed into the earth over the center of her nest. Then Heeler was greeted by the distant sky lighting red once again.

And then… the silence of a hot wind.

He remained to enjoy it for some time before returning to the interior of the ship. He was forced to use his nanites to clean his shell, leaving a pile of ash that had clung to him at an entry point. A cleaner drone would deal with it, eventually.

[Informative: A video call from the human leadership has been on hold for 43 minutes, and 27 seconds.]

Heeler growled annoyance. “I will answer when I am ready.”

Reaching the CIC deep inside the ship, he first reviewed the orbital movements of the shuttles. Two more were in the progress of bringing Near Dedia objects into a closer orbit where they could be turned into kinetic bombs as needed. He had already used a dozen and a flashing report from H32 waxed heavily about the terrible damage would be done to the planet’s already fragile climate.

He pushed the report away. Not that he did not care, he very much was concerned about the planet’s health. But the lesson taught to the wanton Queens needed to be dealt out heavily, and he was certain that the rest of the Queens across the planet would no longer challenge his nest for supremacy.

Besides, he had already made plans to clean the planet’s atmosphere. He would need to take control of the space elevator to do so effectively. Suddenly the call seemed fortuitous instead of an annoyance.

Settling into his seat pod, Heeler activated the video call.

The human leader was male.

Heeler suppressed his first desire to be direct like he would have been if the man had been Rexxor. That negotiation would have been simple. Instead, he had to treat the Governor like he would an uncooperative foreign Queen.

“Governor Tylerr, greetingss.”

Heeler stared into the video camera with a tentacle eye, observing the chaotic scene behind the man on screen. Men in military-style uniforms walked back and forth behind him in a large room with a low overhead ceiling. Dozens of rows of bunk beds and people using them filled the scene behind them.

“Hello… Heeler. Daniel Ashburn informs me you’re the highest authority in your organization present.”

“That iss incorrect. My Queen, Her majestic grace, Szizsielia, is the highest and most supreme authority upon this planet. I am her hand and greatest warrior.”

The governor wiped his brow and nodded. “We have been detecting the impact of multiple asteroids on the eastern continent. The amount of dust that has been kicked up is turning a critical situation much worse. Our projections show a permanent freezing could occur if measures aren’t taken…”

The governor’s voice trailed off as Heeler repeatedly extended and retracted a stabbing blade from the end of one tentacle in annoyance. It was so very hard to communicate with the humans compared to when he could simply leave the task to H32 to manipulate them.

“The Queens nearby attempted to sway my adoration for Her Majesty. I have taught them and the others on the continent the error of their ways. My efforts will no longer be stalled and the raising of the Heaven’s Fire will take place in some months. I doubt I shall need to toss more pebbles at them.”

“That’s good news, but there are…”

Heeler growled, and the man went quiet.

“Governor Tyler, your colony has at its disposal a marvel of engineering, the space elevator. It is something I require the use of. Therefore, I offer your colony the opportunity to become willing subjects of Starlight Revolution.”

Tyler’s brow furrowed. “I appreciate…”

“If you refuse, then I will have no choice but to toss pebbles into the alien invasion that has settled on our home world. The elevator will need minor repairs but should survive. You will not.”

There was a moment of silence.

“All Hail Her Majesty, Cecilia.”

USD: 44 days after the battle of Dedia IV

Location: Nu Crateris, Hades Orbit, SRS Wayfair

Daniel wiped the sweat off his brow as he finished changing a sludge filter cartridge. The station’s air was warm and damp as the strained life-support systems did their best to scrub carbon and provide enough oxygen for those on board. After the destruction of Nucrateri Station, he’d watched quietly as the Corpos picked through the wreckage, taking what they wanted before leaving hundreds of life support capsules behind.

They’d been in too much of a hurry to go exterminate life on his planet. The small proto station that he’d been placed in command of had a single intra-system shuttle, and as soon as he had been able he had collected the pods. Most were of the most simple type and didn’t even have station-keeping abilities, so he had been forced to go after almost all of them one at a time.

It had strained resources until they were wafer thin. It didn’t help that for almost a month he had to run and organize all the FedTech systems himself without the help of the normal AI to manage things. That had been a hard crash course in how to operate the station, but the FedTech systems were very forgiving compared to what he had expected.

Now that H32 had re-established contact and two relief shuttles were en route to collect the refugees and take them back to Dedia, although the situation on the planet looked dire, it was better than running choking to death on foul air.

A chime in his ear had him stop with the maintenance.

“Daniel Ashburnn, there is a problem. An enemy has been detected intercepting your relief shuttless.”

Daniel swallowed, the voice of the Rexxor putting him on edge, but he shook it off and rushed to the command center.

USD: 45 days after the battle of Dedia IV

Location: 126 Virginis, IND Iron Horse, near jump point to Gamma Virginis

Alex kicked her clothes underneath Elis’s bed to be cleaned later as she buttoned the gray jacket that was the standard issue uniform for the Iron Horse’s crew. A matching pair of trousers were too long for her, but she had easily folded the fabric then stapled it shorter with some judicious use of staples made from her nanites.

She’d grown more and more accustomed to using them since her talk with Thraker. She’d also been a regular in the gym and cafeteria, enough that none of the crew took much notice of her during their duties. Rick and Sawet still hung out with her, and she found it suspicious that their schedule always matched up with hers.

Actually, she was sure they had been set to watch her. Which… didn’t actually bother her. She was an outsider on the ship, and possibly dangerous to everyone on board.

Even if she had decided to finally try out working in engineering and wearing their uniform out of a slowly growing boredom. There were only so many stories and books she could burrow into before she felt fidgety from not actually doing something useful.

Finished dressing, she checked on Elis. “I’m going to go work with Lieutenant Ferguson for a few hours in engineering. You should try to get some rest.”

Alex brushed Elis’s hair and made sure she was repositioned properly, then gave her a little hug. “I’ll be back later to finish the book.”

Alex let the nurse know she’d be gone at to check on Elis, then headed toward her assigned duty station for the shift. She passed a few other crewmembers who seemed surprised to see her in the IHMC uniform, but they didn’t comment or stop her.

The Talon was larger than the Tears had been, but internal compartments were much more claustrophobic. She was certain that was because of how long the ship had been in service and was no longer built to match the original specs. It couldn’t be, as the ship had lost many automated systems and relied on a much larger crew.

Alex had learned that the degradation in capabilities allowed the ship to leave the Inner Systems legally. If it had been in pristine condition, it could never have left Meltisar. She wondered just who determined what was allowed where and suspected that it depended on how many credits one could grease the palms of whatever official was in the way.

Her experience with the Corpos had put that idea foremost in her mind, at least. Maybe it wasn’t like that everywhere. When she talked to the crew about Meltisar, it didn’t sound as dystopian as she had feared, but she was still warily withholding her judgement until she saw it for herself.

As Alex nervously stepped into the engineering bay, a half dozen techs sitting at consoles looking up at her entry. As she closed the door behind her, she suddenly felt like maybe she should have stayed in the familiar medbay with Elis. All the faces were unfamiliar to her.

She was supposed to report to Ferguson, but she didn’t see him. She approached the closest console. “Uhm. I’m supposed to report to Lieutenant Ferguson. Do you know where he is?”

The tech didn’t look up at her, instead he took a pen stylus out from behind an ear and pointed at the far end of the compartment, “All the way down, office on the left.”

“Thanks.”

The hum of machinery filled the space as Alex hurried through the compartment. Her initial nervousness evaporated as she felt a bit at comforted by the familiar sounds. It wasn’t like she hadn’t spoken and got along with Lieutenant Ferguson before, either.

She knocked at a slightly ajar door with the Lieutenant’s nameplate on it.

“Come in.”

Alex nodded, trying to hide her nerves as she followed the lieutenant through the bustling engineering bay. She could hear the hum of machinery and the clanging of tools as the crew worked to keep the ship running.

Alex had expected a desk or something, but the space was more of a workshop. Several mechanical presses and cutting tools were strapped on counters that were littered with hundreds of different gizmos and fittings. It was a visual buffet of what Alex could picture as a mad mechanic’s laboratory would look like.

“Woah..”

“Never mind that. Hand me the X32 drill on the wall.” Ferguson pointed with a thumb without looking at her.

The large man somehow blended in with the mess despite his large size. Her gaze had passed right over him as she took in all the equipment. Alex fetched the only tool that fit the description and handed it to him.

Examining the piece of metal he had been working on, it was a heavy piece of steel with several small boxes of delicate electronics. He set the X32 and punched for holes in the corner of each box carefully.

He then put four screws in the new holes, affixing the boxes to the board of metal. A bit of curiosity filled Alex. “Are those sensors? Can’t you just affix them to the hull?”

Ferguson grunted, “Safer to just have the plank affixed to the hull rather than keep someone out in vacuum for something delicate like this.”

The statement only confused Alex, but she didn’t have a chance to clarify as Ferguson finished and pointed her out of the workshop.

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Not much, really. Menial stuff. Gotta work your way up, same as everyone else. No one will trust you otherwise.”

Alex’s face tightened a little. “I’m just here to do something useful, not make friends.”

Ferguson gave her a long look, then lead her out through the engineering space. As they passed through, Lieutenant Ferguson pointed out various stations and explained their functions. Alex was familiar with most of it, but the setup was different enough that she had to pay attention to where different things were located.

Finally, they reached a small, cluttered desk in the corner of the engineering bay. A lanky corporal was sitting behind it with a pile of data pads that appeared to be under repair. He looked up at Ferguson with a bored expression.

“Sir, that her?”

“Aye,” Ferguson turned to look at Alex, “This is Corporal Leiston. He’ll be minding you and giving you your assignments.”

Alex nodded and Ferguson moved to leave, adding one last bit as he went, “Greenhorn work, Leiston, don’t get her killed on the job.”

Alex felt a little confusion. Risk of death as a matter of course seemed out of place on board, and nothing she’d seen indicated that, other than the nail-biting combats with the Corpos.

“Was he serious?”

Corporal Leiston looked up from his work, giving Alex a cursory glance.

“Not really, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can get yourself offed or worse, others killed. Especially doing vacuum work.”

He seemed clearly unimpressed with her. “You don’t need to worry about that, though. Your first job will be to clean the sludge filters.”

Alex winced. “Why not automate that?”

Leiston stopped working with the data pad in his hands and looked up at her.

“Does this look like a pleasure cruise? If we had that kind of hardware, there are a lot more dangerous things to automate before the sludge filters. Someone’s got to do it, and you’re the new bottom rung, unless you want to resign.”

Alex swallowed and shook her head. “I can handle it.”

Leiston nodded. “I’ll show you how to go about it in a minute. You can find somewhere to sit and wait.”

“I’ve done it before.”

“Well, you know what you’re in for then, but just wait. I still need to show you where stuff is and how we handle it.”

Alex nodded. She was glad he did because she really had no idea what cleaning the sludge filters on the Iron Horse entailed. On the Tears, before she’d made repairs, she’d tossed the dirty filters for Nameless to incinerate and just plugged in new ones.

As she scrubbed the dirty sludge filters, she wished she could do the same now as a small whiff got past her face mask. She didn’t complain though, following through with her plan and just losing herself in the menial work.

When she finished her shift, Leiston pointed her toward a specific shower room to clean up. She had felt the specific direction was a bit odd, but her self-cleaning nanite squad could barely function, and there was no way she was going back to the medbay with the ick that had gotten all over her.

When she saw the stall at the end of the shower room, she understood. A metal sign hung on a green stall past all the others.

|SLUDGE CLEANER DUTY ONLY—Unlimited Duration|

Alex bit back a chuckle and then moved into the stall. It was larger than the others, and a simple green and red button controlled the water flow. There was only one temperature: steamy hot, the system probably siphoned heat off a coolant flow. There was a raised bench to sit on and set her things to keep them dry. Water flowed into several long bar drains set in the floor.

The only issue is the metal had seen better days. Spots of rust were visible, and she wondered just how it had escaped the notice of anyone maintaining the ship. She reached out and touched the metal, and a little wave of nanites left her skin and repaired the rust.

Closing her eyes, she focused on it as the hot water poured down on her head. Realizing that she was getting better at controlling the process without causing the alarming alert about rampancy to appear, she continued like that for some time.

When she left to go back to Elis, the stall looked as shiny as the compartments on the Tears.