The Black

Cpt Silu stepped through the Larboard Side Docking Airlock into the ODP. These "Orbital Distribution Platforms” were technically mobile Crisis Command and Management Stations. These were colossal egg shaped structures were built with barely enough sub-light capability to break out of orbit, often times needing the help of the local Orbital Tugs Gilds; but they had MASSIVE sub-space engines capable of FTL jumps that few of the latest warships in the unity could match. They had one purpose, to GET to where the crisis was and take control of the response. Politics being what they were, many inside the Unity's purview considered the GHO to be more harm than good. Just as many heralded the GHO as a higher calling to serve in times of crisis. In Silu's experience, it was big organization, with all the bloat associated... As such, it usually came down to who got sent where, as to which GHO you actually got.

Luck would be on his side it seemed, as an aging Saurian lumbered over upon his exit, "Ah! Captain Silu, my old friend! I was hoping you had picked up the contract! How was the Voyage, you old Star-Strider."

"Mostly quiet, till the end at least. Any word on who tipped off the Local Rabble?", Silu's retort was part amused, part relieved as he stared up at the much larger being before she lowered her head to his level and placed her forehead on his chest. "No idea, but by the results, it seems you have quite the story to tell." She rumbled into his chest. She was speaking Galactic Common, an amalgamation of several languages smashed together over the millennia then adopted by the GU as Standard. Luckily, it was a good system, though most single species crews spoke their native tongue when on voyage or with just each other.

Her name was Aminaira, and she was one of his oldest friends, and closest contacts inside the GHO. standing at 6 'meters'. head fully raised. The Saurian species was the largest species on record with a home world gravity much closer to Silu's 1.5 (Galactic standard), and an obligate herbivore by nature. Silu could not have known it, but Aminaira would have fit in nicely as a slightly larger "Camptosaurus" from the Jurassic period of Mac's Home world. There were notable differences; retractable defensive claws in her for hands, slightly longer forearms, and a slimmer more evolved/ refines structure that tended to come with prolonged genetic development in most races. Her species had kept their grassland foliage and dirt tones that spoke of the camouflaged requirements of times gone. Her race was one of the few who did not wear clothes, being as large as they were, most preferred a more utilitarian harness system for carrying everyday items. Ami's was traditionally styled in the patterns of her house, but with the purple and white of the GHO as its colors. They also happened to be one of the longer-lived races in the galaxy with the average life expectancy of 325 'years' being fairly easily achieved. Ami had spent most of her life in the GHO, currently going on her 280th year of service.

She lifted her head to meet his eyes, "But THAT, my old friend is for over drinks. I was told an emergency shipment was coming but they were a little short on details. The Storms on the planet have subsided, but a third of the planet's infrastructure has been flattened."

Silu winced at that last statement. Bricus 4 had always been a tumultuous planet. with no natural sapient species of its own, it was colonized in the early years of the post Unity Wars. The surface was ninety percent covered in Water, with a smattering of Island archipelago clusters scattered across the planet. Much of her industry was either afloat, or on stilts in the Shallows. Modern Technology and Forcefield technology had rendered much of the boisterousness of the planet relatively harmless, but on occasion, Bricus 4 would speak of her displeasure more firmly than usual. People tended to Die in those times.

"Our inventory is 'first wave'. emergency rations, shelters, force field emitters, and micro-fabs to aid in shoring up the infrastructure and stopping the loss of life. I am told a second Ship is coming with more... substantial equipment." Silu responded, reaching into his jacket to produce a data-pad. "The detailed manifest is on here" he touched it to her pad, transferring the data "we have larboard hangers 4, 6, and 8 staged for the shuttles. I figured you would want to skip shuffling it through the station. the Hangers can fit class4's so we should be able to empty out the Traveler in 3 'days' tops this way."

"Good! never one to suffer the middle man/ or woman." Ami chuckled, "I’ll have the Shuttles over by end of the cycle, most are down on the surface delivering the last of the stations first response." she swung her head away for a moment and nodded to her aid, an much younger Saurian with similar features.

"Relative of yours?" mused Silu.

"My niece. She has grand Idea's, but just as grand Nativity. her parents wanted me to take her on to test her mettle, NOW, about that drink!" she rumbled.

Silu threw his head back in a laugh, "My old friend, you know me too well".

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Mac woke up. fumbling around in the dark for a moment until the lights turned themselves on. Nothing made since... this wasn't his bed. This wasn’t his room. nothing looked right... where was...

Mac's brain finished waking up as the turmoil of the last few days all flooded back to him. The test, the malfunction, waking up in pain, the Delmar, the pirates, Traveler, Icario, Lyrian, Silu, Siccuro..

"Oh, fuck me. I was hoping this was a dream" He grumbled as he slowly swung his legs over the side. 'Oh right, slightly taller' he remembered as his legs dangled off the bed a couple inches off the ground. Letting his eyes adjust, he looked around the room, settling on a desk with a console, His clothes, hung up on a bar next to it, his bag next to them on the floor, and a pad of some sort on the desk.

"Oohkaaay, I guess I get room service with a master key.. not sure how I feel about that." He definitely remembered stripping down to his boxers before face planting the bed last night.. ‘was it night? when do their day/night cycles start.. oh boy’.

Groaning, Mac finally got up and walked over to the desk. The pad’s screen had a single button rendered. When Mac pushed it, Doc Icario's face appeared and the message started, "Ah, you must be awake, I was able to get this Data-pad translated to your language visually, keep it with you until we figure out something better. It will link with your translator after this message and will give you real time translations as you move about the ship. It can also show you where to go. Traveler is a big Ship, so I programmed a short list of places you can go for food and facilities. If you need myself or someone, type into the pad and a com line will go through your translators. My apologies for not being available when you woke up. We are ramping up our offload, and I am currently on the planet aiding in the injured. I may be out of contact because of that. Take it easy until we are offloaded, there isn't much for you to do, and doctors’ orders are light recreation and rest. enjoy your free time," with that the image if Icario waved and vanished, being replaced with a layout of the Traveler and a 'menu' of places to go on it.

‘How long was I out?’ Mac looked down at the pad and did some simple math.. 'fuck I've been out well over a day.' He then looked down the list again.

‘Hmm, recreation/exercise room. Sounds like a good place to start, if I am going to be living in this gravity, I'm going to need to up my game’, with that Mac tapped it in and was off.

A few 'minutes' later Mac wandered into the Rec/Ex room. It was completely empty, 'well dumbass, what you expect, there is a planetary crisis on' he chuckled to himself, eyes scanning around the room. It was a big oval room, probably 40 'meters' wide at its widest point and 150 'meters' long, or thereabouts. Mac smirked as he noticed a running track that appeared to circle the edge of the room. "I guess I'll start there" he mused, walking over to one of the slightly longer chairs than human standard with a table next to it. He set his data-pad down, then took off his shirt and laid it over the top of the chair "That'll have to do as a towel after I guess". He pulled out his phone and, on a guess, opened up his blue tooth. "Unknown device, naw, it can’t be this easy?" he gawked, clicking the device, and activating his workout music. --Thunderstruck-- began playing through his translators, "yup, I guess that easy" and Mac was off, the pad had told him the distance he would travel in one circuit, so he knew he needed to make 15 to get to 10k, which was roughly double his running day's average. "Whelp, half the gravity, double the distance, let’s see how I feel after".

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Sometime later, Mac stepped off the jogging loop. He felt like he had just run a 5K on terra, and stepped over to his pad. A harsh snort escaped him as he clicked through the stats: 25k. "holy shit, well I guess gravity really doesn't scale Linearly." he had paused every 5 laps or so to do pullups on a nearby beam, and every 10 laps he did as many pushups or sit-ups (alternating) as he could. He hadn't kept count, but he did know one thing now. he was going to have to figure out something to make exercising more efficient in this gravity. He looked down at the clock on the pad and realized that it had been 4 hours since he started.. and he was HUNGRY. He picked up his shirt to wipe off, then remembered, he had not retrieved a spare yet.. The entrance behind him Hissed open, and there was a gasp. Mac turned to see a Delmar woman staring at him...

"Um, hi! is there a shower and towels around here?" He tried, tentatively flashing a wide smile.

She stared for a moment wide eyed and completely frozen, then shook her head, snapping out her consternation, and spoke, "Not here, through that door" she pointed at a male looking logo with what appeared to be water pouring on him, or something. With that she turned and walked out the door. Her tail flowing behind her..

‘A tail? huh, how did I miss a tail’ Mac was still processing that one as he towel's off, luckily the shower had a port in it, the translator told him was for clothes. His clothes were ready for him when he got out.

'Right, food time. I’m fuckin starving' Mused Mac as he plugged in "Mess Hall" into the data-pad, and started off.

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Doctor Icario Mulhinu Grarzia had seen many crises on many planets. This was his second time responding to Bricus4, but this was by far the worst of the two visits. Two cyclones Had converged, and combined... Because of the lack of land mass available to break up such storms, this super-cyclone ravaged the planet for the last 3 'months'. Weather Shields had failed, stilts buckled, Homes and business were sent to the depths of the ocean. along with many of Bricus4's citizens.

Icario was currently in one of the Emergency Shielded zones, recently established by some of the first Emergency Shield Generators brought down by Traveler. He was stabilizing a young Lycan Child, her fur matted with blood and soaked to the bone with seawater. Her scan's showed him multiple broken ribs and her liver was hemorrhaging violently. an Injection of standard Nano tech would keep her alive, but she needed a Bio-Bed, of which there were precious few, to give the nanites more instruction for repair and recovery. The standard nanite treatments of the Galaxy at large were robust and refined, but they lacked processing power. They could seal wounds, prevent exsanguination. and stabilize breathing and brain function, but they lacked the comprehensive database that a bio-bed could provide, or the scanners that a bio-bed could be used to create a data-base, should it not have a species' information already uploaded. Icario had had to use that function on Mackenzie when he had first arrived.

The Injection took hold, and the little girl's eyes shot open, and her ears pinned back. Icario turned her over on her side as she purged her lungs of the fluid the Nanites were pushing out of her respiratory system. She began her kind’s, keening weep that called for mother/ expressed pain, and he nodded to a resident to come over and get her to a bed, "Urgent but stable" he imprinted onto the bracelet all patients got upon entry, "now, little one, what's your name. Let's see if we can find you some family". He asked as gently as he could.

"Juel's, Juel's k'lorgan" she got out between sobs. Icario tapped that in, "Nice to meet you Juel's, go with the nice man and we can get you someplace proper to lie down." She was then carried away, still crying, tail tucked and shivering.

‘Poor Las’ Icario leaned back, stretching his lean frame out, trying to pull out the knots, when a hand clamped on his shoulder. He turned to see his captain, "Sir?"

"I'm here to get you back to the ship, they tell me you haven't eaten more than a snack, and you just finished a triple. My friend, take a break. We will be here at least another few cycles. You can come back down in the morning. Don't make this an order my friend. take care of yourself" the last part was a bit firmer than was Silu’s want to say to Icario, but It needed saying. Icario nodded and his shoulders slumped. The pain and soreness from the day at hand finally allowed to be shown. "Alright Silu, alright. I could use a hot meal from the Traveler anyway. I'll be on the next shuttle... Nurse? I'll be taking my relief now." and with that, Icario trudged off towards the landing zone.

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The Mess Hall was about 2/3rd full when Mac finally made his way into its entrance. 'Hm, some things never change, no matter where you are' he mused to himself as he wandered up to the obvious chow line.

"Ah, the Human! My, you are a strange looking one." Came a Cheery voice from around the corner of the kitchen. "Did you enjoy my spread the captain requested the other cycle", a rather Jovial Delmar bounded around the corner. He was a stark difference to the rest of the species that Mac had encountered. he had what could only be called a 'dad bod' and sported a fluffy full auburn beard, the same auburn as the rest of the males of his species, although somewhat streaked with grey. and a Gigantic Santa Clause smile, "My name is Martin Nurcono, cook for the Traveler" he shoved out a hand "your custom, yes?"

Mac was taken aback, and shook the broadly smiling cook, "It is, Martin huh?"

"Yes, you say it well, why do you ask?" the amused man cocked his head slightly.

"Well, Martin is a fairly common Name for my species. It was also the Name of my uncle." Mac stated with a smile before turning back to the bar at hand, "I’m still not sure what they are called, but I'll take two servings of the grilled meat, and one of your tuber's. and some of..” Mac gave up and just pointed, “those vegetables. I'm sorry for the amount. I have been told that I come from a planet with significantly more gravity and my body has increased requirements because of it."

Martin simply nodded, "Oh! Not to worry, Doc sent me over all the Bio-Bed Data of your digestive requirements. So, I wouldn't accidentally poison or under feed you. So, I would advise this instead of the tuber, I think you will find it a bit better" Martin pointed over to a sticky rice looking item.

"If it’s one thing I have learned over my life, Martin. It's never argue with the Cook. My meal is in your hands." Mac said with a chuckle.

Martin gave a quick laugh and filled up Mac's plate with a respectable portion of his requests. with a couple of extras thrown in. "some new things to try, let me know what you think". and Mac nodded his thanks, "See you soon my friend". and headed off to the tables just as he caught a glimpse of the doctor’s daughter. The young woman was wearing her poncho, but instead of a void suit, she was in a simple pair of flowing pants and simple looking sandals.

Mac smiled sadly as he recognized her picking at her food, and wandered over, “Lyrian, is it? Care for some company?”

His voice startled her slightly and she just stared up at him for a moment. It took a moment for Lyrian to shake herself out of it, nodding quickly before returning to the staring contest she was losing with her own plate. Mac settled down next to her, setting his plate down and began exploring the cook’s selection on his plate. After a few moments, he caught Lyrian staring at his plate this time, “Want some?”.

“You’re going to eat all of that?” She asked in shock.

Mac only shrugged, “Probably, I’m starvin’. ” He smiled at her shocked face as he popped a massive fork full of meat into his mouth, “Ooh.. this is Good…” He noticed his ploy worked, as the action seemed to break the cycle of inactivity for Lyrain. She began to eat, slowly, but she was no longer trying to stare her food into oblivion. Mac took another bite, combining the sticky rice stuff with a few of the vegetables. “So, I hear you are the one that scooped me up.” He tried. He had seen this many times before, the poor young las needed a break from her own mind.

“Uh, yea. I’m Senior Helm. I’ve been flying Traveler for 3 years. I flew orbital shuttles before that” Lyrain visibly brightened as she began to speak about her training and flying history. She was a Pilot, a universal affliction that was apparently one more galactic constant. “It has been my dream to Helm a freighter since I was little.”

“I’de like to see it sometime, Your helm. Most of my people’s larger ships are mostly digital control panels.” Mac responded, “I’m curious to see what a non-human helm looks like.”

“You fly like a squadron level defense pilot. Surely, you have seen many a helm.” Lyrain asked between bites.

“Oh, I’ve seen many bridges and Many Helm positions. But only Human ones. My people… they think they are all alone in the universe. We’ve never met anyone… else… They still haven’t. I have no way of contacting them.” Mac admitted with a sad smile, which turned into a genuine one as the realization flushed across the young Woman’s face.

“You’ve never.. I.. We are the first Sapients you have met?” The shock on her face rendered an adorable expression.

Mac scratched the back of his head, “Yup, It’s a pleasant surprise really. Humans have a long tradition of telling Horror stories about ‘Aliens from outer space’. I haven’t been experimented on yet or anything, so I call it a win.” Mac grinned as Lyrian’s face warped between shocked, then horrified. She had caught his expression and shrank back slightly, this time in genuine fear. “Hey, what’s wrong. What did I do?” Mac’s smile disappeared instantly.

“Does your species always show their teeth when happy? For us.. Teeth is… aggression, possession, or anger. Never happiness.” Lyrian asked softly.

“Oh… yea, Humans show their teeth for happiness and amusement. It can be those other things too, but not in this context. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Mac offered gently, smiling with his mouth closed this time. She looked as if she was about to say something else but instead waved at the door to the Mess.

Icario trudged in, waving back to his daughter before meeting with a Delmar female in the line. Soon enough, the two of them had filled their trays; and they sat down at the table with Mac and Lyrian. “Hi Doc.” Mac smiled again as they sat down, just in time to remember and close his mouth. The female, the same one who discovered him in the Rec room, gave him a warry expression. She settled down next to Lyrian with a distinctly protectively watchful gaze.

"It is fine Tili, this is a Human greeting. the teeth don't always mean aggression with them" Lyrian offered quickly.

Icario raised an eyebrow before he leaned over and patted the woman on his arm. "Mac, Tili'ay Grarzia my wife. Tili, James BigMack Mackenzie"

Mac chuckled for a few seconds, "Nice to meet you again Tili. and it’s just James Mackenzie, or Mac to my friends. the normal ones anyway."

"Oh, we count as Normal for you now" Icario's left eyebrow raised a second time, his eyes twinkling.

"Normal is relative, and I figure I gat'ta start somewhere." smiled Mac, this time covering without showing his teeth, "Although, I suspect I have some cultural learning to do.”

"Certainly" Icario said as he dug into his own plate. Tili just stared at mac’s plate, still heaping with food.

Mac laughed at that, "I guess you missed most of that conversation. My world has a bit over twice the gravity of yours".

Icario then spoke up, "Indeed, His body is built denser, uses more energy, and requires a bit over double the calories, and three times the proteins. Hence all the meat."

Mac finished a bite of food, "So, the teeth thing. I might need a crash course on that one. I keep scaring people.” It was obvious that the concept amused him, but he was trying control himself.

Icario nodded slowly, obviously considering his words. "Our Species, from what I can tell, developed in fairly similar paths. However, when your species apparently moved out to grassland habitats, you developed into long distance hunters/scavengers, whereas we retained more of our ambush and tree climbing ability. Hence why our hands and feet are almost identical, but you have no tail, and we kept the main down the middle of our backs to our tail. Scholars say at one point it helped us determine air current directions in the jungle where wind could be fleeting and light. For us, showing teeth is almost exclusively a sign of possessiveness or aggression."

"Ah, I see, so if I wanna be friendly, no teeth. If I'm telling someone that something is mine, or telling them to fuc.. uh, go away or I will hurt you, teeth. that's gonna be interesting. May I ask about the tails? I never saw one when I first boarded. Tili here threw me for a loop when i saw her's as she left the Rec room." Mac commented between bites of food.

"The void suits", It was Lyrian who spoke. "We wear our void suits on long passages, only taking them off to bath/change/bathroom ect. One leg in the suit is designed to accommodate the tail when we dress for a long voyage. It’s cheaper than the alternative, and easier to maintain in even if we lose the use of our tail if we lose gravity. we tend to not wear our Void suits when we are in port or in safer sectors."

"Ah" Mac commented, taking a sip of water, the grilled meat was quickly growing on him, and cook was right, the sticky rice stuff was fantastic, a little sweet but an excellent balance to the meat and veggies.

Tili spoke next, "what... what were you doing in the Rec room, I'm part of the maintenance department for Traveler, I got an alert from the Rec room for excessive vibrations and moisture content in the room. when I got there, you were.. soaked to the bone.. with no shirt on...” She looked up at her husband, "I couldn't find any sign of the vibration, but we had to put in an order to replace three of the rubber tiles on the running loop."

"Oh... Sorry. I was exercising." Mac rubbed the back of his head again, smiling sheepishly, "My home world having such high gravity means that I have to exercise more here. If I don't, I will lose bone mass and muscle mass, and possibly become pretty sick. Calisthenics were ruthlessly drilled into me growing up. It served me well during the TALON program because of our long durations in deep space without gravity. Humanity has not quite figured out artificial gravity yet. we have to spin sections of our space stations to simulate it in our living quarters."

"Ah, right. I'll have your new quarters set up so you can control its gravity, just be careful what the setting is if you have visitor's" Icario nodded, pulling out a data-pad, only to have it confiscated by his wife.

"Now Ici, Captain ordered you off duty. it can wait." she scolded him.

"... Ici?" Mac asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. receiving a scowl of titanic proportions from Icario, "I think I'll stick with Doc, sounds safer for my health." Mac chuckled as Doc nodded, then gave a mildly annoyed glare to his wife as he went back to his food. Her smile back was, unrepentant.

"As for our cultural, species specifics" Icario continued, clearing his throat, "we are a tribal race. Most tribes of Delmar are Traders. We have residences on tribal property on our home planet; but the majority of the our tribe, most of our family, lives aboard Lucid Traveler or her sister ships, most of the 'year'. The rest of the Tribe take care of and protect tribal lands. We live a communal life but are paid independently. you keep what you earn but are encouraged to help out where you can. We are monogamous family units, and we can only bear one child at a time, Lyrian is our 3rd and youngest. My oldest, my son, is currently the second officer of the second of our Tribes three ships, Celestial Traveler. My oldest Daughter and her Husband work in Engineering on the same Ship, as my son. Lyrian became old enough to serve aboard relatively recently. Most everyone on this ship is either Blood related, or by marriage. Our marriages are.. Semi Arranged, the family's must approve, but either party can veto or initiate the arrangement."

"How long do you usually serve on one of the freighters?" asked Mac. He had finished most of his meal but began eyeing up some of the Cooks desert recommendations.

"Most of the tribe does a 5-6 cycle stint between 2-3 cycles taking on the property. some of us Spend our whole lives aboard Ship." Icario explained.

"And some like Uncle Rico were going to retire after this season" Lyrian whispered softly, no longer reaching for her food, Her shoulder shuddering in suppressed sobs. Mac looked over at her, watching her recede back into her own grief. He didn't think, he reached over and pulled her into an instinctive hug, laying her head on his shoulder, as the sobs softly broke free. It took her several moments before realizing where she was and pulled away. Mac let her go, but the sobs at least stopped. He looked over at her parents, Tili had a look of shock on her face, but Icario just gave him a small nod with a grateful look.

"Sorry," Mac said sheepishly.

"Its ok," Lyrian "I dont know what that was, but it was nice. made me feel better."

"They are called Hugs. We humans use them to comfort and emotional support, among other things." Mac replied

"Well, that was unexpected" Doc spoke up at last breaking the silence, "So what about you Humans, what else do you do besides these 'hugs'."

"Well, The Human race is a rather complicated bunch" Mac started, putting away his eating utensils, "So how about I tell you about the culture I grew up in. My father was From America, the Gulf coast area; basically meaning he grew up near a giant sea. Our planet has several large land masses separated by massive oceans. My mother was of Scottish Decent but also grew up in the south. I grew up with more Traditional Sensibilities from both cultures. Monogamy is something we share culturally, although we moved away from arranged marriages some 300 'years' ago. Not all Humans are like this, but it’s how I was raised. I was also raised to be self-sufficient and responsible for my own actions. I was taught to Hunt, and fish and protect myself at an early age. It’s one of the reasons I ended up joining the War...” All Three Delmar looked up as Mac paused almost a full minute... just... staring down at his plate or rather, through it… to a memory... , "Im sorry... I haven't thought about that in a long time... I didnt mean to pu..." Mac was interrupted by Lyrian, wrapping him up in a 'hug' of her own. she pulled away after a moment.

"Sorry" she gave a sheepish smile, "It helped for me, you looked like you needed one."

"Thanks" Mac gave her a smile. He then took a bite of one of the cook’s specials, "Oh my, this is sweet, I like it, what's it called."

"Corba Fruit Cake" Tili responded, "Its a desert of sorts".

"I like it!" Mac announced.

"I figured you would!" Martin Hollered from across the mess.

"HAHA, always trust the chef!!" Mac yelled back, waving the last piece, and shoving it in mouth.

The mess hall had cleared out mostly by this time, "what time is it by the way, I hope this translates, but i was hoping to find out meal schedules and day night cycles for the Traveler" Mac turned his attention back to Doc Icario.

"It’s been a long day" Doc responded running his hands through his hair "but I guess this is evening meal, so it’s the end of the cycle here on traveler, Morning starts in about 6 hours and the usual morning shift wakes at 0700. "I think it’s time we all turn in."

"Good enough for me. I want to get my sleep schedule synced with the rest of the crew. Have a good night, all" Mac stood up, disposed of his trash and tray, and headed to his bunk.

The next 4 days passed fairly mundanely for Mac. Icario Kept a more reasonable pace down at the aid stations. By the 4th day Mac was feeling completely recovered, He had moved into His Permanent Cabin that had given him the option of having earth native gravity on it. That felt good, especially since he could do exercises under his own natural weight outside of running.

Day5 Saw Lucid Traveler Joined by another Delmar Freighter, Void Dancer. who was at least double the size of Lucid Traveler. She was poignantly NOT attacked during her approach to Bricus4. Mac had spent a nervous four hours in the cockpit of Concord just in case anyway. He did not want to have to do that again without his SGE-Suit.

Later that Evening, Cpt Silu got on the Ship-wide: "This is the captain, this is the Captain. 1 'hour' warning before we loose moorings. Normally, we would be picking up a contract outbound, but the GHO has agreed to a transfer fee that will cover our costs to our next contract in Pru'Mrul Prime. All hands prep for departure, Senior Crew to the Bridge."

Mac keyed his translator through his Data-pad and called the captain. "You want me on standby, captain?"

"Best to be sure" Cpt Silu replied, "Let’s Hope we don't need you."

They didn't. Soon after, Lucid Traveler was on her hard burn towards the Sub-space Jump point.