Chapter 7

There were two corpses within the engine room, and I knew that they were familiar, but I couldn’t recall why. Vish’ala however gasped in surprise, and I was certain that she recognized them.

“I can’t believe the Vart’othra would attack us,” Vish’ala muttered, still looking around in shock and dismay. “It doesn’t make sense, because the language we read before wasn’t Vart’othraian.”

As soon as she said Vart’othra, images began to flash in my mind as information became available. The Vart’othra coalition had been allies to the Mac’skarians for nearly five millennia. Their government was democratic in nature, with seventeen different tribes working together to further the goals of the group. They would make the ‘democratic’ leaders of my world look like sniveling children. In the known history of their coalition, they had always put the needs of their people over any other gains. This led to multiple achievements in science, medicine, and education on their world.

They stood roughly seven feet tall, with four arms and four legs. The arms and legs shared the same sockets, allowing the Vart’othra to work on two different interfaces at the same time. They didn’t have any eyes, relying on their other senses and a form of echolocation to navigate. Their legs sat at a ninety-degree angle, kind of like a spider, from their torso. Based on the technological level of their ship, it seemed decades ahead of the scout ships as well as most of the Mac’skarian fleet. The part that made no sense was that they were not ones to attack anyone, so the question was what caused the attack.

I turned to my companion and asked, “Vish’ala, do the Vart’othra use A.I. units in the construction of their vessels?”

“No, sir,” she answered with a shake of her head. “They didn’t believe that the use of an A.I. unit was necessary for their ships, since each person was able to do the work of two.”

I glanced around, “Given the damage to this section, do you think that their computer core would still be active and accessible?”

“I’m not sure, sir,” Vish’ala replied, “but we do have their language in the A.I language libraries, so Tali would be able to translate anything she found.”

I sighed and said, “Well, we know who attacked your people, but we don’t know the reason why. Tali, have a tow field put on the ship as soon as we return to the scout. I want this ship brought back to the outpost with us, because we are going to need to give the whole ship a once over sooner, rather than later.”

Vish’ala gave me a quizzical look, “Why would you say that, sir? We already did scans of this system, there seems to be no trace of enemies or their technology active in the system.”

“That we know of, Vish’ala,” I answered, glancing back at her. “Remember that the scout ship and the outpost are over three hundred years behind in technology. There is no telling what advances have occurred in that time, meaning there could be threats in the systems or even outside it that we can’t detect. I want us operating as if there is a threat coming, so we aren’t caught unprepared.”

Vish’ala went over to the various consoles and began interacting with them to see if they would respond to input or if one of the various systems would power up, but there was no response. We left the engineering core and made our way towards the nose of the ship, but we found the door locked closed. Vish’ala put the lock breaker onto the interface pad, and it hummed to life, she entered commands and the door opened. We looked in and saw two more Vart’othra bodies on the deck, but another one caught my eye. It looked avian and kind of reminded me of a creature from a favored movie of mine. It had a pronounced beak at least six inches long and curved like an eagle’s.

I couldn’t see where its ears were, but in that area were fins much like those of a fish or lizard. It had rough, scaly skin with a pronounced fin on its head and the back of the skull stretched out to a point behind it. The neck was thin and long connecting to a thin and long torso. The creature only had two arms and legs, with arms nearly two thirds as long as it’s full height and digitigrade legs. The hands had four digits with the first finger being the longest instead of the middle and long talons stretching out from the ends of those fingers. The feet reminded me of a T-Rex in the digit distribution and weight bearing. It was a terrifying looking creature, preserved in the vacuum of space and, glancing around, it looked to be this creature’s ship.

I turned to Vish’ala, “We have work to do, so let’s return to the scout ship and tow this thing back to the outpost.”

She nodded in response, and we rushed over to the airlock and made our way back to the ship. Once we checked in our suits and weapons, we went to the bridge and took our posts. Vish’ala maneuvered the rear of the ship to sit in front of the dormant enemy vessel and activated the towing beam. Due to the strain that could be put on the beam by quick adjustments and too much speed, we traveled at one quarter of our full speed and arrived at the outpost four hours later.

When we got near, Alta notified us that she had been monitoring our communications and had some of her drones had repaired one of the parking bays. She had force fields in place for the areas that still needed to be patched, but we could dock the scout ship and the enemy ship inside. Though I didn’t plan to leave the ship any time soon, it was comforting to know that outside her hull was oxygen. I was in my quarters, taking off my coat when Alta appeared in my room, startling me.

I sighed in irritation and said, “Alta, while I don’t mind you materializing to speak to me, please give me some warning ahead of time.”

She smiled and said, “Of course, sir. I wanted to update you on the status of repairs as well as the Mac’skarians living here.” I nodded, so she continued, “I have twenty-six of my thirty-three mass fabricators online and have begun producing more drones, for both repairs and resource gathering.”

I nodded, ‘What will happen to the excess drones once the repairs have been completed and a steady flow of resources is making its way to the outpost?”

She brought up a holo display in her palm, “They will be broken down by the mass-fabricator to be used for other things, though I only expect to have to repurpose one third of the total number I need at this time. The engineering core and this bay have been repaired enough to maintain an oxygen atmosphere and I have a squadron of drones repairing a path from here to the core should you need it, sir. My current estimations are to have the outpost fully vacuum free via patches in a month, with full hull repair completed in four months. I have pulled designs for a space dock which will be added to the station so that we can begin preparing defensive ships for the outpost, as well as a command ship for you.”

I looked at Alta in shock, but she simply smiled in response. I shouldn’t have been surprised; no doubt Alta and Tali have stayed in constant contact since Alta was brought back online.

“What of the Mac’skarians?” I asked as I took a seat at my desk. “You said you had an update as to their status, and I am sure you have let them know you were now online.”

She nodded and said, “Yes, sir, I monitored them for some time, trying to gauge what kind of technological regression might have occurred in the three centuries I had been offline. Surprisingly, due to the rigid structure of our culture, the teachings of our people endured, and they maintained a grasp of many aspects of the outpost. Confident they would handle it well, I notified them that a scout ship had arrived and had been working to bring me and the outpost back online. Though they had lived without the outpost functional, they are doing rather well and are still versed in both the existence of my kind as well as of the Omega Protocol.”

“You mentioned that to them?” I asked, shocked at the turn of events. “I guess my next question would be how they reacted?”

“Actually it was mentioned by seventeen different Mac’skarians while I was interacting with them. They figure that the only way a scout arrived here after all this time was due to the Omega Protocol being put into effect. They asked to meet you, but I told them you wanted to give them time to adjust and for further repairs to be made to the outpost. That you want them to get used to the change of situation, before you expose them to an alien that now has command of a Mac’skarian vessel, as well as being in control of the outpost.”

I knew that Tali and Alta were in communication, but I didn’t realize that they were exchanging information about the conversations we had been having.

She seemed to read my thoughts and said, “To explain, Tali and I have discussed it and feel that, for now, this outpost should be your base of operations. We have no idea the status of the rest of the empire or if any other Mac’skarians survived the last three hundred years. The people on this outpost could be the last of our race, and, as such, we need to ensure their survival. My calculations have concluded that their survivability will dramatically increase if you call this facility home, so I have been taking steps to make that possible. I hope that you don’t mind, sir?”

“No, it’s okay, Alta,” I said with a reassuring smile. “It is a good idea and will be beneficial in the long run, though we will have much to do before I am comfortable leaving the system for any length of time.”

“Of course, sir,” Alta replied, with a slight bow of her head. “The outpost would need to be repaired first, followed by my drones being split into two teams. The first team would be responsible for building the shipyard extension to the outpost and the other will be working to comb every inch of the enemy ship to identify and harvest its systems. I will then compare the technology to Mac’skarian standards and make the necessary upgrades to our vessels. Once that is complete, I will begin building defences for the outpost, as well as drone ships to serve as patrols and defenders. Current estimates will have the shipyard and dissection of the enemy ship in three months. Once those are completed, I will be able to project a more comprehensive timetable.”

I couldn’t argue with her plans or the analysis of the situation. “Very well,” I replied with a nod, “have Tali assist in any way she can to further your progress, but we may want to fashion sensors that can be hidden within the debris. They don’t have to scan outside the system, only provide an early warning so we can deploy the scout when needed.”

“Yes, sir,” Alta answered with a smile and a human salute. “I will coordinate with Tali, but you may want to be prepared. Soon the people here will want to meet you and you will not be able to put it off forever.”

I nodded and she disappeared in the blink of an eye, soon to be replaced by Tali.

Tali bowed slowly, “I have been informed of the conversation you had with Alta, and I am pleased that you agreed with our assessment. I will begin sending drones to outfit damaged scouts and fighters with sensors to act as the early warning system you suggested. This will take a month to complete, so I would suggest we take the scout ship for routine patrols until the sensor net is up.”

I scratched the back of my head, “We really need to call it something else. Calling it a scout ship every time will become tiresome after a while, what was the name of the ship before the crash?”

She shook her head and answered, “Scout ships were never named as the crew was only on them a month at a time. If there was a name, I have no record of it, nor do I have a record of any name the crew used in regard to the ship.”

“Okay then,” I said with a sigh, my mind going through different names. “From this point on, she will be called the Obsidian.”

Tali smiled and said, “Name registered in both the ship’s database as well as the outpost. Might I say, sir, the name fits the ship very well.”

“Thank you, Tali,” I replied, “I am going to get a shower and then get some sleep. I am not sure I have had a solid eight hours of rest since taking off from Earth.”

“You are correct, sir,” she retorted as her eyes began to glow. “You have been sleeping in only three- or four-hour stints. Though your physiology has been optimized by our medical pod, you still require a good night’s sleep to function, sir.”