[She took What?] - Chapter 98 : ORIGINS: Wow. Jump space. It's beautiful.

“A good plan, violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

Pre-diaspora human general

 

|Location: Shipyard, Drexari Space|

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More ships powered up and jumped.  All in the same direction, the signatures coming from their jump corridors aligned.

"Must be going to some sort of staging area," suggested Rockson.

"Makes sense."

 

Rockson was glued to his console. Watching it closely. "There's minor distortion in the corridors. Lots of activity. Must be hell to co-ordinate all this."

"It's fully automated. Just looks after itself."

 

One of the ships away off from The Kestrel, a frigate, was about to receive its shipment of crystals. A drone, carrying a crystal container, was waiting for the docking bay to open. As they watched, the doors opened and the drone went in. A bit later the process was reversed; the drone and its cargo left in the ship.

 

And in that moment an idea formed. A daring, crazy idea. She liked it.

'We look like a drone to their tech. Yes?' She asked the QI.

'Correct.'

 

She then worked through the plan, sharing it with the QI as it formed. It liked the idea too and immediately started working on it.

 

First up, it hacked the shipyard network and jumped across to the logistics system. It found the ident for the newly minted frigate in front of them and inserted a new order, a movement of goods order.

 

As they watched, two automated tugs closed in on the frigate and moved it to the maintenance platform above them. Arms clamped onto the ship, holding it in place. The QI watched, no alarms were triggered. Everything was fine, all good.

 

Nothing to see here, the QI hoped.

 

She turned to Alpha-2, "Can you get us up close to that ship," she pointed to the frigate above them, "And when the docking bay opens make like a drone and go in."

His face changed, it had the are you joking look on it.

"It's Ok. We don't think there's anyone onboard yet."

"Don't think? So there might be? Are you crazy."

She shrugged, “You should know by now.”

 

Alpha-2 slowly lifted the ship away from the ledge they were resting on and up towards the frigate. As they neared, the docking bay opened on cue. He looked at Feebee, “How?”

She smiled, “A girl has to keep some secrets.” She tapped her head.

 

They entered the frigate. It was tight but once inside there was enough room to turn The Kestrel around, pointing out. Just as they turned, a drone approached and slid into the docking bay alongside them.

“Ready for a quick exit,” suggested Alpha-2.

The docking bay doors closed slowly, trapping them inside, “Was that supposed to happen?” asked Alpha-2.

“Don’t know. It’s my first time inside a Drexari frigate."  They laughed.

“Now what?”

“We wait, if this is like the others the drone will be unloaded, relieved of its containers and then leave.”

 

Sure enough, a squad of Droids approached the drone, took the containers and carried them off into the ship. The docking bay door opened,>!​!< and the drone left as Feebee had predicted.

“There you go.”

 

'Can you get us some schematics of the frigate. We need to get to the control room.'

'Looking,' the QI confirmed.

'Another option is to control the frigate from here,' Feebee suggested. “See what you can do.'

'Ack'

 

‘We have a message from Chen.’

 

MAJOR JUMP CORRIDOR FAILING.

SHIPS EMERGING OFF COURSE.

INVESTIGATE.

 

RETURN WHAT YOU DON’T USE.

 

‘What the? Does he think I’m going to steal The Kestrel?’

‘Not steal. Sell maybe?’ The QI laughed.

 

'You asked if I could re-route the frigate's controls.' The QI continued, ‘They're too different. You’ll have to go to the control room.’

‘And the good news?’ asked Feebee.

‘There’s no one else aboard and I found a layout of the ship.’

‘Oh. Ok. Good.’

The QI flashed up a map of the ship with a route to the control room. It was a six-sided room at the ‘nose’ of the frigate with what looked like three large forward-facing windows.

 

Feebee thought long and hard about whether to split the team and leave someone to mind the ship.

“Ok. We go to the control room. All of us. The QI will share schematics and a route plan. Load up, if we hit trouble, it may be a while before we get back to The Kestrel. We go in five.”

 

They gathered at the back of The Kestrel and moved quickly across the loading bay. A couple of droids were carrying boxes, but they paid them no attention.

‘Let me know if we trip any alarms or get noticed by any logistics' processes.’

‘Ack’

 

As they walked through the frigate to the control room, Feebee was reminded of the scenarios she’d played out on the Seed-arc, and the encounter with pirates.

 

Doors whooshed open when they approached, she still smiled whenever that happened. Couldn’t help herself.

It didn’t take them long to get to the control room, but the door remained uncooperative. It wouldn’t whoosh. The keypad at the entry was red which was curious of itself. She wondered why the Drexari had red as closed, was their blood red like humans? She wondered.

 

‘You there?’ she asked the QI.

The response, ‘Where else am I going to be?’ was accompanied with scratchy laughter.

‘Can you get us into the control room?’

 

‘Yes. Sorry. Distracted. Working on something else.’

'On what?'

'Our frigate thinks its crew had boarded.'

'Oh. Ok. Is that good?'

Scratchy laughter, 'Don't know. I've got the door controls sorted.'

As the QI spoke the keypad turned green. Feebee waves a hand in front of the door and it whooshed open.  They entered and Feebee gazed out the front windows, looking at the shipyard and the ships. It was impressive.

 

‘We need to update Chen on what we’ve found.’

They sent him a message.

 

FOUND LARGE DREXARI SHIPYARD
MASSIVE FLEET MOBILISATION

CRYSTAL END-USERs ARE DREXARI.

 

Feebee had come to expect Chen to respond quickly, now was no exception.

 

IGNORE SHIPYARD & FLEET. THATS NORMAL OPS.

INVESTIGATE FAILING CORRIDOR

FIND SOURCE OF DISRUPTION

CO-ORDINATES ATTACHED.

 

 

In that moment the lights flickered once and Feebee felt something change around her, within her. She recognised that feeling. It was the transition into Jump Space; this was the same but gentle. It had none of the 'tearing' dislocation one gets used to and accepts.  Then the three forward windows were smeared with blue haze. The sort of hazy smear that comes when something travels faster than light.

Rockson recognised it immediately. "Jump space really is beautiful."

 

'I've found a deployment schedule. It was already loaded.'

'What! Did we just enter jump space?'

'Uh. Yes. Wasn't me,' the QI was defensive.

 

The Drexari ship had activated the jump sequence automatically. It had its orders and a crew.

They were underway.

 

Rockson was analysing the jump vector. It was in the same direction as the other Drexari fleet departures. 

"We're travelling towards the co-ordinates Chen sent us."

Feebee perked up, "That's a plus, we can kill two tasks with one stone."

"Birds. It's birds. Two birds."

"Oh, Ok."

 

 

 

"Now what?" asked Alpha-2.

"Now we wait," Feebee looked at Alpha-3, he was walking around, "You Ok?"

"Yeh. Good. We're in jump space, yes?"

"Yes." responded Feebee.

"Feels different. Much cleaner. What, no monk training?"

Everyone looked at him.

"We all know the jump is smoother if we do it." The others confused. "Surely you've felt that too. You know I'm not a fan but... " he pulled a face like a pout that made them laugh.

"OK, sure," said Feebee, and with a shake of the head she took them to the docking bay for a session. "Don't know how long we'll be in jump space, so this could be a short session."

Alpha-3 gave her a nod and smile.

 

“Ok everyone. Eyes closed. Stand easy, straight but not rigid. Stillness is being relaxed and calm. Being in balance.”

She waited, talking softly, “Stay calm inside. Be still, in balance. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.” This was repeated, the words becoming slower each time.

 

“Now, inhale for four seconds. Fill your lungs and hold it for four, three, two, one. Now breathe out slowly." Everyone had done this repeatedly, they knew the drill.

"In for four, three, two, one. Hold for four, three, two, one. Out for four, three, two one.”

She repeated this.

The blue haze surrounding the frigate dispersed like smoke on the wind and they fell into normal space.

But instead of empty space, the frigate emerged into chaos.

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