#girlie had ZERO survival instinct and honestly good for her

[strategicjazzhands]

[spacefaringviking]

Demons II

Running over aliens was not how Jaime thought her day would go.

She was the pilot of the ‘Anna Dreyfuss’, a HyperLiner named after the famous songwriter/actor from the 2450’s. She was one of six Liners en route from Eridanus Theta to Herjan’s Ford in Kepler Sigma, one of the UOCF’s most recent colonies.

Herjan’s Ford was honestly one of the most beautiful planets found thus far by humanity. It’s beauty rivaled that of Epsilon Arcadus, and maybe even that of post-Exodus Earth, declared a Sanctuary World by interstellar Humanity.

But on the entry into Kepler Sigma, the Anna Dreyfuss’ wake from her collapsing Alcubierre Field slammed into a ship of unknown origin. She was the first ship in-system, and her wake sent the ship spinning and careening. The five subsequent collapse-wakes tore the ship to shreds. Various analytical methods rendered the fact that this ship was not human in origin, and now it lay as a glittering debris field before her ship.

And that meant that Jaime couldn’t visit Herjan’s Ford now. Maybe not even for weeks or months. Her ship, as well as the other five, would be evacuated of its civilians and their ships, but she and her crew, as well as the crews of every other ship, would remain behind and be interrogated by officials from both the UOCF and the CIC. Fragmented as humanity is, everyone gets word where aliens are involved.

===== ===== =====

Ooutholuho woke in xer hardsuit to xer world spinning about. Xer vision drifted into focus, and then xer hearing. The suit was blaring its emergency lights and warned of an oxygen leak. Xe had been unconscious for at least [four hours].

Blessed, xe thought.

Survival training and instinct took over. Xe ran a suit diagnostic and sealed the leak. Xer main power plant was shot, so xe ejected it and booted up the second and tertiary plants. Xe switched on xer inertial dampeners and watched as the world spun into focus. Xer suit was at 75% power, and oxygen was at 38%.

The ship and all of its valuable data and records drifted about in a cloud of glinting shards of glass and glittering, frost-kissed shreds of metal. The hulking mass that was once the cockpit and command center drifted before xer, the edges all rosy and glowing. Xe engaged xer suit’s thrust pack and drifted toward the safe shade of the hulk, and out of the sun’s lethal rays. Xe turned around, having safely mag-booted onto the surface of the once-interior. Xe began scanning the local wreckage, looking for viable lifepods or other compatriots that survived the ship’s destruction. Xe counted four, with one too far out of reach, drifting towards a moon. But soon, the pod bounced off of the moon. Xer mind fought with perspective, and curiosity and perspective won. Xe jetted out to get a better look at this 'moon’.

Both of her hearts nearly stopped.

From the rear of what xe thought was a moon extended a spire that stretched for at least [4.5 kilometers]. The central spire had smaller spires and rings rising from its surface, and at its rear was a massive ring.

It was a ship.

Xe looked over the wreck of her ship, and doubled behind far to far right. Six in total.

This was what wrecked xer ship.

The black space before her suddenly pulled forward and shifted a brilliant blue, before tearing open one… two… five… seven… twelve times. The eddies from the wakes gently pushed the wreckage away, but xe remained motionless with her inertia dampeners. Xe saw now twelve ships of various sizes and lengths, with four of uniform shape and size breaking free and assuming a ring around her ship, and beginning a patrol pattern. Her suit noted sudden spikes in radiation from the four ships.

Weapons?

But no payload came.

Xe watched as hundreds of bright white streamers shot out in battery from the top and belly of the ships. Instead of streaming for xer and blowing xer to smithereens, like xe expected, Ooutholuho watched as they arced out in lazy loops and surrounded the wreckage. As they came further in towards the wreck, xe saw they were not missiles, but in fact smaller ships. For the turns they were pulling, they had to be drones.

A few broke off from the formation and flanked a rectangular ship on approach, which had clamped onto two of the lifepods and was dragging them in to the wreckage.

Were they helping?

Something was familiar about these ships.

Xe ran what she could from scans against the Ministry’s database.

Xe choked on air.

From what data was available, and what information her scans could compile, the computer identified them as hyoomans.

The rectangle ambled on over to xer and opened its bay, drowning xer world in light. The bay closed around xer, and xe saw that xe was surrounded by hyoomans.

One walked out to xer and extended a hand, what xe knew as a greeting.

“Hello. Sorry about that.”

===== ===== =====

“Pilot-Captain Senior of the UOCF HyperLiner, S.S Anna Dreyfuss, Officer Jaime Gonzales submitting myself for questioning,” she quipped, as she clicked her boots and saluted to the gathered officers.

“At ease, Pilot-Captain,” the Admiral flared as he waved, his tinny accent reverberating in the stuffy room. At his sides were several representatives from the Samsung Conglomerate, Tesla Company, Ganymede Ventures, and the CIC. House of Liao’s rep was nowhere to be found. In lieu of the Hades Gamma Commune’s representative sat a telepresence drone.

Their eyes bored into her as a hawk’s would into a rabbit.

“Tell us everything that happened, in your words, Pilot-Captain Jaime,” the Samsung rep piped up, his tinny, aristocratic tone ambling out smoothly in the dead quiet of the room.

“More or less how you already know, Sirs and Madams. I exited acceleration at the zero-mark of the system. Prelim scans showed no presence at the exit point. I went ahead with entry, and I unfortunately made first contact the worst way possible.”

“Oh, that’s not quite the case,” piped up the Hades Gamma drone. “Hardly first contact at all.”

Jaime was taken aback. “You’ve known about these guys before today?”

“Not quite,” rebutted the UOCF Admiral. “But when we brought back a little… 'friend’, shall we say? It became obvious this wasn’t humanity’s first contact when it started belting out English, six mouths and all.”

“English? They can speak English?”

“To say they 'speak’ English is to say a primary-schooler can do Algebra II,” chimed in the Tesla rep. “They know it’s math, and they can plug in the variables. They don’t always get it right, though. Least, not this one.”

“What we found most interesting, Pilot-Captain, was a name that it dropped. Not a who, but a what. The Soliloquy,” added the CIC rep.

“The Soliloquy? It disappeared 15 months ago.”

“Disappeared, not dead. Lost by one and found by another.”

“Sirs and ladies, this all sounds above my pay grade. Why tell me?”

“You’re among one of the best pilots in our arsenal,” said the Ganymede Ventures head. “And you are second-to-none when it comes to plotting a course through Alcubierre space.”

“Well, I did just run over a space bus full of aliens.”

“And it was a fluke. A ship that small would hardly show on the scans of a Pathfinder in-system, let alone a HyperLiner sixty light-minutes out. The… er, inconvenience… aside, this is hardly something to let rest on your shoulders. Your skills with plotting jumps are impeccable, circumstantial tarnish on the wayside.”

“So, what do you need from me?”

“You’re to be excused from this little fiasco and put aboard a ship headed coreward.”

“Earth?”

“Goodness, no. GALACTIC coreward.”

“Ah. Continue?”

“You’re going to plot a jump to these co-ordinates we’ve… borrowed… from the alien ship. These are the last known coordinates of the Soliloquy, as extrapolated by Hades Gamma’s transliteration programs, and what was left of the data aboard the computers on the ship.”

“How did you do that, sir? It’s alien.”

The Hades Gamma rep and the Tesla Company rep shared a laugh. “For them being aliens, their computer technology was found wanting, to say the least. Trinary, atomic processor, the works. Real ancient stuff. The rest is classified.”

“So, we’re rescuing the ship then?”

“The ship is of no consequence. Save what you can, but the minds aboard that vessel are worth more than the purest platinum. Jonathan Henderson, Guyaki Miyohiro, and Pratchta Supraheer. They ALL make it back in one piece.”

“Understood.”

“You leave in an hour. Get going, girlie,” the Ganymede CEO smiled, beaming pride at his favorite pilot.

Jaime saluted and walked off.

“Shit,” she thought.

Submission and continuation from the amazing @bartwelchii!