"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT TAKES! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! FIND THEM! OR DON'T BOTHER COMING BACK AT ALL!"

To gulped, the fury of Sor directed at her for the team's failures, having chased ruses for the past month drew the ire of the IIA Sublieutenant. She was fortunate that he wasn't one to immediately press her off button.

"Y-yes, Lieutenant. I-I'll inform Captain Saro at once."

Sor only cut the channel off, the woman holding back a flurry of emotions from being berated as she was. Aliens had a saying of "don't shoot the messenger" but Sor verbally eviscerated her. She left the radio room of the destroyer, headed for the bridge.

"Tell me you found something of their trail," Captain Saro rubbed his face. His second in command, a Lieutenant of the same name, looked over the map along with their loaner Armada crew. "Anything at all."

"Captain Saro, sir." To sounded off as she entered the room, "The Lieutenant wasn't pleased at all, sir."

The Captain was about to chastise the Sergeant for not saluting until he saw her state…what a wreck. "...Let me guess. If we don't find them, we're dead?"

"...Along those lines, sir." She paused to take a few deep breaths. "Either find them or don't bother coming back right, no matter what it takes."

"As expected…"

"Saro," the Captain looked at his Lieutenant, "what's the hold up?"

"Put a thumb in your c'hurta and hold on a second, will you?" The Lieutenant replied as he panned the map, a faint difference in the background…was it… "Piz, look at this."

The Armada Lieutenant, the destroyer's shipmaster, looked at the signal and immediately the gears turned. The map panned further, revealing further faint flares across the map from resulting jumps. Some large, some small. The new fighters had their own jump drives, small as they were. Scouting runs…yes…yes that was it.

"HA! Nice work, Saro. Prepare to jump back to the asteroid field." The Lieutenant ordered his crew as they immediately began plotting a jump.

"Wait, back?" Captain Saro seemed taken aback. "Why back? We can't go back."

"It's easier on us. Look at this." The Lieutenant withdrew a stylus, plotting the course of the flares in space from their quarry's FTL in red. "This plot takes a lot of twists and turns, but then comes back here and continues forward. Parallel to where we are now. We go back, we go to this light strength flare from the asteroid field on the same heading, we cut half a week off our time."

"...I'll take mere days with how long this little trick of theirs put us behind. Very well, Lieutenant. Get us back on their track."

"Yes, Captain."

The Red Team commander chuckled, "You think yourself so smart, you traitors? Not so…we'll see who has the last laugh."

"How long have we been out here?" Rem casually queried from the helm of the Renown, wearily rubbing at her eyes. "The light years are starting to run together now."

Skrem took out a small datapad he's been keeping track on, "Twelve months, two weeks, and a day and….a half."

The pilot shook her head in disbelief.

"Just over a year into the unknown, chasing our antenna around…but hey, it beats getting shot at…or crash-landing."

"Also beats being thrown into a stasis pod by your own team because you stumbled onto a conspiracy and being electro shock tortured by Vortians."

"Still would've taken that over going down in Tallum." She wistfully smiled at him before returning her focus to her instruments and the viewport ahead. "...I know we found that Defiance Station place, but I'm beginning to wonder if they actually made it any further or disappeared into the void. Plenty of hazards to run headlong into out here, especially with their archaic sensors and instruments."

"My favorite couple having a good time?" Alurac spoke over one of the speakers in the bridge.

"Well hello to you too. I suppose we're just having a little chat."

"Not to interrupt, but wasn't our fighter jock supposed to have reported in by now?"

"...Huh, yeah. I think so. You hear anything, Rem?"

"Maybe she's just as sick of all of this fruitless searching as we are…." The pilot muttered, opening the communications channel before speaking. "Magnet, Renown…Magnet, do you copy? Hellooooo, universe to Chavsa? Slic?"

Static.

"Huh…surely she hasn't gotten lost out there…" Rem continued, setting the controls to autopilot briefly as she consulted their navigational map.

The holographic projection from long-range scans produced their usual myriad of clusters, systems, and unknown anomalies in-between. Gravitational irregularities were avoided on the off-chance black holes were the cause. The same for high-density gatherings of mass of celestial bodies or asteroid fields.

"Let's see…her projected scouting vector…"

Rem manipulated the map, zooming light years ahead of them near the edge of their scanning range. She came to an abrupt halt at the massive "dead zone" filling most of the projection now. Blank, empty space that typically held the usual smattering of stars, planets, and the sort. As if the universe itself simply ceased to be at the edge of the map. Surely not…had she traversed past what was known into another dimension?

"What the heck is that? That isn't a glitch, is it? It's like a giant black hole…but we'd be goners if it was this close…either of you two got an explanation for that?"

"If that were a black hole, would it not distort the position of the surrounding stars and celestial bodies? Surely one that large would be a great destroyer." Alurac added his observation of the strange phenomenon before them. "Yet…none of that is apparent based on our scans."

"You can't just jam a star system, can you?" Skrem blinked, "I mean, I'd think of doing something fantastical but the amount of resources and energy that would take is obscene that nobody sane would go for it."

"It's…possible. Either this is the oddest black hole my systems ever witnessed or this is not an organic occurrence."

"Almost hope it's a weird black hole. Rather not make first contact out here with something worse than the Empire by accident and make everything worse." Rem commented with a huff, tapping away at her console to open the intercom. "Captain? Sorry to bother you but your presence is requested on the bridge. We have a…development."

Corr quickly made his way to the bridge with Calla in tow.

"What's wrong?" She was the first to hurriedly query.

"Nothing's wrong…I think." Rem began, gesturing to their odd navigational findings. "Al pointed out Chavsa's not checked in and she's not answering any of our hails. Interference happens sometimes, but I followed her vector and found…this. We don't know what it is but scans aren't penetrating it."

Corr looked the anomaly over, rubbing his chin in thought. Curious…very curious.

"Nothing? No radio? No lidar? Nothing?"

"Not a thing." Alurac replied.

"That's concerning."

Suddenly, the scanners picked up Chavsa's signal as she jumped back to their location.

"Open the fucking hangar!" The pilot yelled over the radio. Her tone wasn't one of distress more of…excitement? Joy? Certainly strange.

"Uhh…sure," Rem quickly obliged, equally curious as she was concerned at the turn of events. "Bay doors are opening now…suppose we'll find out soon enough." She concluded to the Captain behind her.

Chavsa hopped out of the fighter as soon as she shut down the engines, pulling Slic and sprinting to the bridge. She immediately plugged the AI's module into the computer.

"Congratulations, meatbags." Slic announced as his avatar appeared on a holographic display. On another nearby, images and video footage began populating:

A seven planet star system with an asteroid belt dividing the inner and outer planetary bodies. What was within the inner bodies? A world perfect for Irken, right in the habitable zone. Lush green, oceans, lakes…and most importantly, a visible fleet! Footage rolled of the various ships in formation on patrol in the system. Chavsa kept her distance so as not to trip any scanners.

The footage paused on the largest ship in the fleet.

Calla stepped back, her mouth agape and eyes wide in disbelief.

"The Devos…That's the Devos! That's them!"

"Wait, really?!" Chavsa blinked, looking back at the ship on screen. "It's still active even after all these centuries?"

"Beggars can't be choosers," Rem concluded, going a step further to pull schematics and cross-check the vessel's profile with what they had. "...and that's one of our ghost ships of the Republic…plenty of new ones with no known signatures, but that's definitely one of them."

Silence enveloped the room as the realization began to honestly and truly settle in.

"...they survived and flourished. Here." Calla finally spoke, finding her voice again, breaking in a myriad of joy and disbelief.

"Good news, it isn't a super massive black hole or a hostile alien race." Rem made light of their discovery, smiling nonetheless. "My next guess was some sort of jammer to hide their location…but on that scale? I've never seen it before. Vard would be bouncing off the walls if he were here."

"Neither have I," Skrem laughed, "I mean, I'm genuinely impressed."

"As am I. Not even the Empire would conceive of pulling this sort of stunt," Alurac added.

"Necessity is the mother of invention." Calla astutely commented, regaining her composure as she squeezed Corr's hand at her side.

"I actually have to agree with him. This is indeed a massive operation of stealth that only a keen eye could see through. Most would assume a black hole and avoid the area. Yet this idiot despite my warnings-"

"Slic, shut up, if I listened to you, we'd still be poking around in the dark." Chavsa quickly cut him off.

"Y'know, even AIs are allowed to be wrong sometimes." Rem teased, looking to the fighter jock. "...but that was a huge gamble. Glad it paid off and you didn't get sucked to death over the next million years. They didn't see you or attempt to make contact, did they?"

"Nothing. All frequencies were jammed. All I got was a bunch of static."

"So…aside from taking all your scans, did anything else happen?"

"Uh…"

"Say it," Slic angrily spoke.

"...We may have been nearly chased down by a couple of what I assume are destroyers."

Corr sighed, "Guess they're still using their radio direction finders on their ships if such is the case. I can imagine they want to clamp down on any possible radio transmissions as quickly as possible. Did they see you?"

"Thankfully not."

"We jumped out of the system once we shut down the radio and were safely out of range."

"Still managed to rile them up and put them on-edge though…" Rem concurred, studying Chavsa's projected findings and attempting to map the interior of the "dead zone" from their instruments manually. "If communications are a no-go, how are we going to "talk" to them, let alone not get blasted into dust? We're obviously going to pop in and say hello, right?"

"Might just be what we have to do," Corr answered.

"Say, Rem," Alurac began, "Doesn't this thing have landing lights? Or some forward mounted lights? Something we can use for old-fashioned message transmission by light?"

"...both, actually. You're a genius, Al," She grinned, looking to Corr. "Doesn't mean we won't be targeted but maybe they'll at least hear us out if we attempt to signal…have to dust the regs off on that one for a refresher."

"Spell out my name." Calla offered.

"Why?"

"At the risk of insulting them with the wrong flurry of signals or overcomplicating the matter…these people are descendents of those who I worked alongside on Devos. They knew of the resistance and knew of me. Even Tann made sure of that aboard the Ambition. What is the probability of anyone but me reaching this far into uncharted space to make contact with them, regardless of time? Far easier to signal C-A-L-L-A, is it not?"

"Worth a shot…what's the word, Captain?"

Corr nodded, "Do it…we'll have to take the risk. Worst case, we get blown to dust and have Chavsa run back home and tell everyone else we succeeded but met our demise at the hands of the very people we were searching for."

"A year cramped in a fighter? I'd fly straight at them and get it over with." Rem morbidly laughed, taking a deep breath with a sigh. "Well…guess this is it. Dunno about you guys, but I'm putting my suit on. Just in case. Hard telling what these guys are going to do when a random ship with Imperial livery drops into their hidden alcove of the universe."

Corr smiled, "Very well…everyone, armor up just in case. Skrem, take Alurac as usual…let's go meet our long lost kin."

"So I'm the ship AI for the time being?" Slic assumed, "Beats being in a fighter with her."

"Bite me," Chavsa quipped back.

Within the matter of an hour upon agreement, the collective crew of the Renown donned their protective gear. Sealed environments, armor plating, and kinetic barriers. Three layers of protection against the possible hazards of long-lost cousin contact going awry. Should serious damage cripple the frigate or destroy it outright, there was no recovery. No going home. Do or die by definition.

Rem, returned to the helm on the bridge, plotted their vector and prepared to jump. Deep inside the "dark zone" made her apprehensive despite Chavsa's findings. Going in "blind" was nerve-racking. A shaky exhale audibly sounded from her helmet, hand hovering over the controls in preparation to initiate the jump.

"Moment of truth…and if I turn us into an FTL missile into one of their planets through miscalculation. Sorry in advance….and it's been an honor." She huffed, making light of the severity of the situation. "Ready on your command, Captain."

Skrem was back on the bridge himself, clad in his special armor. Chavsa was in her flight suit, but everything was fully sealed and with her own source of oxygen. If worse came to worse, really may have been better to go quicker than not.

Seeing everyone suited up and ready, Corr gave a nod. "Take us there, Rem."

Upon the order given, she engaged the frigate's FTL drive. Inertial dampened with the faintest of lurches and they were off. The seconds ticked by, becoming minutes of bated breath. It wasn't terribly far away and unlike the fighter, their drive moved their manipulated mass further and faster with relative ease.

Finally, the Renown snapped back into real-space inside of their trajectory window. The same planets Chavsa had gotten rudimentary data on appeared on short-range sensors…as well as a sizable number of registered contacts. Starships of various classes…and every single one of them immediately began turning to their position.

"Right, so, they know we're here. No surprise there. Lights, light, light…" Rem muttered, fumbling about the console in search for the activation of the panel. "There…lights…see if I can remember my alphabet now."

"Is there anything else we can do to let them know we're not intending to be a threat?" Calla queried, watching nervously at all the signatures slowly converging on their position from within the system.

None other than the Devos began signaling back with flashes of lights.

Slic was quick to analyze as the ships closed in.

"They're…you're not going to like the sound of this."

"What?" Corr asked.

"Heave to and prepare to be boarded."

"That doesn't sound ominous at all." Rem scoffed, hesitantly reaching for their main power to reduce to idle. "Who wants to take bets they shoot us and take the ship?"

"If they wanted to do that, they'd board regardless of asking permission." Calla chastised, her spooch fluttering with anxiety. "We aren't exactly in a position to make demands of them."

"Fair point, sittin' slorrbeast it is."

"Especially not since by my estimates, the heavy cruiser has powered up its MAC cannon and is aiming right for us."

"I swear if I end up back in another stasis pod…" Skrem shook his head.

A pair of destroyers and destroyer escorts quickly surrounded their frigate. Judging from the hull numbers, one of them was also a survivor of the original flotilla mentioned at Defiance Station. A specialized boarding craft left the Devos bound right for the Renown. The craft docked at one of the airlocks. Corr and Calla left the bridge, making their way to the docking point.

The doors opened, revealing an orange eyed naval officer. Republican vintage service uniform designs and insignia. Alongside him were heavily armed Republic Elites, though to Corr's own eyes, they appeared to look more like Troopers. Equally similar as they were different, their uniforms obviously the precursor to what the Empire became, but wholly their own design and inspiration. The centuries in exile also played a part in the subtle deviations.

No sooner than the airlock cycled open, the Republican Elites raised their rifles, training them on Corr and Calla. Mass-drivers, and much like the rest of their gear, a step or two behind the curve of the Empire's bleeding-edge. Didn't change the fact they were still lethal and in capable hands.

Corr cautiously raised his hands up to chest level.

"I know it's probably going to sound very odd and silly based on what you know of the events that transpired on Irk; we come in peace."

The officer's eyes narrowed.

"Your dialect. I don't understand it."

Calla's eyes widened, immediately responding.

"I do, I understand you!"

"How?"

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me, Miss…"

"Calla."

The trio of soldiers struggled to mask their own surprise amidst the confusing conversation to Corr. Bits and pieces, he could make out, but a dialect of their language lost to time and only known by its living, breathing historians.

"...cryogenic stasis?"

"No. The truth is stranger than fiction. I assure you I am who I say I am, beyond a shadow of a doubt. I knew Tann personally, the Master Engineer of the Ambitious. She is how I-...we found our way here."

The soldier's rifles relaxed to low-ready.

"...Tann is a revered hero and pioneer of our people. She spoke highly of you if historical documents are to be believed."

"You humble me…listen, I am sure you and your superiors have questions for us. These people are friends of mine. Allies, even. We come under a banner of peace and have much to discuss."

"Such as the Imperial vessel you showed up in?"

"Yes, that…it is a very long story…and I am sure he is extremely confused by now." Calla concluded, equally relieved as she was bemused by Corr's changing expression at the exchange. "Sorry…old Irken. Should've brought one of the AIs with us to translate for you. Can get your translators updated soon enough though."

"Well so long as they aren't going to shoot us, that's a swell first step."

Slic popped up through a nearby holographic projector.

"You can always ask."

"Oh, good, since you're here, introductions. I'm Captain Corr…newly forged Republican Resistance against the Empire…at least…I'm sure we're getting a Republic after this. My commander seems to think so." The Captain extended a hand to his counterpart.

"The meatbag says he's Captain Corr of the resistance movement that recently formed against the Empire." Slic translated for the officer.

The man opposite shook Corr's hand.

"Shipmaster Valkan, Heavy Cruiser Devos."

"I am sure our initial probe into this dead zone put all of you on edge." Calla began as Corr properly introduced himself. "That was from us and the scouting fighter sent ahead. I hope that allays any concerns you have, Shipmaster."

"The immediate ones, yes." Valkan responded evenly. "For now, per the Tann Protocol, your vessel is to be impounded and its inhabitants are to comply with any and all requests. This is non-negotiable. I respect your banner of peace but until motives are ascertained and the legitimacy of those claims confirmed, all of you may as well be Imperial spies as far as I am concerned."

"Right…" Calla sighed, looking to Corr. "Shipmaster Valkan says that we are to relinquish the Renown into their custody…and ourselves for questioning."

"I half expected this. So do we follow you in or-"

And right as Corr spoke, a crew in standard Navy uniforms piled out of the craft. Insignia showed helmsmen, engineers, damage control, communications specialists…everything they'd need for a prize crew to take home a ship.

"...Or that."

"So, what, am I a prisoner on this ship?" Slic seemed to be incredulous.

"You are the ship AI now."

"Oh that's just great."

"Now you have a bunch of strange men inside of you," Calla deliberately insinuated at the AI's expense with a huff at her own wit. "Make yourself useful and send Skrem down here. We need a linguistics update to our translators. Free up your precious processing power from mundane tasks of us lowly organics."

"At least Alurac gets to leave with him." Slic mumbled before his avatar disappeared. Within a couple of minutes, the Invader in his unique armor appeared.

"I got Al workin' on the updates. Once he finishes the codec translations he'll beam the update to all our translators." The Invader's attention then turned to the nearby officer and Elite detachment. "These guys look like Imperial Troopers."

"Who's this?"

"Skrem. Resident…science officer, for lack of a better term." Calla explained, looking back to the Invader. "They're not. Try not to compare them to the regime that sent them into the void? Like to make planetfall before things go to pot due to a diplomatic misstep first."

Skrem cleared his throat.

"Yes…local technology, science, man of many trades." Skrem had personally been brushing up on the language himself. They had all the months too after all. "Been trying to learn. Helps to learn about the ancestors, yes?"

"Ancestors?"

"Your predecessors. The first generation of colonists that left Devos." Calla elaborated further.

"Ah…suppose that does make sense, then." The military officer reasoned, gesturing to Skrem's back. "All of you are PAK'd, yes?"

"Unfortunately. We are different though. The Control Brains hold no sway over us. We are free, just like you."

"My superiors will decide the validity of that statement…but it is…surreal to see what has become of the Irken left behind…even moreso to meet one of my own ancestors face-to-face."

Calla blinked, taken back by Valkan's words.

"Your…ancestor? Me?"

"Yes. Soon as you told me your name, the eyes…I knew. Nuru, your eldest son. My great-grandfather. Not to sully the man, but he was not…faithful and his mistress arrived here with the colonists aboard the Ambition." He elaborated further, noting Calla's welling disbelief at the mentioning of her lineage surviving the horrors of the Grand Design.

Skrem looked between the officer and Calla, the eyes were definitely a dead giveaway. Corr's hand came to rest on her shoulder with a smile on his face.

"Corr…this is a descendant of her's. Great-grandson if I heard correctly." Skrem explained, but it seems on some level Corr was able to tell just by Calla's sheer emotional display.

"It looks like some of your family lives on with freedom."

Despite being complete strangers, that realization setting in that she was speaking to a direct descendant of her own kin saw the displaced woman throw her arms around Valkan in a hug as she struggled to maintain her composure. Nuru's promiscuity aside, her family lived on even after she was imprisoned for eternity in a digital cage. Here, free of the Empire's influence, just as she had intended and fought for unto her dying breath.

Naturally, the man was taken by surprise at this outpouring gesture, but recovered evenly. Sympathetic and a touch endeared, Valkan's hand rose to gently pat the woman's back. Stranger or not, family was hard to come by and she regained what she had lost. Not how he expected a family reunion to go, but very few got to meet their ancestors in-the-flesh, either.

"Looks like what you said Krad told you is proving to be wrong the more time goes on. He didn't win…you've won…and you'll have the last laugh in the end." Corr wiped a tear from one of his eyes. He knew all too well what this meant to her.

Valkan patiently and politely waited for Calla to compose herself before continuing to speak.

"I am sure all of you are eager to feel the soil beneath your feet and breathe natural air again. The Devos can take us in to high orbit over Morkes and a shuttle will take all of you under escort planetside. As for what that discussion will entail and what follows, I don't know. We had hoped others would find Defiance Station and find their way here but you are the first in centuries."

"Our pilot said the fuel tanks were all dried up and the only fuel cell left only had about one hour's charge left on it." Skrem commented on the situation in the station, although he wasn't there to see it himself. "Tann left voice encoded files in the system for Calla to find. Hate to say it, but Krad was extremely thorough. We can show you the files later."

Corr stood by, waiting, listening. Looking over at the other Elites standing near Valkan.

"Hey, look at the big shot."

"Can't understand a word, can he? Wouldn't know if we said his mother was a slorrbeast."

"Actually I would." Corr finally broke the facade, much to the shock of the Elites. "What, you think I would fall head over heels for a woman and not pick up her dialect? Especially with how critical it is to know to look at certain Irken sources of history? Don't tempt me, boys."

"Corr…be nice." Calla chastised gently with a placated smile at their distant cousins across space and time. "Try not to agitate them into imprisoning us, would you? They're cagey enough as-is."

The Captain chuckled, "Just letting them know they can't quietly deride us." His attention turned to Valkan, "Yes, we spent a bit over a year cooped up in this thing. The only time we've been out was to go explore Defiance Station. Looking forward to breathing normal air again."

"Understandably so, but let's hope my superiors see to it that it is the air of freedom and not a containment cell." Valkan summarized with a nod, gesturing for them to follow. "Perhaps if you are cleared a tour will be in order. Come, we will accommodate you aboard the Devos until then."