Encounter
In a burst of light, the Solnoid Battle Cruiser Valkyrie and six support vessels warped into the remains of what they had taken to calling the Twenty-First Star System. As soon as all ships had reported a successful transit, Group Captain Maris ordered them to disperse through the system and proceed with full sensor-sweeps of their assigned sectors. Their mission was a standard rescue-and-reclamation operation – if there were any survivors or materials that could be used to help with the War effort, it was up to them to find and recover what they could. They didn't really expect to find anything - a System-Destroyer weapon, when used, doesn't leave much left to recover...
The first sign they had of the ship was the unusual energy trace it gave on the scanners. Hoping that it might be a damaged battle cruiser, they moved in to investigate – fearing that it could be a Paranoid trap, they kept a dozen missiles locked onto it.
Nearing the derelict, it became clear that neither guess was correct. "What can you tell me about it, Eyes?" Maris asked the sensor-operator on duty as she watched the ship slowly spin around its long axis.
"Difficult to say," admitted the young woman standing at the console below and to the left of the Captain. "The markings on the hull bear a striking resemblance to Solnoid identifiers, but the computer has nothing matching its silhouette from either the Paranoid or Solnoid fleet databases. The energy signature doesn't match up with any known type, either. It could be a Top-Secret prototype battleship, but there's no way of knowing for certain without going aboard and seeing for ourselves."
"Life signs?"
"Looks like one – but there's enough plasma radiation left over from using the System-Destroyer to make readings difficult to interpret accurately."
Maris mulled over her options for a moment, then made her decision. "Prepare a shuttle with a crew of two for close inspection and boarding. Light weapons and environment-suits only – no Struggle Suits. I want anyone found aboard that thing kept alive to answer questions."
"Aye-aye, Captain," answered her Second Officer, who quickly issued the appropriate orders.
A girl with long blue-black hair opened the door to a storage locker and donned a pair of pressure-suit leggings that she pulled from the shelf within. Her companion for this mission, a redhead slightly shorter than herself, slithered into the upper section of an identical suit. Once her head was clear of the neck-ring, she asked "So... how did things go last shift?"
The dark-haired girl shot the redhead with a steely glare, her ice-blue eyes hiding the irritation she felt. "I do not want to talk about it, Spea."
"That bad, huh?" Spea commented. "I really thought you two would hit it off – she seems to have a lot in common with you, you know."
"I said that I'm not going to talk about it!" she repeated, slightly louder.
"Come on, Shildy. I'm your best friend – I think I deserve to know what happened."
Shildy sighed and lowered her eyes to gaze at the helmet in her hands. "I don't know. It just didn't... well... feel right. I can't explain it."
"But..."
"Save it for later. Right now, we have a job to do – my personal life can wait until it's completed."
Ignoring the look that her friend Spea gave her, Shildy locked her helmet into place and strode towards the hangar bay.
A quick burst of thrust from the shuttle's main engines put the pair on a course to intercept the mysterious ship. They circled the vessel as it spun, examining its surface carefully.
"Where are the gun ports?" Shildy questioned. "I don't see any missile bays, either."
"The hull looks completely seamless, even under full magnification," Spea noted. "Maybe we just can't see them."
"I can't get us any closer without running the risk of collision because of the spin. I saw an open landing bay when we passed the aft section of the ship – we're not going to find out anything more unless we board, anyway."
"Is that any safer?" Spea asked. "Matching rotation and guiding the shuttle in to dock is a tricky thing to do – particularly when there isn't much light to work with."
Shildy gave Spea a confident smirk. "I may not know much about dating, but I do have a Class-A pilot's certification. Don't worry, I can handle it."
Expertly, she brought the shuttle around to the opening. A quick burst from the wing-mounted attitude jets set them rotating. Once Shildy was satisfied that their rotation precisely matched that of the other ship, she triggered a burst from the rear jets and the shuttle slid into the empty bay. Magnets built into the landing pads made contact with the deck, and the shuttle stopped moving.
Spea glanced at the new readings being displayed on the console before her. "There's gravity here, and air," she observed as she flipped the switches that would lower the boarding ramp. "It'd be less cumbersome without the suits."
Shildy shook her head. "No chances. We could still be walking into a trap." She grabbed a pulse-pistol from the weapons closet, adjusted to power setting to half-strength, turned on her suit-lights, and signalled Spea to follow her down the ramp and into the ship.
They made their way down several dark and deserted corridors, growing more confused with each passing step.
"Where's the crew?" Shildy muttered under her breath. "A ship this size should have a crew of at least fifty – we should have found bodies, at least."
"Automatics?" Spea suggested.
"We'd have found the 'bots," Shildy countered.
At that moment, the corridors brightened as the lights came on. "Either someone is making repairs," Spea whispered to Shildy, "or the ship itself is reacting to our presence. Weird, either way."
With the light, more details became apparent. "Look at this," Shildy gasped as she pointed out her discovery, "What kind of idiot puts identification markers and ship-layout diagrams on a wall? They're practically inviting a takeover!"
"Look at the text, though," Spea pointed out. "It looks like the Solnoid alphabet, but not quite. If this is one of ours, then whoever built it must be illiterate or something."
"At any rate, it helps us in our mission," Shildy admitted. She looked at the diagram for a moment, then pointed down the corridor to her left. "If I'm reading this right, the main control room is this way. We'll be able to access the computer from there and find out what we need to know."
Weapons at the ready, the pair made their way along the corridor until they reached a barely-open hatchway. Holstering their guns, they pulled at the door as it reluctantly slid open enough to admit them into a room with a single large window and a lone control chair. Drawing their weapons as they stepped through the opening, Shildy was the first to notice the arm hanging from the side of the chair. Motioning Spea to circle around to the other side to cover her, she placed her free hand on the seat-back – jumping clear as her touch triggered the chair to slide backwards and expose the unconscious occupant to their view as they stared in surprise...
It had the basic form of a Solnoid, but it wore a silver-grey outfit that was unlike any uniform on record. Its face, more angular and somehow rougher than that of a Solnoid, bore coarse hairs that matched the brown hair on its head – hairs that circled its lips and covered its chin. Its eyes were closed, and its jaw hung open as its head bounced when the chair stopped sliding backwards.
Shildy and Spea looked at each other for a moment, dumbfounded, until Shildy approached the creature. Loosely gripping its chin, she turned its head to get a better look at it. As she turned its head away from her, Spea noticed its eyes start to flutter – she aimed her pistol at it as Shildy backed away to do the same.
The creature opened its eyes and looked at Spea. It turned its head to look at Shildy. It stared at Shildy, its breath coming in ragged gasps, as it placed its hand on the chair and pushed itself up to stand away from the chair, its eyes locked on Shildy the whole time.
"FREEZE!" Shildy commanded, pointing her pistol between its eyes, but the creature paid no attention as it turned and took an uneasy step towards her.
"You heard the lady," Spea reinforced the command from behind it, "don't take another step!"
The creature raised a hand towards Shildy and surprised both her and Spea by speaking, in a voice that was deeper than that of any Solnoid but in a perfect Solnoid dialect...
"Steph? Oh, Steph, you're here. I thought I'd lost you."
Shildy lowered her pistol and stared at the creature in shock as she noticed the tears flowing from its eyes. Hesitantly, she took another step back as it took another step towards her...
Suddenly, its body went rigid as lightning danced around its body. It stood still for the barest of moments before its knees buckled and it collapsed to the deck, revealing to Shildy that Spea had shot it with an Immobilizer round. As she holstered the weapon, she grinned at the creature. "I told you not to take another step." She stepped over it and put a hand on Shildy's shoulder. "Are you okay?" she questioned, the concern evident in her voice,
Shildy blinked and shook her head. "Y-yeah, I'm fine." Holstering her own weapon, she looked down at the creature that Spea had stunned.
"Help me get this thing back to the shuttle," she said as she knelt to lift the creature to its feet, "We'll be able to figure out exactly what it is once we get it on board the Valkyrie."
Nodding in agreement, Spea pulled its other arm around her neck as they dragged the inert form back to their shuttle.
