"How are you feeling?" Weiss asked.
Yang, who was lying on her back, grunted in response. She was staring at the white ceiling of the clinical room she was stuck in; it was the same colour and material as almost every other surface; she found it dull. The cot she lay on, uncomfortable as it was, was the most hospitable thing in the room. Otherwise, she was surrounded by machines that beeped and buzzed, devices she was connected to by tubes and pipes preventing her from moving from her bed.
Weiss was beyond the window, which was the only exception from the sterility of her cell. She had a slight frown, and her brows were scrunched up - the closest you'd ever see the ice queen to worry. Not that Yang saw her. "Yang?" She prompted.
"Bored! Weiss, I'm bored." Yang said, propping herself up on her elbows, "I've been in here gods knows how long, and Ren still has no idea what's wrong with me."
"I know," Weiss sighed, "I gave him some things to give you. I hope they help."
She gestured to a small table behind Weiss, where a few packages and cards were piled, and sighed. "He's left them there for me, says he doesn't want to risk external contamination."
"Oh. Do you have anything to do in there?" Weiss asked.
"I have a TV… and only Nora's collection of terrible kid's movies to stream." Yang pointed her left arm, relatively free of iv tubing, to a boxy TV above the window. Playing on it was an animated movie about princesses.
"Ah." Weiss's face fell.
"Yeah." Yang fell backwards.
"Well, I-I can try and come by more often, as can Blake, and I know Ruby wants to basically live here. But with the ship's damage in battle, her life's been sleep, eat, work, and repeat. She says it's almost done, so she'll be along any day now."
"Thanks," Yang said, her voice softer, "but it's unnecessary."
"I-it's not an imposition," she cured her stutter, "and it's not healthy for you to be cooped up in here by yourself all day without anything to do or talk to."
"No, it's not necessary 'cause Ren's given up," Yang said, "He's done every test he can, so he went to Ozpin to advise that I'm released."
"That's excellent news!" Weiss said, pressing her hand against the window pane and leaning in.
"So long as Ozpin agrees," Yang said.
The Captain's ready room was a small office adjacent to the bridge, barely wider than the desk Ozpin sat at. His hands were drumming on the table next to his console, on which was Ren's latest report on Yang. The walls had the barest decoration, a few medals, a framed diploma, and a photograph of Ozpin with a few officers Ren didn't recognise - although if he didn't know better, he'd have sworn that he was looking at older versions of Ruby and Yang.
"You think she should be released?" Ozpin asked. Despite the Captain's neutral voice and set face, Ren got the impression he was nervous.
"I do, sir, yes," he said, "We've tested for every possible type of pathogenic organism, and every test has been negative. This, combined with the fact she doesn't appear to be displaying any symptoms of illness, leads me to believe that she isn't actually ill."
"And what of the scanners in the shuttle bay? They flagged Lieutenant Xiao Long as contaminated as soon as she returned," Ozpin asked, spinning his monitor around to show Ren the results of the shuttle bay scans.
"Sir, it may be out of my field, but I wonder if they are malfunctioning in this case. I believe that the quarantine scanners on the Beacon were originally from the impactor; it's possible they aren't calibrated for our biology properly."
"A reasonable explanation, doctor," the Captain said, "and what of your reports? You say, and I quote, 'The patient is becoming increasingly restless and frustrated. This could be indicative of neurological interference.'"
"I believe that that to simply be the effects of being stuck in the quarantine cell for almost two weeks with only Lieutenant Valkyrie's collection of animated movies for entertainment." Ren replied, giving the Captain a slight smile, "Quite frankly, sir, I think she's developing cabin fever."
"She most likely is. Very well, doctor, I concur. Please release Lieutenant Xiao Long from quarantine, but keep an eye on her health and the health of the general crew. I would like to know if an alien virus is spreading aboard my ship before it becomes a problem," Ozpin said, giving Ren a wry smile.
Within the mess hall, which was a smaller but otherwise identical copy of the same room on the Vytal space station, there was the usual level of quiet hubbub. As B-shift had just left duty for the day, several weary sailors were packed along the metal tables, making for an excellent impression of sardines.
Blake, Yang, and Weiss were sitting in the corner at one of the smaller tables. While Weiss ate, the other two, who had already finished their meals, were playing a game of chess on Blake's tablet. Yang was losing badly.
"Pawn to E-Four."
"Queen to E-Four," Yang replied, tapping her move on the tablet.
"Are you sure?" Blake asked, looking up at Yang, who nodded. "Bishop to E-Four. Checkmate."
"What? Dammit!" Yang groused.
"You're thinking too immediately," Weiss said, without looking up from her food, "stop considering only the next move; try to anticipate what Blake will do rather than only reacting to what she's done."
"I can't do that, I not as smart as you or Blake."
"Yes, you can." Weiss put down her fork and looked up at her, "You wouldn't be Chief Tactical Officer if you were stupid. What you are is too stubborn for your own good."
Yang glared, but any reply she was thinking of was cut off when Ruby collapsed in the seat next to her, her meal almost spilling as she dropped it onto the table. "Hey guys," She said. Yang looked at her well: she was pale and sluggish, and under her barely open eyes were massive bags.
"Holy shit, Rubes," she said, "you ok?"
"I'm-" she yawned- "Fine, Yang. We're just busy trying to fix the ship after-" she blinked and looked up-"Yang! You're back!"
Properly beaming as Ruby glomped her, Yang put her arms around her younger sister and squeezed reassuringly. "That I am, little sister. No sterile box can contain this much greatness!"
"That's good," Ruby said, stepping back, "No more drinking water on random planets, you hear me! You aren't allowed back in that box!" She pointed a finger at her elder sister.
Smiling, Yang nodded furiously until Ruby withdrew her hand. "No complaints from me, sis."
"Good," Ruby said as she started eating again, with increased vigour, "I can't believe you missed an actual battle."
"I know. It sucks," Yang said, scowling.
"If it's any consolation," said Weiss, putting her cutlery down on her now empty plate, "you haven't missed anything else while you were locked up. We're still heading to those coordinates Ozpin told us about. While en route, we've found several more 'ghost worlds', as the crew have started calling them, but otherwise made no progress in finding who caused the galaxy to be the way it is."
"Plus," Ruby said, "I've been up to my shoulders in Genesis-Slush all week repairing the ship, so you know as much as I do."
"Hmm, how are the repairs progressing?"
Ruby smiled wearily, "They should be pretty much done when I left Pe- Lieutenant Pollendina was overseeing the final efforts. So-" she put her cutlery down on her plate and yawned- "I'm going to go to…"
Interrupting Ruby, the tannoy chimed and hissed into life, broadcasting the XO's voice intermingled with static, "All senior officers and department heads, please report to the briefing room."
"- the briefing room. Dammit."
The Beacon's briefing room resembled a small lecture hall; rows of tiered seating faced the front, the rows of chairs interrupted by two staircases. The XO stood before the assembled officers, the remote for the screen beside her in her hand. It was a mark of the officers' respect for her, or perhaps fear of her, that the room was deadly silent as they waited for their briefing.
"At oh-eight-hundred hours this morning, the VSS Beacon dropped out of FTL into the system currently identified as 'Beacon-Seventeen'." She began, the screen behind her showing the system relative to Remnant and their destination, the coordinates Ozpin had found on Proxima-three. "During routine scans to identify any fuel sources in the system, an unnatural structure was identified orbiting the star between the third and fourth worlds."
The screen was updated, showing a wireframe of the object and listing technical specifications. It was long and angular, growing to a near point at one end, the other, larger, end featuring several thruster blocks. "Although it was originally classified as a space station due to its size, upon closer examination, we have determined that it is indeed a warship."
This revelation prompted muttering amongst the assembled officers as the technical statistics listed alongside the wireframe gave its length at well over seven kilometres. "That thing's a warship?" Someone muttered.
"Hope we never meet its makers," another said.
Swallowing nervously, Ruby took out her tablet and started tapping furiously on it, an act that went unnoticed as multiple officers were taking notes on an electronic device. Ruby, however, had downloaded her own copy of the scans from the central computer - rank did have a few perks - and was reading through the results.
The ship was every bit as terrifying as the crowd thought; the scans had identified no less than five-thousand point defence turrets, eighteen-hundred railgun batteries, and an array of other weapons, including turreted particle lances and laser banks. Remnant had once experimented with a warship a kilometre long, the VSS Colossus. It had been the pet project of several scientists from Atlas, sponsored by Commodore Ironwood. The designs had never passed the conceptual stage; it was considered too large and unwieldy for anti-piracy purposes. It also had the nasty habit of tearing itself apart if turns were attempted too quickly on account of the stress on the skeleton.
Brief thought had been given to reviving the project for an FTL-equipped survey ship. Still, the Colossus had been passed up for the 'Huntsman' Class Captain Ozpin had been sponsoring because of its superior speed and agility and because the Huntsman Class didn't break during flip-and-burn manoeuvres. If these problems weren't considerations to the creators of the dreadnought, then it would be hell to meet in a fight.
"This is, as I'm sure you all know," said the XO, raising her voice to speak over the continued gossiping, "the first time we've encountered an object of artificial construction aside from our pursuer above Proxima-three. The Captain feels this is an excellent opportunity to gather intelligence on the Terrans and identify technology that may be useful to Remnant. Several away teams will be sent to explore the vessel to accomplish this goal.
"Department heads will assign the members of the away teams and will be required to have duty rosters submitted by no later than eleven-hundred hours. The Beacon will remain red alert while the away parties are aboard the structure."
Ruby suppressed a sigh, brought up the list of her staff, and started splitting them up in her head. She'd need to see the other department's assignments before she could finalise her own, of course. Still, she was reasonably confident she could finish the rosters and catch a few hours of sleep before the mission.
"I'm sure I don't have to stress to you the importance of this mission, but it is imperative that we acquire every technological advantage we can. Whatever these Terrans are, they appear to be responsible for the extinction of life in the galaxy. If we are to survive them, we shall need every possible edge. Good luck."
While sadly still sleepless, Ruby found it hard not to be awed by the engineering room she'd entered. It was practically cavernous, many times taller than even the largest spaces on the Beacon. However, despite the size of the room, it was pretty cramped. Two massive machines took up most of the space in the room. Both were messes of wires and pipes that were, upon Ruby's initial examination, entirely unknowable in their complexity.
"Beacon," she radioed, "This is away team Rose; we have reached the engineering bay."
"Affirmative Lieutenant Rose," Blake, who had opted to remain on Beacon and act as the point of contact for the away teams, replied, her voice mingled with static, "You are cleared to survey within your designated area. Good luck."
"Thank you, Lieutenant Belladonna," said Ruby as she cut the link. "Alright, everyone," she switched to her team's assigned frequency, "gather up." She watched as the away team she'd been tasked with leading, numbering twelve in total, gathered around her.
Telling them apart in the dark was challenging. The ship was dark, for the reactors had not been active for a long time, and whatever power or atmosphere it had was long since gone. It was not made any easier by all of them being helmeted. The four marines attached to the squad were distinguishable from the engineers by their sizable weapons and the heavier armour built into their suits. However, telling her engineers apart in their identical away-armour was impossible.
Or, at least, it would have been. Fortunately, the designers of the away armour had foreseen this fairly obvious problem and had implemented a solution. Each member of the away party was highlighted by a white hexagon, above which their name and rank were displayed.
"Alright," she began, "the Captain gave us three areas he wanted us to check out here, the life support system and the engine room. There's, uh, eight engineers to go between those, so I'm thinking two here and three in the engines and life support. Lieutenant Pollendina and I will stay here. Tanner, could you take Mai and Charcoal to the engines? Cerule, you, Ebon, and Ray, please go to the life support. Oh, and Sergeant Winchester, you can assign your men as you see fit."
"Good." The Marine Sergeant said as he turned and walked away. "Don't need some egg-head child telling me how to do my job anyhow." He had muttered the second part, which was, unfortunately, an entirely pointless exercise when broadcasting over the net. Whether he meant her to hear, Ruby was unsure. But she didn't respond as the party dispersed.
Once the other team members were gone, Ruby noted that the marines had opted to leave no members with her and was glad, not for the first time, that she had Crescent Rose with her. Using imaging scanners, she and Penny had begun methodically going back and forth along the nearer of the two machines, creating a three-dimensional model.
"Ma'am," Penny's voice, broadcast through a private channel, filled her helmet, "with all due respect, I don't think you should let him speak to you like that. You are his superior officer."
"I know, Penny," Ruby replied with a sigh, "but fighting with him won't solve anything. I'll say something to Yang, I mean Lieutenant Xiao Long, later. She'll tear into him."
"I see, Ma'am," Penny said, crawling under the machine they were scanning.
"What?" Ruby said.
"What?"
"You sounded unhappy; what's up?"
"I am unsure, ma'am, why it is that you allow him to disrespect you? He belittles your authority, and going to his CO later won't help." Penny replied; she'd popped up from her crawl space to look at Ruby.
"Does it really damage your opinion of me that much?" Ruby asked, trying and failing to keep the slight hurt out of her voice.
"N-no, Ma'am," Penny hastily replied, "Not at all. It's actually the opposite. I think that you're, uh, so far above him that you shouldn't let him talk to you like that, rank aside."
"I, oh, uh. Thanks?" Ruby said, pausing. "I know I should deal with it, but honestly-" she sighed- "it's far from the most hurtful thing that's been said to or about me, and I don't really see the point of starting a fight over it."
"I guess I understand."
"Good, now come on. We've still got that thing to scan," she said, pointing at the other machine at the far back of the room.
Yang's boots would have clunked as she stopped before the turrets had there been atmosphere to carry the sound. There was not, on account of her being in the exterior hull of the warship looking out into space, so only she heard the noise they made as it echoed through her suit. The turrets her away team had been tasked with investigating stood before her, casting monolithic shadows over the group. It had been easy to think them small when viewed with the rest of the ship, but their accurate scale was revealed once up close. They were true titans at over three stories tall, encased in thick armour and spouting gigantic barrels.
"This is fireteam Xiao-Long," Yang radioed, "We've reached the turrets and are prepared to start."
"Very good Xiao-Long," Blake's voice returned, "You are clear to begin surveying. A reminder, however: You are an away team, not a fire team. You are not weapons-free at this time."
"Affirmative Beacon," Yang replied, "We'll get right on it."
"All right," She radioed to her team, "Captain wants us to find out how these guys fought so we can do a better job. We've got seven turrets and three hours; let's get to work."
Weiss led her small team of technicians and marines onto the dreadnought's bridge; it was larger than the Beacon's bridge but not a massive space. It seemed too small to be the nerve centre for such a large ship. It was a circular room centred around an almost throne-like chair. Around it were control stations in rings, positioned to face the same as the central chair. Most strangely of all were the windows; the front of the bridge was made of some transparent material that, besides being covered in dust, allowed an easy view of everything in front of the ship.
"Ok," Weiss said, "Remember, we're looking for an access point to the computers, don't touch anything you don't have to. -" She switched to her channel with Blake- "Beacon, this is Away Team Schnee; we have begun our exploration of the bridge."
"Affirmative Schnee, good hunting," replied Blake.
Weiss started to idly circle the room; she wasn't qualified to help with searching for the access point or decoding what they found; her role was to be there to give orders and take charge. And to carry the UTS, she reached for idly to ensure she still had it.
When she passed the window, something caught her eye. Doubling back, she looked out over the hull of the massive dreadnought. It was an impressive sight, not worth the enormous security risk posed by the bridge position, but amazing. Around some of the weapons banks, she could see little motes moving around; the away teams comprised her crewmates and friends reduced to specs by the scale of the warship they were on. She struggled not to feel somewhat humbled.
"Well, just push it and see what happens," her reverie was interrupted by the sounds of squabbling over the open radio. She turned to see the marine complement assigned to the squad standing around one of her technicians. They were looking at a glowing red button on one of the terminals, the only artificial light Weiss had seen up until now in the ship.
"Is something the matter," said Weiss as she crossed the distance between them. Positioning herself between Velvet and the marine Sergeant, Nebula Violette, she attempted to give them her sourest look, an effect ruined by the helmets and suits that they all wore.
"No, Ma'am," the marine Sergeant said, "just one moment." She reached over and slammed her gloved fist down on the red rectangle. It started flashing. "See," she said, "No problems."
"Marine," Weiss said, her voice so cold it was nearing absolute zero, "what were your orders?"
"Search for an access point to the computer systems, Ma'am," Violette said.
"And?"
"Not to touch anything I don't have to, Ma'am," she said, resigned.
"Exactly."
"All teams be advised," Blake's voice cut through any reply that the marines might have had, the suit radio locking them out so no one could interrupt her, "Lieutenant Rose reports that power has reactivated in engineering."
As if on command, lights and screens flickered across the bridge as the power returned, terminals started displaying reports and scans. The window shimmered as a protective field identical to the Beacon's shielding generated over it. Most concerningly, a hologram popped up directly in front of the window, cycling through alien characters once a second.
Weiss held the UTS up to it: "Time until jump-warp-transition: Sixty-Eight seconds."
Weiss's blood ran cold. "This is Schnee to all teams," she radioed on an open frequency, "If you're outside, find an airlock now. You have a minute to get inside. The dreadnought is preparing to jump."
Blake's voice cut across the medley of curses and cries again, "Schnee, repeat?"
"In fifty-three seconds, the dreadnought will jump, destination unknown. The jump drive activated automatically upon power being restored to it."
"Understood. Wait one," Blake said, and the link went dead.
Ruby heard Weiss's broadcast and felt her heart seize. When a ship jumped, it produced a significant amount of gravitational turbulence within a pocket around it as a by-product of the engine activating. While nominal compared to the forces the ship was supposed to survive, a human who happened to be on a ship's hull when it jumped like Yang was now would be torn to shreds by the force.
"We need to go," Penny's voice interrupted her worrying. She was correct; being next to an activating jump drive was almost as unsafe as being on the hull.
"Come on," she stood, abandoning her tools, and started to run towards the entrance, Penny right behind her.
"The door!" Penny called; her voice picked up by the microphone was almost painfully loud in Ruby's ear. She was right to be afraid, though, Ruby thought. The only door into the engineering department was closing slowly.
Penny picked up her speed, getting to the doorway. She stopped in it, bracing her back against the frame and putting her arms out against the closing door. She pushed back, her strained breaths coming in over the radio, and the door stopped moving.
"Penny!" Ruby stopped.
"Go!" She shouted, voice taut with effort.
Ruby dove between the door and the girl and squeezed into the corridor behind them. Penny attempted to move, throwing herself to the side. She almost got free, almost. Her leg was caught between the door, which surged far faster forward, now free of the blockage, and the frame. For an agonising four seconds, it remained in place, four seconds longer than should have been possible. Then the door closed with an awful crunch and the sound of rending metal.
Lieutenant Xiao Long and her team scrambled for the airlock. The unfortunate thing about wearing magnetic boots was that moving with them was slow, no matter how urgently you moved.
Clunk, her boot locked on the plate. Thunk, the other unlocked again, and she threw it forward. Clunk, it locked into place. Every desperate step brought her closer to the airlock. Her team, who were in front of her, were fairing no better.
"T-minus-thirty seconds," Weiss radioed. She kept going. Twenty seconds, she was closer; she could make it. Fifteen seconds; almost there. Ten; Could she make it? Five; She was too far; there wouldn't be enough time.
Gathering all her strength, she prepared for one last stupid idea. Remnant doctrine was to never disengage both magnetic boots when on a spacewalk because of the risk of floating into space and never being found again. However, Yang had neither the time to run nor float into the void; she would be in the airlock or dead in five seconds. If you asked her afterwards, she'd tell you that was what she was thinking.
She flung herself forward, floating almost gracefully towards the airlock. Five seconds, four, three, two … she was through. One of the others slammed the airlock door closed behind her. Yang took a deep breath as, with the usual unpleasant sound, the dreadnought jumped.
"Lieutenant Rose, Lieutenant Xiao Long, you should come to the bridge." Weiss's voice interrupted her before she could even begin to calm down.