“We are so glad to have you aboard,” the Hev Ambassador said to Pirra.
Pirra was shocked at how good his skill at her language was – almost like a native speaker.
She trilled back. “Ambassador, we’re glad to be able to help. Will the Captain be all right with our tech crew taking a look at your systems?”
The Ambassador spoke briefly with the Captain. He was slightly disgruntled; he had quickly realized that the Response Team’s translators were picking up his words, but he still could not understand them.
“He agrees. He asks specifically if someone can look at his translation unit.”
“Absolutely,” Pirra promised.
The rest of the team had caught up, several man-handling generators in the zero-g to try and get at least some systems functioning. While Caraval had set up a basic base in the hangar they’d arrived at, to get much access to the Hev systems they’d have to go deeper. No system was going to grant full acess in the same area that anyone could potentially land at.
“Tred, get working on that engine system,” Caraval ordered. “Get things up and running ASAP.”
The man nodded nervously and plugged in, while the commander came over to Pirra and the two Hev.
“Lt. Commander, this is Ambassador N’Keeea,” she said, gesturing. “And Captain K’Raaiia.”
“Ambassador, Captain.” The man stuck out a hand to both in turn.
It was a very odd gesture to a Hev, bordering on insulting, and the Captain glared at him, while the Ambassador took his hand and shook it lightly.
“We’re going to – with your permission – try to get your systems running again as best we can. The Leviathan is currently being led away from this area by our mother ship, but we can’t know how long or how far they can draw it.”
The Ambassador seemed to know at least some human languages as well, at least Spacer, and he quickly translated for the Captain.
“He does wish for the system to be operating and quickly. In the meantime, he . . . he hopes you can help with another delicate situation,” the Ambassador returned.
“We’re happy to take a look and see if we can help,” Pirra answered, hoping it was something that actually fell into their purview.
“Pirra, go with them, I’m going to get everything rolling here,” the Commander ordered.
The Captain led her and the Ambassador deeper into the ship. She wondered just how far; it was a massive vessel, one big enough to justify having an internal rail system.
They passed through a crew quarters area, but she saw only a few members of the crew; they seemed cold to both her and the Captain, though none questioned her presence.
After passing through a makeshift engineering shop, they came to an emergency door, one that had been sealed shut.
It contained a thick clear viewing port, and the Captain gestured to it.
“This area is contained for now, but we do not know for how long,” he said.
Pirra wondered if her translator had missed a word, but she drifted forward to look through.
At first it just seemed like some sort of converted cargo area. She saw containers and tech modules bolted to the floors and bulkheads.
“Did it get vented to space?” she asked.
The answer did not come. She looked back, to see the Captain staring at the Ambassador. He didn’t want to talk and give away something, and the Ambassador seemed to be pointedly ignoring his stare.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her eyes darting between them. “I can’t help if you don’t tell me. Look, if it’s some cargo that’s not legal then I can promise some discretion, but-“
“It’s not that,” the Ambassador said quickly. He finally looked at the Captain, but K’Raaiia seemed to be unwilling to budge on whatever the issue was.
Pirra turned to look back through the window. She saw movement, and tried to get a better angle, but her night vision was not that good.
It was a Hev, she was sure. He was walking, and didn’t seem in distress. While he wore a spacer’s suit, he didn’t have any helmet on, so the area had to be pressurized.
He turned, somehow sensing her gaze. He looked directly at her.
And she realized that half of his face was not there.
Where it was, the nature of his injury, she did not know. It was no longer like a Hev, but its head was grotesquely shaped on that side, and there was no edge. It simply faded into the air, or the ether, she could not know.
Letting out a startled shriek, she pushed back from the port and drifted, staring at the Captain.
“Did your vessel come too close to the Leviathan?” she demanded.
There was a hesitation, and she snapped her next words sharply. “If you do not tell us the extent of the harm, we cannot help – and we will be forced to leave.”
The Captain demanded a translation from the Ambassador, and once that had been given, he snarled back at her. “You’re not leaving until we have power!”
“Captain!” the Ambassador said quickly. “She has already seen and figured out the issue! There is no point to threats or lies at this point.”
The Captain looked almost ashamed, but Pirra felt her blood rising at his threat.
Fighting back the urge to rip into him – verbally, at least – she looked to the Ambassador. “Tell me.”
“My apologies,” he said, his voice truly humble and contrite. “For very good reasons, we have been keeping the extent of the damage from the crew. You asked if we had come close to the Leviathan – yes. We did not simply come close, we believe that this section of the ship may have actually touched it in zerospace.”
“That’s not possible!” she burst out. “Even getting within a few thousand kilometers of a Leviathan is enough to take any ship apart!”
“Except this one was asleep,” the Ambassador replied quietly. “We believe . . . we believe that in its state of deep hibernation, its Reality Break Shadow was limited solely to its . . . for lack of a better word, physical structure. And we struck it.”
“That’s what awoke it,” she realized.
“Yes. This is all our fault,” he admitted. “We could not have known, but we have awoken something terrible.”
He looked to the door. “Touching it has affected our ship, and now all the good Hev in that section are trapped. It is too late to help them, I think. But the ship itself is changing – and that change is spreading. This is the third corridor we’ve had to close as the infection spreads.”
Other Terrestrial 