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Zach had just arrived back on the Craton from dropping off Ian and Apollonia, and now it was time.
Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he stepped onto the bridge.
This was not the first time he’d been in command – many times for Brooks alone had he functioned in the role temporarily.
He’d even been a captain for a few years, of his own ship. Granted, he’d not been given the rank of Captain, as the ship was merely a small patrol frigate, the Diamond Fog.
This time . . . it felt different. Ominous.
He had a sense of foreboding that he could not entirely chalk up to easy sources. The claims made by Director Freeman, that Brooks had failed in his duty, seemed impossible to uphold.
Then why was he so concerned?
Kell was also gone. He’d gotten so used to the Shoggoth’s presence that he’d forgotten just how much tension its presence created.
He couldn’t say he missed the Ambassador, despite him feeling he had something of an understanding with the being, he did not like it being around.
But even that potential explanation for his concern was gone. So was it just his nerves?
Walking onto the bridge, attempting his own version of Brooks’s steady and paced gait that displayed no nervousness, he moved to the middle of the top disc and peered around.
“Status report,” he queried.
He heard a chorus of ‘ayes’, and updates immediately flooded his system. His internal systems scanned each for major issues, and finding none, he then took a moment to personally peruse the overall report.
As they were at port, there was very little to do that the department heads were not already handling. He saw reports by each of them, their assistant AIs compiling real-time reports on the fly.
The preparations for the recall election were nearly complete, only awaiting word if they’d be needed. Zeela Cann was remarkably efficient, all too often overlooked in that role, he thought. She’d organized several events as well, that focused on the Craton as a community, a feast in congratulations for their recent accomplishments in aiding New Vitriol and MS-29, and a commemoration day for the ships first Captain, Kure Kei.
Kure had been well-respected, and had also greatly endorsed Brooks’s appointment as new Captain.
Urle wondered if Cann had picked the event just for that fact, and perhaps to bring attention to the fact that Brooks had not actually left, thus there was no need to note his departure.
At least he hoped as much.
He spent time on the bridge, continuing through the reports. Dr. Y had only a few standard appointments to go through, he’d already prepared all paperwork for their recent emigres. Jaya was running a security drill that was going well. Sulp was ahead of schedule on getting everything they’d pulled out for the emigres re-stored, and soon they’d be taking on new provisions.
After sorting through all of it, he took up the file for the biggest event that was to happen under his command; the arrival of the Star Angel.
That something so important could have slipped from his mind . . .
It should have outshined all other events for them, had this nonsense with the Captain not come up.
Just six years ago contact had first been made with the strange lifeforms from a binary star system at the edge of known space. The smaller of the two stars, a white dwarf, leeched matter from its larger neighbor, with great volumes of plasma and ionized matter swirling about. The volatility had made it a poor candidate for colonization, and little notice had been taken of it.
Until the radio signals were detected.
Investigations by SU first-contacters had discovered a lifeform long-speculated, but never before encountered;
Plasma life.
To be fair, they were not fully plasma; inside of their internal fields existed simple molecules that interacted under the magnetic fields of their body to form DNA-like information storage.
Communications issues were monstrous, making learning more about them a very slow process. Their ‘language’ was the easiest part, simply a modulating radio signal that they could produce naturally, and our technology could easily replicate.
From what they had learned, their mere existence and mode of life seemed to defy the very definitions of lifeform. The ‘Star Angels’, as they had been dubbed, did not procreate as life normally seemed to do, though sometimes they seemed to exchange genetic information.
The differences were so stark that even explaining many concepts that seemed otherwise universal among intelligent species could hardly be described to them.
Yet the Star Angels had been endlessly curious, and did not even seem to understand the concept of violence.
While the radiation-scoured vacuum around their stars was deadly to nearly all forms of life, such places of intense heat and energy were the only places they could exist. For all of their history they had been trapped in their system, and could never even hope to leave.
Technology alone seemed to offer them hope. Though conditions varied in many ways, an active fusion reactor created conditions that could not only support their form of life, but they seemed to actively enjoy.
It helped, too, that they were capable of surviving for a few hours in the absence of strong plasma and magnetic fields, enabling their transport to be quite safe.
Their keen interest in seeing the rest of the universe, rapid willingness to join the Sapient Union, and the fact that none of their behaviours – besides being incredibly alien – were in any way objectionable to other members of the SU, had caused events to move quickly. And now, they would be taking a Star Angel on board.
The Craton would not be the first ship to host a Star Angel, but it was far from common.
And it would arrive tomorrow.
“Has Engineering prepared reactor seven for the Star Angel’s arrival?” he asked.
The answer from Cutter came immediately. “Preparations were completed seventeen cycles ago. Efficiency of fusion reactor reduced by only 2.4%, and I predict future tweaks after arrival should enable recovery of lost efficiency within ~0.2% margin of error.”
So it seemed that part was ready. He checked his itinerary and saw that the timeline for his involvement had already been marked and prepared.
He had been very much looking forward to meeting the being, but right now other concerns were souring his excitement.
But he needed to learn all he could.
Taking a deep breath, he watched his O2 meters spike briefly, and let his mind calm. Turning up the relative rate of operations in his cybernetics, he prepared to think all of this through.
He was not going to take chances, he was going to put in the hard work to get this right, no matter what his personal feelings were, or where his mind wanted to go.
Other Terrestrial 