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“Captain,” Pirra said, saluting.  “Might I have a word?”

Most of the room had emptied, but Brooks saw Kai glance over.  She did not indicate anything on her face, and Brooks looked back to Pirra.

“Go ahead,” he said.

“Captain, I know that the story of the Star Hunter is viewed largely as legend,” she began.  “But I advise that you take the story seriously.”

Brooks was rather caught off-guard by Pirra’s words.  He knew that Dessei placed great emphasis on the Star Hunter legends, even teaching sweeping details of that war in their voidfleet academies.

But many of the stories they told were . . . fantastical to say the least.

“Which aspects do you mean specifically?” Brooks asked.

Pirra seemed to squirm slightly.

“I mean the elements that seem to defy physics and neo-physics, Captain.”

“Such as?”

Brooks was not so much trying to make his Lt. Commander uncomfortable, as to understand just what she was trying to tell him.

Her discomfort grew to a head, but she stopped fidgeting and met his eyes, speaking strongly.  “Such as the techniques he used in battles such as at Lahhua and Ghonno,” she said.  “Moving his fleet in ways that have been deemed . . . impossible.  Disappearing and reappearing.  The way his ship avoided all conventional attacks and his weapons were able to bypass normal defenses and strike vulnerable points even inside ships.”

Brooks was unsure what to say to that.

He had wondered if these were the sorts of things she had meant.  The stories were often told by spacers, embellished and enhanced over the thousands of years since the actual event.

They were not things that he took seriously.  Spacers also told stories of starmaids and black holes that somehow caused men to want to fly into them to be wrecked in their accretion disks.

“I cannot say I place much stock in those legends,” he told her.  “But I appreciate your candor, Lt. Commander.  However, I do not want you to overly-concern yourself with ancient stories.  We’ve encountered Leviathans and other forms of tenkionic matter that show strange properties we don’t fully understand.  In no case were they able to do the things that are attributed to the Star Hunter.”

“Sir,” Pirra insisted.  “This isn’t just about the Star Hunter’s relic technology potentially being tenkionic.  This is about real tactical scenarios we may face if these new pirates truly have their hands on a piece of relic technology!”

“Yes, I understand that,” Brooks said, his voice turning a little chilly.  “Notably, this is outside of your field of expertise, Lt. Commander.  Let me worry about ship actions, while you worry about preparing for a potential boarding action.”

In her large, alien eyes it was easy to see the defiance – even moreso in her crest that made it clear she was ready to argue this even harder.  But the warning look in his own eye made her quiet herself.

“Yes, sir,” she said neutrally.

Brooks nodded his chin for her to go, and she turned on her heel.

He felt as Apollonia moved closer.  Her presence was always noticeable when he paid attention, the strange aura that was almost but not quite discomforting.

“She seems real spooked,” Apollonia noted.

“Her people take the legend of the Star Hunter very seriously,” Brooks said.  “To them, it’s history, not just a story.”

“Yeah, like . . . literally.  I’ve seen a lot of pulp shit that has him in it, and from what I’ve learned he had so many lovers that I don’t know how he even had time to pirate anything,” Apollonia said.

“Don’t mock it,” Brooks chided.  “I had to draw a line, but Pirra is a valuable part of the crew.”

Apollonia seemed surprised by the rebuke.  “All right,” she said, her voice now as unhappily neutral as Pirra’s had been.  “But may I ask you some questions about something else that’s not a part of my assignment?”

“Go ahead,” Brooks said, gathering up a few things from a desk.  “And walk with me.”

She followed him towards the door.

“I’m just wondering why we’re going after these pirates.  I mean . . . the Craton is kind of a big deal, isn’t it?  We’re the only ship in our class-“

“There are other cratonic vessels,” Brooks corrected her.  “The Craton was only the first of them in the Union.  We have two sister ships and there are ten total cratonic vessels across the entire Sapient Union.”

“Still, ten?  Out of millions of ships capable of chasing pirates?  Surely we have more important things to do . . .”

“We’re protecting Union citizens,” Brooks replied.

“Yeah, and I’m not saying that’s not important.  But I’m just surprised it’s considered important enough to send us.”

“There’s a bit more to it than just hunting pirates,” Brooks admitted.  “Are you aware of the moratorium on colonization?”

Apollonia was not actually sure what moratorium meant.  “Remind me,” she said.

“Ever since Terris,” Brooks explained, and Apollonia wondered if he did not realize her ignorance, “the Union has stopped all colonization of new systems.  It’s not simply a cooling of policy, but officially we do not allow it.  One of the effects of this has been that colonies that had just been founded tend to feel rather exposed.  After all, they expected to soon be parts of a bustling area of space with many other colonized systems that would be growing together economically and in population.  With all the limitations, supply runs are likewise restricted to a degree, which makes their conditions even harder.”

“So . . .” Apollonia ventured, “This is about making them feel better?”

“More like acknowledged at all,” Brooks replied.  “Many have lodged complaints that they feel practically abandoned.  I can’t agree with that assessment-“

“Can’t like you’re not allowed to by higher-ups?” Apollonia asked.

Brooks laughed.  “No, I mean they are still being supplied and evacuation has always been on the table for them.  But they certainly have had their plans destroyed by these changes, and they’re not happy about it.  Sending the Craton shows that command is taking their safety very seriously.

“Beyond that, the possibility – however slight – that these pirates do have relic technology compels a strong reaction from us.  The Dessei and Sepht take these possibilities very seriously, and we are duty-bound to treat it with equal gravity.”

Apollonia thought about it.  “And what if they do have relic technology, and they really can do the crazy things that Pirra was worried about?  We’re a city as well as a ship,” she asked.

Brooks frowned.  “We all join this ship knowing her duties,” he told her.

Apollonia considered that seriously, her stomach squirming.

She didn’t like the feeling she had about all of this.

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