The screen’s readings were mostly the same as yesterday’s. Her translator told her that the partial recovery was happening according to schedule. She didn’t like the sound of “partial” recovery, but had been unable to discover what that meant exactly. Her translator had great difficulty with this alien language, as did she. The language in which the computer had been programmed was unlike anything she had ever encountered in her many interstellar travels. It had none of the usual patterns or structures that you’d expect to find in a language. It was almost as if it wasn’t created by or for humans. Some weird auto-generated computer language aimed at efficient data transfer between machines perhaps?
No matter how hard she tried, it kept evading her grasp, and try she did! There was no shortage of long, lonely, idle hours now that they were securely within a long distance jump and Voss was stuck inside his artificial coma inside the ship’s stasis chamber. Yet, no matter how hard she tried, much of the language eluded her. She had no clue how Voss ever managed to master it in such short notice. She couldn’t help but feel like there was some crucial element that she was missing. Some key to the puzzle that she was unable to decipher.
Learning the alien language was far from her biggest problem though. If anything, it was no more than a welcome distraction from the real issues facing them. The Eastern forces had sent a hunter escadron after them. With each exit from a Lewen jump, they either immediately, or soon found themselves surrounded by hunter ships. If it hadn’t been for their invisibility cloak and the endless expanse of the void, they would have long been shot to bits. Fortunately to them, Lewen jumps were such an exact science, that even the most miniscule difference in direction or timing could lead to a distance that read into the millions of kilometers. The hunters were professional and worked well together, but still, so far none of them ever managed to get within a one million kilometer radius.
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They didn’t have to though. Void hunting was an endurance based endeavour. Hunters would stalk their prey until it either ran out of fuel or supplies. That or they’d follow their prey until it led them back to whatever home planet it had originated from.
They had been on their tail for well over a month now with no signs of giving up or losing track of their prey. She sighed. It was impossible for them to return to Fosfat like this. They couldn’t risk the hunters finding out hence they had come. If they did, they’d find war come to their door long before they were ready for it. Besides, right now they had the strategic advantage of knowing where their future enemies came from, it would be a massive blunder to return that favor…
And then there were the issues with Voss. What state would he be in when he awoke? If he ever awoke. What would he remember? Would he remember everything that had happened? Including her kiss? She felt stupid just thinking back at it. She had promised her father not to to fall for Voss’ charms. Even more importantly, she had promised herself. Perhaps she’d be lucky and he wouldn’t remember any of it. He had been near dead when she kissed him after all. Maybe it would all be forgotten and things could return back to normal. She grimaced. With her luck, that would be unlikely.
A beeping sound awoke her from her thoughts. The stasis chamber’s control panel was stirring to life. She looked at the stasis chamber. Could it be? Was it just her imagination or did he just move? Could it be that he was finally waking up? In what state would he be if he did?