Relative Timeline: Ta6Lo61100
Area: Sector E, Utela galaxy
Location: Urus system
Control: Republic of Urus
Affiliation: Universal Administration [UA]
The ship materialized at a good distance from the planets of a small system located towards the center of the galaxy. If, in theory, the most recent “Walker” engines were capable of maintaining correct coordinates despite the gravity influences of celestial bodies, administrative regulations strictly prohibited this type of teleportation in a security zone.
Sava Domeria looked at the screens synthesizing the data that the Z.I.A. had gathered. Apparently, the hive named Ikomoro was a gigantic spaceship and not a hive located on a planet. It had been spotted attacking nearby systems belonging to the Republic of Urus, so Sava had decided to go to their capital. The precise information was censored by the Institution of War and she would have to go in person to the command center of the Urus army in order to obtain information on the enemy’s location…
“It's quite ridiculous actually: I have to physically go there to prove that I am myself and not an infiltrated enemy... all this to obtain information on the enemy, therefore things that they already know...”
But hey, the Administration couldn’t be perfect. It was already doing an excellent job managing the billions and infinity of galaxies it administered, so why complain about a little procedural length?
She left her command seat and headed to her living room to see if the little Zcarbb wasn’t doing too much mischief. The cameras showed her busy with the screen of the food synthesizer… again… Could a Zcarbb die stupidly by gorging on food? After all, in her hive this kind of detail could be avoided by the surveillance of others…
Slightly worried, Sava quickened her pace and entered the room.
The princess was no longer there. The panels making up the wall, behind the synthesizer, had been dismantled, leaving a gaping hole.
“Pioutrerie and pioutrerie!”
She didn’t like to be crude, but this time it was justified. Full of apprehension, Sava lowered herself and crawled into the narrow hole. Cables and pipes formed a strange landscape, a new world hidden between the rooms. Many of these accessories were fake or inoperative, in order to complicate the task for a potential saboteur or to allow an easier installation of new modules. The little Zcarbb seemed to have carefully dismantled fake pipes and torn out a few cables to dig a path…
Quickly, the agent emerged into a room that she recognized only too well: the chamber of the Stabilizium core, the essential element of the ship. Without it, the autonomy and power of the machine would be radically limited, not to mention that it would be impossible to jump between systems, even with the old models of jump thrusters…
The room was circular, its walls formed of a jumble of cables and pipes, its center consisting of a large pillar in the middle of which shone, protected by indestructible glass, two grains of Stabilizium of good size and of a fairly good purity.
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A small figure looked away from the small radiant grains and jumped as Sava straightened up. The Zcarbb princess, strangely, was not very confident. Her gaze was shifty and she had a slightly forced smile, as if she knew perfectly well that she had no right to be here. Before the Ham could even speak, the little one took the lead:
“S...s... sorry...I know it's dangerous and that I shouldn't be here, but I wanted to see some stabilizium...Mother never lets me see the one we recover from captured ships...but it seemed that it was very beautiful...”
Sava's thoughts were swirling and she didn't know how to react. The heart of Stabilizium was the most precious and protected place on the ship. Hers had stabilizium crystals that alone were worth more than all the rest of her possessions and her wages for the next few years. How had this little pest forced the defenses? Worse still: what could she have learned by observing such a sophisticated system? The Zcarbbs didn’t have mastery of Stabilizium, and that was one of the few advantages the Administration had over them. Of course, they had captured a large number of ships with more or less efficient cores and sometimes used them on their own ships, but they did not know how to extract Stabilizium or reproduce the cores…
“Co… Come back immediately. You have no right to be here!”
“Sorry… But it doesn’t look that dangerous. There should be no problem as long as I don’t touch the parameters of this machine, doesn’t it? With pieces this beautiful, you should be able to blow up planets or design time slowers, I suppose, so I know it’s dangerous, but just watching doesn’t hurt, right?”
Sava Domeria swallowed: how could this little girl know these things? And things the Zcarbbs weren't supposed to know either:
“What do you mean by time slowers?”
“Well, the new weapons to slow down enemies. I hear you're way ahead of the curve in their development in the Administration, but our scientists are also making good progress.”
“And you're telling me that like that? You're telling me your species is developing temporal weapons?”
“Well, yes? You didn't know? Your spies discovered that a long time ago. Maybe you don't study well in class?”
The Zcarbb gave a little mischievous smile, convinced that she had found a way to make her mistake disappear by pointing out that of her temporary guardian. She probably didn't know that agents didn't have “classes” to receive top-secret information, and that this one was probably categorized alpha+, that is, out of her access.
If the Zcarbbs developed the same weapons, the face of war might become even more hideous and uncertain… But what could she do? She might as well not think about it for the moment.
Sava scolded the little girl to hurry back through the tunnel, then followed her to the living room. There, she ordered the robots to repair the damage and turned back to the princess, looking stern. Her annoyance was partially dispelled by the sight of the little girl fidgeting with embarrassment. Oddly enough, despite the arrogant demands she had previously shown, she seemed to feel shame for… for what exactly? For putting herself in danger, perhaps, more than for entering a forbidden area? No need to explain to her that there was no danger whatsoever as long as she was unable to open the secure access to the central pillar.
“How did you manage to get past security?”
Ilenayana shifted from one foot to the other.
“Well, I used the food synthesizer. I saw that it had a connection to the other devices… I used it to modify the raw data of the AI and to access the access parameters… Of course, it was well secured, so all I could do was modify the recognition of the areas accessible to the “visitors”. Then, I created a configuration of the synthesizer to build tools, then I printed a plan of the ship on a celery leaf and hacked the camera system to freeze the images. I only had to dismantle the maintenance panel of the synthesizer and dig a path to the core…”
Speechless, with big eyes and without any particular expression, Domeria fixed her gaze on the little Zcarbb, more and more proud as she explained. The agent, she, oscillated between being astounded and discouraged. The Zcarbbs were renowned for their computer and electronic skills… but she didn’t think it was even possible to be so gifted… Were there such flaws in her ship’s security? An external attack wouldn’t have succeeded, even if the little girl had powerful attack software… But doing all that from a food synthesizer…
“Do you see? I did well, didn’t I?”
Yes, now all shame was gone and the princess seemed to be fishing for compliments… No way she was leaving her here when she will be going to the planet, or she wasn’t sure she’d find her ship when she returned…