“Alright, we’re arriving in 3... 2... 1...” The navigator, a Cattlan calls out. It’s a routine, a habit from the older days whenever they leave warp.
A hole appears in the darkness of space, and out comes the Morningstar, a slender custom-made cruiser, and it enters the star system. The Captain, Alarma, also a Cattlan, surveys the view, it’s a single star, with multiple large gas giants, and a smaller cluster of rocky planets in the nearer orbit.
“Activating sensors.”
“No. Wait. The customer told us to meet here. But I don’t want them to know we’re here... yet.” Alarma looks around.
“Second thoughts, captain?” A cat-faced person sits next to Alarma, and he, or perhaps she, looks a bit quizzical.
“Yes, Minka.”
“I see. I’ll get the emergency warp drive ready.”
“Thanks.” Alarma nods, and looks out. “Crew, visual cameras. Let’s see whether we can spot anything before we make ourselves known.”
“Aye.” The bridge has about 20 people, all of them start to activate multiple screens and go through their cameras. It took about half an hour, and the 20 crewmates start to shout out.
“Clear.”
“Nothing? Their cloaked?” They are about three quarters into their visual cameras.
“Captain?” One of the crew asks, and presses a button. It pushes whatever that camera is seeing onto the main screen, a projection onto the bridge’s large glass window.
Alarma looks, his two eyes winces. “What am I seeing?”
The crew presses another button and it magnifies the image, and it shows the skeletal frame of large warship, floating aimlessly in space.
“Identification?”
“Sormudans Carriership AVEQWA.”
Minka sweats. “Emergency warp ready. Shields active.”
Alarma nods, and turns to the crew. “Sormudans? Why?”
Well, the crew couldn’t answer that. A door to the left of the bridge opens, and three creatures take a seat on the bridge.
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“Should we use our sensors? At least the detectors?”
“Detectors only.” The crew starts running the ships detectors, detectors mainly just collect data, without transmitting any signals or waves.
“Some combat residue detected in space. All Sormudan armanents.”
“All?” Minka’s turn to ask. "No Keefren?"
“...yes Vice Captain. All Sormudan.”
One of the three creatures, a wolf-headed man looks at the captain. “Well, I've seen enough to tell that this won;t be good. I think our meeting is cancelled.”
The Captain nods. “I’m afraid so, chancellor. I suggest we best leave before whoever hijacked our secret meetup finds us.”
“Ah it can’t be helped then. Keefren's Peace remains ever so elusive.” The wolf-headed chancellor sighs, it sounds a bit like a sad howl.
Minka shakes his head. “Does not explain why is there a Sormudan carrier here. How’d the Sormudans know? And who destroyed it?”
The chancellor shakes his head. “Let’s not speculate. The Sormudans are friends, perhaps they too, want to see an end to this long war.”
Alarma looks around. “Any other visuals detected?”
The screen changes, and it focuses now on a green gas giant. It zooms in on the surface, and then they saw a large circular... object leaving the gas giant’s atmosphere. It’s black, and it’s surface metallic, and it’s massive, about half the size of the gas giant. As it leaves, the gas giant starts to collapse onto itself.
“What’s that?”
“Whatever destroyed the Sormudans.” Alarma muses. “Minka, I’m counting on you to warp us out once I give the signal.”
Minka nods, and he moves his equipment right next to the navigator. The equipments join together. Another crew member also moves his equipment next to Minka, but his equipment looks more to be weapon systems, than navigational and warp items.
“Alright, activate the sensors and focus on that. I want to know what the hell that thing is.”
“Activating Dios sensors.” The crew shout out in unison, and the sensor readings start to come in.
“We’re detecting multiple weapon types on the surface... Sormudan weapons, Cattlian, Keefren, Octus and multiple unidentified weaponry.”
“Octus?”
“Has it picked up on us?”
“Not yet-”
Minka turns to the captain. “Permission to start warp.”
Alarma looks at Minka. He sighs and the nods, “Very well. Save all data we have and let’s get ourselves out of here.”
Minka taps a set of buttons, and a warp-portal surrounds the ship, creating a hole in the darkness... again. The hole is tiny, and it'll take a while to open up.
At that very moment, the entire ship experienced a massive pull, as if somebody lassoed a massive rope around the ship and then tugged.
“What-”
“Thrusters! Stay within the warp zone.” The Morningstar’s massive multidirectional ion thrusters fire up, counteracting the tug.
The hole opens. But not big enough, yet.
The ship shakes violently, as it tries to fight off the tugging sensation. Alarma and all the crew immediately latched onto their seats. “Hold!” The thrusters are at max power.
The hole’s finally big enough. And Minka pushes the ship through the moment it does.
-Warp!-
“What was that?” Now that the ship is safely in the warp, the chancellor looks at Alarma and asks. “I expected Keefren warships, but not... that thing.”
Alarma shrugs. “I've got no answer for your Chancellor. We’re still processing the sensor readings. We'll let you know once we get the reading processed by the AI. I suggest you get some rest, it'll take some time for us to digest what we just saw.”
The chancellor nods, “Ah well, I’ll return to my chambers.”
“Will let you know once we arrive back home, chancellor.” The wolf-man and his two guards leave the bridge, and Minka leans back.
“Phew.” Minka let out a long breath of relief, something all the other crew also shared.
“Good call, Minka. Your instincts were spiking again?”
Minka nods, he gently touches his whiskers.
“Ah, well. Looks like the Chancellor's dream of a Keefren’s Peace still a long way to go.”
Minka shakes his head. “Captain, no. I think we’ll see that peace very soon.”
Alarma pauses, then he looks at a screen with the artificial planet. Various datasets are now coming in after the AI is finished with processing and consolidating the readings.
“Keefren’s War doesn’t look so bad, now.”