Despite Eleya’s declaration that they should proceed with the meeting, there was an awkward silence that lingered for some time. The Royal Guard that had quite abruptly had his career ended got back up and slunk out of the room, another wavering form taking his place behind the Empress. Colonel Lhenan straightened his tunic and stepped back up to the table, clearing the holodisplay and fishing a data cartridge from some unseen pocket and loading it into the control panel built into the table.
Sergeant Zenshen moved up, taking the seat next to Alex. She elbowed his arm and leaned in, speaking in a low, harsh voice that was just loud enough for him to hear. "Aye yo, what the fuck was that?"
Alex looked over his shoulder at her, only a little surprised to see that they were both roughly the same level of freaked out about what had just transpired. He shifted in his seat and leaned over, lowering his voice as well. "I don’t know, I guess they just had to talk it out? It’s been building for a while. I think."
This was not a particularly relaxing explanation, apparently. "That was not talking things out."
"I mean, no. Not at all, but that's pretty much how it goes when they talk, in my experience. Which, I admit, this is only the second time I’ve seen them in a room together. First time I was pretty sure she was going to take a swing too, though." He sat up, then returned to their conference after reconsidering. "But without weapons. That was new."
She blanched and slid down in her seat a little bit further. "I had been warned they were not on good terms, but I did not expect to see an assassination attempt. Or watch it get swept under the rug.”
Colonel Lhenan cleared his throat and dimmed the lights, the holographic pad humming to life again. “The information we are going to cover is classified. Please keep this in mind.”
In the darkness, Alex couldn’t see the Colonel but he was fairly sure that Lhenan was just talking to him when he said that. A panel showing an image of the enormous ring materialized in the air at the end of the conference table. It appeared to be facing him exactly, but if it was like Human hologram technology, everyone would see it that way.
“This is the artifact ring, located in local space. Images taken four days ago. As of yet the Humans have not been able to determine if it is the same ring that was encountered in the cluster-globe or a different one. There is no discernable difference between the two. Current theory they are discussing is that, as these are clearly manufactured, that there are at least two and possibly more.” He reached down and tapped the controls, shuffling through images of it. Several up close with Human measurements superimposed - with the measurements in Tsla superimposed over that.
“It was suggested that there is only a single ring currently in play. My counterparts with the Confederation Navy do not like that as it indicates there is someone with the ability to near-instantly traverse at least two thousand light years and set up a stable wormhole wherever they please. I am inclined to agree with them.” He tapped through the last few images. “Though the idea of having an unknown force staging something untraceable like this nearby to their home system was not received any more positively.”
“They attempted to take a sample of the ring material but were unable to.” The slide changed to a video, the camera slowly approaching the faintly curved outer edge. It drew to a stop, the surface textured with the same curlicues as the walkway inside had been. A cutting disk at the end of a machine arm spun up, the camera jittering as it pressed the tool to the ring but there was no other reaction. It appeared to spin freely, not heating or producing any sign of work. “As you can see here, the material appears to be either frictionless or using some sort of shield technology that we cannot detect or damage.”
“Drone or manned craft?” Alex had an actual question, surprising himself a little as he asked.
The Colonel didn’t miss a beat. “A refit mining drone, remotely operated via tether. There were several other drones in the vicinity for observation.” He tapped over to another video, showing a beat up old mining drone applying tools to the ring, zooming in for a very long time before refocusing on a drill bit spinning. Alex couldn’t tell if it was touching the ring, or held a millimeter off from it. If that was a shield, it was incredibly thin and remarkably conformal - and should have been shedding at least a little energy from the tool or entropy.
“Their scans?” Eleya was quiet, remarkably respectful sounding. Alex found that almost as disconcerting as them talking about Humans like he wasn’t there... or like he wasn’t one.
“They also turned up nothing. We had dispatched the Avanara to assist, along with several shuttles, and it would appear that our scanners are not appreciably more advanced in the face of this relic.” Lhenan tapped through several items, mostly complex looking charts with Tsla translations slapped down over them, and a series natively in Tsla that looked just as complex.
Alex would have gotten all of it if he wasn’t waiting on visual translations to get it back into English, each one finishing just as the next slide arrived. Probably Accardi-qBranch or just spectro, based on the layout. Just like the scans he had run back on the Kshlav’o, there appeared to be almost no usable data in them anyway, so he wasn’t exactly clamoring to get a better look at any of them.
“It appears that the ring will open a portal when an unarmed ship comes within seven three point two six two kilometers. As before, it requires that there be both Tsla’o and Humans on board.” Alex double-checked how he was translating measurements and switched it from full precision to rounded tenths. Another still image flipped up, the inside of the landing dome from the apex, a shadow from a ship cast onto the floor below. “The automatic landing mechanism that took hold of the Kshlav’o activated at two kilometers before the test craft passed through the portal. It released controls immediately upon landing.”
Alex spoke up again. "Did the portal close behind them?"
"No sir. It remained open for the length of the initial test." He was quick to reply again, all of this likely in his presentation anyway. “Egress was unimpeded and the relic made no attempt at landing the ship as it departed.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Huh.” He leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. The system in there was at least programmed well enough to recognize a ship leaving, even if they had not been afforded such a luxury when he had tried to move away from the ring just before the scoutship had been forcibly landed. “Lucky.”
“Indeed.” He clicked over to the next image, the archway surrounded by softly glowing symbols. It was frosted over, the hieroglyphs that seemed to indicate weapons were not allowed bright on both sides. “The team did approach the inner portal, carrying a variety of weapons. Whatever controls it seems to be able to discern intent. While it would not allow a combat knife, a kitchen knife appeared to be acceptable. Standard and exotic firearms from both armories also caused it to deny entrance.”
“If you will notice these marks at the base of each side of the arch.” The image changed again, all of the glyphs dark and the portal clear, the hash marks faintly lit. It looked mostly the same on the other side, some of the trees in the distance were turning colors as though it were fall already. “It appears that one mark was removed from each side when Prince and Princess Sorenson passed through it... There were 75 before, with 74 remaining on each side now. As of yet we do not know if that is counting down the number of passages remaining or the total number of people allowed through.”
“Given that we were tagged upon reaching the other side, I would assume that it limits the number that can pass through.” Carbon said as she swiveled her chair to look over at Alex, eyebrow arched.
Alex had forgotten who Prince and Princess Sorenson were - it was so weird they had the same last name as him - and was staring into the screen working that over in his mind when Carbon nudged his foot. “Oh, yeah. Tracking tag. I don’t see why they’d bother with one if it was per trip.”
Lehnan grunted in agreement. “That is the general consensus so far, but until another group goes through it, it is still speculation.”
Alex looked at the Colonel in the dim light of the projector. “Is that going to happen soon?”
“There is another joint reconnaissance meeting planned in twelve days. You in particular, Prince, should be sure to be in contact with the Confederation. I believe the Navy intends to deploy you as an expert on their side.” A little unease crept into his voice as he spoke, the older Tsla’o male shutting off the display and bringing the lights back up.
“Yeah, the Admiral told me as much.” He shrugged, rubbing the back of his head as he wondered for a moment, if all this made him some sort of double agent. Was that part of the plan? For that matter, who’s plan? Eleya or the Admiral? Or both? Did that make him some kind of double-secret-double-agent? A quadruple agent? He didn’t care for these potential layers of complexity in his life. “Suppose I’ll check my Navy email tomorrow. Once I figure out how to get onto the Solanet.”
“That would be wise. The Confederation Navy expressed interest in having Shipmaster Tshalen attached as well, given her experience working with Humans in isolated environments and her engineering background.” The Colonel looked more towards Eleya than Carbon during that statement.
“I think, for the moment, it would be best if Shipmaster Tshalen were to join the expedition.” She turned her attention to Carbon and Alex across the way. “It will be a bit of treachery, yes. If the two of you can tolerate such theater, at least.”
This felt like one of those moments where the two of them were supposed to actually discuss things before Alex just blurted out an answer. Things had changed in his life, whether or not he had intended for them to. So he did, scooting his rolling chair up to Carbon’s until the arm rests bumped together. “Alright, are we going back as a couple or are we doing the secret squirrel thing?”
Carbon laughed softly and shifted closer to him. “I... I think it may be beneficial if we do ‘the secret squirrel thing’ in this instance. I am not looking forward to it, but I am known as just a Lan to the Confederation, and you are a - an analyst? I suspect that if our station were known they would not want us present, both being aligned with the Royal Court.”
“Our intentions wouldn’t change, but since there are two members of Tsla’o royalty, one of which is being brought along by the ONI, the Nav- the Confed Navy would think they’re getting the short end of the stick.” It made sense. All this stuff was supposed to be joint effort and the spy - Yeah, he wasn’t supposed to be a spy, but he was the inside man here - not disclosing significant ties to significant people of the folks he was supposed to be ‘learning about’ was not the best look, even if all he was actually trying to do was be married and live a quasi-normal life.
He was sure he was already lying for the Confederacy anyway. He didn’t trust Argueta that much. Ingratiate yourself, learn about them, tell us. It was simple and... when he thought about it, really let his mind go to town on all of this, it just felt wrong coming from the ONI. The Pilot Program giving him a huge working zone and nebulous instructions, letting him pick and choose where to go, made sense looking at it from the point of view of someone who wanted access to those drives and wanted to at least look earnest in return.
The Office of Naval Intelligence were spies, they traded in knowing things. Why not give him concrete things to find out about? They must have some idea on where the bigger gaps in their understanding are. But no, just... go date your alien, bro. Pinky swear you’re not a spy. We’ll let you know when it’s time to explore that alien artifact.
God did he hate actually thinking about what his life was now. It was just going to be lies stacked on both sides of the scales. Scales that would never balance, so what’s one more lie on the pile?
Why did he want to go back, anyway? There was a mystery there, one they’d scratched the surface of. Untold technology, effectively unlimited space.
Instantaneous foot travel over potentially incredible distances.
Carbon’s desire to return, to unlock those mysteries clicked into place for him. Why send shuttles that get sandblasted into oblivion when you could evacuate cities with a couple of neat, orderly lines? Potential freedom for all those trapped in the ash. A little too deep in his personal problems to have noticed that before, apparently.
Alex trusted the Confederation. Mostly. Enough of the time. They had overwhelmingly upheld their agreements with the Tsla’o so far, at least. The ONI being involved immediately made him uneasy. That portal technology was there, perhaps on offer, or at least potentially able to be borrowed or imitated. He wasn’t a tactics guy, but he could see how powerful that could be and how easily it could be turned into a weapon.
He trusted Carbon to put it to good use. Even believed that Eleya would prioritize her own people.
Admiral Argueta and Commander Gladwell? Perhaps not.
“That is the concern, at this juncture.” Carbon nodded.
“Well, looks like we’ve reached a consensus.” He sat back up and looked back to the Empress. He was just one guy, trying not to let titles or proximity to power get to his head. A Pilot who may be skilled, but had burned through a couple of lifetimes worth of luck already. Maybe it’d be best to stay close, somewhere he could keep his thumb on the scales. “Pilot Sorenson and Lan Tshalen are getting the band back together.”