The system didn't have a name on human star-charts; but it was a simple, binary system with six planets, ridiculously thick asteroid belt that was once a pair of gas giants which had torn each other apart... and a small outpost there to maintain a terraformed world, whose sole purpose was tribute to the Emperor. Captain Moreau studied the display as they entered the system.

While Avris station and the system itself had been vastly busier than Sol, this one... seemed mostly dead. A single station in orbit of the planet with a handful of ships.. all the same long, thin design with the tiny spokes of shield generators down their length; another, smaller, mining station on the outer edge of the asteroid belt... but the whole system seemed mostly abandoned. The mining station wasn't even active; there were no life signs, and likely only enough power to keep it in its orbit in case some debris struck it.

As the Jeanne passed through the Security threshold, they could still see the three local ships docked at the nearby station; but their sensors warned them something had already left. After a few minutes, a vivid flash... and the long, needle-shaped craft appeared in a flash of distorted space just a light-minute from the Jeanne; easily within missile range, but outside direct-fire range of anything like a projectile or beam weapon.

Moments later, the incoming signal registered. RC glanced at Moreau. "This one is a bit different. Sonar imaging. It'll be black and white, and their audio will be meaningless for us."

Moreau nodded. "Respond in kind. Give a sonar image of me and the chair."

Moments later... an image appeared. A long, thin shell, with a cluster of tentacles and a single eye at one end, studying Moreau. ~You have entered Leesh space. This is a tribute system, not quite ready for consumption. What purpose do you have here?~

Moreau smiled, nodding at the strange-looking thing. Like... a squid stuck in a cone-snail's shell. Surely he looked just as odd. Notably, the creature hadn't threatened. It likely had already determined it was outclassed. "Mostly, we would like to observe the terraforming process up-close. Our own species is currently beginning its own very first terraforming operations, and we have much to learn. If you have any FTL-capable ships you'd be willing to sell, we would be interested as well; we can pay in either Imperial credits, or in Neutronium ingots."

The creature studied Moreau; the single massive eye slowly moving along his form. Clearly, it had poor eyesight, but still 'looked' at whatever it was focusing on. ~So long as one of our vessels accompanies you, you may investigate the world. The sapients who will be sacrificed have yet to be seeded, so interference is meaningless at this stage. While the mining vessel that operates in this system is not currently in use, and could be sold, we would need to order a replacement from our homeworld before the beginning of the next terraforming cycle; it would need to be a minimum of [153 tons] of neutronium for the purchase due to the inconvenience.~

The captain glanced at RC. She shrugged. "Thats at least four or five times the value of that ship. Probably more; and its likely an old ship that would be replaced at some point anyway. If you offer fifty, they'd probably take it; you could buy a brand new one for that in a bigger system, from what I see."

Moreau nodded, and turned back to the creature. "Obviously, that's far more than the value of the ship. But, if you assist us in preparing it for oxygen-breathing life, and it meets my engineer's standards so I'm sure it will make it home, I'll offer one hundred tons."

The creature bobbed slowly back and forth; and its tentacles retracted into the shell, leaving only the eye visible. Subtitles beneath the display popped up. [The Leesh is demonstrating body-language interpreted as extreme excitement] ~This is an acceptable offer. Meet at the primary station hub, and the exchange will be made. We will begin preparing it now.~

RC studied the screen, as the Leesh disappeared. "Well. He was happy about that, clearly. I suspect that the leaders here think they'll be able to pocket whatever they don't spend on the new ship."

"Good enough. What sort of detail do you have on their ships?"

"Basic titanium-alloy hulls. Fairly sturdy redundant, three-layered shields; the mining ship looks old, but actually has six seperate shield layers to protect it from strikes; the mining ship only has lasers and mass drivers, but the warships have... over one hundred and twenty missile tubes each. If the specs I've got are accurate, they can spit out a thousand missiles each in less than three seconds, though not particularly dangerous ones, and if it comes to a fight, they'll launch an initial wave of hundreds of thousands... just from these three warships... and keep firing more as they try to retreat."

A simulation appeared; of missiles launching from the needle-like hulls in every direction, before twisting and redirecting to the front, approaching a target from all sides. "They can empty all of their magazines in under thirty seconds. The namesake of this ship would have been annihilated by such an attack, though it would have taken them out at the same time. This version... they might as well spit on us. Every missile could strike the same part of the hull in rapid succession without causing serious harm."

Moreau swiveled the display, zooming in on the Jeanne. "And if they focus on our engines? Those are the weak spot, after all."

"The engines can put out enough heat to rupture the missiles before they get close enough to do damage... and... we installed some of those shield pylons to protect them while we were en route. It was part of the upgrade package I gave you."

"So. No real threat. Any good way to take them out without having to kill them?"

RC smiled, and tapped the screen again; the image of the Jeanne vanishing, replaced by one of the Leesh ships once more. "Of course! If they let us dock at the station, and they dock as well, we can actually bypass their shields and hit them all with an EMP hard enough to fry all of their active systems. They'll need hours to get back into operation, and days to be combat-effective again. If they don't let us dock... either we accept being showered with missiles, or we kill them."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The captain smiled. "Works well enough." He tapped his wrist. "This is Captain Moreau to Eyeball. We're going to be modifying a local ship to haul some of our cargo back home before landing. Once we have handover, we can expect to need your team ready to go in..." He glanced at RC, who made a gesture. "About seven hours. I'd prefer our newly purchased ship be on the way out-system before we start the operation."

***

The ship followed the Jeanne into the system; both ships making a brief hop into hyperspace, emerging far closer to the station to allow a more leisuely dock; as the smallest FTL-capable ship in the system, a 80-meter-long mining craft that was apparently named 'Cobalt-Iron', had its internals pumped clean; this station was solely built to house the Leesh, and had no airlocks; the only spaces inside the vessel not holding water held inert gases, pumped in to preserve their contents.

The... 'waterlock' the Jeanne connected to was a mid-sized tunnel; and as Engineer Dax and the two marines; one of them being Pelletier, fresh out of quarantine; pushed the cart of Neutronium forward, they were greeted by... an abrupt intake of water, as the room flooded; vacuum replaced first by an inert gas, and then by a steady flow of oxygenated water with some sort of agent added to it; a biological fluid of unknown purpose.

Pelletier stared through the murky water and glanced over at Dax; the slim engineer was ridiculously strong, cute, smart, and actually seemed interested... though he wasn't completely sure on that last bit. She flirted all the time, but had never really given a good response to his offers to take her back to his cabin; or vice versa.

Vision became short-ranged, and murky; the marines both switched to sonar, getting a 3D projected map of the structure nearby. Pelletier had trained for this; he'd been required to get good marksmanship scores using strictly sonar and other equipment to get onto this team. Dax seemed not to have any issues. Moments after the last bubbles of gas had been pushed out, and the structure completely filled, the inner door opened; and the trio got their first up-close view of a Leesh.

For the corporal, it was a shock. He'd been surrounded by tiny crabs, and seen a variety of aliens... but was shocked to see the reason for the tunnel-sized 'waterlock' was that the Leesh were enormous; the creature looking at him had an eyeball at least a meter across, and the shell was perhaps ten meters long. This waterlock was a tiny, compact space for it, that would require careful manuevering.

A few bubbles shifted. He could feel the suit shaking slightly as soundwaves passed through him. The creature focused on Dax, and the cart. ~Is this the sample?~

Dax made a series of strange gestures as Pelletier watched, slightly confused; was she... trying to mimic some Leesh sign-language? Those tentacles were moving whenever the translator registered. ~This is the offered [100 tons]. We have measured it using our equipment, it is actually [100.736 tons]. You may keep the excess, as we lack precision tools for working it ship-board.~ The cover was removed; and Pelletier grimaced.

It had -teeth- marks on it. They had had that Rex guy actually -chew- on a few pieces that were close to 100 tons and picked the one that got closest. The idea behind this was... insane.

The massive creature withdrew a set of instruments from its shell; and started to closely scan the cart; giving a firm tug on the cart with a tentacle. The eye re-focused on Dax. ~The equipment to keep water oxygenated has been altered to keep the air supply fresh based on the gas ratios provided. We regret that our water circulation systems are not designed for gases, and will require additional rework. It is highly unlikely our regenerative food sources will be edible for your species, but the gravity on the Cobalt-Iron can be easily increased to your species preference.~

Dax nodded. ~Thank you. We can handle the food supply; though if you have any purified water tanks aboard, leaving those full would be ideal. If you will leave the vessel docked here, we can transfer personnel and equipment back and forth more easily.~

The creature made a few strange gestures; and began to withdraw from the waterlock, slowly pulling the cart with it. ~You may remain docked as long as is needed. All security codes for the Cobalt-Iron have been transferred, as well as systems manuals. Enjoy your 'new' ship. Please notify us before venturing to the surface so that one of our vessels may accompany you.~

***

This was Ripper's first spacewalk; but it was a surprisingly familiar experience. While he was in the ethereal, he could simply float in whichever direction he chose; while here, he needed to use the jets. Still. He'd had some thoughts, back when he was working on earth, wondering if this other world had the same gravity and momentum as the 'real', 'normal' one. And since he'd come to space... he was a bit confused.

He had been able to make quick hops into and out of the ethereal to get through walls of the ship without a problem. Even disrupted a bit of neutronium, to make sure their plan with the Emperor was solid. But even while the ship was accelerating at vast speeds and RC had speculated they might need to drop back to pick him up... he'd stayed inside the ship, just on the other side of the wall, exactly where he meant to be.

Did his power just 'feel' how he wanted to be oriented, and do it that way? Just how did this work? He popped out of the ethereal a few meters from the first alien hull, holding the first EMP device. It was built so that the outer shell of it would match the alien hull; and, well. It would be embedded in the ship, so shouldn't be noticed. He pulled back into the ethereal for a moment, extending the bomb; and then went back to normal; and the bump from the bomb was barely noticable. He smiled; and turned, floating towards the next ship; entering the ethereal, mentally timing how long it should take to reach the next target. Hopefully he wouldn't come out too late, and end up accidentally butchering one of these 'Leesh' creatures.

***

The inside of the Cobalt-Iron was... spacious. Despite its 80-meter length, it was only built for a crew of ten; each of the crew berths, essentially an empty room barring some storage compartments, the size of a house; Pelletier could put a kitchen, a couple of bedrooms, and a living room here; but it was probably standard for something the size of a Leesh.

He dragged the pre-fab into the room, looking for the right connectors; and found them. Valves in the walls for circulating water. These creatures didn't drink, or bathe, aside from special medical baths, they just... lived in the water. Each room had a device to oxygenate water, which had been replaced with a CO2 scrubber; and the water valves remained in place. The 300-pound metal box Pelletier had wheeled in contained a toilet, a shower, and a bed; and with a few adjustments, he was able to unfold it, hook it into the ship's plumbing and power...

And there. He could charge his suit, take a shower, sleep; everything he needed. He was... a bit disappointed that he wouldn't be going on the surface mission, or on to fight the Emperor. But, well. The captain's first choices for this job had all been people foolish enough to pop the seals at Avris station. At least he'd get to take another shot at Dax.

After testing the toilet and making sure everything worked properly, he stepped back out into the hallway; and headed back to the cargo bay. He was going to need to install ladders to get to the bridge and engineering compartments; right now Dax was busily inspecting the reactor, installing a few upgrades, and the cargo containers were being loaded onboard in place of the mining drones the ship had been loaded down with.

This was a rush job; as soon as they were sure the ship could make it home, they would be leaving, to let the ground team start on the ritual without worrying about the relatively soft, easily damaged ship being taken out. As slow as this thing was compared to the Jeanne D'Arc, by the time they got home, this mission should be resolved, one way or another. If worst came to worst, they might even go back home to find the Emperor had already come by and wiped out humanity.