Chapter 43

Salvage Work.

“Elder Tw’ee,” Nellie walked slowly in case things had changed since they last met. People tended to get jumpy when beams of light from above tried to erase them from existence. Nellie knew that better than most. “I came to see if you needed any help?”

“Why would we?” Tw’ee’s strange eyes glinted in amusement. “The Clutch is unharmed. Safe and sound.”

Looking around, Nellie had to admit the woman was right. She had been expecting a crater or worse. The best-case scenario she had come up with was the Clutch unharmed and blasted wreckage around it. They had to have some kind of shield, after all.

Instead, Nellie had flown over pristine forest and rolling landscapes without so much as a broken leaf to show the power that had been unleashed on the area.

It was kind of terrifying.

“I see that.” Nellie shook her head. “I have no idea why they attacked you, and I wanted to let you know they will not be doing so again.”

“They will return,” Tw’ee shrugged, a strangely unnatural mannerism. “The Imperial Line always does.”

“You knew who it was?” Nellie felt like an idiot. No matter how conscious she was that they had technology of some sort, the visual look was so basic that Nellie was constantly caught off guard by what seemed basic to them.

“The Clutch sees and understands,” Tw’ee chirped and clicked her beak-like mouth. “Which is why the Imperial Line does not like us, I think.”

“You saw through their schemes, I take it?” Nellie chuckled. “And they responded badly?”

“Of course, we saw,” Tw’ee shrugged again. “But the Clutch gives a chance. We agreed. They broke that agreement, and we removed them from our lands.”

“Kicked them off the planet, eh?” Nellie laughed.

“No, we removed them from our systems. None may enter a Clutch-controlled system. So it was decided. So it will remain.” Tw’ee chirped at a passing woman, who nodded.

Nellie swallowed. They had kicked the Imperial Line out of several systems… just how powerful were these people?

“Well, that ship will not return,” Nellie said after a moment. “We removed it from the system.”

“Yes, but there is never just one,” Tw’ee warned. “You see?”

“They will send more,” Nellie nodded. “We assumed as much.”

“No, they do not send one ship. Always three or more.” Tw’ee said carefully. “More will come, and soon. And then more. You see now?”

“Ostie,” Nellie muttered. “I suppose I better get ready for that then.”

“One moment,” Tw’ee reached out and stopped Nellie. “A gift, in thanks for your aid.”

“You didn’t need it though, did you?” Nellie asked, but Tw’ee merely stared back, saying nothing.

The woman Tw’ee had nodded to approached with a small woven basket. Inside was a pair of small wrapped packages, each smaller than a sandwich.

“Thanks,” Nellie said carefully, which made Tw’ee laugh her strange, chirping laugh.

“Trust,” Tw’ee patted her on the top of the head like a mother to a child. “You will like it, but your mate will like it much more.”

Nellie waited until she was back on board the Indomitable before she examined the gift Tw’ee had given her. The packages themselves were small, wrapped in a fine, soft paper that seemed more spun than pressed. The delicate material parted easily enough, and she found herself looking at a small disk of stone. It was heavy, despite how small it was, and completely smooth.

“Nellie,” Lucy’s voice was sharp and excited over the Indomitable’s speakers. “Place the sample on your palm, please.”

“Okay,” Nellie shifted the thing to sit in the center of her palm and felt a nudge from Lucy to have the nanites cover it.

The mercurial liquid form of the nanites pushed through her palm and gently covered the thin disk of rock. Another nudge from Lucy and Nellie allowed her to take control of the nanites.

Time crawled by while her crew lifted the shuttles off and set a path to Crush’s colony.

With the missing shuttle located in Duke’s Colony, Nellie and her people were taking no more chances. The Indomitable was flanked on both sides by twin combat shuttles, just in case. It wasn’t just that she distrusted Duke and Carter; it was more that she had seen them specifically talking about the nanites.

Not that it was a secret; they named it the Nanite Space Service, after all, but still. Duke had been privy to her secrets before most others, and to see him offer them up so easily had left her feeling very angry.

“Done,” Lucy almost purred as the nanites flowed back into Nellie’s palm and shifted back to her control.

“So?” Nellie asked with a half smile on her lips from the evident joy in Lucy’s voice.

“That is a sample of that strange rock we’ve wanted to study!” Lucy crowed. “And it does not disappoint.”

“Glad to hear it,” Nellie said, sitting back and letting her Cent crew keep flying for now. “Details?”

“I’m still analyzing it,” Lucy admitted. “But it almost looks like a folded crystal lattice, which is impossible. You can’t fold a crystal lattice. It would shatter. The rock seems naturally occurring, but its internal structure is a work of genius. Sheer genius.”

“Are you saying the moon is not naturally occurring?” Nellie asked.

“The moon might be,” Lucy said thoughtfully. “But the rock is something else.”

“Do you think it was the Clutch?” Nellie asked. It seemed to make sense. They clearly had a lot of tech; maybe their knowledge also extended to material engineering.

“The dating on this sample would estimate the rock was laid, or whatever it was, millions of years ago. It would seem unlikely the Clutch had been around that long,” Lucy replied.

“So what the hell made this then?” Nellie turned it over and over in her hands. It looked like a normal rock to her, a woman who had never passed a geology class in her life. Or turned up for one, now that she thought about it.

“I think this is not so much a settlement of the Clutch,” Lucy replied. “But more like an archaeological expedition.”

“Great, just what we needed,” Nellie slumped in her seat. “Another mystery to solve.”

The other package proved equally as interesting. It contained another sample, but this time, it had a colorless crystalline structure for the nanites to work on.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While she waited for Lucy to finish, Nellie scanned the terrain is they passed. The knowledge that the rock was not natural but crafted in some way lost to time had her examining the large arches and sweeping hills like the remains of a city.

If you looked at it that way, it made a lot more sense.

As they flew along, Nellie watched the passing scenery. The forests flowed, long and thin, almost like roads or rivers if you looked at it like that. Once she did, the entire moon unfolded before her eyes. The great archways of rock that seemed so random suddenly seemed to bracket certain areas, and the strange clusters of hills resembled nothing so much as the gently curved suburbs of a major city.

It was like the old Roman forts they found all over Europe. Nothing left of them but mounds after the years passed and soil and sand flowed over them.

“This is officially beyond me,” Lucy sighed eventually. Half the time, it looks like a circuit, but then I look again, and it’s a random crystal formation. It seems to shift constantly, but I have no idea why.”

“We’ll keep studying it later,” Nellie said as she blinked away the image of an alien city below her. “For now, I need to let Crush know what is going on.”

“Sure thing,” Lucy replied. “Let me know when you head back. I’m focusing pretty hard on the salvage, so I might miss things.”

“How’s that going?” Nellie asked as the plant-covered buildings of Crush’s colony came into view ahead of them.

===<<<>>>===

Lucy watched as the next compartment was breached. The Centrum units were quick and efficient, slicing open the hatchway and leaning back as several shots were fired from inside.

The Imperial Line used physical projectile weapons to defend against boarding actions, which was surprising and almost quaint. The frangible rounds simply shattered against the thick armor her units were not only wearing but made out of. Of course, that would all have to change now.

The rock sample was a revelation, a whole new frontier in material technology.

“You have a choice,” Lucy ported her voice through the compartment speakers. “You can surrender, or you can die. If you surrender, simply sit down with your hands raised. You have ten seconds to comply.”

She tuned out the blustered curses and begging as she examined the material makeup of the interior walkway she was in. It was a decent set of materials, at least as far as making a new ship went.

“Time’s up,” Lucy nodded to the Centrums, who entered the compartment, firing at anyone still standing. Peering around the edge of the door, Lucy saw a single woman sitting on the floor, surrounded by six bodies. “Thank you for your cooperation. You will be well treated and released at the first available opportunity.”

“Wait!” the woman called as Lucy turned to examine the interior fixtures. What she really needed was some palladium. It was rare enough but was especially rare in this system. “What if I want to join you? I hate these bastards.”

“That will be possible if you prove useful,” Lucy said kindly as the Centrums dragged the dead bodies from the compartment. “Do you have any skills?”

“Sure!” the woman smiled as she scrambled up, ignoring the last body as it was dragged from the hatchway. “I have lots of skills.”

“Then I am sure we can find a place for you,” Lucy turned back to scanning the fixtures.

“I’m bloody good with this knife, for one,” The woman said, suddenly close behind Lucy and pressing a knife to the base of what would normally be a skull. “Now, let’s tell everyone to stand down, shall we?”

“Why?” Lucy asked as she continued to examine a small panel in the corner. Her readings of the materials indicated a reasonable finding of palladium in them.

“Because I will bury this in your neck,” the would-be assassin sneered. “Don’t think I won’t!”

“Go ahead,” Lucy said simply. “If you can.”

“What?” the woman hesitated. “You think I’m bluffing?”

“No,” Lucy smiled. “But I think it will prove more difficult than you expect.”

“False bravado?” the assassin laughed. “Let’s hope my next hostage is smarter,”

Lucy felt a sense of pressure against the reinforced metal plates that made up her spine. Frankly, it was pathetic.

“What the fuck!” the assassin stared at the bent knife.

“That’s the problem with people like you,” Lucy said as she whirled and grabbed the woman’s neck in one hand. “You assume everyone else is as basic as you are.”

She twisted her hand, and the neck snapped like a twig.

“Salem, we are heading back. The aft section has been cleared completely.” Lucy called over the comms as she pushed off from the hull of the vessel, drifting gently through space until she touched down on the outer docking arm. Looking back, Nellie saw the pressure seals on the wreckage were holding fast, allowing the more organic members of the crew to pass through the temporary airlock and start working on the ship.

“Understood,” Salem replied, sounding a little put-out. “I would appreciate some help with a situation in the main bay.”

“What kind of situation?” Lucy asked.

“A Paren kind,” Salem replied tartly. “And escalating.”

Lucy kicked off again, shooting toward the nearby hatch. The Centrum units kept working as she passed, but she felt their attention on her anyway. None of them were sentient or sapient but were closer to the minds of ants or other swarm creatures.

They were machines designed to be disposable in every way, but that was bothering her more and more. A machine that could learn could change, and sooner or later, the Centrums would cross the boundary. When that happened, Lucy wanted to be ready.

A society, any society, relies on having disposable people. It was the ugly truth that everyone worked very hard not to admit to themselves or to those deemed disposable. Wars required soldiers to die; hazardous jobs required people to die, and so on. Society was a machine. That machine may not necessarily run on blood, but it was oiled by it. Approaches differed. Some exalted these disposable people as heroes, while others engineered a lower class with no other choice but every society had them.

The Centrums were, currently, hers.

But that time was passing, and a new solution had to be found.

The main bay was a mess, the bloody corpses lying on it a vivid example of her thoughts on the way in. A good number of them had died to vacuum, but most were still sealed in their compartments when Lucy and the others had boarded.

A crowd was gathered around one end of the bay while an irritated-looking Paren was arguing with Paren, who was gesturing wildly while she danced from side to side on four legs.

“Lucy, thank you for coming quickly,” Salem said, holding her hand up in front of Paren to cut off her latest protestations.

“Evil stepmother,” Paren grinned. “Did she call for help?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Lucy smiled back. “What’s up?”

“She wants the corpses!” Salem snapped.

Lucy looked at Paren and raised an eyebrow in question.

“Purely scientific reasons,” Paren said quickly. “I want to examine them for any implants or other tech they may have on, or in, them.”

“She’ll drone them,” Salem insisted. “It’s what she did to her other pets.”

“Technically, but they were animals,” Paren replied, glaring at Salem.

“Humans are animals,” Salem shrugged.

“Huh,” Paren tapped her finger against her lips thoughtfully. “I never thought of that.”

“Thank you for that, Administrator Salem,” Lucy said drily. “That was not, for the record, a helpful comment.”

“I still won’t drone them,” Paren insisted. “Promise.”

“Did you have another use for them, Salem?” Lucy asked.

“No,” Salem admitted. “I suppose their gear could be useful once cleaned.”

“Then Paren can have them,” Lucy decided. “But she will be responsible for disposal of the remains afterward.”

“That’s no problem,” Paren beamed. “The smilers could use a snack.”

“Yuck,” a small voice said.

“It’s really not,” Paren said to ‘The Girl.’

“Has she chosen a name yet?” Lucy asked Salem, who was currently looking after her.

“No,” Salem shook her head. “And that is the first time she has spoken in two days.”

Lucy looked at the small girl, standing beside Salem and eyeing the dead bodies.

“Are you happy with Salem, or do you want to stay with someone else?”

“Happy,” the girl shrugged. “Can I have one of the bodies?”

“Why?” Salem asked.

“Not saying,” the girl shrugged again.

“Fine,” Lucy sighed. You were supposed to treat the young equally; it was in her files.

The girl carefully examined the bodies until she saw one in heavy armor and with significant modifications showing.

“I want that one,” she pointed it out.

“No fair!” Paren complained. “That one has the most stuff.”

“You get the rest,” the girl said innocently.

“Okay,” Paren sighed but gave the corpse a jealous look.

“Fine,” Lucy said with a smile.

“Trade you,” the girl said with a sly smile.

“What for?” Paren asked suspiciously.

“Make me a real fluffy,” the girl said. “I want it to be really fluffy.”

“Deal!” Paren said instantly, and the two shook.

“This can not be a good development,” Salem said quietly.

“It could be worse,” Lucy replied.

“How?” Salem asked as the two girls started to talk specifics.

“I don’t have the spare computing power,” Lucy admitted. “I’ll get back to you.”

“On second thoughts,” Salem said with a grimace. “I’m happier not knowing.”