CHAPTER 8 - THE PROTECTORATE

The station disappeared, merging with its swarm into a small point of light, then blending into the starfield that was its background. To think that this was the edge of human civilization, notwithstanding the Canid or eldritch-Lateral separatists, or the condominium with the Relmai Commonwealth, two out of three said states having been forged in the flames of the Human Civil War. Most inhabitants of this incomprehensibly vast Federation, with its two thousand stars, had never left it. The majority never even left their homeworlds, remaining content with their home planets or less.

But what if someone did not leave the Federation, but rather the Federation left them?

The ship entered warp, and nothing felt immediately different from the previous jumps. Of course, the acceleration of the vessel prior to engaging the Ugolnikov drive was slightly lesser due to the increased mass. The warp was actually very short, a mere six hours. Jamaad and Artur, having spent the shift in the CIC, went to sleep again once the ship dropped out of the bubble. This particular stint in warp seemed to have mentally and physically drained them. The effects of FTL travel were frequently unpredictable, and many of said effects had only conjectural explanations. Even less explainable was the nature of the Oval. This ellipsoid, roughly one hundred and seventy light years tall, one hundred and seventy light years wide, and two hundred and thirty light years long, was the only known area where FTL functioned. Outside of that area, the field simply did not go up. Nobody exactly knew why, or had a solid theory that would produce an explanation. Perhaps the best hypothesis was that there was some kind of three-dimensional, invisible, cosmic oil slick that warp bubbles 'slid' on. During the Age of Protests, this idea would have been seen as nonsensical, since Viktor Ugolnikov's Quasidimensional Displacement Theory and Ugolnikov-Thompson Crystals were not yet discovered and made. But one thing was certain: for the foreseeable future, the Oval would be to the Space Age what Earth was to the Pre-Space Age.

Rachel woke up from a dream where she was at a lecture about the history of spaceflight, and looked around. Kuw was already gone.

"Huh, I missed my alarm," she thought, seeing only the still-asleep Jamaad and Artur, as well as a recharging and shut-off Patch in the bunk room. The ship was not in warp, and the gravity was active.

After her usual morning actions were done, she jumped and skipped to the CIC, clambering down the ladder like a scared cat. "Hey, at least the acting captain won't punish me for this," she thought and giggled to herself.

Kuw was the only one there. "Gooood morning, love," she said with a smile on her muzzle. She seemed very relaxed.

"Morning," Rachel said as she sat down and patted her on the shoulder. "Where's Elektra?"

"Still eating. I take it ya didn't?"

"No, better to be on an empty belly than get delayed more. Why do you look so happy?"

Kuw chuckled. "Don't ya know where we aaare?"

Rachel looked at the corner of the screen. "Oh. Biu…kwou… lsab…? I think?" She struggled to pronounce every syllable of the system's name.

"Yes! We crossed over to Koumanlan. I was here years ago!"

A scan revealed the existence of a small colony on a semi-barren planet, a Starguard outpost, and a military station nearby on the edge of the system, as well as a few ships. These ships were a mix of human and relmai vessels, but both were quite similar in design: girders, fuel tanks, radiators. The fundamental constraints of physics limited variation in shipbuilding between civilizations, so they were only distinguishable by certain minor features, as well as, of course, their transponder signs. Hypothetically, color could also have allowed identification, with relmai ships being painted in garish colors, but at this distance they were all indistinguishable blips on the sensor display.

"Nice to see something resembling your homeland, isn't it?" Rachel said. "So, the military base…"

"We'll dock there for a few hours to get some missiles. We wooon't need to spend anything, as Koumanlan is in the Alliance. We'll also top up on prop and fuel. We didn't want to pay for those at FE-01, why waste money when we can get them for free here, ya knooow?"

"You'd be good at business."

"Uhuh. One of my broothers got elected last year to lead a section of a huuuge media syndicate, TiuKuoeRae. And his best friend's father was one of the first ones reporting on the Koumanlan secession waaay back. How cool is that?" Kuw said, gesturing wildly, nearly knocking the headphones from the console onto the floor.

"Huh. That's interesting… Can I offer you some advice, honey? Talk in a slightly more formal way. It's slightly jarring, you know?" Rachel responded.

"I will take that into account, Sensors Officer Beka," Kuw said, trying her best to imitate Jamaad's voice… and failing miserably.

"You must work on your imitation skills if you want to sound like Captain Warren," Patch suddenly intoned.

"I'll try!" She was too polite to point out the robot's statement of the obvious.

Kuw did not have much experience at all being in command of the ship, with most of her stints in command during the mission being when the ship was docked or otherwise did not require much finesse. Deep down, Kuw was quite anxious. As one of the only two relmai on the ship, with the other one being a maintenance engineer and unusually quiet for his species, she felt somewhat isolated.

Rachel gave her a kiss and left the room for a while.

***

15 Apr 2231

A few hours passed, and the ship approached the Biukwoulsab-1 military base. It looked exactly like the one in Flamerider, thanks to standardization and rather similar accommodations required for both of its owner species, except that one half of it was symbolically decorated, or perhaps defaced, with rainbow swirls and starbursts, waves and zigzags, while the other half was left unpainted. Elektra, who had joined in alongside Patch, squinted at the visuals display.

"...why."

"Why not?" Kuw said in a sing-song tone. "Feels like a breath of fresh air after the dullness of Terran stuff… shame we can't stay there for long. Nor will we board."

The ship approached, and Kuw opened comms. On the other side of the screen were a human and a relmai, both wearing uniforms that combined elements of the one-or-two-tone Terran ones with sections that more resembled relmai uniforms. They were both in a room that was as split in its interior as the base was in its exterior.

Kuw introduced herself, and the two did likewise. Captain Firat and Captain Bwueloa-ta. She then identified the ship and the details of its crucial mission.

"May I request a resupply of our missile stocks?" Kuw said, still imitating Jamaad's voice, and it showed. She sounded neither like a relmai nor like a human.

"Yes, acknowledged, we will do everything to help you provide aid to the defenders of the Barrier," Firat said, his mouth nearly hidden by a very bushy but well-kept mustache.

"But keep in mind that due to issues with supply lines, we are only able to provide six missiles," Bwueloa said, his voice much higher-pitched than Firat's.

"So we apologize for not being able to support your journey as much as we could," Firat finished the sentence.

"That is fine," Kuw said, her voice slipping into an even more serious tone. It ended up sounding ridiculous, and drew smiles from both of the station commanders. "What about prop?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"We have more than enough of it," the human started, "to fill your tanks ten times over," the other relmai finished.

"Acknowledged. Thank you!" The feed then shut off.

The ship pulled into the dock, and Kuw gave the permission to proceed with resupplies. But even as maintenance techs in hardsuits carried missiles into the launcher's storage bay, she kept worrying if she was doing something incorrectly. What if she did not follow proper procedure, and the two only tolerated her because of the stated mission? What if she was too casual, as Rachel said? The exchange with the sensors officer kept bouncing around her head like a floatball in an enclosed space. Was she really worthy of being captain one third of the time?

…

She shook her head. If it ever overwhelmed her, she would just call in Jamaad. Whatever happened, he would be able to handle.

Kuw sat up from her seat and suddenly hugged Rachel. Perhaps it was all okay. Perhaps she was not such a bad acting captain. Not with someone she loved to her side, at least. Jamaad didn't know yet, anyways… She looked up to Rachel as someone greater, as someone…

Stifled laughter was heard from behind them.

"Nothing to do, eh?" Artur's gruff voice echoed through the CIC.

"I mean, yeah," Rachel said. "Quite a bit of downtime."

"Well, I won't tell Jamaad. He's in mess currently."

Artur sat down and looked through the two new weapons' specifications, something he hadn't gotten around to doing before. Compared to the two Zaptech 'Neoblast' particle guns, the Muelausu 'Bukwoata' was not only of a higher barrel length and thus higher power, but somewhat more efficient, putting less strain on the radiators. It was meant for somewhat larger ships than the Pheidippides, but still well within tolerances. Of course, it would have been utter insanity to attach a capital ship gun onto this scout, but a destroyer gun was fine. The missile launcher, meanwhile, was a quite old model, produced by a nondescript government-owned company rather than a contractor, called the Bloodhound-4-S. By itself, it really was not much more than a tube with an ammo storage, and the only notable thing about it was the reliable autoloader. The missiles, however, were decidedly less banal, and each had a different payload. The first was a shaped vapor-lance that was essentially a directed nuke; the second was a magsail cannon which used a similar mechanism to propel a projectile; the third was a focused neutron bomb that could kill organic enemy crews; the fourth was a nuke-pumped particle beam which was a single-shot ultra-powerful burst cannon; the fifth was a sensor-blinder bomb; and finally the sixth was just a lump of depleted uranium with propellant and an engine.

"Huh," the Canid raised a bushy eyebrow. "So every single missile they gave us has a gimmick."

"Yes," Patch stated, "This might prove to be a tactical boon, or a tactical burden, depending on your finesse, which I am sure is superior."

Artur smiled and playfully bumped Patch with his shoulder.

"Leftovers, presumaaably," Kuw said as she turned her seat. "These were their last six missiles."

"And they gave us all their missiles?"

"Apparently, well I meeean, it's not like they are gonna get attacked or anything? An enemy would need to go through the chohjozra first. Or our Commonweeealth, but come on, who's gonna directly invade the richest nation of the Oval?" she giggled.

Rachel suddenly hollered "So why is this star-yacht, Greenish Pearl II, following us?! When they took off from FE-01 just an hour before us I didn't pay it attention, but now they went to the exact same system as us, crossing a civilizational border. They're out of hailing range. Do we wait for them to approach and–"

The door opened, and Jamaad floated in. Everyone saluted. "Alright, it's not my shift right now but I feel I have to take a look at things," he said. "What did I miss?"

Rachel reiterated all the events, minus her making out with Kuw of course, and then repeated her statement in a calmer voice.

"For the missiles, I'm sure they'll at least be a good deterrent, and otherwise there seems to be one for every scenario. As for the yacht… don't waste time. I appreciate your perceptiveness, Officer Beka, but if we stop for every vaguely suspicious ship, Ilsh-Bewruw will become a Viceroyalty, and you and I will become janitors," Jamaad said.

Rachel sighed. "I suppose you're right, sir. I'll still be keeping a closer eye on them."

"So we're going to Kyrrhtazh… our sensors are good, but they're not tuned too well for precise long-distance scans of ships. While wasting some hours for just a grand would be dubious, I had a feeling we might need to get extra upgrades from alien stations that Terra and Koumanlan wouldn't give us. The chohjozra have amazing detection tech that is too hard for Terra to reproduce economically yet, but should allow us to have it if we ask nicely. We'll do some quick swaps of sensor subsystems at Kyrrh, I'm sure Patch can jerry-rig them to work. Then we could figure out what is going on with that yacht. Does that make sense, Officer Beka and Officer Patch?"

"Yes, sir," both of them said and stated.

As soon as the refueling was done, the ship departed as quickly and without incident as it arrived.

***

Rachel stayed in the CIC with Artur and Jamaad, to keep an eye out for anything unusual.

Elektra checked in on Ensign Sabauri, sitting down next to him on the medbay cot. He seemed much healthier now: the engineer could easily walk, and his face was less pale.

The CMO updated the medical records, looked Temo in the eyes, and smiled. "You're discharged now."

"Thank you miss. My ears still ring, though…"

"How strong?" Elektra sounded concerned.

"Not much but it's constant."

"Ah. Tinnitus. Curable, but not with our shipboard facilities, alas. You'll have to wait until we come back home."

Assistant Doctor Denisov approached Elektra, his fingers, as elongated as his face, fidgeting with the battery compartment latch of a tricorder. "I was looking for you, Miss Jacinth… I noticed we didn't pack any Sporatestrylsolabide. Considering we are going to pass through chohjozra space and are likely to dock at a station, we might want to resupply. Rin's Plague is no joke."

"Understood, I will inform the captain, thank you Assistant Denisov. God help us if we don't."

Temo Sabauri looked concerned. "Isn't that an alien disease? I thought biocompatibility prevented those from infecting humans?"

Elektra sighed. "If only it was that simple. Yes, 99.5% of xenopathogens are harmless to non-native biospheres. The other 0.05%… have unpredictable effects. Often worse than for the aliens themselves. When a chohjozra catches that disease, and they call it something like eetcayktz, it's the equivalent of a common cold, often even asymptomatic. But the pathogen happens to be able to infect Terran cells, or rather tear them apart. High fever. Blood vomiting. Internal necrosis. Runny nose."

The list of symptoms drew some nervous chuckles from the two others present.

"And I don't think the way the chohjozra treat their stations really helps create a hygienic environment," Denisov added.

"If we had a chohjozra crewmember, they'd take offense to that." Elektra said. "We are all neighbors compared to the scale of the universe. Love thy neighbor."

"Sorry."

***

Kuw was in the dark, cold supply room. Nobody visited here much. It was officially called the emergency supply room, but in practice had various baubles and miscellaneous objects stored in it. One of these objects was the box with Specks. The relmai sat on a crate, with the box in her lap. The lid was open, and Kuw was shining her datapad's flashlight into it… while giving the alien snail stalks of some kind of fractally-branching grass-like plant, instead of nutrient paste. She had procured some examples of Chimera-biosphere flora back at FE-01, because she felt bad about the critter not being able to eat what it ate in its distant, whimsical home. It ravenously devoured the stalks branch by branch, segment by segment, using all five of its mouth-extremities.

Out of curiosity, she softly poked Specks with a clawed finger. Immediately, the creature let out a squeak-like hiss and scurried away to the corner of the box, then retracted into its shell.

"Oops! I'm soooorry!"

The snail-like animal, of course, did not respond to her apology. Kuw left the plants inside the box and closed the lid back up with a sigh. Apparently, this species did not need to drink water aside from what was in its paste and its climate-controlled air. Its slimy body was actually mostly composed of an anhydrous kind of oil that made crackling sounds when coming in contact with skin.

Kuw felt a little sad that they'd have to give up Specks. She had been growing fond of the creature since Rachel showed it to her. The next stop was supposed to be the one where they would separate, forever. She was also a little disappointed that the ship would only stay in Koumanlan for one system, the one which it was currently departing. It was merely crossing over the Protectorate's 'panhandle', leaving the actual fun parts behind, or rather to the side. Next up was the Chohjozra Nrukhrizchaa. Kuw was not looking forward to it, for a multitude of reasons. She had nothing against the chohjozra themselves, of course, but their culture was the polar opposite of the relmai one in many ways. Relaxed instead of fast-paced. Colorful in a refined way instead of a garish way. Keeping traditions instead of modifying and adapting traditions. Collectivist instead of individualist. Nevertheless, they had several similarities, and even a modicum of common ground…

The ship entered warp yet again, with Elektra and Patch in command. It would only last eight hours.