Aboard Ouroboros, on the outer edge of the Ascendancy System
On the inside, Ouroboros had much in common with Ilsorin. The walls were in the same golden-platinum color, made from ultra-advanced alloys resistant even to dragon claws. Crystal structures featured prominently, their function ranging from decoration and light sources to power conduits and energy matrices. The decks were enormous and open-spaced, in order to accommodate with equal ease the residence of regular-size transhumans and the immense forms of dragons, who – judging by the design – were well able to reach truly awesome statures. On the whole, the titanic dreadnought's interior looked more like a city than the insides of a starship, the illusion reinforced by the presence of numerous artificial gardens and biospheres, and the perfect simulation of daylight from their ceilings.
Many sections were completely destroyed, making it impossible to restore Ouroboros to its former splendor without extensive orbital docking facilities. Yet with the aid of temporary walkway tunnels and sealing bubbles, it was possible to make all decks usable again. Though the near-termination of evacuation missions made the need for additional housing space moot, Airo still wanted the dreadnought functional.
Currently, over ten thousand workers were busy repairing the enormous starship. Yeoman Cloud, Bernard, and Zeromon were tasked with coordinating this significant workforce. Airo was reluctant about putting a dragon on non-combat duty, strapped as he was for firepower, yet Bernard refused any assignments without Zeromon, and since the human Knight was the best industrial engineer in the surviving Radiant Order, Airo had no choice but to pair them. Somewhat surprising to him, the dragon Knight proved an excellent choice as well in terms of a technical mindset, and in addition was able to apply his awesome might when the situation called for, significantly speeding up operations in various instances. Airo was forced to admit that a dragon could be very useful even outside combat, a thought that felt alien to him.
Airo, Veralla, and Magus Dei had arrived aboard Ouroboros through the psi-gate. The plan was to take one of the remaining assault laserships still present in the dreadnought's extensive hangars, and use it to find the H'raal fleet. The three of them crossed the massive octagonal caedome where the psi-gate resided and headed toward the aft decks, where their transport waited. The environment was kept at micro-gravity for the duration of the repairs, and many grav-shafts were still not restored, which meant traversing the giant starship was a slow-going endeavor.
"Should I really wear this again?" Veralla complained, floating along the brightly-lit deck and pawing at her emerald-colored vacsuit. She was covered horns-to-tailtip, with only the helmet's visor being raised currently, revealing the upper part of her reptilian face.
"I am taking no chances," Airo said, eyeing the emergency handholds along the way. He wasn't very skilled in zero-g movement, yet the power armor corrected any errors he made. "Environmental protection equipment is mandatory during orbital or deep-space repairs in case of emergency. Also, while not applicable in your case, this starship is still flooded with background radiation due to its proximity to a neutron star."
"Why then are you not wearing a scaphander, too?" Veralla asked, turning to Magus. The old Knight had a regal bearing even in microgravity, and was dressed in his usual heavy crimson robe.
"Do not mind me, little one. I shall be fine," Magus replied, drifting forward in a perfect line. Airo suspected he was using magic to do so.
"Oh, okay. Where are we going?" Veralla had already seen her fill of Ouroboros' magnificence, which was why she fussed over her vacsuit at all and had become her usual talkative self.
"We are going to meet the H'raal. They are an alien civilization," Airo explained tersely. "They can help us defeat the Revenant."
"Oh, that sounds very interesting! But why are only the three of us going?"
"The smaller the diplomatic party, the better," Magus said. "Larger escorts may be taken as a sign of fear or belligerence – both of which can doom this attempt at communication."
"So why I am here?" Veralla asked. "I mean, I would like to see aliens very much, and I am sure they will be splendid. However... I am a dragon, yes? And while I try to be good and compassionate, I cannot ignore the fact my appearance is... somewhat ferocious?"
Magus eyed her, then laughed – a rare sound.
"The H'raal apparently have... affinity for dragons. So bringing one could make a good impression," Airo said flatly. He then smiled. "And I myself would feel more... happy, to have you accompany me on this mission."
Veralla hrrr–ed with pleasure.
"Everybody loves dragons," Magus said with a sage expression.
Airo snorted sourly. Yet he caught Veralla's gaze, who beamed at him, and he smiled again.
After a long trek, they reached the specified hangar. Three laserships were waiting on the launch pads, their sleek and dangerous profiles bristling with weaponry.
"This is not what I would call a 'diplomatic transport'," Airo remarked dryly as he, Veralla, and Magus approached one of the assault starships.
"These are one of the few functional deep-space vessels we have available," the old Knight said, unperturbed. "Better to fly only one of them, instead of several."
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"We could–"
"Crew capacity is minimal."
They went aboard and settled in the cockpit. Another copy of Yeoman Cloud installed instantly on the lasership computer. The giant outer wall of the hangar variformed away, revealing the black expanse of the cosmos. The SAI activated the propulsion systems, and took off into the void.
The neutron star was the same small bright dot in the distance, steadily spewing more radiation than visible light. The anomalous sky clouds orbited around the exotic stellar body, dark shapes billowing and drifting and swelling across millions of kilometers, creating the illusion the lasership was sailing at a vast, stormy sea, rather than astrogating through the endless nothingness of space. The large amounts of radiation charged up the clouds, resulting in the release of huge mega-lightnings thousands of kilometers long, forked in dozens of directions and tinted in shades ranging from orange-yellow to dark cobalt.
The lasership was a vessel optimized for stellar combat. It had no bridge, but a small cockpit, with room barely for its maximum crew of four; all available space of its lean hull otherwise was packed with armaments, shields generators, layers of armor, high-capacity power cores, and a set of powerful engines. Life support was stripped to bare necessities. The lasership lacked an artificial-gravity module, though its inertial-nullifiers were top of the line. Airo felt oddly frustrated having to spend so much time in microgravity while inside a starship, after his journey to Terra Para had been in complete comfort. It reminded him of the realities of interstellar travel during his time –dark, dreadful moments, fraught with peril and regular accidents.
Yeoman Cloud took the coordinates Magus Dei provided and charted a course. According to the old Knight, the H'raal were actually in the same intra-astral region as Ouroboros, supplying their fleet from the massive resources which made up the exotic clouds around. It was the perfect setup, Airo realized: the clouds could hide entire armadas from both sensors and visual inspection, and their rich diversity of elements enabled nanotech-assisted manufacture of almost any sort, easily able to support an advanced society.
Which was why – even with Magus' knowledge of their approximate location – the H'raal were still nigh-impossible to find.
They searched for hours. The lasership circled the coordinates, diving into clouds and skimming around in highly elliptical orbits. Airo knew it was useless to stare at the screens, as Cloud would spot anything long before him. Veralla was fascinated by the mega-lightnings, reveling in their variety. She constantly pointed them out to Airo, and he conversed with her out of boredom, making light, pleasant chat. Magus Dei sat strapped to his seat, engaged in some private thoughts. He still hadn't donned a vacsuit, and waved away any hints Airo made about dangers from sudden decompression or other environmental hazards.
At last, the sensors picked up something. Several million kilometers to the portward side, there was a large cluster of highly-reflective objects. Cloud flew towards the indicated direction. The SAI positioned the lasership so there was a clear line of sight, then magnified the feed from the external cameras and revealed the H'raal Exile Fleet.
For a few seconds, Airo couldn't comprehend what he was seeing were actual stellar vessels. The H'raal starships had nothing in common with what transhumanity used to travel among the stars. They looked like giant silvery-blue spheres, whose hulls lacked any sort of visible engines, communication arrays, weapon ports, or other modules which could point out that yes, these were indeed constructs used to cross the intergalactic medium. The sphereships' outer layers seemed to swirl gently like some form of liquid, giving the impression of tiny ocean planets. Airo didn't know whether he should feel impressed by the level of technology the H'raal had achieved, or if their mindset was so alien that any comparison to transhumanity's engineering was futile.
Even Veralla didn't seem very enthusiastic about the sight. "These starships look so... plain," she said, her wings sagging in disappointment.
"They are anything but on the inside," Magus said. The old Knight leaned in his seat intently. "Proceed with caution now. If we are aware of them, the opposite is also true."
"Cloud, any inbound connections on the commlink?" Airo asked.
"None, Commander. Should I send a hailing signal instead?"
"Do so. Tell them we–"
"–want to exchange important information," Magus interrupted with a hard tone. Airo cast a sullen glance at him, yet said nothing.
"Understood!" Yeoman Cloud exclaimed cheerfully. "Re-configuring language banks now. Done! Message sent."
As the lasership drew closer to the H'raal fleet, the alien armada became clearer in detail. The sphereships' swirling surfaces glimmered with reflected light from the distant neutron star, looking even more otherworldly and ephemeral. The fleet consisted of fifty spherehips in total. One of the spheres was much larger than the others, almost three times in size; that one surely was the mothership.
The commlink chimed.
"The H'raal responded to our message, Commander," Cloud reported.
"And?" Airo prompted when the SAI didn't continue further.
"I've received docking instructions," Cloud said blithely. "Nothing else."
At that moment a tiny, blinking spot appeared on the surface of the giant H'raal mothership.
"Proceed to dock, then," Airo said flatly.
Yeoman Cloud guided the lasership toward the flashing beacon. Its powerful engines quickly closed the distance, diving straight into the heart of the H'raal fleet. Approaching the mothership felt like entering the orbit of a planet or a giant ocean-covered moon. The blinking spot turned out to be a docking accessway, extruded straight from the main hull, its surface blazing with the radiance of a hundred suns. As the lasership came within close range, the blinding glare faded, revealing the bluish, liquid-looking shape of the accessway.
Yeoman Cloud docked with smooth grace which would've made even Kiana envious. Airo and Magus Dei removed their seat straps. Airo beckoned at Veralla. "Come on, we have to go."
"But this starship looks so much more interesting from up close!" she said, watching the brilliant, flowing surface of the accessway.
"Remember, we are on a mission."
"Oh, right!"
They disembarked the lasership. Airo insisted he and Veralla seal their suits, yet Magus again remained apparently unprotected. The airlock hissed open, and the three of them stepped into the accessway. They crossed the long corridor, heading toward a portal visible at the other end.
The H'raal mothership looked strange and alien on the inside as much as on the outside. The walls, floor, and ceiling were not made of ordinary matter, yet rather of pure, solidified energy. They had no clear boundaries between one another, creating the illusion of one single, unified surface with Moebius-like perspective. The solidified energy was blue-green in the visible spectrum, and crackled when touched, sending ripples of flashing light along its frame.
Airo, Veralla, and Magus reached the portal at the end of the accessway. It turned out to be some form of an airlock hatch, made from the same type of solidified energy, although lighter in tone. Magus stepped forth, pressing his hand against the simmering surface, and the portal brightened in magenta hues, admitting him inside. Airo and Veralla followed suit, Airo feeling enveloped by a wave of static electricity as he stepped through the portal. They arrived inside a medium-sized chamber, bereft of any shape or decoration which could imply its function.
It was where the H'raal were waiting for them.