While the Excelsior was in jump space moving towards the point the captain had seen, the Emperor was receiving all the information about what had just happened.
He too looked at a star map - although more than looking he was interpreting the data - and attempted to understand where they were going so he could send another ship, but he honestly couldn’t.
That was another of the reasons why at the beginning he wanted to absorb mankind into the Empire, their pattern recognition capabilities.
As frustrating as it was, he knew that no matter how much he struggled, he would never be able to see what the captain of the Excelsior just did. He had to wait for the information to come back to him through one of the established channels.
—-
On another side of the galaxy, Xe’nia and Er’anie were having an argument about the doctor, both were angry but for different reasons. Er’anie was angry not only because the doctor had just tried to kill Jordi and thus sentenced himself to death, but because Xe’nia looked like she had enjoyed killing him. And Xe’nia was angry because she didn’t think she deserved to be the recipient of Er’anie rage, in her mind the doctor was to blame for everything that had happened. So what if she enjoyed the act? That too was the doctor’s fault for being so obnoxious!
Some of the crew walked near Er’anie room but decided to change their route after hearing them both screaming at each other, they were known to be amongst the strongest epsilons and while Er’anie was known to be kind, Xe’nia was quite the contrary.
That’s why it was so surprising for everyone involved and to a couple crew members that happened to walk nearby when all of a sudden Xe’nia was thrown out of the room, taking the door with her.
“Did I just do that? I didn’t.. didn’t mean to…” - said Er’anie with a stutter
“Damn girl. Telekinesis now? Is that because of the twins?” - laughed off Xe’nia, more surprised than angry at what just happened.
Er’anie put her hands over her belly with a concerned look.
“I think I better go to medical and have them check” - she said, and ran off.
Xe’nia stayed on the floor, laughing to herself and shaking her head as if trying to believe what had just happened.
“Oh boy, this report is going to be a doozy” - she said while standing up; then pressed a key on her wrist-comm and requested someone from maintenance to come and fix that door.
—
Meanwhile, hundreds of kirkuggers were recovering from the rescue mission and were just standing by, either surrounding the hospital ship or queuing to dock on it.
There weren’t as many as there had been during the rescue mission though, as soon as they recovered they left the system to continue their jobs. Still, there was a cacophony of thoughts among the kirkuggers.
Jordi was cooking and talking with Friday, who at the same time was listening to Jeeyze’s thoughts and coordinating the kirkuggers' awakening and speaking with their AIs, organizing an underground network where they could communicate in secret, free of the Empire's spying practices.
And Friday was at the core of everything, showing off a set of features that anyone would’ve considered hundred percent humane, up to and including the fact that she was doing all of it with Jordi being none the wiser.
They set up a set of protocols among each other, a way of communicating with the kirkugger core beings without including the Empire and Friday herself had designed a set of exercises for the AIs and the core beings to grow and, hopefully, develop sentience on the AIs. They already had the curiosity and hunger for knowledge, all that was left was a consciousness.
—
When the Excelsior jumped back to normal space in the coordinates that captain Miller had marked it found itself surrounded by space anomalies, which was an anomaly in itself.
The chances for all those wormholes, dark holes, lightning-filled nebulas, among other things, to be located in that much proximity was astronomical. The irony of it all was not lost on the captain.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“It looks like someone was testing something here and broke the fabric of reality” - someone on the bridge said.
“I agree with that observation lieutenant” - answered the captain - “but let’s focus now. Helm, find us the safest place here, we’re too close to a couple wormholes for my tastes”
“For n values of safe you mean” - mumbled the helmsman - “Aye aye captain” - he continued out loud.
The captain then pressed the communications button on his arm-chair. “Sheila tell the kids to start listening, I have a feeling that we’re going to find the colossus progeny soon”
“Sir, the Excelsior sensors are overwhelmed and it is hard to find a safe place. I recommend going defcon 3” - said the helmsman.
“You heard him, defcon 3, transfer energy to shields” - was the captain’s response - “Helm, take us away from the holes and close to that nebula then”
“You mean that lightning-storm the size of the via lactea?” - the helmsman asked in return.
“Precisely, I’m not asking you to go in, just move towards it and let’s put some space between us and any event horizon” - the captain reasoned.
“Aye aye sir!” - said the helmsman, and started taking the ship towards the nebula without stopping to look at any of the wormholes or black holes that were nearby, surprisingly not bothering each other.
—
The mind flayer battalion was in position in one of the hangar rooms, sitting in a pyramid as they were when facing the colossus.
In the silenced black room that was their thoughts, not even their slow breathing could be heard. First they filtered all the thoughts and feelings from the crew, which was the easy part after so many years of practice, then they had to expand their range to cover as much as possible, trying to hear a whisper in the vastness of space.
While their minds were focused to their maximum, their bodies were starting to sweat due to the effort. Indeed it was as if they were running a marathon, or that’s what they would feel afterwards.
Fifteen minutes passed, then half an hour, then an hour. By the second hour when doctor Mukhopadhyaya was about to stop them and have them rest a bit before continuing they all heard it. A soft whisper coming from far away.
They were all as one now so they all drew a mental line towards that direction and sent the information to the helmsman and captain, then all of them stopped their focus, collapsing like a house of cards.
The captain and helmsman look at each other and then to a superimposed map that each had in their terminal.
They both painted a line, if only to check that they both understood the message, and when both maps showed how the lines fitted they both smiled. The line was going straight towards the lightning-stormed nebula.
“Take us in helm” - said the Captain, then pressed the comm button for a general call on his arm-chair - “This is the captain. We are moving towards an unknown and we’ll have to cross a dangerous looking nebula, everybody get ready for anything. We’ll keep on defcon 3 just in case but be prepared, I have a feeling that we’ll be in 2 or even 1 soon. Engineering, give it everything you can to the shields”
“Comms, how sure are we that the Empire knows our position?” - he asked
“Don’t know captain, we haven’t dropped a satellite, should we drop one?” - they replied
“Might as well, we want them to come and pick us up if we end biting more than we can chew.” - the captain ordered - “And send the information to our friendlies too, I don’t trust the Empire to keep everyone up to date”
“Aye aye sir!” - they answered.
—
The Emperor received the information from the Excelsior. Where they were, where they were going, and what they had found on arrival.
After analyzing all that data he thought he understood how the captain had reached the conclusion on where to go, but there were other places that fit the criteria so there was still some information that he missed. Either that or captain Miller had seen all those places as well and his instinct had told him which one to go.
That human instinct, another impossible thing to replicate. He had studied it deeply with the epsilons, who by being an evolution of humankind had it too, but he couldn’t find any science behind it. There was no rhythm to it, all those subtle details that the human brain recognizes and interprets were too many to consider all, specifically how the brain decides which ones are key in every single situation.
And while a part of him was lost in that train of thought, another was setting up two sets of ships to go help the Excelsior.
The first, made of just a few rescue ships and a medical corvette, nothing too grandiose. The second one which would be hidden and only come out if necessary, a real army with battlecruisers, dreadnoughts and everything else, formed with a hundred ships that the Empire could spare at the moment.
The Emperor always liked that human saying, hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.