Jordi was taking a nap when the Espurna received the message from the Excelsior. Friday read it and quickly prepared a plan.
Knowing Jordi, she knew he would want to go there somehow and after reading the full report, she had a feeling that something dangerous was hiding in that nebula, so she also made another plan involving a few of the most active kirkuggers.
She then proceeded to wake him up.
“Jordi, time to wake up. There’s an urgent message that you need to see” – she almost whispered.
He opened his eyes and sat on the bed, looking as if he didn’t really know where he was.
“That must have been a realistic dream” – Friday joked after seeing his reaction.
“You have no idea. Full colors, taste, smell… the whole package.” – he answered, blinking rapidly. – “How urgent are we talking about? No time for coffee urgent or you can check after a shower urgent”
“I’d say it goes between the coffee and the shower. Coffee is ready by the way” – Friday informed him.
“Whatever would I do without you…” – he said while walking to grab the coffee then went to the leisure room and sat on the couch. – “Ok, hit me.”
Friday put the Excelsior message on display and then ran the report with all the information they had, including the small spy-bots from the Emperor.
Jordi frowned at that, his mind racing through the events of the Alkagoria system and the implications of everything the Excelsior was openly saying in their communication, since he was sure he wasn’t the only one to receive it and it would be leaked to all mankind and everyone else.
“Friday, how’s Jeeyze doing? Has she recovered?”
“Almost fully recovered, but she insists that being here patiently waiting is not going to help her. She wants to move”
“Good. Now show me the plan you have prepared before waking me up because we both know you have one”
There was a pause, a few seconds not much more, then Friday chuckled inwardly and showed him what she had planned, but she still didn’t inform him of the kirkugger network, that was a surprise for another moment.
Jordi looked at the plans and couldn’t help but smile while also being a bit terrified because those plans looked exactly what he would have decided given enough time. It had every single thing that would be considered as his personal touch, she was doing a perfect imitation of him, which in hindsight made perfect sense but still.
He started notifying that the Espurna was healed and he wanted to take her for a spin so he would use this chance to fly to Earth and have an in person visit with his assigned psychologist.
He also notified him that he will be coming to cover his bases, but scheduled the visit with enough time for them to go where the Excelsior was and then to Earth.
Then they got some material for the 3d printer, as per the explorer guild regulations, and started doing all the pre-flight checks as usual. They left without anything that would indicate what they were really doing, even though they knew the Emperor would be aware somehow.
After a few hours they arrived near the coordinates the Excelsior had sent, just facing the nebula that was probably hiding the synths. What had pushed Jordi to go there while knowing they couldn’t do much he could not say but he felt he had to check the place by himself.
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He had instructed Friday to have the ship leave jump space within about ten light minutes of distance from the coordinates and, from that distance they could spy the scene without being detected.
In order to go unnoticed they had almost all systems in their lower settings, so Friday could only use visual systems to check the surroundings.
“There’s a couple big ships sitting at the coordinates” - informed Friday - “cannot see their denomination but look like ours”
“Can you give me camera control? I want to check something” - asked Jordi. Then he started checking a space further away from the specified point.
Moving the cameras around, zooming in and out, Friday could tell he was running on instinct as always. There was a voice telling him something was there and he would check the space until he either found what was or the voice stopped.
Friday could’t help but try to run her algorithms attempting to see whatever he was searching but knew it was a fool’s errand.
After a few minutes he started zooming in and out on the same sector, then smiled and said “Gotcha”.
Friday looked at the image without seeing anything, then re-run the whole process and realized some stars were not exactly how they should be, looking a bit dim. How could he see that, she had no answer.
He then started to play with some visual filters, trying to get the outline of the things he had found, but since the Espurna had to remain in low power mode in order to avoid being discovered he couldn’t run the most potent cameras to see enough.
“Ok, so we know there’s something there, I’d say a bunch of some things and since they haven’t approached the other ships in the Excelsior coordinates we should suppose those are friendlies.” - he said
“I’m detecting a couple beacons, we haven’t interacted with them but they were probably launched by the Excelsior before going into the nebula” - added Friday.
“Well, the question is, do we go in or do we wait here?” - asked Jordi
----
When the Excelsior went inside the nebula they lost all navigation cues, nothing seemed to be working up to the point that they couldn’t know if the problem was artificial or not.
Thankfully, they had the mind flayer battalion guiding them. Once they had felt the progeny it was quite easy to pinpoint its location and find a path. While some of its members were focused on the progeny to ensure it was not moving, the rest were just feeling the nebula, their senses so sharp that they could see inside it as if using their own eyes.
After a while the nebula started to dissipate and their systems started to work back again. The first thing they detected was an enormous shipyard but luckily for them it looked abandoned.
“We know what we’re seeing captain but the progeny is further inside, we don’t detect anything from this” - said Gisela as voice of the battalion.
“Comms, throw a relay beacon and navigation drones, let’s try to map this thing” - ordered the captain.
It was then when the defensive turrets in the shipyard came alive and started firing. The Excelsior’s shields weren’t even fazed by the attack though and they took them out quite quickly.
“Well, I think the battalion has found their kryptonite. If it doesn’t have a mind you cannot hear it think” - said the captain with a smile
“Apologies captain, we were already aware of that and were actively trying to sense power fluctuations. Looks like we need more training” - Gisela answered
“No worries kid. I was already expecting this, in fact I was expecting worse than that and I wouldn’t be surprised if the worst hasn’t come yet” - the captain responded - “In any case, as much as I would like to study this shipyard, I don’t think we can tempt fate by not disposing of it”
“Captain, if you don’t mind I’d like to have an exploration team raid the place and take as much information as we can before blowing it up” - said the XO.
He looked at her for a few seconds, sighing.
“You know our priority, I cannot promise we will be able to pick you up.” - he told her
“Then we will put whatever we find on a drone and relay it through the beacon” - she answered
“You are not going to take a no, are you?” - he inquired
“You know me so well” - she smiled him
“Take only volunteers and good luck then, I hope to see you again” - he stood up and offered him the right hand.
“Don’t worry captain, this is not going to be the last time we see each other, and I have a feeling you’ll be glad we’re going” - she said shaking his hand, and then left the bridge.
A small shuttle carrying her and five more people, her personal team, went towards the shiyard while the Excelsior continued its path towards the progeny, deep inside the nebula.