Leaving the hospital station he still felt a bit of melancholy mixed with relief. His father was ok now, his mother would be able to recover from her fatigue and he had his next mission to think about but, there was something, like a knot on his throat, and he couldn’t shake the feeling.
“This too shall pass” - he reminded himself, he always liked that fable.
The Espurna was slowly moving towards the designated jump point. Despite not having many ships on the system the station was protected so it was better to go to the point instead of jumping from anywhere.
“So, Friday, do we know anything about where we’re going?” - he asked the ship, focusing on the job at hand would bring him some peace of mind - “I mean about that section of space.” - he clarified
“From the records all I can see is a binary black hole system nearby and a nebula moving towards it.” - the AI answered
“Cool, got it. How’s the drone printing going?” - he inquired
“Fifteen deep exploration drones have been printed and we have enough materials to print the next twenty, they should be done in about a couple days.” - the ship informed him
“Set up 5 of those with extra gravity assist, I’m thinking there is something else attracting that nebula. A binary black hole system shouldn’t have enough pull to attract it.” - he ordered
“Got it boss” - the ship replied
He was already sitting on the bridge when they got to the jump point, Ryoshi on his lap as usual. He heard the engine switch with the buzzing indicating the jump engine going online and felt his stomach turn, from now on he would remember how different it was on the Excelsior and how badly he got it there at first.
With the ship already in jump space he decided to go to the leisure room and record a video for his psychologist, he had the feeling it was important after what he’d been through the last couple of weeks.
On his way there he saw Ryoshi hunting some parasites, jumping and swiping at the walls. She was so focused she didn’t realize he walked past her.
He sat on the couch, recorded the video and then started looking into the sector of space where they were going.
The only information they had was from long range scans. The nebula was formed of methanol, ammonia, carbon dioxide and dyazenylium, from their point of view had a conic form with the apex pointing towards the binary black holes and was about eighty light-years in diameter at its base, which made it one of the smallest detected.
The system he was travelling to was near it, about twelve light-years, but it was behind so their scans were blocked by it.
He knew the jump calculations would have taken everything into account and, the way it worked, it probably avoided the nebula by travelling through the higher dimensions. It was something difficult to grasp for human brains so he kept thinking about the example made by his teacher, the flat square and the cube, to try to imagine how higher dimensions worked.
But there was something bothering him. He knew the theory behind humans’ sixth sense and was trying to find what his brain had found and was trying to warn him.
Maybe it was the binary black hole system? There weren’t many of those in the whole of the Empire, and that was saying a lot with more than three thousand systems currently occupied.
He checked the data on the known ones but there wasn’t anything screaming at him in there.
“Oh well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there I guess” - he didn’t realize he said that out loud
“Sorry boss, what bridge?” - the ship said
“Nothing Friday, is just that I have a bad feeling and cannot for the life of me find out why” - he replied - “So I guess will see when we get there” - he finished
And so the days passed without issues. He followed his routine of waking up, making breakfast, doing some exercise, then after a shower either watching some documentaries about other species or some shows that he was following. Every now and then he would play some games instead.
Meanwhile, Ryoshi was really active, hunting throughout the ship and then resting on the coach either by his side or on his lap.
Jump travel was sometimes boring like that and a thirty day jump, well, was a lot of time without him doing really anything at all.
He would sometimes think about the early days of human space travel, when going to Mars would take a minimum of 260 days, and that was when both planets were the closest; and in the spaceships they had then, which weren’t as comfortable as the Espurna was.
He woke up on day twenty with the sounds of an angry Ryoshi. From his room he could hear her angrily meowing, a sound accompanied by the noise she would make when landing after a big jump.
He left the room and saw the passageway filled with dead parasites, Ryoshi jumping and swiping and biting at the walls. Small cleaning drones all around trying to collect all the dead bodies that Ryoshi didn’t eat, and an incredible amount of parasites running through the walls, they looked like green-lime cockroaches, 1cm long.
“Friday, what the heck is going on and why didn’t you wake me up before things went this bad?” - he asked in a serious tone
But there was no answer.
“Fuck…” - was all he could say while running towards the bridge, kicking some parasites along the way.
The panels were still blurry and the main window had the blinds down, which meant the AI was still in control and they were still in jump space.
He checked his data-pad, it had a primary connection to the ship's central system, and there was no alarm there either.
He decided to try to interact from there with the AI and typed “Status update Friday!”.
An answer appeared on his data-pad then, “Sorry boss, it appears the internal voice system might be down and my mini-drones cannot fix the issue”
“Do you still have control of the 3d printer?” - he typed
“Yes, it appears that connection is still up” - the AI replied
“Good, print an axe and I will also need a flame-thrower. I’m going to break and burn some shit” - he typed in response
“Ready in five minutes boss” - the answer appeared on his data-pad.
He spent those five minutes slapping and kicking some parasites, but there was a deluge of them along the walls and the floor was becoming a collection of bodies, the cleaning drones were struggling to keep the pace.
Once he had both items he walked through the passageway listening calmly. He always had been told he had good hearing for a human and now he was trying to find the place where the scratching sound was more intense.
Once he located it, he grabbed the axe and without a second doubt smashed the wall. Then again, and again, until he could see behind the panels.
The parasites went out like a flight of locusts. Ryoshi meowed really angry and jumped towards the middle of the invading parasites, sending some flying and killing them by the hundreds; all things considered it was a sight to be seen.
But he had to focus on what was behind that panel. Apart from hundreds of those small parasites there was a big one, a really big one more than half a meter long, he had found the queen.
He knew from the insect documentaries he had watched they would all attack him if he tried to hit her with the axe, that’s what the flamethrower was for.
He made sure he was far enough and checked that Ryoshi was focused on another grouping of those bugs, then fired the flamethrower towards the queen.
The moment he did that a few things happened at the same time.
Ryoshi ran away after seeing the two meter flame. A screeching sound came through the internal voice system. A group of parasites started moving towards him, spitting some green slime. And he felt his stomach turn and the buzzing of the jump engine stop.
He really needed to ask Friday if they had left jump space but since they couldn’t currently interact without the data-pad and he was kind of busy with the flamethrower, it would have to wait.
At one point one of the parasites managed to hit him on the hands with that green slime, and it burned him. He hadn’t realized until now the clothes were acid-resistant.
He clenched his teeth and continued emptying the flamethrower on the queen and every bug that would come close to him, the whole thing lasted about ten minutes until the flamethrower had no more fuel.
It was then that he realized the screeching sound had stopped maybe for a couple minutes. The floor was filled with bug bodies and the cleaning drones were picking them up and taking them to the recycle unit.
He sat on the floor and Ryoshi showed her head from the leisure room, then started walking towards him throwing glances to the wall and stepping and clawing on some half-alive bugs.
She sat in front of him, moving her tail while looking attentively at the flamethrower. He left it on the floor and caressed her.
“No worries girl, it's empty. And the goddamn things are done” - he said to the cat while looking at the devastation around him
“Are you still there?” - he typed on the data-pad
“Yes boss, but the internal voice system is quite damaged” - the AI replied
“I’m more worried about the jump engine and where are we right now” - he typed in turn
“We’re still in jump space, I didn’t have time to calculate a proper exit when I felt the emergency shut down” - was the AI response
He looked at that sentence on his data-pad, when she felt the emergency shut down, felt? Can AIs feel the ship?
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“Can you take us out or continue the trip?” - he typed instead
“I’m currently calculating a trip to a shipyard, we’ll need some repairs” - informed him the ship
“Can’t we both fix it? If you give me the instructions we can fix this and continue as planned” - he typed
“Sorry boss, you don’t have the proper clearance to access a Kirkugger schematics” - the AI continued
“What the actual fuck does that mean? I’m an explorer full grade and I’ve been on this ship for a couple of years now, what do you mean I don’t have the proper clearance” - he typed angrily.
“Exactly that. Kirkugger schematics and details are protected under a level 10 clearance. I’m afraid yours is at 4.” - informed him the ship - “Path calculated to the nearest shipyard, please be aware jump will continue in 2 minutes”
He was about to type something but decided against it, he would ask about it at the shipyard; he grabbed Ryoshi and walked towards the bridge, sat there and waited for the jump.
Once the buzzing came on again he saw the blurry screens on the bridge and a message on a panel indicating it would take twelve hours to reach their destination. Went to take a shower and then applied some healing cream on the burn.
He was angry. Angry because he just realized despite everything the ship was not his and had secrets that he wasn’t cleared to know.
When he left the bathroom he saw the passageway filled with cleaning drones, collecting and taking the bugs away. He stepped on some of those drones saying “ups, sorry” out loud.
He spent those hours in jump space just laying on the couch thinking about the ship and the parasites with a sleepy purring Ryoshi on top of him.
He didn’t realize he fell asleep until the data-pad started beeping, it had a message “2 minutes to end jump”. Grabbed Ryoshi and went to the bridge.
They exited jump space and the blinds on the bridge opened. It was completely dark, a few stars in the background but nothing else was there. He checked the panels and they were still blurry, the AI still in command of the ship.
“Friday, where are we going? I don’t see anything here” - he typed.
“Please be patient boss, we’ll arrive in a couple minutes” - the ship answered
He was looking again through the window and checking the data-pad for system landmarks, there was nothing there.
Since he couldn’t do anything else he just sat down, now more curious than anything else.
All of a sudden in the middle of that darkness a hangar door opened and they entered, the ship closed the blinds again and he could feel they landed inside. Then, another beep came from the data-pad, a message was showing, “Please remain here in the bridge”.
“As if..” - he said out loud. And started going to the ship’s entrance, but before he could get there it opened and a couple enormous bipedal insects entered.
Their exoskeleton was all black, they had four arms and a spider-like head with tons of eyes. They were holding some kind of rifle with two of those arms.
“Please come with us and put that in your head.” - one of them said with a grave voice, offering him what looked like a black helmet.
“We have to apologize but you are not clear to be here, the whole existence of this station is for clearance level 9. Is either that or we can stun you and drag you.” - the other said, its voice softer than the other.
He put on the helmet and all of a sudden his senses went dark, he couldn’t see or hear anything. He felt a hand on his shoulder guiding him.
They walked for a while, doing turns left and right up to the point where he was sure he wouldn’t be able to walk back.
“Please sit.” - a different voice said, with some hands softly guiding him to a chair. Once he sat, some other hands removed the helmet.
In front of him was a blob. A pink and green blob, about one meter tall and wide. There was no other way to describe it; the insect-like creatures that had guided him left the room.
“Apologies for the treatment, we’re not used to having many guests, none really” - the blob said.
He wasn’t sure where the voice was coming but he could swear the blob vibrated when speaking.
“It’s ok, I don’t even know where am I or what the heck I’m doing here” - he replied
“Well, that’s the thing, you are not cleared to know. All I can tell you is that we can and will fix your Kirkugger, you are to remain here in this room until we finish. And don’t worry about the cat, we’ll take good care of her” - the blob explained, then moved to the door, which had no handle and opened automatically, and left.
He took a look at the room now and there was no other way to say it, it looked like an abandoned room that had been cleaned in a rush and had a table, a chair and a mattress on the floor. Silver walls and a white floor with specs of dust everywhere.
“Ei bastards! What if I need to go to the bathroom?” - he shouted
A couple minutes later, a panel opened on a wall and a bucket came out of it.
“Brilliant, that’s just brilliant” - he muttered
Without anything else to do he just laid down on the mattress and tried to sleep, but he just couldn’t, the mattress was too hard and the lights too bright. So he decided to do some exercise, some push-ups, some squats, some shadow-boxing, anything to get tired so he could just fall asleep and let time pass.
A few hours later, how many he couldn’t say, the door opened again and the blob entered.
“Please have a seat” - said the blob.
He looked at it, he was starting to get the morphology of the thing and was pretty sure the thing that vibrated was just a sphere in the middle of it. He proceeded to sit down.
“So, a flamethrower, really?” - the blob inquired
“Look here, sorry I don’t know your name or how to refer to you. I’m from Earth and there when we have lots of bugs we have a saying, kill them with fire” - he replied, anger showing through his tone.
A raspberry sound came from the blob, did it just sighed? He thought.
“Well that fucked things up a bit. We’re going to need at least three standard days to fix it. And you humans are particularly needy so we’ve also had to set up a proper room because we cannot have an explorer full grade living like a damn prisoner for three days” - the blob said, sounding exasperated. - “And that meant having some engineers looking into human needs and working around the clock to have something ready for you. Engineers that should be doing something else, mind you” - the blob finished.
The more it talked the more he was sure about where the sound was coming from, and he was pretty sure it was some spherical thing in the middle of it.
“Apologies again, I know it is not your fault and you’re just the victim of a series of mistakes” - the blob continued, trying to sound more peaceful - “As you can imagine I am not accustomed to dealing with anyone who’s not under my command, this situation is aggravating for me to say the least”
“But, it turns out the Emperor has a soft side for humans and you’ve been granted clearance to know about us” - it continued - “Mind you, this doesn’t mean your clearance level has increased, you’ve just been cleared for this particular item”
It started moving towards the door, stopped and he could’ve sworn it turned towards him.
“Come with me please” - it said, and the door opened.
He proceeded to follow him, glad to leave the room.
“You might have guessed it already, but this station is where we grow and assemble the Kirkuggers and other organic ships” - the blob explained moving through a silver passageway.
“The Kirkuggers are programmed to come here in the event of an injury they cannot fix themselves and, to be honest, you are the first one to ever come here” - it explained.
“And they weren’t supposed to jump for more than fifteen days. Rest assured the explorer guild has already been notified about the fuck up and you won’t do anything like that again” - it continued with a tone that made him think someone was having a really bad day.
“In any case, let me show you so you can better understand the ship you are living on” - it said, and stopped in front of a wall. Then the wall opened and an enormous hangar with hundreds of ships and something that looked like a mix between a whale and a dolphin floating around.
The moment he saw that hangar and those flying animals something clicked on his brain and three words came to him. Farscape, Moya, Talyn.
“Exactly” - said the blob
He looked at the blob, wide-eyed and surprised.
“Oh damn it. Apologies again. Your thoughts were so strong that I could just hear them. But that’s exactly it” - was the blob response
“You see, after we conquered humanity a section of the research department watched all your television shows - that's what you call them, right? - and that particular show inspired the idea that later on became the foundation of the Kirkugger project.” - the blob explained
“These beings you see floating around are semi-intelligent, like the dolphins you have on your planet. And they live in space and are capable of jumping through higher dimensions as well. But we needed some technology to control and adapt them.”
“Now, the thing you killed with fire was the equivalent to destroying the flora you humans have in your stomach, I’m told that’s really bad for humans so you can imagine how much your ship is suffering right now” - it kept explaining
He was appalled. He thought it was just parasites, something bad for the ship, now it turns out they were part of the ship and he should have just left them alone.
“After so many days in jump space that, let’s call it organ, went into overdrive. And you decided to burn it. Thankfully the technological part managed to hold the ship enough for it to come here and be repaired, otherwise it would have died and you and the cat with it.” - it said, turning towards him.
“I hope you understand that this is a top secret facility and the real source of the Kirkuggers must be kept secret for now. There are some species in the Empire that wouldn’t like what we’re doing very much. And the Emperor wants everyone to be happy and live peacefully” - it finished, as if waiting for him to respond.
He was lost just looking at those massive animals floating in the hangar, and the hundreds of ships - or were they pups? - on the ground being worked on.
“So, what happens to me now?” - he inquired
“Well, I’ll take you to the room we’ve set up for you. You’ll be provided with entertainment, food, and a proper bathroom and shower. But you cannot leave that room without guards. If you want to walk through the facilities you can but only a few places.” - the blob answered - “Once we fix your ship you’ll continue your mission as if nothing happened, on your report you’ll note down that you had a T-471-N event and proceeded to continue your mission.” - he explained.
“Furthermore, you will discuss this with no one. If you do, both you and the listener will probably be sent to the mines. If you keep quiet you have a good chance to see your clearance level increase in time and, who knows, maybe you get to know more Empire secrets along the way.” - it finished.
Without waiting for an answer the blob started moving through the passageway. After a few minutes it stopped and a door opened on the side.
“Here we are. If you need anything just say it out loud, without insults this time if possible. We’ll treat you as good as we can but please be aware we have assigned a few people to tend to your needs and their field isn't xeno relationships, we’re all researchers and engineers here.” - the blob said, then it turned and left without even saying goodbye.
He entered the room, it was big and a kind of a mix between his bedroom and the leisure room on the Espurna, there was a side part with a fridge and a small kitchen, they probably had copied the settings and brought some of his food there. On one of the walls there was a door and behind it a small bathroom and shower.
“Well, it could be way worse. Much appreciated guys” - he said out loud.
He sat on the couch and turned on the big screen, his favourite shows were there so he continued with the last episode he was watching.
After the first couple of days he was bored to bits. The Espurna was also a closed space but at least he could walk around and he had Ryoshi, he hadn’t been aware of how much company that little fluffy gave him.
He asked for a walk and a few minutes later a couple of black insect-like creatures appeared on the door. He thought they were the same as before but wasn’t sure, his eyes were still not trained to see their differences.
He asked to see that hangar again, and stayed there looking at it, for a while. Then they walked him to other parts where he could see how some engineers were implanting the technological bits.
“Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt them, we checked” - one of the creatures said - “And as far as we know, they like travelling around and exploring all kinds of systems." - it finished.
They walked a bit more but weren’t specially talkative, after a while they took him back to the room.
A couple more days passed with him just doing nothing. Then at one point the door on the room opened and the insect-like creatures came in, one had that black helmet on one of its hands.
“Your ship is ready. Apologies but we’ll walk through some sensitive areas and we need you to put this on again” - one of them said, the one with a soft voice.
“As if I could say no, right?” - he said, grabbing the helmet and putting it on.
They walked him again through passages and turns left and right, then they signal him to stop and a hand removed the helmet.
The Espurna was in front of him, looking as good as new, door opened waiting for him to come in. He felt something different this time though, fully aware that he was looking at a living thing.
“Good travels, mister explorer. Hope we don’t see you again, it would mean you had no problems” - said the creature with the soft voice, with a tint of humor.
He waved and entered the ship, the door closing behind him.
“Hello boss, glad to have you on board again” - the ship said. Did he hear a bit of happiness in the voice?
“Hello Friday, I’ve missed you too.” - he answered. He was about to call for Ryoshi when she came running, stopped a few meters in front of him and turned running towards the leisure room.
He could say she was happy and in the mood of playing, it had been the longest they had been apart.
He felt the ship take off and walked towards the leisure room. Sat on the couch where Ryoshi was looking at him and started playing with her.
“Jump will start in two minutes, it will be twelve days to reach our mission objective” - the AI informed him.
“Got it Friday” - after those two minutes he heard that familiar buzzing and felt the much familiar stomach feeling when going into jump space; Ryoshi didn’t even look affected by it and was just play-fighting with his hands.
He could only wish that the parasites would stay quiet during those twelve days.