It had taken them just over two hundred days to visit all the preprogrammed stops, Leon scrolled through the list of systems they had visited. He looked at all thirteen of the preprogrammed stops and smiled now that they were now finally out on their own. It had been a further two months without anything of great import and he was a little frustrated. Space was vast and even with the incredible speed at which they were traveling, three hundred times the speed of light was still painfully slow in the grand scheme of things.
Leon was walking along the curving corridor towards the ladder that led to the main body of the ship. They were close to exiting into a new system, this one should be interesting for scientific reasons at least. They were closing on what seemed to be a protostar in formation, the massive cloud of nebular gas coalescing into the beginnings of a star and solar system.
Leon ascended the ladder almost effortlessly, his strengthened muscles handling the activity with ease after all the time he had spent training. He thought about the last time he had been in the gym, it was so like that night he had almost broken. But he shook it off, he was strong, and he was busy.
He entered the ship and drifted into the long tunnel. Now weightless, he pulled himself towards the main bridge hand over hand using the grips built into the walls. Leon soon drifted into the main area at the front of the ship, there was a large airlock door leading to the main bridge and a smaller one leading to the observation deck that lay underneath the bridge. He had visited the observation deck several times on their journey, but never with anyone else. Today they had invited the whole crew to the observation room to witness the protostar firsthand if they liked. It would be a nice break from the general monotony of ship life for most of them.
While there were many things to do aboard the ship, they were still trapped within its confines. Leon opened the main bridge airlock and waited as it cycled open. The observation deck was like a smaller secondary version of the main bridge except for the consoles. It still had the semicircle of raised chairs and the plethora of wall mounted screens, but it was populated by viewing platforms rather than command consoles.
The second door of the airlock hissed open quietly and he drifted through into the crew storage and relief area. There to one side was the small cubby for quick naps and the little zero gravity bathroom. On his other side were the rows of named lockers for the crew to store items they didn't necessarily need off the bridge.
Leon made his way over to his own locker, pulling it open he slipped into his voidsuit quickly and efficiently. The action was now quite practiced and he made sure to double check the connecting strips for air leaks and then grabbed the accompanying helmet. While he didn't force the bridge crew to wear the helmets while on the bridge, he did have them keep them handy at all times. One never knew when a structural failure or micrometeorite could ruin your day, and nothing quite ruined a day like experiencing explosive decompression without a helmet.
Leon hooked the helmet to the side of his chair as he reached it and nodded towards Samuel and Taylor who were looking at him. Sabine and Terry were already deep into their consoles, no doubt readying themselves for the influx of data this upcoming warp exit would give them. There was the potentiality to see not only star formation, but planetary and ring formation as well. This could be a staggering astronomical discovery and he knew they would do their best to capture it all.
Leon finished strapping himself into his seat, he knew a little about star formation, enough to know the picture was likely to be chaotic and deadly. He secretly hoped that there would be nothing there so they could justify leaving immediately. But part of him was also excited to see what an unborn star looked like with his own eyes.
He swept through the data they had on the system, none from Earth but their last stop had allowed them to get a dim picture of it and they decided to make it their next target. He wasn't usually on the bridge during normal ship operation, none of them were. That was Henry's duty to maintain the basic ship functions and they only needed to be present during the decision-making times. Times such as when they exited or entered warp.
Leon looked at the data more closely, according to their last long-range look, the system was quite young and had yet to fully leave the nebulous state and enter the system one. The protostar had not collapsed far enough to start fusion and the outer reaches were choked with gasses and other bits of interstellar matter.
As he read over the data he was alerted to their proximity by the flashing of the yellow alert lights as they neared warp exit. He settled himself down in his seat more comfortably as the ship neared the translation point and he could have sworn he could feel a charge in the air. With a suddenness that made it hard to believe was real, the world twisted in on itself and then was normal. He let out a deep breath and shook his head. Even after multiple tests and checkups, he still had a hard time believing that warp translations were truly harmless.
Leon spoke "Samuel, report, are we in the right location?"
After a moment spent looking at his navigation console, he turned. "Everything looks in order, commander. We should be spot on."
Sabine shifted in her seat and glanced over towards the main viewscreen which hadn't been turned on yet. Looking at Terry, Leon started to ask her a question but halted as she beat him to it. "How old do you think it is?"
Terry glanced in her direction and replied "It is hard to say, it depends heavily on the composition and density of the interstellar medium it formed from. Thinner gas and it would take much longer to form, heavier elements would cause the cloud to collapse faster. Though I imagine it can't be more than a few thousand years old at the very most."
He watched as Sabine nodded and turned back to her screen. He flicked through the data and said "Prepare to cast the sensor view to the main screen." He watched with anticipation as the large screen powered up and then showed blackness. He frowned.
Looking over to Taylor he asked "What's wrong with the sensor feed, why aren't we getting picture?"
Taylor fiddled with the controls on his console a bit before he responded "There is nothing wrong with the sensors, they are listed as fully green. Maybe it's a problem with the screen or casting function?" He muttered quietly.
Leon looked at the sensor feed, it was saying it was a real time feed, yet it was a blank screen, as if there was nothing, literally nothing outside the ship. Terry leaned over to Sabine and began to whisper to her while gesturing at the outside hull readings.
He spoke up again asking "Terry, what do the long-range telescopes see? Anything at all, what about infrared?"
Terry rapidly pressed a series of buttons on her screen and drew up the long-range feeds, they also showed the same inky blackness. What was happening, were they in some sort of limbo? Had their warp drive taken them somewhere impossible? Why were there no stars? His mind raced as thoughts of eternal solitude flashed through his mind, then he thought of his friends in the crew and his mind stilled. He knew that no matter what was happening, they were in this together. And together they would get out of their predicament, but first things first, they had to figure out where in the wide universe they were.
"Nothing on the long-range visual scopes, nothing on infrared, what is going on?" He heard Terry say. He looked over to her and saw her shaking her head in disbelief at her readings which seemed to be returning negative.
Taylor raised his head and said "I think I might have something, it's weak but it's a signal." He pressed a few buttons on his feed and Leon's console lit up as a new return manifested. It was an ultra-low frequency radio wave, slow and repeating. It seemed to have some sort of interference but Leon couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Leon looked at Taylor and asked "What is this?"
Taylor shook his head and appeared to listen to something. After a few moments he sat up straight and tapped a few commands into his console before turning to look at him. "Call me crazy, but it almost sounds like whale song. Listen." He quickly played a low audio tone out of his console.
Leon furrowed his brows but listened intently. A series of eerily low groaning sounds issued from his speakers interspersed with rapid clicks of interference. He cocked his head to the side as Taylor sped the noise up and raised the pitch. His eyes widened as the strange unearthly sounds suddenly began to sound a whole lot more familiar.
Sabine spoke up "Whoa, don't tell me you think there are some sort of space whales out there. Cause if you do I'll…" she started but was cut off by Samuel.
"Listen to the noise, that's too close to be coincidence surely." Samuel said rapidly. He waved his hands excitedly "What if it's some sort of organism that feeds on the nebular gas?" Leon looked at the man in disbelief, this idea was insane, nothing could survive the freezing temperatures and low pressures of the void.
Suspending his disbelief for a moment Leon asked "Okay then, say you're right, how does that help us figure out where we are?"
Samuel looked towards Taylor for support but saw him shake his head. Lowering his head for a moment, Samuel looked at his console and said “What if we triangulate the signal’s source and then move towards it, if nothing else it would lead us to discovering what is making these radio pulses.”
Leon nodded and waved his arm towards Taylor before asking the communications expert “You know how to do this kind of thing right Taylor?”
Taylor nodded his head and replied quickly “Yes I do indeed, but I have to wonder, if we should. What if these signals are being broadcast by something dangerous, what if it's some sort of anomaly that could destroy us all? What would we even do if we started getting too close?” He stated in an agitated voice.
Sabine looked at him and rolled her eyes “Seriously guys, you two are just as paranoid, just in completely different ways. There has to be a logical explanation to this. Like, if we are getting radio waves but not visible or infrared then it stands to reason we are in some sort of gas cloud. That would explain why it's so dark.” Leon nodded his head as she spoke, it did seem to make sense.
Leon saw a message from Chris pop up on his console that read “Nothing wrong with the optical sensors, must be obscured by something.”
Leon typed back a quick message about Sabine’s theory of them being inside a gas cloud. Turning his attention back to the others on the main bridge he asked “Taylor, did you get those signals locked down yet?”
Taylor bobbed his head up and down quickly as he replied “Got the song locked. It's a ways away, I'm not sure how the thrusters are going to respond if we are in a gas cloud though. What if the material is combustible?” he said, suddenly looking over towards Samuel.
Samuel pointed at his screen and said “The main drives shouldn't cause an issue as long as there's no oxygen out there to cause a chain reaction, hell, the gas might even help keep the engines cool.”
Leon watched the indicators as the main drives lit and they started to accelerate forwards slowly. “Well, it's definitely something out there, the light from the drives is showing up, see?” Terry said quietly.
Leon looked towards the rear sensors and saw that the area was indeed lit with an ominous blue glow as the light from the main drives refracted through the interstellar medium towards them. He watched the slightly swirling light for a few moments longer before he made an observation “We are accelerating slower than expected. Can you use this information to determine the density of the gas outside the ship Sabine?” he asked her.
Sabine nodded and started working on her console, Leon decided to try and placate the crew on the lower observation deck who must be wondering by now just what was going on. They had been down in the dark for about ten minutes or so by this point and he owed them an explanation now.
Leon linked with one of the main consoles in the lower room and saw a group of people sitting in the various seats, many of them were wearing their voidsuits, but he frowned as he saw Chris sitting in his plain clothes unsuited. “Hello, main bridge to the observation deck, come in observation deck.” he said through the link.
He smiled as he saw one of the nearby crew twitch and turn to look at him. It was their biochemist, Oliver. He unstrapped and pulled his way over to the lit console before re-strapping himself down and saying “Hey, what's the situation? We have been staring into nothing down here.”
“Good to see you Oliver, so, we have a working theory about that. We warped into a system with a star under formation but were unable to get accurate reading on the system from our last stop. Sabine thinks we may have warped in a bit too close and are ensnared in a large gas cloud.” Leon said to the Australian man.
Oliver nodded his head and said “That would explain why we cant see the stars, and here I was betting we had traveled into another dimension or some shit.” He chuckled at the idea and Leon smiled in response.
He said to him “So don't take too much stock in this, but Taylor has detected some unusual radio signals cutting through the cloud. We are heading in their direction but they could be anything. I want you all suited up and ready for the worst, okay, that includes Chris.” he finished as Oliver grimaced.
Oliver looked over his shoulder and whispered “But that grumpy old man insists he is perfectly fine. What do I do if he refuses?” He asked Leon.
Leon looked him over and smiled before saying “Tell him that's an order. He is used to taking orders, seeing as he used to work for the government.” Oliver raised his eyebrows at the comment but just nodded. Leon said “Okay then, we will keep you posted, stay in that seat, I will link back to the same console when I have news.”
Oliver nodded again and said “No problem mate. Good luck.” and then the connection was severed.
Turning his attention back to the problem at hand, he looked over towards Samuel and asked "What's our arrival time look like Samuel?"
Samuel grunted "An hour, maybe less. The signal is a little muddy." His hands were playing over his controls, no doubt trying to balance their forward momentum with the friction they were experiencing from the cloud.
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Terry leaned to her side and tapped Sabine on the shoulder before whispering something to her. As she straightened she caught him looking at her and jumped slightly before she ducked her head and went back to her work. Leon frowned at the behavior, it was unlike her to be so reserved, she must be talking to Sabine about Taylor. Taylor, who was sitting on her other side, had not seemed to notice as he was focused intently on the strange signal they were following.
Settling down into his command throne, Leon contented himself to wait it out, worst case scenario. They could always just warp out in a different direction for a while till they were clear of the system. He looked at the radio frequency readouts while he waited. They did indeed look like some sort of song as the signal rose and fell in rhythmic patterns, but how could life exist here. The star hadn't even formed yet, there were no planets. 'What if it's aliens.' He thought to himself. But it was so unlikely that they would be here at the same time as them as to be impossible.
After a few minutes Samuel spoke excitedly "We are moving easier now, the gas must be thinning."
Terry turned to him and confirmed "I'm also starting to get weak returns on the infrared sensors, it would seem our unknown friends have led us out of the darkness." She turned back to her console as the screen flashed new signals to her.
Leon looked at the readings, they did seem to correlate with the ship leaving the dark choking mist that had obscured it. He spoke up saying "The minute we are clear of the dark I want visuals up and ready."
Sabine nodded and said "Taylor has the optical sensors ready, we just need to actually see something now."
Leon watched tensely as they continued towards the unknown signals. He didn't know what to expect and neither did the others, for all he knew they could be hurtling towards some sort of wormhole that would strand them far out in intergalactic space with no hope of ever seeing home again. With a pang he realised how much that thought affected him. Sure he had been prepared to bet everything, including his life, on this mission. But he had always hoped to see that shining blue jewel again. Earth, the home of all things he knew, and the birthplace of Humanity.
Leon wondered if in a thousand years they would still remember his name, would Leon become synonymous with Leif? What about the rest of the crew, they were no less important than he, and many were indeed even more vital to the mission. He hoped they would all be remembered, as the champions of Humankind, the ones who brought the goodwill of Earth to the stars.
"Leon, I see something!" Sabine suddenly hollered, breaking standard protocol. At this exact moment however, Leon didn't give a damn.
He bolted upright in his chair, making his body jerk against his restraining harness. He looked at the image that she had just brought up and he could indeed see the faint pinpricks of light. The stars he realised, it was the stars again. He sat back in his chair, muscles relaxing as the nightmare of the void was lifted from them. The pinpricks rapidly grew more luminous and numerous as they powered out of the clinging gas, the glow of their engines fading to be replaced by pure starlight.
As the others talked amongst themselves, Leon opened the link to Oliver once more and smiled as the man answered. "Good news Oliver, as you can no doubt see, we have finally left that oppressive darkness behind."
Oliver nodded and glanced out the large viewports that afforded an unimpeded view of the outside. The view screens next to them showed various zoomed in images, but the unfiltered view was certainly the most spectacular.
Outside the window the clouds of gas rotated slowly, billowing through the reflected starlight like dark storm clouds. The intense light and bombardment of cosmic particles along the far edges of the clouds made them glow a dull red, the ionised gas glowing like neon in the cold void of space.
Oliver cleared his throat and asked "So, about those signals, did you figure out what they were?"
Leon shook his head as his train of thought was broken. "No. Not yet. We are still en route to their strongest location and will be reaching their origin rather soon if what the sensors say is true."
Leon watched as Oliver ducked his head and muttered to himself for a moment. Leon cocked his head and was about to ask when Oliver finished and raised his head. "I see the question in your eyes. Tell me Leon, are you a spiritual man?"
Leon shrugged and said "I went to church as a kid, sabbath day, church hymns and all that. Can't say it really stuck to me though."
Oliver nodded as if that's what he had been expecting. "That's a shame, there is a deep spiritual history in my family dating back hundreds of years, I just said a quick prayer for our souls. I hope you don't mind."
Leon waved his arm and said "Not at all, one of the main things I did take away from church was to respect others and their beliefs. By all means, pray for us, it can't possibly hurt."
Oliver nodded his head and said "Thank you Leon, it is gratifying to hear that from you. I know you to be a reasonable man, but now I see you are respectful as well. I'm glad the Director decided to make you the commander. Please let us know if you find anything. Till then, cheers." And he waved as Leon closed the communication.
Leon blinked a few times as his eyes grew misty, he had never been this emotional before, what was happening? He thought about Natalia and her talks with him, how he opened up to her and poured out his soul when they spoke. That was likely the biggest cause of his new sensitivity. It wasn't a bad thing, not really, he appreciated all the crew but it was still heartening to hear such acceptance for his position voiced openly like Oliver had.
His mind wanderings were once more interrupted by one of the others. Taylor said excitedly "I think I found it, bearing twenty three degrees off the prow, and about one hundred and thirty kilometers more. There, in that slightly denser gas cloud." He pointed to a darker spot in the distance.
Leon squinted at the spot and then zoomed in using the forward telescopes. The spot suddenly jumped towards him and gained definition, the edges becoming more focused and the interior growing to fill his screen. He looked at it for a few moments and saw nothing out of the ordinary, whatever was causing the signals must be deeper in the mass.
As they traveled further from the cloud that had originally obscured their view, Leon watched as more of the system came into view. He marveled at the titanic mass of slowly rotating gas coalescing near the center of the system, far far into the distance. The dull red around the edges of the clouds contrasted with the faint molten orange glow coming from the largest part of the cloud.
While the protostar had yet to ignite its nuclear heart, the friction from the infalling gas heated it up to thousands of degrees and caused it to glow with a baleful orange light. Leon watched the sinister eye for a few minutes, the smoke-like clouds of gas forming strange otherworldly patterns and shapes. His primal mind told him he was in danger but he knew it was just his body's response to the unknown. They were perfectly safe in the ship, millions of miles from the smoldering heart of the interstellar storm.
He was pulled out of his grim pontification by Taylor as he spoke out loud "The signals are only fifteen kilometers away, we should slow down a bit, just in case." He added quickly.
Samuel said "What do you think Leon? I'm not sure what the best play is personally."
Leon nodded towards the younger man and said "Yeah, slow down a bit. Not to a full stop though." He watched Samuel as he messed with the controls on his console and felt the slight sideways motion as the ship began to rotate.
The UNSS Leif Erikson was capable of intense bursts of speed using its main drives, but needed to turn completely around to decelerate appreciably. As Samuel finished executing the rotation he engaged the main drives again. The deceleration pushed him back into his chair slightly as the main drives fired in sequence. After only a few minutes, the ship had decelerated to only a few dozen meters per second. Slow enough to maneuver but not so slow as to be helpless.
Leon frowned as he once more entered a region of dense gas, the faint red glow of ionised particles fading to a dull haze as they fully entered the nebula. While much thicker than the surrounding interstellar medium, it was not as dense as the first cloud they had been stuck in. The dim glow of starlight could be seen as it twinkled through the layers of gaseous hydrogen that they swam through slowly.
Taylor nodded his head a few times and said "The signals are coming from here, we should be almost on top of them." He looked intently at the sensor screen and switched it through the various channels. X Rays, Ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and finally, radio waves.
Leon's eyes opened wide as Taylor switched to the radio bandwidth. There seemed to be orbs of diffuse light floating through the gas a mere few hundred meters from their current position, but that wasn't the thing that made him gape. They were moving around, as if they were alive.
Samuel breathed under his breath "What in the name of everything above are those?" It was quiet enough on the bridge that Leon heard him though.
Terry looked wide eyed at Sabine and the two of them stared. Leon shook his head slightly to clear it and opened a message to Oliver.
Oliver immediately picked up with a flabbergasted expression and Leon asked "I take it you are patched into the main feed then?"
Leon saw the man nod over the screen and say "What are we looking at exactly?"
Leon raised an eyebrow and said "Hell if I know, all I can tell you is that they are spherical, move under their own power, and emit radio frequencies at a low resonant tone. More information than that and I would have to see them closer. Which is what Samuel and Taylor appear to be doing right now." He said as he looked up from the screen. He switched his attention to the aforementioned bridge crew and said "Hey, be careful. We don't know what we are dealing with here." Looking back down at Oliver he apologised "Sorry about that, I will keep this channel open while we move in, you will see everything I see. Tell me if any of you notice something we don't." He said.
Oliver nodded sympathetically and answered "Sure thing Leon, we are just waiting on more information now." Leon gave the man another nod and a wave and moved the screen to the side a bit so he could more easily observe the bridge.
Leon watched the main feed as they slowly approached the strange orbs. The UNSS Leif Erikson was equipped with powerful floodlights for scientific purposes, such as observing the dark surface of a comet or asteroid. In this case however, the beams illuminated the gas and the orbs as they were switched on.
Leon yelled in surprise and lurched in his chair as his muscles tried to make him stand. His eyes bulged in shock and he opened his mouth silently as words failed him. The other crew had similar reactions, except for Taylor and Samuel who had apparently expected something to happen.
The flood lights illuminated a great swath of the gas and along with it several of the strange orbs. What had him so shocked was what the light had illuminated. The orbs were glittering with every color of the rainbow, not unlike a soap bubble in the sun. As the light hit them they seemed to contract inwards and move away. Leon saw with fascination that these spheres seemed to have some sort of internal mechanisms for movement and possibly more.
Taylor said "Turn off the lights, I think it's hurting them. The radio signals just spiked."
Sabine reached out and quickly flicked off the main floodlights only leaving on the dimmer secondaries. Leon watched the radio signals as they seemed to stabilize and the fleeing orbs slowed back to their sedate drifting. Leon let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding and observed as the orbs seemed to swell once more. As he looked more closely at the nearest orb, it seemed to pulse slightly, as if it was breathing.
Taylor asked suddenly "Leon, er, commander. Permission to try something?"
Leon waved an arm and said "Leon is fine, we are not in the military so we don't need the formalities anymore." Sabine turned and gave him a searching look which he pointedly ignored. Continuing, he said "Permission granted, though please explain what it is you are attempting before you do it." He finished.
Taylor nodded and said "These creatures appear to be surviving off the nebula, I want to try and communicate. If I modulate our radio transmitter to the same frequency and amplitude, we might be able to convince them we mean no harm." He said excitedly.
Leon saw Samuel nodding enthusiastically and turned to look at Oliver. "Oliver, what do you think?"
Oliver looked back to him through the screen and said "I'm blown away. This is the most incredible discovery since, well. Ever. The fact that these things could possibly live or even thrive in the near vacuum of space speaks volumes to our lack of understanding about the limits of life, it makes me wonder. Could there be intelligence that has no need for ships like these creatures?" He turned as a muffled voice spoke from the background. Leon heard him say "No it's still Leon, yes it is, they seem to think so. I'll ask but don't get your hopes up, these things are massive."
Oliver turned back to look at him and said "Joice wanted me to ask if you could gather a sample from one of them?" Leon made a face and Oliver said "Yeah that's about what I expected. Anyways, we think Taylor should give it a try. These creatures seem to be quite docile, and they seem rather insubstantial. I personally don't see a way they could pose any danger to the ship or us." He said with a grin.
Leon nodded and looked back to Taylor who had been sitting patiently. "Go for it, but Sabine, get ready on the LDPs just in case. I know, I don't want to hurt them either." Leon said as she looked about to argue. "I just don't want to be responsible for any injuries if I can avoid them."
Sabine nodded and turned back to her station as Taylor began to mess with their radio emitter. After a short while, the radio started to broadcast the same frequency as the orbs and they sat back to wait.
They didn't have to wait long as one of the orbs began to drift closer as if curious. Leon watched enraptured as the smaller orb drifted to within a dozen meters of the ship. They were motionless now, and the orb was coming to them. The orb was shimmering with a multitude of colors and its thin outer membrane seemed to encapsulate a more complex inner core. As he watched, the orb let loose a small puff of gas from its side which propelled it slightly before it was balanced by a puff from the other side.
"It's so colorful." He heard Taylor say. None of the others spoke, as if afraid to scare off their newfound friend.
Leon spoke up after a moment as the orb began to slowly move away. "That, was surreal. What on Earth was…" but he was cut off by Samuel.
"Not Earth, we aren't on Earth." Samuel said to him. When he gave Samuel a blank look the younger man explained "You said what on Earth, but we aren't on Earth anymore so the saying is meaningless."
Leon let out a sigh and flapped his arms in exasperation. "You know what I meant. There was no need to call me out on a technicality." Leon said with a small glare. He took a breath and continued saying "On the other hand, we are presented with two problems. How the hell do we collect any data on those things, and what are we going to call them?"
He heard Oliver talk from the console next to him "I can answer one of those questions. Looking at an analysis of the gas expelled by the creature as it moved, they seem to subsist off the hydrogen and helium in the gas and use the helium for propulsion and the hydrogen for an as of yet unknown purpose." He finished with a shrug.
Leon nodded absently and then looked over towards Taylor. "Taylor, as the main reason for this incredible new discovery, I feel like it would only be proper for you to name them. What do the rest of you think?” He asked, directing his attention to the screen where Oliver lay.
Oliver looked over his shoulder and shouted something to which he got a long jumbled response from a multitude of other crew. After a few minutes of deliberations he turned back to Leon and said “I personally agree with the idea, but there are a few,” he faked a cough “Joice! Ahem, that would like their own crack at it. Seeing as we have no real way to study these things, we might as well give them a common name and leave the scientific naming to a later date once we have more information.” Leon nodded at the man's response, it seemed reasonable.
Leon looked to the others on the bridge who were all watching him and asked “Do any of you have anything against Taylor giving these things a common name?” A trio of head shakes told him everything he needed to know and he looked back to Oliver and said “That's a green light then. Taylor will name em and then we might try to get a few more readings out of them before we leave.”
Oliver turned and said something to the people behind him before turning back to Leon and saying “They seem to think the idea is acceptable.”
Leon nodded and looked at Taylor. “So, you have a name for them yet, or do you need some time?”
Taylor almost immediately spoke up saying “Glimmer Drorns…”
Leon cocked his head before nodding and saying “Alright, it's settled then, we calling these things, Glimmer Drorns was it?” Leon asked. Taylor nodded and Leon shrugged before saying “Alright, now that that's out of the way, we can get back to the more important business of seeing what we can do about our lack of knowledge on these creatures.”
Leon watched the rest of the crew turn back to their consoles and begin working. He smiled, They had made a truly breaking discovery, this feeling, it was the whole reason he had signed up. He looked down at the console screen showing Oliver and nodded to the man who nodded back and then switched off the link. He felt ready for anything. After a discovery like that, things could only get better.