“We’re passing the sixth planet now, sir,” Miles reported to the Captain. “Seven minutes out before we reach the signal.”

There was a tense air on the bridge as everyone silently carried out their duties. Barely a whisper of conversation passed as everyone waited in anticipation of what they would find. Miles himself tapped his console impatiently. His eyes kept flicking over to the time, waiting for those slow minutes to finally slip away.

The rest of the crew were waiting on standby in the rest of the ship. Scientists were packed away in their laboratories, waiting for further updates. Engineers were all on duty, making sure that no critical system suffered a malfunction. And finally, forty-five marines were operating the turrets aligned on the Hyperion’s hull, and another sixty were waiting in the shuttle bay, ready for boarding if it should come to that.

Miles wiped the sweat off his forehead. So far, nothing had changed since they entered the solar system. The signal and the ship carrying it hadn’t moved an inch. No other vessels were detected at all. They were in the middle of the emptiness of space, with nothing between them and the impossible.

“Five minutes,” Miles reported again.

He himself felt an apprehension as they approached. He wasn’t going back to the Exchange one way or another. Miles had made that vow to himself. It was time to finally see what the future held in store for him.

“Commander Terese.” Samir asked, tapping the a screen on the armrest of his chair. “Are you certain that all are hailing channels are working properly?”

They had been broadcasting a pre-programmed greeting since they entered the solar system. Nothing had been sent back.

“I’m certain.” Dr. Terese was looking at one of the new sensor readings on a computer. “They’ve had plenty of time to respond by now.”

“Captain, do you want us to reorient the gravity drives?” Klyker asked while he worked at a terminal, scanning the surrounding area and keeping a constant watch for ships that might appear. “We may want to take defensive precautions as we approach.”

Captain Singh shook his head. “No, I don’t want us to look hostile. Besides, raising shields would limit the information we can get sensors.”

“Two minutes.” Miles looked at his computer screen. From his view, he could see the rust-colored gas giant approaching. Deep, swirling clouds of brown and red slowly shifted and churned, growing bigger with every passing moment. From his view, he couldn’t see anything hiding underneath that storm. His eyes strained to catch a glimpse of whatever was lurking below the clouds.

“Sir,” Dr. Terese asked, “considering the Andromedans have had ample time to broadcast back, what should we do if they remain silent?”

Miles glanced at the digital timer again. Less than a minute and a half. Perhaps that would be the greatest irony of all. Having come all this way to the edge of the galaxy, and the Andromedans weren’t even interested in answering back. Maybe they were hyper advanced, and after taking a good look at the Hyperion, they thought the Milky Way wasn’t worth the bother of contacting.

He glanced back towards the captain, who had a thoughtful look upon his face. Singh rubbed his fingers through his beard for a moment. “It seems rather impolite, but we haven’t come all this way just to turn back. We’ll pull the ship out of the gas giant if we have to.”

Samir tapped a few more buttons and the holographic wall in the front of the bridge turned to an enhanced view of the gas giant precisely where the signal was located. Turning it to a sensor readout, the view pulled up a diagram of the planet and the Andromedan ship’s depth in the clouds. It sat approximately two miles deep in the atmosphere, hovering to keep itself from being pulled in and crushed by the planet’s gravity.

This image was far clearer than the one taken several light years from the system. Miles could definitely see the outline of the ship resting gently amidst the storm. He flicked his eyes toward the clock and then at the orbital position of the Hyperion, just above where the signal was located. He turned around to the Captain.

“We’ve arrived.”

Captain Singh glanced over to Commander Terese, still pouring through the sensor information. “I want to try hailing them one last time. Personally this time.”

Erika punched in a few buttons at her station. “You’re live, Captain.”

Samir stood up from his chair. “Greetings from the Milky Way. My name is Captain Samir Singh of the Free Exchange vessel Hyperion. So far, we’ve not received a response from you that we can detect. If we do not hear from you, we shall assume you are otherwise unable to communicate and we will use our gravity drives to pull your ship from the gas giant. Please do not take this as an act of aggression.”

Samir waved for Commander Terese to cut the broadcast and sat back down in his chair. They all waited in silence for another minute as the clouds of the gas giant swirled below them. It was a final effort. If the Andromedans wanted to respond, there was nothing that prevented them from doing so. Even as much as an old-fashioned radio broadcast would have sufficed, but nothing came back over the comms.

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The Captain nodded towards Miles. He immediately shifted the gravity bubble, the invisible force that had been distorting space suddenly shifted. No longer was the gentle roll of force surrounding the ship. Redirecting it, Miles realigned the field below the ship. From there, the gas began to pour upwards as an invisible force tugged it into the wider reaches of space. From there, the hydrogen dispersed back down to the planet like a font of water.

Meanwhile, Mia made sure the invisible force tugging the ship upward from the gas giant remained stable. She compared the fluctuations of the field to that of the black hole within the gravity core. Making sure that the proper amount of inertial force was being applied exactly where they wanted it to.

He glanced over in Mia’s direction. He noted that, unlike everyone else on the ship, Mia seemed absolutely and completely calm. She silently watched the fluctuations in the gravity bubble, almost without a care in the world. Miles would’ve put that down to good military training, but this was something else. It reminded him of someone. He couldn’t put his finger on it, and right now he didn’t care to.

“Gravity field has reached the ship,” Miles called out to the Captain. “Pulling it up now. One mile from orbital entry.”

“Are you absolutely sure the ship isn’t transmitting anything?” Samir asked Erika as she watched the ship ascend from her own screen.

“Nothing. So far as I can detect, the ship is operating on minimal power. Or at the very least—power that we can scan for. There are faint readings, but…”

“But?” Samir asked.

Erika looked up from her computer. “Sir, it doesn’t appear there’s any form of livable atmosphere inside the ship. I’m seeing minimal heat readings; the interior is just above vacuum levels. Some faint traces of oxygen and carbon, but not enough to sustain any form of life that we know of.”

Miles couldn’t help but detect the slightest hint of excitement in her tone that caught him off guard. There was a concealed giddiness there that he wasn’t expecting. He took a moment to glance back at her, but Commander Terese was too fully enamored with her readings to catch him. It didn’t appear like anyone else noticed.

He looked back at his pilot screen just to see the ship coming out of the gas giant. The rusty clouds slowly swept off the ship and fell off as the ship was brought into space. Miles cut the gravity field as it reached a stable orbit. “Captain… I think I know why there’s no atmosphere inside.”

The ship itself was long, maybe around a thousand meters. The bow was considerably thin for much of the craft, tapering off at the end. Further down were many hexagonal compartments, which housed irregular components sticking out of the ship. Miles recognized at least a dozen turrets of unusual design running along the surface. Two recognizable hanger bays on the side were closed, which could easily house all eight of their shuttles.

Near the stern of the craft, the hull widened into a boxy shape with two separate large angular sections on either side, which to Miles almost resembled thrusters he had seen on historical craft in museums. On top of this was a semicircular section which covered what he assumed were the engines. Overall, the ship was somehow spindly despite its industrial features and yet absolutely massive in design.

But most importantly, the ship was covered in damage Miles could only describe as missile impacts. Holes dotted the surface of the vessel and blackened marks scarred the hull, now stained a deep brown from the gas giant and metal fatigue. It looked like the ship had been through a tough beating. However, he noticed that all the holes carried a distinctive golden shading that he didn’t recognize, sealing the impact site.

“Those are shields,” he heard Commander Terese whisper, “actual particle fields trying to seal the impact zones from vacuum. That technology is impossible.”

Is that what matters to you? Miles couldn’t help but snap in judgement. He wanted to know who or what had beaten this ship to a pulp and whether they were still out there. He took another look at the craft. It sat silently in the void, its secrets locked within a decaying vessel.

Miles glanced back at the Captain, but the man was dead still. His face Miles could only describe as the deepest of horror. The man sat still in his chair, his fingers clenching the armrests as the man watched forward, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the bridge. Captain Singh opened his mouth a little, and Miles could only faintly make out the man breathe out the faintest of prayers.

“It seems we know why we haven’t received an answer,” Klyker grimly spoke first. “Should we send a boarding party over?”

Captain Singh didn’t move to answer, his eyes were locked dead on the vessel. Miles felt a deep sense of sympathy alongside the Captain. It was a terrible thing to die in space. If the Andromedans aboard that vessel had succumbed to vacuum, he could only pray for them. He himself had been exposed once for eight minutes before losing consciousness. It was only thanks to his augmentation that he had lasted that long.

It was one of the worst ways to die, of that he was sure.

Captain Singh finally glanced over to Klyker and nodded. “Send the marines over. We’ll take stock of the situation and see if there are any survivors.”

For the first time, Miles had heard the Captain’s voice waver. The man quickly concealed it, however.

“Our mission has changed.” Samir stood up and addressed the rest of the bridge. “It seems clear that the signal was, in fact, a distress beacon. I want all efforts to be dedicated to the immediate recovery of any possible surviving Andromedans from the vessel. They may be held in stasis pods or their equivalent. Let it be known, this is now a rescue mission. Inform your subordinates, location of any survivors is top priority alongside any and all information to who or what has attacked this ship.”

The bridge came alive with new activity as information was passed down to the rest of the ship. Crew members busily contacted their counterparts in the vessel informing them of new orders. Commander Terese and Lt. Commander Klyker were organizing both scanner teams to analyze the vessel and marines for boarding, respectively.

Captain Singh stood up and nodded over to Lt. Commander Klyker. “I’ll be accompanying the marines within the recon room. Carry on as necessary.”

“Captain.” Erika stood up from her comm chatter. “I should accompany you. I have significant experience in personnel recovery operations.”

Miles narrowed his eyes. He certainly hadn’t read that in her bio, but Captain Singh hesitantly nodded.

“Klyker, you have the bridge,” Singh nodded and exited out of the room with Erika close behind.

Miles turned back toward the vessel on the viewscreen. The damaged craft silently drifted through space, still waiting for them. He took a deep breath. Out of everything, he certainly didn’t expect this. Miles adjusted the gravity bubble and pulled the Hyperion in closer so that the shuttles could launch. Beside him, Mia worked on the stabilization as the two vessels came side by side. Miles leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms as he watched the hanger bays of the shuttles launch. Well, it looks like things are going to get a lot more interesting.