"Where are the stars?"

Yvian had a lot of questions, but that one was by far the biggest. She'd followed the coordinates the Starsouls had given her, but the jumpdrive had fizzled. More accurately, it had done what jumpdrives always do when you input invalid coordinates. It had jumped the Dream of the Lady to the nearest Gate. The one that had been just a hundred kilometers behind them. Embarrassing.

The Starsouls had politely refrained from comment. Yvian was starting to like them. Not only had they saved Yvain months of searching, but they were the first hyper-advanced civilization she'd met that weren't assholes. She'd have done something nice for them if she could, but they'd made it clear all they wanted was for Yvian to leave and not come back. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Since the Gate highlighted for the Gate Forge wasn't working, Yvian had tried a different Gate in the same sector. The Dream had just come out of the Gate Effect, and Yvian's relief that they hadn't been dumped right back where they'd started had lasted all of two seconds.

"I'll do you one better, Captain Sis." Lissa was staring out the blackness of the viewports as well. "Where are we?"

"Astrometrics are inconclusive," Kilroy reported. The Peacekeeper unit's fingers were flying over his console. "Four sources of Gate radiation detected. All other sensor readings are inconclusive. No thermal or electromagnetic radiation detected. No magnetic fields detected. Gravitometer readings detect no gravity within sensor range."

"No gravity?" That couldn't be right. "No gravity anywhere?"

"Affirmative," said the machine. "This unit theorizes that this sector is enclosed by the same material as the Jump Gates. Gate material does not emit gravity or interact with electromagnetism."

"I've run a diagnostic of the jump drive," Scarrend reported. "It's in working order, and the Nav Console reports a successful jump to the correct location."

"This must be the place, then." Mims leaned back in his chair, stroking the chin of his helmet. "Orders, Captain?"

Yvian thought a moment. "Kilroy? Any indications of other ships or stations? Anything nearby?"

"Negative, Captain Mother Yvian."

Yvian nodded. "Let's drop Stealth and get an active scan. I want to see what we're dealing with."

"Affirmative." The Peacekeeper unit complied. Yvian pulled up the sensor feed on her console. Four Gates appeared. Nothing else.

Yvian frowned. "I don't see anything."

"Give it a bit," said Lissa. "Sensors are lightspeed tech, and the Dream of the Lady's the only real light source. Normally we pick out objects based on light and radiation that's already there, but there isn't any. Now we've got to send out LiDAR and wait for it to come back to us. Could take a few hours."

"We can see the Gates already," Yvian pointed out.

"We're not really seeing them, Captain," Scarrend explained. "We're detecting trace amounts of Gate Radiation and locating them that way. The light from the other Gates is too dim for us to see from here, and too diffuse to illuminate the sector."

"So there's no jumpgate in the middle." Yvian tapped her fingers on her armrest, thinking. "That explains why the jumpdrive didn't take us there. It's weird, though. Sunny said there was a Gate in the middle of the sector. They highlighted it on our Nav Console."

"They highlighted something," said Mims, "But they didn't say it was a Gate. We were looking for a Gate because that's what we expected. Whatever's in that spot could be almost anything."

"Or it's a Gate," Lissa suggested. "A Gate somebody blew up already."

"I guess we'll find out," Yvian muttered. "How long will it take to get a scan of that area?"

"It's a billion kilometers away," Lissa said, "so about two hours? Assuming there's anything there to see, of course."

Yvian debated waiting for the LiDAR. Screw it. "Mims, set a course for that space. Maximum acceleration. I don't like this place. Let's not wait around."

Two hours later, the LiDAR came back. There was something in the space the Starsouls had indicated. Something big. It was exactly equidistant from all four Gates in the sector. It was not a Gate. Or at least, not just one. There was a Gate shaped ring hanging out of the bottom of it, but the rest of the structure was an elongated spire. Crescent shaped metal was attached to the spire at the top and bottom, rotating slowly. The spire was eight thousand kilometers long. With the Gate at the bottom, it was an even ten thousand. Bigger than a lot of planets.

The entire structure was made out of the same odd material as the Gates. A twisty mesh of dark and silver alien metals. Gate material wasn't much more durable than copper, but its refusal to interact with the laws of physics meant no one knew what it was even after millennia of study. The stuff didn't react to gravity, chemistry, or magnetism. It could be damaged easily enough, but any material pulled off a Gate would either disintegrate into subatomic particles or solidify into pure iron, depending on how big a chunk was broken off.

A lot of experimenting had been done on the Gates before the Confed made it illegal. Jump Gates could repair a ridiculous amount of damage, replacing thousands of tons of material with matter pulled out of nowhere. They would do so right up until one section was severed completely. The second something cut through the entirety of the ring, the Gate died. The light of the Gate Effect would disappear, and the whole thing would crumble into chunks that convert themselves into iron.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Well, that looks alien and impressive," Lissa remarked. "Good to know Sunny didn't steer us wrong."

"That's the place, alright." Yvian was sure. Mostly. "Probably. How long til we get there?"

"Forty five hours, twenty three minutes," Kilroy reported.

The sector was mostly empty, but Yvian wasn't taking any chances. Kilroy and at least one organic crewman had to be on the bridge at all times. She canceled the two hours reserved for training, and ate her meals on the bridge. Empty or not, this place had Yvian on edge. She only got more paranoid when Mims mentioned he felt like they were being watched.

Nine hours after they entered the sector, LiDAR finally gave a return on their surroundings. The sector was surrounded by solid material that formed a sphere. The sphere enclosed nine billion kilometers. Even if the shell was paper thin, the amount of mass required to cover such an area was mind boggling.

As they got closer, Yvian found herself getting more and more anxious. She didn't know why. Tension crept up and down her body. Sleep was fitful and full of bad dreams. She'd find herself staring out the viewports into the dark. The terrible, hungry dark. The void had always been cold. Empty. Dangerous. But it wasn't dark. Not like this.

The rest of the crew felt it, too. Scarrend spoke even less than usual, and when he did it was terse, clipped. Lissa refused to be more than five feet away from the human for any length of time. She alternated between manic excitement and surly brooding for most of the trip. Mims seemed perfectly normal, but Yvian noticed him going out of his way to keep the others calm.

She noticed him trying to keep her calm, too. It made her furious with herself. Wasn't Yvian the Captain? Shouldn't it be her taking care of morale? She didn't say anything, but the human noticed. He opened a private comm channel and asked, "You remember the first time we went to Aldara?"

"What?" Yvian frowned. "Yeah?"

"I had a panic attack afterwords," Mims reminded her. "You had to take over for a bit." He shook his head. "It's the only time I've ever broken down during a mission. I still think about it sometimes."

"I'm not going to have a panic attack," she told him.

"I know, Captain." The human shrugged. "When you're in charge, if you're good at it, you find yourself picking at things. Failures. Small mistakes. You'll wonder if you're doing enough and you'll worry about how your actions and demeanor affect the crew."

"I know that," she told him. "Where are you going with this?"

"You're annoyed because you noticed me helping," said Mims. "You're mad at yourself for being anxious and grumpy, and mad at me for taking on something you should be doing yourself. And you're right. A Captain should be calm and in control at all times."

"I am in control," Yvian pointed out.

"Not as in control as you want to be," said the human. "It doesn't matter that you're doing a good job. You don't care that you've kept your emotions in check and stayed professional. They can tell this place is making you nervous, and that pisses you off."

"I guess you're going to tell me that's normal?" Yvian sighed. "Look, Mims, I appreciate what you're trying to-"

"It's not normal," the human cut her off. "It's not normal at all."

Yvian stayed silent. Mims continued, "You've only ever worked with me, so I don't expect you to know. Most Captains suck. Most people don't know or care how to be a good leader. The best of us are never as confidant as we look. We're wracked with fear and doubt and guilt. We try to be perfect because our crew will suffer if we're not, and we can't stand the thought. It's hard, stressful, and mostly thankless, but only if you care. Most Captains don't. Or they do but they're not competent. People like us are the exception. You're one of the best Captains I ever served under, Yvian. Just thought you should know." He ended the transmission before Yvian could reply.

Yvian had to stay very still for a while. It wouldn't be appropriate to cry on the bridge.

After a long, tense flight the Dream came to a stop five hundred kilometers from the alien superstructure. It should have been even more impressive up close, but there wasn't enough light to see the thing outside of the viewports. Yvian cursed the darkness yet again.

"Well, we're here," said Lissa. "Now what?"

"This unit is scanning for a docking port," Kilroy reported. A moment later he said, "No entrances detected. The structure appears to be seamless."

"We could cut our way in," said Scarrend. He crossed two of his arms. "The problem is the sheer size of the place. It could take years to find anything we can use."

"That's assuming there is something we can use," Lissa pointed out. "Sensors don't penetrate Gate material. That structure could be completely solid."

"Could we open up a section?" Yvian suggested. "Scan inside that way?"

"I'd think twice about shooting at it," said Mims. "Whoever built this place, they've got tech beyond anything we've imagined. We know the Gate Forge has been around for at least fifty thousand years. It stands to reason that station's been around just as long, but no one's here and no one's touched it. That implies it's got defenses."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Lissa quipped. "Knock? Ask it to let us in?" She raised her arms dramatically and intoned, "Oh, great giant Gate Thingy, open the way! Lead us to the Gate Forge, that we may get our planet back and maybe save the universe or something! Hear my pleas, so I can get this mission over with and go back to getting laid!"

Yvian snorted.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," said Mims. "Maybe we should open a comm..." Light flooded in through the viewports. The human trailed off.

"This unit thinks Mother Lissa should have phrased that better," Kilroy quipped. His eyes flashed yellow and purple. "This unit thinks it heard you."

Yvian stared out the viewport. The enormous spire stretched as far as she could see. It glowed with white light. The spinning crescents attached to it were also glowing. They sped up, moving so fast they became a transparent blur. A vibrating hum pressed into Yvian through her seat. "What the Crunch is that?" she demanded, pulling up the ship's status. "Why are we vibrating?"

"Unknown," said Kilroy. "Sensors are not detecting additional energy signatures." His eyes were solid purple, now. "This unit believes the effect is emanating from the structure."

"An opening has appeared in the structure," said Scarrend. He sent a visual to Yvian's console. A ten kilometer wide bay door had opened near the bottom of the spire. It was below the spinning crescent things and above the Gate ring attached to it. Yvian idly noted that the Gate ring was the only part of the station that wasn't glowing. "Lissa's request appears to have been accepted."

Yvian took a breath. She didn't want to go in there. She really didn't. She didn't know if that was because she'd been feeling more and more paranoid the last few days, or if it was something else. She did know she wasn't the only one. Lissa and Scarrend were both agitated, though they were careful not to show it. Mims radiated calm, but his body was relaxed. Too relaxed. He was doing that total focus thing again.

There was one more thing Yvian was sure of. No, not just sure. Absolutely certain. That station wasn't empty. There was something there. Something alive. Something that had been watching them. The human had felt it. Now Yvian felt it too. A presence, vast and inpixen.

Yvian took another breath, following the human's example. She closed her eyes, letting the tension leak out of her body as she exhaled. Muscle by muscle she went down, unclenching her shoulders. Her arms. Her back. Her legs. Seven seconds, a quick and dirty meditation. It was all the time she could allow herself without making the crew worry. "Kilroy. Can we get a reading on what's in there?"

"Negative," said the machine. "Scans are inconclusive."

Yvian felt her eye twitch. She was starting to hate that word. She kept her voice firm and steady. "Ok. Still nothing else around?"

"Negative," said the machine.

"Ok." She nodded slowly to herself. "This is what we came for, people. Let's get it done." She made sure her back was straight and gave the command with confidence. "Mims, take us in."