“Should we start for the trans-station?” Andros asked.
“Yes, but let’s go at half speed. We don’t know if they will detect the light of our exit from trans-space, it will be visible only for an instant but let’s be cautious.” Johanna said.
“Yes Fleet Commander.” Andros said.
“Turiel, start studying the alien signals. Language translation, software compatibility – the standard procedure. I want a workable translation of their language within hours.” Johanna said.
“I’ve already started Fleet Commander.” Turiel’s voice said over the speakers.
“Good.”
A loud noise woke Quvor, he opened his eyes to a darkened room the only illumination coming from various small lights on the walls. He reached to his side and shut the alarm off.
“Computer, lights.” Quvor said.
“Good morning, Commander Quvor.” The Computer said in its synthesized voice.
“Good morning Computer.” Quvor responded, he felt an itch on his snout as he always did when he woke up. So he reached with his upper left arm and scratched it, as he used his lower arms to unbuckle himself from his sleeping harness. As he reached for the last buckle he used his upper right arm to grab the handhold above his head and then pull himself out. He floated over to the other side of the room in zero gravity, and reached a locker with his uniform. He slept only in his undergarments, so he pulled out his uniform one piece and started putting it on, which could be tricky when you are floating around.
“Computer, report.” Quvor said as he was struggling with his uniform.
“We are still on the correct course, no alterations needed. Engines are within acceptable limits. Air supply is at the projected level, the repair to the air tank is holding.” Computer said. Quvor’s ship had an unfortunate encounter with the small grain of dust that made a small hole in one of his air tanks. He was losing air fast so he was forced to put on his EVA suit and fix the damage himself. It had a lot of people back home on Trivax tearing their fur off watching and listening as he repaired the damage. But he had no choice, his mission was a long one, and without air he was as good as dead. Thankfully, he managed to contain the breach in time, he still had enough air to reach his target and get back. But just barely. His mission was to visit the fifth planet in their system – Rofvax.
It was to be a pivotal moment in his peoples history. They had sent unmanned probes there before, but this is the first manned mission to Rofvax, and Quvor will be the first Trivaxian ever to step on another planet. Of course, his people have already visited the two moons orbiting Trivax, but they were much closer. Going to another planet, well that was something… Monumental. And Quvor’s name will be etched into the history of his people for all time, up there with the greatest of his people. The fact that he was traveling alone will also be noted. His people didn’t mind being alone for great stretches of time, but taking a trip to another planet alone was a difficult prospect. The reason for that was mostly cost, and resources.
“Good.” Quvor said, as he finally won the battle with this clothes, “Anything else to report.”
“Yes, the scanning computer has detected an anomaly.” Computer said.
“What kind of anomaly?” Quvor asked intrigued.
“Unknown.”
Quvor’s snout twitched, and the small ears on top of his head flapped for a moment.
“Put the data on the bridge.” Quvor said and grabbed a handhold on a wall and pushed himself down the opening. He floated through his ships living area and then through another opening into the room that served as the ship’s center. Quvor strapped himself into the chair and started reading the report on the anomaly. The passive scanner detected an unknown light source close to Rofvax, but there wasn’t supposed to be anything there that could reflect light. There were no probes there or anything like that, and even if there were reflected light wouldn’t have the kind of intensity as this event had. The light was there only for a moment, but enough for his sensor to note it. Sadly, his ship’s main telescopes were pointed in the other direction, and the computer wasn’t smart on its own to move the telescope in the right direction. And it didn’t wake up Quvor as it calculated no danger to him or the ship, and it was very important for Quvor to get a full sleep every night. The event happened nine hours ago, just after he went to sleep. He doubted that whatever created light was still there, but nevertheless he turned the telescope towards it, and set it to record.
“Computer, send this data back to command on Trivax.” Quvor said.
“Right away Commander.”
“We have detected something.” Sensor Handler said.
Johanna spun in her chair, “What?”
“Well, it is either a ship, or a probe. Probably a step up from Earths early 2000s space technology. We almost didn’t see it, as it has almost no energy signature and is moving very slowly. It is on a course that will eventually lead it to the fifth planet in system.” Sensor Handler said.
Hearing that Johanna relaxed. “Can it see us?”
“I doubt it, from what we can see, it uses only visual scanning equipment, and a primitive one at that. It won’t be able to watch everything around it. Although it will probably see us when we turn our backs to it.”
“Good, keep an eye on it.” Johanna said.
“I am detecting a heat increase in the engine 3.” The synthesized voice of the Computer said.
Quvor immediately sat up in his chair, it has been four days since the anomaly. And his scanning of the area of its origin gave no results.
“What? What is the cause?” Quvor asked alarmed.
“Unknown.”
“Run a full diagnostics.” Quvor said. He reached over to his computer and looked at the gauges. An alarm started flashing on his screen. The engines were steadily gaining heat, the cooling mechanism seemed to have failed.
“This makes no sense.” Quvor said to himself, looking at the diagnostics it seemed like everything was in order. But now with the engines overheating, it looked like that grain of dust did more damage than he initially thought.
“Computer deploy secondary cooling package.” Quvor said. Doing so would deplete his reserves, but he had no choice. He hoped that would give him time to figure out what was happening. “And start sending everything back to command.” The command was minutes away by laser comms, but it was still only him out here.
Quvor looked as the engine heat started to drop, soon they were again in the acceptable range..
With the danger delayed Quvor sighed in relief. But he still didn’t know what was wrong, the diagnostics still read as if everything was alright.
Johanna heard a ping in her imp and immediately woke up. “Yes?” She asked over the implant link.
“I am sorry to wake you Johanna. But there has been a development.” Andros said.
“What is it?” Johanna asked, getting up and dressed.
“Well, it’s about the ship we’ve been keeping an eye on.” Andros said.
“Did it see us?” Johanna asked.
“No, it’s just that we are close enough to scan it in more detail. And I think that you should come and see this.” Andros said.
Johanna finished dressing, “I’m on my way.” She said and closed the link.
A minute later she was sitting in her command chair looking at the hologram of the ship. It was a jumble of parts, big tanks and small modules attached to a big rear end. Although it was just barely half the size of an Olympus light cruiser.