Chapter Three (1/2)
Two dwarf yellow stars in tandem, nineteen planets including eight gas giants, eight asteroid belts, and a bean shaped Oort cloud. One-hundred-sixteen light years beyond the border of the Rim Worlds, 143 LY beyond the nearest Civilized System. According to the Historical Astrogation Society the system had never even been surveyed.
The recent change in jumpspace currents had turned the eight year travel into one that only took six weeks. Delminta had leveraged her fortune, in money and favors, to lay her hands on a survey ship and the rights to survey and exploit the system.
Only it had been visited before.
Nearly a hundred million years ago.
On the three worlds that still had geological movement and continental drift, all the evidence was gone. It was the other worlds that bore mute testimony to what had happened.
The Precursor War.
Which meant two things: any easily extracted minerals would be gone.
Worse, is that it was too close to the Great Gulf, where the Precursor War between two ancient civilizations had wiped out life across the galactic arm spur.
Some even said that the Precursor war is why the arm was a 'spur', that the very suns had been extinguished. Not that Captain Delminta believed that kind of mumbo-jumbo nonsense.
She smoothed some fur as she watched the probe crest the horizon. Hers were a tree-dwelling people, mammalian, with soft fur, delicate ears, large eyes, and strong grips. Her natural instincts for geometry made her a good captain, and made her crew highly skilled even in nul-grav.
She took another drink of stim and curled her toes, cracking the joints.
It was at that moment the alarms for one of her probe networks went off, startling her. She jumped, throwing her heated stim-juice all over the back of her navigator, who woke up from his nap screeching. He smacked the communications officer, who woke up, snarled, and kicked the science officer.
Who promptly kicked Delminta in the shin, just like the little brat of a cousin had done when they were children. By the time the bridge was settled down, the geosynchronous satellite survey net over the tiny gas planet was screaming a promixity alert so bad in made Delminta roll her ears and smack her baby sister, the communications officer, with her Command Stick.
”What is its problem?” Delminta barked at her baby sister.
Heemina bit Delminta's foot then turned back to her instruments. ”There's something big out there. It's moving toward us. It's real close. Like, in orbit around this gas planet close.”
Delminta suddenly thought of all the stories of Precursor death machines lurking out in the darkness ready to swoop down and destroy any colonists who dared get too close the Long Night when establishing their colonies.
”Can you give me a look at it?” She asked her aunt, narrowly managing to turn her head so her aunt poked her cheek instead of her eye.
”I'll give you a look of something,” Her aunt said. Then turned back to the instrument panel. ”It's talking too.”
Delminta knew her family didn't mean any of it. It was just, on the survey ship for so long, they were unable to take out their aggression in any other method so everyone had resorted to pinches, pokes, slaps, bites, and kicks. ”Coming in... now...” Aunt Beeta said, then mumbled about how back in her day...
When the main viewer lit up everyone screamed and fought one another to flee the bridge. Delminta caught a nasty elbow to the eye when her nephew kneed her in the groin and her baby brother elbowed her out of the way.
After a few minutes it was decided that since this was all Delminta's idea and she was captain, she could go back onto the bridge.
So they promptly shoved her onto the bridge and shut the door.
Delminta stared in shock at the screen.
It was huge and looked like the tiny little scavengers in the warm seas of her home world. A bell like top with a multitude of tentacles hanging down. It was lit up, blue light outlining it and filling it with bright spots appearing and disappearing of pink, green, red, and orange.
”Hello? Hello? Are you guys in there?” a feminine voice asked.
Delminta stared in shock.
”Hey, can you hear me?” One tendril lifted up and tapped the side of the bell. ”Stupid Gentrix Industries com-nerves. Shoulda got a warranty.”
Delminta swallowed and looked up at the blast door window. She could see three of her cousins, her left hand brood mother, and an aunt looking at her through the window. Her left hand brood mother waved at her to get it on.
”Yeh-yes, I can hear you,” Delminta said.
The whole thing rippled with color and several of the long tendrils, which the ship estimated to be hundreds miles long and miles thick, trembled as if in pleasure.
”Oh, wow. Hot pipe, baby. I thought I'd gone deaf,” The feminine voice said. ”Sandy Tamalin, nice to meet you.”
One of the tendrils started to extend then jerked back when Delminta screamed.
”Oh, sorry, not used to this yet. Wow, how embarrassing. So, who are you?” The last was said in a steady even tone, the slightly silly almost younger sibling sounding tone vanishing.