Chapter 86: Don't let Mira name it
Lynn and Laia returned without incident which was an outcome that proved the auction house's professionalism more than anything else. We even received a discreetly encoded invitation card for next year's event, hosted at a different, equally anonymous location. I filed that away in the secure vault alongside the four items we'd acquired.
Each had its own trajectory. The compromised NeuroGenesis communications archive was handed over to Laia for duplication; the original would go to Jack. Maybe between him and Ellie, they could extract something of value but Laia and I would study it as well.
The unlocked Kall-e genome data was earmarked for T'lish, She had said she was close to a breakthrough in unlocking Kall-e genetic memories, and she was hoping to do something about their life span.
The other two items, however, that is the living metal and the Architect data fragment would remain in deep storage. Or at least, they were supposed to. I'd seen how Laia looked at the metal when it came on board. That silent, unreadable intensity. I wasn't sure how long I could keep her from experimenting with it, and to be honest, I wasn't sure I wanted to. Whatever instinct had driven her to insist we buy it still hadn't passed yet. We would need to find an empty system before testing it if something went wrong I wanted only us to be its victims. Maybe I was becoming too paranoid like Lynn said but better safe than sorry.
Lynn didn't waste time either. She arrived on the bridge only an hour after returning with a request already formatted into a procurement package. Five hundred kilograms of Telk for a fleet of forty cargo hauliers. I raised an eyebrow and asked how much she could get for three hundred instead as I wanted to keep a couple hundred as backup. She thought for a moment, then nodded. "Maybe twenty-five with a crew or thirty barebones."
"So, which of those options do you prefer?" I asked, this would be her responsibility after all.
"Thirty. We'll train up the crews ourselves."
Before I gave my approval, I wanted the full picture. "What's the actual plan here, Lynn?"
Her eyes lit up. "We use our stealth jump buoys and point-to-point slipstream drives to undercut every shipping lane in Alliance space. Point-to-point, no delays, no pirates, no inspection queues. Just like the Human-space interstellar cargo trains. We start small. Then scale." Her voice sharpened with conviction. "If you saw the way those rich idiots spent fifteen tonnes of Telk on dust collectors. We could be printing that kind of currency ourselves and then we could get what we want!."
I leaned back, studying her. The auction had affected her more than I'd realised. Not just the opulence, but the waste. The unrestrained indulgence of people who didn't have to scavenge, broker, and compromise for every gain. There was hunger in her now, a fire.
"The plan has merit," I said finally. "Make the purchase. Run the numbers. If it holds up, we scale. But it will create enemies make sure you factor in bribes or payouts"
She beamed and took off before I could add anything else, Holopad already connecting to procurement lines on the Hub.
By the time the order was submitted, we were heading back to our station.
T'lish had met us before had even finished docking. We had sent back word of what we had, and she was here for the data. Her tail thumped to show she was excited. I handed it over and even before I could finish explaining about it, she snatched the case out of my hands with barely a word and sprinted for her lab. Something in the data had sparked her attention, and when T'lish got that look in her eyes, it was best not to get in the way.
She'd locked herself in the lab, leaving the two rapidly growing Kall-e children in my care or more accurately, in uncle Laia's care. She had adopted her male Kall-e avatar again and was currently wrestling both children in the center atrium, letting them climb across her arms and shoulders while growling like a half-serious beast. From the sound of their squealing laughter, they were winning.
Jack appeared next to collect the NeuroGenesis archive. He didn't linger. Said MouseHouse would easily cover the expense, if it had anything good in it or we might even get some goodies. I didn't ask what. With Jack, it would be easier to wait until he told me himself.
Stewie and Mira dropped by a few hours later. Stewie, in particular, looked like he'd been pacing walls. Apparently, station life didn't agree with him anymore. Kel had taken his role as part-time supervisor too seriously, and Stewie was itching for a mission he said any mission would do. He also had something to show me: a new lander design he'd been obsessively tweaking in the fabrication suite.
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"It's a submersible," he explained, spreading out a hologram of the design. "Can't survive re-entry on its own, but once deployed from the surfaces, it uses layered shielding and fluid-dynamic thrusters to survive even the deepest planetary oceans. Think scouting, salvage, underwater archaeology, biosphere harvesting or whatever. Can we go test it?" he begged, I wanted to know where the stubborn teen had gone, well he was an adult now but it seems purpose had been good for him.
It was clever. Efficient.
Exactly the kind of thing we needed.
"Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone," I said, watching Stewie's new submersible lander float into hanger bay. It wasn't quite finished, but close enough that it would be by the time we got to a testing location. I turned to Laia. "Any water planets in unoccupied systems? Somewhere we won't be disturbed?"
Her eyes lit up. She almost tossed both of T'lish's children across the room in her enthusiasm. Almost. She caught herself, one hand still gripping the younger one's ankle mid-toss, and set him down gently. The kids didn't seem fazed. Kall-e children were nearly indestructible at that age. The older one just laughed and pounced on her leg.
"I know a few," she said, already pulling up star maps. "Want something early-stage or closer to evolution-capable?"
"Proterozoic ideal. Waterworld with minimal life. I want to test the lander, but I also want to run an experiment on the living metal. Need a safe testing location"
Laia nodded sharply, focused. Mira, who had been watching the kids tumble over Laia, perked up instantly. "Wait, underwater mission? I'm in. I want first shift piloting."
"No, I built it, I get the first dive!" replied Stewie, a little upset.
I held up a hand. "Not yet. This isn't a vacation. I need to make sure the lander can withstand the stress of being submerged and if I can use dimensional shift on the lander. No one gets in until I'm sure you'll come back out intact."
They nodded, disappointed but understanding. The excitement didn't fade from either of thier eyes.
It took nearly a full day to untangle the administrative backlog waiting for me at the station. T'lish had handled most of it, but I still needed to rubber-stamp final authorisations, especially regarding procurement and hiring. I found a quiet moment to talk with Kel. We stood just inside the ship's hydroponic bay, the steady noise of the filtration systems behind us.
"I need you to keep an eye on them," I said.
He raised a brow. "Lynn and T'lish?"
"They're both brilliant. Which means they're also both prone to obsession. Especially now they both have clear goals make sure to keep them grounded."
He gave a crooked grin. "You want me to be the adult in the room. Again."
I smiled, just barely. "Exactly."
With the station handed off, we left orbit and headed out-system. The destination Laia selected was a young star, barely settled into its main sequence. Only one planet sat within the habitable zone it was a green sphere wrapped in dense white clouds and warm oceans. Its landmass was small, isolated, barely more than a supercontinent. The planet was in its Proterozoic equivalent, with oceans rich with minerals, but no land-based life yet. No cities. No satellites. No signals. Quiet.
Wayfarer had grown still as we approached, his consciousness threading through the ship's main array, focused on the planet.
"This world is… young," he said slowly. "I don't remember when my own surface looked like this. Perhaps I hadn't yet awakened. Or perhaps I did… and it's just gone."
There was a reverent sorrow in his tone. He didn't speak again for some time.
The plan was simple. First, test the lander. If it functioned underwater, we'd consider future missions. Then begin experiments with the living metal. I needed Laia's undivided attention during the lander phase. She would be its pilot but also help me with using the dimensional shift.
We set The Arbiter down on the only landmass that was an expanse of rugged stone cliffs and low ridges bordered by tide-swept shallows. The atmosphere was thin, not toxic, but not breathable. The winds carried salt and vaporized minerals. It felt… unformed. Still shaping itself.
Stewie's lander sat on the launch pad beside us. Bulbous in the way all pressure-rated craft had to be, its hull lined with adaptive panels and dorsal ballast veins. He was beside himself as he watched Laia's clone step inside. This one was in a standard nanite avatar, just in case she needed to shapeshift in an emergency. She waved at us through the viewport, then settled into the command bridge.
Mira and Stewie monitored from the bridge, both wired in through localized telemetry relays. I watched from the bridge as well.
The descent was smooth. The lander entered the ocean just past the drop-off zone, sinking steadily. Pressure readings were within tolerance. At one hundred meters, Laia paused. No structural leaks. No temperature anomalies.
"Good design," I said aloud. "Now comes the real test."
I engaged the dimensional shift tether. The intention was simple a micro-jump no more than a hundred meters, a proof of concept that the system would hold stable even while surrounded by liquid mass.
Nothing.
The ship's systems chirped, then flickered red.
"Feedback spike," Laia said calmly from below. "Nothing catastrophic. But the tether's stalling. Something about water as a continuous medium is interfering with window creation."
In short: no shifting while submerged. That was a safety feature I wouldn't compromise on before Mira or Stewie could use the lander.
"We'll need to do more testing to see what the exact problem is," I said. "Or maybe shift only the bridge, this is a problem we need to solve."
Mira groaned from the sensor station. "Does that mean I don't get to pilot it yet?"
"For now," I said, "yes. But if Stewie's willing to keep refining it…"
He was already halfway through drafting a new design that had a bridge as a separate and shiftable object.
We weren't done here. Not by a long shot. But we'd learned something.
Next came the metal. And something told me Laia wouldn't wait long.