Page 27

Five shipmonths later

In her quarters, Jane emerged from the shower, dried herself quickly, and then put on sleep shorts and a cami top. She wasn’t getting prepared for bed; she was just making herself comfortable for what she intended to be an entire evening in her quarters, relaxing and not doing anything in particular.

Sabre Squadron had just got done running battle exercises in space a million kilometers from the Fordham . The mighty starship was currently in orbit around a binary star system, studying it. Jane would have thought that one binary star system—and there were countless of those in the Milky Way Galaxy—was pretty much the same as all the others. But apparently not, which showed what she knew about binary star systems.

In any case, the stop allowed Sabre Squadron to get some flying in and to stay sharp with their skills.

Jane wondered if they would ever see actual combat during this mission in the Andromeda Galaxy. Quite frankly, she hoped not. The desire for war was a sign of primitive human behavior—pre-22 nd century. Therefore, Jane felt that if the Fordham managed to make it through its three-year mission here without her firing a single shot at another being, she would be happy.

Nonetheless, it was best to be prepared, which was why opportunities to conduct exercises like today’s were important. They not only kept the skills of the pilots finely tuned, they allowed the pilots the chance to satisfy their innate desire to fly.

And now that the exercise was over, she had the next ten shiphours free, which she planned on enjoying by wearing comfy clothes, doing some reading, and watching a movie on her vidwall.

Veronica wouldn’t be able to join her, unfortunately. Ever since being promoted to a full lieutenant a few weeks ago, Veronica had been given even more bridge duties. This evening, she was actually in command, a frequent occurrence during scenarios like this, when the Fordham was stationed near something interesting, while the geeks studied the so-called interesting thing.

Veronica had warned Jane—almost apologetically—that her promotion was going to possibly mean less time they could spend together. Becoming a lieutenant, after all, was a significant step forward on the path to an eventual captaincy, and Veronica had achieved it quickly, although the next rung up the ladder—lieutenant commander—would not come so fast…or so she had been told. Privately, when she was with Jane, Veronica stated that she planned on achieving the rank at record speed.

Despite the promotion, Jane wasn’t concerned about how it would affect their relationship. She and Veronica were solid, and deeply in love. What’s more, they were both career Unitary women who understood and respected the demands of one another’s jobs. In fact, it was something which strengthened their bond, with neither of them needing to worry that her girlfriend wouldn’t be there following a long bridge shift, or a somewhat dangerous reconnaissance mission, because she just couldn’t take it anymore .

Besides, Jane had always felt that having alone time—such as what she had now—was important.

Still though…she loved it when she and Veronica were able to spend hours together in these quarters doing everything from having sex to snuggling on the sofa, watching movies. She especially loved it when their duty shifts aligned, and they were able to sleep together. And she even loved the occasions when Veronica would come to her quarters just to sleep or study, while Jane busied herself with other things.

Simply having Veronica in the same space as herself always made Jane extremely happy.

They weren’t allowed to live together yet. One of the perks of Veronica’s promotion had been that she had been relocated to other quarters, and now had only one roommate—another recently minted lieutenant. However, because they were still junior officers in the BOTC, the idea was that they needed to live and work together closely to help one another thrive in the training program. This meant that living with Jane would have to wait until Veronica became a lieutenant commander.

After getting dressed, Jane made her way to her kitchenette to prepare herself a meal before settling on the sofa to watch a movie. She opted for a sandwich—tuna fish with strips of bacon. The bacon was kind of a no-no for her usual diet, but she figured she had earned it. She had done well in the battle exercises earlier; so well that even Colonel Mbuwe—who often looked as if she wanted to determine if Jane could fly without a spaceship—praised her highly afterwards. Besides, she burned up about 10,000 calories a day working out in the Sabre Squadron gym. A little bacon wasn’t going to hurt.

Nor, she decided, would a slice of coconut cream pie hurt…

She had purchased the pie from a patisserie onboard as a treat that she and Veronica could indulge in—and indulge in it they had. It was far more decadent than the bacon! Silky coconut cream filling atop a gloriously flaky crust, and topped with whipped cream that had toasted coconut flakes sprinkled on top.

There was just enough of it left to serve as the perfect dessert following her sandwich.

“Why not?” Jane said happily to herself as she took what was left of the pie out of the chilling unit built into the bulkhead. “I burn 10,000 calories a day!”

“I believe that is something of an overestimation, Jane,” Holly’s voice said from the speakers. “In fact, I am fairly certain that you do not even come close to—”

“Shut up,” Jane told her. “The official number is 10,000 calories a day.”

With her sandwich made, Jane carried it and the pie into the living room. However, as she was lowering the two plates onto the small table in front of the sofa, she sneezed. Normally, she was a fairly graceful person, but this time, the act of sneezing caused her left hand—the one carrying the tuna-and-bacon sandwich—to twitch just enough to cause the sandwich to slide off its plate and onto the table. Specifically, onto The Thing.

“Bugger!” Jane said, using an expression she had picked up from Veronica.

But at least the pie was safe.

The sandwich was too, for that matter. It hadn’t fallen far, and it was still intact…only a bit of the tuna had kind of squelched out of it onto The Thing, but other than that, it was still perfectly edible.

She picked it up and placed it back on the plate, and then set it down next to the pie.

She then picked up The Thing.

That was the best name she could come up with for the artifact she had been presented with by the Tungstenite robot doll back on that rogue planet…

Once it had been brought aboard the Fordham , Jane had been immediately relieved of it. First, it had been quarantined and decontaminated. Then, it had been handed over to the Science Division.

The Thing had been 3-D laser-scanned, X-rayed, weighed, measured, studied with every type of scanner available, and tapped on with tiny hammers. In the end, it was determined to be harmless, and that it didn’t have any technology embedded in it, nor did it have any hidden recesses which could contain something detrimental to the ship and her crew.

It was made of tungsten and titanium. The titanium portion of it had been painted blue with a type of paint that was unknown to the scientists, but which nearly everyone agreed was striking in its vibrancy.

After all of those tests, The Thing was replicated via 3-D printing. The replica was then put on display in the Discoveries Museum, which was a series of galleries onboard displaying items or presentations about the various discoveries the Fordham had made thus far in the Andromeda Galaxy. The current exhibit in the museum was a virtual walk-through of a Tungstenite city.

The original artifact had been returned to Jane after a couple of weeks.

Quite frankly, Jane had no idea what to do with it in her quarters. It was a striking item, for sure, but once it had been given back to her, she’d had a difficult time determining where to display it.

She had tried various spots on the walls, using adhesive shelves, but none of the locations pleased her, and after a few days, she would remove the shelf and try it somewhere else. Her pickiness about where best to display The Thing had even made her quip to Veronica that perhaps once she retired from piloting, she ought to become an interior designer.

In any case, The Thing had been on the table that was in front of the sofa because, yet again, Jane had removed it from where she had most recently had it, and placed it there until she came up with another idea. By this point, she was tempted to donate it to the museum for the duration of the Fordham’s mission, just so she wouldn’t have to deal with it.

Now, she picked it up and used her forefinger to scrape off the tuna that had glopped onto it, sucked the tuna off her finger, and then carried The Thing into the kitchenette in order to rinse it clean.

When she turned on the water and held the artifact under the stream, she blinked rapidly a couple of times and pulled the artifact away from the water.

What the hell?

She wasn’t sure that she had seen what she had thought she’d seen.

She brought The Thing close to her face, peering at it intently, but didn’t see anything odd.

Placing it back under the stream, she paid close attention to what was happening…

“Holy shit!” she exclaimed.

As the water ran over the painted titanium portion of the artifact, the paint… changed . Suddenly, what looked like writing and images were appearing, in a shade of light pink. This phenomenon stopped as soon as The Thing was removed from the water, with the writing instantly fading away.

“Holly, message to the bridge,” Jane said quickly. “Urgent to Lieutenant Vale.”

“Connecting,” Holly said.

A moment later, Veronica’s voice came from the speakers.

“Yes, Lieutenant Belivet?” she said.

Jane imagined that Veronica was wondering why she was calling her.

“May I come see you on the bridge, please?” Jane asked. “I have…something to report.”

“Of course,” Veronica replied.

“On my way,” Jane told her.

She headed to her bedroom, sighing as she walked.

So much for staying in comfy clothes…

***

The Fordham had yet to find the so-called Tungstenites.

Too many of the variables lacked concrete answers.

For one, time…

How long had it been since the Tungstenites abandoned their planet?

How long ago had that nearby star gone supernova?

How long had it been since their planet became rogue?

Another variable was distance…

The planet was currently traveling through space at 107,000 kilometers an hour. But had it always been traveling at that speed?

Attempts were made to use the planet’s current trajectory to backtrace its point of origin. But had it always been on its current course?

Also, long range scans revealed many stars that had gone supernova within the past 100,000 years. So…which one had been the culprit in destroying the Tungstenites’ solar system?

The third important missing variable was direction…

Which way had the Tungstenites travelled on that enormous starship they had built? More importantly, were they still traveling in that direction?

Too many unknowns.

It was suggested that perhaps clues had been given in what that robot doll had said as it narrated the video. Fordham cryptographers and linguists were working on trying to decipher the language, but without anything to go on, it was a monumental task that could take years —even with AI assistance.

The recordings of the video—made by Jane’s helmetcam, as well as by the hovercamera Veronica had sent down into the shaft—had been analyzed frame by frame, looking for any type of clue…but without any luck so far.

The result was that unless some type of miraculous discovery or breakthrough was made, the only way the Fordham was going to find the Tungstenites would be by accidentally running into them. The problem was, accidentally running into things was something that did not usually happen in the vastness of outer space.

Now, perhaps Jane had made that miraculous discovery…

***

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Captain Yarrum asked, looking at the personnel standing before her in her ready room. This included Dr. Zimmer, head of the Science Division. The captain turned her gaze on him.

“Let me get this straight…” Captain Yarrum continued, “we ran every conceivable scan on this thing…” She waved The Thing, which she was holding in her left hand. “…and no one thought to spray some water on it?”

It was only twenty minutes since Jane had shown Veronica what she had discovered. Veronica had then sent a priority message to Captain Yarrum—waking her up—and the captain had then called this gathering in her ready room.

In addition to Dr. Zimmer, Jane was present, as was Veronica, Commander Voss, and Commander Dell.

Dr. Zimmer shrugged.

“It just never occurred to us to subject the item to anything involving water,” he said. “With all of the modern equipment we have at our disposal, it is simply not something that we would even consider.”

The captain nodded and sighed.

“That makes sense,” she said, in a conceding tone.

Just then, an ensign entered the ready room. She was carrying a clear container that was filled with about five centimeters of water. The captain gestured to the room’s conference table. The ensign placed the container where indicated and then withdrew from the room.

“Okay…everyone gather around,” the captain said.

She approached the container, with everyone else arranging themselves nearby so they could see what happened.

Captain Yarrum placed The Thing in the water, completely immersing it. Sure enough…

“Stars!” Commander Voss uttered, her voice full of wonder.

Jane watched as writing and images appeared in the blue paint on The Thing. Perhaps because of the volume of water that it was now immersed in, the pinkish hue of the writing seemed bright now, almost luminescent. She was able to recognize some of the same symbols that were present in the map the unspac had transmitted to her.

“Kenzie,” Captain Yarrum said softly, staring down at the artifact, “this is now our priority.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Commander Voss acknowledged. “And the binary star?”

Captain Yarrum scoffed.

“All binary star systems are the same,” she said. “I only agreed to stop here because it was Phil’s birthday.” She gestured at Dr. Zimmer. She brought her face closer to the container of water. “Curious beings,” she said. “I have no idea what any of this is telling us. Sometimes I get the impression that they don’t want us to find them.”

“May I make a suggestion regarding that, ma’am?” Jane said.

The captain looked up at her.

“Of course, Lieutenant,” she said. “This is an open forum.”

Jane cleared her throat.

“My theory is that the Tungstenites want to be found,” Jane said, “but they want to be found by explorers . Think about it…that ship which contacted me could have very well led me to where they are, but it didn’t. Instead it gave me a clue. The clue led us to the planet. Then we had to solve another puzzle on the planet—”

“Which you were the key to,” the captain pointed out.

“Right,” Jane agreed. “Then we—well, I —find another clue…that thing.” She pointed to The Thing. “Then we had to discover how to access the information on it.” She took a breath. “We’re being made to work for this, to think , to solve …like proper explorers.”

The captain nodded.

“It’s as good an idea as any other,” she said. “And I like it. Oh, by the way…” She pointed at The Thing. “We’re going to need to borrow this from you again, if that’s okay.”

Jane smirked.

“Just as well,” she said. “I was about to start using it as a nutcracker.”

***

“Nutcracker?” Veronica whispered to Jane as they exited the ready room together, and stepped back on the bridge.

“Well, either that or I was going to start using it as a coaster,” Jane replied.

Veronica stood in front of her.

“You’re amazing!” she whispered. “I love you so much!”

Jane, mindful that she had to keep her voice down given where they were, said, also in a barely perceptible whisper, “I love you too! Can’t wait to see you again!”

Veronica smiled.

“Leave the door to your quarters unlocked,” she suggested. She then cleared her throat and spoke in a normal volume. “Well, Lieutenant, thank you for bringing that to our attention.”

“Of course, Lieutenant,” Jane responded, also in her normal voice. “I look forward to seeing what comes out of it.”

She headed towards the nearest bridge exit while Veronica headed to the captain’s chair. When the door hissed open for her, she turned to look back at her girlfriend who was just lowering herself into the command seat. Veronica then turned to look back at her.

They smiled at one another, and sent further I love yous using their eyes. Then Jane walked through the door.

When it hissed shut behind her, she missed Veronica already…