Aurora, Wayward Pt. 02

Johnathan nodded and ended the communication and went to typing out the next legal brief.

Lastra sighed, "I will contact Becca and let her know the state you are in. I am not Astra so I cannot provide you with any comfort in the matter. She should be aware of the issue."

He dropped his head, "Thank you, Lastra, for everything you and Astra have been doing. I know you have been involved in some of the background searches for Astra throughout this process."

She smiled, "You are welcome Johnathan." She left his office to the sounds of his 500 words a minute typing speed. He could move as fast Jack did and he was attacking that keyboard with it.

She passed the word to Becca but she was on the battleship and said she would be over shortly. She then forwarded an update to Astra who was sorry for not being available.

---

Rocan had scanned the debris field and had AI units collecting weapon systems and shield emitters for the engineers to look over. He had Aurora going through computer systems on the Scrill ships.

She was the only one who understood them. It had been a whole day since the attack and he had not slept. Neither had Victoria, she explained that part. He chuckled at that.

He thought, * I should take us to that moon. *

He heard back, * You are not ready yet. You need to practise your telekinesis a lot more before we tell you what to bring and then we will tell you when to come. Inform your shipmates as to which moon is out of bounds and failure to comply will result in the destruction of your entire species; including you. *

Before he could say anything, Aurora was on the ship PA system, "All of the Penan crew needs to report to the bridge as soon as possible."

He looked at Victoria, "Bring me up an image the fifth planet in this system and the second moon around that planet." She looked up and brought it over on the main screen as the ladies looked on. "I have been told my meeting location is that second moon of that world. I have also been told I am not ready yet. They want me practicing telekinesis more. Victoria do you know why?"

Victoria nodded, "Yes I do and you are asking the wrong person. I cannot aid you on your journey other than to say if they said more telekinesis training then you need lots more of it. You need to be using your mind constantly to try and move things and carry things. Getting your sword to your hand faster."

He nodded, "Alright. Anyone of us Penans goes to that moon, the Drakor will kill us and our entire race. It is off-limits except to a hybrid until after that meeting. They have not even told me what to bring yet."

Aurora commented, "There are devices in the database to exercise telekinesis. Shield belts and the like. It had to be made out of something you can use for a focus. You would need confirmation on what you should be doing. Until then all activity you can do with your mind you should do."

Victoria nodded, "Metallic hydrogen is likely. You have an AI already harvesting it. They might choose something else." She looked perplexed for a moment. "Out between the wide gap of the sixth and seventh planet. We just lost the transponder to one of our Terran battleships."

He looked over, "Get all combat worthy ships around us, we will go and investigate this. I want those in need of repair at the space dock getting repaired. Those AI units that were lost I want them to be rebuilt."

Aurora nodded, "Your strategy worked though it was unorthodox."

He nodded, "I used your MIDGE idea but I had to get them closer, there shields down, and then divided." She nodded, "I saw what you did and they thought you the fool for doing that. I had wondered why until you launched the shuttles and then the MIDGE's into the fray."

10 hours later after they had him doing grueling mental workouts throughout the ship, even eating and drinking using Telekinesis, quite poorly in fact as he made a mess of his afternoon meal and uniform. He took a break and went up and sat in the captain's chair, "How far out are we?"

She sighed, "Another two hours."

He nodded, "Can you bring up a magnified image of the area. Maybe we will see if they just broke down or signs of wreckage."

She nodded and pulled the screen up. He watched it for an hour, "Something is wrong with the display there is some kind of static on it."

She looked at it closely. I see what you mean but the display is clear. Sensors just picked up some signs of debris."

He looked forward, "All stop."

She brought it to a stop, "Replay the last hour of magnified footage in 6 minutes." She nodded and did as he asked. She looked at the screen, "We are getting random lines rotating."

He nodded, "Anything on sensors?"

She looked again, "The debris is more prominent. Wait the ship is gaining momentum. Like we found a gravity well!"

He yelled at her, "Back us away from this area!" She nodded and took them all back at full reverse. He sighed, "Nothing on sensors, yet we are seeing these lines of static."

Victoria pointed out, "The wreckage from the Battleship. It looked like it ran into something massive. Scanning the ship." She gasped and sighed out her frustration. "No life signs. It looks like they were traveling at full in-system speed."

He thought for a moment, "We have a gravity well which tells us something is there to generate it. We have wreckage that shows us that the ship ran into something. We have dark lines and nothing on sensors."

Victoria nodded, "All correct."

He sighed, "Stealthy planet or planetoid?"

She looked over, "I have never heard of a planet being stealthy before. Not even something the size of a large asteroid."

He sighed, "Our sensors are not picking anything up any signal we could send that might bounce off an object?"

Aurora nodded, "Yes. An old form of communication called radio waves. Space is filled with them but we can generate one with a pattern with different frequencies. Send it forward and then based upon the return determine how far away we are if something is there."

He nodded, "I want each ship tracking a different frequency but record all of them in case one of the other ships picks up the other signal. Get them pointed up and down that location. Correlate all of the data we have onto our main display while backing out of this area slowly. If it is some planet it likely has an orbit and we want to get out of its path." Victoria nodded.

She looked over, "Contacting the other 3 battleships in the area and letting them know the fourth one has been destroyed by some kind of stealth anomaly that we are investigating."

Rocan nodded, "Ask them to stay clear for now while we do this."

She nodded. She sent the message and one of the commanders was getting his panties in a bunch. His comms were put up upon the main viewer, "That is our destroyed ship we should be involved in recovering the remains."

Rocan sighed, "We do not even know yet if that is possible. Give us a couple of hours to try and find a method for mapping this thing. It appears to possibly be in orbit between the sixth and seventh planet. We encountered a gravity well trying to pull us in and we backed off. Nothing on sensors and we are trying something old here. Give us a moment. We will send you what we receive along with the images of the crashed ship."

He pointed. "Look! It looks like the crash debris has moved to the far side of this thing."

She shook her head, "I am not picking the debris upon sensors going through this anomaly. Visually we can still make it out; mostly"

The radio signals started returning and the display filled out. It looked like a few chunks had been taken out of it and several deep fissures were being viewed. He looked over, "Need one unmanned shuttle. To try and land on that thing near where the crash site is when it comes back around. I want the bots on board creating up 20 geostationary satellites with a warning about a gravitational disturbance in this area."

Victoria looked over, "One that is half the size of Saturn and round? It is some type of planet. We know what the anomaly is we just do not know what it is made of."

He sighed, "We think we know. The unmanned shuttle first. The message can be altered if we choose to alter it later. I want that message for now."

He spoke to the Commander, "You are seeing what we are seeing."

He sighed, "How are you generating the image?"

Rocan sighed, "Using radio waves as different elevations, distances, and in different frequencies from multiple ships."

He nodded, "You got something there alright and I agree with him Victoria. Too soon to call it a planet. The unmanned shuttle is the best idea. It will let us know if it can be landed upon and if the ship can get back into orbit or if it is stuck there; like being in the middle of Saturn."

Victoria rolled her eyes and nodded, "I understand what you are saying but Saturn is a planet. Even if we cannot get it off the surface if we can land it we know it is solid ground."

He looked over, "I want 4 MIDGE's ready if the shuttle works and gets off the ground. I want to send them down and try and harvest whatever it is made of and try and figure out what it is."

The other Captain called back, "I relayed the loss of the ship and that we were still investigating a spatial anomaly."

Victoria thought, * Great father might be back. *

Aurora decided to contact Astra through the satellites. She heard, "I wondered when you were going to contact me, Voice only. Running it in your head?"

Aurora laughed, "Yes, did you see the damage to this?"

She sighed, "Was not on board but heard about the fight and that you lost two of your AI battleships."

Aurora responded, "Against two battleships and 2 destroyers from the Scrill. Rocan's idea seemed crazy, he did not tell us what he was doing until he launched the MIDGE's from the six battleships that were hiding behind the line and had them chew through the offending ships like asteroids."

Astra laughed, "First time I have heard of a MIDGE being used that way. Very clever."

Aurora sighed, "Not what I am calling about. We lost a Terran battleship here. We are using old radio waves to try and figure out what is generating a gravity well in the area that is invisible on nearly invisible to the eye and blocks all attempts at scanning it."

Astra asked, "How big?"

She sighed, "Best guess, about half the size of Saturn."

Astra gasped, "I might know what it is. Zero Element. There was around 300 kg of it below the polar ice pack on Terra. A small group of rogue ninjas had swords made from this stuff. Strong, durable and resisted all forms of scanning. Jack once called it the Zero Element."

Aurora looked at Rocan, "I am talking with Astra. She said it might be something called a Zero Element. It resists all forms of scanning. It was used by a rogue group of ninjas on Terra."

She heard next, "Paint would not stick to the stuff."

Aurora looked over, "Even paint would not stick to this stuff."

He nodded, "Let's put that forward as a working hypothesis. Our landing should hopefully go smooth."

He slowly worked the controls and readouts for the gravitational pull, "2 times our planetary gravity, make that 3 times and we have a landing. A little rocky but we can land on it. Sending in the MIDGE's as we know we can get off the surface now as I have the shuttle back in space with a full burn. I am heading to the shuttle bay. I am taking our geologist down to examine this world."

Aurora nodded, "Alright but use the crashed craft as a general marker. Putting us into a high orbit now that we know something is there. Will launch the satellites as they become available. Don't stay too long that is a lot of force on an untrained body; hers."

He nodded, "Understood."

Parsa took the copilot seat and ran radio waves off of the bottom of the ship to help guide them down. They landed with a slight listing of the landing gear. They opened the door and she felt around and picked up a small piece that had broken off some time ago. She started breathing heavier and he got her back into the shuttle quickly and then got them off of that rock. He sighed, "The MIDGE's will grind more of it back but we can take a look at what you have."

He heard in his head, * You found what you needed for your new swords. This is one of 3 planetoids we have discovered in the last 4,000 years that is made entirely of this material. It will not adhere to anything. It will not become an alloy with anything, it is all but worthless except for making a psi sword if a population has enough of the material.

You could get a wrap around the handle that sticks to itself. Easier when you make the sword to make the wrap out of the same material. This is what you will need to do. Practice with material and make spheres with it and bars with it. Using telekinesis. Once you have 8 spheres 10 cm around then you will be ready to go to the moon. Not before we instruct you to go there. *

He looked over at Parsa, "With the exception of Aurora and me you are the first to hear this. This is the stuff we will make psi swords out of. Not metallic hydrogen."

She looked at it, "Really?"

He nodded, "They said it will not combine with anything and nothing will stick to it. It is worthless except for making PSI swords. Apparently, it can be affected by telekinesis to shape them."

She smiled, "That was why they told you that you need to practice that talent."

He nodded and smiled, "Not a direct answer but an answer."

He called out to Aurora, "Leave it as a gravitational anomaly. Let me talk with the commander of the other ship. Recall the MIDGE's with what they have for now. It should be more than enough for a while."

Aurora nodded, "Half of the satellites are up we spread the first ones around and called out a 5,000 KM radius around the anomaly to ensure you are not affected."

She got the Commander on comms as Rocan sat down, "It is a planet and the material of it is what our hybrids will make swords out of. From what I understand we are not the first to do it."

The Captain looked over, "Oh, who was the first?"

He smiled, "Some rogue ninjas on Terra found a small supply of this stuff."

He looked over, "Jack Travus made a PSI sword out of one or two of them. I believe it is in Johnathan's office still. It was the last known location of any of that material. They said it was rare."

Rocan nodded, "Also worthless. They had found 3 planetoids, the Drakor told me. The material will not bond with anything. The only useful thing they found with the material is it would respond to telekinesis and could be used to make Psi swords."

The Captain sighed, "Wish our battleship had not found it first."

Rocan nodded, "We have the warning satellites going up around it. The g-forces are 3 times my homeworld."

He saw the man looking. "That is almost 1.23 times Terra normal. Close to 4 times our gravity. That will make recovery difficult."

Rocan shook his head, "You have any AI units to help you out?"

He shook his head, "No, Astra is the only one in the Home Guard. We have had a few other models many centuries ago but most left or fell into disrepair because the manufacturer stopped supporting them."

He nodded, "Good to know."

He looked at Aurora, "How difficult are we talking about getting a team of our AI bots to pull remains from that wreckage?"

She sighed, "Will take them a couple of weeks and 10 of your shuttles will be gone during that time. That leaves you with 3 shuttles after that battle."

He nodded, "The material the MIDGE's bring in. Get it in a small barrel and put it in my room, another small one in my office. Store the rest for later."

She nodded, "Playing material for your telekinesis."

He nodded, "Yes."

He handed the rock to Victoria, "The stuff our swords will be made from."

She nodded, "Now you know why telekinesis. For a new one, a leader helps them make it."

He looked at her, "How?"

She smiled, "Asking the wrong person."

He thought, * Am I always going to get that answer from her when I ask questions about swords? *

He heard back, * Most likely. The answer is you have to learn how to force your will into another and let their mind shape it. Like Hand of Justice did when you made your sword. If you have your 3 first candidates lined up you should work to make them hybrid sooner rather than later so they can start practicing too. Will make it easier for you. *

He looked at the ladies around the bridge who were staring at him like he missed most of a conversation. "Sorry the Drakor talking with me."

He brought up comms and connected to Johnathan who was at his desk typing away. He looked over, "What have you found out about my ship?"

He sighed, "It crashed into a near-invisible planet at whatever speed they were traveling at. I am sending some of our AI units down to help retrieve bodies from the wreckage as it is almost 4 times your Terran gravity. Around 3 times my world's gravity." He held up the rock, "Heard you had some of this in a psi sword Jack built."

Johnathan got up from his desk and came back with the handle, "Even the wrap on this was done using the material he somehow frosted it and made it pliable to the hand; it does play well with making a blade."

Rocan nodded, "Telekinesis. I know. I was told I have to make 8 into 10 cm spheres of this stuff to bring to the meeting. Until they tell me too, that visit is off-limits. They said I need more practice."

He nodded, "You do not need sleep but if you feel rundown get a few hours and start again. It will help."

He nodded, "Good to know. Your people do not have AI units on your Home Guard ship except for Astra?"

He nodded, "An agreement was reached years ago that we would not bring another AI line into the Human Home Guard, they are loving the fact that you have a different line in your service I am sure. Astra did not want a bunch of copies of her running around. Actually, Jack did not and she happened to agree with that.

She liked being unique as she was built by AI units who never came into existence, she is one of a kind. You might not have heard she was sent back in time to save humanity, 645 years back. Because of the changes Jack did it changed a lot of technical improvements and gave us a solid human foundation in which to build upon. We have armies of maintenance bots but they are not full up AI units."

Rocan nodded, "I had not heard that. Was Jack sent back as well?"

Johnathan laughed, "Yes and no. Her ship did not jump straight to that time. It broke that time in half. It stopped and picked him. The AI that was active before Astra came on line removed 30% of his nerve endings from his cock, not the 5% you got.

He could fuck for hours and his other mods; were toned down on you except for the width and girth. We have kept them the same and that is not something done on everyone before you ask. Having a few mates will help you through life. Even if your culture does not allow for marriage."

Rocan shook his head, "Some women marry each other but they do not allow it for men because of the 12 to 1 ratio issue. They need the men to float around and pollinate. Still with the mechanical hand, leg, scars, and the lost eye.

I was not a target woman wanted to spend time with. I have a new life in that regard. Women lining up now and I have yet to have sex lately with anyone but Aurora. The others are still getting the poison out of there system."

Aurora walked up, "Jassin and Gia are both cleared for relations. Their poison levels are down to 0."

He nodded, "Might have some luck latter, have a couple of ladies to talk to about that."

Johnathan heard the ladies giggling on the bridge. He shook his head, "Will let you go my wife just walked in with another member of the Home Guard. Best to find out what this is about." Johnathan ended the call.