Aurora, Wayward Pt. 06

Our doctor down here is up and walking. The head Xenobiologist is unconscious, a Sentinel Marine managed to get him to the ground to keep from being thrown around. The same could not be said of the Marine. Repairs on that one are on-going."

He called out, "Camps, all camps converge on Base Camp 1. Marines get a squad together and get to Base Camp 3 for recovery efforts."

He took his arrow to Base Camp 1. He asked, * Did you discover who they were? *

He heard back, * The creatures we had not seen. The bodies you sent into space were part of a collector race. We exterminated them 20 millennia ago. Apparently, one ship got away. *

He heard from Aurora, * They have 12 ships in this system; including this one. There might be more but that is all we got before you destroyed the central computer in the vessel. I have a galactic chart for you Justice Incarnate. It is displayed on our screen. Fredrick, our first male hybrid after Rocan is sitting at tactical, Quickstrike is his sword name.

He is staring at it so you can know what we pulled from their computers. It is on an isolated server. I am sending you a frequency and passcode to that server to access to upload into yours if you wish. We will then recycle that server. That is technology the Penans should not have or want. *

Rocan heard, * We have sent ships to the surface to collect the dead aliens. We have other ships en route to other systems to investigate them. You could not detect them? *

Rocan thought, * The creatures we could, the ship we could not detect. *

He heard back, * They were using our cloaking technology based on our scan of the ship when we arrived. *

Rocan called out, "Do not fire on friendly Drakor ships. For those that have never seen one and in the area of Base Camp 1, you will soon. Do not block them from collecting the dead creatures or removing data from the system on this species. The information is extremely troubling to everyone and genetic engineering we do not need. Not like that!"

He heard from one of the junior xenobiologists, "This is a trove of data on this alien species that was created."

Rocan yelled back, "It is a trove of mass mutilation of alien species and cross genetics that defy our comprehension. They were a race over 20 millennia old and we were lucky not to lose more lives in this matter! Messing with that stuff will cause more loss of life. Starting with your own!"

Rocan heard back, "Understood, Home Guard."

The doctor had nothing to back up any data with and the Drakor were on the place like locusts. They knew right where to look. They pulled everything and even used some sort of gun to clean at the microscopic level. The other Doctor came too.

Doctor Rhoden looked at Doctor Libor, "The Drakor are on site. They are exterminating what research we have on this alien predator. Command Admiral Spartan of the Home Guard said we should let them. They got it all already from the main system."

Doctor Libor nodded, "This is one time I happen to agree with him. That stuff was too easy to be weaponized. Better to not have it and want some general back home asking one colony to turn another into a race of jellyfish."

The Doctor sighed as he knew it was still a missed opportunity. Ariel came over to check on the doctors as she had come down from the battleship in a shuttle to collect the dead Penans and help with the injured.

She looked at the Doctor, "You want a trove of species information it is all around you in these two worlds. Learn to crawl before running. When you are ready, talk with Aurora about what she would be willing to release on alien species in the Alien Alliance."

Doctor Rhodes sighed out, "Your right Doctor Ariel. Steps, not leaps, a 20-millennium leap would have been dangerous."

---

Rocan landed his fighter on the surface as Astra showed up with Franklin in the scout. Rocan walked over and surveyed the damage. Rocan shook his head, "Move from one site to the next as a group. As far as we know that is all we have."

Rocan looked over, "You were with your leader at the meeting?"

He nodded, "My sister, by a century. She retired last week after 1,400 years of service."

Rocan shook his head, "1,432 years. The longest-serving council member when we talked with Astra in our time. She did not tell us it was a woman. Her and her husband side-by-side."

He nodded, "Alright, I was skeptical as to how you jumped back in time and inside a year you have a battleship jumping here with half the standard crew we use."

Rocan looked over, "Seriously?"

Franklin nodded, "Maybe because Jack paved the way."

Rocan smiled, "We run pylons that are 125% longer than your designs on that ship. We have extra power cores because of the extra decks for the second rack of fighter launch tubes. The extra power we can draw from for a jump. This one has a 5x in system drive as it has no titanium. We will strip the wormhole drive and weapons on it eventually.

We are wanting to load up on titanium ore while we are here to make its replacement. We designed it to jump with a lot of storage containers or ships attached to the airlocks in addition to what we take aboard.

We only have a few fighters on board and a few shuttles that will remain in the system to provide support to the survey teams. The rest of the space will have storage containers for titanium. We are building battleships soon for each of the militaries. Not with our level of technology but a bump up from what they were running and no titanium in them. The titanium is for colony ships and the Home Guard fleet and fighters.

The shields we are using will still be there. It came about because of Jack Travus. Our ship designs are our own though. We used yours as a framework and then restructured them with launch tubes for fighters. Easier on the life support systems. A lot longer periods between required maintenance cycles and filtration replacement."

Franklin pointed to the fighter, "That thing tore through engine compartments."

He nodded, "The Gresan Military had built the 'nail gun' fighters. For boarding action by space-based marines. We could board and then decompress the ship section by section.

How we got aboard the AI battleships and the colony ships that invaded. We captured quite a few ships that way. They, the other Penan colonies, tried to duplicate our designs. I enhanced upon it with our structural engineer in my time.

I told her what I wanted to do and explained the reinforcements that were needed. We did not have your armor. That fighter has it and a Zero Element shell. That made their automated targeting next to useless vs the fighter."

Franklin nodded, "I noticed we picked you up on visual but not on ship sensors. We used external cameras to track you using thermal imaging but that is just a very small streak at those speeds. I saw you go above the Drakor ship."

Rocan nodded, "Figured if there was a shockwave, they were least likely to get affected by it. What it did to survey Base Camp 3 and the people there is another matter."

He looked over as a Drakor scout landed. He sighed, "Justice Incarnate again? I assume."

Astra nodded, "Yes, it is very likely."

Aurora walked over and stood next to Rocan as she had come down with Ariel. Her pendant lit up. Justice Incarnate looked at her as she activated the pendant, *Your hacking actions have helped us to find the remains of this group in this system. We do not have the electronic computers they used or you are using. Ours are organic. You provided enough for us to retrieve the data you captured. *

Rocan looked over at Justice Incarnate, "This is twice my people have been attacked by ancient enemies of the Drakor. We would have been obliterated or they would have escaped. If not for the Terran Home Guard coming to check on this genetic mutation research you had not seen; combined with your timely arrival once we got their cloak to drop."

Justice Incarnate sighed, * I know this. I know what you want to ask. *

Rocan looked at Franklin. "We are not asking for your railguns. What we would like is the research information Jack had on the guns from when he was attacked. We are wanting to incorporate our ammunition into that type of design.

Plasma-based shells incorporated into the alloy shells. Launched through our own rail gun designs. We heard from Aurora he built them about the time our people were sent away. I do not doubt you have enhanced them since then. We were hoping to get the initial reverse engineering data on that effort. Data that is over 4,700 years old to you."

Franklin looked at Justice Incarnate, * I am barred from helping him. *

Aurora looked over, "Astra has not been barred from helping me before you get into rules about helping us. Not counting the fact that the agreement has already technically been broken."

Astra looked over and saw Aurora's necklace, "Nice necklace."

Her eyes drifted to Justice Incarnate.

Astra looked over, "I could put together the original file vids on some of our testing and what was pulled from the wreckage. You would have to figure out the rest from there. Nothing on what we finally deployed."

Aurora nodded, "We are working our own research facility on the other battleship. Deck 6 is all research. We had scrill weapons and jammers we pulled from their attack on us in the previous timeline."

Franklin looked at Rocan, "How did you take out Scrill ships?"

Rocan smiled, "We had AI battleships; you saw a few of them when you arrived. We have decommissioned all of them now for the metal. We had 6 that formed a rotating shield that moved in closer. Once their shields fell, 2 of our battleships that had been shot up exploded. I sent unmanned shuttles on a suicide run at a terraformer they had brought into this system. I then sent 6 MIDGEs with instructions to chew through those asteroids. Their ships."

Franklin chuckled, "Alright, the first I had heard of using a MIDGE that way."

Aurora smiled, "When I told Astra in my time, she made the same comment."

Astra chuckled, "I sent that data to your server already. If you are going to constantly run into old Drakor enemies out here on the fringe; a few vids from over 4 millennia ago will not hurt us in the long run. I would ask for a copy of your arrow design though. It is rather interesting."

Rocan nodded, "I will have my XO send you the schematics. Ther are others that are not coated on our battleship and you could gain enough information to reproduce them from your own sensor data. It would just take you longer."

She nodded, "We both gained something from this then. An exchange in technology."

Rocan nodded to her and looked at Justice Incarnate, "Have you searched our existing system and this system for any more hidden Drakor enemies? Would that be too much to ask? I know it does not prevent them from showing up and we will address that on a case by case basis."

Justine Incarnate sighed out, * We have ships scanning this system and your home system for any hidden threats or lost technology. They will be finished soon; we are doing this with other Home Guard systems as well now. We will check nearby star systems from Samar and Penan as well. We want you to have time to succeed.

Getting all five colonies focused on more than one goal in a spirit of cooperation is an amazing accomplishment. Getting your colonies moving may come sooner than we expected. You do not look to be taking an FTL journey to get here. *

Rocan shook his head, "Something about a bio-engineered plague that gets people to realize exactly what we can do for them. As to jumping. We need to get our crops settled on what will work. While we work to fix the existing world's farms and food processing going forward.

We will start by building the dreadnought bases on this side. Taking them back one at a time as we have the raw material here to handle that easier from here if we have the talent to move them. We will need to see how much damage we do when we try to jump those.

We have a while yet as we have planetary quarantines of 2, 5, and 25 years on 3 out of 5 systems. We cannot move some of one without the others. Groups will break into infighting. 5 years is likely. The effects of the Caldar are still too fresh. We do something for one colony and we have to be willing to do it for all of them. These Caldar are another who keeps eluding you, correct Justice Incarnate?"

He sighed, * We need to do a better job of sweeping pre-FTL worlds and removing them. They were only in this galaxy when they scattered like insects; that we know about. We will have to expand the search for them. They breed through division, with the parent's knowledge carried forward.

They find a feeding ground and they could re-infect other systems. We will be going now as should the Terrans. You do not have a colony here yet. You might soon. When that happens contact with the Terrans will be gone until graduation. *

He nodded to Justice Incarnate.

They all walked back to their ships and Franklin thought out, * Justice Incarnate. How in the hell did he send a battleship here? *

He heard back. * He is a magnifying lens. We know how this came about as does Astra. We are uncertain as to how the effect is working in this group. The thing is we do not believe it is a good idea. It might shatter the lens. Time will tell. *

Franklin got on board with Astra, "Care to explain that."

She sighed and thought to him, * I was under instructions not to until after the 'big event', but given today's events she would probably want you to know. She wanted to let them be the guinea pig with some of what they were doing.

Aurora is concerned at the rate he is progressing as well. He is connected to more than Aurora. He is connected to 2 others, the second justice and their lover who is on the council. A red blade but not the first.

They have a shared mind if you will with Aurora. She is feeding massive amounts of data through these interfaces. His last IQ was approaching Jack's IQ. *

Franklin looked over, "The others?"

She shrugged and spoke, "The other justice was 5 points behind him on their system. She was the only one who had a baseline at the time. She got a 30% jump between that and the Drakor interface. What he said about shattering is concerning. If one dies can the other two carry on.

If two go and Aurora what happens to his power and his ability to go on? His ability to jump the ship might be affected. Your sister and you both knew what that is like. That is connected only to the heart and soul. Heart, body, mind, and soul...Constantly! You are connected to her by two and the mind every time you talk.

It does not mean you do not each keep your own secrets. He holds no secrets from those two, as far as I know. That is a complete guess on my part. He may still hold some things back. That would require a longer sit-down conversation with her.

I am not looking to pursue that right now, keeping what your sister wanted intact and leaving it to them to work this alternate path. He is connected to two other hybrids through Aurora.

We androids have our own silent communication channel, she adopted mine and even gave me an upgrade for it on that pad to be sure I had it. I have not patented it yet, she told me when I should look to do so based on history.

I upgraded it for talking with her when the need would arise. It has a couple of times now, though I did not have it during our first meeting. She expressed her concerns, but we kept the data shared to a minimum because of the fact they are not graduated yet.

Your sister was wise to let it rest. The Drakor have given her a pendant though and that speaks volumes to a level of trust they have given her. Probably for formulating the plan for the malevolent AI return that will be coming."

Franklin nodded, "I agree. I am almost sorry I asked."

He shook his head. "Still the numbers are impressive. If they can hold it together."

Rocan left with 36 Penans in the research teams when he arrived in Samar and returned to Penan space with 10 bodies from those teams. The governors wanted answers. He walked into the meeting with them, they were aboard his battleship for a change.

They finally got that tour when he jumped back into the system and told them there had been significant casualties. He walked into the briefing room and pointed, "Aurora, show them."

She brought it up, pointed out the Terran Home Guard battleship, the Excalibur. Then the alien creatures on one continent. The hidden ship followed by the Drakor's arrival. They all gasped as they watched the firepower.

He flew out of the ship as the others flew away. He sighed, "They set a self-destruct. It sent down a microburst around 150 km circle right over Base Camp 3. Base Camp 1 was tossed.

While at Base Camp 3 all trees in that area were flattened out and it left a crater from the force alone. A few of the Sentinels survived but were badly damaged, nothing organic survived that blast at Base Camp 3. We lost 6 Penans at Base Camp 3, 3 at Base Camp 6, and 1 at Base Camp one when the shelters were tossed.

Base Camp 1 had the remains of Base Camp 6 after the creature attack. The other 3 were on the other side of the planet. Another ancient enemy of the Drakor, over 20 millennia ago since they saw them. Aurora found information on their computers.

That information showed them occupied 12 planets in this galaxy and we gave it all, including the twisted genetic experiments they did, to the Drakor. The only ones who would understand what they had done would be the Drakor.

Correction. One of the xenobiologists said what he saw would have been too easy to weaponize. It would destroy one or more colonies if some mad military leader got a hold of that data. He was happy it was gone.

They are working at Base Camp 1 as one unit and will move to each site. The Base Camp 6 location is a crater filling in with water right now from the ocean. It is now a large U-shaped Island.

The center of that continent is gone. Over 900 square km is now a hole being filled in by the ocean. You know what we know. Except for one thing. I should not be able to jump a battleship with 45, a scout, or frigate maybe. Being this new...no.

Aurora thinks it has to do with what she has done with the interface. She got the last message from Astra that said right now I am a magnifying glass because of my connection beyond Aurora. Something they did not do. The method of training she is doing with us through this interface. She told me that if one falls or more, they do not know if I could sustain it.

Or shatter under the loss. Same for the others. It was recommended not to expand beyond what we are doing with anyone else until we know the impact. Meaning one or more of us happens to die.

In short, take smaller steps with this until we get some answers from our own research. It also means; I might be able to jump the colossus there and back with double what I took out; then be trapped if something happened. A lot of variables to consider. We will not know until we try."

The Penan Governor nodded, "Alright. Our stealth detection did not pick them up?"

He shook his head, "No, their stealth shield they stole from the Drakor. My guess is that was the first thing the Drakor destroyed was their stolen technology and cloning capability."

He ran them through the battle and that all 3 of them were fighting this thing. Also, that his fighter decompressed 3 of the 5 engine rooms.

The Gresan Governor sat quietly during this exchange, "Can we expect more of this?"