Border Station Five: Chief Engineer

A single cobalt blue eye opened when the alarm sounded. With a grunt, a dark figure shifted their sleeping position, knocking over nearby stacks of pads as they attempted to find the off switch. The tip of their long, lilac tail found the nearest control panel and, after several failed attempts, found the off button. Five minutes later, a second, louder alarm went off after they returned to sleep. Unlike the previous alarm, the off switch for the second was next to the door.

Chief Engineer Zoazhis stumbled out of her nest, knocking over several pieces of equipment as she crawled toward the door. Rising, she fumbled at the control panel before finding the off switch. Turning around, Zoazhis grumbled as she headed for her basking lamp, knocking over more discarded pieces of equipment and a stack of pads. Turning the lamp on, Zoazhis hissed as the bright light blinded her. Looking at her reflection in the nearby mirror, she picked up her buffer and methodically ran it over her body. Zoazhis shuddered as the vibrations and heat woke her.

Once her scales had a nice shine to them, Zoazhis searched for her collar. She found it amongst a small pile of pads. Zoazhis flattened her hood and activated it once it rested comfortably on her shoulders. She winced as the bright neon blue light blinded her as the Nanosuit, contained within the collar's reservoir, rushed to cover her naked body. Flexing her claws, Zoazhis noted their cobalt blue shine. Suitably dressed, she looked around her nest for the mechanical arms she used for work. They were found leaning against the curved wall next to the nest's exit. Picking them up, Zoazhis pressed the connection point against the base of her spine. She felt the sharp stab of pain as the end of the neural links connected to her nervous system. After a quick roll of her shoulders and making sure the arms were responding, Zoazhis headed out of her nest.

Stepping into the Cruiser's hangar after her morning meal, Zoazhis looked to her right and watched the Terran spaceship slowly pass through the atmospheric shield. Once the ship was halfway through, a claw lowered from the hangar's ceiling, which took hold of the vessel. Zoazhis walked towards the centre of the hangar, where several of her Engineers were waiting for her. Once the Terran spaceship reached the middle of the hangar, the claw lowered the vessel onto the deck and then returned to its position on the ceiling.

"I want this ship thoroughly scanned before we do anything with it," Zoazhis ordered.

The assembled Engineers hurried to their assigned stations. A few moments later, a mechanical arm lowered from above. Once it was level with the hull of the Terran spaceship, it emitted a high-pitched whine as it powered up. A bright white light hit the hull at the rear and slowly moved toward the front.

"Scan data is coming now, Chief," Elosi, the scanner's operator, called out. The light of the scanner reflected off the red scales of her head.

Zoazhis noted that, like everyone else, a protective layer of light-absorbing Nanos covered her head. Thanks to sensors built into each collar, a Viper rarely needed to manually activate basic protection programs, such as the one currently in use. When the scanner activated, the Nanosuit detected the dangerous increase in light levels and immediately covered their heads.

"Radiation?" Zoazhis called out.

"They're at safe levels," a different Engineer replied. Elki stood in front of a monitor displaying the scanner's readout. "I suggest we place the ship's reactor into a quarantine field," she said. The Nanos protecting Elki's eyesight covered her right eye, as the left was an artificial replacement.

"Agreed," Zoazhis replied, "once the scan is complete, carefully detach it and move the reactor with the claw," she ordered.

Minutes later, the scanner switched off, and Zoazhis blinked as the Nanos covering her head returned to her collar's reservoir. She walked over to the front of the Terran spaceship, ducking under the laser cutter rising from the deck below. After a few seconds, Zoazhis heard the telltale high-pitched whine as one of her Engineers, Mistlu, powered it up. Shortly before it activated, her collar glowed neon blue as her Nanosuit reacted again. This time, the Nanos covered the softer inner part of her hood and the rear third of her skull instead of covering her head.

"Make sure to cut the powerlines properly this time," Zoazhis warned, "I don't want to have to explain to the Captain and Matriarch why there's a gaping hole in their ship," she said. Mistlu nodded and started cutting the reactor from the vessel slowly.

Stopping before the ship, Zoazhis tilted her head to one side as she noted her reflection on the cockpit's glass. Removing the pad attached to her right thigh, Zoazhis accessed the sensor scans of the Terran vessel. Locating the airlock, she walked toward it and waited for the Engineer to finish using the laser cutter. Looking up, Zoazhis watched the claw descend toward the Terran spaceship.

"Make sure you use the magnetic clamp," Zoazhis advised, "I want to limit any potential damage we could do to the reactor," she said. There was a metallic thud as the clamp locked onto the vessel's reactor. Moments later, the claw lifted the reactor off the hangar's deck, slowly moving it towards the quarantine area.

Stepping onto the Terran spaceship, Zoazhis walked over to the airlock and bent forward, almost banging her head on the vessel's ceiling. Half crouching and half crawling, Zoazhis explored the cockpit. The first thing that caught her eye was the stasis pod. Connecting a small power pack to the boxy machines on either side of the pod, Zoazhis watched as it slowly powered up. Seconds after it had reached one hundred per cent, her Nanosuit emitted a radiation alarm.

"Chief? Are you okay in there?" asked a concerned Engineer over the comms.

"I'm fine, Numi," Zoazhis replied, "it's just the Terran stasis pod," she replied while using the scanner attached to her wrist. "I believe I may have found one of the reasons why the Terran survived the Vortex without a Vortex Shield," Zoazhis pointed out. Removing the power pack, she crawled to the cockpit and found somewhere to connect it. A few seconds later, the entirety of the spaceship's cockpit powered up.

Looking around, Zoazhis noted that despite their height differences, the overall layout of the cockpit was not too dissimilar to some of the early spaceships her people built. With help from one of her mechanical arms, Zoazhis used it to detach the pilot's chair from the floor, placed it against a nearby wall, and then meticulously examined the various functions of each button in front of her.

The centre console controlled the Terran spaceship with pilot controls, essential data readouts, and sensors. The left console controlled life support and monitored the vessel's reactor, and the right console housed communications. Zoazhis noticed a light blinking on one of the communications terminals. An animated face appeared on a nearby screen when she pressed the button next to it.

"Captain John Lawrence," the face said.

"Who are you?" inquired Zoazhis.

"Voice pattern not recognised," replied the animated face.

"Do you know where you are?" Zoazhis asked.

"Voice pattern not recognised," repeated the animated face.

"Chief. You okay in there?" Numi asked, a note of concern to her voice over the comms.

"I'm fine," Zoazhis replied, "this vessel appears to have some kind of artificial intelligence," she said, "I'll see if I can override it," Zoazhis picked up her pad and accessed the hacking tool as she finished talking. Holding the pad against the cockpit's central console, Zoazhis pressed the activation button. Within seconds, it broke through the Terran vessel's protection and then downloaded the database in seconds.

"I've downloaded the database," Zoazhis said as she scanned through the data.

"Anything interesting?" asked one of her Engineers.

"Probably," replied Zoazhis, "also what I thought was an artificial intelligence appears to be an interactive interface," she said.

"We're ready to detach the cockpit," Mistlu said over the comms.

"I'm heading out now," replied Zoazhis, "start cutting once I'm clear," she ordered.

"Aye, Chief," replied Mistlu.

Stepping off the hull of the Terran spaceship, Zoazhis waited for the engineers to detach and move the cockpit before she headed for the vessel's rear. When she arrived, Zoazhis watched the Engineers as they detached and carefully repositioned the ship's engines. They used the claw to grip each engine as the laser cutter operator carefully sliced through the connection port.

"I assume you drained the Helium-3 before the first cut?" asked Zoazhis.

"We drained the fuel tanks first," replied Shihu, the light from the laser reflecting off her dark green scales, "and then we sucked out what fuel remained," she said and pointed over to where they were now storing the Helium-3.

"Have the computer analyse it," Zoazhis ordered, "if it's compatible, I see no harm in storing it for trade when we reach the Station," she said. A loud bang echoed through the hangar as the engine currently being moved slipped out of the claw's grasp. It hit the deck and rolled a few feet before stopping. "Careful up there!" shouted Zoazhis, "Hokli, I've warned you before," she said.

"Sorry," replied Hokli over the comms.

"I'm going to upload the ship's database to our terminals," Zoazhis said, "once the engines are stored, I want you all to help," she ordered. Arriving at the hangar's engineering station, Zoazhis placed her pad on the primary reader and told it to download the alien database. Once the ship's computer had finished scanning the data for anything harmful, Zoazhis started meticulously analysing it.

"Found anything interesting?" Elosi asked as she arrived at the station.

"The stasis pod is a prototype," replied Zoazhis, "and it appears to repel Vortex energy," she said.

"Huh. That explains how the Terran survived without Vortex shields," Elosi said.

"And I think I've just found out how the ship entered the Vortex," Zoazhis declared.

"Do tell," Elki said as the remaining Engineers arrived. The others looked at Zoazhis expectantly.

"I compared the radiation readout from the Terran ship to our earlier prototypes, and it's a match," she said. "Although," Zoazhis said as she activated the engineering station's holographic projector, "if I had to guess, these engines are a prototype, just like the stasis pod, and it was never their intended use to enter the Vortex," she then adjusted the projection.

"I agree," Mistlu said, "look at this," she then keyed something into the engineering station. A window appeared with scrolling text. "If I've read this correctly, the Terran's mission was to locate something at the edge of their solar system," Mistlu said.

"It says here they detected an object," Tizsha said. Zoazhis noticed how the light from the display in front of her created a dark shadow on the scar running across her neck.

"Perhaps it's an old satellite?" suggested Elosi.

"How's that possible?" asked Numi, "there's no way they'd be able to see through our stealth tech," she said.

"Most likely, some nearby debris got stuck to the satellite, and that's what they detected," suggested Zoazhis.

"I think I've found a historical recording," said Tizsha, "although their technology appears to be more advanced than this spaceship," she said.

"Let's run it on the holoprojector," Zoazhis suggested. Tizsha tapped away at her keyboard, and a Terran letter and numeral appeared. After a few more key presses, a voice, music, and footage started to play.

After roughly fifty minutes, the holoprojector stopped playing the footage, and the assembled Engineers looked at Zoazhis. She scratched the softer inner part of her hood, and one of her mechanical arms passed a nearby drink to her left hand. Taking a sip of the water contained within, she scanned the data readout in front of her once more and then looked up.

"I don't think what we just watched was real," she said, "knowing how our earlier forms of entertainment began, I think this was something similar," Zoazhis suggested.

"I agree," Tizsha said with a smile.

"Me too," said Elki, "the differences in technology shown, as well as the other alien races, suggest that it's fictional," she then looked up at Zoazhis, who smiled at her.

"Let's store it in a separate file and focus on the Terran ship in front of us," the Chief Engineer said. Zoazhis made sure no one noticed her pad was downloading the fictional files.

*****

Stepping through the doorway to her nest, Zoazhis removed the mechanical arms from her back, placed them next to the door and then deactivated her collar, throwing it onto the padded floor. Zoazhis rubbed the base of her spine, just above the end of her tail and headed for her bathroom. When she re-entered her nestroom, Zoazhis rummaged through a nearby storage unit. Finding what she was after, Zoazhis walked over to her nest and placed the container on the raised edge.

Clearing the pads from inside her nest, Zoazhis made herself comfortable, opened the container and chewed on one of the dried slices of meat. She then reached for a nearby controller and pressed a purple button. A section of the ceiling split apart and then retracted as a mechanical arm lowered. Seconds later, the holoprojector attached to the end powered up. A bright green grid hovered at a comfortable distance from where Zoazhis lay.

"I think it's time to enjoy this," Zoazhis said as she activated the data she took from the Terran spaceship. The grid shifted into a moving image of a sun and planet. A male Terran voice filled her nestroom.

"It was the dawn of the third age of mankind. Ten years after the Earth Min..." the male voice said.