>>5670810>>5670813>>5670820>>5670823>>5670827>>5670830>>5670832>>5670869>>5670874>>5670900The mess hall is somber, quiet save for the occasional discharge of power that runs up and down the ship. Damage had been mercifully light – most of it superficial, but the ship’s internals had suffered heavy strain when the inertial dampeners were overridden. There is plenty to replace, but well within the budget, and an acceptable expenditure for what would have otherwise spelled doom for the ship.
“The ship’s alive?” asks Suzel for what must’ve been the hundredth time. The Nagai’s tea has gone cold in his hands as he tries to make sense of everything.
You don’t know what to tell him. “Not all of it. The outer, hardened layer looks like ossified biomaterial – coral, based on cursory scans. It’s when you start getting deeper past the ‘armor’ that you start to see…living things.”
Blood vessels instead of hydraulic systems.
Neural pathways instead of electrical wiring.
This isn’t anything that you’d ever read about in the Jedi Archives, let alone in any of Keimann’s intelligence reports. HK-82 might’ve had really bad timing, but for all intents and purposes, it isn’t wrong. By any and all stretches of the definition, this appears to be a genuine First Contact scenario. Or failing that, an old mariner’s tale that’s suddenly come to life.
“Sir, with all this strange…lifeforms that we’ve been encountering…” Trykov’s face is pinched into an uncomfortable expression. “We can’t discount that this is some sort of Jombaral-like entity.”
Ceyla or S-19 hadn’t been on Kakarit. But the veterans of that planet all collectively tense.
“…I don’t think so,” you say after a long period of silence. “Well, of it being her. Not unless she’s traded chlorophyl and eeche fruit for…barnacles and plasma cannons.”
Of course, there’s always a nonzero chance, but you can comfortably make the assumption that the Force Entity isn’t involved in this at all. The Herald had favored overwhelming you with mental attacks and misdirection. And while you hadn’t had the time to definitively check, the asteroid hadn’t been using the Force.
Elba grunts, shaking his head with a low growl.
“Translation,” says HK-82, “He’s worried that with this discovery, miners and workers of the Alliance will be too terrified to work the asteroid fields.”
It’s not a completely unfounded worry. The news that these alien ships lurked in asteroid belts, disguised with ice or silicon ore, would grind all orbital mining expenditures to a halt. There would be panic, workers refusing to set foot in zero-G for fear of being vaporized by a coral-ship’s plasma cannons. The shadow of paranoia lurking behind every fighter jock, every cargo hauler that these things not only exist, but that there could be more just…waiting to be reawakened.
(cont.)
