A single step

Dustin was dimly aware of what happened next when he focused on his memory, some time later. The small group of aliens had held hands, and a ripple of light had shimmered through the bay and out into the ship. Then, there had been a feeling like a weave bubble popping, Sola’s alarms had blared, and his memories just… stopped. When they resumed, the cargo bay was empty, the aliens and their craft were gone. More importantly, the shuttlebay door was open, a wall of shimmering crystal replacing the massive shutters. Through it, he could clearly see a distant yellow star and a massive gas giant nearby - and a number of craft moving rapidly towards Sola.

In the immediate aftermath of the blurry memories, two voices had cut through his confusion. The first came from the bridge - Sammie, sounding half-panicked. “Dusty? You need to get up here right now… what the hell just happened?”

As he turned to make his way up to the command deck to find out what his wife wanted, not to mention dealing with the incoming ships who were clearly approaching with their weapons online, the second voice almost made him pause. “Dusty? We need you in engineering. It’s Fi-oh… she’s collapsed.”

For the first time ever, Dustin found himself torn between his duty to his ship and to one of his lovers as he ran for the turbolift. A conversation with Rye as he sprinted indicated that the rogue Fractal was not responding, Bleu already working to move her to the medbay. Between the engineer and the medic though, they were stumped as to what had caused the sudden change in Defia; she’d not lost her form, having instead apparently just keeled over backwards - it was like her mind was just elsewhere.

In the end, much as he wanted to be by Defia’s side, duty to the rest of the ship won out. If those incoming vessels were to attack, he would be needed on the bridge. Resolving the situation with his Fractal lover being unconscious would have to wait until he knew the craft she was passed out in was actually safe.

Arriving on the bridge, Dustin barely took in the stunned expressions on his wives’ faces as he slumped into his seat. “What do we know about the hostiles?” he asked, turning to Yril’k to check the status of Sola’s defences while Meli and Sammie continued deciphering what had just happened.

“I… I don’t think they’re hostiles,” Sammie began hesitantly, before the officer manning Emely’s station interrupted to let them know that they were being hailed. Raising an eyebrow at the pilot, Dustin gestured for the call to be put through.

A moment later, the vidscreen flickered to show a very concerned looking young captain. “Unidentified craft, state your affiliation and business in Sol space… wait, Ambassador?!”

Dustin blinked. The man on the screen was wearing a Star Command uniform. The bridge on the far end of the call too appeared human in construction. Vaguely, his thoughts drifted back to the shape of the incoming craft he’d seen from the shuttlebay, and the appearance of the gas giant they’d been close to. Raising a hand in greeting, he answered the suddenly confused looking captain with a question of his own. “This is the Solar Ascent, and I have no idea how we got here. I recall getting a message saying to return urgently, and we’d had an encounter with some strange aliens but… This is Sol, right?”

The debriefing was taking forever. Sola had been escorted to the Titan shipyards, where a crew of engineers had gone over every inch of her hull and systems. While that was going on, the crew had been subject to every scan Bleu and the EarthGov medical division could come up with, in between endless rounds of interviews.

As far as Dustin could tell, there were three important questions the authorities were trying to answer. First, were the crew of Sola actually real and who they said they were. That, thankfully appeared to be confirmed swiftly - not only that, but they were apparently also really from this universe. Meli had explained as much to him while they were waiting the outcome of one of Bleu’s scans - something complex involving the levels of background radiation and the spin of atoms in their cells allowing them to detect if they came from a different plane of existence.

Secondly, if they were real - had anything been done to either them or the ship during that period of memory absence. It wasn’t just Dustin who had a hole in his memory, the entire crew appeared to have lost around two minutes and twenty-seven seconds. Sola’s internal sensors had been down for the same amount of time, and the only other computer-like entity aboard - Defia - was still in an unconscious state.

Dustin worried tremendously about her as he paced from interview to interview, while the people in charge moved to trying to figure out their final question. How exactly had Sola managed to traverse the distance from the void outside that new black hole all the way to Sol space in only a few minutes, when even the fastest weave jump assuming there had been a direct route (which there wasn’t, as far as anyone was aware) would take days if not weeks?

As captain of the vessel, Dustin was kept in for questioning far longer than the others. Not only had he been the one in charge, but he was also the one who’d had the most contact with the mysterious winged aliens. Given what everyone remembered, the strange group were the best guess anyone had as to how Sola had made the jump - not to mention the origin of the crystalline substance that had sealed off the shuttlebay. Engineers who had examined it were apparently getting very excited about the possibility of replicating the material for emergency hull repairs, although Dustin was just glad to know they’d been able to remove it all from his ship. Between the Fractals and the crystals, Sola had been taking way too many strange modifications to her systems of late.

Halfway through the interviews, the lead Arof researcher met with Dustin to offer their thanks before being loaded onto a resupply ship that was heading to the human fleet. The craft would drop the canids off on their homeworld with what information EarthGov could supply from Sola’s databases on the new black hole as a goodwill gesture, although a couple of their guests had requested to stay behind and join Dustin’s crew - apparently, spending time chatting with humans had gotten them very interested in a society that didn’t focus entirely on earning money.

Between concerns for his ship and his lover though, Dustin found it hard to deal with the mundane request. Despite the difficulty, he managed to maintain a friendly expression as he accepted the new recruits anyway. More perspectives were always good after all, and Meli had been saying the science teams were a little short-handed of late.

Finally, thankfully, the last round of questioning was done. Released by the rather polite bureaucrat who’d been asking him yet again to go over the details of the winged alien’s anatomy, Dustin practically bolted from the room, running to the nearest lift and punching the button for the floor where a makeshift combination of medbay and engineering suite housed Defia.

The room hummed with electricity and the smell of chemicals when he entered. Meli and Bleu were stood by a terminal, talking quietly with Rye, while Aricia sat by the bedside, the Lieviran holding the rogue Fractal’s unresponsive hand. The others were gathered, Jaisyl and Naera looking like they felt useless while Yaerwen and Trea’k consoled them. Sammie was slumped in a corner, a rather worrying collecting of empty bottles around her, although when Dustin entered she shook her head at his expression.

“Days worth. Not drinking myself to death,” the pilot mumbled, before hauling herself upright. “I come in most nights with a bottle and share it with whoever’s here. Emmz complains each time cos Bleu says she can’t have any.”

The Feliax woman’s nest was apparent after a moment’s searching. Emely had planted herself on the far side of the room, where she could watch both Defia and the door. More concerning than Bleu’s empty bottle collection, the fox girl’s nest was surrounded with an array of edged and ranged weapons, seemingly gathered from the ship’s stores or fashioned from scrap from the range of engineering supplies that dotted the room.

“Not letting anyone hurt Fi-oh.” The quiet comment came from inside the blankets, as Dustin moved to the rogue Fractal’s side. “And neither will Yril’k.” The Feliax’s words were accompanied by a hand pointing upwards, and Dustin glanced up to find the warrior Vex’ess had a nest of her own, hanging spider-like above Defia’s bed at a junction of wires and ducting.

Looking down, Dustin was struck by how peaceful Defia looked. She seemed to have been mid-sentence when she collapsed, her mouth parted slightly and her eyes staring at nothing. Reaching out, he took her hand, squeezing it gently. “We’re all here, Defia. Come back to us, please…”