Edge of an empire

Dustin paced the ready room with a sense of unease before giving up and heading back to the bridge. It’d been an uneventful two weeks of flying through sparsely inhabited systems, all of which were in various stages of regeneration after “harvesting” by the Fractals. Nothing really happening, no planets to explore, as Dustin had taken the decision that unless they found sentient life (which they hadn’t) they should just keep flying until they reached the Fractal border. The result of that decision had left him twiddling his thumbs with nothing else to do besides worry about what they might find when they reached Fractal space and work himself into a state.

It wasn’t even as if he could do much regarding his relationships either. Oh, he had spent time with all of his loves, and had tried to offer to help out with whatever they were doing, but as far as helping with the progression of their bonding he felt sort of useless. Rye had gone very quiet on the topic of pairing, and when he asked her why she said she was getting ready a few final touches as she wanted the last parts to be perfect. He’d offered to help, but the engineer had politely told him he’d only get in the way for the most part and that he should just let her get on with it.

Meli and Trea’k meanwhile both had assured him that their pregnancies were progressing well, and at this early stage there was little he could do there. He’d taken the time to have a long conversation with Bleu about things to watch out for given the hybrid nature of his offspring, the medic had been all too happy to spend a day digging through the files and giving him potential scenarios based on other interspecies pairings, but it still seemed like he was just counting days.

Beyond what might be thought of as the current inner-circle of the harem, the others were all doing well at least. Emely was spending a lot of time with Aricia; Dustin had made sure to give the Feliax woman a long talk about not actively trying to recruit the somewhat airy butterfly woman, given Emely’s history with Naera. Speaking of the chef, she’d been increasingly distant in meetings of late. Dustin made a mental note as he took the lift up that he really should take a moment to talk to her as her captain rather than just her lover, to make sure everything was okay. She certainly seemed alright in their rooms, but in official settings the Caenii shortstack seemed to be having some kind of crisis of faith.

As the newest member of the group and only other human, Sammie seemed to be fitting in well, thankfully. She was overworking herself though - he’d actually had to order her to let him take a turn on piloting for the last weave jump before the one they were currently on, as well as taking some down time in between system hops. That worried him more than he liked to admit; not only as her lover but as her captain, he wanted her to be relaxed and well rested. The massage-orgy two weeks prior seemed like an eternity ago, and he made a mental note to **** the dark-skinned woman into some form of proper rest and relaxation activity as soon as possible.

Of those that occupied the ready room on a regular basis, that just left Yril’k and Defia. The Vex’ess warrior had more or less returned to active training and duty, although she did report for regular physicals with Bleu and a series of counselling sessions with Trea’k. Dustin had ordered the sessions to help ensure her confidence wasn’t damaged by her ordeal, but was pretty sure the two friends were just using the time for the insect equivalent of afternoon tea and a catchup. It didn’t matter, it would be good for Yril’k either way. Defia, on the other hand…

The Fractal woman had been spending a lot of time with the senior staff of late. When he’d asked her about it, she’d stated that it was to help with her painting; Dustin had to admit that having looked at her work he couldn’t see what the problem was - her oil paintings were highly detailed even if she always seemed to leave them only partially complete. Still, she had the senior staff helping her sort out whatever issues she was having, including both Bleu and Trea’k. Dustin trusted those two to be a voice of reason compared to some of the other ladies the Fractal was spending time with, if nothing else.

No, there were minor things to worry about with his women and senior staff - but they were not the reason for his unease, that was entirely down to the fact that this next system was supposed to be the start of the dead zone, according to their best guesses from the stars they’d visited so far. Anything could be lurking in the void once they dropped out of the weave, from a Fractal battlefleet to a set of planets scoured of life floating endlessly in space, bereft of purpose. Not knowing and worrying about it was driving him crazy.

The bridge was quiet when he slipped inside; it was late at night, they were deep into a weave flight, and most of the crew were off duty. A handful of junior officers manned stations that really didn’t need to be but were anyway just in case, and Sammie of course was resting in the pilot’s chair as normal, her chest rising and falling slowly as she drifted on the other side of perception as she worked at flying them onward.

Settling into his chair, Dustin glanced at the countdown clock on the main display - a rather clever trick that Rye and Sammie had apparently cooked up the morning after a night together. It wasn’t perfectly accurate yet, but every flight Sammie took let Rye’s technical wizardry get a little closer to accurately predicting how long the pilot would take to navigate a new weave route based on a whole bunch of different parameters.

Currently, it was reading a little over two hours; Dustin leaned back in his seat and stared at nothing for a while, the quiet of the bridge slowly washing over him until he drifted off. Time passed strangely - he dreamed of his lovers, of shadows in space, and of a great tendril reaching out towards him, before jerking awake with a start as Meli’s hand landed on his shoulder.

“We’re almost there, husband. And falling asleep in your chair? You get cross with us about working too hard.” The Velca’s voice was soft, but there was the undertones of a lover worried for her partner’s wellbeing in it, and Dustin immediately covered her hand in his and squeezed to reassure her.

“Just on edge about this jump, and then it was all quiet here and I drifted off” he said by way of reply, looking up as Sola’s speakers crackled and announced the countdown to return to normal space. Giving his shoulder another squeeze, Meli nodded before moving to her station as the timer ticked down. “As long as you take care” she murmured, eyes flickering between the console and Dustin as her hands worked to ready the scanners.

When they entered into normal space, it was if anything anticlimactic compared to all the nerves and stress Dustin had built up over the previous weeks. No hostile Fractal fleet, no graveyard of ships from countless past battles - just a regular looking system hanging against the night. Dustin tensed in his chair as Meli ran Sola’s scanners over each world in turn - and let out a shaky whistle as he realized they’d finally found what they were looking for.

The system had nine worlds in total, from gas giants at the outer edge to rocky fireballs closer to the pale amber star. A system like that anywhere else in the galaxy, and they’d have expected to find signs of life - but here… “Planet nine, negative response. No signs of life detected on any planets. Not just higher-level life, there’s not even bacteria out there.” Meli said, her ears flattening into concern. Sure, they’d been prepared for the worst by Defia’s briefings, but this went way beyond what they’d imagined.

When the rogue Fractal arrived on the bridge a short while later at Dustin’s request, she glanced briefly at the scanner data and nodded. “Statement. Cluster edge system located. This is as far as the cluster’s core worlds extend - beyond this point, back along the way we have come would be their hunting grounds. Onward from here, we will encounter any cluster worlds that have not been harvested for material resource.”

“What now, sir?” Emely’s voice was subdued from the comms station - he’d not even noticed her arrive, so quietly had the normally bubbly Feliax woman crept into the room. Glancing around, Dustin realised that all eyes were on him as he stared at the dead worlds floating on the viewscreen. “Our orders are clear” he said at last, rolling his shoulders and straightening in his chair. “We move in deeper until we make contact with the enemy. Sammie, get some downtime while we move to the next jump point, Defia and Meli, I want you to go back over the combat plans with Yril’k in case the next system isn’t so friendly. Let’s go find ourselves a cluster.”