Uncharted space

The bridge was packed as Dustin watched the weave signature of the courier ship fade on Sola’s sensors. After some debate, he’d arranged for the crew who were interested to enter a lottery to get a chance to stand on the bridge for humanities first jump beyond the known weave of the galactic council and into the unknown. The fact that it was a lottery amused him; a call-back to his own luck in getting the role of ambassador what seemed like a lifetime ago, but was actually still merely a matter of months.

Those crew who had not lucked out and won the chance to join the senior staff on the bridge were largely gathered in the canteen or observation lounge; Sola was mirroring the main bridge displays to both areas on Dustin’s direct order - he wanted to make this moment available to as many people as possible. The atmosphere across the ship was one of tension; both excitement at the historic significance of the event and worry about what they might find on the far side.

Naera handed him a glass and he stood, raising it up in a toast. “Friends, colleagues, my fellow crew. Today, we move beyond just exploring the known, the worlds that have been opened up to us by species that have trodden the paths to them in ages past. Today, we tread our own path, seek out new life and new civilizations. Today, we go where none whom we know have gone before.” A moment later, he grinned down at the face of his science officer and added a few more words. “Yes, that was a star trek reference Meli. This isn’t being recorded, so I can afford to be a bit of a nerd for once.”

Sipping his drink and settling back into his chair, he glanced across the expectant faces on the bridge, before finding Sammie’s gaze and giving her the order. “Prepare for jump, Sammie. Let’s go hunting.” Handing the glass back to Naera, he hit the controls and brought up his own weave arms. Technically, the pilot was in charge of this jump - but his newest lover had asked if he’d mind sharing the space with her to make sure she followed the right route to start off. Once on the relevant line however, it’d be up to her to pick a good exit point for them.

The familiar shift in perceptions slid around him - and once more he found himself hovering near to Sammie. She didn’t hesitate this time - her mind practically sprang into his, their forms entwining as they moved to the tangle of threads leading from their location out into space. One line rippled with a faint purple glow; Sola’s systems projecting the weave trace into a form they could understand in that surreal place.

“There, that one.” Their thoughts were in sync as they moved towards it; a warmth of emotion bonding them tighter than before as they reached out as one and grasped the thread. A moment later, Dustin found himself falling free, the last strands of that strange union of spirit rippling through him as he disconnected from the weave - and Sammie launched the Solar Ascent into uncharted territory.

Blinking as he looked around the bridge, Dustin tried to do two things. Firstly, and most importantly, make sure everything was progressing smoothly with the jump. Meli and Bleu were monitoring Sammie - while the woman was practiced in weave flight by now, this was still a trip into the unknown after all. And secondly, deal with the rush of blood to his groin that his brief union with the pilot’s mind had caused. Some of the last emotions he’d gotten from the woman he’d merged with had been rather direct; he got the impression that while she’d shared a bunk with several of their polycule individually since joining, she was intent on getting a night with him and a few others all at once rather soon.

Add in the fact that he’d gotten Meli to give him access to the calendar and thus knew that his fellow human had a date night coming up, and it was only with a great deal of effort that he kept himself from prematurely rising to the occasion. Thankfully, the attention of everyone on the bridge was focused on what information about their weave trip Sola was able to provide, which took the focus away from him and he was able to adjust his outfit without anyone noticing save from Emely. The Feliax winked at him almost imperceptibly to show that she’d spotted his movements, and he made a mental note to try and include her in whatever Sammie was hoping to arrange.

Time seemed to drag as the pilot moved them through that other space until suddenly Sola announced that the countdown to exiting the weave had begun. The navigation arms retracted as the countdown hit zero, and Sammie returned to them, shaking her head briefly to clear it. “That was a rush.” She said after a moment, looking at the expectant faces. “This is the first real stop along that thread; it gets really knotty after this point so I figured if our target left this system, they probably didn’t keep going along the same line.”

As she said that, the viewscreens cleared to reveal their destination. Dustin blinked as the early scans came in - this system wasn’t just somewhat familiar, it was scarily so. Multiple planets orbiting a gentle orange-yellow star, the third one out from the star being a blue-green jewel that glittered in the night. “This looks like home” a voice said, breaking the silence. Dustin glanced at the ensign that had spoken and nodded gently. “It does, but it isn’t. Sensors, report?”

Meli straightened up in her seat and tapped the console, overlays flickering onto the screen as she did so. “Sol-like system, although the Earth-analogue planet is slightly larger and shows a significantly higher concentration of key chemicals indicating plant life. Atmospheric scans are fuzzy at this range but seem to indicate larger levels of moisture; current hypothesis is a planet largely covered with rain forest.” The Velca’s hands paused, before she tapped the controls again, the display shifting to a set of overlapping waveforms. “Captain, I believe the planet to be inhabited; there’s low level radiation consistent with radio waves and other broadcasts being emitted from a number of locations on the surface.”

Dustin tapped his chin thoughtfully before speaking. “There’s no sign of other vessels in the system?” Meli shook her head; with confirmation that they were alone - or at least, anyone else in the system had landed on a planet and thus wouldn’t be an immediate problem, Dustin gave his orders. “I want to investigate that Earth-like world. If it’s only random radiation, this could potentially be a great colony system for us if we can figure out and clean up the source. If it’s not, then we’ve got a duty to identify what form uplifting the species into the community should take and quite possibly hang around to make first contact, regardless of our monster hunting.”

He let his gaze wander for a moment as he thought things through, before nodding to himself. “Take us in slowly, Sammie. Meli, Yril’k, I want deep scans of every planet on the way in - but not that third one. We’ll skip past it, sweep the inner two and then come back to it on our way out of system. That way, we don’t run the risk of being ambushed if our monster is lurking somewhere here. In the meantime, Emely, can you prepare a refresher for the senior staff on first-contact protocols?”

The women all nodded, and so Dustin turned to the rest of the assembled crew. “Well, everyone, we’ve done it. New space, into the unknown - and potentially new friends to make soon enough. I’m sure Naera and the team will be busy preparing a feast to celebrate in a bit - so if you’re not on bridge duty clear the deck and rest up. Depending on what our scans find, we could be lacking in downtime in the coming days. Dismissed.”

As those not on duty filed out, Dustin turned back to contemplating that third rock from a strange star. It felt almost poetic that his first leap away from home had brought them to a system so like Earth - but that in itself also worried him. He’d read one too many stories about things being uncannily like home, and they usually ended up with lots of gore and dead crew. Of course, he’d also read a bunch where the captain would get a hot alien girlfriend, but given he already had three hot alien girlfriends along with a wife, almost-wife, and consort-submissive as well as a regular human girlfriend, he figured the odds were high that this was more likely to be one of the unpleasant planets.

Grimacing at the thought, he picked up his own tablet and began to review the scans; the data might not be great, but if nothing else he could be a second set of eyes while his lovers used their skills to scout out the safety of the rest of the system. He also hated to admit it, but the lack of any sign of the monster they’d hunted so far annoyed him. If that trail had gone cold, they were going to be fumbling in the dark once more. They could maybe go back and follow the retreat path of the fleet that had attacked the Yuran, but otherwise they’d have to wait for their foes to strike again. And each time that happened, it seemed the attack was more devastating than the last; they had to find answers and quickly before another species lost their homeworld - or worse.