Falling back

Dustin led the envoys through to the medbay, Bleu following behind. “Get them fully scanned - and as soon as we’re out of the council system get Defia to look at them too just in case she can spot anything you missed,” he ordered the medic. As he gave his order, Emely darted away from the group towards the bridge to continue her ongoing work at keeping the council intact - and presumably to get them clearance to undock.

Sammie followed close behind the fox girl, matching the redhead’s loping run with her own rapid jog. “Get me clear air so I can get us the fuck out of here, Emmz,” she said, diving for the pilot’s seat the instant they were on the bridge. Meli nodded to the two of them from the captain’s chair. “I already have permission granted for us to leave if we have council authorization from the station commander, but I can’t get anyone from the council to approve it,” the Velca said by way of greeting as Emely slid into her own seat.

“Let me…” Emely began, fingers already dancing over the console. “Envoy Tri’i’i’l? I need permission to undock; we are carrying envoys Linne and Veil’k out of system but the station commander won’t authorize our passage out without approval from someone not on board.” Musical chimes echoed through the speakers as the crystalline envoy on the other end of Emely’s call replied, the translators struggling to keep up. “We… your help is… appreciate… fly swift… cracks are rising.”

Emely nodded at Meli before turning back to her ongoing task of trying to piece together the fractured assembly. Councilors voices echoed through the bridge while the permission to leave was relayed to the station. The instant the clamps were removed, Sammie pushed the ship into a hard reverse, engines running at full power. “I am not sitting around for them to decide to re-clamp us,” she called from her chair, spinning Sola as soon as possible to burn for the nearest jump point. “Next stop, anywhere but here.”

Down in the medbay, Dustin paced nervously as he watched Bleu run the ship’s main medical scanner over Linne’s reclined form. Veil’k paced nearby, having already had this scan done - his results, just as the Rabyth’s a moment later, were clear. “I still want Defia’s input.” Bleu said at last, sinking back into her chair as she ran a finger down the readout from the scanner for the third time. “I can’t see anything obviously wrong, but she’s more likely to be able to pick up any weird Fractal stuff that we don’t know about yet than I am.”

Dustin nodded, before turning to the others. “Linne, Veil’k, as soon as we’re in the weave and away we’ll hopefully be able to give you the all-clear. Until then, if you’d stay here with Bleu and I? We need to discuss our next steps anyway to try and take some of the load off of Emely at least. Bleu, can you get us a set of tablets to work on?”

The Queri medic nodded, and it was only a matter of a few moments before the four of them were sat around one of the medbay tables, tablets in hand comparing information. So engrossed in their work were they that Meli’s voice through the speakers announcing that they’d reached the weave jump point came as a shock; it hadn’t been far from the station, but they’d still spent over an hour going through possible next steps.

Ten seconds later, Sola’s chimes announced that they had left normal space behind - and Dustin who had been waiting thumbed the nearest communicator. “Rye, could you send Defia to medbay ASAP please? Hopefully Yril’k’s already let you know.” The bunny girl answered him a moment later to say that she’d already had the rogue Fractal ready to go, and Defia had started moving the instant they’d entered the weave.

Both Linne and Veil’k flinched when Defia burst through the medbay door, void-black chest heaving from exertion. Dustin added that to a list of things to talk about - she didn’t need to breathe, so didn’t get out of breath, so definitely didn’t need to be that… bouncy… after running places. Bleu moved smoothly between the newcomer and her patients, speaking briefly with the red eyed woman before turning to the two envoys and explaining. “This is Defia; she is the renegade Fractal we spoke about previously. I’d like her to review your scans.”

The envoys were clearly still nervous as Defia ran a hand gently over their backs; when it was Linne’s turn Veil’k stood right next to the pair, all of his hands slowly clenching and unclenching until at last the Fractal was done and looked up at Dustin. “Statement. Limited signs of Fractal matter detected by scanning the two subjects, largely surface and inert. Likely cause based on restricted information on sequence of events given by unit Yril’k indicates this to be debris from the initial attack. Suggested treatment, medbay shower with magnetic filters engaged to trap Fractal particulate for safe disposal.”

Everyone present let out a sigh of relief at Defia’s words, a wave of exhaustion passing over the faces of the envoys as they realized they were safe. Leaving Bleu to get the pair cleaned up and escorted to suitable quarters for the duration of their flight back, most likely to Earth, Dustin beckoned for Defia to follow him and headed to the bridge.

Meli glanced up when they entered, rising gracefully to allow Dustin his seat in the captain’s chair before moving to her own station. Defia hovered between the two, until Dustin asked Meli to replay the footage of the attack from the galactic news broadcasts. “Have you ever encountered anything like this?” he asked the rogue Fractal after a moment.

Defia tilted her head to one side as she watched the footage. “Statement. Rewind to timestamp 7.9, freeze and zoom top right corner,” she said after a moment, Sola’s systems obediently skipping to the location she’d indicated. Taking a step forward, she tilted her head to the other side, red eyes considering the screen for a moment before nodding. “Statement. Drone construct intended for mining operations. Irregular dispersal pattern. Inquiry. There was a delayed activation pattern according to footage and unit Yril’k’s report, correct?”

Dustin had barely finished nodding before Defia spoke again. “Statement. I believe these units to have been tampered with by non-cluster agents. Delayed activation would indicate some form of control signal, if one were broadcast by a cluster in the system, it would have been detected by Sola or myself. Alternative hypothesis. Delayed activation caused by decaying containment field. Unit Emely… correction, Emely, would a two to three week window confirm with your analysis?”

The Feliax woman nodded, grimacing. “Pretty much perfectly. So you think someone has what, weaponized old Fractal mining units?” Defia nodded by way of reply.

They dropped out of the weave a few hours later, Sammie having taken the shortest possible jump to get them away from the council system while they regrouped. The instant the countdown to real space ended, Emely’s terminal lit up with incoming messages.

“Sir, I think you need to see this,” she said before routing a galactic news broadcast to the main screen. The entire crew fell silent as they watched the news anchor talking about the Fractal attack. “…with the council in disarray and member states dealing with significant internal disruption due to galactic citizens’ concerns regarding these strange hostile entities, the Durathisian Collective has deployed their fleets to help protect order. Their deployment will allow the council fleet to be redeployed from it’s ongoing anti-piracy actions. No word as yet from the council, Earth or Durathis as to whether these metallic assassins are connected to the council’s decision to appoint a proctor recently for the first time in many years. More on this story as it happens, this is Network-Galactic…”

Dustin groaned as he gestured for Emely to replay the news report again. “So that was their game this entire time? All along, we thought they were just digging their heads in the sand because they were scared of what we’d found - but they were actually trying to bring about chaos, in order to step in? Fuck…”

Emely nodded slowly. “It would track with what we know. I asked the other envoys if they’d heard of any other strange occurrences, and it turns out that it’s more than just the Fractals that had been brushed off when people reported odd happenings. I think they’ve been working to destabilize things for some time - but those Fractal drones gave them the perfect chance to step in. I just don’t know what…”

A chime announcing an incoming long-range communication cut the fox girl off. At a nod from Dustin, the screen flickered to show Axworth’s face, the man’s eyes heavy with concern. “Dustin, you’re alright? That’s some good news at least. This whole mess has gone sideways too bloody fast. Get back to Earth on the double - bring any envoys you have on board with you, there’s going to be a meeting to discuss what we do next with all our friends as soon as you get back. Make it snappy, Ambassador!”