Moon haze

The scanner was displaying a stream of shifting numbers. In theory, this should make it easier to spot the exact point at which the ghosting effect from whatever they were hunting kicked in. In practice, it meant that Dustin felt like he was taking a maths exam he’d not studied for. Beside him, Meli frowned as she watched the shifting digits on the screen. “There. Pull back half a degree.” Sola’s engines hummed, the numbers pausing and reversing as the Velcan tapped a control, mapping out the exact moment they crossed the threshold of the cloaking.

They’d been at it for some time, the scientist insisting on being allowed on the bridge to monitor her experiment. Bleu had grumbled, but relented when Meli had politely asked her to watch the children instead of just nagging their mother. For some reason, being offered a chance to babysit had mollified the medic, and they’d left her happily holding Duv’an, her arm expanded into a makeshift basket for the infant.

“Is that enough points?” Dustin asked, leaning in to look as Meli adjusted the display, tracking the latest plot points on a three dimensional model of the space around the moon. Under her fingertips, a mesh slowly closed, the different angles giving form until it shifted into a neat sphere.

“It’s in there, somewhere. That’s maybe a half-mile across,” Meli said, frowning. “Which puts the search area narrow enough that we should be able to locate it a little easier with traditional scanning; we can have a shuttle sit under the area and put out a high-intensity spread beam, then let Sola sweep across to see where the shadow forms. Or, we’ll learn that our target is capable of hiding way more energy than we thought.”

It took a few hours to call all the shuttles back and get one fitted with a wide enough emitter for Meli’s plan. Defia and Rye were far more agreeable to the idea than Dustin would have thought given it meant their ideas for the search were being ignored, but the pair had just shrugged when he asked them about it. “Dusty, ya don’t have to worry. If Meli’s already got a lead with her plan, we should follow it. If stuff doesn’t work, we’ve got our ideas as backup,” Rye remarked, tightening the connectors holding the new array she was busily mounting on the front of the shuttle.

As she finished, the Rabyth stepped back, dusting off her hands. “Alright. That should stay on. Ya want me to fly this one, or?” she asked, glancing towards Meli.

The Velca shook her head. “No, I’d rather you and Defia were both here in case we need to adjust Sola’s main array. The shuttle should just be a question of turning the beam on and off when we send the signal. Any of the pilots can do it,” she added, catching Sammie’s hand as the pilot started to move from where she’d been watching the proceedings. “I’d like you here too, love, just in case we need to follow it quickly.”

Sammie frowned, then gestured to one of her junior pilots. “You heard the science officer, Gerry. Path’s preset, hit the emitter when you get a call from us, not before.” The pilot snapped to attention and saluted, before moving to the shuttle as the senior staff turned and headed for the turbolift to the bridge.

Dustin opted to stand while Sola moved into position, one hand resting on the corner of Meli’s console as the scientist hummed contentedly while she made last-minute preparations for the upcoming sweep. Sammie tweaked Sola’s rotation slightly then took her hands off the controls, leaning back. “We’re in position, Meli. Whenever you’re ready.”

The Velca gave her a nod in reply, then turned to Emely. “Let the shuttle know we’re good - send the ping.”

The main display flickered as the sweep commenced, shifting from a live feed to a wireframe view of the space in front of them. Golden lines radiated out as the shuttle’s modified emitter blasted the area with a stream of signals rippling up and down through different frequencies. Sola’s sensors swept through the incoming data - and there, just to one side of the middle of the area their earlier sweeps had identified, a new wireframe formed, an area of void within the burst.

It took a moment for the shape to fully coalesce as the data coming in from the sensors was sorted to reveal the shadow at the heart of the ghosting effect, but when it was done Rye let out a low whistle. “That’s neat. Very neat, Dusty. Ya gotta let me take a closer look at that thing.”

The probe - for, given it’s size Dustin doubted it could be anything else - sat in a low orbit. Tightly packed, it was angular judging by the detail they’d been able to get from their scan and it seemed to have no obvious hatches, the exterior looking like one big heat-radiator asides from two protrusions that appeared to have no purpose. Given the lack of any reasons for the two spindly outcroppings, Dustin and Rye had both chalked them up as ‘potential stealth generator equipment’ on the make-shift diagram they were building to try and work out how to capture the probe without giving it a chance to escape.

While the probe was far smaller than Sola, it was also large enough that it could potentially have a full weave-drive built in, depending on how much power the cloaking effect took. Somehow it didn’t seem to have picked up their sweeping scans yet - or at least if it had it wasn’t reacting, but Dustin wanted to make sure it couldn’t just jump away if they got too close.

The plan they were putting together was crude, but simple; a pair of shuttles would fly out into the vague area of the probe - then separate, holding a metal net between them, rigged to disperse any attempts at forming a weave bubble. It would be tricky flying, but done well, they could scoop up the alien tech and drag it out of position. And if it didn’t even try and jump to freedom, then they’d haul it back to Sola and Rye could begin an investigation to try and figure out where it had come from.

Sammie was not happy about not being allowed to fly one of the two shuttles, but Dustin had been firm. The senior pilot was needed on Sola, in the event they needed to adjust the larger ship’s course instead of the shuttles as they dragged the probe into a bay. Out of all those who could manage the controls, the dark-skinned woman was by far the most skilled and experienced.

With everything in place, the two smaller craft slid smoothly from Sola’s hull, their sides so close as to almost be touching as they moved behind the area that had been marked as the target site. Turning back the way they’d come, their thrusters glowed against the black void behind them as they separated, the net glittering slightly as the light of the distant star caught the edges of the woven metal.

On Sola’s bridge, Dustin watched proceedings nervously. This might be their only shot at getting technology that could totally change the face of the conflicts with both Fractal and Durathisian alike - and they were relying on basically a modernised version of the sort of fishing that humans had been doing for thousands of years. Around him, the other senior staff held their breath - and then exhaled with relief as the net suddenly pulled taught, the wires clearly wrapping around something that warped the light.

For a moment, nothing happened - and then a rainbow exploded in the middle of the net, colours shifting rapidly through the spectrum as the probe appeared to be trying to find a frequency that would allow it to remain concealed. As the shuttles approached Sola, however, something clearly shorted out on the device, it’s form shimmering as it became fully visible. Sleek, angular and a dull red with green and black markings along the sides, it sat inert as the shuttles and net slid neatly into Sola’s waiting bay.