A shadow passes

Negotiations were going well, Dustin thought, as the cargo bay slid smoothly up towards Sola’s hull. They’d spent an entire day on the surface discussing history, philosophy and art with Tisss and her team, and had agreed to return the following morning to begin sketching out an outline of a trade deal that could be presented to their respective governments.

The Olanse woman hadn’t said anything about how her superiors were taking the fact that humans could potentially provide another route for Fractal ships to enter their system. After some time thinking about it, Emely and Meli had agreed that it was probably due to the fact that the Olanse were so sure of their cloaking tech. Considering Defia hadn’t been able to spot anything obscured by it, Dustin thought that it seemed reasonable to suggest that the locals had every right to be confident. If they truly could hide from Fractal detection, then it wouldn’t matter how many routes there were into the system - the Fractals would keep chalking it up as just two more stars lacking life regardless.

As the bay slotted into it’s place in the hull, Yril’k’s plan to avoid any unwanted guests was revealed. Instead of the door opening normally to a t-junction, it opened to a single corridor with the sides hastily (but neatly) sealed off with new bulkheads. Dustin led the women down the passage to the end, then paused as the door to the bay closed. With a raised eyebrow, he glanced at his security chief and asked a single question. “Well?”

Yril’k pulled out her tablet and tapped it. “No Olansians’k here. We’ll need to’k get decontaminated’k now though, so please step through’k the arch on the’k far side of the door, everyone’k. Naera assures’k me that this powder’k is safe even when inhaled, as does Bleu’k, but I don’t want’k to risk any remaining on us tomorrow’k and being detected by our’k hosts.”

Dustin nodded, stepping past the door and through the gentle hum of the arch mounted on the far side. “So it’s some kind of flour?” he asked, looking at the arch’s collecting jar with interest as soon as the others were through. The Vex’ess warrior nodded, gesturing to the waiting chef. “I took what’k you spotted about’k the sand as inspiration’k. Matter’k can’t be hidden’k, so if we coat’k everything in matter’k it will show where’k they are.”

Naera gave a gentle huff at that. “It’s not ‘some kind’ of flour. It’s very, very difficult to produce flour that is fine enough to be invisible to the eye when aerosolized. It’s also important enough that I expect you to arrange to fully restock me with it once we get back somewhere more friendly. Velcan ingredients are not easy to get hold of this far out! And before you ask, yes we’re reclaiming as much as we can - we lose about four or five grams each time we disperse it into that corridor, on which basis we’ve technically got enough to last us another month or so at this rate. But if Meli wants Velcan pastries any time soon you’d better try and not use it that much, I’m not cooking with stuff we’ve used for spy-spotting!”

Dustin nodded, leaving the Yril’k to handle the placating of his chef and headed up to the ready room, Meli and Bleu following close behind. On arrival, they found most of the others already present, and so he sank into his seat without any delay. “Alright, I’m knackered. Before we all go curl up - any news from up here that wasn’t urgent enough to raise with me before?”

There had, thankfully, been no news. Dustin was immensely glad of that fact as he slipped into slumber a short time later, an equally exhausted wife and slime curled around him while Rye was doing a good impression of a blanket across his chest, his cock still buried inside the bunny girl having continued their nightly work towards ensuring the Rabyth joined the expecting-mothers club as rapidly as possible.

Warmth, soft bodies, comfortable mattress - Dustin was in heaven as he slept, right up until Sola’s alarms jarred everyone awake. As Rye scrambled off and nearly kicked him in the stomach, he glanced around; the rest of the harem were all present, which meant it was well past midnight. “Sola, report?” he barked over the din of the alarm, scrambling upright and trying to figure out where his trousers had ended up landing earlier on.

“Captain, we have received a message from the locals. Inbound weave-jump activity, unknown origin. They are instructing me to power down all long range scanners, and requesting you join them on the surface as quickly as possible.” The AI’s voice was clipped and to the point as Dustin finished dressing.

“Got it. Do as they say for now, Sola. Yril’k, you take command on the bridge. Rye, get to the shuttle bay, make sure they’re ready to fly if needed. Emely, comms station. Yaerwen, with me.” Dustin rattled out orders as he scrambled for the doorway, pulling his jacket on in the ready room outside and bolting for the cargo bay. Whatever this was, it was clearly concerning the locals and while he’d have loved to let Sola sweep the incoming craft, he guessed any kind of long range scan would give the game away that there were worlds hiding here.

Tisss appeared the instant the cargo bay doors opened. “Please, Dustin, follow me. Your companion too. We don’t have much time before they raise the main shroud over this facility, at which point you will not be able to access the observation tower.” Her words tumbled over themselves, the Olanse woman spinning on her heels and walking rapidly towards where Dustin had been sure the base’s hidden structures were located.

Following close behind, he wasn’t surprised when they stepped past the point at which he’d noticed the sand disappearing and a structure not too dissimilar to an air-traffic control tower appeared as if from nowhere. “Please understand that this facility wasn’t hidden due to any inherent distrust, Dustin,” Tisss began as the doors ahead of them were opened by uniformed guards. “As a secure site, it is always at least partially shrouded to allow it to successfully see through the greater shroud. Kindly do not ask for further details - ah, we go up here.”

At the top of the stairway Tisss had directed him to, Dustin found himself being led into what was clearly a deep-space observation facility. Olanse officers sat at terminals, while a large table-shaped vidscreen took up most of the main floor. From the far side of the room, Dustin’s translator picked up commentary coming from what he guessed was a low-ranked member of the team. “Main shroud raising now. Confirmed enshroudment. Jump point five probe confirms gravitational lensing in three, two, one… Lens complete, vessel detected. Craft is unidentified, bringing the probe feed up on the tactical screen now.”

The screen in the middle of the room flickered for a moment, then a slightly distorted image appeared. Dustin sucked in a breath - the vessel slowly drifting in the void was unmistakably Fractal in origin. As he watched, it turned towards a distant jump point and accelerated, moving across the system in an erratic manner.

“Shadow craft confirmed.” The Olansian’s tone was clipped as he continued to read from his terminal. “Destination appears to be jump point two. ETA one hour, twelve minutes. Ongoing destination most likely the Rhyb system. Central command is sending them an entangled alert now.”

Dustin watched in silence as the dark craft shot across the void, the hour seeming like an eternity before the machine ship slid to a halt. Moments later, the screen distorted as the gravitational flare of a weave-drive activation rippled outward… and the Fractals were gone.

“All clear, all stations stand down.” Tisss’s shoulders sagged in relief as she turned back to Dustin and the others. “No matter how many times I see them fly past, the shadows always freak me out. We usually get one or two a century according to the records, but it’s been that many every month recently. It’s almost as if something stirred them up - or broke their lines of communication.”

As she spoke, Dustin got an uneasy feeling. “How recent is recently?” he asked, hoping he was wrong. When Tisss replied, he didn’t need to double check with the rest of his crew back on the ship. The increase in Fractal activity matched perfectly with the timeline of Sola attacking and destroying the cluster.