“An SOS is a last resort call for help to anyone in range. It’s neither hidden in such a remote frequency nor is it encrypted.” Alena said.

  “Correct. It works against the idea of an SOS if the one receiving it can’t read it.” Proto said.

  “Maybe it’s an Eltaran ship?” Robin suggested, “They are calling for other Eltaran and don’t wanna risk anyone else finding them?”

  Ang’Tue sighed and shook his head, with a heavy voice he said “That is highly unlikely. The Eltaran don’t use any kind of SOS at all. The risk is too high. If a ship is stranded, there are some fail-save procedures in place so others of our kind will notice and look for them. If no one comes, however, the Eltaran erase any footprint they might leave behind in the great void.”

  “What does that even mean?” Happy asked in confusion.

  Robin thought about the right words, but to his surprise it was the Zulbano who answered first. “They blow themselves up. There is a reason why most people believed that the Eltaran had long been extinct. They never leave behind any trails.” The wolf looked over to Ang’Tue, “That is, if they aren’t a senile fool.”

  He growled and spat to the side, “Decades of secrecy and sacrifices for the pack and all it takes is one old man to blow everything up just like that. I wonder why they even allow you to come back.”

  “Shut up, dogo!” Ang’Tue gnashed his teeth, “You know nothing.”

  The Eltaran’s temper flared and he was shaking in anger. Trails of smoke rose from his eyes. But he quickly calmed himself and took a deep breath. “You aren’t completely wrong, though. I made mistakes, stupid mistakes. But at the end of the day, it was that encounter that hopefully will help my people to survive. Also, don’t draw conclusions about other cultures based on the broken society of the Zulbano. Most cultures care about their people, no matter their failings.”

  Krez let out a deep, guttural growl.

  “Enough.” Robin said, one hand raised, “Both of you! Damn, you aren’t some kids! Alena, found anything?”

  “Uhm, yeah. I can confirm that there is something at the coordinates. Should be a ship, but the results are thin since we’re still far away.”

  “Okay. Happy, set course and bring us closer. We’ll take a look. If it’s someone who needs help, we will work something out. Ang’Tue, use the time to get in touch with the Eltaran, maybe they know something. This isn’t a big system.”

  “I’m on it.” Ang’Tue said and then hesitated a moment before he continued, “I have used the correct frequency and even tried some of the old ones, still nothing though. Maybe we’re just out of range or they are busy with something else. It’s not like they get visitors everyday.”

  “Is that likely?” Alena asked.

  The Eltaran sighed and shook his head.

  “Keep an eye on comms then. We will take a quick detour to the beacon. Hopefully we’ve heard from your people by the time we’re done or we have no directions where to go next.”

  ***

  The Relentless Stride arrived near the target location half an hour later and stopped a few kilometers away from the marker.

  There still wasn’t an answer from the Eltaran, but Ang’Tue assured them that they should get one any minute now.

  “I wouldn’t go closer.” Happy said, “We might be invisible to any kind of scan, but whoever is out there could get visuals if we come any closer.”

  “Agreed.” Robin nodded, “Alena, any readings from the scan?”

  “Yes, strange ones, actually.” She said and tapped on her displays to adjust the scanners, “We have a ship out there, about six kilometers ahead. First results from the scan show that their power is offline. I’m waiting for more details.”

  “Okay, so it really is an SOS?” Robin asked, “What is irritating you?”

  “The feedback from the scannings are similar to those of an Apex Nova, but at the same time… changed? There are differences everywhere and yet it looks like a normal Nova.”

  Robin thought back to the first interplanetary ship he had ever set foot on. The Apex Nova that was used as headquarters for the Apex Highspeed Cup for the preliminaries on Rucasur. It was a big ship that came with a hangar and was designed to serve as a mobile office and management facility.

  “That’s a big ship, wow. There should be many different Nova models on the market, though. Someone probably just installed some modifications. Ang’Tue, give it a ping.” He said.

  “Um…” The Eltaran muttered and scratched his chin, “At least something is still working aboard. I got an identification, but without connection to the UAS network, we won’t know who it belongs to.”

  “I don’t think the Net would be of any help here.” Proto chimed in, “The ID is not coded based on UAS standards.”

  “Okay, strange.” Robin said, “The Apex Nova definitely is a ship produced under regulations of the UAS. Even if a Drel or Zulbano would buy it, the ID would already be set.”

  “Maybe it’s a Cetro ship?” Happy wondered, “These dudes are everywhere and they heavily modify any ship they can get their hands on. That would also explain why Alena gets funny readings.”

  “Maybe. That would really suck. I have no intention to get involved with those fanatics ever again.” Robin said.

  “Cetro ships do not react to pings.” Krez said. He sat in a corner of the bridge and had passively followed the hustle and bustle so far.

  “Shit.”

  “Scans done! Proto, can you put it on the screen?” Alena called and moments later one of the big displays turned on.

  It showed a 3D model of a bulky ship. It had a streamlined body with huge, rectangular thrusters attached to each side at its rear. On its top a big dome protruded, nearly stretching over the whole ship.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Robin immediately recognized the ship and knew that the dome was there to protect the people on the panorama deck. This one however was not shaped like a smooth half globe but was made of huge panels attached to each other, all slightly angled to create a similar form. It gave the ship a mean look.

  “That’s definitely a Nova. The dome is a little different, but everything else matches.” He said after examining the model for a moment, “I can see a big hole in the dome. Have they been hit by something?”

  “Yeah, it looks exactly like the one we saw on Rucasur.” Niu agreed.

  “Not exactly, no.” Proto objected, “While you correctly identified the model as an Apex Nova, it’s completely different. You can’t see this with just the schematics from the scan, but I processed the data and found some major differences. The hull is similar in shape, but they used PmZ885 as material instead of PmZ451, which is normally used to build ships. Likewise, the dome is not made of reinforced glass but PmZ885 as well. Although I don’t have exact details on the engines, calculations confirm that they are at least 20% larger than those of the stock version, probably to accommodate the increased weight caused by the use of heavier alloys.”

  “What the fuck?” Alena gasped, “I’ve heard of that material. That shouldn’t be out here! There are tons of regulations and trade restrictions on PmZ885. The UAS would never allow any of it to be used like this.”

  “Sorry, but what are you talking about?” Robin, who could no longer follow the conversation, asked. “Never heard of it, what is so special about that material?”

  “Oh but you know it, too.” Alena said, eyes still wide in disbelief, “The UAS IGD Eschaton is made of it.”

  “The destroyer in the Mereus Cluster?”

  “Yes, Alena is correct.” Proto said, “This is an alloy specifically made for heavy duty battleships.”

  “You are telling me that this ship is an Apex Nova belonging to a party that isn’t part of the UAS or its allies and that it has been modified to fit the role of a battleship with materials that should only exist in the UAS military?” Robin summarized.

  “Precisely.” Proto confirmed.

  “That doesn’t make any sense at all.” Happy said, “It would need a stupid amount of money and influence to pull something like this off. All that just to come to this godforsaken place? I can list a dozen systems where such a ship would be useful for shady, high-risk missions. But Limolius? No way!”

  “Well, it seems like it wasn’t overkill to send a battleship here for whatever reason.” Alena shrugged and pointed at the big hole in the ship’s dome, “They got their asses handed pretty badly.”

  Robin rubbed his temples and stood up to walk up and down the bridge.

  “Okay, I must confess that I’m as curious as you probably are. But we just managed to leave all the bullshit behind us, I don’t want to rush head first into the next disaster.” He finally said, “We quickly fly over and take a look around, searching for survivors. Then we directly travel to the Eltaran – that is why we came here. We can tell them everything we’ve learned and let them handle the rest.”

  Robin looked around and saw his friends agreeing. Ang’Tue still fiddled with the communication terminal and only nodded absentmindedly. Niu did seem overly excited about this and Alena wore her icy mask and just shrugged. Krez also didn’t seem to care.

  “Alena, Proto, did you get any readings of weapons, active or inactive, on the ship? Signs of life?” Robin asked and returned to his seat.

  “Nothing, no life signs detected and the main power is offline, which should disable all defenses. There are a few point defense systems which are also offline. Can’t see any weapons, though.” Alena said.

  “Yeah, I ran a few simulations and also can’t find anything like that.” The AI agreed.

  “Someone built a battleship but forgot to install some weapons? No wonder they lost whatever fight they got caught up in.” Robin wondered.

  In the back, Krez grunted.

  “You wanna add something? Please, feel free to enlighten us.” Robin encouraged the Zulbano.

  “In big battles, like fleet battles, there sometimes are ships like that. Heavily defended but without noteworthy weaponry. Factions use such vessels as base of command, staying in the back of the battle and directing the other ships in the fleet.” Krez grumbled, “If that is this ship’s role, it’s probably packed with extremely strong shields, high-end communication modules and a server room providing massive processing power.”

  “Huh, thanks.” Robin gave him a thumbs up, happy that the wolf finally engaged in their conversations. “I can hardly believe that there was a huge battle nearby lately, we would have heard about that. So either this ship has been here since ages or it got attacked as it was passing by and stopped in this system after dropping out of superluminal travel.”

  He paused, “Yeah, both options sound implausible. This doesn’t make any sense. Let’s go and give it a quick visit. Niu!”

  “Aye, Captain.” She saluted and pushed two of the four joysticks forward to get the Relentless Stride moving.

  “Who is going?” Alena asked.

  “Niu is needed to pilot the ship, Ang’Tue must establish a connection with the Eltaran and Krez doesn’t have a space suit. That leaves you and me.” Robin grinned, “Wanna join in on the fun?”

  “Do I get one of the new weapons?” she asked in return, one of her rare smiles crossing her face.

  “Of course! Come on!” Robin laughed and turned to leave the bridge, “Ang’Tue, you have the bridge and are responsible for Krez.”

  ***

  Robin was in space again.

  Weightless, free and unbound. Just moving onward as if nothing could disrupt the quiet peace of the void.

  Next to him, Alena also drifted at a slow pace towards the huge gray ship in the distance. He tested the upgrades Ang’Tue had brought together with the new suits and used the gesture control to activate the small steering nozzles in his suit. They made low hissing noises which got swallowed by the void and his body began to rotate.

  Robin soon had a perfect view of the sun in the distance far away.

  “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” He asked over the proximity channel.

  “Yeah,” said Alena, equally fascinated by the sight. “Sometimes I think we should take more time and not rush through life in such a hurry.”

  “I agree, but in most cases it is not up to us to set the speed.” Robin said, “Just look at us– What he had to do, how much we had to struggle, how many risks we had to take… what price we had to pay. Everything, just to break free from the invisible shackles someone else held in their hands.”

  Alena kept quiet, not responding.

  “And what good did it do us? Instead of coming here to meet the Eltaran and just exploring this system at our leisure, we now have a new list of obligations. Again someone has a grip on the shackles and shouts from behind that we should hurry up.”

  “Are you saying our struggles were useless? That we should have held still and just conceded to the UAS?” Alena asked, her tone unreadable.

  “No, of course not.” Robin shook his head, “I’m just saying, that we should always be aware of the fact that there is someone pushing us from behind. Maybe no one can completely escape it, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t push back from time to time. Push back to give ourselves enough room to breathe– or, like you said, to be able to take our time every now and then and not always rush through life so fast.”

  Alena didn’t answer for a moment and they slowly came close to the Nova.

  “That was uncharacteristically deep for you.” She finally said and rotated back to face the ship they were approaching, “I always thought you weren’t into ‘people problems’.”

  Robin laughed and also turned around, “Yeah, but sometimes, when I just blurt out whatever comes to mind, I hit the mark.”

  “You let your heart speak. Not everyone can do that. That’s a good trait, make sure to keep that ability.” Alena said and grabbed the burned edge of the hole in the Nova’s dome.

  “We’ve made it.” Robin reported to the others when he also got a hold on the ship. He concentrated on his Interface and increased the map’s size. Proto had created it based on a Nova’s standard structure and the results they got from the scanner.

  Robin threw Alena a quick glance and when she nodded, he pulled himself into the dark ship.