What Happy and Alena had missed while they approached Trov L and passed the UAS IGD Eschaton was the big shadow that followed their ship through space. Like their new walker, it blended perfectly into the darkness and wasn’t noticed by any sensors. However, while Alena and Happy descended to the moon’s surface in blissful ignorance, someone aboard the Destroyer noticed the anomaly.

  The bridge of the capital ship was brightly lit and manned by dozens of people. There were multiple stations for navigation, scanning, defense and offense. Huge screens and holograms showed the ship’s status, images from its immediate surroundings and the facility on the moon, strategic maps, radar feedback and much more. With so many people aboard, there was a busy atmosphere on the bridge, even when no maneuvers were taking place right now.

  A young man sat behind one of the scanning stations and swiped his fingers over the displays in front of him, a deep frown on his face.

  “That’s strange…” He muttered.

  Once more he initiated a full sweep of the scanner he was monitoring.

  “Huh…”

  “Dogger, what is it?” A woman walked over and stopped behind him. The badges on her uniform indicated a higher rank.

  “Ma’am, I’m not sure. I get… illogical results from scanning unit S13.”

  “Illogical? How?”

  “I honestly don’t know. There is something missing in that quadrant.” The man tried to find the right words while his team leader called up a radar image from a spot somewhere above their ship. Aside from some typical pixel artifacts the screen remained dark.

  “There is nothing.” She said, annoyance slowly seeping into her voice.

  “That’s what I mean. There is nothing. Like nothing at all, not even normal space interference. It is as if there is a hole in space that our scanners can’t penetrate?” He said, more like a question than an actual explanation, “Here, you see this?”

  The big screen switched from black to a visualization of random lines in a multitude of colors. There was one big spot remaining blank though.

  “The heck!” The woman let out a curse, “That’s the scanners ping results as wave interpretation, right? I’ve never seen anything like that. Is there something in the unit’s logs?”

  “All systems active, no errors detected.” Dogger reported and then gulped visibly before he spoke again, “Ma’am, whatever it is, it is coming closer…”

  The woman swiftly turned and left Dogger’s station.

  “Damn! Ruby, get me visuals on S13’s vector!” She shouted and hurried to a bigger screen closer to the front of the bridge.

  “Captain, reporting anom-” She was interrupted by a sudden flicker of the interior’s lighting. It was just for the briefest blink of an eye, so little and so quick that you could easily miss it. But she and everyone else still noticed it.

  This was the Eschaton, the pride of the UAS.

  Lights don’t flicker here.

  For a moment the bustling atmosphere came to an abrupt halt when everyone on the bridge froze up. Then the lights flickered again and some displays turned off.

  “Reporting shield instabilities!” Someone yelled, breaking the silence, and moments later more shouts followed from every station.

  “Scanners offline!”

  “We have spikes in power supply!”

  “Shields failing!”

  “Communication offline!”

  “Generator shutdown imminent!”

  “Shields offline!”

  “Engines offline!”

  “Generator offline!”

  That was the last report before the flickering of the lights stopped. Then, displays went out, lights turned off and stations shut down. In just a few seconds the whole bridge was plunged into darkness.

  “Engineering, report!” A man shouted with an authoritative voice.

  “Captain, power is completely gone. Generator and emergency backup are both offline. Reboot should be initiated!” Someone stated.

  “We lost the backup without it ever doing shit? Why are we carrying it around then? Damn. Time?” Eldon Wickham, the Eschaton’s captain, asked while everything was still so dark that you couldn’t even see the hand in front of your eyes.

  “Half a minute, maybe? Hard to tell.. we don’t know what the guys at the generator have to deal with and communication is offline as well.”

  “Kinson, you wanted to report an anomaly just before this? Any details?”

  Before the scanning team leader could answer, the lights turned back on. Displays followed and the engineering officer shouted a quick report.

  “Backup power online, generator restarting, t-22 seconds.”

  “What in the nine hells is that?” The man in the pilot seat asked and pointed at one of the displays with shaking fingers.

  “That’s…” Wickham began but then he abruptly stood up from his seat and moved the image to the main screen in the middle of the room.

  “Is that a ship or an animal?” Someone asked when everyone had their eyes glued to the screen. There was the gigantic, black form of a squid drifting through the void. The long tentacle-like arms it dragged behind slowly undulated as if it was swimming through water. Though, upon closer inspection one could see black metal reflecting the light of the distant Mereus, revealing its true nature as an artificial construct.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this. How can that be?” The captain muttered, his voice a mix of marvel and dread, “That thing is gigantic, how didn’t we notice something of that size approaching?”

  One could still see a part of the Eschaton on the video-feed, which helped to get a feeling for scale. The black spaceship was enormous in size, at least as big as the Destroyer but with its long tentacles it very well could be even longer.

  “Generator is back, engines online, shields online.” The engineering officer reported.

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  “Full power to the shields but keep the weapons stashed.” Wickham ordered.

  “I don’t think shields will help here…”

  “Neither do I. What do we get from the scanners and communication?”

  “Nothing, Sir! It is as if this thing doesn’t exist.” The scanning team leader reported.

  “Well, I’m pretty sure that isn’t just a mirage. Any ideas what we’re dealing with?” The captain barked without taking his eyes off the image. The crew’s response was a long silence as no one spoke up. With a sigh he shook his head.

  “Fine, get me Dyke on the bridge!”

  “I’m already here, Sir Captain, Sir.” A young man, barely out of his teens, came running in and gasped between heavy breaths.

  “I’m pretty confident in my knowledge about the species of the known universe - living or not. And yet I can only make vague guesses.” Wickham said, “Your file mentions that you’re specialized on alien spaceships. Tell me, Private Dyke, what are we dealing with?”

  “Me? Uhm, Sir Captain, Sir, it’s more like a hobby…” The young man said and fidgeted nervously with his fingers. He looked around on the bridge and grew even smaller when he noticed all the attention from all the high-ranking officers on him. Then his gaze passed the screen with the big ship and his eyes went wide.

  “By Berta’s Tits!” Dyke yelped and after he overcame the first shock, he slowly walked closer to the screen.

  For some long moments he just stared at the ship and muttered under his breath, unnoticeable for anyone without a mutation that optimized hearing.

  “The ship is slowing down but still comes closer. Time is running out, Captain.” Kinson said into the silence.

  “You’ve heard the Officer, Dyke. We have to act. So tell me, what do you think?”

  “It’s beautiful!” The young man said with stars in his eyes.

  “Damn, lad, get your shit together. You can start drooling when we are sure they’re not about to blow us up.” Wickham cursed.

  “Oh, right. Sorry, Sir Captain, Sir.” Dyke winced apologetically and scratched his head, “There are only two options I see. One, we just met a new, undiscovered species or two, this is a Keeper Original.”

  “I’ve once been part of a small team that bought information from the Keeper. Their ships weren’t that different from ours and definitely nothing like that thing out there.”

  “There are rumors among ship-enthusiasts like me that have persisted since forever. The Keeper speak our language and are using our technology only when traveling into the Civilized Territory. We assume that they never showed us their own technology. Maybe it’s empty talk born out of fear of the unknown but it would explain the huge ship out there. Or do you think option one is more likely and we have just met a new race?”

  “Nah, unlikely.” Wickham waved him off, “Also, your theory matches with the lack of feedback from the scanners and time and place of this meeting. Thank you, Private Dyke.”

  “Aha, sure…” Dyke nodded absentmindedly as his eyes returned to the screen. Then he turned around and tilted his head, “Time and place?”

  “I said thank you, Private!” Wickham repeated.

  “Yeah, no worries, it was nothing.”

  “Dyke, what the Captain meant is you’re dismissed.” Someone whispered from the side.

  “Oh! Yes, of course, sorry, Sir Captain, Sir!” The young man said, clumsily saluted and scuffled off the bridge.

  “That boy…” The captain chuckled but then his face became stern once more, “Communication, send word to the UAS. We have an unknown capital size ship in our midst. Presumably the Keeper. They shall hurry up and send an envoy who can deal with this shit. Also, contact the outpost. Tell them that they-”

  “Sir, we have an incoming call. They have opened a channel.”

  “On the screen!” Wickham said and the veteran’s shoulders tensed.

  Moments later the image of a man with grey skin appeared on a display next to the captain. It took Wickham only a moment to link the missing ears and nose of the figure to the elusive, all-knowing race.

  “I greet the Keeper Of Knowledge. My name is El-”

  “Eldon Wickham, Captain of the UAS IGD Eschaton, born on Gaunus, one wife, two children.”

  “Ah… yeah, that is me.” Wickham said and had to fight hard to not make a face. He hated speaking with these people. They were a real pain in the ass. They knew nearly everything and made you aware of that at every possible moment. However, they never shared any valuable knowledge before you paid their hefty fees. It was like having a discussion with a stingy merchant that loves to play mind games. No one liked assholes like that! Still, he was the Captain of this ship and had a job to do.

  “You’ve entered UAS territory in a battleship without prior notice. The bosses won’t like that.”

  “Correct.”

  “You see, some may take this as a provocation or even an implicit threat…”

  “It is the latter.” The Keeper said flatly, which made Wickham’s face finally twitch, “We are here to take the anomaly.”

  “Yeah, I figured as much. We have Tulward in custody, he is on the moon below us. Quite the entrance you’ve made for one simple man. Nice ship, by the way.”

  “The times are changing. We need to be decisive right now.” The Keeper said.

  “I would ask what you mean, but I know you won’t answer.” Wickham sighed, “I’ve already informed the UAS to send an envoy. I’m sure someone will arrive soon to lead the negotiations. I’m not the right guy for these kinds of deals.”

  “No deals, no negotiations.” The Keeper said.

  “Ha!” Wickham scoffed, “Aren’t you the ones who always haggle for every piece of your precious knowledge? Why should we hand over Tulward just like that? Besides, I’m not even sure the bosses will agree at all, at the end of the day, the boy is still one of us.”

  He had barely finished his sentence, as the display suddenly went out and with it the whole Destroyer went dark once more.

  “We’ve lost power supply again!” The engineering Officer shouted.

  “Fuck!” Wickham cursed.

  “That shutdown was even faster than the last. It was nearly instantaneous. How do they do that?”

  “I have no idea, has probably something to do with that ?ther they use. But what worries me more is how forceful they are. Keeper are elusive, reclusive, loners, whatever. But they were never known to show any kind of aggression other than for self defense.”

  “They also never appeared with their own ships. Heck, until a few moments ago we didn’t even know they had those.” Someone added.

  “What are your orders?” The pilot asked from within the darkness.

  “Stay put, but be ready to get us away from here when the engines come back online.” Wickham said, “They are just playing with us right now, showing their muscles. I don’t think they want to escalate the situation but either way, we aren’t equipped to face them as we are. If push comes to shove, we run. Saving the crew and the ship. No need to fight a battle in which we have everything to lose but nothing to win.”

  “What about the people in the facility on Trov L?” The communications officer asked.

  “Send them a warning about their imminent visitors. If the Keeper try to push, we can’t stop them. They were conveying exactly that message when they shut down our systems again. I think this is more of a political situation than a military one but our presence may tip the scale. So we stay defensive.”

  “Roger that, Captain.”

  “Power coming back…”

  “Then turn on the damn lights!” Wickham cursed when everything except a few stations remained dark.

  “Sir, that may take a while. Seems like the first time was just a breeze that shook our systems a little. This time they were properly knocked out.”

  “Open a channel to the Keeper as soon as possible!”

  It took them more than a few minutes to get their systems back online and reestablish communication. When the gray figure was once more on the screen, Wickham sighed wearily.

  “Your message was received. I once more would like to ask you to remain passive until the UAS’ envoy arrives.”

  “The Envoy will arrive in 17 minutes. No negotiations. A landing party has already been dispatched. As you just informed your crew, stay put and don’t involve yourself in a fight you cannot win.”

  Wickham’s eyes shot up but before he could even process what he just heard, the Keeper cut the connection.

  “How did they know? The connection was closed and even if we assume they are able to hack into our systems, those were killed, too. There is no logical way to eavesdrop on the Eschaton like that…” The communication officer stammered in shock.

  “Again: I have no idea. No one has a clue how they get their knowledge. Now shut up as they are probably still listening. Any further discussions about sensible or classified topics are prohibited until we are out of here!” Wickham barked to make his people shut up.

  Together they watched in silence as their surveillance system tracked a small alien dropship that dove down to the moon.