“Any idea how secure our comms are?”

  I was still staring at the section of bulkhead, trying to formulate how to approach the situation. After a quick inspection, I’d found no immediate signs of a door, access hatch, or any other way into what we believed was a void on the other side. There was nothing like the control panels we’d seen on previous doors. It was quite possible the room beyond was accessed from a different direction, but I didn’t want to go wandering aimlessly, as if I were trying to solve a rubik’s cube without knowing any of the algorithms.

  “Since we have no previous record of this species on file, it’s really hard to say Tommy-bear,” was her response, “I’ve been unable to access any of their computer systems, but that could be because they just refuse to use any wireless connectivity beyond external communications protocols. It could also be because their encryption is tighter than Lawkapt Nun’s backdoor. Let me tell you, there are some EPICS in the giobhioni literary archives involving the quests to gain entry…”

  “What the hell Stacy!” I said, having been mid-sip from my water valve. Only reflex kept me from aspirating the water out my sinuses, but I still found myself cough-laughing at the shock of the comment. “Can you not make comments like that when I’m taking a drink? Do you have any idea the mess it makes when you spit-take in an enviro-sealed suit? Star’s Light!”

  If Stacy had an ass, I’d say she was laughing it off right then.

  “I do have an ass though! Wanna see it?” And a holographic image appeared in my heads up display of a rather dignified looking silver haired giobhioni matron wearing an extremely formal gown. She appeared to be a mix between Tratsa and Jophixa, but with a hint of saucy dimples in her cheeks. And as I stood there taking in the avatar Stacy had created for herself, it gave me a huge grin and spun around to lift her dress to expose a naked green ass at me. “SEE!”

  “Damn it!” I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Stacy, weren’t you just lecturing me about staying alert and aware of my surroundings?”

  “Gotta test your focus!”

  Shaking my head, I got back to business. “Anyway, if we don’t know how secure our comms are, should we contact Jophixa and let her know what we’ve found down here?” I asked, as much to myself as her, “If the keeper is listening in, and whatever is going on behind that wall is something malevolent, we’ve given away that we know about it. But should I just be unilaterally deciding how to proceed?”

  “It may be more prudent for us to continue working our way back to the Commander and Tindron, Tommy-bear,” she advised, “If we delay much longer in an effort to find out what’s on the other side of that wall, it’s likely to raise suspicion. I’m sure the Keeper has a way to monitor our progress.”

  Grinding my teeth, I had to admit she was right. I could only make so many excuses for any delays in getting back to that control room. If they looked in on me down here and found me intently studying a wall with a nefarious secret behind it, the game would be up. Jo wouldn’t appreciate that, I was absolutely certain. And on the other hand…

  “It occurs to me,” I said thoughtfully, “that just because we’ve been able to detect something behind this wall, doesn’t mean this wall has to be where the door is. I’m making one hell of an assumption on that. For all I know, there isn’t any door here at all. The door could be on the other side of the room.”

  “Very solid reasoning there, my Sugar-buns.”

  “So moving on and seeing if there’s perhaps a way around to another side of the room would be a better use of time.” I sighed, giving the wall another glare. Part of me wanted to remain there and make absolutely certain there was no hidden door. If this were any mundane salvage operation, and I had a crew with me, one person would be here, while others would be sent to scout for another way in. That wasn’t the case here though.

  “And maybe that way around might line up with our route back up to the control room, right baby-cakes?”

  “Never know,” I said with a smile, turning around to start walking again, “After all, it was one hell of a slim chance I’d get off that damned planetoid, and it turned out the damned thing was a secret space station containing a self actualized artificial intelligence. Luck keeps throwing this engineer some bloody odd curve-balls. Let's see if we get lucky!”

  The next hour was spent mostly in bored silence, but there was the mystery of what was behind that wall to drive me forward, instead of the frustrated question of why I had to hoof it back to the control center. Every couple of paces I walked, I was using my now useless winch housing to smack the wall so Stacy could analyze the sonics for changes in the wall's thickness. Mostly what was happening was that the wall seemed to be getting thicker, which was disheartening, but Stacy had done her best to mark the location we’d made our discovery as we followed the Keeper’s directions for how to get back.

  I did my best to keep my mind alert during all of this, remembering the discussion with Stacy earlier. It wasn’t good to let myself slip into autopilot, just because there didn’t seem to be any danger, didn’t mean I wouldn’t miss an important detail if I zoned out. Yet even in the midst of these efforts, I found myself picking up on a certain rhythm in what I was doing. My pace was measured and steady, and my strikes against the wall picked up a pattern reminding me of an old blues beat.

  Almost entirely subconsciously, I found myself playing with that beat as I walked, and eventually started humming out a bluesy melody. At the same time though, when I realized what I was doing - thanks to Stacy beginning to hum along with me - I noticed I was using the improvised music in my efforts to keep an eye out on the things around me.

  It had gone on long enough, however, that I was pretty sure we’d lost any hope of finding a way inside that room. Three hours later, we’d taken enough turns that I knew we weren’t even sounding out the same wall anymore. I kept at it however, because we’d found one void behind a bulkhead this way, maybe we’d find another.

  And sure enough, just as I figured we were long past the hope of finding a way in, we stumbled on something.

  “Tommykins,” Stacy said, interrupting a particularly impressive (at least in my opinion) riff I’d started humming, “I’m getting another signal from behind this wall! There’s no way it could be the same one I detected before, but it’s there, and it’s much clearer!”

  “It’s still giobhioni?”

  “Mmhmm! But it’s a different encryption than any I have in my records. Either it’s a top level military encryption we weren’t privy to on the station, or it was developed after the radio silence order was given. But either way, what is it doing out here? We didn’t have any contact with species in this sector of the galaxy.”

  Raising my hand to scratch my beard, I caught myself and turned the motion into idly tapping my helmet’s visor. “A question I’m sure will puzzle the commander as much as us once we fill her in.” I gave the wall a thoughtful look, “So have you broken the encryption yet?”

  The rude noise that came through my speakers made me snort out a laugh. “Really Baby? You needed to ask me that?” She sounded authentically offended. “The Keeper's systems might still be causing me trouble, but these are giobhioni protocols we're talking about. Even if they're new, they're still born from the same mode of thinking as the ones I already knew. It took me seconds. I should make you polish my substrate for even doubting me.”

  “That would be a job that'd take a lifetime Dear, but I'll find a way to make it up to you.” I grinned, “Anyway, can you open a door or anything?”

  A sequence of sounds came from his comm that told him her news wouldn't be good. When she was truly frustrated with a situation, she tended to swear in a kind of machine code. “Afraid not Tommybear. If there's a way to access door control, it's air-gapped from this network. The good news, however, is that the system has files on just what is inside that room, and likely the other one as well.”

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  “So don't leave me hanging Baby-girl, what's in there?”

  She didn't just tell me, she showed me, and what I saw sent me running through the corridors towards the control room. Jophixa needed to know about this as soon as possible, but there was no way I was going to risk transmitting it over comms that might be insecure.

  No matter how much I would have loved to, I couldn't maintain a running pace for the entire way back, even if I was as trim as a marathon runner, with all the gear I was carrying, and in an EVA suit, I had to stop long before I would have liked. But I still set myself a grueling pace in getting back: no more wasting energy bitching about alien design logic, or banging on the walls to locate hidden rooms. I just moved as fast as my body would let me, until we finally made it to the lift the Keeper had given Stacy directions to.

  So it was that two hours after our discovery, I stepped out of the lift to find one of the transport drones waiting for me, and a further thirty minutes before pulling into the control room.

  Jophixa and Tindron were sitting comfortably on a pair of armchairs they had moved off of the transport drone. They'd been in discussions with the Keeper when I pulled into the room and turned to smile at me with relief. “Thank the Stars!” Tindron exclaimed, standing up and hurrying over the edge of the enormous table as the drone trundled up to it. “I swear Thomas, Boudya's gonna want to put a leash on you!”

  “Ooo, kinky!” Stacy giggled, thankfully only to me.

  “Yeah, sorry Tindron,” I said, giving him a hug as I stepped onto the table, “Chalk another into the ‘things Thomas will never live down’ file.”

  I heard a polite cough and turned to see Jo giving me a hard look. “Aacen, I'm not sure if you are cursed or blessed, but damn it, you are damned hard on the nerves for the people around you,” she growled out, then stalked up to me. “We are going to have to work on some protocols to monitor the freakish confluences of chaos that seem to gather around you like a kindrak is drawn to a bowl of milk. Will you please try to avoid any more of this bullshit in the future?”

  “I'll do my best, Commander,” I told her, then paused for a moment. I'd been considering how I was going to inform her of what I'd found on the way back without the Keeper catching on. The only thing I'd been able to come up with had me hesitant, but now was the time.

  Swallowing my nerves, I moved suddenly to grab Jo up in a hug, lifting her up and holding her close. The plan was to bring out helmets in contact so Stacy could initiate a direct contact link between our comms systems for privacy, but my brain nearly short circuited and derailed the entire plan when Jophixa's short but muscular arms snaked around my helmet and returned the embrace. It took Stacy interrupting with a polite “Physical Commlink established Thomas. Go ahead.”

  Blinking to clear my head, I looked at Jo's puzzled expression turning to guarded, and cleared my throat. “Uh,” I started, “Sorry for this Commander, was the only way I could think to ensure we could have a secure chat…”

  She leveled those violet eyes at me with that guarded expression, then nodded slightly before engaging the open comms, “Tindron, will you excuse us for a moment? We have something private to discuss for a moment.”

  There was a barely concealed chuckle in his voice when Tindron responded, “Go ahead, I'll keep picking the Keeper’s brain about their mission here.”

  “Thanks, we'll try not to be too long.” Jo turned her eyes back to me, “So what's this all about?”

  So I told her. I filled her in on everything we found in the giobhioni network we'd been able to link up with, of the fact there were at least two such chambers on the level that I'd been on, so that we could not be sure there weren't more.

  “You are telling me that there are thousands of my people on board this station?” she asked when I was finished, “locked in some new form of stasis modules, and apparently mid-infection from the ktonshi contagion?”

  “That's what we saw, yes Commander,” I confirmed, “There were video feeds for each of the stasis pods, and the ones we checked showed them partially covered in some form of webbing. I'm not sure what's going on, but I didn't think you'd want me to broadcast this over an insecure channel, or to stop and try to break into the chambers on my own.”

  “I appreciate that Thomas,” she said nodding slightly, “I need to consider this and how we're going to approach this. I will not write you up for unauthorized groping of a superior officer. This time.”

  With that, I became acutely aware that my hands were supporting her weight via the expediency of cupping her buttocks. “Ahem, apologies commander. Shall I put you down now?”

  “Just a moment longer.” She said, wiggling a bit in my arms, “Don't make a habit of this Thomas, or I will think you're just looking for excuses…”

  “Of course not Ma'am. I wouldn't want to go anywhere I'm not wanted.”

  She gave me an odd look, then loosened her grip on me, and I took the hint and lowered her to the deck.

  As soon as her feet were on the deck, she walked over towards the arm chairs the two of them had been resting in, and looked up at the giant alien. “Excuse me Keeper? This is our engineer, Thomas Aacen, who you encountered in passing a few hours ago. You had said you wished to speak with him when he rejoined us.”

  “Ah yes,” the oddly toned voice said through his commset. “Mister Aacen, the ship’s engineer. A - what was the species again? Ah yes, humans, or more precisely, homo sapiens as mister Tindron informed me. I wished to apologize for any harm you may have experienced due to the unfortunate effects of my species’ speech frequencies.”

  Looking up, I was confronted by an eyeball that was larger than I was tall, peering at me closely. Its uniquely cross shaped pupil contracted as the Keeper focused on me, and slowly began rotating. “I understand it was unintentional,” I responded, trying not to let the strange eyeball freak me out, “So I can’t really hold it against you. There’s been too many wars fought between newly encountered species over misunderstandings. Let’s hope we don’t encounter any other misunderstandings eh?” I thought for a moment, and hoped Jo wouldn’t skin me for adding, “Would be a shame to spoil a possible friendship or alliance because one of us took something for what it wasn’t. Right?”

  The look that Jo shot me did, indeed, promise that I might be in trouble later for the remark. It was just such a perfect place to slip the comment in and hope it would tweak the right response. I thought to Stacy, I hope she’ll realize that before she chews me out for it.

  I don’t know Sweet honey-cake, she replied, You do seem to be good at putting your foot in your mouth today. Better be prepared to grovel, maybe offer her to wash her feet or something. That’s a commonly accepted way to grovel.

  I wasn’t entirely sure if Stacy was yanking my chain on that suggestion or not. I’d have to see if I could confirm with Tratsa before I dared offer to do it. But I didn’t have any more time to wonder, as the Keeper’s eye rotated a bit faster while it watched me for a moment longer, then pulled back. “Ah. Yes. I was about to address a matter regarding that,” it said, one tentacle reaching out across the room to a terminal along the far wall, “I had wished to wait until you rejoined your comrades before proceeding. We have, so far, been discussing the origins of this station and our previous communication with the Commander’s people.

  “Before we get to injectors and vents, however, I wished to provide you with a gift of peacemaking. You say you do not hold me at fault, but it is tradition for my species to still make an offering of peace to someone we have harmed, regardless of intent.” With that, the tentacle swung back from the far wall, with something small stuck to its tip. “The commander spoke of you being an engineer, one with a certain interest in encountering the technologies of species you had not encountered before. So I have compiled a database of technology from species we have encountered who are now extinct. I do hope this will be well received.”

  My eyebrows were so far into my hairline at that point, I wondered if maybe they were trying to tickle the back of my neck. That database would be worth a fortune among salvage engineers, and I couldn’t wait to get a look at it. I was reaching out to take it from the Keeper when lights around the room started strobing with blinding brilliance.

  The Keeper immediately dropped the device it was holding into my outstretched hands, then whirled around to look at the monitors behind it, tentacles whipping around to various terminals and tapping furiously away at them. “No, this is most inauspicious,” it said, turning so one eye was looking back at us. “I must ensure your safety while I deal with this. Your lives cannot be at risk while this is happening.”

  “What? What is happening!?” Jophixa demanded. “Is this some sort of emergency alert?”

  The strobing lights shifted colour, and I happened to be looking at one of them when it flashed over to what looked like a holographic system map, and I could see, over on the opposite side of the star from us, a blinking, angry red marker starting to move slowly across the system towards us. “Uh, Commander,” I said, pointing, “I think perhaps we’ve got a hostile inbound.”

  Her head spun around to look where I was pointing, then back to the Keeper, “Who’s the hostile? Who is it that would be attacking you?”

  “I need to get you back to your ship before they get here.” The Keeper explained, ignoring Jo’s question, “We should be safe, but should the station’s defenses fail, there should at least be enough cover for you to get away.”

  “Keeper. Who. Is. It.”

  “It is the Ktonshi, Commander. I am unsure how, but they have discovered the station’s location. Now hurry! We must get you back to your ship!”

  The Salvager’s Plague.

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