In the aftermath that followed, Jophixa ordered us to maintain position in the oort cloud to observe the ktonshi wreckage. We knew there was at least one other vessel out there, and she did not want it getting the drop on us if we went to investigate. And when you consider what happened when I had taken my little space walk to rescue Lieutenant Kintzel, we weren't entirely sure no ktonshi had survived the incident either. So I had absolutely no arguments with her decision to stay hidden.

  On top of observing the ktonshi wreckage, and due to pressure by not just Boudya, Stacy and myself, but surprisingly Tondri as well, we had the ship's sensors tuned to their absolute maximum resolution and were gathering as much data from the spatial anomaly as we could before it faded completely. We were all exceedingly giddy at the very idea that we had just witnessed a working Space Fold drive in action. The idea that space could be folded over onto itself in such a way to allow near instantaneous travel over hundreds of light years - perhaps even intergalactic distances - had been theorized for hundreds of years on Earth. Apparently even longer elsewhere in the galaxy. But to everyone’s knowledge, this is the absolute first time anyone from this time period, or from pre-stasis, has ever witnessed it happen. We absolutely wanted as much data as we could to try and unlock the technology ourselves.

  Nevermind that doing so would make us famously wealthy, but being able to traverse large distances in the blink of an eye would give us a huge advantage over the ktonshi. We could get ahead of them, escape them, defeat them! It would be a long shot, but getting readings from the anomaly the station left behind might be the key to doing so.

  Every single bit of data we gathered would be analyzed by any of the giobhioni back on their station with the least bit of interest, as well as Stacy herself, not to mention Boudya and me. I wasn’t going to sit by and let anyone else get an a-ha moment on this science without even taking a stab at it! Do you think I’m insane? Don’t answer that Stacy!

  Jo's decision to keep up hidden in the oort cloud turned out to be incredibly foresighted. We had just watched the last vestiges of the anomaly fade into oblivion when another ktonshi ship tore its way out of hyperspace not far from the station's original position. Sensors matched its size to the one we saw in the flight recorder data, confirming for us that the one that had been destroyed had been a much older one.

  For me, this meant the creature that had once been Jonathan Barstol might still be “alive” and on that thing. A fact that I was not at all fond of, having hoped the destroyed ship was the one he'd been on, but it gave me hope that I might be able to put a coilgun slug into his brainpan myself. I wasn’t generally given to thoughts of revenge, but Barstol deserved to be put down after all this.

  The centipede-like organic ship undulated its way around the wreckage before letting out one of those soul-shaking screeches, then promptly began to consume the remains of its fellow.

  That was when I turned my face away from the sensor feeds and went back to analyzing the data from the anomaly. I didn't need to watch that gruesome sight, and I was sure the Commander would sound off if she needed any systems brought online. I had quite enough of a time keeping visions of the ktonshi out of my nightmares as it was, I didn’t need any more fuel for my subconscious to draw from. My time was better spent wading through all this information.

  It did seem that nightmares might look to be an ongoing issue for the coming days. Between the hallucinations on the station, the spacewalk encounter, and seeing that ancient ship out there attack the Keeper station, Tratsa was contemplating giving me a sedative to head off insomnia. She had joined me in my quarters to get some shuteye a few hours ago, and ended up having to slap me awake from a bad one. My nerves were still frayed from it.

  It was the reason why I was hunched over a holo-tablet In the galley, pouring over all of that scanner data, when the imposing figure of Giselle Kintzel loomed over me. I wasn’t exactly sure how long she’d been standing there, so engrossed in the data as I was, until a quiet cough caused me to look up.

  In all the excitement since I had pulled her out of the wreckage of her fighter, I hadn’t actually gotten a chance to see the woman without her pressure suit and helmet on. While pressure suits aren’t as cumbersome as they were back in the early days of space flight, they were not the things science fiction used to imagine they’d be at this point. They did not vacuum seal to the curves of your body and leave little to the imagination. They didn’t show off every curve or muscle bulge. They had padding, routing channels for cables or tubes, and sometimes, they had rigid or semi-rigid plates for armor; All of it coming together to disguise much of what the person inside the suit looked like, other than height.

  Hell, considering the suit Jophixa was wearing on the station, which made her look more like a fantasy dwarf than a goblin, it could really mess with your expectations if you didn’t know better.

  I say all of this in order to make the point that the woman standing across the table from me was not at all what I was expecting from a fighter pilot. I suppose most of that is due to preconceptions formed through popular media, but I always expect fighter pilots to be fit, but more on the wiry side. A swimmer or runner’s build rather than a weightlifter.

  But Giselle Kintzel had the build of a hardworking farmgirl, with well toned muscles making their presence known beneath her tight t-shirt with every minor movement. Broad shoulders and biceps that made her look like she spent her off time helping in the hangar bay loading munitions into her own fighter, or shifting cargo around for the Load Master. And while she was nowhere near Boudya’s two and a quarter meters in height, I was betting she’d look me level in the eye if I stood up.

  She cleared her throat again, a delicate blonde eyebrow raising in question. I guess I’d been taking just a little too long sizing her up. Stacy must be busy, I thought to myself, It’s not like her to miss making a rude comment about me woolgathering while staring at a woman.

  “Sorry about that,” I said, after coughing and setting my tablet aside, trying not to show any embarrassment. “My brain is an absolute mess after the last couple days. So much to process, and unlike Stacy, I don’t have the mental substrate of a small moon to do it with.” I gave a half smile and waved at the seat across from me. “Lieutenant Kintzel, right? Please, join me.”

  Sliding into the seat across from me, she smiled, “Thanks, and it’s Lieutenant Commander actually, Commonwealth Security.”

  I’d been about to take a sip of graptak when we said that, but thankfully had not quite made it there before she’d said the last part. I scrunched my eyes up hard in a double take as I carefully set my cup down, then leveled a quizzical look at her, getting a chuckle in return. In my head, I heard Stacy giggle maniacally. “Sorry, Stacy said the look on your face would be priceless to drop it so bluntly.” she explained, “And she was absolutely correct, and since she’s arranged a reunion with my sister, I owe her a bit of amusement.”

  “Ah,.” I said in response, “That explains it. Stacy can be a shit disturber at times, but at least she didn’t suggest you do it while I was inverted and hip deep in some engine crawlspace working on a maintenance task. She’s done that before. The goose-egg was epic. Tratsa chewed her out for it though.”

  “Yeah, I’ve had my share of that kind of thing myself. Never fun.” She hesitated for a moment, then sighed, “So look, what I’m here for is to say thanks for pulling my ass out of the void back there. Especially since that thing, what do you call it, a ktonshi, was that close by. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if it’d gotten that close and you hadn’t already been pulling me to safety.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “No thanks needed,” I shrugged, “I’ve been stranded a few times myself. Void’s Maw, has anyone told you the story of how I got hooked up with this whole scenario in the first place? I swear, if there’s a goddess of luck out there somewhere in the black, she must have a soft spot for this old salvager, cause the odds of what happened have got to be damned near zero!”

  She leaned forward in her chair, smokey grey eyes fixed on me. “We Rocket Jockeys have a bit of an intimate relationship with ole lady luck ourselves,” she said with a smile, “Kinda comes with the job y’know? And no, nobody told me, but it sounds interesting. Why don’t you fill me in.”

  “Alright, but then you’re going to have to tell me about that whole Commonwealth Security officer bit. Don’t think I forgot about that detail.” I gave her a grin, then leaned back. “Alright, so it all starts with this old bastard of a Captain named Jonathan Barstol…”

  On a large moon, several dozen light years away, a sleepy terraforming colony unofficially named Eve’s Blessing, was all but asleep. Of its population of eleven thousand colonists, only eight hundred remained awake, monitoring security feeds and the status of various equipment that was critical to the colony’s survival.

  Two kilometers away, the slender figure of a teenager made its way over the rocky, scrub covered terrain. Their movements were slow and careful, after years of outings under the watchful eyes of Colonist Scout troop leaders, they knew the importance of keeping your mind on what you were doing. Even in a group, even a minor injury on an untamed world, especially one being terraformed, could mean death, so one must always be focused on the task at hand.

  Normally, people their age would have been doing solo, or even partnered scouting trips within the perimeter, under the Colony Security’s watchful remote eyes, for months. But some parents were always overly protective of their children, even when bringing them into the dangers of a terraforming colony.

  This was the life for Miles West, whose parents refused to allow him permission to venture more than a hundred meters from the colony’s airlocks without a fully trained medic in attendance. It’d been 4 years since the genetic anomaly the doctors called Toren’s Syndrome had caused him to have even the briefest of absence seizures, but still they would not allow him to participate as the rest of the colony’s young folk did. And because they were part of the colony’s administration, people respected their wishes.

  He’d been planning this outing for months; Ever since he’d discovered that his parents would be offworld for an important conference with Commonwealth officials. With them gone, he might not be completely free of observation, but the worst of his jailers were no longer watching his every move. And during the long night hours, there were even less. With careful planning, he’d been able to slip out of the colony with a maintenance drone and make for the perimeter.

  For the past year, he’d been using the drone his parents had given him in consolation of not being able to explore in person, to explore the surrounding area. Three months in, he’d discovered the entrance to a cave just on the edge of the colony’s perimeter that showed signs of refined metals to the drone’s sensors. By rights, he should have reported it to the Admin Council, and, for anyone else, he would have been included in the exploratory team sent out to investigate the site. But he knew the likelihood of his parents allowing that were slim, so he had done his best to make sure no record of his discovery made it into the colony’s records. He wanted to be the one to first set eyes on that cave and discover where those refined metals came from.

  Now he was within a hundred meters of the cave entrance - so close he could taste it. He hoped being able to do this on his own, discover the secrets of the cave and reveal them to his parents might convince them to ease up on their protectiveness.

  ]Target destination is now 12.48 meters at bearing 64.2 degrees.[

  The message flashed across his helmet’s HUD, and a thrill rolled through him. So very close, just one more rise to climb over and he would be there. When he moved to start climbing, he saw his hand shaking as he moved to secure a handhold, and stopped. He needed to take a breather and focus. He was too excited, and he was looking at a pretty steep climb. He was so damned close, this wasn’t a time to make mistakes!

  Pausing, he leaned against the rocks, feeling the slightly spongy texture of the lichen-like vegetation under his hands, and took long, deep breaths. Eventually feeling more focused, he opened his eyes and looked up the embankment again. “Alright Miles, let’s get this done,” he said to himself, “before Chen decides she needs to do a manual bed check and finds out I’m gone.”

  With slow and steady movements, he made his way up and over the top of the steep hill, finally coming face to face with a cave entrance just big enough that one of the colonies side by side rovers could have squeezed inside. He’d done it. He’d gotten all the way out here without someone discovering he was gone and dragging him back! All he had to do now was figure out the secret of this cave and everything was cosmic.

  “Miles West! Where in the galactic disk are you!”

  Speaking of the devil, he thought to himself, cringing at the angry voice coming through his comms, Let’s see if she’ll buy the bluff. “Miss Chen? What do you mean? I had insomnia, so I went on a bit of a walk. I’m on level 12, down near the water reclamators. Is something wrong?”

  The security feeds for that section of the colony were down for scheduled maintenance that night, one of the main reasons he’d planned his outing for this time. Just in case of this exact eventuality, the line could buy him a bit of time before the skimmers were sent out to haul him back.

  “Really?” Chen replied, and there was a pause, then, “That’s rather interesting, because the security feeds show nobody down there right now at all. As quiet as a mausoleum.”

  What? But… “You sure? Cause that’s where I am, you sure something didn’t go haywire during the maintenance cycle? Maybe the feed got glitched or something?”

  “That’s the thing, there was no maintenance cycle tonight.” Chen explained, “Council decided to postpone it because your parents are supposed to be bringing back some upgrades with them, and they thought they’d just kill two birds with one stone. Now cut the slurry Miles. Where. Are. You?”

  Swearing to himself a moment, he moved forward, he just needed a bit more time before she started a trace on his locator. “Come on Chen, give me a break. I’m sixteen. I’m allowed my privacy-”

  “You are a minor, left under my supervision while your parents are offworld,” Chen interrupted, “Your privacy ends where you put your life and my job in jeopardy. If I have to come hunt you down, you’ll spend the rest of the time they are away in the privacy of house arrest.”

  “Chen, you know damned well that’s bullshit. Anyone else my age would be-”

  “They are still your parents and have the final word, now answer the question!”

  By this time, the signal was starting to break up slightly as he entered the mouth of the cave. His suit lights illuminating the rough stone walls for 20 meters, before the stone cave way to smooth metal. “By the stars! My drone didn’t see this…”

  “See what? Miles! You’re breaking up. Are you outside the colony? Damnit, your parents are going to skin me alive!”

  “Chen, something lived here before us! This cave, it’s a base of some kind, maybe a ship! I’m going further in to see if there’s a control panel.”

  “MILES! Get back to the colony right now! I’m tracing your locator and sending a skimmer to get you! Do not go any farther into whatever cave you found. That is an order. You’re already going to end up grounded for life, don’t make it even worse!”

  Miles just ignored her, he was too fascinated by the alien script on the walls. Besides, even if he was grounded for life, he’d just discovered an alien artifact buried on the Moon his family was part of terraforming. By contract, any discoveries made here would be credited to the colony and help supply them with equipment and materials to make their work easier. His own name would be credited with the find, no matter that he was unauthorized to be here, there was standing case law on the matter.

  Chen was still yelling at him to leave the cave and get back to the colony A.S.A.P, as he rounded a bend in the cave/corridor, and stopped cold. Everything was covered in fine, silken white filaments, like those things the scientific databases referred to coming from an arachnid species called spiders. The appearance of them sent a visceral chill down his spine, like his blood was turning to ice water. He suddenly wanted very much to do just as Chen demanded and flee back to the safety of the colony, but his body was frozen in fear.

  “Chen…there…I think there’s something in here.”

  “Miles, get out of there now!”

  Twelve magma red orbs blinked alive in the darkness, glowing with an intense ire and hostility that Miles’ breath caught in his throat. Dimly, he became aware of his suit’s medical telemetry system starting to scream alerts at him, and the frantic voice of Ms. Chen behind that, but those burning black-red orbs kept his mind locked in terror until it finally went completely haywire, and he collapsed.

  The Salvager’s Plague Volume 2. Volume Three will begin posting after a week break. I am finding myself in need of more time to process the passing of my best fuzzy buddy Porthos the Beagle after 14 years of love. I hope you join me for the next volume!

  https://ko-fi.com/theacornscribe