The Six-Eyed Beast
Copyright© 2025 by BenLepp
Chapter 21: Law and Order
February 13th, 2279
“SFC Rubicon, en route to 61 Virginis. Nothing but deep space ever since we left Mu Arae. First, we had to keep our word and go slow, to give the Diral time to pull out, which we did. Then, we’re almost back to Kappa 3 to resupply engine parts when they send us to 61 Virginis. Apparently, the fleet has received a distress signal, but mangled, nothing else to go on. Could be anything. My money is on pirates or another race has developed interstellar travel for the first time and is now stranded and needs a ride home. Happens all the time, you would not believe it, ha. At least the Catanians have stopped selling ships to every lunatic.
Command responded, too. I bet they have no idea what to think of us. We gave them both a potential, highly-developed ally and a scandal about secret weapons tests. Well, maybe I oversold the Diral’s willingness to talk to us a little bit in an effort to keep the brass off our backs. It seems to have worked ‒ they didn’t even reprimand me for letting the Diral frankenstein the supply hub. I’m just to report to them immediately if the Diral ever reach out. They were also very keen on hearing about the Splintered, which makes me think they know more than they tell us, which can’t be good. A ton of tribes are trickling into our territory ‒ something is causing a large knock-on migration far outside our reach, and that might be an issue one day. All those who arrive with us know is that they were pushed out by someone else, in a similar but slightly stronger position, in each case.
As for the many open questions, I’ve been getting nowhere. Not a single bit of new information, nothing on that weapons test, nothing on the skipper, nothing on Hays, just nothing at all. I asked Ton to keep an eye out for the freighter that brought the shuttle to Mu Arae, but the crew of that freighter likely weren’t told what it contained. In short, I can’t do anything from out here in the Fringe and I don’t exactly have many friends in the fleet to ask for help. All we can do is survive more missions and hope we’ll stumble across another piece of the puzzle. Or find some unlikely allies ... I asked Perlas but he explained to me that they’re 50 billion Axxi and don’t really have much of a hierarchy to have connections to, they just set up groups of themselves, tackle a problem, and go home again. Just like that. Must be nice to be an arachnoid.
As for the crew ... Fine for the most part. Ka’al is back on duty, still giving me the eye ... Ah, who cares, Ivern is perfectly capable of handling the ship in combat, I don’t really need him. Medbay is fine, they’ve stopped complaining about the carebot. Boddins still wants to scan me, but so far, he backs off when I tell him to get lost. I get the feeling he’s just waiting for his moment, though. We’ll see ... I should really not get injured, better stay on the ship and let others go out and do the dying. Engineering is fine, Perlas is keeping me updated, as Feterni still refuses to speak more than he has to. I am getting tired of this game; Nocks and her single sentences are enough. Speaking of which, my plan of making her XO was a bad idea. She keeps rubbing people the wrong way. She’s perfectly capable of interactions when the situation demands it but seems unable to understand that people don’t want to think thrice about talking to her about anything else. No idea how to teach her basic social rules, so she won’t be XO. She even requested an XO without asking me ‒ but it makes sense. The fleet should be having one ready on Kappa 3 soon. Korolev is fine now, no idea why she’s so keen to stay on this ship, there is nothing much to do for her apart from theorizing about things we have little data on. I even heard from the old exobiologist that she turned down science central again, apparently, they wanted her to teach in SciComm. Otherwise ... Mellir and the marines are a functional unit now, maybe a little bit gung-ho, but that might come in handy.
All in all, we’re fine considering the circumstances. Let’s hope it stays that way.”
There were a lot of things the captain wasn’t aware of, but the souls on the Rubicon were learning to help themselves. Mellir had had the idea of modifying his mechanical arm into a Swiss knife of weaponry with blunt weapons, blades and a blaster. His reasoning was that the Diral had missed his shiv and brought an armed Mellir to their command center, unaware that the Diral had indeed known about his hidden weapon but considered it a laughably low threat. Mellir volunteered to Nocks – who turned him down initially, as she was keener on the coding side of things. Then, however, she realized it was a good testbed for the multi-purpose arms her drones needed for missions and agreed to start on the schematics. She also overstated the need in controlled materials to Feterni, as she wanted to start work on a CPU matrix that had the power to integrate her AI into a fully developed bot to use and test on the ship. Basically, she was planning to create another crewmember for the Rubicon, one who would be the kind of person she actually wanted to spend time with.
Perlas was scheming, but in his ever-helpful way. After being briefed on all the mysteries by the captain, he decided to involve his race, first sending their current engineering team all the data on the Diral’s teleportation tech plus some of the insights only he as an Axxi was aware of ‒ such as a theorem explaining a likely way of achieving the technology ‒ but also briefing his people on the issues he saw in the fleet, with great emphasis on the fact that most in the fleet were honorable and honest. That last part was necessary as not many Axxi were left in the fleet, Perlas now being one of the highest-ranking Axxi, and his race didn’t fully trust the Senatorial Fleet, especially since they finally had begun building competent warships. He simply asked them to relay back any information on such issues they came across and promised them he had a capable captain (he left out the fact that that person was human) willing to investigate to keep the fleet above board. The Axxi, however, saw this as another reason to step up their intense web of defensive platforms dotting their territory, getting ready for troubled times.
Perlas also tried recruiting Feterni to the cause, as the Horons were much more prevalent in the fleet, mostly in command and engineering. And the Horons actually had a real hierarchy, being some kind of monarchy with very secretive rules on how to choose a ruler. Many had tried finding out how one Horon was given full authority for 11 years each turn, but no one had ever been able to witness the selection procedure, so there were many theories, ranging from simple length of extremities to mortal combat. The Horons themselves were not interested in explaining their culture to outsiders and kept the fact to themselves that it was a rather plain test of leadership where dozens of Horons sat around for weeks doing simulations, preferring the mystique to the sensible reality. Feterni, however, was not well-connected to his race, as he was an extreme case of their typical lack of communication, being so uninterested in social interactions that even his own found him off-putting. He did promise, though, to relay the same data Perlas had sent and find someone in the court to brief the current Horon Queen on the news about the fleet.
And there was a good reason Boddins had backed off his medical requirements towards Basil. He already knew the truth. And it had been very easy. During the long stints of the Rubicon being underway in-between systems, fully cloaked, it was suggested to give every leading officer an opportunity to take command on the bridge to make sure they all were able to lead the ship in standard operation at least, ensuring one senior officer on the bridge at all times, even when days away from any solid object. Boddins had simply made sure to take the shifts before and after Basil and then done a wipe down of the handle everyone used to get down the stairs halfway and onto the captain’s chair ‒ wiping it clinically clean before Basil’s shift and getting accurate results after his shift. Boddins was not surprised, it showed impressively high amounts of performance enhancers and traces of tranquilizers. He could now prove the sweaty captain was an addict but didn’t yet act on this information since he had spent enough time in the fleet to know that almost everyone in higher positions needed some kind of help to stay ahead of the chaos and confusion. Also, Basil’s way of dealing with the Diral had impressed him, as the humans were known to seek confrontation more than understanding, and Basil had proven this prejudice wrong, even setting up a possible alliance with the Diral. Boddins simply kept this knowledge as a backup, able to remove Basil from command at any time, but would otherwise monitor how the captain was dealing with future threats.
Now, the bridge was almost fully occupied, as an unexpected message had come in. Nocks was on comms.
- It’s definitely an SOS. Just not the one we’re supposed to go to.
The captain made an effort to turn himself and his chair towards Nocks as slowly as possible, in an effort to reinforce what he thought the signal was.
- Let me guess: A freighter with some sort of malfunction, slightly off the trade routes, just outside scanner range, signal coming from a dead system?
- Yea, Tillin freighter, loss of power, coming from G-785.
- Classic pirates. Another ship will jump us when we close in ... Perlas?
The Axxi did a little hop on his station, as he had been deeply concentrated on designing a farewell card for two engineers who had requested a transfer off the ship, having finally realized what kind of ship they were on. He didn’t even know them too well, as they were mostly working with Feterni and they surely would not care, but he had doubled down on his teambuilding efforts, trying to overwhelm the engineers with kindness. It was starting to bear fruit, but even Perlas could not know how much his almost unbreakable positivity would soon come to mean to a scared engineering team.
- Yes, Sir?
- How close can we currently get to the average Fringer’s ship without the cloak being detected?
- Hard to say, Sir. Some of them have good sensors now, but generally, I’d say we should stay above 2 klicks.
- Good. Ivern, set a course for the SOS. Direct course, as no one knows our starting position.
- Aye.
Mellir and Mender shared a look, before the future cyborg spoke.
- Sir, why are we even going there if you’re sure there is no emergency? We’re already going towards a signal from our own fleet!
Basil now started turning his chair towards the back where the security officer was sitting, but even slower than before.
- Ensign...
Basil decided to be nicer this time. Mellir wasn’t too bad, just inexperienced or a little slow. Maybe some more implants could fix that. And he liked being able to explain the obvious to his young crew, hoping they’d look up to him.
- Good question. Well, I could be wrong, for once. Someone might actually need help. Also, if this is a trap, they’ll attract someone else, since most captains even in the Fringe have enough decency to help. So, we’ll better take those pirates out, or we’ll soon have a Fringe where nobody reacts to emergencies, which would be a step back for the wider picture. Mender, get your people ready. Mellir, you’re with them this time. If there is a pirate vessel, I want to capture it. Might get some intel to pass on to the fleet.
- Aye, Sir. But, erm ... How do we get a squad onto another vessel without being detected?
- We’re working on a plan.
With that, the captain started turning his chair back, smiling knowingly. All he now needed was a plan.
It took the Rubicon a few hours to arrive at the nearby system, during which time Mender and Mellir and the three grunts had amassed a total score of 344 dead pirates in the simulator, only losing 23 of their own. Feterni and Perlas were hurriedly sent to the shuttlebay to whip up a so-called “dolphini”. It was basically just a small engine attached to a small generator, able to pull along a squad of 4 people in suits in space, the trick being that the former cloaking devices attached to the security drones had been adapted to work with either the dolphini or one of Nocks’ drones, easily swapped over in minutes, giving the Rubicon the option to send in a cloaked drone or a squad, depending on the mission’s needs.
As they dropped into the system, they stopped and the long observation started. There indeed was a Tillin freighter drifting along in-between the rock belt, seemingly disabled but without visible damage. All they now had to find was the pirate vessel hiding nearby. As they were trying to remain undetected, only passive sensors were available, meaning they could only detect radiation hitting them, heat signatures, gravity pulling on them, and whatever was visually available.
- Korolev, anything in that system we should know? Or use to our advantage?
Korolev was feeling great, against all odds. She had had many doubts about the Rubicon and especially the ex-CO captain, but not only had they managed to avoid bloodshed with the Diral, they had also turned the ship into an ideal observation post, undetectable and armed with very capable sensors. She had just days prior handed in her request for a mission to the SD[1], suggesting to send a certain “pressure-insensitive” ship, hoping to gain data for one of her side projects. She was also back on her feet fully and had found friends aboard who had helped her return to her duties in a show of comradery she hadn’t expected on a warship. And then, there was the little fact that the Rubicon was ‒ to her ‒ the safest place in the galaxy, but sadly, she had to keep these circumstances to herself.
- Gliese 785 B and C are currently in terraforming, about halfway done. D and E haven’t been started yet, as they are too cold. Need more work. Meaning there should be no one around apart from the machinery we set up.
Basil had never really thought about the terraforming campaign the fleet had ramped up heavily in the preceding years to be able to host all the newcomers.
- Why don’t the pirates just steal that machinery and call it a day?
- Rigged to blow, Sir. The first few were stolen and as we don’t have enough ships to guard every system, they are now secured with dozens of measures, nobody touches them anymore.
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