The Inner Ring (gxg)

Chapter 28

"We finally have all of the weapons from the storage room packed up!" Anton happily announced to the rest of the crew as they discussed the day's events.

"Congratulations," Vanessa said, though without much enthusiasm.

"Find another load of those memory sticks?" Brody smirked.

"Nope. We were up on the bridge trying to see what the panels did when we powered them up," Vanessa blandly stated. "We found the alien home worlds too. We were hoping to have Emily check out what we found to see if we can identify the star."

"Are you serious?" Anton asked breathlessly.

"Yep. We had turned the power on before, but with Lena's help we got what we think is the radar to work, and it has the same rewind feature as the tablets. We rewound all the way to the beginning of their journey," she explained.

Pepper loved watching Vanessa command the room. It had stung the last few days with the spotlight on the weapons, and now Vanessa was finally able to bring the focus back onto the important aspects of the mission. The location of the alien home worlds could be a huge find for humanity, if they were able to establish friendly relations.

"It also showed a graphical depiction of the battle here," Lena added. "That large ship out there was definitely the attacker, and it used to be much larger. You'll have to see it to believe it."

"Well, I think we can all agree that tomorrow we're going to go check out the bridge!" Anton announced with glee, receiving a round of cheers in return.

After the debrief, Lena joined Vanessa and Pepper in their room, and they all took out the memory sticks they had collected from the computer, 18 in all. "I really want to check these out!" Pepper grinned.

"I know, but I think it would be better if we only had one of each type appear, and then only on the way home," Vanessa cautioned her.

"If you're worried about them destroying information, that is the safest bet," agreed Lena. "There would be no way to go back and destroy anything once we're on the way back. Assuming nobody finds the data transfer like we did, then that information is safe."

"And even if they destroy it, we have the backups," Vanessa confirmed.

Pepper looked sad at that but understood the caution. As much as she'd like to sneak a peek at the holographs on the sticks, if anyone popped into their bunk like they had been the last few days, they'd have no way to explain it. Besides, she and Vanessa had been worried about this very thing the whole trip, so she just had to be patient now that they had the information. "After tomorrow we should avoid the bridge. Let them play around up there. As much as I want to see what else is up there, I don't know that I could avoid giving anything away."

"I won't even be able to go back," Sulked Lena. "With Emily going, I'll have to stay here with Xavier. Odds are that today was my last trip over there for a while."

"I'm sorry Lena," Vanessa said while placing her hand on Lena's shoulder in support. "But if it helps, you helped with what could end up being one of the biggest discoveries in our history."

"Holy fuck, yeah! I didn't even look at it that way!" Lena cried out happily. "Now if you excuse me, I need to go celebrate that with Miles. Here, hide these!" She handed over the six memory sticks that she had in her pouch to Lena, and then quickly left the bunk room to head towards her own.

Vanessa pulled out the lock box that Lena had given them out from her bunk drawer and opened it up. "We'll have to take a few things out to make room," she muttered.