FALAHA'S JOURNEY: A Spacegirl's Account in Three Movements

Episode #32

[2.44.7.15.11].267.8.2 - 31.13.6.[7]

Thirty-second hour of second day of ninth week, year 267.

The drones we had sent out earlier continued to observe the surroundings, explore and watch out for any suspicious activity, transferring all data to both mine and Eyuran's Nodes and Bradoh's system for Baro to see through his rabhain. We also exchanged information about what was going on in everyone's locations.

I crossed the red painted line.

The 'ground' below Quennah was covered with scraps of countless ships. How deep that common grave layer went, I couldn't tell. It had probably accumulated over the last two centuries. How many lives found their end here—I could not even begin to imagine that. A weird fascination and terror had ruled over me since Bradoh intruded into this dark megastructure. A place of death for people and ships.

"Rjgnis, there is something that bothers me in your data."

"What is it?"

"Most of the doors and gates you passed—the way they are damaged—those were broken from the opposite side of the cargo bay." I paused. Baro was right! Why hadn't I noticed this before? "And the spikes are mainly located in large areas where lots of people would normally be, or precisely blocking the hallways, so I started to doubt their random aim. I'm sure the transport gate wasn't the only place the enemy broke in. These spikes are probably tube bridges. If someone comes to pay us a visit, it will be from any of those."

I checked with Quennah's plan. Now that I thought about it, almost all the intersecting hallways were blocked with spikes, at least those which weren't were dead ends, leading to large rooms. Every time I entered the rooms, the spikes were there, and if the doors were breached, it was done from the inside. Most doors were left untouched, though. Was that because there were no people there?

Which ship was it that looked like Quennah? Could it be among the scrap down below?

"Baro, gather as many drones as you can and set those to look out at every location with the spikes on this ship. Inside and outside." If the DIVE is still operational, we need to cut these things off as soon as possible and get her out of here. The hull can be patched up after that.

"I'm on it. But I'm afraid we don't have enough drones."

Passing the news on to Eyuran, I said to Baro, "Send as many as you can to the main collector hallways then."

"I will also try cutting one spike, rjgnis."

Good, he was thinking the same thing I was. "Proceed."

I entered the Control Center.

The damage everywhere was minimal and precise. It was as if the enemy knew the ship was almost empty of people and so didn't waste time, aiming to get what they came here for fast. And no one broke into the tech complex. Why wasn't Eyuran discovered? Was it because the strong solvent odor of the polish on his suit masked his smell? Or because he was unconscious? Or was the enemy distracted by something? Someone? Or was it plain luck?

"Eyuran, what's the name of the ship Quennah was modeled after?"

"If I remember correctly, the blueprint came from kennar Falgh Explorer vessel Tjrnenagh. Just a sec, I'll check."

A moment later Eyuran sent me the data from his siSystem. "It figures they knew the layout!"

Just as I thought, Quennah was a precise miniature copy of Tjrnenagh, inside and outside. But looking through the data we had another gruesome discovery: Tjrnenagh was the spacecraft that later went missing along with Orewen's brothers... or at least they were on the crew list for its last mission.

Problems kept piling up. The Kernel Chamber was in ruins and I found no signs of Mom or the remaining Kernel sisters. It was probably the first place the enemy had disabled. So much for the Mainframe...

"Baro, bad news. This ship isn't going anywhere anymore in the condition she is now."

"Well, that was expected."

"Maybe we can find some working parts in the scrap below?"

The Medan didn't respond.

"Baro?"

"Oh fu—"

WARNING: Connection terminated.

"Eyuran? What's going on?"

"Stay where you are and hide! Don't come here! I'm out." And his Node went offline.

Oh, not him, too! How many times do I have to tell this guy to not switch off his Node?! This terrifies me more than watching him get hurt! Fine. Since he is deaf to my words, I never heard anything he said either! Nothing.