Mila's Loss - The officers 4

Chapter 8 - New ships

~~~ Holcum and the ship

The evening after their first recon Holcum was trying to get some sleep. It was hard due to the broken bonds. He'd gotten used to not having the pride bonds but losing the mating bonds was far worse. Even if he made it home, he had no idea what would happen with the bonds. Would they get them back? Would they need to bite each other again? Were they broken to never be formed again? Was he looking at possibly both having a mate but still being mateless? He'd never heard of a situation like this before and simply didn't know. The questions were making it hard to sleep. If needed he'd take something to at least push him over the edge.

While he was trying to sleep the current duty section was on watch. One of the Marines was frowning since his armor was picking up an odd sound. It could be normal ship noises, but they weren't being paid to lounge around, "Corporal, have your suit check for any odd noises. I'm getting something but not sure what. Could be normal but want a second opinion." He didn't say anything else about it.

She had her suit check the ambient sound as asked. It took some time, but she finally thought she found where it was coming from, "Sounds like it's from the ventilation system. My suit can't identify what the sound might be. It keeps coming back with anomalous sound." She was looking up at the vent but didn't see anything obvious.

"That's what my suit was saying. Something related to the ventilation system. I'm going to move across the hangar aways and see if we can tell which duct it might be coming from." He moved and had his suit link with hers and after several minutes he was forced to frown. The sound seemed to come from several of the ducts which seemed to indicate it was a normal noise. It didn't feel right though. He couldn't say why but something felt off. It could be paranoia which was very possible, "Keep an ear out for any other sounds or changes in the sound corporal."

He made a note of the noise and forwarded a short report to the SSGT. It could simply be a normal sound and he was over reacting but better safe than sorry. He returned to what he'd been doing. They had sensors on the far door to pick up sound vibrations. It wasn't exposed to space and they wanted to know if anyone might be trying to breach it. The door exposed to space they weren't horribly worried about either. There hadn't been any sign of life when they did the brief recon. No signs of people trying to repair the damage.

Not knowing how wide ranging the damage was it was possible they, the aliens, were starting at the far end. With the recon yesterday, they showed they didn't have a problem destroying things. Also, they weren't going to stay in the hangar. From what was showing in the system, they were going to be going out daily and expanding the map of the ship. There were full plans on spreading hate and discontent for good measure. He was looking forward to it since he was scheduled for the next patrol.

As they were trying to identify the sounds the queen had sent a command to the vent drones to slow down. She was being very careful since she didn't want the remote sensors being identified. It was still going to be limited visibility, but it would be more than she had. She was considering other options also.

She was strongly considering sending a remote system to the good door and try and open communications. It might help pacify the aliens into believing the guards had done their own thing. It wasn't true but it might work to get the aliens out of their ships so she could see them. It might take time to calm them but after the additional damage she had some.

The original estimate for repairs had been about two weeks but now she was looking at another week. That was assuming no additional damage was done. If nothing else if she could keep them from blowing or damaging anything else, she could get needed repairs done. The most important thing was to fix the hull so they could jump. By now traces of the other ship were probably gone but she did have a trajectory which looked to be towards a nearby star system. Why they'd go to Glixit 23 she had no idea. There wasn't anything of value there other than maybe some minerals. It was very possible they were taking a round about path home. That she could understand.