Space Odyssey: Spectre

Three months passed by quickly. At least from Jace's perspective. From the troops on the ground and the students it was more like a slow burn.

The students had already installed or fixed around a thousand stasis pods. While everything unnecessary for the Hand of Canarus had been uninstalled. From the weapons to the basic tracking drones they had aboard the ship. It almost made the ship bare with how little was aboard the ship.

As he walked through it with General Hacksaw following along it felt even more bare as he pointed out the absence of objects that used to be there. "I knew you said you were taking every piece of technology worthwhile. But I did not know you would take even the map screens we had in the halls."

Jace shrugged as they began to pass some stasis pods. Some were added almost daily in all parts of the ship that could spare it. "We needed the room. Besides the variations on technology can open paths to other technologies so we are going to be developing. You would be surprised what can be developed because two different technologies were created differently."

"Oh? Try me." General Hacksaw chuckled.

"You had food printers aboard this ship. We have something similar called a material printer. Thanks to both we can now store basic nutrients and materials aboard ships and then have food or materials printed using the technology. But it also means we can create a device that prints a metal plate and then food in it. Or even print ration boxes if needed." Jace explained as he passed a pair of students working on a stasis pod. Their destination was deeper in the ship.

"You seem excited by that prospect. But honestly, most other galaxies developed a food printer first. I know some developed material printers but they were always unreliable." General Hacksaw chuckled as they moved into a shaft and began climbing down. "My command staff?"

"I spaced them out throughout areas of the ship in case of an incident. The only thing that is shoved together in the same location are the non-Democracy of Canarus prisoners who will not wake up with the rest of you when you arrive in your galaxy." Jace explained as they ducked under some wiring and moved into an area that used to be the bridge of the ship. Which is where Hacksaw's primary staff members and guards were already in stasis.

"Seems that I am a bit late to the party." Hacksaw chuckled as they moved to an open stasis pod where Cho and Jordan were standing. They were both assigned by Jace to do the final checks. "Who are these adorable children?"

"Cho and Jordan, my adopted daughters." Jace answered as he grabbed a data pad and looked over their work. "To give the students practice we had them completely reworking your stasis pods or installing new ones in parts of your ship."

Hacksaw blinked in surprise. "Why are those the only two options? What is wrong with our normal stasis pod?"

"They had had a ten percent chance of malfunctioning and killing the occupant and cooking them alive. Several of the wires were located too close to the liquid device. Did you notice how warm the liquid was when you first went in?" Jordan asked as she flipped round her pad and showed him the original design pointing out the flaw.

"I mean… yeah, I thought that was normal. It has always been normal. But now that you mention it, there has always been a chance of stasis failure and the person would come out looking like a reboiled piece of meat jerky." Hacksaw grunted out with a frown. "How did my engineers miss this? How did you fix it?"

"They likely did not know any better. It is like I said earlier about different perspective technologies." Jace informed him before nodding at Cho. "How was the flaw fixed?"

Cho pouted before flipping around her own data pad and explaining. "We removed the wiring so it was not near anything important and modified the entire structure so it is modular instead of one complete thing. Honestly looking at the design it looked almost like you replaced the entire thing as soon as something broke."

"We did." Hacksaw answered and then cowered when all three of them sighed and shook their heads. "Once again, that is normal. If something breaks, you send it to people who know how to repair it. It is not like a mechanic can work on everything from a ship's internals to a stasis pod."

"Our mechanics and engineers can, in fact it is required." Cho scoffed and looked at Jace. "We have it worse here in Cerberus. But even the normal galactic military requires engineers and mechanics to know all parts of a ship."

"Then what is the difference between your engineers and mechanics?" Hacksaw asked in confusion as Jace confirmed that everything was in order.

"Pay." Jace shrugged and chuckled as the man looked at Jace in confusion. "Mechanics are trained at military academies. Engineers have a formal certificate from a higher level institution of education. That and they know how to actually build something. But the joke is that engineers and mechanics can do the same things but engineers get paid more."

"I see." Hacksaw smiled as he pulled a coin out of his pocket and flicked it into the air toward Jace. "If you ever end up in my galaxy."

Jace looked at the coin and saw markings on one side. He flipped it and saw the General's rank and name on the other side. "Challenge coins." Jace nodded. "Thanks, now it is time for you to go under. When you wake up, you will be back in your galaxy."

Hacksaw nodded and backed into the stasis pod before it closed up. Once it closed up they watched it fill up with a semi-clear blue liquid and then watched as Hacksaw seemed to struggle to breathe for a moment before he fell unconscious. The screen on the front immediately began to beep in sync with the other heartbeats of the other stasis pods.

"So, what are you going to do with that?" Cho asked as Jace started walking away.

Jace held up the coin and flipped it in the air before handing it to Cho. "You can have it once you graduate and begin to explore the universe. It will come in handy for you." Jace explained and saw her frown.

"Are you not going to see the General again?" Jordan asked as Jace stopped to seal the wing they just left. All the stasis pods were filled so there was no point in keeping it accessible.

"Nope, he will pass a long time before I go to his galaxy." Jace told them and saw their sad expressions. "He is old and I have enough on my plate as it is. Now then… How many stasis pods are left?"

Cho quickly pulled up some information. "Ummm… most of the wings and branches of the Hand of Canarus have been sealed. It looks like there are only five left in the section that is attached to the Lance of Thanatos. Seems like they are all Democracy of Canarus mechanics who are checking over our work."

Jace hummed. "Okay, then once they are inside we just have to wait for the Gateway to power up. Then we can send them home."

"The Gateway? You plan to use the gateway to send them home?" Cho asked in surprise while Jordan frowned. Completely unaware of the Gateways existence.

Jace looked at Cho. "Stop reading minds." He told her. "But yes I do. It is the quickest and safest method to send them home. We already set up the navigation system to send it through and then remotely remove all data in the navigation ship as soon as the stasis pods open up."

"What is a Gateway?" Jordan asked quietly as they made their way through the main hall of the ship.

Jace listened for a moment and made sure that there was no one in the vicinity before he explained. "It is a traveling device that connects galaxies. We can use one to get to any other galaxy in the direction and vicinity of the gateway."

"How…" Jordan's mind clearly began to work overtime at the implications of such a device. "Who built it?"

"No clue." Jace shrugged. "Honestly, twenty years ago I might have suspected the Xenar. But now, I believe it is a race that explored the universe before we even began looking up to the stars. A race that I can only make theories about. The main theory is that they were near the origin point of the universe."

"Meaning they had a massive head start, technologically speaking." Jordan mumbled and then looked at Cho. "But then, what about Astral Beasts? Where do they come from?"

"We eat dying astral bodies. Essentially we are the emergency blood cells of the universe." Cho answered nonchalantly. Jordan looked at Jace who just shrugged in response.

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