Space Odyssey: Spectre

"Persephone's Garden. The political envoy shuttle of the Cerberus Unit. It can travel to any known destination instantaneously. Its normal engines are the best in the galaxy and can outrun any known species ship design. It has triple layered shielding and-"

"Captain Neslie," Jace interrupted the captain as the spaceship pulled away from the rest of the fleet. "There is no need to convince me to not dismantle the ship. I am not a fool, I know that it is necessary to sometimes have an… unarmed space craft."

"I am glad you see the necessity of having one." Neslie let out a sigh as she turned to the controls she had. The ship was a migration-class vessel. So while it did have all these complex designs it did not house many people so even the captain of the vessel had to operate a few features. "Are we clear of all astral bodies?"

"Just about." One of the officers remarked. "We will be completely clear in one minute."

"Where are we going?" Neslie asked toward Jace.

"A former Imperium Colony. When they fell the Imperium fell into factions and this colony was newly established and just happens to be on the edge of our area of control. The Gaul System is the system's name and they are just named numerically with the moons having respective colors in ancient German." Jace explained to them as he pulled up the data pad on the colony.

"So… should we expect them to be hostile or…" Neslie asked to fill the void of silence that Jace left.

"No," Jace shook his head. "Apparently the colony is only a hundred people and are remnants of another planet that was made uninhabitable due to the civil war that occurred in the Imperium."

"Clear of all astral bodies and debris." One of the officers from earlier announced. There were only three of them on the bridge. One of them utilized the scanning and engineering systems. One of them was the co-pilot and navigation officer. The last one operated the shields and communication officer. Jace had yet to learn their names.

"Generating shield to cover the ship and the attached Hound's Tooth." Another officer announced.

"Destination has been inputted." Neslie declared. She had access to all of the ship systems from her position. So she could step in for any of her officers if she needed to.

"Activating teleportation drive." The co-pilot announced.

Hmmm….

Jace could hear the noise inside his ears. He shook his head and brought a hand up as he heard the noise. He made a chew motion as he moved his jaw to try and stop the noise. "Well that is annoying!" He announced as it got louder.

Captain Neslie looked at him in confusion and asked something. He could not hear her over the loud hum but he could read her lips. "What is annoying?"

"Seems you can't hear it." Jace answered with a scoff. He looked at the front view screen but instead of the stars becoming elongated, they spun in a circle as it felt like the ship lurched in the opposite direction the stars spun.

Then at the same time the noise stopped and the stars on the view screen undid the spin. But Jace realized almost immediately that they had teleported because the stars had changed. So had the astral bodies that had switched with the change of location.

Jace sighed and turned to the captain and her officers to only see all of them hastily grabbing bags or buckets they seemed to have prepared ahead of time. "Blargh!" All of them began to throw up into their respective containers.

Jace's nose wrinkled as he picked up the bile smell of their regurgitated lunches. He stepped away from them and covered his nose. He waited for a few minutes as they puked before the captain looked over at Jace.

From her facial reaction and statement she clearly expected him to be throwing up as well. "How are you not throwing up your lunch?" She asked in clear surprise.

Jace frowned as he realized she wanted to embarrass him. "Amusing but I neither ate lunch nor did I feel an unset stomach in the slightest. But that does reveal some flaws in the teleportation drive."

"I suppose it is in the category of something we should report?" Neslie asked.

"Yes, it means the inertial dampers are not appropriate for a teleportation jump. While the noise indicates a high frequency sonic boom that is imperceptible to most races but scanners will be able to pick it up." Jace explained to them as he reached forward and set the course of the ship to Gaul-3. A planet with three moons.

"Scans show that there are just under a hundred people in a single colony on Gaul-3. There is also a single satellite hanging directly over the colony." One of the officers announced.

"Thank P'lice," Neslie thanked them as she adjusted the course so they would not go near the satellite. Then glanced over at Jace who seemed to be waiting for something. "Umm, what is the satellite's use?"

Officer P'lice, a female Mar'talic, hesitated for a moment before realizing what she was asking. "The colony's satellite is only equipped with communication systems and basic sonic emitters. The only thing of note is that it utilizes a variation of gravity plating to adjust course."

"Sonic emitters, why are those of no note?" Jace asked curious to see if they actually knew.

"Because they emit low frequencies that bounce off objects and organisms on the surface. The result of the scan is detected by a device that is in the colony on the planet." Officer P'lice explained after realizing that Jace was testing her.

"Close but not quite." Jace shook his head and moved toward her station and pointed at a set of information. "This variable shows it is used to detect objects underground instead of above ground. What does that tell you?"

"That there is something living under the surface and we should land on a rockface or something hard instead of soft dirt or sand." Officer P'lice sighed and looked at her captain.

Captain Neslie hummed. "I feel like we are being tested. This was not what I thought would happen when Solisa told us we would be flying you to two colonies in our territory." She pointed out, "are you going to be doing this the entire time?"

"Sorry," Jace shrugged. "I have basically been teaching for the last few months so it has become a habit to slowly explain something." He was partially in the wrong but what he pointed out was still necessary.

"Hey, I am picking up something triggering the first layer of shielding." Another of the officers pointed out.

"That is probably ice crystals. There is a cloud of ice crystals around the planet." Officer P'lice explained. "Two of the moons seem to keep colliding and one of them is a mass of ice."

"We are entering the atmosphere. Should we hail the colony?" The same officer asked as the shielding began to appear as heat covered the front of it.

"Go ahead," Jace told them. "Give them our size for landing and ask if there is a spot we can land at." Jace told her as he rubbed the back of his neck.

The ship jostled for a moment and Jace looked over at Neslie who shrugged shyly. "It is the first time taking this ship to land on a planet. We still need to adjust the auto landing sensors so we will have to land by hand the first few times."

"Hm," Jace hummed as he looked over to see the scanners were showing odd readings.

"The hells…" Officer P'lice mumbled in her native tongue.

"What was that P'lice?" Neslie asked as she brought the ship out of the cloud layer and the colony became visible. It was located on a rocky ridge while below in the lower area was a vast forest with wood that seemed to be made of a rocky substance.

"I think-" Officer P'lice hesitated and looked over at Jace who shrugged. "I think it was the scanners being screwed up because we entered the planet's atmosphere so quickly. But once we get on the ground I will scan again to make sure I did not miss something."

Jace nodded in agreement as the other officer finished speaking on the radio channel with her headset. "We have a landing location. I am putting it on screen." The officer announced.

"Thank you Sian," Captain Neslie thanked them as a blue pin appeared on the screen of an opening just at the edge of the town that seemed to be made of wood, stone, and metal from a dismantled ship.

"Apparently a small welcoming group will be nearby for our arrival." Officer Sian informed them as they began to move into position over the landing spot and began to lower to the ground as the shielding disabled.

"This is differently weird. Commander Jace, I think I am getting interference on the scanners?" Officer P'lice informed him in confusion. "I do not think I am doing anything wrong but…"

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