Lt. Dish was back in the number two seat at his left.
Four bodies total and it felt crowded. He wondered what Veirn thought of the sudden intrusion into what had been their space alone? Could an AI care?
“Dropping out of star drive in five…four…three…two…one…”
Star drive transitions were advertised as smooth by the scientists who’d created them, but they’d oversold smooth a little. And Kellen now knew that what space one dropped into also played a part.
This transition was bumpy, but it didn’t seem to affect Trac. The robot rode the bumpy slowing as if it were nonexistent. Kellen was glad he was strapped in. And that he’d insisted the others strap in.
The other feature of the transition into normal space was the lag while the sensors came back online and began delivering data. Near space was easier. Far space took longer for all the obvious reasons, the main one being it was further away.
While he waited for sensors to begin delivering, he pulled up the data from Dr. Walker’s drop-off ship. It had also noticed unusual bumpiness and disruptions in the data. It was yet another reason, in his opinion, on why no one had visited the system much. But it didn’t explain how a human civilization had managed to develop here.
The original data from before the sleep offered no explanation for Arroxan Prime or why or how it had come to the attention of their scientists. It was an uncomfortable mystery, even for an explorer of space and one much used to the puzzling.
“We are starting to receive data,” Veirn said.
Forward screens flickered to life and planetary objects began to appear.
Riina released her restraints and stood up, pacing forward until she stopped next to him.
“Any sign of a transmission from Dr. Walker?” she asked.
“No.”
Did Veirn sound concerned by that? It was hard for Kellen to tell when the AI felt emotion. If the AI felt emotion?
“What kind of inter-system interference are you detecting?” Riina asked.
“Quite a bit,” Veirn said. “Most of the outgoing transmissions we have already picked up.”
“Let’s begin transmitting to Dr. Walker…” Kellen said.
“I would recommend waiting on that, Captain,” Veirn said. “Until we get closer and the data is more definitive.”
Kellen looked at Riina and saw concern in her eyes that probably echoed the look in his. They hadn’t been out of contact for that long, but even when factoring in the distances in space, events could change rapidly and in unexpected ways.
“We’ll hold any transmissions,” Kellen said, he glanced back. “And we are going in cloaked.”
“I was going to suggest that,” Riina said. “The longer we can postpone detection from any possible observers, the better.”
8
Dr. Miles Walker was unhappy with the location that had been sent to him for the rendezvous. If he’d been able to, he’d have told them that he and Lira and her father had barely escaped alive from a site with less seismic activity than where they were currently standing. He closed it again. Everyone present thought Harold was the alien from outer space. Miles had managed to escape detection so far by looking like an innocuous human. Admitting that he’d been present at the disaster at the planet’s southern pole? Not a good idea.
He should spend the time coming up with an explanation for why there was a crowd here. Okay, it wasn’t technically a crowd. Ten people max were milling around. They’d arrived separately, covertly he’d have called it. They were clumped together in small groups, talking excitedly in low voices.
But it was way more than the three that the incoming team would be expecting.
These were, according to Lira, the members of her father’s alien watchers club. They might not call themselves that. They probably had a more scientific name for it because using science made it all sound less crazy.
Only it wasn’t crazy anymore.
They were here to meet the aliens who could be arriving at any moment. The aliens they knew were incoming.
Once Harold had told him their comms were actually being tracked by this group of conspiracy theorists, they’d had to stop communicating with the incoming Quendala. Harold had managed to send a last warning, though it had lacked specificity. Such as, you’re going to be met with a contingent of the planet’s most wacky, but they are ridiculously excited to meet aliens, so it should all be good.
Miles eyed the man Lira had called Drun. Miles had a feeling he was the government plant in the group. Even the most extreme groups got a government plant back on Earth. It helped head off things like, well, this.
