The infinity sat unmoving, a short distance from the star that they had refueled from. The engines were shut down, and outside it looked more like a dead space debris, than a functional ship. Occasionally, lights flickered along its surfaces, betraying the illusion of being forgotten.
Perez, Naina, and Valera were sitting around a table in the cafeteria. The air was filled with silence, reminiscent of a tranquil summer morning. Perez leaned back in his chair, eyes closed, sipping from his cup of bitter-smelling, hot, dark liquid.
Valera was eating her Meal, her thoughts elsewhere. Her eyes stared into the distance, and she was eating her food piece by piece, like an automated doll. She had a dreamy smile on her lips, her head conjuring up pleasant memories from yesterday.
Naina bit her lip, struggling to avoid thoughts of yesterday with minimal success. She thought her ears must resemble the color of Valera's hair, and she felt her face radiate heat like an overclocked hyperdrive. If Valera turned towards her at that moment, she would melt and crumble. She had no idea how she managed to do ... that ... what she did yesterday.
Perez cleared his throat as he placed his empty cup on the table. "Ahem. Do we have any plans?" he asked nobody in particular. "The hypergate isn't there, so ... what do we do now? Have you progressed anywhere with that navigation chart, Valera?"
The question roused Valera from her daydreams, and she blinked several times, shaking her head. "The what now?" she said. "Sorry, I was a million miles away. I have absolutely no idea, what you were saying?"
Perez chuckled. "Welcome back. I was asking if you two had any plans? Have you managed to get anywhere with that navigation thing you're doing?" he asked.
Valera shrugged. "Not really. It took me two years to plot the route to the spbub, and I had access to all the best equipment. I'm not sure I can do the reverse in the time we have, to be fair," she said.
"What if you don't have to?" Naina asked suddenly, her gaze fixed to a distant point. "What if ... we just go?"
"How? Where?" Valera asked, as she turned toward her. "There's no hypergate anymore. We have no means to travel?"
"But we do," Naina said, blinked twice, and turned towards Valera. "We have your drive, and we have your theories. We almost had the hypergate. We know where it went," she said, taking Valera's hands into hers.
"What if we plot a route to where the hypergate led before ... well, before? And we switch the Polarizers back, and we fire your donuts ... and we tunnel there?" Naina said, more expressing her train of thought than posing a question.
Valera's eyes went wide, and her mouth opened. "That's ... that's ..." she muttered. "That's genius, and also extremely reckless at the same time. You'd have to fly through an unknown sub-space tunnel, to a place you know nothing about, in so many words."
"I've done it before," Naina said, shrugging. "And now I have a better ship. If you can make the tunnel, I can fly through it."
"If you help me tune the Polarizers, it's a deal," Valera said and grinned.
"There's something that bothers me about this," Naina said. "It's like there's this little voice in my head telling me I'm not understanding something I should. Like something keeps telling me, that I've understood something, but I've just yet not realized it myself."
Valera nodded. "I have the same bugging feeling," she said. "It's like a flashing screen with an alert at the back of my head, but I can't seem to be able to turn to it. There's this tiny nagging voice telling me that I'm stupid, and why don't I get ... whatever it is I'm supposed to get."
"Don't worry about it too much," Perez said. "You two will figure it out in time, whatever it is. I've noticed the exceptional brilliance of both of you. I have absolutely no doubts that you couldn't figure this situation out. Sooner that you realize, we're on our way home."
"Daew! Home!" Naina yelped, jumping up like a spring. "I didn't even think about that."
"Huh?" Valera said, raising her eyebrow and turning to look at Naina.
"We've been planning -- I have been planning to head to the Academy, to Finnea. But I completely forgot about the war! If it's bad enough that the Di'gatha are closing hypergates beyond the rim, how in the world are we thinking about reaching Finnea -- or the Core Worlds -- safely?" Naina explained, throwing her hands in the air.
"P'tea," Valera said. "Of course, I didn't realize it either. What are we going to do? We can't just sit here."
"No, we need to get to Empire space. I sent a message to my department's lead when I arrived. She's ... more than a department head. We should try to get in contact with her," Naina said, and scratched the tip of her left ear. "She might figure out what to do, and what not to do."
"So, the first thing we need to figure out, is how to get to the Empire without raising any suspicions, right?" Valera said.
Naina nodded. "Yeah. And we can't just go where the hypergate would have taken us. That's too central to the trade routes, Sector Two, and especially too close to Core Worlds."
"So, like, where then?" Valera asked, raising her eyebrow.
"I don't know," Naina confessed. She shrugged, shaking her head slightly. "I don't know. I have nowhere else in mind, except ... but ... no, that won't work."
"Spit it out, Naina. We are not exactly swimming in options here," Valera said.
Naina paused to take a deep breath before slowly releasing it. "There's an old ... well, for some definitions of the word old ... space station in Elven Space that served as a science outpost when I was very young." She inhaled deeply. "But it's less about the place, and more about how to get there. It's literally on the other side of the galaxy. Just past the rim of the Empire in Sector Twelve."
Perez whistled softly. "That's a long way from here. Even with Valera's donut drive working perfectly, that would take us almost a month to reach. I'm not sure we have the resources for it."
"We don't," Quera announced. "We're equipped to travel at full speed for 18 days, 29 minutes, and 13 seconds."
"Valera, we need to talk," Naina said, scrunching her eyebrows together and scratching the tip of her left ear. "Something is bothering my brain, and I can't concentrate. Maybe if we just have a long chat about your theories, and my research, something pops up."
"Yeah, I share the pinging inside my head," Valera said and nodded. "I'll take a shower, and I'll meet you in the lab," she said and got up.
Naina followed suit and met her at the door. "I'll go wash up too, see you there," she said and walked towards her room.
Author's Note: The next couple of chapters will be a slight departure from the pair we've gotten used to following. We're taking a trip to the other side of the Empire, and we'll take a look at two or three as-of-yet unknown characters. Let me know how you like it, or indeed if you don't.
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