The room with the small table, five chairs around it and five desks on the walls that Valera had been talking with her friends in had now been turned into a makeshift astrophysics and mathematics lab. Datapads were littered on every surface, big and small screens were brought into the room and set so anyone sitting at the table saw all of them.
The table was filled with several portable computers, consoles, and various equipment. Valera sat at the table and stared intently at one screen, while tapping her lips with her index finger.
"Marco," she said quietly. "I wish you were here. I would need your brilliant mind now. And especially Dr. T'hea-ik and Vivi. I miss you guys."
"Argh!" she barked. "I can't do this. I can't do this alone! I need Dr. Stein's humor to shake me up. I want them to tease me about donuts, and ..." she said and stopped. Her hand hovered in the air, and her eyes flew open.
"That's it! Donuts! Rings! I can do this with the Ring Theorem!" she squealed. "Thank you guys! Even now, you're here with me, helping me out," she said, turned back towards the console, and began tapping it furiously.
On the bridge, Naina was standing behind the captain's chair, leaning her back to it. Her eyes were closed, and she was scratching the tip of her left ear absent-mindedly.
"If Valera can plot a course to the Core Worlds, we're fine. But that's gonna be harder than convincing the Pomians that water isn't pink," she mused. "But. If we can go around the Core Worlds, and straight to Quenstar ..."
"What if the war has reached your system, too?" Perez asked. He was sloped on a chair, leaning backwards and had his eyes closed too.
"Unlikely, but a point we should consider," Naina said. "The last time we drove Di'gatha away, they were beaten good. I'm not sure they'd have the guts to try again after that."
"Sub-space rupture detected," Quera announced suddenly.
"The what now?" Naina shrieked. "I thought we had the galaxy's only sub-space drive!" She scrambled herself over the captain's chair, sat on it, and hit a button on her armrest. "Valera, bridge, trouble!" she yelled and turned towards Perez.
"Get on the power management, we might need to leave in a hurry," she said.
Perez jumped up, nodded, and hurried to the power management console. A moment later, the elevator doors opened, and Valera ran into the room, panting.
"What's going on?" She asked between breaths.
"I'm detecting a sub-space rupture," Quera said.
"What! How?" Valera yelled.
"My words," Naina said. "I thought your donut drive was unique!"
"I thought so too!" Valera said as she run to Naina and sat down on a chair that was set at the left side of the captain's chair.
"I have visual," Quera said. "Transferring to the screen."
The large screen blanked and then showed an image of empty space. Suddenly, an enormous space ship emerged from nothing, like a ghost fading into existence. It was larger than any of them had ever seen. It was shaped like a round, thin disc. It had numerous bright blue lights circling the rim, and a giant brilliant white coil at the center of the disc' down-facing side.
"What in the world is that?!" Perez said with his eyes wide.
"I don't know, but it looks bigger than the Helios-5 space station," Valera said.
"It is exactly 3.42 times the size of Helios Public Entertainment Station," Quera said.
Naina's eyebrows scrunched together for a second, then her they shot up, and her eyes opened wide. She blinked a few times, and shifted her gaze between Valera, and the screen in front of her.
"Sweet Ne'alla," Naina said, blinking her eyes several times. "That makes it bigger than Quenstar's Regional Hub."
"How is it moving?" Valera asked incredulously.
"I am detecting no conventional means of propulsion, Dr. Mizuni," Quera said. "There are no traces of FTL engines, or technology similar to this ship's sub-space drive. In fact, I'm detecting no emissions from the ship at all, except visible light."
"I hope that's not the Di'gatha ..." Perez said with a shaky voice.
"Entirely different from their ship design," Naina said. "And somehow ... on some level of my being, I know this ship. I can't explain it. But I'm not afraid anymore."
Valera turned sharply towards Naina and raised her eyebrow. "Naina, are you okay?" she asked softly.
"Yeah, I am," Naina said and smiled at her. "I can't explain it, but I'm almost certain whoever is controlling that ship, is a friend or at least not a foe."
The gigantic ship stopped suddenly, rotated several degrees, and then approached. Valera and Perez held their breaths as it closed in, but Naina looked puzzled, more than afraid. The ship stopped when it was half its length from the Infinity. For a brief moment, the rim lights blinked in a repetitive sequence before coming to a halt. For a few seconds, nothing happened, then the light show repeated again.
"Astounding," Quera said. "The ship is using sub-light data transmission on a scale I have never even heard of."
"On screen," Naina said.
"There's ... nothing to put on screen. There are no words. The ship is transmitting ... intention, for lack of better words, Captain Melcey," Quera said.
"So, what are these intentions?" Perez asked.
"Yeah, I'd kind of like to know, myself," Valera said.
Naina's eyes looked into far away, without seeing anything. She looked like she was in a trance, and then she smiled.
"It wants to take the pods. All of them," she said.
"WHAT!?" Valera and Perez shouted simultaneously.
"We're not giving my friends away!" Valera yelled.
"No," Naina said, and shook her head. "Not to ... take away, but to ... to heal," she said softly.
"Heal?" Valera asked.
"Ship's intentions are to help, and it's asking if boarding the ship would be considered rude," Quera said.
"Boarding allowed," Naina said. Perez and Valera were just about to interfere and disagree, when Naina continued, "I think I know where this is going. Welcome abroad."
"We meet again," the Glaxxian said as it materialized in front of the three.
ns 15.158.61.51da2
