Sleemas limped across the command deck before settling into the Captain's Cradle. The air still slled of scorched tal, lubricants, and organic compounds but the smoke had cleared, aning that damage control had gotten the fires out and environntal system sowhat repaired. Sleemas coughed, feeling his barking-sack swell, pulling at the recently regenerated skin on the side of his neck, then looked around.
Most of the original bridge-crew was either dead or injured. Nearly a fifth of the ship's crew was dead, a third of the rest in heal-sleep or being attended by dicos in the infirmary. The ship, judging by the viewscreen, was still dead in the water, slowly tumbling on all three axis through the depths of space. The trailing wisps purple and blue 'glitter' that was slowly leaking into space from the damaged jumpspace engines gave a spiraling testimony to the face that they were still moving at a decent speed.
At least, if they'd been in a solar system.
Sleemas gave a burbling sigh. They were in between stars. Which ant, no chance for help and any planet that might sustain them until they could repair the ship's engines was too far away to reach in a dozen lifetis.
Of course, a jumpscorched ship wasn't bad enough. Neither was a dead captain and first mate. Of course not. The universe just had to urinate on Sleemas's tail and the tail of everyone on the ship.
"It's confird, Acting Captain Sleemas," the forr weapon's technician hissed, looking up. "I managed to get a clear picture with an optical cara, but it's not any ship I saw in training."
Sleemas sighed and looked at the data-screens surrounding the Captain's Cradle. They were all cracked and discolored from the jumpscorch. "Throw it on the main screen, I guess we should all see what's co to step on our tails."
The weapon's technician, so low ranked he didn't even actually have a na, bobbed his head in submission.
The screen, a third of it not working and discolored, wavered for a mont then showed an image of the ship, concentric sensor rings, and a line that started at a circle a little ways away and was slowly approaching.
"It dropped into realspace just over thirty cycles ago and imdiately headed straight for us. I thought at first they were locking us with weapon ranging systems but after they started blinking a laser in the low red range at us, I realized they were scanning and then trying to communicate," The weapon's tech said.
"What do we know about them?" Sleemas asked.
"Nothing. The dedicated scanners are offline. I pointed one of the docking caras toward them but they're too far way. What scanning I can do shows a dead ship approaching. Not even enough power for weapon's tracking despite the fact they are scanning us with a low-red laser," the naless one said. He pointed at a window on the screen that showed a faint glimring speck. "That's it, right there."
"And their approach?" Sleemas knew the answer, just looking at the screen.
"They're pulling extrely high acceleration still. At their current rate of acceleration they'll overshoot us in six cycles. At their current rate of speed, if they were to cease acceleration, they'll overtake us in nine cycles. There's no way any sapient we know of can survive the kind of deceleration that they'll have to undertake in order to slow down to match velocity with us," the weapon technician said.
"An attack run?" Sleemas asked.
The unnad tech flicked his tail in a motion to signify that anything was possible.
"Can we reply? Communicate?" Sleemas asked. "Request the Rite of Surrender?"
The only other 'officer' on the bridge made a sign of negation. "No, Acting High One. With the power-plant damaged and our computer systems damaged, we cannot spare the power or the computing cycles from repair, life support, and dical to attempt to contact them."
"Alert the crew. Sing our death songs. I will pray to the Forgotten Ones that they are not here to attack us, but let our souls be prepared," Sleemas said.
The other two 'officers' looked grateful and left the bridge to return to their quarters to sing their death songs and perform death rites.
Sleemas sat and watched the steadily approaching dot.
He had nothing else to do.
-----------------
Sleemas watched the alien ship get closer. After five cycles it had suddenly decelerated as if it had began sliding on thick syrup. The twinkle had grown steadily larger as the alien ship approached, until now, almost a full cycle after it had begun to slow down, he could see plenty of details.
Whoever made it didn't care about aesthetics. It was anodized black, with protrusions and a thick hamrhead foredeck. It had four massive engines held away from the craft by swooping struts, the engines glowing and thrumming with such power that Sleemas could swear he felt in his bones.
Whoever had built that craft had made sure it was constructed to deliver a simple ssage: "We don't like you, we don't like your burrow, and we don't like your eggs."
He'd ordered the naless one, who he'd begun referring to as Slinner in his own mind, to switch off any kind of targeting system and to only observe it through the visible spectrum.
"I thought you said it didn't have power," the Communications "officer" snapped at Slinner, growling and flaring his ruffles. "I can see light coming from it."
"We can detect that, but no power aside from that and my instrunts claid it was stellar light reflecting off of debris," Slinner answered.
"Then you are as stupid as your instrunts," The Communications "officer" snarled.
"Easy, easy. He can only tell us what his instrunts can detect," Sleemas said.
"The engines produce no power I could detect. The ship itself radiates no power. According to the instrunts, before I switched them off, there is nothing there despite what our eyes see," Slinner replied, staying unruffled.
"We can see the lights from it," the Communication Officer snarled. Sleemas had begun thinking of his as Snapjaw and wished there was soone else who could run the communications software.
"And my instrunts, except for that cara, do not see the lights. Must I record that statent and play it on a loop for you to understand?" Slinner asked.
"That is impossible! Are you incompetent?" Snapjaw started to rant.
"You're blinky," Slinner suddenly said, pointing at Snapjaw's data displays.
Snapjaw turned back to his display, frowning. It was an incoming communication request and an incoming datalink request.
Snapjaw hissed his frustration, working the unfamiliar nus until finally the lights stopped blinking.
Sleemas sighed, a rattling sound in his throat, and swiped the icons on his screen to bring up the communication window on what was left of the main viewscreen, replacing the concentric rings that rely showed that the foreign ship was practically on top Sleemas's inherited vessel.
The screen flickered and showed the image of, at first glance, what looked to be so kind of bipedal construction robot. It took Sleemas a second to realize that it wasn't a robot but rather so kind of armored vac-suit.
"Jumpdrive failure, huh?" The figure asked in perfect Hashenesh. Captioning ran across the bottom and in the upper right there was an image of his own ship with the drive exploding and a query mark over it.
"Affirmative," Sleemas answered.
"I'm going to scan you. Is that permissable?" The armored vac-suited figure asked.
"Affirmative," Sleemas answered.
"Stay on the image. I want to make sure I don't boil you alive or sothing," The figure said. "Man, it's been a long ti since I dealt with the living. Hang on."
Sleemas expected the scan to take a long ti but it was less than a few breaths before the figure suddenly started moving again.
"You've got a damaged jump core, your computer system is electromag shocked, you've got structural damage and a lot more," the voice said. Sleemas found it odd to not be able to see the other sapient's face but was willing to ignore that if this sapient was willing to help his injured crew. He just nodded and the figure nodded its head. "All right, I can get you going again."
There was silence for a long ti and the figure made a chanical sighing noise.
"You have to invite onboard, those are the rules," it said.
Sleemas nodded. "I invite you, strange one, onto my humble vessel."
The figure nodded back and cut the image.
----------------------
It was bigger than Sleemas had thought it would be. It moved chanically, its joints hissed and purred, he could hear it using sonar and high frequency. Its body seed to be full of machinery and tools. It had a quadruped following it, so kind of industrial robot with four legs and a strange looking head that often made weird sharp staccato noises.
For nearly fourteen cycles it worked tirelessly. Sleemas learned that the quadruped robot was called "Fido" and that the figure was called "Daxin" in its own tongue.
At one point Sleemas approached the figure, who had just exited the jump core, slapping its hands together.
"Are you...artificial?" Sleemas asked.
The figure shook its head. "Nope. Clinically immortal but originally biological," it said.
Sleemas pondered that answer for several cycles, unable to co to grips with what it might an.
"All right. This should get you back ho. I took the liberty of checking your astrogation files for the closest system. You're lost by about twelve-thousand light years, but you should be all right now that your jumpdrive is tuned," Daxin told Sleemas at the airlock. "You've got food, water, and enough power to get back, but not much more."
"What caused it?" Sleemas asked.
"Jumpspace rapids. They must have shifted since the last ti you surveyed that section of jumpspace. I'd have your governnt run probes on all the major shipping lines," Daxin said. "I put my estimations and data on a file."
Daxin paused halfway out the lock. Sleemas had gotten used to how Daxin would just exit the lock, use a reactionless drive to move back to his own ship, and then return as if space was his natural elent.
"Look, Acting Captain Sleemas, it's either you hit what my people call rapids or..." he squatted slightly and put his helt near Sleemas's ear. "Or sabotage."
He straightened back up. "Anyway, good luck. Try not to let anyone step on your tail, all right?"
"Wait," Sleemas asked. "I have one request."
"Sure, my scaly brother. Ask away," Daxin said.
"May I see your face? So the crew and I may pray to the Forgotten Ones for you properly?" Sleemas asked.
"Not a good plan, my friend," Daxin said.
"You said you are alive. My religion and beliefs..." Sleemas started.
"All right, since it's your religion. Rember, my scaly friend, you asked for it," Daxin said.
The faceplate opened and Sleemas found himself staring at horror.
Liquid bubbled in a dura-glass tank. Inside a lower mandible floated beneath a pair of blue eyes that were attached via the optic nerves to thickly furrowed cerebral tissue that was embedded with electronics and wires, all of it floating in the tank.
Sleemas rapidly inflated and deflated his barking sack to keep from fainting as the plates closed at the front of the helt. He heard 'Fido' make those sa noises and looked down, to see the armored plate had retracted, showing the sa horror inside Fido's head, only the mandible longer and sporting conical teeth.
The plate closed.
"You asked, buddy," Daxin said. "Let's go, Fido."
Sleemas watched as the thing cycled the lock and left. He staggered to the bridge, the appearance of his crew's benefactor burned into his mind. He collapsed into the Captain's Cradle and stared at the viewscreen.
"He's hailing us," Snapjaw said.
"Put it on," Sleemas said.
The armored figure appeared again. Now that the screen had been repaired he could see "Fido" was folded up in the wall behind him, the head detached and sitting nearby.
"I'm gonna go slow till I'm away from you. You guys go ahead and go first, I'll tag for a ways in jumpspace then head on out, all right?" Daxin asked.
Sleemas bobbed his head. Before the feed could be cut, Sleemas slapped his tail, almost wincing as he got Daxin's attention. When he realized he had the alien's attention he asked the question that had been bothering since the airlock.
"Why... why do you keep the jawbone and eyes?" he asked.
"Because it's funny."
------------------------
Sleemas testified to the Unified Exploratory Council that the creature he had encountered has claid to be "clinically immortal" and had "required permission to board", working without any apparent rest.
The Council t for an ergency eting.
Two separate species being encountered in the sa rough region, deep in the Dead Zone, within the sa ti fra of a handful of great cycles, was cause for alarm.
If there were two xenospecies, there could be more.
--------------------
FROM: DAXIN FREEBORN
TO: CONFEDNAVINT
Encountered a new xenosapient in need of assistance. Rendered assistance according to the Clinically Immortal Code of Conduct. Repaired their vessel and sent them on their way. Attached is a financial statent of the remuneration due to my descendants for providing this aid as a representative of the TerraSol Confederacy.
Attached is schematics for a light frigate of a previously unknown xenosapient. Also attached is dical data glead from the ships own computers. Attached is a copy of their library core. Copying information in such a matter is permissible under the Clinically Immortal Code of Conduct.
I haven't really gone over the datafiles because, honestly, I don't care.
The Captain seed nice.
Try not to glass his planet or sothing stupid like that.
No reply is required.
Just leave alone.
------NOTHING FOLLOWS (IN MY FOOTSTEPS)-------------
FROM: FIDO FREEBORN
TO: CONFEDNAVINT
They were lizards. I don't like lizards. A lizard bit my foot when I was still squishy. New lizards did not bite my foot. Daxin is still goodboi. Fido is still goodboi.
We hunt further in the dark.
------NOTHING FOLLOWS------------
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