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It had been an entire year. Just because this whole area had been destroyed
by some kind of bomb, didn’t mean that Olimpia’s brother, Delphinus or Leida
were here when it was dropped. She had to keep believing that they were both
still alive somewhere because she didn’t think the Miridir Galaxy qualified
for the afterlife simulation. It was just too far away, and she felt like
she would have received some confirmation about it one way or another by
this point.
Olimpia needed answers, so she walked up the ridge a bit and placed herself
in front of the forward viewports on the Vellani Ambassador, waving her arms
over her head to get their attention. She couldn’t see anyone on the bridge,
and it didn’t seem like they were seeing her either. She triple tapped on
the comms device implanted behind her ear.
“Global broadcast,” came the voice prompt. “Tap once to cancel...
tap twice to begin broadcasting.”
She tapped twice. “This is Olimpia Sangster, broadcasting to all friendlies
on Desulforudis, or otherwise within range. Is anyone reading me? Is anyone
on our network?” She waited for a response that never came. “This is Olimpia
Sangster. I’m marooned on Desulforidus. Can anyone hear me?” She kept
broadcasting for the next few minutes, repeating variations of the same
plea. She was going to record the message so it would play automatically,
but if anyone were there, they would have responded by now. If anyone was
going to show up, say, tomorrow, she would no longer be here,
and neither would her comms disc.
Olimpia took a breath and looked back up at the ship. “I sure hope you don’t
have any anti-teleportation fields up, or whatever.” She shut her eyes and
teleported away. When she opened them, she found herself safe and sound on
the VA’s bridge. She looked around; no sign of a struggle, but as empty as
it appeared from the ground. “Mirage, are you there? Or Thistle, or anyone?
Can anyone hear me?”
No response.
“No crew, no AI, no nothin’.” Olimpia went over to the nearest terminal and
started trying to find some answers. She was locked out of a lot. She was
not a member of the crew, so she didn’t have any of the authorization codes.
Surprisingly, however, she did have access to all transit systems,
including propulsion, maneuvering, and all three FTL drives. That didn’t
make much sense. If you were trying to protect yourself against an intruder,
sure, you lock them out of information, but you also shouldn’t let them
steal it.
Olimpia sighed again. What she needed was help, and it didn’t look like she
was going to find it here. The planet felt quieter than it did yesterday,
even though she never actually saw any locals before. She could be the last
person alive. It was becoming abundantly clear that the petering war had
found a resurgence, and it was probably due to her shutting off the
communications jammer in that artificial mountain.
If the crew of this ship was in trouble, she wasn’t going to be able to help
here alone. This might be a mistake, but she had to take the risk. Olimpia
set the coordinates, fired up the slingdrive, and sent herself back home to
Ramosus.
She teleported out of the ship, onto the ground, then off of the ground, and
into their common area. She tapped on her comms disc again. “This is
Olimpia, I’m back. Is anyone here?” She waited for a response, shaking
her head at the silence. “Come on!” Olimpia checked the logs here. The
team’s last away mission was on one of the stellar neighborhood colonies,
but they went out on September 30, and returned the next day. They didn’t
leave again after that, or if they did, they didn’t go through the bulk.
Olimpia spent the next few hours scouring the planet. She sent messages,
threw up flares, and literally looked around. Nothing was missing, nothing
was awry, except she was entirely alone, just as she was on Desulforidis.
Everyone she cared about was gone now, and she was supposed to believe that
was a coincidence? They were millions of light years away, which pointed to
a deliberate attack...by a formidable enemy. She could only think of a few
who were powerful enough. Others would probably want to, but couldn’t pull
it off. Then again, maybe they had found the power.
It still didn’t make much sense. Olimpia may have been separated from her
friends, but she was still a part of the group. They were all on the same
pattern. Why come after everyone, including those who weren’t on the
pattern, but leave her alone? She sat down on the edge of her bed and stared
at the wall. They had friends on Castlebourne too, but that was a long ways
away, and without a slingdrive array, she wouldn’t be able to return, with
help, or without. For now, she had to maintain a presence on Ramosus,
because this was the most likely place any of them would show back up, but
that didn’t mean she was hopeless. She would just have to take another risk.
The whole reason Ramses started working on a bulk map of the universe was to
find a particular party. That didn’t quite work out, and they pivoted their
priorities away from it, but Olimpia was desperate. And the map? The map was
still tracking their frenemies, as far as Ramses said he could tell. They
were trying to leave them alone, but they would have answers, and the means
to transport themselves here. It was a pretty long shot that they would,
though. She still didn’t understand their motivations.
Olimpia went back out to Ramses’ main lab and did her best to secure the
facilities. Unlike on the Ambassador, she did have authorization to
access most systems, but she didn’t really know how to work them. She locked
out everything she could, placing them behind firewalls only someone on Team
Matic would be able to get through, or also maybe someone really clever,
armed with advanced tech. Then she opened the bulk map and found the right
dot. It was somewhere in the Goldilocks Corridor where the Exin Empire was
in the middle of slowly crumbling to dust. Even if these people responded to
her, it could take weeks, which for her was one day. Still, she had no
choice, so she shot off her message, and went over to a chair to wait it
out.
A half hour later, a proximity alert started pinging from the terminal.
Olimpia teleported a few meters over to it. A ship was in orbit that was not
in Ramses’ database. It wasn’t what Olimpia was expecting, but they were
trying to call her. Olimpia composed herself and prepared for the worst.
Then she opened up a channel. “This is Olimpia Sangster of the free world,
Ramosus. Who am I speaking to?”
“This is Franka Matic of Spiral Station. We received your message.”
“If I let you transport down, what are your intentions? Good or evil?”
Olimpia turned her head from the mic and stifled a laugh. Was she serious
with that question?
Franka suddenly appeared in the room in front of Olimpia. “Contrary to what
you might believe, I love Mateo and Leona. They’re not really my parents,
but I still feel a kinship. If they’re in trouble, I want to help. So tell
me what you know, I’ll audit your systems, and we’ll figure this out. You
can trust me, Madam Sangster.”
Olimpia frowned. “I’m not letting you into anything, especially not after
you broke through our defense just to get here. I want some protection, so
leave this place, and come back with someone I actually trust. Bring me your
uncle.”
