Chương 44: 028 – Accepting The Invitation

Trout sat on the bridge, listening as one of the ship's utility boats prepared to launch. The screen directly in front of him showed Stargazer Fortress as relayed by the ship's scanning drones, its pink exterior bleached almost white under the light of the planet's day side. There was a large, multicolored sign on the side that faced their scanner drones that had appeared some time in the last hour, simply blinking into place as if someone had turned it on. The sign read: Welcome, visitors!

May your stay let you make friends, so that we become closer together! At greater magnification, on the spaces of the sign were drawings of people waving their hands in greeting—unless there actually were Kaedekin with three arms growing from the same shoulder joint—simple drawings of food, and more repetitions of the word 'welcome' as well as its equivalent in many languages. It was almost childish in its earnestness.

Much less childish were the two craft that floated at a hundred kilometers away from the ship, between them and the station. They were the same kind of small craft that would bring Rain to the ship before they'd been able to establish communications protocols, there to escort the utility boat as it made its way to the space station.

Ships were still approaching and leaving the space station, and since they didn't have the equipment to be included in the Kaedekin's traffic control network, the escorts would act as their traffic markers as well as guide them through. Normally, Trout would have sarcastically thought that it was also a perfect pretense to have guns aimed at them, but with the Kaedekin he could almost believe they were being sincere. Although they still had no idea what Kaedekin guns looked like.

The itinerary they'd gotten about the visit was simple… and vaguely horrifying, in a 'are they really planning to do this' kind of way. The first item had been a decontamination—sensible enough—followed by a short welcome speech. Then there was to be a walking tour of Stargazer Fortress, which was timed to go on for 'at least two hours, depending on how quickly everyone could walk'. And then another two hours of 'free time' to allow everyone to explore by themselves.

Then a short farewell ceremony where everyone would be given souvenirs before they went back to the Venture with oxygen reserves to spare. Every step of that sounded like it was planned by some public relations officer who'd never even set foot in a military facility, much less understood the concept of operational security. Yes, it wasn't his facility, and yes it would probably make gathering intelligence very easy, but Trout still found himself filled with secondhand anxiety at the thought.

And there was just a touch of guilt that they would be using this welcome to try to get as much out of the Kaedekin as they could.

"Utility boat has launched, Captain." Trout nodded absently.

"Acknowledged. Patch us through to the boat's cameras."

"Yes, Captain." The screens around the bridge all flickered, showing the views of the proximity cameras mounted around the utility boat. It was just moving out of the cove zone in the middle of the ship, angling down before activating its thrusters. The boat eased out of the cove, moving underneath the ship before turning to point its nose towards Stargazer Fortress. The thrusters activated, consuming QEC as it accelerated.

When the utility boat neared the two Kaedekin craft, they rotated in place, before their engines lit up and both of them quickly accelerated. Trout straightened nervously as the two quickly closed the distance, the two craft taking positions above and below the boat, matching its speed. While they'd been warned of the maneuver, the speed was closer to what fighters reached in active combat zones than something appropriate for escort duty. Both the sudden acceleration and deceleration had been disconcerting.

Glancing at one of the screens of his chair, Trout noted that the sudden acceleration hadn't broken the targeting lock of the ship's railguns, even if the guns themselves still had safeties on. Good. He'd given orders that unless the utility boat had been attacked by the Kaedekin—twice, because if they stopped the first time it might have been a genuine accident—they were going to hold their fire. Still, either the Kaedekin were showing off or they had wildly different ideas of 'too close'.

With anyone else, Trout would have thought the former, but given it was the Kaedekin the latter was a disturbingly more likely possibility. The fighters were just ten meters away from the utility boat, an alarming lack of distance in space when it came to three separate bodies not made of solid rock. The three craft approached Stargazer Fortress, their trajectory taking them towards the tower-like planetward end of the station, and the brick-shaped utility boat started decelerating.

Ahead of it, the space station was surrounded by innumerable small craft arriving and departing, flying in and out of many open bays on the side of the wide cylinder directly underneath the station's dome. As the utility boat neared, the side of the of station suddenly lit up as multicolored arrows appeared, all pointing towards one of the station's open bays. Above the opening were the words ' Entrance', while beneath the bay was a new sign that read ' Welcome!'

"…" the bridge chorused. Well, at least the Kaedekin seemed very glad that they were coming… though the resemblance to being welcomed by a class of schoolchildren added just a little more abrasive to the guilt prickling at Trout. And it neatly solved the problem of the utility boat not being able to integrate into the Kaedekin's traffic control system.

On the screen the landing bay grew closer and closer, going beyond the range of the front camera, and as it did the presence of some kind of iridescent transparent wall over the whole opening became apparent. They knew about it. They'd been warned about the force field, the 'barrier of vennfluid'.

It didn't make the apparent head-on collision any less nerve-wracking, even when one of the Kaedekin fighters took the lead and smoothly slid through the force field, which rippled like water—no, like oil as it parted around the fighter, closing over the craft as it fully entered the landing bay. The Kaedekin fighter hung in the air for a moment before slowly floating down to settle onto the deck. And then it was the utility boat's turn.

Yet even as the transport craft approached, the force field bulged inward, not touching the utility boat even as it drifted into the landing bay. Then the utility boat stopped in the air.

"Captain, utility boat reports that they've been stopped by the Kaedekin's artificial gravity pulse," the comms officer reported.

"They say the Kaedekin will be landing them now. The pilot is deploying landing gear." Even as the report was being made, the utility boat began to drift downwards. Loren Ash couldn't help feeling self-conscious as she sat inside the utility boat along with all the other spacers who had been chosen to accept the Kaedekin's invitation, gripping her helmet on her lap so it wouldn't float away in the microgravity, her suit's pack supported by the rack behind her.

The junior lieutenant hadn't recognized most of the other people who'd suited up into the specially altered space suits, but she had recognized Commander Bronze before he'd put on his helmet, and she had definitely recognized Falling Stillness. The slightly absurd name tag that had been mounted to the outside of one of the hardpoints of the Changer's power armor was very helpful in that regard.

When the skipper had asked for quantum engineers to be part of the delegation that would be visiting Stargazer Fortress, Loren had been certain that she was very unlikely to be considered.

She'd been the most junior of the seven aboard the ship, and despite her year of shipboard experience—including allegedly tending to the Alcubierre Drive, which basically amounted to making sure it was getting the correct amount of imbuement and getting out of Phingui's way—she was nowhere near experienced enough to be able to figure out non-human constructions. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

So it had come as a surprise when the Chief QE had told her she'd be one of the three.

"I don't really expect any of you to actually find out anything," Chief Donald had told them when he'd handed out the assignments a couple of days ago, "but gotta keep the skipper happy. So go and just keep your eyes open, and maybe have some fun. Especially you, Ash." She'd blinked in surprise.

"Me, Chief?" The older man had nodded.

"Figured you deserved to have a nice story to tell, and since you're not going to get a war story any time soon, being one of the first humans to visit an alien port would be a good one. Also, you're not on my wet list for getting in trouble in our last port."

"They said it was the good stuff, chief," Lieutenant Schmidt said.

"They were primurfoh, Bill. Their idea of 'the good stuff' is fermented blood and gastric acid. Anything that tastes like literal puke is not the good stuff, even if we can drink it." Even though the chief had sent her name, Loren had been almost certain the skipper wouldn't approve her recommendation. Most inexperienced 'quantum engineer', after all. But now that she was here, she still didn't feel like she belonged.

There was no excitement, only a gnawing worry of what would happen when she came back at the end of this tour and had to report that she had found no 'quantum technology' she could understand the principles of—" All hands, brace for landing," the pilot announced, and Loren gripped her helmet tighter. There was a pause, and then she felt the familiar vertigo as of suddenly finding herself in a gravity field again.

The feeling was relatively mild, meaning it was only a bare fraction of full gravity— There was a soft shudder as she felt the landing come into contact with something." All hands, brace for gravity. Our hosts have warned they will be implementing one-gee in t-minus twenty seconds." Loren got up to counting to twenty-two before she felt her weight settle onto her seat again, her stomach churning and her head insisting it was spinning for a moment before her body settled down.

"All right, everyone up," Commander Bronze ordered as everyone got out of their restraints.

"According to the instruments, this landing bay is in vacuum. The Kaedekin will be decontaminating us before we enter their atmosphere in case any of our suits are carrying anything bad for them. I want helmets on in five and the first batch in the air lock." There was an orderly scramble for helmets, and Loren hastened to put hers on. Her heart jumped as it doesn't lock in the first time, but she took a breath and tried again, and the pressure lock slipped into place on her suit's chest piece with a snap.

The suit's sealing protocols kicked in as she manually tightened the external locks. There was a feeling on her skin through the undersuit she was wearing as the helmet magnetically locked in. The regulator started filling the suit with air as she moved her head, and the helmet followed her movements as the HUD lit up. She checked the percentage of air and power on the display—both still full—and the suit's diagnostic messages. The system reported all green.

With twenty-five people in the utility boat—not counting the pilot and copilot, who'd be waiting in the bridge and running what scans they could—and the large airlock fitting only ten people at most, Loren found herself part of the last batch cycled through, standing in the airlock awkwardly until the pressure dropped enough for them to open the external hatch without losing too much breathable air. Her first impression was pink.

The deck under the utility boat was a dull pink, and the far bulkheads she saw seemed to be much of the same. There were dark blue lines on the deck to mark out spaces that were probably landing zones, and everything had a shiny look that made Loren think everything had received a through cleaning recently. Much closer than the far bulkheads was a transparent, iridescent wall that rose up from the deck and disappeared from her helmet's field of view. On the other side of the wall were two Kaedekin.

One was immediately recognizable as Paladin Rain, with her short blonde hair, bright blue eyes—and that was not a euphemism—and a yellow vest over a crisp white long-sleeved shirt. In addition, she wore a yellow top hat with a white hatband on her head, and her legs were covered in yellow slacks that matched her vest. A yellow armband was wrapped around her left bicep, there was a device mounted on her left forearm, and a red button stood out on her collar.

A sword rested in a sheath that hung from the left side of the belt she was wearing, while a strangely-shaped gun rested on a holster on the opposite side. Paladin Rain had a big smile on her face as she waved both hands in very enthusiastic greeting. The other Kaedekin was as tall as Rain, wearing a loose red shirt and black pants that had flame patterns rising up from the legs, most of her lime green hair pulled back into a loose bun while the rest framed her face.

She wore a belt from which hung several pouches and cylindrical flasks, as well as a flat, square holster of some kind. There was a pink armband around her left bicep, and on their head was a conical hat with a wide brim that even after all these centuries was still known on Earth as a 'witch's hat'. This other Kaedekin was also waving enthusiastically, a metal rod held on one hand wagging back and forth in a dangerous-looking way as they jumped in place excitedly.

Above Paladin Rain's head was a big blue sign just hanging in the air, with letters made of three-dimensional shapes that were casting shadows. The sign read: Welcome to Stargazer Fortress, honored guests! We hope you enjoy your stay! Rain visibly paused and counted them, and the sign above her head changed: Before we can begin the tour, we need to conduct the decontamination procedure to ensure that there are no transferrable infection vectors on your suits. Simply step through the decontamination area.

The yellow-clad woman stood there as Loren and everyone else looked around for the decontamination area. Then Rain seemed to realize something, because she turned towards the other Kaedekin, her lips moving silently as she spoke. The green-haired Kaedekin stopped jumping and looked embarrassed before stepping towards the iridescent wall in front of them. The hand holding the metal rod—Loren saw it was actually a cane—adjusted its grip before tapping the end into the ground just short of the transparent barrier.

Flames suddenly erupted from the deck, causing some people to step back in surprise. They burned from the deck as if someone had spilled fuel and set it alight, the tongues quickly rising even taller than the rakido. Yet the flames were weak shades of blue and dull orange, transparent and so dim no one had any trouble looking directly at it. Loren looked at the fire with interest even as it began to spread into a wall three meters wide before that wall moved towards them.

Everyone but Loren, the other two quantum engineers, and the three power armors stepped back instinctively. The flames met the transparent barrier… and seemed to pass through it, the fire rising from the ground and spreading out in the vacuum, causing everyone to step back further.

"The fuck? -!" Bronze said through the command channel, which had activated immediately when he'd spoken. The blue sign changed against and Rain waved to get everyone's attention and pointed at it. Please do not be alarmed. This is the decontamination procedure. It is perfectly safe and any resemblance to open flame is of no consequence. The decontamination is a low-temperature and will not cause any damage to the external components of your suits. Paladin Rain stepped forward and held up her bare hand.

Then she thrust it into the flames on her side of the barrier, holding it in place for over twenty seconds. It quite visible did not burn, although the long sleeves of her shirt fluttered in time with the way the fire danced. An addendum to the end of the sign read: See? Perfectly harmless. Please walk through the decontamination area. Even after it was clear that the sign had been read, no one moved, looking at the fires nervously. Inside her suit, Loren let out a sigh as she shook her head and stepped forward.

The flames licked her suit as it completely enveloped her, and she resisted the urge to reach out and claim them. Standing completely in the fire, she hesitated in front of the iridescent wall before reaching out and pressing her hand against it. It parted immediately, her hand meeting only token resistance that she could barely feel through the glove.

Loren pressed forward, the visor of her helmet meeting the wall, and the way it acted reminded her uncomfortably of water but it couldn't be because the flames weren't reacting… And suddenly Loren could hear the familiar rushing of air as the flames heated the air and caused them to rise coming in through her suit's external microphones, as well as… cheering? She kept walking forward to get out of the flames, until she was standing next to the green-haired Kaedekin, who was looking at her with a wide smile. …

Loren ignored that, turning around and pressing the button on her chest plate for transmitting on the open channel, deactivating the outside speaker. No need to let their hosts hear.

"The decontamination area is safe to pass through," she said even as she saw the other two quantum engineers had followed behind her, walking nonchalantly.

"Confirmed, Commander," Ben said, the older Pyrotheurgist sounding confident and certain.

"My suit's temperature didn't even rise. Whatever this is, I don't think we have to worry about anything burning. It would be best to walk near the center of this so that our suit will be fully decontaminated."

"Copy that," Bronze said.

"All right, you all heard the QEs. Two lines through the center as quickly as possible. Let's not waste the suits' air." Loren stepped to the side to make way, and as she did she felt a tap on her shoulder that made her turn. The green-haired Kaedekin smiled at her.

"Hi, I'm Seraphine! Do you want to be friends?"