Chương 70: 046 – Good Luck And Boring Work Hours

What a mess. Trout sat on the bridge, listening as the reports came in. Their own sensors, scanning on the quantum bands to get around the limits of the speed of light, had confirmed the shinkies were in the system. The ship had gone on alert then, all hands being called to battle stations, unnecessary systems shutting down to divert as much ready power as possible to the laser resonators.

A crew that had been expecting an easy corporate-sponsored survey mission suddenly found themselves scrambling, donning pressure suits in case of atmosphere loss as those who had never fought and those who'd survived the war found themselves hearing the fearful words 'this is not a drill'. They were ramping up to battle ready now, the ship tense even as they tracked the shinky ship—the Decayed, according to the Kaedekin—as zigzagged its way towards the planet the Kaedekin called Nightmare.

While the war was technically over, Trout knew damn well that hostilities had hardly ceased. And though he had no intention of starting anything, he wasn't going to trust the shinkies to be reasonable and do the same. Even as they waited for the other shoe to drop, Trout couldn't stop himself from remembering the cause of all this. The Kaedekin had been the one to inform them about the shinkies' arrival…

well before any electromagnetic emission from Stargazer Fortress would have had time to reach the shinky ship, much less make its way back. And he couldn't stop himself from thinking about how. The simplest possibility was that the Kaedekin had somehow known in advance that the shinkies would be there. As friendly as Rain had been, ever since they'd detected the constant Hegemony drive signature on the planet, a part of him had been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

That the Kaedekin secretly had some sort of alliance with the shinkies, and all this pretending at first contact had been an elaborate delaying tactic while one of their warships—and not just any warship, but their most infamous one—arrived to either seize or destroy the Venture for some recoverable intelligence, fanaticism, or perhaps some inscrutable and literally alien reason not meant for human minds. And that the reason the Kaedekin had known the ship would be arriving was because they had a schedule.

The alternative was that the Kaedekin had their own sensors that were capable of perception at faster-than-light speeds… which he personally thought—or perhaps hoped—was more likely. It was only a possibility, but given the technology the Kaedekin were shown to already possess—not to mention the massive amounts of QEC they had down on their planet—it was a very plausible possibility.

He didn't know how they might have managed it, but then, he wasn't a quantum engineer—"Sir, SGF has dropped stealth," one of the lookout operators reported.

"SGF has dropped stealth. They're running all lights."

"Onscreen," Trout ordered, straightening up from the unconscious forward lean he'd fallen into. The star system diagram marking the relative positions of known ships in the system—which amounted to the Venture, their sensor drones, the Decayed, and Stargazer Fortress, the estimated position of the last of which turned out to be incorrect—were minimized, replaced with the semi-familiar sight of the Kaedekin space station.

The large sign welcoming visitors was gone, leaving only its lights that illuminated the bright pink hull of the station. The now-familiar sight provided a little comfort, distant as it was. Once they'd ascertained the shinkies' position, Trout had ordered the Alcubierre drive online so they could put one of the planet's moon—the pale, bright, airless one that the Kaedekin had ironically called Black Queen—between them… not unlike what Rain had suggested.

"Captain, we're being hailed," the communications officer said, and everyone's attention seemed to snap towards them, even though very few people actually turned their heads.

"It's the Kaedekin, sir. They're asking to speak to you at your convenience. Shall I put them through?"

"Answer the hail and patch them to my headset," Trout said, turning towards one of his chair's screens and pulling it closer to him.

"Make sure our reply is a tightbeam towards the station." At least they still had line of sight to Stargazer. By the time the communications officer had patched in the hail, he'd gotten screen situated as he liked, and so was able to affect a degree of relaxation when Rain's familiar face appeared." Bawipu guranah weepuh ninibong!

"she greeted with the familiar nonsensical syllables." Hello, Captain Trout. Thank you for taking my call. I hope I didn't interrupt you in the middle of anything important?"

"Not at all, Paladin Rain," he said, managing a small smile.

"We've just been waiting for any developments."" Ah. I'm sorry for taking so long, but there were logistics stuff we needed to deal with first, what with the new situation."

"Well, you're here now," Trout kept any blame out of his voice. As much as he didn't like being kept in the dark, it wasn't like the Kaedekin had any obligation to keep communications open, especially since they'd both gone dark and hadn't tried to contact the other.

"What's the situation, and how can we help?"" Oh! We appreciate the offer, but there's no need. First contact was successful. The Hegemony say they're not here to invade."

"And you believed them?" The words were practically a reflex, and he only heard the tone after they were out of his mouth.

"Sorry. I'm not mocking, it's just… you don't have our experience with the shinkies."" I get it," Rain said, tone understanding." I'd probably be thinking the same in your place if I heard you had stupid nanobots on your ship or something. We don't have to believe them, but if they don't do anything invade-y, then it doesn't matter. And if they do, then they'd have broken our trust and we won't feel bad about shooting with all weapons. The problem is self-solving.

But until then, it's only polite to make them feel welcome and treat them as guests and visitors."

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it." But anyway, that's not why I contacted you,"Rain continued before he could respond." Because the Hegemony showed up, we've been forced to do some reorganization. The First Contact Team will be expanding our team roster, so over the next few days we'll be introducing new Rangers who will be taking over contacting the Venture to continue ongoing communications.

I also won't have as much time to act as your contact anymore, so someone else on the team is going to be taking over for me."

"You're leaving? Have you been reassigned?" He was a bit surprised at how… disappointing he found that notion. It wasn't that he felt he and Rain were close—their contact was really only speaking over the radio, save for that time they'd met when the Kaedekin had come aboard the Venture —but there was something strangely… comforting about their conversations. Maybe it was just because Rain always seemed glad to see him and enjoyed talking to him." Yeah,"she said."

Because of the arrival of the Hegemony, I'm soon going to be moving to Nightmare, to one of the fortresses there. We're leaving in a couple of hours. While it's not that far, we decided it was best that the person coordinating contact with you is on the same planetary orbit so there aren't any communications delays, but if you ever need to contact me specifically, just let someone know and I'll get in touch with you as soon as I can." Rain looked to the side and gestured for someone to approach.

Another Kaedekin stepped into view, and Trout was struck by how they looked… well, like Rain in different clothes and a different hairstyle. In this instance, the woman had long red hair that had been pulled back from her face, and she seemed to be wearing some sort of cream-colored clothes with some kind of black necktie under a white coat that had a pattern of dark pink, almost red triangles on the edges of the lapel and collar, which were the parts he could see."

You remember, Doctor Namine and Paladin Captain Abyssal Glass, I hope? They helped me pick up the viral and bacterial that your medical staff provided?"

"Briefly," Trout said. The intelligence analysts had compiled a dossier on the woman from her communications with the ship's doctors, especially the disease control lab.

"Hello Doctor Namine. Do you prefer being addressed by your title or your rank?"" Either will do, Captain Trout," she said, her voice sounding exactly like Rain." It's nice to speak to you again. We look forward to working with you."" She'll be leading the group interacting with you from now on, and will be the one speaking to you and answering any questions you might have from now on while I deal with the Hegemony," Rain said. Trout kept his eyes on their mouths, so we wouldn't be confused by who was saying what.

"Dealing with the shinkies?" Trout said.

"In what capacity, exactly?" Rain opened her mouth, paused, then turned to Namine." Do you want to practice with this one?"" Oh, sure!

"Namine cleared her throat before turning to fully face the camera on her side, and Trout by extension." Ahem. Paladin Rain is our leading expert in peaceful first contacts, so she'll be going to Nightmare to apply her expertise on the Hegemony to keep the contact peaceful."

"… I thought humans were the first species you've made contact with?"" Yes, and contact with you has been very peaceful, giving Paladin Rain a lot of expertise on the matter." The words sounded completely sincere, and Trout was torn between black humor and absolute horror at the reasoning, even as he found himself completely unsurprised at the Kaedekin's logic. It was very Kaedekin logic." All right, I think that's everything… Oh!

"Rain said." Did everyone get back safely? I hope everyone enjoyed their visit." Trout thought of the debriefing that had been intended to take place, and which still needed to happen.

"I haven't had the opportunity to hear from anyone but Commander Bronze, but he hasn't mentioned anyone experiencing any problems. Don't worry. Everyone received a checkup from the disease control lab specifically in case there were any leaks in the suits and the positive gas pressure inside them was unable to keep infection out of the suits."" Oh, that's good. Well, when you meet with them, please tell them that we enjoyed their company. They were wonderful guests, and that we hope they can stay longer next time."

"I'll relay that to them when next I speak to them," Trout said. Rain smiled brightly." Great! Well, I need to go. If you have any further questions, just ask Namine here. I'm sure you two will get along just great— oh! And could you please relay a message from us to your ship's 'quantum engineers'?" There was something about the way she said it that let Trout practically hear the quotation marks.

"Of course. What's your message?"" Please tell them we'd like to speak to them about their use of the word 'quantum' in their engineering, and that the College of Flame would be especially glad to host them for their stay." … Trout looked at the wide, innocent smile on Rain's face—which happened to be perfectly mirrored on Namine's—and wondered if it counted as deception if they were really, really bad at it.

He didn't think she was lying to him, but it was blatantly obvious there was some sort of double meaning to their words. Her smile was the same smile his niece had when she was trying to pull a fast one… back when she was five. The fast one had to do with trying to convince him she was allowed to have cookies, so could he please bring the package down from the shelf? He considered just nodding along and pretending to be fooled, then leave figuring this out to the intelligence analysts.

He was a captain, after all, he had people for figuring out things like this. However, he'd been talking to Rain for weeks. They were hardly intimate, knowing that each conversation was being recorded and what didn't need censoring was released to the crew to sate their curiosity. That said, he had probably logged on the most hours of talking to the Kaedekin, even if it was only by virtue of being the first person in the ship to do so. Trout was starting to think he understood how they thought.

"Are you trying to pass a secret message to my quantum engineers, Paladin Rain?"" No, Captain Trout," Rain said." There's nothing secret in the message. You heard it, after all."

"… I see," he said.

"May I ask, what is the College of Flame?"" It's the school that specializes in teaching and developing Flame Magic,"Rain said immediately." Little sisters being decanted with Flame is pretty uncommon, but it happens a lot, so once they become adults they attend a specialized school to learn. Flame takes a lot more work to master than Thaumaturgy, and it's a bit too dangerous to learn more than the basics online." Again with the talk of magic.

They certainly liked to be fanciful with their names for their technology. Still, from the context, it was clear they were talking about quantum engineering.

"I will pass on the message," he said neutrally. For some reason, Rain frowned intently and leaned forward in a way that indicated she was trying to see something on her screen.

"Is something wrong?"" No, I just finally noticed something,"Rain said, shaking her head." Well, I need to go Captain Trout, I still need to finish packing. Until we speak again."

"Good luck and boring work hours to you, Paladin Rain," he said. The last he saw before she stepped out of view was a delighted smile.