TIME:
6 DAYS LATER
LOCATION:
GARNET STATION SECURITY HEADQUARTERS
POV:
Junior Investigator, Steven Wross
"Still trying to solve that murder case Steven? You know there are more important things to concern yourself with right? The gangs have been getting bolder as of late, we could use some help with the backlog of reports."
I ignore my colleague as I hunch over my tablet rewatching the footage for the millionth time.
Nothing seems out of the ordinary, just a beggar lying down on a bench when suddenly he gets up. Though the way he gets up looks like he was startled awake, it was too sudden.
I squint my eyes over the next few seconds, but that changes nothing, I look closer trying to see if I missed anything but I don't spot anything out of the ordinary from the alleyway we found him in.
The man gets up and nervously looks around. Then starts creeping in the direction of the alleyway, it's clear his target is the nearby fast food establishment. Suddenly he freezes and looks to the side before he gets dragged into the alleyway by his right leg while trying to claw at the ground and prevent whatever was dragging him from succeeding.
I groan as I feel a headache forming, it just doesn't make sense, what could have dragged him away. I suspect it was some sort of thin but high strength wire, but nothing like that would be available outside the military and judicial arms dealers from the capital, and even then it wouldn't be cheap for a civilian.
I put up the security footage and flick over to the autopsy report.
The man was found without any blood, none whatsoever. His injuries included a collapsed trachea, 2 puncture wounds on the right side of his neck and signs of a needle being inserted into his carotid artery which is what is suspected to have finally killed him. All this happened in at most 2 minutes as brain damage caused by slow loss of blood to the brain wasn't discovered.
He had a criminal history but his last charge was for public intoxication, and an assault charge but the latter was years ago and he had already served his time.
It feels like this man was murdered by some cheap B-movie monster for no other reason than he was alone and wanted his blood, but this monster seems very real. Moreover the 2 wounds to his neck are consistent with the k9's of a human, only problem was they were too deep for it to be human. The last odd thing about the wounds was that there was a sign of light suction inside the body like it was trying to vacuum out the blood.
I feel something odd about the method of killing, but nothing strikes me, it feels familiar and teases the edge of my tongue.
I sigh as I close out of the report and stand up wincing from the pain in my back from slouching for hours.
'I think I should help and lighten the load on my coworkers. After all, I'm the only one free; it would be helpful to have more heads to work on this.'
I can only groan as the mountain of work just keeps getting larger.
TIME:
1 DAY LATER
LOCATION:
GARNET STATION HANGER -4FB
POV:
Lilith Runethari
I grimace as I watch the progress of the elevator climbing ever closer. The thought of having to take humans onboard this state of the art experimental vessel made me feel a variety of things.
I take deep breaths to calm down, it wouldn't do well to lower the possible boost in ratings I could get. So I plaster on a stoic look. I just knew my smile would be seen through by anyone with 2 nerve cells in their bodies and a basic understanding of interpersonal communication.
"They're almost here Lilith make sure to be at least somewhat respectful, you know as well as anyone how important this job could be. I would also like to warn you of suspicious communications that I detected leaving the station, recipients unknown but suspected to be criminals and pirates. It seems they leaked the hyperlane route and the current lane sequence. There shouldn't be any major problems but I'll be monitoring the situation."
I nod silently keeping my stoic mask on, the thought of a ship battle was exciting but I doubt the pirates will move quickly, at most they will send scouts to pick out base locations. The entire system is also under detailed surveillance by Mother.
Yet fear still worms its way into my heart. I can't help but ask Mother a hypothetical. "Mom what happens if a scout finds the listening post?"
"... Well the listening post has a nanite shield and the outer surface is capable of handling Class IV lasers for hours without taking severe damages. The post can defend itself, the Runethari Empire wouldn't make it defenseless. I will send a message to start repairing the defense lasers, if I use the Tacyonograph the message should have already arrived and will soon be discovered and set in the works. Again please do not worry Lily, I'm not that easy to kill."
I nod my head slightly and feel my boot tapping a little less quickly against the hanger floor, revealing I haven't truly calmed down. Richard is the first to leave the elevator not far behind him is his daughter. A wary look enters everyone's eye as they step on board the lift, the anxiety pheromone my ancestors modified into themselves might have been suppressed to my best ability but it still made itself known.
"Wow! This ship looks so cool! I like the red and black coloring! Where did you get this Miss Runethari!"
The only one who seemed to not be wary was the sole child of the entourage, a certain Aria Vrit daughter of Richard and his wife Veranda. I froze, suppressing my emotions with the help of Mara, but the brief lapsed caused the few people to pale. Mrs Vrit quickly pulled Aria close to her with a look of extreme anxiety. However little Aria seemed completely clueless and tilted her head slightly at the expression of her mother and everyone other than Temlic, who only had a drop of sweat on his brow.
'Odd, with how small her body is she should have been frozen with fear... Mara remind me to look into this, something's up with this child.'
'Understood.'
I slowly bring up the terminal I can use to control parts of the ship signalling for the elevator for dignitaries to start lifting. The sudden jolt with none of the usual noises caused everyone to grow a little more nervous if their hearts were anything to go by. This journey will be a quiet one for me. Well if they start getting too anxious I'll tell them to wear a face mask, should help somewhat.
The elevator climbed but the entire time all you could hear was the background humming of the atmospheric controllers of the station, and the subtle smell of caustic chemicals that pervaded the hanger.
The elevator soon came to a soft barely perceptible stop inside a bright glowing chamber. I started to step forward, when I heard no one following behind me I gazed back to ask why, but their squinting eyes and hands grasping out at the air trying to find a solid surface.
I say, "Oh sorry, let me turn the lights on for all of you."
Not a moment later Mother turns on the lights for me. I hum in thought wondering why she didn't have them on in the first place.
The dim red emergency lighting I was so used to slowly gains brightness. Eventually causing me to start squinting from the change. My eyes quickly adjust and when my vision focuses again I see everyone looking at me with a variety of different expressions painting their faces.
Richard despite his wariness seems to be looking at me waiting for something. I quickly cough in mock embarrassment and turn back to stare face to face with the group.
"Welcome, my guests to my ship and home, welcome aboard the Astro Dawn—" I feel a genuine albeit smug smile spread across my face as I speak the name of my beloved void ship. "A state of the art corvette boasting top of the line specs! Now would you please follow me while I lead you to the storage bay for your luggage?"
When I finish my welcome I realize that everyone's faces are sporting expressions of awe and none of the previous anxiety seems to register. I see their eyes shifting constantly and I knew they were observing the room that laid before them.
This room was designated the 'Officers Entrance' and was expected to be used when higher ups wished to inspect this vessel. So it was rarely used for obvious reasons if you knew about the details of half the specs. I thought it would be an excellent way to impress them and earn some free goodwill with Temlic, my client.
The officers entrance was large for its main purpose, which was to function as an airlock. It was not just grey metal and bulkheads, the ceiling was inky voidlike black not all too dissimilar to space and held the lighting fixtures that guided you towards the bulkhead. The light flowed in a slow chase effect pattern with a pleasant orange-red light; the exact coloring was a reference and quiet reminder of the home star of us vampires, Runvald, a peaceful K class star similar to the one in Beta Charon. The walls are streaked with murals depicting what nature was like on Tharin. Which didn't take much to understand it as the homeworld and capital of the Runethari Empire, probably now a necroecumenopolis.
A wave of melancholy washes over me and I feel my smile falter as I look at the mural depicting the once craggy landscape of Tharin. It was apparently a world flourishing with life, massive reptilians roamed the surface leaving the many flying mammals hesitant to land and rest for too long. The species that would later become us vampires were one of the few mammals that were stuck to the unforgiving ground, only finding solace in shallow caves and the occasional small plateau where they were safe. Venturing out only at night to minimize the chances of being found.
I feel a small hand suddenly rub against my back. Without thinking of who could be touching me I close my eyes and try to force my thought cycle to change. I slowly open my eyes feeling the hints of depression and longing for a world that is in all likelihood completely unrecognizable to what is shown here and what was depicted in the simulations Mother always showed me.
"Are you okay miss Runethari? You looked sad when you were staring at that big picture." A hushed voice of a child reaches my ears.
I freeze and feel none of the disgust I'd expect from a human touching me, just a feeling not too dissimilar to what I'd felt when mom still was able to use her Android body when I was a child.
"I'm fine... just mourning that I will never get to see this place in person, it's just a bit too late for that."
I force a smile while I look down at the girl that was called Aria, she looks up and I see her face full of worry.
Suddenly a shrill voice ruins the mood. "Aria get back here, and please sta–give Miss Runethari her space!" I look back and spot Veranda with a face as white as snow staring at Aria with panic in her eyes.
I look down at Aria, my stoic mask slipping back on effortlessly and nodding my head a little, she reluctantly leaves my side. I take the moment to start the process to have the airlock start equalizing the pressure and filtering anything harmful in the air.
//FILTER'S REQUIRE REACTOR TO RUN.\\
//TURN ON GENERATOR?\\
//YES|NO\\
I turn on the reactor and quickly put a rubber earplug in. I forgot that while I was waiting I had turned it off giving it a break for a few days. The day I was going to have to run maintenance was drawing near; I had just gotten the materials to fabricate a small set of specialized starship repair bots today, luckily it would be constructed with everything they needed to know preinstalled. It just annoyed me that I couldn't run them to the MAT at the listening post and start the manufacturing process.
My thoughts stop as I see everyone fall to their knees covering their ears and wincing in pain. I only then remember my first time turning on the generator and wince as the phantom pain flashes through my ears. Truthfully I didn't mean it. Yes, I did indeed have a flawless memory, but that just means I have to resort to memory tricks to quickly be able to find something. Soon the noise stops and I briefly thank my past self for always carrying earbuds constantly but curse myself for not realizing what was going to happen as I put them in. I will say however the earbuds are a bit too good at blocking out sound. I couldn't even hear the reactor and its jetlike roar but somehow even louder. It, however, still vibrated my sternum like a tuning fork which was uncomfortable.
"Lilith make sure to ask them if they’re alright. I managed to kickstart the spatial manipulator with the particle cannon's batteries to help deal with the sound. They should still visit the medbay so I can check them just to be safe."
I nod my head and make a thumbs up and down motion when everyone finishes thrashing around on the floor. Richard, Temlic, and most surprisingly Aria quickly said they were fine but asked me to warn them next time, well Aria didn't exactly say that, she actually asked what caused it with a look of utter fascination in her eyes. Veranda and Leah were making thumbs down while wincing in pain. I could see and smell the certainly sweet tasting blood leaking from everyone's ears, with Veranda and Leah smelling particularly strong with the complex sweetness of blood.
"I'm sorry for that, I forgot how loud it gets. I never turned it off since the first time turning it on for that exact reason but it does need breaks eventually. I'll guide everybody to the medbay? We can get your luggage when you all are checked up on. Ah, but don't worry about permanent hearing damage, this ship can heal almost everything as long as you have a heartbeat and enough spare time."
The three that can still hear look back at the women then to me and nod. I quickly rush them to the medical room and leave the rest to the medical AI to help fix. I never noticed a twitch in the face of Richard at my description of the medbay. Nor did I notice how he texted Veranda something on the short journey and her face almost melted. Mara—my Mother this time, not the copy with her voice and mannerisms helping me in my head—later told me while we privately discussed our "guests" that Veranda had a look of what Mom imagined was hope.
TIME:
16 HOURS LATER
LOCATION:
HYPERSPACE
"Again I'm sorry for that, like I said I always leave the generator on for that exact reason."
I scratch the back of my head while making myself look properly embarrassed. Turns out they all needed to receive some minor treatment for their ears, Leah and Veranda were still in a medical bed receiving care for ruptured eardrums. They would likely be bedridden for most of the journey while the artificial stim cells did their work.
"It's fine, you can make it up to them somehow I'm sure." Temlic tries and reassures me but I still pretend to be embarrassed.
"If I can't find a place that is suitably beautiful or interesting I'll let you use the simulation room. It has a bunch of alien worlds loaded onto it."
Temlic looks at me oddly like I grew three heads. "Do you mean a VR room? This ship has one?"
"Err, yeah that and yes, though I rarely use it."
"I see... guess we will see what the future holds."
Temlic nods and leaves the main living area heading for his room. I can't blame him, not much to do when you're in hyperspace. The only things you can do will involve the things you brought with you. For long journeys, before the species had fully completed the implementation of our parallel thought and sensory regulator modification, it was rare but not unheard of for some less stable vampires to get extremely stressed and require therapy during the journey.
Aria walks over and I feel a headache forming as I already know what we're going to talk about, the girl is smart. At least Mom thinks so. She suspects that if Aria was trained properly she could turn out to be a once in a lifetime genius by human and vampire standards. Even back when the standards were vastly higher. Currently, however, she might be a once in a millennia genius. Though to be honest I didn't believe that, Aria just can't be quiet when it comes to spaceships. Though I guess that doesn't mean she's stupid just socially blind. I decided I would humor her, just so I don't give her parents a reason to hate me even more and lower my rating.
I force a stiff smile as she walks closer glancing appraisingly at a tablet. That on closer inspection is a notes app. The app had many very long and—if I was reading them correctly—complex questions filling the screen from bottom to top. Mara please save me! My head remains painfully silent and I feel my smile falter ever so slightly while I internally roar at this act of karmic betrayal.
"Hey miss Runethari I know you said it's a secret, but can you at least hint at why your ship isn't super hot in places! I know ships produce tons of heat and pump it into hyperspace. But yours uses too much power for that to be the case. You said that this ship is rated in the terawatts but that would be too much heat to effectively pump into hyperspace. I remember reading once that ships get hot in hyperspace because the heat transfer gets more complex. But your ship isn't very warm."
Aria gets straight to asking questions and a very troublesome one at that. I cursed myself for telling her the power output of the reactor in a moment of pride. I couldn't exactly tell her I was using something called a 'Precursor Upper Dimensional Radiator.'
"Nope."
Aria's face remains surprisingly blank, only tilting her head in question. As much as I've grown tired of these questions and my opinions on humans has been stated, I can't help but think the motion was rather cute.
"I can't even give you a hint because it's a really close secret. It's not like I would be able to explain it technically to begin with anyways. How about this? I'll answer any other question as well as I can, but in return you have to do me a favor, how about it?"
I see a moment of caution enter the girl's eyes wondering if I was maybe playing some trick on her, but that shortly loses out to her ravenous inferno-like curiosity.
"Okay, but I want to know what the favor is before I ask! I'd hate to ask an easy question only for you to make me work really hard."
I grin and slowly fall back into my chair. "I want you to help me do something when we get back to Garnet station. Okay?"
She once again tilts her head and stares at me waiting for my dramatic pause to end. She does eventually nod her head and I continue while reaching into the pocket of my pants and fish out a data crystal. I was planning to ask Temlic where I could find these, but he looked exhausted and I need as accurate information as possible. A worried tired human man can't provide that.
I place it in the middle of us and I see curiosity sparkling across her face looking at that crystal. I said, "Do you know what this is Aria?"
She fiddled with the crystal not responding to my question verbally, however, I did notice a look of what I think is recognition.
"Well this crystal is very important to me, have you seen something like this before? A similar crystal whose outside crust is clear as glass, before it rapidly grows cloudy and opaque? Sometimes with layers cloudy only to have the remaining parts clear as the sky."
She looks up and pauses her heart rate rising for only a few seconds, before cooling back down to a steady rhythm. "Um... yes they're called precursor crystals. They're sometimes found in old progenitor ruins. Why are they important to you? I have always been told they are considered useless, only valuable because they are super difficult to find, like sovra."
I smirk a little thankful for this windfall. Most data crystals hold important documents and manufacturing specs for technologies. They were made of solid, incredibly sturdy artificial crystals. It was a good way to store massive amounts of data without worry of something breaking it by dropping it, or shocking it with static. It was also immune to the tragedy of accidentally leaving it alone for a few months and returning to find the data corrupted. Granted some of their famous durability faded as it neared being completely full.
"They are, but I'm... something of a collector. Do you know where I can find some?"
Aria looks down at the crystal in her hand, an expression of... indecision and the body cues to match it are plastered on her small face.
She looks up excitement now replacing the indecision. I can't help but internally cheer as she reaches into her shirt and pulls out a previously hidden necklace. A necklace that in its center has a marble of cloudy crystal. I force myself to remain still and not immediately yank it off her neck.
"I have one here, but it's from my aunt who I haven't ever met, so I can't let you have it... sorry."
Little brat... wait why do I need to own the crystal if everyone sees them as useless. I make a show of sighing and throw up my hands in exaggerated disappointment. "Dang that stinks, how about this, if I answer all your questions within reason you let me borrow it for a few hours, half a day at most? I don't need to keep the crystal I can just make a close replica from a scan."
"Oh... okay. But wait, what stops you from just switching them, Miss Runethari?" She seems suspicious, but her heart rate is telling a different tale, she's more curious than ever based on her body's actions.
"Can you hand me back the crystal I gave you and wait here for a moment?"
She rolls the crystal over to me. I grab it before quickly getting up to fabricate a heavy hammer from engineering. I returned ten minutes later to see her still sitting in her spot patiently. I walk over to my spot and place the crystal on the black polished metal table. She looks at me, then the hammer in my hand, and then the crystal. I choose that moment to hit the crystal as hard as I physically can.
She jumps spooked at the explosive sound of the crystal being smashed brutally against the metal table. I slowly raise the hammer, ignoring Mom telling me I just woke up everybody nearby who wasn't at the medbay. I see her slowly gaze back to where the crystal was. Her eyes briefly widen as she sees the spherical indent in the half inch thick metal table, and the crystal. A crystal which is still in one piece with not even a single crack.
"These crystals are incredibly difficult to shatter but you should know we can’t exactly make them without a lot of time and extremely expensive machines. So, how about it, if I answer your questions you'll let me borrow your necklace for lets say 6 hours?"
She nods her head rapidly and soon starts spouting questions. Soon the room becomes slightly crowded for a minute as everyone asks what the sound was before going back to sleep. 'Here's to hoping this is worth it; that crystal looked completely full. I swear if it's just bureaucratic records I will break something.'