Mastodawn

---- Part 2 -----
The crew of the Athena assembled at the airlock that mated with the station. Another oddity - the fittings had been completely standard.

The Captain ran the checks. "Sparks, confirm?"

Sparks re-ran the checks "Confirm, seals good, pressure good, no contaminates."

With that the Captain opened the locks. Beyond their airlock was a second one - the station-side one, with the outer door already open. As they watched, the inner door opened, forming a short corridor between the station and the ship. The Captain led the way.

They emerged into a wide concourse, much like any other orbital station. There were two armed guards. Armed with holstered pistols of some kind - and alarmingly sharp looking pole-arms in their hands. They nodded to the Captain, and stepped back, revealing a young woman dressed in flowing black.

She looked them over and then spoke, her voice unexpectedly musical and resonate - like a deep bell sounding in the distance "I am Seeker of Hidden Truths. I will escort you to the Council. Follow me."

Alaine watched her as they followed. She would be around his age he guessed. Odd for them to send someone so junior to escort them. Also odd was that the two guards did not follow, but stayed at the airlock, which they had closed.

They passed several groups along the way - all oddly quiet. All looked at them curiously as they passed, but made no comment. Alaine was starting to feel just a little creeped out. The whole place was eerily quiet. The crew was keeping quiet in turn. The Captain would speak for them.

And everywhere, everything was so ... normal. Hatches looked completely standard, signage was dual language, in both what was presumably the native tongue and in Standard, just like any other station. Even the clothes looked familiar. They looked like ... Alaine gave voice to his realisation "Captain, those clothes..."
"Aye, hush now."
So she had noticed as well. Everyone other than their guide were wearing clothes that looked worryingly like Scout uniforms. Had they stumbled upon a top-secret Scout base?

Seeker took them through an ornate door into a large room, with dozens of people seated in stepped rows, like an auditorium. "I have brought the crew of the Athena before the Council" she announced.

One of the seated figures asked "How do you find them?"

"What?!" Alaine wondered - they had not exchanged a single word since leaving the concourse, how could they have any sort of verdict? He looked around, and the rest of the crew looked just as confused and worried.

#SFF #SF #SciFi #microfic #tootfic #microfiction #IAmWriting #ShamanSpace

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rdm 5h ago

Two days ago:

The watch officer saw a blip towards the outer system, near the further gas giant.

A tiny ripple in gravity.

She thumbed a button on the laser link to the station above All Mother "Command? Watch station three. I have a jump signature near Smithy. Coordinates follow." It was not unheard of for ships to visit, but Scouts always jumped in much closer. This was something else. The Patrol would look into it.

She went back to her duties.

----

Seeker of Hidden Truths sat in the command seat for Divessen Station. The only reason she was seated here was because all the command staff were in a briefing with the Council.

Many, many years ago her ancestor had met and bonded with a Scout whose ship had been destroyed by the raiders that had plagued their planet. That had led to the destruction of the raiders, and a vague alliance with the Scouts.

Sixty years ago, her great-grandmother had left to join the Scouts. Her return saw the building of the station, the establishment of the Patrol, and much more.

Now, she served as an apprentice. But, when no-one else was available...

A message came in - an arriving ship, near the gas giant Smithy. That was the behaviour of either someone taking a shortcut, in which case no harm, or a raider. And for them they had a special welcome.

"Findottier, this is Command. Jump sign at these coordinates. Monitor and investigate under stealth if no departure in eight hours" she transmitted to the newest of their patrol boats.

Seeker then sent a copy of the information and the orders to the Council.

---

An hour later she was summoned to Council. She walked in, and bowed to the elders. "I am Seeker of Hidden Truths, I come as summoned."

"You have done well, Seeker" came a familiar voice from the assembled Elders. It was her great-grandmother! "We have determined that you are to maintain command of this situation until it is resolved. Do you accept this commission?"

Seeker took a moment to find her voice "I ... I accept the Council's commission."

"Very good. Remember that even in command, you are not alone."

"Thank-you, Elder."

"To your duties, Seeker"

And with that, she almost ran back to the command centre.

#SFF #SF #SciFi #microfic #tootfic #microfiction #IAmWriting #ShamanSpace

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Kit Bashir 16h ago

@rdm is there an archive, it seems the no-algorithm has not been showing me all your posts. I’d like to catch up (yeah i can do that with sufficiently advanced fedi-fu, I kno)

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