“We were crossing a main corridor when the asteroid burst through the ship,” K’storpo related. “Suddenly millions of metal shards came flying toward us. Everyone hit their suit thrusters at once and we were well-clear before the junk flew by.”
Mati looked at her lap. “I am soooo sorry I missed that one.”
Timorazonia took to the air and landed on the table in front of Mati. “I know lots of pilots,” she asserted in her small voice, “and I don’t know many who could have gotten half those rocks.”
Mati reluctantly looked up, and saw that the Ti’ia had a very sincere look on her tiny face. Mati glanced around, and saw that Ilika, K’storpo, and T’shlix were all nodding agreement. “I still wish I’d gotten it,” she said, holding in a slight smile.
Rini started clapping, and others quickly joined with their hands, or with insect claws tapping on the table.
Mati couldn’t help but crack a tiny grin.
Boro’s hand crept up, and K’storpo nodded at him.
“Is there anything I could have done to avoid all that inertia? I feel terrible about someone getting hurt.”
The wounded spider, still flinching at times as M’palta adjusted his bandages, immediately spoke. “No, Boro. The energy from those rocks was far greater than anything Manessa could absorb without reaction. Every ship has limits. It would have been much worse, probably fatal for most of us, if
NEBADOR Book Seven: The Local Universe 23
you hadn’t engaged inertia canceling when you did.”
After a moment of silence, a broken voice was heard from another part of the table, and everyone looked to see trembling lips on a freckled face. “It was
. . . my fault. I should have . . . spotted those asteroids . . . much sooner. I was
. . . too focused on the . . . the mystery ship.”
Ilika nodded. “And therefore your captain shares your guilt.”
Others
slowly
nodded.
“Forgiven,”
M’palta’s
mate
said with a wave of one of his good legs. “Can we start the excursion reports? I’m dying of curiosity about what you found!”
The mood lightened, and K’storpo twitched his mandibles. “Good idea.
Filia?”
The Ti’ia flitted about the table as she spoke. “We knew from the language glyphs and symbols that the ship was probably insect, even before we got inside. I can’t read everything yet, but got hundreds of pictures, and will be studying them as we go. What I got from the glyphs matches what we’ve seen
— a very tightly-controlled hive culture with completely centralized leadership.”
K’storpo nodded. “T’shlix?”
“No luck with knowledge crystals. The ship’s way too primitive. All information was stored using magnetized iron, and it’s all broken and crumbling to dust. Took lots of pictures, but nothing, absolutely nothing, is in working condition.”
The beetle opened a sample container. “These are already warm. I’ll keep the other container at eleven absolute until we can study them at Satamia.”
He passed a piece of dark, broken metal around the table. Crystals of different shades of gray could be seen on its surface, and it broke in half when Boro handled it. The engineer smiled with embarrassment.
“M’palta?”
She stroked her precious mate’s bandage one more time, then extended one leg onto the table for a knowledge pad. “Screen, please.”
Kibi swiveled around, touched her console, and swiveled back.
“As we guessed from the shape, it was a colony hive ship.” Pictures of sleeping capsules, lined up in perfect rows, hundreds wide and high, appeared on the big screen. “Extrapolating from the part of the ship we explored, it
NEBADOR Book Seven: The Local Universe 24
contained twenty to thirty million sleeping insects . . .” Her voice trailed off and her many eyes turned deep blue.
“Until . . .” K’storpo prompted.
M’palta took a slow breath and a little light returned to her eyes. “Until it got too cold, and they entered the deeper sleep of . . . forever.”
She touched the knowledge pad and another picture appeared on the screen, the contents of one broken-open sleeping capsule, with nothing left but a crumbling husk and some dust. “Completely dead, probably not even any genetic material. I have three samples I’m keeping at eleven absolute.”
K’storpo looked at her sternly. “You had another important insight.”
“Oh, yeah, that. T’shlix and I agree . . . judging by the technology, the sleepers were kept cool, but not cold. So if the other two ships are in better shape . . .”
Seeing that his team member was reluctant to complete her sentence, K’storpo let a moment pass, then spoke. “They might be alive, maybe even awake.”