Outsider

[Laowai]

The vastness of the structure around them silenced all of those on the bridge who could see it, even Laowai leaned forward in his command chair, eyes wide and mouth agape.

It was only the insistence beeping of a warning sensor that roused them back to their senses, "Incoming alien ships, 1, 2 no.... 3 wings of them coming in fast!" yelled the officer at the scanning control. Laowai sat back into his chair and strapped himself in again, hitting a button on the arm-consol he spoke "Crew, get back to your stations, hostiles on the way - the fun isn't over yet."

The great ships engines engaged and she began to thrust away from the jumphole, her gun batteries opening up once again filling the vaccum of space outside with a flurry of supercharged lights dancing to and fro as they chased their elusive targets. The Nomad vessels were fast and maneuverable, able to dodge the blasts of the bigger ships weapons with relative ease, sweeping past and unleashing their own volleys at the vessel that had just invaded this, one of their most revered places.
It became apparent quickly however that the light fighters, while great in number did not possess the firepower to do the Venganza any harm and soon they began to be picked off, one by one exploding in a sudden bright flash. They began to fall off and hold their distance.

While the Venganza made its way slowly through the asteroids that filled the space within the sphere Laowai stood by the officer at the scanning controls. He plugged a data pad into an access port on the mans console and a strange list of numbers and shapes appeared briefly on his screen, "Scan for anything that matches that energy signature and those patterns of structure" he told the perplexed looking man. "Elder... im not sure what im looking for... I..". Laowai pointed to the patterns now sitting on the mans screen, "search for matches, you don't need to know what it is, just find something that matches it."
The officer moved his hands over the controls, pushing buttons quickly as he instructed the ships scanners to carry out the task. Quickly however, he shook his head and said "Its too big, its just too big. Our scanners don't have the range to even get to the facing wall, its impossible to do the whole thing."

Laowai scowled... How had he not anticipated that? "Keep scanning" he told the man. He turned quickly, "Engage the cruise engines, get us to the facing wall."

The navigator turned "Elder, that will take days, its off our charts now as it is!"

Laowai sat down in his chair and cracked his knuckles loudly; "Then it takes days, get us there."
"Aye" the navigator answered and punched in the code to arm and engage the engines. The battleship leapt forward at a far greater speed now, rocks and asteroids bouncing off her shields as she surged forward.
"Where are the Nomad ships?" Laowai asked. The scanning officer punched another control and answered "5k behind us, they are in formation and have jumped to cruise; Their shadowing us!"

Thought they might, Laowai thought to himself. "No matter, until they bring in something bigger they can't hurt the ship, get us to scanning range of the wall."

He unstrapped himself from the chair and stood, "I'll be in my office for a while, any change in the situation call me straight away".

The Navigating officer nodded and Ben made his way to the door at the back of the bridge. He made his way down the hallway to his office, speaking to no one as he passed, his mind lost in thought.
Reaching his office he opened his safe on the wall beside his desk. From inside he took a metal box and placed it on the desk. He sat down and entered a code on the box, a small slide opened and he looked into it, the retinal scanner within matching his eye to the code stored within. Another slide clicked open and a pad of 26 letters appeared with a small screen above them displaying the word "Why?"

He entered two words into the pad and the lid of the box clicked open.

Sitting inside the box, resting in a niche created especially for it, was his own Crystal from Tangier.
Dare he use it here? it would save time to just search around him, in the alien minds around him for the structures he was looking for. Could he do it? He stared at the crystal intently, it was a risk, they were many, he was one - this was their language not his... and they would know why he came, what he was seeking and could guess then that perhaps there were others out there among the stars, that their masters' legacies, the legacy that preserved his wife, were being usurped by Humanity.

He closed the box and it locked itself, closing its respective chambers with mechanical whirs and clicks.
No, he couldn't do it, it was too risky. This would have to be done by old fashioned looking and luck.

He clicked the comm control on his desk and said to the Navigating officer "Estimated time to scanning range of the facing wall?"

There was a pause and the mans voice came down the line "At least a day Elder... probably two, we're still too far out to get an accurate reading of the distance."

"Let me know as soon as you can" Laowai said, the frustration carrying on his voice. He switched off the channel. He had come here hoping in the possibility of finding answers, something that could aid him in his task. So far however, this seemed like chasing a single piece of dust in an asteroid field.

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