chapter 209

Bob was about to explain to me what Melly needed help with and why it was serious enough that Bob decided to help her without discussing it with me first. There was one problem with that, and that was that we were being watched right now.

I think Melly has been out here for too long. If she's in enough trouble to ask for our help, as she barely knows us, it means that someone has a tight leash on her. She does seem quite nervous right now, but that could be because I’m the captain and could simply say no.

“How much are your services again?” I asked Melly.

She looked shocked, not knowing what to say, but eventually managed to get out the number of credits needed. That number seemed way too small.

Basically, most of our credits were numbers on the web, but I had some physical ones as well from trading here, so I pulled them out and threw them to Bob, who barely managed to catch them.

“Now I don’t care what you do there. What I care about is that we’re all being watched. Bob, you can fill me in later.” He was about to say something in protest; I could sense it. “Both of you don't have to do anything; simply make it look like everything's normal.”

I looked toward Dean, who gave me a small nod. I nodded back and felt the disruption device being deactivated by one of his squad members. It was nice to know that the tech worked.

Slowly, while I have had some free time, I’ve been able to make small devices that elite squads used back on Earth for all types of missions. I’m still missing about 90% of what I know they used, which is another reason why we needed those three new crew members. I simply don’t have enough time to do everything.

“See you later, Bob. Dean, you stay here. You're Bob’s security now. Leave me two of your squad members to escort me. We have done enough shopping for today.”

Bob was once again about to say something, but a look from me silenced him. It was actually kind of funny how flustered he was. I looked towards Melly, who understood that she needed to play her part. She didn’t say anything, but I could see the gratitude in her eyes.

We watched Bob and Dean leave with Melly. “Okay boys, let's get everything back onto the ship.”

Some of Bob’s hauling team members also ran security, as we didn’t have enough stuff for everyone to need to do hauling. Bob was diligent enough that each of his subordinates also knew how to fight.

Each and every drone, droid, and everything else that could move or do something had some combat protocols. It would be stupid not to have them, but perhaps Bob was correct that we should have some proper training for them as well. You never know when something is needed. We should also probably flip that around and get the combat units some training in repair.

Flexibility is important and more easily achievable now that we can run VR simulations and have a lot of individuals connected at the same time. It's not perfect, but hopefully the three crew members we will be getting will help with that.

We reached the ship without any incident. Sam looked confused as we entered, as Dean and Bob were missing. “They should be joining us in an hour or two. We'll debrief then.”

“I'll leave the storing up to you,” I said to Bob’s subordinates. All of them, for some reason, looked a bit frantic. I could sense the spike of communication between them all, like they were arguing about something.

“You, you, and you, follow me. We’ll take those into the workshop,” I said to three drones, all of whom were carrying the parts needed for the new crew members.

My workshop was always a bit hot, but it was so much better thanks to FH’s skills and the fact that we were inside an atmosphere right now, which allowed for much easier heat dissipation. We still didn't want to push our manufacturing too much, otherwise there would be questions asked as to why we were producing so much heat.

I had barely sat down to start looking everything over more thoroughly when FH wanted my attention.

“Captain, I’ve gone through everything. I now have an understanding of this system, how it connects with the side dimension, and all the forces in play.” There was hesitation before she managed to continue. “We’re basically inside a bomb right now.”

Her last words made me stop, and fully focusing on her. “Explain.”

“This anomalous star is bending the fabric of space to its absolute limits. Way worse than any black hole. I think it’s mostly because of the lack of time dilation. It’s really messing everything up.”

“Why would that matter... actually, never mind. Continue explaining about the bomb part.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I only figured that out because of the Adventurers Guild’s danger list of what to keep an eye out for and report immediately. This phenomenon seems to fit into the double-zero list.”

“Wait, the scary one that could mean the destruction of a galaxy?”

“No, that's the zero list. Double-zero is significant impact on a galaxy, but not its destruction.”

“Well, that actually doesn't sound any better.” My mind was in a bit of a turmoil, so I forced it to calm down so I could continue to think rationally.

“This system is like a balloon that’s been blown way too big. If someone were to try to force their way in or out of the system, that could pop that bubble. Also, if they tried to get too close to the sun, which some of them do. But fortunately, the space there is less stretched than on the outer edge.”

“The hell do you mean they tried to get to the sun?”

“It was something I found out quite early while connecting to the web. They're called sun runners, who try to get close enough to scrape materials off the sun. They can get a lot of materials that are quite valuable in this system if they are lucky and smart.”

“Apparently not if it could lead to its destruction.”

“Yes. I am surprised no one has made the connection. But I guess they would need a copy of the list, which is otherwise quite useless unless you’re quite a strong space adventurer.”

“And those ships would not get sucked into this anomaly?” Damn, this really was a bad situation. “So there is no escape unless we risk destroying this system, and who knows how much more?”

“If we were close to some other systems, let's say about two light-years away, and that’s a rough, really rough estimation, they would probably be destroyed as well. But this anomaly would have more of an effect on the side dimension. It would make basically all FTL travel impossible within about a 3,000-light-year radius.”

“Oh shit,” was all I managed to get out as all the implications ran through my head. It wasn't a tremendously large area compared to the galaxy as a whole, but... “And I’m guessing it would have a severe impact on the rest of the galaxy’s area in the side dimension as well?”

“Exactly that. But that would be manageable in terms of adventurers being able to fly about. But trade ships, especially the large ones, would not survive FTL travel. It would basically crash the galaxy’s economy.”

“Well, this is definitely above our pay grade. We can’t contact anyone outside because the quantum web doesn’t work here. We can't risk going out, or otherwise we could pop the bubble because we could kill ourselves and hurt the galaxy at the same time.”

“Not entirely true.” FH was about to continue, but I already figured out what she wanted to say.

“The entrances that deposit everything into this system from the side dimension. Those are like a thick part of a balloon that you could stick a needle into without popping it?”

“Yes, exactly that, Captain.”

“Send me all the data you have figured out.” As soon as I finished saying that, she started transferring everything over. It was weird to act like a computer, even though I had been doing it for quite a while now, but never with such an amount of data.

It took me a bit, but slowly the data unfurled, and the picture of the system got clearer and clearer. There was a path out using one of the entrances, but it needed to be a specific one because after we got out of this system, we needed to follow a specific path.

If we waited too long, that relatively calm path inside the storm might change on us, and if we hit too rough a part of the storm, we would be torn apart. But right now, Forward Horizon wouldn’t even be able to get that far.

The problem was our aerodynamics, which is crazy to think about, considering that we would need them in space, but here we are. My mind went to car racing. When you took normal everyday cars and tuned them up to have way too much power, the regular aerodynamics didn’t work. They became too unstable, like our ship was inside that storm.

To fix it, they had body kits to help manage aerodynamics better. A shell to make our front more uniform and better able to handle the forces at play. It would need to be connected to the main structure of the ship fully. There does not seem to be any other way, even if it would leave us vulnerable in a fight.

It would basically cover most of our turrets and make it impossible for us to fire forward. We would still have the use of missiles, but we would need to change the ports' directions.

Much work was needed, and then there was the problem of material. That shell needed to be incredibly tough. We should be able to purchase some of it, but all of that would be raw materials for our manufacturing, as we couldn’t cobble together anything. Everything needed to be uniform.

“FH, start running simulations centered on the first iteration of the shell.”

“The shell?” she managed to get out before she received the data. “Oh yes, of course, Captain.”

“Also contact the Overseer. See if we can connect ourselves with their heat dissipation systems. We don’t have time to play secretive.”

“Understood, Captain. Bob is also approaching.”

“Alright, I almost forgot about that. Let’s see what quest she managed to talk Bob into.”

It didn’t take long for everyone to assemble as Bob made it back with Dean. “I don’t want to hear it, Bob. What happened there, keep it to yourself. What I’m interested in is what you got us into.”

“Yes, Captain,” he said, fully leaning into the fact that I was the captain and he was my subordinate.

“I believe she originally wanted to confide in you. I don’t know what made her hesitate and instead open up to me. The short of it is that after their home planet fell, they managed to escape in a ship meant for a new start.” He took a small pause before continuing.

“Tragically, they ended up being pulled into this system, with only a small part of their ship surviving. Only five of the crew of a few hundred survived, and along with them, four arks.”

“Arks?” Lola asked for clarification.

“They are a more refined version of what you have, Captain. They contain digitalized genetic codes of plant life and enough individuals to kick-start a stable population.”

Dean and Sam looked at me in shock. Did they have no idea I have something like that? “When I escaped Earth, I thought the galaxy was an empty place. I planned on finding a nice planet and then slowly terraforming it to have more Earth-like plants and animals, and yes, including humans.”

“Wait. Wait. You not only have digitalized genetic codes for animals and plants, but also enough diversity to have a stable population of humans?” Dean asked.

“Yes, I do. Why?”

“Then why haven't you purchased some land or a habitable moon and made your own nation?”

“Because that sounds horrible. I don’t want to be a leader of humans. The only reason I got enough human genetic code to make a stable population was because I knew that even I couldn’t survive being alone for as long as I could live.”

Dean wanted to ask more, but I held up my hand and pointed towards Bob because that was more urgent right now.

“The one that owns the establishment, where Melly and another of the survivors work at, the other three have died. They’re being held hostage by the fact that the owner has all the arks under her control and has threatened to destroy them if they don't follow her orders.”

“Why not kill them? Then she would have full ownership of the arks?” Lola asked, and I wondered the same thing.

“Only their bio-signatures can access the arks. Without them, they would just be useless pieces of technology in this system. That owner is currently one of the wealthiest people on the station because she is using the genetic codes to make plants that are useful for making recreational drugs.”

“But couldn't she use it to help everyone survive better here?” Sam questioned. Bob nodded his head at that.

“So what does she want us to do?” I finally asked.

“She wants us to rescue her and her friend and at least one ark, although those are quite securely held and she doesn’t know where. She believes you have enough strength to protect what we take or even escape this system.”

In theory, I didn’t care what some drug kingpin thought about us or what they might do because we weren’t planning on staying here.

“We won't act immediately, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to do some reconnaissance. Also, a heist sounds quite funny, and being able to save an entire species also doesn’t sound bad. Before we fully commit to this, I would want to speak with Melly more thoroughly. But I’m not outright rejecting this,” I said while pointedly looking at Bob. He nodded.

“Let’s put all of that aside right now, as we have a plan on how to get out of here.” I started to explain to them all what FH and I had figured out and what we would need to escape this place.