With a simple thought, the ISS Constellation broke orbit at the same time that Kiru had started her lessons. Megumi felt that now that her repairs and reconfiguration was completed it was time to rescue the crew of the crippled Ludole vessel. She had hoped to have Melia interact with them, but the young lady had decided to undergo her psychic awakening procedure already. As such Melia was currently in a bio-pod, undergoing a process not expected to complete for another five days. When done, she would join the ever-growing list of students that Megumi had to teach. At least, she was an AI able to produce instances that could manage that.

The Ludole cruiser was her immediate focus though. The ship had taken a beating in its brief battle with Uliera. Even young dragons were nasty opponents though, and while Uliera wasn’t a pup, she was a full-grown adult looking for her own nest. Megumi was curious why these would-be dragon hunters had challenged a nesting dragon. It seemed foolish to her, especially with their current equipment. Those Positron beam cannons were decent, but against a dragon, they needed something with more punch. Their shields were decent and could work. Really they just needed better weapons.

Moments after breaking orbit, the Constellation came up alongside the wrecked cruiser. Her sensors confirmed the same number of life signs she had detected on her way into the system. They had not moved far from the compartment, and no distress call had been given yet either. Seeing they were fine, she did not deploy any drones immediately. Instead, she focused on several structural scans. Accessing the ship’s general condition, and the state of her systems.

The Ludole vessel was heavily damaged and adrift. Running only on auxiliary power with minimal life support. Uliera’s plasma breath had punched through the hull amidships, and violently decompressed most of the ship. Emergency systems had managed to isolate a number of forward compartments. The ship’s main reactor was only lightly damaged, it looked like the crew shut it down after a previous hit had damaged the containment shields. If she had to guess, they had shut it down just before the last hit, and not before receiving a fatal dose of radiation. Even though engineering had been isolated as well, she was reading only corpses in that compartment.

Her engines were also largely intact. Having received fairly minimal damage during the exchange. Other than a hit to her navigational array, and a second to the primary warp field regulator array. Damage that would prevent the vessel from making the jump to warp speed. However, that damage could be easily repaired. Megumi could patch the battle damage sufficiently to allow the Ludole ship to limp back to her own port. 

Megumi did note that communicating her intentions might run into a couple of hiccups. The ship’s communications array was currently offline, hence the lack of a distress call. A boarding operation would be needed. There were a few options for making contact with the crew though. Personally, she was leaning towards asking Erisa to do that. The young Erali didn’t have much else to do, and her biomechs were still in training. Otherwise, she would have sent a squad of biomechs in to do the delicate first contact work. Sending a drone was an option, but they could be intimidating. Not to mention their simpler brains were not programmed for diplomacy. Megumi didn’t want to send any drones aboard without permission either.

In the meantime, she went ahead and outfitted a few drones for repair work. They could conduct the simple work needed to restore the ship to minimal functionality. Megumi had recently constructed those repair drones. Her previous loadout had included a pair for starship recovery, but they had been destroyed during that fateful battle. They were simple drones, but versatile and effective. At least as long as you were not using them for repairing highly complex repair work that is. They just weren’t designed for that, and they were very slow compared to an ARU anyway. Most of the time she didn’t really need them, and that had played into why she had only carried two of them. The only reason she even needed them now is because none of her current crew had the skills to repair Ludole technology. It was too advanced for them to figure out. Although, she did not believe it would stay that way.

Erisa stared out of the viewport, finding herself rather bored. Melia had gone off for some weird brain procedure. Honestly, Erisa didn’t understand why she even agreed to that. Erisa didn’t want a strange computer doing weird things to her head, but for some reason, Melia did agree to it. 

Melia was her best friend though, even after her damn fool choice to sign her free will away to a computer of all things. Erisa knew she was just here being moody, but she didn’t have many other friends to talk to. She needed something to do, anything to distract herself with. As if to answer that sentiment, a certain familiar hologram materialized, and said, “If you aren’t too busy, there is something I would like you to do for me.”

She gave the hologram a look, “You aren’t getting me on one of your tables if that is what you are after.”

“Well, if you want an examination you could just ask, but no, that isn’t what I am here for.” she pointed out the viewport, “I want you to board that cruiser over there. Her comms are down, and someone will have to go over there to make contact with the surviving crew.”

“I’m not helping you get them on your tables either,” Erisa replied. She had heard about a few scientists finding themselves being vivisected, awake. At least the ship used anesthetics, and none of them were suffering from nightmares after that. She didn’t know why they were still mentally stable after that. If she knew what Kiru had gone through she might have had more to say.

“I don’t plan on studying them. This is a humanitarian mission. I figured I would conduct some basic repairs to their ship before departing the system.”

Erisa thought about it, “I guess I could help, but I don’t trust you.”

“I was planning to pay you for the help. I have a few toys that might be interesting for you.”

“I’ll do it, but don’t think for a minute I trust you.”

Megumi gave her a wry grin. “I don’t expect you to, but I am not your enemy. Let’s go over the details shall we?”

  He stretched his limbs a bit, and slipped off the bunk. It had been a long night, and he hadn’t slept well. Like the rest of his crew, he was worried the dragon would come back and finish them off. It had been well over a day since that battle though, and so far nothing had happened.

He sighed, and then moved to open the door. Before he touched the handle, or even closed half the distance between the bunk and the door he heard a loud clanking sound. Followed by a familiar alert. A second after the sound, the computer announced, “Vessel docked at Docking Port twelve.”

That was a surprise, and he rushed out of his quarters. Moments later he was at the auxiliary bridge, where the few surviving officers were gathered. “Report!” he barked on entry.

A young woman answered, “Other than the ship at port twelve, nothing unusual has happened. As for the ship, so far they have not attempted to board. I have already ordered a security team to docking port twelve.”

That was what he would have done. After the encounter, his crew had been reduced to a mere four hundred out of a thousand, but they could still fight off a few hostile boarders. That is if the intruders proved hostile, and they might. He was somewhat suspicious of the timing. The old captain wasn’t surprised they snuck up on his crew though. The external sensors were down. His crew was working on restoring the ship’s communications, but that was proving harder than first thought.

The fact these aliens had only docked, was a good sign though. He figured they could afford to attempt friendly communications. Signaling his officer, he said, “A sensible precaution. Now, why don’t we go say hello to our new guests.”

He may have phrased it as a question, but it was clear that it was not to his officer. She followed him out of the compartment. As they walked down the corridor towards the port, one of the few linked to a pressurized section of the ship, and more importantly one they could reach. His officer asked, “Excuse me, sir. What do you mean, guests?”

“If they were hostile, they should have boarded already. The fact they have not, indicates they may want to talk. Tripping the docking alarm may also have been quite intentional on their part. If they had chosen port eight, for example, they could have come aboard undetected. Internal sensors are down for that port, and the surrounding sections afterall. Nor is anyone guarding the docking port, since we did not expect company. That means they likely came to us as friends, and we need to see what they want. That doesn’t mean they won’t prove hostile later though.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, sir.”

He had no doubt the young officer would. The rest of the walk happened in silence, and no alarms went off. So far things seemed to be going alright.

When they reached the docking port, he found his guards in position. With no activity to report. That was good news, so far. The aliens were not yet coming aboard. He signaled one of the guards and ordered the young man to attempt to contact the alien vessel. With it docked, their local comm panels should be able to make a connection.

Before long, he found himself introducing himself to a young Erali woman in his hallway. A woman who had introduced herself as Erisa. 

“I’m Captain Armak Gregaria. I wish these were better circumstances, but we are dealt the hands we are dealt. Now may I ask why you are here?”

“To offer some help with your repairs. Before you say no, the ship we are on is of Solean origin. Its repair systems have already diagnosed your damage, and developed a plan for patching your systems to allow you to move under your own power again. You will still need a yard though.”

That caught his interest. “A Solean ship, you say? Not often that you see an operational one. Where did you find it?”

“I am not at liberty to say. It wasn’t when we found it though. Melia, my friend, managed to repair its self-repair mechanisms, and the ship repaired itself. I could do without the AI though. As much as I hate to say it, the ship is unfortunately our best hope to end this war. That eccentric alien AI promised to help, and so far it seems to be keeping that promise. I don’t trust it though.”

He was silent in thought for a moment, “I’m afraid I am not all that familiar with Solean AIs. At least not beyond what little is known about them. That particular precursor race was rather enigmatic, to begin with.”

“After dealing with her, I can believe it.”

“I won’t say no to a repair offer, but what is the catch? The timing is rather suspicious.”

“She actually saw the tail end of your battle, but needed to complete her own repairs first. She also said something, I don’t want to repeat. As for what she wants. That AI is investigating the nature of our current war with the Neku. She finds it to be suspicious and thinks there is a puppet master pulling the strings. She wants any information you can spare that is related to the Neku, no matter how small.

That was interesting. It sounded like the precursor ship was interested in the Neku. They were a primitive Feliniod race, but they had advanced remarkably in recent years. He didn’t know much about them otherwise. Perhaps it was time to take a closer look at them. He nodded, “We could use the help. I’ll see what I can dig up for her.”