“Alert! Solean Battleship detected on approach vector.”

The young man sighed and looked up from his work. It had been a few days since they had found this vessel. He had managed to access the ship’s computer mainframe, and configure the sensors to alert them about approaching vessels. While he was at it, he changed the language settings, and encoded some new lingual code, namely teaching the computer Basic. It didn’t know any modern languages before.

That alert however really took his notice. It wasn’t the first alert about an approaching ship. However, this was the first alert in which the computer had given any real identifying information. Much less told him what race built the ship it was alerting him about.

“Computer basis of identification?” he inquired

“The vessel was identified with the following identifiers of mass, hull configuration, energy signature, and hull composition. The ship has a 99.8 percent correlation with Solean design. The ship is powered by a combination of Omega energy and Subspace energy wells, technology exclusively employed by the Solean Empire. Mass and hull configuration are consistent with Solean battleship designs. Based on these factors, there is a high probability that the ship in question is a Solean battleship.

The young man did not think that news was good. A vessel that this ship recognized was undoubtedly of precursor origin. The precursors possessed unrivaled technology and abilities. Their own technology was ahead of the curve for much of the galaxy, but they had not yet achieved the same heights as the precursors. It was what made this old ship so valuable. Whoever uncovered its secrets would have unparalleled power in the galaxy. It would change the balance of power among the old races.

As he dropped his work, and headed over to a comm console to contact the taskforce, he asked the computer, “what exactly is Omega energy?”

He already knew that this ship ran off of Zero Point Energy, and that was potent stuff. Able to rival stars in energy output, and remarkably efficient. They had sent a couple power modules back home for study as those modules alone were game changers.

The computer responded in its typical flat voice, “Omega energy is a form of high energy power generation that extracts vast amounts of energy from the Omega Molecule. A highly unstable high mass molecule that exists partially in hyperspace. Most cultures look into Omega at some point in their development due to its vast potential for energy generation. A single molecule of it can rival a small star in terms of energy output. Unfortunately the Omega Molecule is highly unstable, and prone to detonating almost as soon as it has been synthesized. Omega detonations propagate through hyperspace, and cause irreparable damage to hyperspace. Detonations may also tear open rifts into normal space. Rendering FTL travel impossible in regions extending several lightyears after a detonation occurred. The Altean Directorate banned all research into the Omega phenomenon due to this property.”

That was concerning, “If the stuff is that dangerous, why do the Soleans use it?”

“Unlike most races, the Soleans never signed any treaties forbidding research into Omega energy. They also discovered Omega far later in their development than most cultures do. Allowing them to conduct their research unhindered in the void between galaxies, an option the Altean Directorate did not have when it conducted its initial studies.”

He was about to ask another question of the computer, when the computer stated, “New Information. Vessel identified. ISS Constellation, Sovereign class. Solean Imperial Fleet registry, SFR-45567595-EEE. Commissioned in the year 3421459 SDE on the Solean Calendar, last seen on Stardate 411230 on the Altean Standard Calendar, or 3422857 on the Solean Calendar. AI, core Megumi. Last Known captain, Toku of Clan Shiro. Would you like to review her combat record? One thousand three hundred ninety eight years available for review. Public record only.”

How old would that ship be now? He wondered. Apparently out loud, as the computer informed him. “Based on current date, and commission year of the ISS Constellation the ship is one million four hundred twenty four thousand, five hundred and twenty nine years old.”

That age was shocking. It was already weird that the ship had a combat record nearly fourteen hundred years long available for review, but apparently it was a drop in the bucket. Likely useless as well.

  Meanwhile. Megumi was fully aware that she was on final approach to the ADS Inquistor. Her mind was mostly elsewhere however. As she looked over the image of her new Biomech avatar in the mirror. She could not wait to show herself to Melia when she woke up. As for Kiru, she was doing well in her training, and it might prove useful for some of it.

Her mind could not help, but drift back to when she first received an Avatar. Back then she had not yet been installed in the Constellation. Although it had not been long after that when she was installed in the Constellation. It had been a very memorable, and precious day for her.

Stardate 2-4-3421459 SDE, Solean Central Shipyards (Graviterra Galaxy, Last Light Starsystem)

Megumi stretched her body as her avatar stepped out of the pod. From the walls a series of special photon emitters generated a wave of light that ran over her bare skin and removed the traces of fluid clinging to her skin. She waved a hand and a mirror was holographically projected allowing her to inspect her new biomech avatar. She had spent months designing the thing to her satisfaction and she wanted to see if the pod had grown it, to her specifications. It seemed the pod had managed replicate her desired appearance. She looked a lot like a Solean in their true form, with one major exception. Instead of talons she had human feet. Her wings were tightly folded on her back and covered in light scale-feathers. Patterned in gold and silver, scales also lightly coated other parts of her body. Scales ran up her legs in a spiral pattern, and a number of thinner scales coated her stomach and underboobs. Creamy white skin was exposed on her shoulders and the top of her boobs. Her pink nipples could also be seen. Scales also coated both of her arms in a similar spiral pattern to those on her legs. She had a few gold and silver scales on her cheeks as well.

Overall she stood at a hundred and thirty centimeters tall, which was a little on the short side for a Solean female. She had lovely silver hair that fell to her waist, and framed her round face. She had large gold eyes that just seemed to take everything in, a small mouth and nose. Overall she looked cute, especially with her small boobs and butt. Spreading her folded wings, she began to access her internals. Finding that the systems were exactly the way she had specified. Hidden in her right arm was an internally mounted light dual-modal plasma cannon. Her wings were also fully functional, and she had an internal shield generator. Under her scales was a nanoweb of armor that could stop most small arms, both ballistic and energy-based. Most important though was her internal micro-drive making her capable of limited starflight. Overall her capabilities were top notch, especially when compared to standard biomechs.

Feeling satisfied with her appearance, and feeling her avatar to be functional she folded her wings. Crossing the room she opened a box and pulled out the outfit waiting for her. Which was a simple white top, and a grey skirt. There wasn’t any underwear with it, but she didn’t expect there to be any. The Soleans were both shapeshifters, and telepathic so it came as no surprise that as a race that they were lacking in modesty and as a consequence their clothing tended to be revealing. She only understood the concept, because she had been taught about it when her caretaker taught her about diplomacy. She dressed in the outfit and walked out of the door. At the same time, she felt her connection to her primary core vanish. She wasn’t surprised, today was the day that her core would finally be installed in a ship. It had been ten years since her core first came online. Which meant that it could be argued that today was her tenth birthday. Which for an AI marked the end of their equivalent to a childhood.

Walking out the door she ran into her caretaker. A young woman of seven thousand years, which for a Solean was still quite young. Few races were as long-lived as the Soleans and the only race she knew with a comparable lifespan were the Star Dragons. Which was one of the reasons why it was often said the two races were cousins. She didn’t know if that was true, but she wanted to find out. Her caretaker was of average height, with a modest bust and a well-filled figure. She currently looked to be Terran, her racial characteristics having been shapeshifted away. Something that was quite normal while aboard a ship or station, since they didn’t want to damage the floors with their talons. That is also why her avatar didn’t have talons, since she didn’t want to damage the floors either. Sure the scratches were easy enough to fix, but it was considered common courtesy not to damage someone else’s floors.

“Good to see you are up. How are you feeling?” said her caretaker.

“I feel fine, but it is a little disconcerting not being able to feel my primary core. Good to see you too, Talia” said Megumi.

“Well, you will just have to put up with it for a couple of hours,” said Talia

“So are you going to tell me, what kind of ship I’m being installed on?” asked Megumi.

“I forgot to tell you?” asked Talia.

“You did, but you did seem stressed last time we spoke,” replied Megumi.

“Sorry about that. You’re being installed aboard the ISS Constellation. A Sovereign-class battleship, measuring 12,340 meters in length with seven hundred and forty decks. The armor is 2120 meters thick in a type four overlord configuration. With integrated energy plate generators for added protection when needed. The hull and plating is composed of Xeos alloy. For shielding the Constellation is outfitted with type nine multilayered Excalibur class energy shields. As for armament, in standard configuration, your primary battery is composed of eight hyperdensity plasma cannons. The data on those will be loaded to your core during the installation so don’t worry, but for now I will tell you they are designed for use against capital ships and super-capital ships, so they don’t work well against small targets. Your secondary battery consists of 7,500 Super Heavy Phased Plasma Beam Banks, 35,000 Standard Mount Phased Plasma Beam Banks and 2250 Subatomic Disruptor banks. You have a tertiary battery consisting of 100,000 banks of Hellfire Plasma cannons. Additional armaments consist of 18,000 integrated torpedo launchers, one spinal mounted ASC, and 20,000 drones.

As for propulsion, you will have both a type four warp drive and a type one hyperwarp drive for FTL. Sublight propulsion is primarily achieved by eight heavy-duty Startech Industries Plasma Pulse Wave Engines. You will have eight hundred additional sub engines for maneuvering,” said Talia.

“Sounds like a good ship, but I was kind of hoping for something bigger, like an Excalibur class Superdreadnought,” said Megumi with a bit of a pout. Talia chuckled, and replied, “I know, but there aren’t any dreadnoughts available, much less superdreadnoughts. You're quite lucky to have gotten a battleship.”

“We are in the middle of a shipyard complex the size of a solar system, that builds hundreds of millions of ships every month and you’re telling me that not a single dreadnought was available?”

“None are scheduled to be completed this month. I had to pull a few favors to get the Constellation moved up in the queue just to get you a battleship. Sorry I couldn’t get you that dreadnought you wanted,” replied Talia.

“I’m glad you tried though. I think I can live with a battleship,” responded Megumi. Talia then asked her to follow her. She followed her down the corridor and past a number of viewports. Outside the viewports, an endless field of berths and ships under construction could be seen. The berths were lined up in orderly rows with enough space between them to provide ample room for ships to maneuver. Tugs and worker bees were flying around the field doing various tasks. Some of the ships had beams of light running over them. As the light ran over the hulls, the metal seemed to grow at a rapid rate, forming into the desired shape. Megumi wanted to sit there and watch, but she had to keep up with Talia. After a number of rapid turns, and a couple of lifts the pair came to a shuttlebay. In the bay, were a number of shuttles standing by for passengers. Talia led her to a shuttle on the left, and they boarded the shuttle. She had barely settled into her seat when the shuttle took off. Exiting the bay, and entering the void. Megumi looked out the window of the passenger shuttle and began to imagine what it would feel like to actually swim in the void.

She had experience with simulations, but as she was finding with her avatar. Simulations were nothing like the real thing. The data she was receiving from her avatars nerves was far more vibrant than any simulation. She was enjoying every little sensation as they were all new to her. From the subtle sensation of her clothes rubbing against her skin, and scales. To the more noticeable sensation of the chair hugging against her small frame. She was brought out of her thoughts, by the chuckling of her caretaker.

“What's with the laughing?” asked Megumi.

“You look like an adult, but act just like a little kid. It's adorable,” said Talia. Megumi knew she was referring to the presence of wings and scales, which for Soleans were a marker of adulthood. Around their five hundredth year they manifest their secondary racial characteristics which include their talons, scales, and wings. 

“I’m not a child! I’m ten years old, and I’m getting a ship,” said Megumi with a cute pout.

“Sorry to tell you, but in most cultures, ten years old is still a child,” said Talia as she ruffled her hair. Megumi turned away.

“Don’t pout, you will grow up in time. Besides, being a kid isn’t a bad thing. You should enjoy your childhood while you still have it,” said Talia as a ship came into view. On its hull in big pure white and bold letters was emblazoned the name ISS Constellation and under it was SFR-45567595-EEE. Which she knew to be the ship’s registry number, the triple E after the number indicated it was not the first ship of the name, but just the latest ship to take the name Constellation. The hull of the ship was a sleek black. Its shape was mostly that of an elongated saucer, with numerous small towers rising from the hull. Many of the rising towers were topped with turrets and launchers. At the rear of the hull which flared out, six thick sweptback wings extended from the craft. At the ends of each swept-back wing was a massive nacelle where the ship’s FTL engines would be mounted along with most of the maneuvering engines. There were two pairs of nacelles running above and below the centerline of the hull, with the final pair being mounted parallel to the centerline of the hull. Indents were spaced at regular intervals on the sides of the saucer where the doors to the ship’s many shuttle and drone bays were located.

Overall she thought the ship looked beautiful, and she knew this ship would be her body, likely for the rest of her life. She couldn’t feel it yet, but she knew that right now her main core was being installed into the ship’s central mainframe, which would be buried somewhere in the center of the ship. Protected by an outer casing of reinforced plating, secondary shield generators, and internal force fields. The core would also be protected by security drones and internal turrets. In fact, a ship’s AI Core was the single most protected system in the entire ship.

The shuttle docked in one of the massive side bays. A powerful barrier kept the atmosphere in the ship, and allowed shuttles to launch and land freely. Carrying workers and materials in and out of the ship. The bay itself was beautiful to her eyes. Sleek lines, and every surface plated in sturdy plating. Shuttles hanging in mounts from the ceiling and a constant flow of traffic.

“Come on, I’m going to show you around and introduce you to the captain. You will be with him a long time so I hope you two like each other,” said Talia as she led her into the ship.

Present-day, ISS Constellation:

Looking back, she realized Talia was right. She was still a child then, and she had much to learn. Her first captain had taught her a great deal, and she found herself wondering what he was doing now. She had kind of lost track of him after he had been promoted to rear admiral. She had tried to keep in touch, but with the war that had proven difficult. Chances were he was probably a lord protector by now, and a highly revered elder. If she ever found her creators, she hoped she could find him again.

She didn’t have much time to reminisce, however, before she arrived at her destination. Megumi immediately refocused her attention and scanned the ships in her surroundings. Dead ahead was the ADS Inquisitor who had seen better days, and twelve starships of unknown design. Technologically equivalent to the Ludole ship she had repaired a couple of days ago. That meant it was likely an elder race that had located the Inquisitor. Not entirely surprising, an older race was more likely to have the technology to locate the Inquisitor in this soup.

She took a moment to study the sleek predatory alien vessels. They were outfitted with reasonably powerful shields, neutronium hull plating, and powerful SIF generators. Armament was a mix of Antiproton and Plasma-based weapons. What she took the most note of was that all twelve ships featured fairly advanced cloaking devices. These ships were ideally suited to evade notice, and strike unseen. Some of the design was reminiscent of Solean design during the late Nomadic Era before the Empire had been founded. They were solid ships but were actually inferior to Solean vessels of that time period. It had little to do with their design though, and everything to do with the limits of their current power systems. They used a fairly ingenious antimatter reactor design to supply power to their various systems. A design that actually used a hyperspatial reaction chamber to maximize reactants, thereby allowing a substantial increase in available power at the cost of making them rather fuel-hungry. These alien vessels relied on a series of fusion generators for day-to-day power needs 

Overall she did not see them as much of a threat. Not to her anyway, and not with such low numbers. If there were more of them, they could constitute a threat. Especially with the Inquisitor supporting them. Speaking of the Inquisitor, she was in fairly decent shape. Her main drives were offline, but she still had her maneuvering thrusters. She had partial main power, and partial auxiliary power, as roughly half her power modules were either missing or offline. A couple of the active modules were intermittent though.

The ship had sustained quite a bit of damage in her last battle. However it seemed she still had an ample supply of drones, and a number of her main weapon batteries were online. At the moment, the Inquisitor was no threat, but only because she was outside of weapons range, and the other ship lacked the ability to close. Megumi had complete control of the situation. All the cards were in her hand.

With a thought, she opened a communications channel. A part of her was curious about who had found the Inquisitor first. Megumi could not allow them to keep it, but she figured she would try diplomacy first. Not a normal Imperial tactic, but with such a clear advantage it was a risk she felt she could afford.