Megumi processed the update from the squad she had sent to the wreck she had found. The mention of a Hissari artifact and a military AI core were very interesting to her. The artifact might actually have played a role in the ship being attacked in the first place, and therefore might have indirectly been the cause of the crash. If the artifact was still there it would almost certainly be something of value. Cultural value more than anything else. While the Hissari were technologically skilled, the Empire acquired all of their most valuable technologies when they conquered them tens of thousands of years ago. There had been a few things of interest but there were also a few things that were just dead ends. In any case, while it had little practical value to her, to anyone else it could very well be a major find.

Honestly, the Ai core was likely the most valuable thing there to her. While she could use it for a new ship, it would also represent a new companion for her. Something she was quite interested in. There was nothing quite like talking with one of her own kind. Still the mortals around her were interesting, especially Kiru. Megumi really liked Kiru, and there was also something about Melia. Erisa was cute, but a bit of an irritant. At least she hadn’t bothered her lately.

Megumi looked in on her the moment she thought about her. What she saw actually explained it. It seems she had gone back to the toy that she accidentally tortured herself with. Looks like she figured it out, and has reduced herself to a spasming drooling mess. Megumi redirected her attention, nothing interesting there. Not to mention she wasn’t a fan of watching others masturbate. It was far more fun to be actively participating and exchanging pleasure with a partner than to just watch. She never understood those that simply enjoyed watching.

Putting that aside, she considered her short-term plans. She was about finished setting up this outpost, and once her team was back she was going to set course for the Neku Homeworld, Nekuri. It was time to start looking into the puppet master, she had finished her preparations already.

Kiru listened to their updated orders. In addition to downloading the memory, they were to recover the ship’s AI core, and if possible locate and acquire the Hissari artifact. Apparently the ship said it was likely useless, but if it was still here it could be dangerous in the wrong hands. Depending on what it is, that is. They could not be sure how dangerous it was until they knew what the artifact in question was. As it could be anything.

Before she could think much on the orders, Qei commented. “I think we can get the main objective and core recovery done pretty easily. The core is down four decks, and to the aft.”

Eris nodded, “And now that we have an internal map of the ship we can get there in minutes instead of hours.”

May interjected, “We could get done faster if we split up.”

Kiru concurred, “Definitely, Eris will need to go with the core recovery group. So who is going with her?”

Qei interjected, “We will need three people to move the core, so what you are really asking is who isn’t going.”

“Three people? Why three?”

“AI cores aren’t tiny. They are actually quite large, but thankfully we don’t need the entire module, just the central core, which is a crystal sphere set in a special housing. That core and housing are the size of a small shuttle, and weigh twice as much. Thankfully, the housing is designed to be moved, and carries integrated antigrav generators. They don’t totally negate the weight though. In fact they were intentionally designed that way. The triangular base housing has three grip points for us to move it with.”

Kiru frowned, “If it’s that big, how are we getting it out?”

“There is a sealed shaft into the computer module. That’s how the core would have been brought into the ship in the first place. Based on the data Eris recovered it’s still intact, if a bit damaged. We should be able to maneuver the core up and out via that shaft. As for getting back to the ship, it should fit in the Starwolf’s aft bay, barely.”

At that point May said, “I’ll go look into that artifact. It shouldn’t take long. Then I will come and help move the core.”

A little more discussion followed, but they soon split. Qei, Kiru, and Eris went on the core recovery errand, while May moved off in a different direction to look into the artifact. None of them were worried about running into hostile resistance. The grid was down, and there was no one else here. Well, apart from the slimes, but they hadn’t seen any inside the wreck. Not to mention they had already proven to be non hostile.

Reaching the core proved to be as easy as they expected. With the grid down and a map, it proved easy to navigate to the core. Kiru looked around the core room as Eris accessed a terminal. It was a massive chamber easily twice the size of her old bridge more than big enough to house the command center of a ship. The walls were lined with precursor crystal computer racks. The strange crystals were pale blue plates with glowing purple lines running through them. In the center of the chamber was a massive floating triangular housing holding a dimly glowing crystal sphere. The crystal of the sphere seemed to meld seamlessly with the housing and the sphere itself wasn’t just crystal but also smooth glass and polished metal. All of which melded seamlessly together. What she noticed most were the purple lines that seemed to form three dimensional shapes within the crystal.

Also of note were a number of conduits running in and out of the housing. There were a dozen of them hooked to the underside of the housing, and each one glowed purple. There were two conduits however that glowed blue and they hooked into the housing from above.

There were also a number of alien computer consoles scattered around the room, including three built right into the core housing. It was one of those center consoles that Eris moved to access.

Qei then mentioned, “Might as well make yourself comfortable. Eris might be a while.”

She nodded. That made perfect sense. It would take time to find and copy the database. She sat down to wait. It might be a little boring, but she knew from experience that was a good thing. It meant things were going well. It’s when things stopped going according to plan or started getting exciting that you needed to be worried.

Thankfully she didn’t have to wait too long before Eris looked up from the console. “Found out what led to the crash.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, the ship has a full combat log of the encounter. Long story short was that they ran into a drive disrupter field that knocked her out of warp. Where she was promptly intercepted by multiple pirate owned cruisers. Most of them aren’t worth mention, but the flag of this pirate fleet was a Solfire class cruiser. Those aren’t often found in the hands of pirate groups, but they are quite popular with bounty hunters, and regional police forces. As for pirates, most of them are too poor to actually purchase one, and as for stealing one. That is easier said than done.”

Kiru nodded, “Yeah police ships rarely end up as pirate vessels. Anyway, they were...”

“Well after the interception, naturally a battle followed, and a boarding action as well. The fighting was fierce, and this ship wasn’t alone, she had four escorts. All of which were destroyed during the battle, but the pirates didn’t take them unscathed. Several of their ships were sunk as well. As for what ended the battle, the pirate Solfire was forced to retreat when a category twelve ion storm appeared on sensors. They had taken too many hits, and their armor was compromised, rendering them unable to risk taking the storm. This ship was in the same state, but while the field was down she couldn’t make the shift to warp speed. In the fighting she had taken multiple hits to her engines and was left adrift.”

“And the storm was what dumped her in orbit of this moon. Where she later crashed. Any mention of the final fate of the crew?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Those that survived the battle were killed when the storm hit.”

May suddenly interjected from the doorway, “More importantly, the pirates didn’t leave with the prize.”

Kiru and the others looked over, to see May holding a small oval object with a silvery surface, and several oval bumps on the one side.

“I take it that would be the artifact?” Kiru asked.

May nodded, “Yep. Turns out it was an old Hisarri holopad, very old.”

Qei glanced at the device, and commented, “At least it will be easy to transport. Curious to know what is on it, though.”

May smiled, “I gave it a cursory look. It appears to be someone’s personal journal, but not just anyone’s journal. This belonged to one of their more influential scientists during the height of their empire. They logged everything in here, from their day to day life to every project idea they had.”

Eris quipped, “That explains why the pirates might have been interested in it. The cruiser also paints a bigger picture. Someone paid them to steal it.”

Kiru frowned, “Why? Didn’t the Empire obtain all the knowledge of the Hissari when they conquered them?”

“Not quite. They obtained everything the Hissari people remembered, but like any great power there is alway knowledge once known but lost to time.” replied Eris.”

May interjected, “That is especially true of secrets that were made lost. The Solean First Lords made much of their knowledge lost to the Empire for example. The Hissari did the same with some of their knowledge when they became faced with their race dying. Secrets they deemed too dangerous to risk being stolen. This journal was written before they did that, and may contain insights into their lost secrets.”

Kiru suddenly realized how dangerous that innocent looking pad was. At least it wasn’t her problem to worry about. What was her problem was moving that large core. That was going to be a pain, she just knew it. Then Eris said, “Well, anyway I finished downloading what remains of the ship’s database, so now we get to move the core.”

What followed was a surprisingly straightforward, if exhausting task. They had to stop a couple times to open damaged doors, but there were no other hiccups. As such, as the day was coming to an end they loaded the core and artifact into the shuttle. Getting it into the shuttle proved to be the simplest part of the whole process. It fit snugly into the rear bay, and was easily secured with specialized docking hooks. Kiru inquired about them, and learned that Eris had thoughtfully ordered the shuttle to reconfigure its rear bay for core transport. Apparently, Solean shuttles were just as capable of self-reconfiguration as their capital ships were. It just took a while to do, but there was more than enough time for a minor reconfiguration like this to occur while they were extracting the core.

With the core loaded, and the artifact secured, the four biomechs settled into the forward compartment. Where the shuttle soon took off. Kiru, feeling tired, felt like taking a nap, but knew it wouldn’t be that long before they rendezvoused with the Constellation. She could hold out long enough to make it to her quarters aboard the ship. None of them, however, noticed their stowaway.