It was late when Dwight finally made it back home to his quarters. He hadn’t expected to come back the same night, but at least now he wouldn’t need to travel tomorrow. He had an entire day to relax before he needed to report for duty. He tapped the access panel to his apartment and the doors opened, then he stepped inside. As the doors closed behind him, he received an alert. He quickly checked the message he had received.

[Planned leave cancelled. Report for duty at zero seven hundred hours.]

That was less than five hours from now. Dwight’s plans for a relaxing day were now in tatters.

“What! Is this her idea of a joke?”

He had no doubt the captain had requested this. His little punishment for visiting Vincent. She always gets like this when he’s involved. He sighed and slumped his shoulders as he undressed then made his way to bed. Tomorrow was going to feel like a long day, he just knew it. Still, it was worth it just to see Vincent again after all these years, even if it was only for a few minutes. Dwight climbed into bed and tried to fall asleep, thinking about how tired he would be when his alarm went off in the morning.

When Dwight’s alarm did go off, he felt as if he had only just fallen asleep properly. He fumbled about as he tried to stop the irritating noise, then groaned as he remembered the captain’s warning from the day before. I’d better report in early, no telling what she’ll do otherwise. He doubted she would go as far disciplinary action, but he feared for the rest of his leave days. He willed himself out of bed and hurriedly begun preparing for his shift. He wolfed down some breakfast, not wanting to waste time visiting the canteen on his way. Showered, then threw on his uniform and headed out the door ready to report for duty.

As he headed towards the briefing room, he noticed there was a bit of a commotion down the corridor ahead of him. It was busy this time in the morning, large numbers of the crew were either heading out for the morning shift or returning from the night. There was a small crowd in front of him. The men had all stopped to stare and the women were all talking to each other, discussing the woman that was passing by. The crowd parted as she strode through, that was when he noticed who it was, that they were all looking at. The woman looked up, noticing him standing down the corridor from her, Maya waved and made a beeline in his direction. She rarely frequented the crew areas these days and whenever she did, she always seemed to draw this kind of attention. Two girls that were standing nearby to Dwight were not so quietly discussing her as she approached.

“Who is that?”

“I’ve never seen her around before. You think she’s an ero bot looking like that?”

“But she can’t be, she’s wearing the crew uniform.”

“Maybe her owner is making her wear it, like cosplay.”

 “Shh, she’ll hear you.”

The pair were still giggling as Maya passed them and headed towards Dwight.

“Morning lieutenant.” She said rather formally, albeit with a slight smirk as she reached him.

“Morning Maya… Er, what are you doing down here? I never see you out this way anymore.” Dwight asked, feeling several pairs of eyes examining him as he spoke.

“I heard you were recalled for duty. I wanted to catch you before you were deployed. Did you manage to meet Vincent yesterday?”

“I did, hold on. What do you mean deployed?”

“Oh, I see you haven’t been briefed yet. There was debris detected half a million miles out from Palehost. They’re sending out a scouting mission.”

“Debris?”

“Probably just a rogue asteroid, a chance to replenish some resources.”

“So, that’s why my leave was cancelled. I just thought it was the captain’s way of punishing me.”

“She could have sent someone else. Anyway, more importantly, you said you met with Vincent?”

“I did, but it wasn’t for long. He left almost immediately after he returned to his apartment.”

“He didn’t want to speak with you?”

“No, it wasn’t like that, he was pleased to see me! We spoke for a bit, but as soon as I mentioned the raider incident from the other day, he rushed out again. Seemed to be pretty worried about some of his friends out there.”

“Hmm, that explains the erratic readings I picked up from around his apartment then.”

“Do you have any idea where he went?”

“No.”

“I thought you were keeping tabs on him?”

“It isn’t that easy. He covers his tracks well and the areas he frequents, have a patchy connection to central control to say the least.”

“You might want to try harder, if his friends really are in danger then he’s likely to run into that group. They’ll be trouble even for him.”

“I’ll look into it.”

“It was when I mentioned that they were around level 1170 that he started to panic.”

“Let me see…” Maya said before falling silent momentarily.

Her expression suddenly became serious.

“What is it?” Asked Dwight.

“Structural damage was detected near that area. Multiple sections have been sealed off and are currently being repaired and repurposed.”

“Did you check the activity in the area before this happened, was Vincent there?”

“I did, I can’t tell. The entire area is a sensor blackspot, it has been for a long time.”

“What caused it?”

“I don’t know.”

“What should we do?”

“You have to report for duty, remember?”

“But…”

“The captain wasn’t joking when she mentioned desertion charges.”

“Crap, then I’d better get going, but what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to investigate further.”

Maya turned and left Dwight standing in the corridor. She was still drawing the gaze of almost every crew member she passed on her way as she left. The girls that had been talking about Maya before, were still standing nearby, they were now staring at Dwight and giving him strange looks. He smiled at the pair and set off down the corridor.

“Good morning.” He said cheerfully as he passed them on his way to the briefing room.

Talking to Maya had taken up valuable time this morning, luckily for Dwight he had left in plenty of time to make it to the briefing early. He was never one to not take the captain’s threats seriously. He stepped into the briefing room with time to spare. It turned out he was the first of the pilots to arrive, but not the first person in the room. The co-pilots were already present and waiting for the briefing to begin. He looked over the room for his own co-pilot and spotting her near the front, he made his way over taking the seat next to her. The plain looking girl, officially known as V1K1267, was an advanced automaton, as were all the co-pilots. While they were called automatons they were in composition, closer to something along the lines of a synthetic cyborg.

“Good morning Vicky.” Dwight said as he sat down.

“Did you forget my designation again?”

“No, but you know you prefer this.”

“If you’d arrived a minute later, I would’ve had to escort you to the brig.”

“You wouldn’t have though, would you?”

“Of course, it was a direct order. I’m not experiencing any malfunction and I would have carried out the instruction as requested.”

“Scary.”

“Speaking of malfunctions, I believe you ran into Maya this morning. Did that have anything to do with your unauthorised excursion yesterday?”

“It did.”

“You should avoid interacting with her, it nearly landed you in serious trouble this time.”

“You aren’t getting jealous, are you? I wasn’t trying to get her to swap positions with you, don’t worry!”

“I don’t get jealous… Besides, it would probably be in my benefit if I was assigned a different pilot to support.”

“You don’t seem to be in a good mood this morning, what happened?”

“It’s part of my duty to ensure you are able to carry out your responsibilities that’s all this is.”

“I see, well thanks, I guess.”

Dwight was sure that she was pouting a little. He sometimes found her complete reluctance to accept her human like reactions, difficult at times. At least she isn’t just being entirely cold today I suppose. All the co-pilots had humanoid form, some were entirely androgynous, some assumed male or female forms just like Vicky had. They all had varying levels of human personalities, ranging from almost completely robotic at one end of the spectrum to Vicky and Maya at the other end. They had all modelled their bodies according to their unique personality. As the pair had been talking, the other pilots that had been called in for this mission had begun to arrive. The conversations in the room fell silent as the squadron leader arrived to give the briefing. He fiddled about with the controls for the screen before bringing up a blurry image.

“At 0200 hours this morning a debris field was detected at half a million miles out from Palehost. Pilots Dwight, Aron and Mary are up. Dwight you’re taking the lead. You disembark at 0900 hours and are to head straight to the target. Once there I want you to conduct visual reconnaissance and if it is safe to do so, retrieve standard samples from the target. Any questions?”

Dwight put up his hand.

“What is the debris?”

“We believe it’s a rogue asteroid, but there was some interference with the ship’s scans, so we can’t be certain at this point.”

“Why wasn’t a drone sent out to investigate?”

“One was, but it encountered a sensory anomaly and we lost contact with it after it attempted sample retrieval.”

“An anomaly, is this debris safe to approach?”

“We believe so. Nothing untoward has shown up on our sensors, but we believe that something in the composition of the target had interfered with the drone’s scans. That is why we’re sending you out there for visual confirmation and sample collection.”

 “You think the drone malfunctioned and crashed into the asteroid?”

“Yes, there was no sign of an energy discharge. The analysis was that it was a technical malfunction on of the navigation systems. There’s a chance that there are valuable mineral deposits within the asteroid, and command doesn’t want to pass off the opportunity to replenish supplies. The orders come from the top.”

So, the captain gave the order.

“Any further questions?”

There were no hands raised.

“The full mission details were sent to you. Make sure you read them through before you disembark. Dismissed.”

The squadron leader gathered his belongings and left the room. The pilots started to get up from their seats one after the other. Dwight was the last to get up.

“What are you hanging around for? We need to prepare.” Asked Vicky.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

He got up from his seat and followed Vicky out of the room, as she headed towards the hangers. There was nothing that unusual about the drone malfunction and they were frequently sent on these sorts of missions, but something was niggling Dwight at the back of his mind. He couldn’t think why he was worrying, as there was no obvious reason for any concern. It must just be because Vincent mentioned the war before he left. Just the mention of that brought up memories, that any of the pilots still alive from that time would rather forget.