Diadem S1E3: "Limits Disabled"

It was so bright that Baphin couldn’t tell where the floor ended and the walls began. She blinked and looked around the empty room before she had a realization. Looking downwards, her eyes widened as she realized she was standing on her own two feet. Her high tech wheel chair was nowhere in sight, and she had complete mobility. The shock caused the room to go out of focus as she collapsed back into the waking world. The understanding that it was just a dream caused a glimmer of sadness in her groggy eyes. Her blurry vision focused on the poster on her wall, depicting her inspiration. The ruby red bow tie, white lab coat and gold rimmed glasses glinted as the lights came on in her room.

One of Pyo’s automatic systems detected her eye movement, determining that she was awake. Deploying from the ceiling, it gently picked her up off her bed, setting her in her wheelchair. As soon as she was settled in the seat, the headrest magnetically clipped wire connections to the back of her head and neck. In a few moments, the chair connected to her mind. Using the chairs’ retractable mechanical arms, Baphin touched up her hair before heading into the bathroom to freshen up. 

She didn’t hear the knocking at her cabin door until she made her way out of the bathroom, the built-in heater in the headrest drying her wetted hair. “Who is it?”

“It’s the Easter Bunny.” replied Annaheim’s voice.

A glint of amusement played in Baphin’s eyes as she opened the door to her young friend, backing up as Annaheim entered and made sure the door closed behind her. There was a look in the teenager’s eyes. One that Baphin had seen before. The girl needed a favor, and she didn’t want anyone else to know about it. Baphin rolled her eyes. “Ok, what do you want?”

“Huh? What do I want? Why would you assume that just because I come to your room I want something?” Kidded Annaheim.

Baphin raised an eyebrow. “That bad, huh?”

“Promise not to tell my mom?”

“What did you do?” Baphin narrowed her eyes.

“Nuh-uh, promise first.” Annaheim demanded before putting on an innocent expression and clasping her hands. “Pleeeease?”

She stopped when Baphin cringed. “Too much?”

“Yeah, but it’s fine. I promise.” Baphin’s stomach told her this was a bad idea, but she hoped it was wrong. Perhaps it was just some trivial thing that Annaheim had blown out of proportion? 

Annaheim continued, dashing these hopes. “When we responded to that distress signal yesterday, Chris might’ve seen something float from their ship to ours. And he might’ve gone to investigate. And I might’ve made him take me along. And we might have discovered that the object was actually a damaged Genevieve Tech android butler. And I might’ve blackmailed Chris with the photo you gave me to make him not tell Mom. Aaaaaand I might need your help to fix Dudley McDurphy.”

As the teenager relayed each detail of her candid adventure yesterday, Baphin’s eyes first showed confusion, followed by disappointment, which was then usurped by an expression of shock. Baphin tried to blink away the surprise, finding the android’s name rather unusual. “Dudley McDurphey? Annaheim, are you sure you’re not pranking me? You know I can get you back big time.”

Annaheim held up her hands. “I’m not, honest! And I could never out prank the likes of you. But if you wouldn’t mind, I was wondering if you could come fix him?”

“You want me to go into the maintenance area to fix an android, which, by the way, you haven’t confirmed isn’t rogue, and then to keep it secret from the captain of the ship?” Baphin’s disappointment grew as she looked Annaheim in the eyes. “Didn’t you learn anything about the importance of talking to your mom from the whole incident with the comet a week ago?”

Annaheim shook her head in frustration. “What does that have to do with this? All I want you to do is fix him and not tell Mom. I thought we were friends? I’ve kept your secrets for you, can’t you keep just one for me?”

It didn’t feel right, but Baphin knew that Annaheim trusted her. She didn’t want to break the misguided teenager’s trust. “Why don’t you want me to tell your mom?”

“Because she’ll react like you, but more so. She’ll assume he’s rogue or something and throw him out the airlock.”

Baphin thought about the worries of her young friend. She had known Bridget since before the captain’s divorce from her abusive husband, but had never known why Bridget had left Riven until after the fact. Baphin remembered when Bridget had first broken the news to her. The divorce had seemed sudden and slightly drastic, but had been one hundred percent justified. She had never struck Baphin as someone who would kill someone or waste something as sophisticated as an android. However, it was possible that Bridget could see the bot as a threat or danger. “I mean, I understand where you’re coming from, but-”

“Oh, thank you! I knew I could count on you! You’re such a great friend, Baphin.” Said Annaheim before giving her a hug. “Come on, I’ll introduce you!”

Surprise overwhelmed Baphin, preventing her from considering what she might have gotten roped into. “What? Right now?”

“Of course.” Annaheim began leading the way towards the maintenance area. “Everyone else is at their posts doing chores, and I already finished yours so you could be free to help me.” 

Baphin sighed as she began reluctantly following her excited friend. “I guess I’m in then. Let’s go meet this. . . Dudley McDurphey.”

“Just remember, you promised not to tell Mom.” Baphin winced with a twinge of regret at promising something she knew would be frustrating for herself as she followed Annaheim through the corridors. She couldn’t back out of that and break the girl’s trust. But simultaneously, Annaheim’s mother was Baphin’s friend, and the thought of keeping something behind Bridget’s back made her head hurt. 

Soon they were making their way through the dark and damp maintenance area, as Baphin watched Annaheim peer around pillars and call out the android’s name. Baphin had been to the maintenance area before, although not this particular area of it. She thought about her hideout elsewhere in the bowels of the ship. Going there would be a good distraction from the frustration of hiding Dudley from Bridget. 

When she finally saw the android, he struck her as. . . ordinary. There seemed to be nothing unique about him, and had he been lined up with a thousand other androids of his make and model, she would not have been able to tell him apart from them if not for the gash still open in his side. His glowing eyes had grown dim as he had been in low-power mode for some time now, his lanky form lying flat on the floor in a puddle of oil from his wound. His voice glitched and wavered in pitch as he struggled to lift his head and look at Baphin. “Ple-ple-ple-please-se-se he-help m-m-me-e.”

Something in Dudley’s eyes struck Baphin as different. As if some glimmer of life was trying to escape the pair of glowing optical sensors. She approached him cautiously as her gaze drifted to the gash in the left side of his torso. “You came in through the exhaust port, didn’t you?” She pointed to his gash with a robotic arm from her chair. “The fins are sharp there. It’s a miracle you didn’t get sliced all the way through."

The android held his gaze towards her as steadily as he could. The stabilization systems in his neck occasionally malfunctioned, causing his head to begin to sag, only for him to correct his head position with a wobbly jerk. “I was-was c-c-cut by one of the ex-exhaust-aust f-fins which got-ot stuck on my ex-ex-exoskeleton. I had to dislodge-lodge my-my-myself.”

Annaheim’s eyes widened. “You pulled yourself free. . . without any help?”

“That must have been a massive strain on your arms. May I?” Baphin drew closer and began to examine the intricate mechanisms and motors in Dudley’s arms. Nearly all of them showed signs of extreme use. The stress had developed numerous micro-fractures, some of which threatened to cause serious damage should they be strained any further. “Aren’t there safeguards against your using this much force on your systems?”

“Affirm-firm-firm–firmative-ive. In-in order to-to survive, a-and to bet-et-etter protect my m-m-master, they were dis-disable-abled-ed.” Dudley’s voice scratched and cracked as his systems continued slowly deteriorating from his wounds.

Baphin and Annaheim shared a glance as Baphin gently reached out towards Dudley’s head. “I need to interface with your systems in order to see exactly what happened and all areas that might have suffered damaged. My chair can allow for direct connection. Is that ok?”

For a moment, the android hesitated, and Baphin couldn’t help but wonder if she saw a faint flash of fear in his eyes before he relaxed. “Affirmative-ive.” He then turned his head and opened the casing containing his plugs in the back of his head, as Baphin plugged in using cords from her chair.

She closed her eyes and soon, with a slight tingling and a swirling of color behind her eyes, she blinked as she looked around at Dudley’s internal programming.  Through the direct connection between her brain and the android butler’s systems, facilitated by her chair, Baphin explored Dudley’s video and damage logs, finding the moment when he came on board the Diadem. She watched the scene play out through his eyes. The desperate calculations. The daring jump. The precarious landing inside the exhaust port.

She saw the exhaust fin slice into him, and watched as he grasped it with his robotic hands and tugged with all his might until it finally gave way with a jolt. She continued to watch his video records, witnessing him falling into the darkness, and entering the ship through a maintenance hatch. “You’ve sustained heavy damage to nearly every system in your midsection. I’m going to have to print brand new parts for you.”

Annaheim hadn’t seen the footage from Dudley’s logs, but from reading Baphin’s expressions, she could tell that the android had suffered serious damage. “How long will that take?”

Baphin shook her head before the android chimed in. “Approximately 32 days.”

“Um, you are way off, Dudley,” sighed Baphin. “Without your proprietary blueprints, I’m afraid I can’t fix you. I can’t print the parts I don’t know about.”

The android avoided direct eye contact. “I can pro-vide-ide you w-with the n-necessary b-blue-blueprints-ts.”

Baphin glanced at Annaheim and narrowed her eyes at the android. “You shouldn’t be able to just give your company’s proprietary documents to just anyone, Dudley. Won’t your company notice one of their androids acting strange?”

Dudley shook his head jerkily.

When he refused to elaborate, Baphin turned her gaze back to Annaheim with an electronic sigh. “He’s right. If I have the blueprints, I can fix him in a little over a month. There’s just one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“Your mom can access the printing history, and the printer will send her a notification when it prints a part. I’ll have to hack the ship printer.”

Annaheim’s eyes widened. “Wait. . . You mean the one hooked up to the dormant nanite repair system? You told me never to mess with that or it would activate every deactivated piece of advanced technology on this ship.”

Baphin nodded, but before she could say anything, the voice of the captain came over the speakers, reverberating into the maintenance area through the open hatch. “Everyone report to the bridge. We’ve picked up an unknown object on sensors.”

Annaheim rolled her eyes. “I bet it’s just another space rock, or a worthless piece of space junk.”

“I hope it’s a wreck. If we do some salvage, I can use some of the raw materials to make replacement parts for Dudley.”

Annaheim gave her a hug. “Thank you. I knew you would help me.”

Baphin didn’t respond as she turned her eyes away; thinking about how she was keeping a secret from the captain.

Bridget was staring contemplatively at the main display screen when Baphin and Annaheim arrived on the bridge. Ahead was a wrecked ship that looked like it had suffered a major attack followed by a reactor explosion. The display screen zoomed in on the side of the wreckage where these words were still smoking from being carved into the hull by weapon fire: 

“Stay out of my hunting grounds, Luther Morgan -Dockers”

Chris was shaking with fear. “D-d-dockers did this?!”

Bridget waved him off. “Relax, Chris, I don’t think that pirate is anywhere near here.”

“One of his ships probably dropped it off here as a message.” suggested Baphin as she hooked into the ship console with her chair. “There’s been numerous accounts of scuffles between the trade syndicate and pirates.”

Annaheim tilted her head. “If it’s a message, why was it left out here?”

“Well,” thought Bridget. “Luther Morgan is heavily protected, being the head of the trade syndicate and all, so no one really knows his location. Captain Dockers was probably counting on someone coming across the wreck and reporting it.” Bridget got on the intercom. “Van, Pyo, you seeing this? What do you think?”

Pyo’s voice was the first to reply. “I think it would be best not to get involved. If we report it, we’ll run the risk of being investigated.”

“Bah, ya scaredy cat. I say we claim the salvage. No one needs to know about the message, and we could use some raw materials.” came Van’s crusty voice.

Bridget turned to Baphin and the others. “What do you think?”

Chris shuddered at the thought of getting involved with either a pirate or a trade mafia and shook his head. Annaheim nodded excitedly at the thought of getting to investigate what had happened to the ship.

Baphin looked at the wreckage and thought of Dudley, struggling to stay alive in the maintenance area. “Let’s do it.”

“Then it’s settled,” sighed Bridget. “We, the crew of the Diadem, hereby claim the right to salvage. Chris, scan for signs of life. Pyo, prepare the shuttle. Van, get the kiln ready. Baphin, you, me and Pyo are going over there to see if you can interface with the ship computer and find out what happened.”

The shuttle was rather spacious and still had junk in it from when Vanderson used to live in it. Pyo carefully piloted the shuttle out of the hangar bay as Bridget and Baphin sat behind him. 

Chris’s voice came over the radio. “No signs of life detected, c-captain.”

“Kiln’s hot and ready.” grunted Van.

Bridget went to the shuttle’s communication panel. “Great work, you guys. Van, stand by until we get Pyo’s drones in and start taking the ship apart. Chris, keep an eye on the sensors. Keep us out of danger.”

“G-got it. I’ll k-keep an eye out for pira- I mean . . . for weak points and stuff.”

Van chuckled. “It’s been a while since we did some rapid disassembly. This’ll be fun.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. We need to document anything we find and make sure there’s nothing we can use there that’s too fragile to be handled by the drones.” Replied Bridget with a smile.

By now the shuttle was halfway to the wreck, and Pyo was having to cautiously avoid the bits and pieces that had separated from the whole. There were the usual scraps of metal, with the occasional chunk of a component like a pipe, or a generator, or a power cell. The ship ahead was only half a ship. The other half was nowhere to be seen. It was a cargo ship similar to the one they had encountered yesterday. There was a massive gash where the bridge used to be, but the hangar was still intact.  Pyo set down the shuttle carefully, the lack of artificial gravity in the dead hangar requiring him to activate the shuttle’s magnetic landing clamps.

Once secured, they heard Chris over the radio again. “C-c-captain?”

“Yes Chris, go ahead.” responded Bridget as she and Pyo began putting on their spacesuits.

“The ship is showing signs of deterioration. It’s uh. . . . it’s going to start breaking apart and d-d-disintegrating in about an hour.”

The three of them shared a glance.  Bridget spoke first. “Baphin, how long will it take you to download the ship data?”

“I didn’t bring a spare hard drive with me, but I can knock it out in 30 minutes.”

Pyo thought about it, “Someone is going to have to stay with the shuttle in case there’s trouble.”

Bridget scratched her head before giving a sigh. “Alright, I guess I’ll stay behind. Pyo can go with Baphin. Between the two of you, we should be able to check the ship in time to get out of here before the wreck breaks apart." She got in the pilot seat, still half dressed in the spacesuit.

Baphin watched as Pyo finished suiting up before helping Baphin into her suit. Once she was suited up, he hooked her suit into her wheelchair life support systems. Ready to go, the two made their way into the airlock. Pyo and Bridget nodded before the captain opened the outer doors of the airlock.  Baphin could barely feel the change in temperature as the pressure in the airlock decreased. Together with Pyo, she exited the shuttle, and they began making their way to the server room of the ship to see if the ship’s hard drives were still intact. Part of her was glad Bridget hadn’t gone with them. This way, she could sneak some raw materials back using her wheelchair without anyone noticing. Making their way through the dark and abandoned corridors of the wrecked ship, Baphin lit the way with lights in her chair as Pyo kept his flashlight ready for later.

Suddenly, they were met with a horrible sight as they rounded a corner. A floating corpse. It was already frozen from the low pressure and temperature. It was clear the unfortunate crewman had been a victim of rapid depressurization. The blood that had boiled out of his nose was now crystalized to his frosted skin. 

Pyo kept them moving, and didn’t let Baphin stare at the body too long. “Let the dead rest. Don’t carry them with you.”

Baphin knew the wisdom of his words and respected the experiences behind them. Pyo had been a privateer, a pirate hunter, for most of his younger career, probably having seen numerous other bodies like this one. She wasn’t as afraid as she would have been. She knew he could and would protect her. 

After a long walk down another hallway, encountering two other bodies in even worse shape, they finally reached the server room. The heavy door was cracked and had long since broken off its frame. Inside, the dormant server towers stood silently in the darkness, their solid state hard drives still stacked in neat rows. “I can take it from here.” Baphin entered the server room as Pyo turned on his flashlight.

“Alright,” Pyo took a glance around for any cracks or signs of danger. “Just make sure to be back at the shuttle before our time runs out.”

With that, Pyo headed deeper into the wreck as Baphin waited for him to leave. Soon as she was sure he was far enough away, she activated arms in her wheelchair. A compartment opened, and the arms began cutting chunks of metal out of the floor and ceiling as she plugged into the servers. The hard drives blinked to life as her chair’s systems read and interpreted them for her mind to perceive and view them. She started downloading the ship’s manifest before accessing the history of the camera recordings.

At first, everything was dark, but then she saw the camera feeds. The ship had encountered a meteor shower. The captain of the trade vessel had refused to change course and taken the ship straight through. By the time they had noticed the pirate ships hidden behind the hurtling chunks of space rock, it was too late.

A burst of energy took out the trade ship’s shields in moments, followed by a torrent of plasma fire. The bolts of plasma burned through the hull plating, resulting in the rapid depressurization of the trade ship. Then the ship cameras focused on one of the pirate vessels. It was an old freighter, but it had been upgraded and redesigned, looking much different then it used to look. From its bow, a blue flash signaled the fire of a tungsten rod out of the barrel of a heavy railgun. The projectile slammed directly into the reactor core, and the resulting explosion made all the camera feeds glitch and heavy static to distort the images.

Baphin tried to focus as she witnessed the last struggles of the crew before they all began leaving in escape pods, only for the pirates to pick them off with expert marksmanship. Baphin could hear the remaining survivors over the communication recordings. Each of their screams were brutally cut off as the pirates shot them down one by one. The last scrap of footage was hard to make out with the static and glitches as bolts of plasma slammed into the ship’s hull, writing out the infamous message.

Baphin woke up from the servers only to realize there was frantic chatter over the radio. “Baphin! Baphin, wake up!”

“I told ya Captn’ she can’t hear ya while she’s in the computer.”

“Van, do the thing and let us worry about Baphin! Pyo, get Baphin!”

“On it.”

“G-guys! You m-m-might wanna hurry! That cruiser is c-c-c-closing in!”

“Not helping Chris!”

Baphin glanced at the progress of the downloading of the ship manifest only for heavy concern to wash over her. The download was hardly a third of the way finished.

Before Baphin could let anyone else know, Pyo floated into the server room and began immediately unplugging her from the system. “We have to get back to the Diadem! There’s a TFU cruiser coming in hot!”

“Pyo! Wait! It’s not fin-”

“I know. I know. But we HAVE TO GO NOW.”

Baphin’s brow furrowed in frustration as the last plug was disconnected, stopping the download before it could finish. She didn’t have time to be upset about it though, and kept her emotions in check as she and Pyo headed back to the shuttle.

Bridget had already undocked.  “Come on! Jump it, we gotta go!” She said as she opened the hatch for them.

Disengaging his magnetic boots, Pyo grabbed onto Baphin’s chair. Using its built in thrusters, Baphin got them both on the shuttle.

Once they were on their way back to the Diadem, Baphin could see the distant glint of the stars on the hull of the rapidly approaching igneous class cruiser. Why would they be rushing over here anyway? There wasn’t time to answer that question. They would have to wait and see.

The rest of the crew were in their places by the time Pyo parked the shuttle. The cruiser’s captain had contacted Bridget while Baphin had been in the wreck’s systems. Now, as a shuttle approached from the cruiser, she turned to Baphin. “I wasn’t able to tell you before, but that cruiser is the Rosenbridge.”

Baphin’s heart skipped a beat as she recognized the name. She knew the lieutenant who was coming to inspect their ship, and she felt no shortage of apprehension at seeing him again.

The military shuttle landed, and the inspection crew disembarked, their smartly dressed uniforms and serious demeanor evoking respect and discipline. After them, the lieutenant exited. He was young; roughly 28 years of age, with light skin and silky chestnut brown hair. His blue eyes were dark and brooding, like he had been through much for his age. Baphin knew he had, because she had been through it too. Their parents had been firm, but they had both become stronger for it.

By now the lieutenant had finished speaking with Bridget and had noticed her. He stared at her for a moment. She stared back, keeping her expression calm. Finally, he spoke. “Hey Baph. Fancy meeting you out here.”

She gave a soft nod. “Orim. I see you’ve risen through the ranks rather quickly.”

“You could have too.” He said dryly before moving on with the inspection.

Annaheim, who had overheard, was displeased with his demeanor towards her friend. Baphin tried not to show her frustration as the teenager walked over to her. “That’s your brother? I thought he’d be nicer.”

“He’s the nicest in my family.” Baphin glanced back at the strapping young officer as memories played in her mind.

“Oh?”

Annaheim’s curiosity drove her to prod, but Baphin wasn’t in the mood. Not right now. “Maybe some other time. I’m not in the mood to talk about it right now.”

"But if you don’t talk about it to someone, won’t it hurt you just like it hurt me and my mom when I didn’t talk to her?”

Annaheim put up her hands in defense as Baphin shot her a glare. “I’m just saying.”

“You just want to hear to satisfy your curiosity.”

Annaheim sighed. “Guilty. Oh well, I’ll leave you alone about it then.”

Baphin turned to leave. “Good. I’ll see you later.”

“Where are you going?”

“To be alone for a bit.”

With that, Baphin turned a corner and began increasing her distance from all the commotion of the ship. The inspection had everyone on edge, as usual. Her more so because of the identity of their guest. Just as her thoughts passed over her brother, she nearly ran into him as he directed a group of other officers in their continued inspection of the ship. “Excuse me. I didn’t see you.”

Baphin merely blinked in acknowledgement, scowling when he grabbed her chair as she was about to leave. “Hey sis. Can we go somewhere and talk?” He let go of her chair, his voice exhibiting genuinity and a gentleness she had dearly missed.

She nodded and guided him to one of the empty storage rooms. Once the door was closed behind them, she turned on the single light in the ceiling, casting harsh shadows on the floor. “I’m not going back.” She responded preemptively, anticipating what he was about to say.

“You’ve got me all wrong, Baph. I mean, yes. I wish you were home with Mom and Dad. Yes, I wish you had gotten the surgery so you wouldn’t be stuck in a wheelchair. And yes. I wish you had joined the military like our parents wanted. But we’ve all accepted that you are your own person, and you’re going to stick to your own decisions whether we like it or not.”

“I wish Mom and Dad had come to that conclusion when I had the accident.” Baphin winced at the flashbacks the trauma that day had given her. The loss of oxygen. The snap of the tether. The frantic screams of her teammates as the steel rod had slammed into the back of her neck. It was a miracle the doctors had saved her that day.

Orim rubbed the back of his neck. He also found that day an uncomfortable topic. “All they knew was their child had suffered a setback. They were trying to build you back up the only way they knew how.”

“Life is not like riding a bike, Orim. A bike doesn’t kick back.” snapped Baphin.

He saw her pain, not knowing what to do to break through. “You can’t blame us for that. Mom and Dad would have gladly paid for the surgery to bring your limbs back.”

“They wanted me back on my feet so they could send me back into boot camp and brag about what a champion I was. I didn’t want to be their show pony.”

Orim stepped back. Surprised at her view of the situation. “You’ve got it all wrong.” He thought for a moment and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, getting down on one knee to be as close to eye level as he could. “We love you and we miss you. But don’t take my word for it. Come back, Baph. Come back and let us show you that we all still love you.”

Tears gently flitted down Baphin’s cheeks. “I. . . I’m not ready yet.”

She could see the relief mixed with frustration that played across her brother’s eyes as he stood up and nodded. “I understand. I’ll let Mom and Dad know.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. “Whenever you’re ready, let us know. Dad made this comm channel specifically for you. No one else can listen in. No one will know but you and him.”

Baphin hesitated. “He’s the last person I want to talk to.”

“Then I’ll tell Dad to only let Mom answer until you feel comfortable enough to speak with him.”

She could see his effort, and valued his concern. Relaxing a bit, Baphin took the card with an arm from her chair and stored it in a safe place. “Ok.”

The rest of the inspection went as it had last time; Bridget finished showing Baphin’s brother and his men around the ship as they searched for any activateable Lumio technology that would be classified as too advanced for civilian use. Once they were finished, the lieutenant gave a nod goodbye to Baphin before disembarking with his team on the shuttle. She watched her brother return to the cruiser, only to stare in shock along with the rest of the crew as its railguns aimed and began tearing apart the wreck. With each tungsten bolt, the cruiser ripped through their chances of going back and finding out what truly had happened to the ship and erased the threatening message that had been burned into its hull. It then turned and jumped away, leaving them frustrated and confused.

Too much had happened today. Baphin was too tired to deal with it anymore. She was ready to be alone. Annaheim recognized her demeanor and kept her distance. Pyo got the message as well. Bridget and Van were too busy exclaiming in frustration about what had happened, but she thought she saw Bridget glance her way before Chris turned the captain’s attention to something on the sensors.

Slipping away, Baphin made her way into the bowels of the ship. She descended in her chair through the coils of conduit and wire, past the maintenance panels and manual switches. She was far from where Dudley McDurphy was hidden, more towards the center of the ship, where the central data core used to be. In its place was the husk of a central processing system, operating on conditional logic hard-wired by sloppy workers who, at the time they installed all of it, cared little about how it affected the original Lumio technology.

With a sigh, Baphin plugged into the Diadem’s central core with her chair, closing her eyes and letting herself fall into the stream of data coursing through the ship like a babbling brook of computer code. This was where she went to wind down, where no one could bother her, or interrupt her, or tell her that it was her duty to be a soldier. As these thoughts washed over and relaxed her, questions began to surface. Why had the cruiser destroyed the wreck? What was there that they didn’t want anyone to see?

Compelled by curiosity, Baphin opened the few terabytes of data that she had recovered from the wreck’s manifest. As her eyes swept over the accounting and shipping logs, her eyes narrowed. There was a lot of advanced technology listed on the cargo manifest. The Terran Federal Union didn’t have the kind of tech that could match the Lumios, and this had caused near boiling distrust and impatience as the aliens had consistently cherry picked only their least advanced technology to give to humanity. But this wasn’t from them. As she scanned the items that had been listed as the ship’s cargo, her confusion mixed with worry. All the cargo had been listed as destined for Mars.