Samir stood in front of the holding cell. The brig was separated into four distinct cells which could hold up to six people each. In front of each was a reinforced opaque barrier which gave some illusion of privacy. In reality, multiple cameras were trained on the interior at all hours. Samir leaned over and accessed the holographic panel to the side. Scrolling down with two fingers, the barrier suddenly became clear, and a comm was opened up.

Inside the white, sterile cell sat Ensign Williams on of the beds. She had been laying down, no doubt trying to get some rest. A curious head poked up, and she sighed as came to her feet. “Captain.” Mia gave a mock salute.

Singh had given explicit orders that no one was to talk to her. Any communication at all was dangerous. And he privately wondered whether she could manipulate him as well. Chief Helmsman Kieth had told a few stories while they had been waiting at the water tank. Nevertheless, this conversation needed to happen.

“I want it clear that you will only speak to answer questions. Anything other than the truth…” He lifted a finger to the holographic pad. “I control the atmospherics of that room. With a tap of my finger, I can vacate all the air in that cell. I will not hesitate, understood?”

“I never took you for a torturer, Captain.” Mia smugly crossed her arms.

Captain Singh’s finger tapped the pad. A flick of his finger and the vents slowly began to pump out the air. He glared at Mia. “You have threatened the safety of this vessel. You still threaten the safety of my ship. I will respond in kind. Do you understand?”

Mia worryingly glanced at the vents on the ceiling. “Yes.”

Samir lifted his finger, though he did not return the atmosphere to its previous levels. “Good. What are the Free Exchange’s intentions with the Hyperion?”

“To make contact with the Andromedans and maintain the balance of power in the galaxy.”

Samir raised his finger again.

“I’m telling the truth, Captain!” Mia spoke with an edge of desperation. “Everything has been about maintaining order in the galaxy. That’s all we care about.”

“Then tell me about what was stored in that water tank. What’s inside it?” Samir never took his eyes off of her.

She rolled her eyes in frustration and hesitated. “I can’t tell you that.”

Samir put his fingers on the pad again.

“You can kill me, Captain, but it won’t make a difference!” She raised her voice while there was still air. “I refuse to answer.”

Captain Singh didn’t move his finger. “Then tell me about Miles Kieth. Will you die for that secret as well?”

“Secret?” She tilted her head quizzically.

“You told him that he was put there to kill me. You didn’t have to do that. You didn’t have to say a word. One might mistake that for cruel gloating, but you would never have allowed such important information to slip like that.”

“I don’t take your meaning,” she carefully said.

“Was he there to kill me? Or was it someone else aboard this ship? Someone who would’ve never seen it coming?”

“He was there to kill you.” She laughed in disbelief. “You can believe that or not—I don’t care which.”

“I am rapidly running out of patience and reasons for keeping you alive.”

“Then how about a common enemy?” Mia retorted. “You engaged the Andromedans—at least some faction of them. All that shaking around, you were forced to deploy the gravity drives, weren’t you? That trump card isn’t going to be in play for much longer.”

“And what? You’re going to talk them to death?”

She took a step forward to the barrier until her face was just inches away from the reinforced material. “The Free Exchange put me on the Hyperion to monitor the situation. I’m also your best bet for finding out the answers to what happened here. You’ve seen what the Free Exchange can do. Our science to perfectly calculate the human mind.”

“You never got to see the intruders who boarded our ship. They didn’t look too human to me.”

“All the more reason. You have all the scientists the Free Exchange has to offer, but you don’t have someone who can tell you how they think. What drives them. How they function and behave. And even if you manage that, you still don’t have someone who can predict what they will do next. I can do those things if you let me.”

Samir looked into Mia’s eyes. He saw a genuineness there that moved him. She was telling the truth about that—at least it made him want to believe her. And that’s how it happens. He realized. The Free Exchange dealt in truth, or at least just enough of the truth to get what they wanted.

Ensign Williams had presented a completely rational and even downright compelling argument. Singh had walked into the room expecting to be stonewalled. He had thought he was going to kill her and be done with it. But with only a few minutes, she had managed to buy time. And she’s going to continue to buy time. It wouldn’t matter how close he came to killing her, she would always find a good reason for him not to do it. She would always scrap by with some rationale. All waiting for the moment when she would inevitably find herself with the upper hand—and then Singh wouldn’t have a chance.

And that’s the game. He saw the whole board before him. It was about how much use he could get out of her before she would find herself in an advantageous position. How much information and knowledge he could extract before that knife swung for his back. A deal with the devil.

Samir slowly moved his thumb away from the atmospheric controls. It instead slid downward towards the release mechanism. He pressed it, and the barrier slowly retracted. Mia herself took a step back in surprise. She raised an eyebrow. “Thank you, Captain. I didn’t expect to be released but—“

Captain Singh set his gun to setting four and shot her in the head. Blood coated the white wall behind her. Ensign Williams’ body crumpled in the cell, lifeless and dead. Samir sighed and lowered his weapon.

“I don’t make deals with devils,” he whispered under his breath and turned away.

The walk towards the briefing room was shorter than he expected. The death of Ensign Williams did not rest heavy on his conscience. She might have been theoretically defenseless in that cell, but she would’ve cut his throat given the chance. In the end, he had to protect his ship, and she had been a threat. Nevertheless, he prayed for her soul anyway. May you find peace, Ensign. Even though you were misguided.

Captain Singh took a deep breath, and he stepped through the door. The briefing room came to a silence as he entered. In front of him was a large rectangular table with enough seats for at least twenty people. There were many familiar faces. Klyker and Terese were right next to him at the head of the table. Amos and Miles Kieth were further, and Samir had given Sergeant Barnes a seat as well. Near the end of the table, Father Soren sat, a spectator rather than an actual participant in the meeting. The rest of the seats were filled by scientists and other heads of departments aboard the Hyperion, along with a few military personnel.

The only conspicuous absence was Dr. Lukov, who was the head of the physics staff of the Hyperion. Samir had permitted him to remain aboard the derelict, as he had reported that he was close to a breakthrough on the sphere. Samir didn’t want to waste any time on figuring out the strange device.

The room all stood up from their seats as Samir approached his seat. He glanced at all of them and composed himself. “We have limited time. There is no telling when the next attack comes. I want it understood; most of all, I want options.”

Captain Singh took his chair at the head of the table, and the rest of the room followed suit. He turned towards Klyker and watched as the man gave his report.

“The preliminary estimate puts us at twenty-three injured and another eight dead. A breakdown of the list is as follows.” Klyker tapped a screen where he was seated and the holographic wall on the other side of the room changed towards a registry displaying the names and positions of the crew incapacitated from the attack. “As it is, the infirmary will require seventy-two hours to stabilize the most grievously injured. Another week before they can be returned to any form of active duty.”

“We shall arrange for the proper burial of the fallen when the Hyperion is no longer in danger. Until then, have it noted that all crew are to receive full honors for their service.”

Samir would keep the death of Mia Williams quiet for now. There was no purpose to announce it now and let any potential Free Exchange agents onto the fact that one of their own had died. The Captain privately looked at the faces in the room. Any of them or none of them could be a potential threat to the Hyperion. There was no telling how many more embedded spies there were.

“Commander Terese, your report?” Samir asked.

Erika Terese took a deep breath. “We have conducted an analysis of the metal liquid retrieved from the entity. An examination has revealed that it is composed of nanites—machines the size of cells which can communicate with one another. Effectively, this a form of artificial life.”

There was a murmuring throughout the room about what she had announced. Samir knocked the table loudly to call the room to order.

“The suspension hosts a complex communication system. The intelligence guiding the entities is interlinked among each cell that comprises the whole being. Its processing power allows it to backup the collective consciousness to each individual cell. However, much like conventional bodies, they need a substantial amount of mass in order to function.”

“And what is the nature of this intelligence?” Samir put a hand to his cheek.

Commander Terese blinked. “Unknown, although we are trying to establish communication.”

“Communication?” One scientist leaned forward.

“Correct. We are trying to develop a rudimentary interface with the liquid that we managed to gather from the entity that attacked Captain Singh’s squad,” Erika answered. “It’s basic, but within the next twenty-four hours, we should be able to establish a link to the entity.”

“Continue working on it,” Samir noted as he turned to the Chief Engineer. “Report on the gravity core?”

Amos Singh leaned forward and put his arm on the table. “We can fire it one more time without severe energy repercussions. After that, we’ll have to ration out the energy left within the core.”

“How about standard systems?”

“Minimal damage from the battle. Although I should mention we have lost life support in several sections of the ship. They should be restored in short order once we conduct repairs.”

Samir nodded. That was better than they could’ve hoped for. He nodded over to the department heads. “How goes our investigation with the derelict?”

“As well as could be expected, sir.” One man—Samir recognized his name as Dr. Philips—pulled up a diagram on the holographic wall. “We’ve conduit mapped nearly 40 percent of the vessel. Work on the bridge has been slow, but we can activate and deactivate a few keys systems.”

Samir watched the diagram with care. The spindly ship remained as frustratingly puzzling as it ever did. He did notice on a second viewing that it didn’t appear to be a warship—not in the same sense that the Hyperion was. There were a total of maybe thirty-six turrets in total arrayed throughout. Some more scans had also revealed compartments where larger weaponry was stored.

However, the design seemed more disposed towards defense rather than offense. The semi-circular aft section appeared to be particularly sturdy. The hull metal was layered in different sections to reinforce the integrity of the vessel. Samir didn’t doubt that it could sustain massive damage, but the skeleton would still hold. This ship was designed to take a beating and emerge out of the other side.

“When will we be able to move the vessel?” Captain Singh bluntly asked, returning to the topic at hand.

Dr. Philips blinked. “That’s hard to say, sir. It comes down to two problems.” He reached with a hand and scrolled to the rear of the derelict. “We’ve determined that what appears to be conventional thrusters are actually something far more complex. Rather than for the propulsion of the craft, these large vents are actually for the expulsion of energy.”

He zoomed in on the leftward vent. “Or rather, the expulsion and direction of energy. Without this, we can assume there would be an excessive build-up somewhere in the vessel and a catastrophic overload.” The diagram opened to a view of a large compartment with machinery Samir didn’t recognize.

Two large pipe-like structures entered a large rotund machine that connected to the vent itself. Samir noted that a portion of the hull had been blown away from an impact and the pipes had been compromised.

“Luckily,” Dr. Philips continued, “it doesn’t appear that any major damage was sustained by the more complex components. The damage impacted these two pipes—for lack of a better word. We’ve analyzed the interior and we feel confident we can replicate the necessary machinery to get it functional again.”

“But you said there were two problems?” Samir put an arm on the table.

Dr. Philips took a deep breath and hesitated. “Yes, while we can repair the basic machinery, the software continues to cause trouble. We need at least another few weeks to parse out their operating systems.”

“So it’s a moot point.” Samir gave a disappointed sigh and leaned back in his chair.

“Not entirely, Captain.” Dr. Philips coughed. “We can’t put in our own flight plan, but thanks to the efforts of Commander Terese, we do have access to one that is already in the system.”

Captain Singh raised an eyebrow. “But the ship went off course. Way off course.”

“There’s an AI which can fill in the necessary gaps. It would be a relatively easy adjustment to put the original plan in and set the ship off.”

“But that would cost us the derelict.” Dr. Terese butted in. “Given that it could cross galaxies, it seems reasonable that the derelict could easily outrace the Hyperion.”

Samir turned to her. “You have another suggestion? I’m not going to allow whatever attacked us access to that vessel. Worst-case scenario, I am prepared to destroy it.”

Commander Terese gave a knowing glance to the rest of the people in the room before turning to the Captain. “We use the gravity drive to take the derelict back to the Free Exchange.”

There was a murmuring in the room again. Samir noticed many of the heads of departments nodding their heads along with her. It seemed most of the room implicitly agreed with her.

“The Hyperion wasn’t designed that way. It could destabilize the field on the way back home.” Captain Singh leaned forward, addressing everyone in the room at once. “There’s a good chance this ship could be destroyed.”

“Approximately thirty percent.” Amos spoke up. “I already ran the numbers. We’ll have to do some modification on the drive, but it’s feasible Captain.”

Samir had to withhold himself from shooting Amos a dirty look. Already ran the numbers. It was more than likely that Commander Terese had decided to explore this option without his approval. She had propositioned a number of the staff and had Amos run up the estimates. Not that the man could’ve done otherwise, but it was annoying regardless.

The Commander had come in here knowing that the outcome of the meeting before it even happened. But is that evidence against her? Samir certainly didn’t appreciate that she went behind his back—it meant that whatever trust he had for her evaporated. But plotting didn’t automatically make one a Free Exchange agent.

Regardless, the choice had now been made for him. Samir could’ve overriden the decision, but not without turning the staff against him. Right now, the crew of the Hyperion still needed to work together. He needed the support of the staff until he could get his own plan in motion, but he still wasn’t ready to take the loss entirely.

“I want it down to twenty percent.” Samir told the Chief Engineer. “I don’t care if you take extra time with the modifications. I don’t want to gamble with our lives.”

There was further nodding among the scientists. No one could argue with making sure things were as safe as possible.

“We’ll pursue the plan with the gravity drives, but if something comes up, I want to have a backup.” Samir turned towards Dr. Philips again. “Get on repairing the derelict’s FTL systems. Best-case scenario, we manage a breakthrough by the time we modify the gravity drive. Worst-case, we could explore the option of sending it as a decoy to buy time for us to escape. There’s still no telling when other ships appear.”

“Sir, wouldn’t that mean splitting the crews between the Hyperion and the derelict?” Commander Terese asked.

Samir sighed again at the implicit tone of the question. She was asking whether it would be wise to keep any crew on the derelict at all. Clearly, Commander Terese was going all in on the gravity drive option.

“We’re going to be keeping some crew on the derelict, regardless. I know it’s a risk for all personnel involved, but keeping all our crew on the Hyperion wouldn’t change much. We’re not winning the next battle. Either we pick up and leave with the derelict, we send on its way, or we destroy it. In the meantime, I want to learn everything we can while we still have the opportunity.”

There was a beeping noise in the room. Lt. Commander Klyker looked up from a screen pad. “Dr. Lukov is on the comm, Captain. He’s saying he’s made a discovery.”

“Put him on.”

Klyker pulled up a view from a holographic generator on the derelict. Everyone turned to the holographic wall as it came into focus. Dr. Lukov was almost exactly where Samir had left him. The man was in the sphere room, chatting excitedly with someone just out of view of the camera.

Samir cleared his throat.

“Ah, yes. Captain!” Dr. Lukov adjusted the generator to have a better view of the sphere. “We’ve made a rather stunning find.” The man turned to someone who was again out of the view. “Log thirty-six. Same as before.”

“Doctor, would you mind explaining what you have found?”

“No, no!” Dr. Lukov raised a finger with his back turned as he clicked on a computer. “Better to show you. It’s quite amazing.”

Samir impatiently tapped on the table as Dr. Lukov turned the generator towards an empty spot on the walkway. “Get ready for this.” He heard the physicist mumble out of view as an audible click of a computer came over.

Almost immediately, a golden light enveloped a small space. Samir blinked, and it was gone. However, resting on the walkway was now a strange device that hadn’t been there before. The entire room gasped as Dr. Lukov turned the generator back to him.

“Is it some form of teleportation?” Terese was the first to blurt out.

“Not exactly.” The physicist pushed up his glasses. “The device wasn’t anywhere on the derelict before I materialized it—in fact, it wasn’t quite anywhere at all.” Words stumbled out of the man’s mouth as he rushed to explain.

“Dr. Lukov, please take a moment,” Captain Singh advised.

The physicists nodded and took a breath. Composing himself, he gestured his hands towards the sphere. “We knew this device contained an unfathomable amount of energy, but we didn’t know what for. Now we do. It’s… storage. The pattern I materialized belongs to a log—a registry—or an archive.”

“Of what?” Amos asked, also interested.

“Everything!” Dr. Lukov threw up his hands. “The Andromedans have figured out how to completely transition matter into a form of compressible energy. And they have used it quite extensively.”

“Like their shields? We already knew they could manifest particles in a contained field,” Captain Singh noted.

“Yes, but it’s so much more than that. The particle shields are child’s play compared to what’s in here. There are billions of energy frequencies, each associated with a particular log in the database we have accessed. What we’re witnessing here is a massive archive of…” The man lost his words again. “Everything! There are the contents of a civilization in here. Technology… Culture… We’ve only scratched the surface! All perfectly preserved!”

Samir scratched his beard in thought. Suddenly, the puzzle pieces were all coming together. The lack of crew, the unexplained intactness of the quantum computer, and perhaps this might even offer an explanation into their FTL.

“So, what you’re saying,” Singh began slowly. “That this vessel is a colony ship.”

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Dr. Lukov said over the comm. “The quantum computer carried both times over by a colony ship. But I would wager this isn’t just a mere colonization vessel.”

No. Samir was already far ahead of the physicist. The presence of the quantum computer, combined with the fact that the ship was never meant for the Milky Way, indicated the purpose of the vessel well enough. It was a last-ditch effort. A civilization’s attempt at preserving itself from the onslaught of whatever attacked the Hyperion. The presence of the quantum computer was likely a historical footnote, taken alongside anything else of value.

A story came together in his mind. The ship was rushed out of drydock. Meaning that they were already losing whatever conflict they had found themselves in. The ship was launched as soon as it was flyable, but came under attack. It diverted course to the Milky Way to seek help, but with some device lodged in their hull, they were forced to power down.

The attackers were still after the vessel, so they couldn’t simply put out a signal. Nor could they remove the device that had been lodged in their hull. While Samir couldn’t speculate much, Commander Terese had told him the coloration of the intruders was a near match of the one on the derelict. Perhaps a sort of stalemate was reached between the two. It doesn’t matter. They needed a low power solution and a means of reaching out silently.

The quantum computer was then a happy accident. Samir could imagine it being archived in a museum, preserved for thousands of years as formless energy. Kept as a trinket of the past, though undeniably useless to them. Perhaps it got lost and found again over the ages, an odd little thing which survived over the centuries. Then it was swept up alongside with whatever else a civilization could pour into a single vessel.

The only question which remained was a simple one. “Do you think the Andromedans are still alive in that device?”

Dr. Lukov solemnly nodded his head. “That sphere holds the contents of a civilization. What we have before us is far more than just first contact. Far more than anything we could’ve possibly hoped for. What we have is Andromeda itself.”