Twelve days had passed since they had refueled in the globular cluster. They had left the cluster for the host galaxy after a few days, as it seemed to have little in resources heavier than iron.

Thanks to Becky and Chie’s use of spectroscopy, they found a young orange star seemingly rich in heavy elements and used their last cables for the wormhole drive to make the trip there.

Once there, it took less than a day to find several asteroids worth looking into for mining.

Now that they were low on materials and they had a source to get new ones, Anton stopped her repairs and worked on the project. Something the crew was now watching in action.

Anton held onto her newest drone as it finished its approach to the large asteroid they had selected, “This thing’s huge up close!”

Becky, in the cargo compartment at the back of the drone, nodded, “Yep! If I’m right, that baby’s loaded with more precious metals than humans have mined since ever. We’d totally crash the world economy if we brought this thing back.”

Anton laughed, “Yeah! I think a rock this big crashing into the Earth would do more than crash the economy.”

Becky laughed, “You know what I mean.”

Mayu pushed herself out of the drone’s cargo compartment and used her space suit’s thrusters to approach the asteroid, “This is so exciting!”

Anton’s camera bobbed, making Ryan think she nodded, “Totally is!”

Ryan stopped the drone just above the surface, “Think would could bling out me… uh… I mean, Luna with all this gold?”

Becky snorted, and turned back to look at Luna stationed a safe distance away, “Maybe after we get her fixed up.”

Anton seemed to consider the comment for a moment, “Sounds fun. If only we could find some diamonds…”

Becky touched down on the surface as best she could with the asteroid’s weak gravity, “Gas giants rain diamonds.”

Anton turned to Becky, “You’re yankin’ my chain.”

Becky pulled a tool from her belt and started scanning the surface with it, “Well… we can’t be sure, but the maths check out.”

“Cool.”

Ryan wanted to build a drone they could send down so he could see it, “Let’s try building a drone for that later, Anton. Raining diamonds sounds like it’d be awesome to see.”

Anton’s camera bobbed again, “Totally awesome!”

Chie finally left the drone and headed to the surface, “I would be interested in seeing this as well, but the pressures required to make diamonds are immense so I imagine making a drone that could survive such an environ will be difficult to impossible.”

Ryan understood Chie’s reasoning, “Maybe, but we have space metals now.”

Chie shrugged, “Perhaps. Hmm, it would seem like an interesting challenge to undertake, so I will give my support if we find ourselves with the free time.”

Anton did a small fist pump, “Yeah!” She turned to the asteroid, “Let’s get this bling so we can get back to fixin’ Luna!”

Once everyone focused back on the asteroid, Ryan turned his attention back to the drone.

It was big, about ten percent the size of Luna. Most of the size was for the cargo compartment, but Anton had put lots of other goodies inside too, which contributed to the size. Among these were several tools that protruded from mechanical arms mounted around the circular nose that had a hatch for “sucking” in ore at the center. Beneath the nose and some space for the other equipment and tools was a ring of gravity plating that hopefully worked in “sucking” the ore inside. Unlike the gravity plating on the ship, it only produced strong gravity on one side, so once the ore ‘fell’ through it would keep going.

Further inside, just behind the hatch, was a small reactor and a tank for enough fuel to last the drone a day of travel using the miniature FTL drive also mounted on it. The FTL for the drone wasn’t nearly as fast as Luna, but it hadn’t needed to be.

It also had several thrusters mounted in key spots on the outside for fine movement and maneuvering.

The most impressive thing about it was that Anton had designed it in less than a day, with the rest of the time spent building it outside of Luna.

Ryan’s thoughts went back to the asteroid as he saw Chie finish scanning a promising area, “Guys, Chie found a good spot. Lots of rare metals. Even some radioactive ones.” He began moving the drone to the spot, “Let’s see how good these tools are at mining.”

Chie moved away from the area she’d just finished scanning, “Excellent.”

Everyone turned to watch the drone move, then extend an arm towards the asteroid.

Anton raised her fists in a display of encouragement, “Come on, Sucker! You can do this!”

Becky groaned, “I don’t think I’ll ever like that name…”

Anton glanced at Becky, “It sucks, so… Sucker.”

Mayu moved to Sucker and patted it, “I think it is okay.”

Becky shook her head in mild disgust, “I’ll let you keep the name if you let me name the next drone.”

Anton gave Becky a thumb’s up, “Deal!”

Ryan turned on the tool, “Hey! You said I could name the next one.”

Anton slammed her fist into her hand, “Oh! Right! You get the one after next, Becky.”

Becky nodded, “Sounds good!”

Ryan noticed the current tool, the cutting tool they’d been using in Luan, was doing its job, but not quickly, “Hmm... too slow.” He turned it off, retracted the tool’s arm and extended another, “Guys, I’m using ‘that’ tool. Might want to take cover.”

Anton was the first to react and started moving towards the hatch to Sucker’s cargo compartment, “Cool!”

Becky glanced at Mayu and waved her towards the drone, “Come on.”

Mayu turned to the extending tool and studied it for a moment before turning to follow Becky, “Yes.”

Chie found a loose boulder barley bigger than she, and hid behind it, “Ready.”

Once the three others entered the cargo hold, Ryan turned the tool on, “Here we go…”

This was a tool they had yet to find a use for, as it was too dangerous to use inside the ship. It was a larger tool that consumed an enormous amount of power and so had a mini reactor inside, along with a tank for hydrogen that fed the mini reactor and the super-heated plasma it shot out.

The front opening of the tool glowed and milliseconds later a concentrated beam of plasma shot from the front. This plasma easily melted the asteroid material, and soon a large gash formed from the super-heated plasma.

The dangerous part for the others was the molten asteroid material that got ejected from the drill site.

Ryan noticed that while the material took a while to cool off, it wasn’t moving particularly fast, “It’s probably safe to come out as long as you stay away from the drill.”

Anton poked her head out, “Huh, thought there’d be explodin’ rocks from the heat.”

Chie peeked from behind her boulder, “It’s still a possibility, but I suspect that the high metal content of the asteroid is keeping it to a minimum.”

Becky poked her head out next. She couldn’t see the drill site from her position, but she still stayed still, “I guess the crusher is next up?”

Anton nodded, “Yup! Once we get this piece cut off, the crusher’s turn is up!”

Becky pushed herself from the cargo compartment and got a better view of the drill site, “Let’s hope it’s not too messy.”

Anton put both her hands on her hips, “Don’t worry! Already told ya I took that into consideration.”

Becky shrugged, “Yeah, it’s just… too small?”

Chie floated away from the asteroid about a meter and pointed the opposite direction from the drone, “Not that I do not trust your expertise, but I think I will take some more samples a safer distance from this area.”

Becky crossed her arms, “Eh… I think I’ll stay here. I want to see the crusher do its thing.”

Anton nodded enough to move her helmet, “Yeah, this’ll be another historical moment in Luna’s history. The day we could start mining!”

Mayu and Becky had started a document detailing their significant achievements since coming to Luna, and Anton had taken a liking to it.

Mayu moved next to Becky, “Yes, I am thinking this is the last thing to make us safe.”

Becky turned to Mayu, “Yeah, after this we won’t have to worry about resources.”

If Ryan could smile he would have, “We can start trying to travel home now.”

Anton turned to Luna, “Yup! Still need lots’a repairs, but we can do that on the way. Just gotta finish buildin’ the new recycler so we can process this ore.”

Chie spoke, “It appears this asteroid does not have everything we require, so we will be in this system a while.”

Ryan checked his progress on the drilling, or cutting since he was merely cutting a chunk off to feed to the grinder, “I’m gettin’ the hang of using the drone, so I think I can cut the next chunks faster.”

The area he had cut around jerked and came free.

Ryan turned off the plasma cutter, “Good timing!”

Ryan retracted the plasma cutter and started extending the grinder housing.

The grinder took up the largest section of the drilling portion of the drone and lay between the gravity donut and the forward nose.. It had four grasping arms designed for manipulating pieces of asteroid, two large metal cylinders covered in teeth made for crushing, and a cone that extended from the hatch at the fore to protect the rest of the drone and keep debris from escaping.

Becky moved forward a little, “I still think you should have made the cone bigger.”

Mayu pulled out a space suit patcher and moved behind Becky, “I am thinking we trust Anton.”

Anton moved behind the same boulder Chie hid behind earlier, “Yeah… it’ll work great!”

Ryan laughed, “If you say so.”

The grinder apparatus finished extending.

Ryan heard Anton gulp.

Ryan extended the grappling arms and grabbed the piece of asteroid and turned on the artificial gravity donut, “Here goes! Itadakimasu!”

Mayu laughed, “Itadakimasu!”

Becky seemed confused for a moment, then seemed to remember, “Oh! Itadakimasu!”

Anton seemed like she was about to say something when the grinder’s teeth started chewing and turned her attention to that, “Yeah! It’s working!”

Indeed, it was. The teeth of the grinder weren’t having the easiest time thanks to the high concentration of metal, but they were still doing it.

Becky whooped and turned to hug Mayu, “We did it!”

Mayu returned Becky’s hug, “Yes, we did it!”

Anton turned from the drone and back to Luna, “Yesh! Now to finish that recycler!”

Ryan started making eating noises because the lack of noise coming from the grinder because of the vacuum of space seemed anticlimactic, “Nom, nom! Nom nom nom nom!”

Becky shook her head and laughed, before moving towards Luna, “Make sure to eat lots!”

Mayu laughed too, “If you get upset stomachs, please say.”

Anton didn’t glance back and continued towards Luna’s open airlock where the materials needed to assemble the recycler they’d use to process the ore waited, “Let me know how it tastes!”

Chie stayed at the asteroid, but offered no comment.

Ryan turned his attention to mining and mapping their current solar system while the others went their ways. Once Becky got back to Luna, she’d go back to pouring through images of galaxies in order to find the Milky Way. She’d told him enough that he could narrow the search down, but she definitely had a better chance of finding it, even if he could look through the images faster.

He also spent his time charting nearby stars and had already done the jumps needed for parallax while Anton built Sucker. Now, all he needed to do was finish sorting and comparing.

A few minutes into his work, he noticed something. One of the candidate asteroids was giving off radio waves, and its albedo had changed from nearly black, to a shiny metallic color when changing angles.

He brought up the two images of the asteroid for Becky to compare when she entered the mess hall, “Hey Becky, what do you make of this?”

Becky looked at the two images, “Hmm? Ah, what’s up?”

Ryan highlighted the asteroid in both pictures, “Something’s weird with this asteroid. From the image on the left, it has a very low albedo of 0.06, but on the right it has an albedo of 0.94. It’s also giving out radio waves.”

Becky squinted at the pictures, “Hmm, that’s weird, but it’s not unheard for an asteroid to have different albedos, but radio waves... Can you show me the spectrograph?”

Ryan brought it up, “Whoa, it’s mostly titanium and some other metals.”

Becky’s brow furrowed, “It can’t be…”

Ryan felt he knew what it could be, “Wait… you’re not thinking…”

Becky nodded, “You said it gave out radio waves? Could that have been a radar?”

Ryan felt slight dread hit him, “You mean we got scanned?”

Becky shook her head and shrugged, “It’s possible.”

Ryan opened a channel to the others, “Guys, emergency meeting. We found something important.”

Chie replied first, “Should I return to Luna?”

Ryan didn’t feel safe leaving Chie out there if they’d found what they thought they had, “Yeah.I’ll bring you back using Sucker since it’s faster. I’ll fill everyone in while you come back.”

Chie started heading back to Sucker, “Understood.”

Mayu didn’t reply and walked the short distance from the med bay to the mess hall where Becky had set up her work station.

Anton kept working on the recycler, but kept glancing out through the still open airlock, “You find somethin’ cool?”

Ryan filled them in on the findings, “...so, I’m thinking of jumping near it for a closer look. We’ll have to leave Sucker here since it’s too big to fit into the airlock.”

Anton glanced back out as the approaching Sucker became visible from her position, “Might as well get Sucker back to mining while we look.”

Becky nodded, “Might as well. You can still control from there Sucker thanks to that miracle instant communication device.”

Ryan recalled the telemetry he’d gotten from the drone they’d left behind in the expanse between galaxies. Telemetry he’d received after the wormhole closed that should have been impossible to receive despite the vast distance. Even he knew how amazing the ability for instant communication over such vast distances was. He’d wanted to test it some more, but he’d lost contact with the drone not long after they’d left.

It was so unexpected he hadn’t even noticed how unusual the data was until Becky noticed it a few days later.

Chie exited Sucker’s cargo compartment, some crushed ore following behind her, and entered the airlock, “Can we be certain this is an alien facility?”

Ryan moved Sucker back to the asteroid, “I hope so.”

Anton jumped up from her squatting position, “Yeah! Aliens!”

Becky seemed just as excited as Anton, though there was a hint of worry, “Still, the odds of finding aliens at the first star we visit. They’re astronomical.”

Anton thought for a moment before her face brightened again, “Van Nugget probes?”

Becky seemed confused for a moment before snorting, “You mean, Von Neumann probes?”

Anton shrugged, “The ones that self replicate.”

Becky nodded to herself, “I guess that makes sense. Given enough time, an alien race could seed every star in a galaxy with probes, especially if they can replicate exponentially. If they have some form of FTL, it would be even faster.”

Chie seemed impressed, “That’s fascinating.”

Mayu seemed a little confused, but after Ryan did a quick translation for her, “These things are everywhere?”

Becky shook her head, “No idea, but maybe we’re close to their home system?”

Ryan turned Luna towards the asteroid in question, “Well, let’s get a closer look. Maybe a light minute away?”

He started closing the airlock doors.

Becky nodded, “Sounds good to me.”

Anton turned towards the closing airlock doors, “Maybe we should fix one of Luna’s guns first?”

Chie headed towards the crew deck where Mayu and Becky were, “I imagine it will not be necessary provided we stay a safe distance away.”

Anton tapped her foot a few times in thought, then followed Chie, “Yeah, I hope so.”

Once Anton and Chie joined Mayu and Becky, Ryan readied the FTL, “Here we go!”

The asteroid and Sucker disappeared, and the mystery object took their place.

It was aliens, as, attached to the side of an ordinary asteroid, was an alien craft.

The craft looked simple. It was pill shaped, with several antennas and dishes protruding from its surface. Four legs attached it to the surface of the asteroid. There weren’t any signs of propulsion, but from this distance the resolution of the image was still poor, so it was hard to tell.

It also appeared that some asteroid material beneath the probe was missing.

Anton grinned, “I wonder if there’s anyone inside.”

Becky didn’t take her eyes off the image, “Probably not. I don’t think a system like this would need a manned craft.”

Mayu seemed almost as excited as Anton, “I am thinking we can do talking?”

Ryan wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to expose themselves with no working weapons, “I’d like to say no, but they’ve probably already seen us and it doesn’t look armed so it might be okay.”

Becky nodded, “I agree with Ryan. If they are hostile, we can use the FTL to retreat.”

Ryan thought to the wormhole drive, “Maybe we should get that recycler finished. That way we can make new cables for the wormhole drive.”

Anton nodded, “Right! I’ll try repairing one of Luna’s weapons after that, too. Just in case.”

Mayu turned to Anton, “I can be helpful?”

Anton glanced at Mayu, “Sure, you’ve gotten pretty good at the basics. We’ll go after Ryan sends ‘em a message.”

Chie tapped a finger on her arm, “I will assist as well. The more options we have available for retreat or defense, the better.”

Ryan readied himself to transmit a message, “I’m getting more radio waves, so let’s try that. Becky, you’re the space expert. Want to try?”

Anton jumped up and down with her hand raised, “Oh! Oh! Let me try! I’ve already gone over this situation a ton in my head.”

Becky gave Anton a skeptical look, “I’m sorry, but I don’t trust you to handle first contact situations. You’re a bit too… um... energetic.”

Anton stopped jumping and scowled.

Chie put her hand on Anton’s shoulder, “She is right. Situations such as this require a delicate approach.”

Anton pulled away from Chie’s hand, looking uncomfortable at the contact, “Fine.”

Ryan felt bad, “Well, I don’t think they know English or Japanese, so I doubt they’d understand anything we say, anyway.”

Becky nodded, “True, but they might still understand body language and tone, so it’s still safer to take a more diplomatic approach.”

Anton sighed, “Alright, I got it. I think you’re less likely to get us shot at, Becky.”

Becky smiled and nodded, “Thanks for understanding.”

Anton shrugged.

“Ready?” Ryan turned on the transmitter... which was pretty much part of the sensors.

Becky straightened up, “Greetings. This is the Luna. We are fellow travellers of the stars and would like to open discourse and…”

A hatch on the probe opened and a small object left.

The object soon turned into a blur and disappeared.

Becky paused at the sight but finished her sentence, “have an exchange of knowledge.”

Ryan stopped the transmission, “So… that happened.”

Anton looked concerned, “What do ya think that was?”

Ryan replayed the event, “It looks like the smaller object used FTL.”

Becky nodded slowly, “I think that is the best guess.”

Chie turned to leave the room, “No matter what it is, I think it is expedient to prepare ourselves for whatever is in store for us.”

Ryan had a thought and did some quick calculations and brought up the star map showing the nearby stars with one in particular highlighted, “It’s heading to this star.”

Everyone turned to the map.

Mayu nodded to herself, “It is telling its friends?”

Becky crossed her arms, “It sent a message in a bottle.”

Chie scowled, “Have you any way to know how long it will take for it to arrive at its destination?”

Ryan wasn’t sure, “No way of knowing, but it's four point seven light years away and that would take us a little over a day at max speed.”

Becky nodded, “It will also take them time to come back here.”

Chie tapped her chin, “I think we should have more time than that. If the probe was as advanced as Luna, then it would have the instant communication instead of the messenger probe.”

Anton smiled, “Right! We better hurry, then. Gonna take another couple days to get the recycler working, wormhole cables printed, and a gun working.”

Anton ran from the room with Chie not far behind.

Mayu studied the map and image of the alien probe, “This is so exciting!”

Mayu left the room.

Becky chuckled, “Glad to see them so fired up.”

Ryan watched the others head to the airlock, “I am too. Always thought it’d be cool to see aliens.”

Becky nodded then did an excited, happy dance, “I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life! My colleagues are going to be so jealous!”

Ryan turned Luna to head back to Sucker, “I’ll bet! Gonna be a lot of people jealous of all the stuff we’ve seen and can do.”

Becky shrugged, “If we tell anyone.”

Ryan was pretty sure keeping Luna a secret was probably the safest thing to do, “Anyway… I’m heading back to Sucker. Gonna need that ore.”

Becky nodded and turned back to the star map, “Sounds good.” She pointed to the highlighted star, “What can you tell me about this star?”