Cattie frowned. “Okay, then what does it mean?”

  “I think it means we all share a common ancestry,” Nathan said simply.

  Everyone stared at him.

  “That’s a pretty earth-shattering assumption,” Nori said. “What sort of race could be old enough to influence the development of countless alien species across the galaxy?”

  Lana shook her head slowly, already guessing her friend’s answer. Nathan’s nod and words confirmed her assumption. “The Relict, of course.”

  ***

  An awed silence followed the young Technomancer’s declaration.

  Nori was first to break the hushed atmosphere. “Okay, let’s assume you’re right and some higher force … God, the Relict, or whatever you want to call it, was responsible for the foundation of most intelligent species out there. How does that help us?”

  “Understanding the past is an important part of figuring out where we’re headed,” Lana said automatically. “My history professor used to say that.”

  Nathan nodded at her.

  “Not to mention,” Bulco said slowly. “Aside from the Tec, original Relict technology is virtually nonexistent. When I researched the archives I first looked into the most advanced stuff out there. There’s very little Relict technology remaining. Some of those system lord guys have a few working machines, and they are considered priceless. If we can somehow figure out how to get our hands on some of the Relict’s old toys … humanity could become a force to be reckoned with.”

  Nori’s eyes suddenly widened as she stared at Nathan. “Your race!”

  The young man nodded at her. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  Cattie frowned. “Eh?”

  “I’m not showing as a pure human,” Nathan explained calmly. “At first I thought being a ‘human-scion’ was a quirk of the system, but I looked it up. There’s no information at all on any ‘scion’ in any known race.”

  Lana frowned. “That’s weird. Do you think you’re the first one?”

  The young man shook his head. “No. I think it’s more likely that data was expunged from the archives.”

  “That means,” Nori said slowly. “That whatever a ‘scion’ is, it's very rare. Something others prefer to keep a secret. I looked into your Path while I was doing my research. There was almost no information available— only a handful of Technomancers have been recorded in the entire known galaxy. I didn’t read too much into it at first, but now that I think about it … hold on.” The others looked at each other in puzzlement as the captain disappeared into the supply room, emerging back a moment later carrying what looked like a palm-sized torn piece of metal.

  Relict Shard, ???

  “Nearly forgot we had the damn thing,” Bulco grunted. “What about it?”

  “Here.” Nori handed the shard to Nathan.

  The young man looked at her hesitantly, then he cautiously reached out for the item. As soon as his fingers locked around the jagged metal, thin geometric lines appeared on its surface, glowing in pale green.

  “I think it answers a few things,” the Navigator said.

  Lana nodded slowly. “I think you’re right.”

  “Would anyone care to explain?” Cattie asked.

  The Expert inhaled. “We’re guessing that most of the alien species out there are descended from the Relict themselves. Naturally, each species has evolved differently, depending on the conditions on their home planet. The original gene pool has diluted, so we are drifting apart from each other. But every now and then, an individual is born who’s more akin to the original Relict—whose genes are purer. Such individuals are identified by the Tec and are marked as scions.”

  “And they have significantly more powerful Paths,” Nori added, eyeing the young Technomancer.

  “There’s even more to it than that,” Lana said. “Remember Alzigo said we humans are weird with our high amount of uncommon and rare Paths? If we’re really onto something, I’d say that humanity, as a whole, is relatively closer to the original Relict—gene-wise. Who knows? We might even have more scions, apart from Nathan, back on Earth.”

  “That could be one heck of a strategic advantage,” Bulco said appreciatively. “If what you’re saying is true, it means once we pull it together and get out there, to the stars, we could be the top dogs.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Nori said. “I think researching more about the Relict and this shard is in order, but let's not forget our priorities. None of this will help if we can’t help the people back on Earth to reclaim our homeworld.”

  “You’re right,” Lana said and waved her hand over her left wrist, activating her light console. “Looks like we still have about nine hours of flight left. Who’s up for a game of Yahtzee?”

  Bulco got up. “Count me out. I’m going to work on the Hummer for a bit. I checked out some free designs in the archives, and I have an idea for an upgrade. Y'all can take some rest, I’ll keep an eye on Unity.”

  Lana looked expectantly at the Sharpshooter.

  Cattie shook her head. “Sorry, babe, but it’s lights out for me.”

  “We should all get some rest,” Nori said. “We’ll need to be alert once we reach our destination. I’ll take the shift after Bulco.”

  She flattened her bed, and thin partitions rose to obscure her bunk. A moment later, Nathan and Cattie followed suit.

  Lana looked disappointed, but then she yawned. “Alright, wake me up if anything interesting happens.”

  The Navigator’s voice carried over behind the partition walls. “Will do.”

  **

  A violent tremor ran through the ship and red lights started flickering everywhere, causing everyone to jump on their feet.

  “What’s going on?” Bulco shouted, rubbing his eyes.

  “We’re under attack,” Nori’s cool voice came over the ship’s internal comms. “Everyone report to the bridge.”

  7 - Altercation

  Unity’s crew rushed to the bridge. Another ship was instantly visible, occupying the main viewscreen. It was twice Unity’s size. Its hardened hull was scored with dozens of deep grooves. Twin red, laser-like beams were pointing straight at them.

  “Lana, get to your station. Tell me everything you can on that ship,” the captain ordered.

  “For the record, this wasn’t what I meant when I said ‘wake me up if anything interesting happens’!” the Expert shouted as she hurried to assume her spot. Her seat rose up to envelop her, and a few seconds later, half a dozen light consoles and holo screens blazed to life, feeding the young woman streams of information.

  “Nathan, I need you to control the cannon again,” Nori said.

  Bulco shook his head. “It won’t do much against an armored vessel.”

  “I know, but that’s all we have at the moment.”

  Cung who was operating on her own console swore suddenly. “That’s an Alpha mining vessel! What the hell do they want? We haven't entered their territory yet.”

  “They’re definitely stronger than us,” Lana filled in, her hands a blur over her controls. “They have ablative plating and standard energy shields, as well as two forward grade-F beam cannons.”

  “Their first shot shaved off twenty percent of our hull plating,” Bulco said.

  “You got to give me something I can work with!” Nori clenched her teeth.

  A long chime sounded through the bridge.

  “They’re hailing us,” Lana said.

  “Patch them through,” Nori ordered.

  “Unity.” A picture of a large, gray-skinned Karnaf filled the main viewscreen. “We meet at last.”

  Nori narrowed her eyes. “Who are you?”

  “I am Grev Toruk, a ship’s captain in Alpha Miners.”

  “Why did you shoot us?” Nori demanded.

  “You’ve met my second in command, I believe.” the Karnaf captain pulled another figure into view.

  Nori’s eyes widened in recognition. “Craygog.”

  “It is funny to find the ship of the crew who assaulted one of my own, alone and so far into the asteroid field,” Grev continued. “Especially in our territory.”

  “This is not your territory.” Cung stood, seething. “We are far from your claim.”

  “For our business, you are in our territory,” the captain's voice replied in a threatening tone. “You will pay for robbing Craygog’s savings. No one messes with Alpha Miners, especially not a factionless little freighter.”

  “Keep him talking,” Cung’s voice came through their personal comm implants. “I’m plotting an escape route.”

  “Our thrusters are slightly faster than theirs,” Lana’s voice chimed in. “But we’ll still be in range of their cannon if we just try to fly out of here.”

  Nori looked back up at the smug captain. “There’s no need for further violence. The hacking was … an unfortunate mishap, but your crew member did attack us first.”

  “I don’t care,” Grev growled. “You’ll pay back double the amount you took. Twenty-four thousand piTec right now, or I’ll blast your pathetic little freighter and sell the scraps.”

  “Nathan,” Nori’s voice drifted over the internal comms. “Can you do anything?”

  The young man looked helplessly at her and shook his head. Though he could feel the other ship at the edge of his awareness, a sort of menacing shadow a few hundred meters away, she was just too big and complex for him to influence.

  “Time’s up,” the Karnaf captain said. “Initiate the transfer now, or we’ll mark you as trespassers and blow you away.”

  “Nori,” Lana’s voice sounded excited. “There’s a small meteor flying our way, it’s gonna pass between us in a few seconds.” She manipulated her console and a flying rock the size of a car appeared on the left viewscreen.

  “I’ve finished calculating an escape route,” Cung voice followed. “Sending it to your screen.” The right viewscreen path changed, now showing a snaking path between a dense part of the asteroid field.

  “Nathan, target that meteor,” Nori ordered.

  “Last chance!” Grev boomed. “You have three seconds!” The twin beams of laser that were still trained on Unity’s hull started converging.

  “Three.”

  “Two.”

  The laser points met, centered directly at the bridge.

  “There’s a meteor heading our way,” Nori cried.

  “You have bigger worries than that. One!”

  The flying piece of rock appeared, soaring between the two ships.

  “Fire!” Nori yelled.

  Unity’s asteroid cannon discharged, sending a Mithril-tipped projectile speeding at several tens of thousands of kilometers per hour. The oversized bullet hit the piece of celestial debris, and the concussive force of the impact instantly vaporized the meteor, transforming it to a thick cloud of dirt and debris that dissipated the laser beams.

  Nori instantly punched her control, and Unity leaped forward. She arced gracefully, settling into the new flight path.

  The Karnaf vessel was caught off guard and didn’t react for several seconds. By the time they burst through the dirt cloud, Unity was already kilometers away.

  “We’re still inside the range of their cannons,” Lana shouted. A moment later a rough tremor ran through the ship.

  “They hit us again,” Bulco declared unnecessarily. “Our hull plating integrity is at 60%. We’re lucky their cannons didn’t hit the point they were aiming for. That would have been enough to breach our hull.”

  “I’m trying to evade them,” Nori clenched her teeth, her hands a blur over the controls. Unity swerved from side to side as more shots narrowly missed her and punched the asteroids ahead of them.

  “Just a little farther!” Cung said. “That dense part over there is filled with radioactive elements, they won’t be able to track us once we’re inside.”

  “Uhm, isn’t radiation a bad thing?” Cattie asked nervously. The Sharpshooter was of little use in a space fight, and her knuckles were white as she grabbed her seat.

  Another shudder ran through the ship. “Fifty percent!” Bulco called out.

  “Trying to evade the beams …” Nori clenched her teeth as she continued to steer the ship in complex patterns. “Almost … there …”

  Unity shot forward, entering a narrow gap between two huge pieces of space rock that slowly crashed into each other, closing the gap behind them.

  “We’re inside the radiation field,” the tall Exhar announced.

  “They’re not pursuing us farther,” Lana said with a relieved sigh. “I got a reading of them breaking off before the sensors started acting up. Their range is now barely five kilometers, anything beyond that is like white noise.”

  “That’s the radiation interference,” Cung confirmed. “You need specialized equipment to scan through it. Luckily, I’ve already been here, so I have a relatively updated map of the area.”

  “Relatively updated?” Bulco raised an eyebrow.

  “The asteroid field keeps shifting, but the pattern can be predicted.”

  “So how can we tell if it's safe to come out?” Cattie asked nervously.

  Cung shrugged. “Stay here and lay low for a few hours. They can’t waste too much time hunting us down; they’re miners too.”

  “Why the hell is their mining ship rigged like a warship?” Bulco demanded.

  “The various mining factions have a tenuous peace at best,” Cung explained. “A ship has to be able to protect the riches it obtains.”

  “Or steal them from others,” the Engineer grunted.

  The Exhar woman nodded. “That too.”

  “Thank God we upgraded our hull,” Lana shuddered. “I’d hate to be hit by those beams without it.”

  “The Balatium plating has sustained heavy damage,” Unity’s voice drifted over the ship’s comms. “However it can be mended by investing 800 kilograms of the 26 tons of Balatium we have on board.”

  “Do it,” Nori said.

  “Yes, Captain.”

  The side viewscreen shifted to show the ship’s outer hull. Scorched markings and deep grooves marred her smooth surface, but as they looked, bits of the armor starting shifting. Small building blocks bubbled up to the surface and slowly started sealing the damaged areas.

  “That’s pretty cool,” Bulco noted.

  Cung shook her head. “Your ship is strangely advanced for such a basic model.”

  “We’ll stay here for a while,” Nori decided, changing the subject. “Better not risk another encounter. We were lucky to survive that one.”

  “If you’d like,” the tall alien said, “I mapped rich deposits not far from here.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Bulco said. “Might as well use the time to make some profit.”

  “What sort of resources?” Nori asked.

  “There’s a high condensation of iron-nickel, magnesium, carbon and most other types of common elements. Except for aluminum, of course. Too bad. Other than that, it’s everything required for the production of Trinium.”

  Nori’s smile was reflected by the others.

  ***

  Alter Mode engaged

  Unity’s ‘head’ elongated, further distancing the bridge from the ship’s main body. Six insect-like legs emerged from her sides as she swept down on an asteroid bigger than the entire Hammerhead station. The legs buckled slightly as they absorbed the vessel's momentum, dispersing it and anchoring her safely on top of the piece of space rock.

  Cung looked around in a puzzled expression. “I’ve never seen a ship do that before. What is she?”

  “I’m a Freighter-Miner hybrid, thank you for asking,” Unity’s calm voice replied.

  The tall alien woman shook her head. “And the speech nuances … that’s quite a sophisticated AI for a simple commercial freighter.”

  Unity’s flexible neck moved freely, positioning its head above the rock bed. A gaping circular maw opened at the bottom, and an intense wide beam shot out, burrowing into the ground. Almost at once, huge tendon-like pipelines widened on both sides of the neck. As the beam continued to burrow into the ground, large bulges seemed to be moving through the pipes, flowing toward her body.

  “Oh, wow.” Cung stood as if she was struck by lightning. “Your ship is eating the minerals.”

  “Just a little something I’d like to call Internal Storage Capacitors,” Bulco said humorlessly.

  “We’re getting a good harvest,” Lana said as she read through one of her side monitors. “Cung led us to a good spot. At this rate, we’re looking at a yield of five tons per hour.”

  “Unity, can you use our stores of aluminum to convert that into Trinium?” Nori asked.

  “Easily done, Captain. The twelve tons of aluminum in stock will suffice to synthesize sixty tons of Trinium. At our current excavation speed, we can accomplish that in 9.6 hours.”

  Nori shook her head. “That’s tempting, but we can’t afford that much time. We’re still on the clock on our main objective.” She paused and rubbed her chin. “We need twelve tons for the second-floor upgrade right?”

  “That’s right,” Bulco said. “We’ll need a little extra to divide the area into separate rooms. We already have two tons in stock.”

  “Unity,” the Navigator called. “How much Trinium can we produce in three hours?”

  “Exactly 18.75 tons, Captain, which will use up 3.75 tons of our current aluminum supply.”

  Nori raised an eyebrow at the Engineer.

  He nodded back at her. “That should be enough for our needs”

  “That settles it then,” she said with a tone of finality. “We’ll hide here and mine for three hours, then we’ll resume course toward our destination. Lana, how much longer do we have?”

  The woman checked her readout. “Forty-two hours. And we’re still three hours away from our destination.”

  Cung shook her head. “With how quick your ship can mine—you don’t even have to deploy remote-controlled excavators—that delay is a minor one.”