The Cosmic Ocean

Once steadily flying, Yvette did indeed look at her other scanners and monitors, finding a scan of the main ship. So he wasn't lying, meaning they were probably having plenty of issues on their own and didn't get her emergency signal. She couldn't bring eight more problems aboard the main ship which left her in these peoples hands, a far from ideal situation. Yvette flew in the direction she was supposed to go, ignoring that talk and banter so she could think properly. Currently she was in a bad situation and it only promised to get worse from here. They were going to find out who she was sooner or later, and Yvette didn't know what to expect when they did.

"Call off your men on our ship." She demanded of Janus, her head held high as she did so, not fearing him, at least not on the outside. "Clear our ship so they can repair it and go home and I will save you the headache and tell you who I am. In the meantime you really should listen better." The man had asked her rank, but he should have already known that much given she had said it when trying to buy time. "As I stated before I am just an ensign, nothing important, and no use to you. Though I guess I should be thankful that you chose to keep a lowly ensign alive. Though killing me wouldn't have gotten you much further ahead either." The last couple things that she said were more meant to be thoughts to herself that she had accidentally vocalized in her nervousness. Her heart was pounding in her ears, wondering if she had made the right choices and if she was going to survive this entire thing, but she kept the expression on her face neutral, trying to remain calm as she directed the shuttle not towards her own ship, but the enemies. ​

 

​

Irrin raised an eyebrow upon hearing Ana's words and shook his head. Unfortunately, he did not have the authority to order her to put on the protective gear. "Keep your head low." He directed to not only Ana but the other officer present. The comms officer, unlike Ana, had taken Irrin's advice and had already put one of the armored vests on. Quint led the group back towards the steps and headed down to the lower level and to the next checkpoint. The shuttlebay had been where he had detected the first signs of intrusion and, if anything was to be certain, he was sure that there would be some answers up ahead. He took a deep breath and opened the door once making the final security check. Thankfully this time with no errors on the system's part. Irrin stepped onto the shuttlebay deck and lowered his pistol the moment he had sight of his surroundings.

"Shit."

​

Yet another died when trying to make it back to cover. Being the only member of his team still left standing, the pirate was not going to wait around for his enemy to finish him off as well. At this point his life was more important than the orders of his leader and too many had died for the sake of getting one dammed alien. The Coalition could have their freak. He was going to live. The pirate pulled out his communicator and called in. "No good! The others are down. Get me outta here." His body had only been mostly hidden away behind the damaged wall of a ruined building but through the cracks and holes of the wall rays of light poked through from the pirate's location. When the light vanished so did he, leaving only the corpses of his comrades behind.

​

"Sorry, girl. I don't have the authority to call them off. I might be the leader of this little flock here but-"

"Only because you're eight minutes older." The eldest female interrupted.

"But I am not the captain of the ship we're approaching." Janus checked the scanners once more, looking at the readings coming from the Ouranos. "But it looks like you got what you wanted after all. The others seemed to have left your vessel. Guess the boss got what he wanted." He glanced back over at Yvette as the shuttle began to near the docking port of his ship. The shuttlebay doors opened, awaiting for Yvette to bring the shuttle inside. "I'll have some quarters prepared for you. Can't have you spend the entire ride in the brig. Not unless you decide to put up a fight and trust me you don't want to get thrown in the brig. It's not as nice as the one on your fancy Coalition starship." Janus motioned towards his ship.

"Go on, take us in. That's the Antumbra. Fastest ship in the business." Upon closer inspection, the Antumbra was just slightly smaller than the Ouranos. The output from its engines matched that of something which could not possibly be in possession of a crew of pirates. The Antumbra's energy signature could only belong to that of a ship with an Aether Drive. It was a Horizon-Class starship just the same as the Ouranos.


~~~~~

Everyone was dead by the time they had reached the shuttlebay. The still-docked ships had sustained minor damage in what appeared to be a frantic firefight between the security crew and the intruders. Just as Irrin began to holster his gone, silently cursing at himself for being too slow to aid the poor souls who had lost their lives, the lights flickered on. Throughout the decks of the Ouranos power was restored just as quickly as it had been disabled.

Captain Altius spoke through the intercom giving them the status of the ship:

"This is your captain speaking. The biosigns of the intruders have disappeared. Most of the ship's power has been restored but our engines are still down. All engineers report to your stations. Security personnel are to assist the wounded to sickbay. Altius out."​

Quint growled lowly and stared at the bodies that lay before them. Someone was going to have to move the bodies. "We..." He took a deep breath, uncomfortably shifting in place. "We need to sort them out and identify the dead." The remains of the Ouranos security would have to placed in "storage" for their bodies to be taken back to their families. His stomach was uneasy. Irrin had never been expecting so much death to happen so soon. It wasn't right.

 

He couldn't call the men of the Ouranos. There was no way she could help them from here though she wanted to. Yvette couldn't stop the sinking feeling of failure from settling deep in her stomach as she stared ahead at where she was going. Normally she would love flying, no matter where to or what for, but right now it was only filled with dread. She was flying into the enemy ship while they cleared her, getting what they wanted. Yvette couldn't help but wonder what that would be, couldn't wonder how many died on that ship. And here she was, all she had learned was that these people on this particular shuttle were most likely siblings. Given the words of the eldest girl, he imagined that at least her and Janus were sibling. With the visual similarities between the rest, it wasn't a far stretch to say that they were all siblings here. A squad made up of a family, that would make for interesting dynamics.

"What is it exactly that your boss wanted from us?" Yvette asked, caution in her voice as she did so. Yvette didn't fight about where to direct the ship, doing just as she was told and heading towards the slightly smaller ship to park the vessel. She just hoped to get some answers as she went there. There were more questions to be asked, but Yvette was not willing to push her luck any further. Janus had mentioned getting some living quarters set up for her instead of shoving her in the brig. This made Yvette curious since it meant that they weren't going a short distance. Who cared where they held her if they were traveling for only a day, or even two, but if he was going to get a proper place set up for her, it would probably be longer or else it wouldn't have been worth it. So where exactly were they going? It was another big question that she wanted to know, but not worth pushing her luck over, not yet. Perhaps after she was... well settled in... she guessed she could call it. Though how settled in she could get would depend on what they did when they discovered who she was. This scared Yvette the most.

Scarred or not, Yvette held her head high as she pulled the shuttle into the ship and brought it to a stop, opening the doors when it was safe.​

 

4 Hours Later
​

​

Almira's eyes flashed over from Commander Lightwood towards the others in the Briefing Room. Her senior staff, excluding her Chief of Engineering Lieutenant Commander Blackthorn(who was still busy with the other engineers getting the ship back to shape) were all present. Clarity, Dietrich, Ana, Irrin, and their surprise guest who called himself Doctor Saturday, were seated around the table with her at the head. The Ryve symbiont in Captain Altius's head scratched at the back of her mind with suggestions to punish Brianne and Dietrich for allowing the capture of Yvette but under the circumstances in which they found themselves in, there had been more than a few "surprises". The Coalition Flagship, the most advanced starship in the fleet, was easily disabled by a mere pirate ship and, according to the sensor logs retrieved from their computers, the ship had been Horizon Class just as the Ouranos. It simply was not possible yet the proof was undeniable.

Eighteen of her people dead. Another twenty-six injured. A kidnapped ensign and a stolen shuttle. A separate shuttle had to be dispatched to retrieve the landing party after most of the damage control on the Ouranos had been completed. "We must go after them. Not only must these marauders be brought to justice but one of our own has been taken from us. We must get Yvette back."

The Captain looked to her officers. "What do we have to work with?"

​

"If I may interject, the last known heading of the pirate vessel was on a course running close to the planet Xhan. The virus used to attack me--the systems of the Ouranos I mean--contained code quite similar in design to that in use by the Xen."

"If that is where they obtained their virus to cripple us then we never had a chance to defend against it."

"Furthermore, upon examining the report from Inspector Quint along with my interior analysis of the Ouranos, our attackers have managed a way to transport themselves directly onto the Ouranos while the shields were down. The initial attack at the shuttlebay was only meant to serve as a diversion. One of the pirates accessed several files from the main computer and downloaded a copy of what was accessed."

"And what was accessed, Ritter?"

"Entries relating the collective histories of all five Coalition worlds. There are no threats to security within those files however."

"I am not willing to believe that our people were killed by a bunch of violent historians. Find us a lead to work with."

​

"In any case, we can't expect to head after them right away. Our engineers and Ritter may have found a way to prevent one virus from taking our systems down a second time but it won't stop a new one from doing the same. The Ouranos computer is in need of a major security upgrade." Irrin shifted in his seat knowing exactly what such a suggestion would entail. Even if it made him uncomfortable the trip would have to be made if they were to bring Yvette back. More would die if they made a hasty attack on the pirate vessel while they were unprepared for another encounter.

"Xhan is on the same path the pirates took. As much as I would love to blame their kind for the attack on this ship I doubt they were willing participants in the affair. It would only delay us two or three days. Yvette had been taken alive. There's no reason to believe she will be killed during the time we make our stop." Quint glanced over at Saturday, the alien brought on board along with the remaining landing party. He still had no idea how this stranger fit into all of this but at least the alien seemed to be friendly. He hoped that Commander Lightwood and Lieutenant Commander Winters would have enough sense to keep an eye on Saturday on the off chance that he was hostile.

"I recommend we go to Xhan while repairs and the wounded are being tended to. I believe we need the time to recover."

Captain Altius nodded in agreement as she clasped her hands and lowered her head in contemplation. "Winters, escort our new guest Doctor Saturday to his quarters. I apologize first contact with you was not under better circumstances and wish that I had more time to speak with you but there are other matters I must turn my attention to. Please, make yourself comfortable." Her eyes glanced over toward Brianne. "Head to engineering, Commander Lightwood. If they do no require another set of fresh hands then remain there as a precautionary measure. I don't want anymore surprises appearing suddenly while repairs are still being made." Next, the Captain turned towards their Chief of Medicine. "Clarity, I have kept you here long enough. You may return to your duties at sickbay."

"Lieutenant Jereck and Inspector Quint, I want you two to work together to gather more information on those pirates. Do anything short of tearing the ship apart in search of clues."

"Aye."

"Dismissed." Without further word, Altius left to return to her place on the bridge.

​

Janus took a much needed deep breath of fresh ship air once he stepped outside of his commander's office. Any prolonged exposure to the man made Janus uncomfortable and wanting to claw at the nearest exit. He refused to believe that one of the Varuna could be so intimidating. At least the man allowed Janus some time to access the computer before their meeting to look up the file of this "Ensign Greer" woman. It seemed Janus's intuition had been correct and he had seen her before. He could not recall the even but Janus had seen the image of her alongside the Royal Family of Tyche. Though Yvette was not a princess, she technically was royalty. Around here, that was worth something.

Janus headed through the corridors after making a quick stop to storage to pick up a packet of rations. Not the most appetizing thing considering it was barely more than a tasteless cookie meant for delivering the maximum amount of nutrients in a form that was somewhat appeasing. At least it was better than the other variation that resembled a small energy bar which was far too bitter for many to take a bite out of without spitting it all out immediately. He stopped in front of the door of Yvette's quarters and motioned for the guard to stand aside. The guard refused to move and simply pointed at the pistol strapped to Janus's side.

"What? You think I'll be disarmed by her?" The guard remained silent and continued to block his entry. Janus sighed and relented, pulling his gun out and handing it over to the guard before knocking on the door. "Hope you're decent in there. I'm coming in. I've brought sustenance." Janus unlocked the door from the outside after a moment's pause and headed inside, holding up the packet of tasteless rations with one hand as he closed the door behind him with the other.

"I was never given the chance to study etiquette when addressing royalty. What do I call you? Dame Greer? Miss Greer? Duchess? Baroness? Do you even have a title?"

 

The room was too small and stuffy for Yvette's taste. While she generally was not particularly picky, she did like having enough room to spread her wings, something she did not have here. This had gotten on Yvette's nerves but it was still better than being shoved into a cell and locked up the entire time. That being said the room was not that much better given she was still locked in, guarded and had no real privacy. The cream walls were boring to stare at, the window only made her long to be in the pilots seat, and the desk and bed were nothing special to look at. This meant that Yvette found herself lost in her thought instead, leaving the small dull room behind, even as she paced the floor.

Upon landing she had observed several species of beings aboard the ship that she was not familiar with. They were not part of the coalition, and outside that Yvette had not seen enough of the universe to know of all the species. She found her mind working to try to estimate what their worlds may be like and likely threat level. However given that they were all armed, no matter how big or small they were, and they had taken her only weapon from her, that meant that they were all a threat to her, she would have to be as careful as she could.

Unable to stop pacing or thinking, Yvette decided to try and do something somewhat productive in the time that she had been left alone. She started to search the room for any possible supplies. She was not given much in her room. While there was a desk and a chair, there was no reading or writing material. There was a bed with sheets and blankets, but she couldn't really make use of those. The area that was declared a bathroom, despite the lack of privacy, only held what she absolutely needed and no extras. So that took away anything from the room as useful. There was no way she had enough things to build a proper trap in the room if someone were to come in, but perhaps she could at least make a warning bell so as no one could sneak up on her while she slept.

First Yvette undid the ribbon the held her copper/auburn hair up and out of her face, allowing her hair to fall free down her back showing it's true length and beautiful waves that her mother had always been particularly proud that he daughter inherited. She then removed the necklace that she kept hidden beneath her clothing at all times. This was followed by a pin on her uniform that the top half now hung around her waste, leaving Yvette to move more freely, though that meant walking around in just her undershirt. That being said they were most likely monitoring her, and that meant at one point or another they would likely catch a glimpse of a lot more skin then she was showing now. Perhaps it was unbecoming of someone with her title, but Yvette couldn't bring herself to care.

Yvette had been standing on a chair, stringing the ribbon that now had her pin attached, and her necklace to the ceiling, when there was a knock at the door. Taking one last quick look to make sure that everything was secure, she hopped off the chair and shoved it back into position by the desk, only a second before her door opened. Her warning bell jingled as Janus opened the door and while it was not as loud as she had hoped it to be, it was better then nothing. Perhaps later she would see if there was something she could do to make the hinges squeak as well. She wanted to make sure she would wake up if anyone tried to enter her room.

When Janus started speaking, a slight scowl found it's way to Yvettes lips. She knew from the moment that she had stepped foot on this ship that he would look into who she was and discover it. That didn't mean she was happy about it, or wanted it to be acknowledge. "Just Yvette is fine. I do have a title, but it matters little. If you want to use a title then use Ensign. I may be a member of the royal family, but for the next couple years I am a lowly ensign with the coalition and nothing more. Well that is if you haven't ruined that for me with this little stunt of yours. Now mind telling me why I am here." Even as she stated her claim against being treated as royalty, Yvette still held herself in such a way that her high upbringing was clear. Her posture was perfect and her head was held high as she paced the small space that she had to walk in her room. It would probably pay not to bite the hand that fed her, but she was already getting stir crazy in this room and she didn't really feel like pleasantries at this time, especially not when she was being dragged back into the world that she thought that she could take a break from. She supposed her father was right after all. No matter what she did or how far she ran for how long, she couldn't escape what was in her blood. The blood of the royal family. And yet she still had tried only for it to follow her as soon as she got out in the field. ​

 

​

The course had been set and the Ouranos had departed for Xen territory. "Aeros, when we arrive at our destination you will be taking a shuttle down to the surface. The crew going with you has not been finalized yet but I will heading down as well." Captain Altius stared down at the screen on the console of her chair as Ritter relayed information directly from the team working on analyzing the intruder's guns. While some appeared to be modified weapons stolen from the Coalition, others appeared to be entirely foreign in nature. She had a gut feeling the answers behind this would be located somewhere on Xhan, the homeworld of a hermetic cybernetic species. While she could have sent Quint down with a security team to investigate such an action would likely be taken as an act of aggression. No, this would require a more delicate hand especially if they were to arrive unannounced to the Xen homeworld. If they were guilty of plotting against the Coalition then she did not want to give them the time to clean their hands of their involvement by letting them know of the Ouranos's visit.

"Did you know Yvette at the academy, Ensign Rivera?" Her eyes did not move from the screen on the armrest of her seat. As a pilot of equal rank, it was possible that Aeros had been in several classes with Yvette. Though the institution was quite large, it was not a possibility she was going to dismiss so easily. Almira had her suspicions as to why Yvette had been kidnapped but with no solid lead, there could only be speculation. As an ensign, she would not be privy to any knowledge that would be a security risk. "Did she ever openly mention her life on her homeworld?"

​

Irrin followed after Ana, his thoughts filled with images of his last encounter with the Xen. During his time commanding the Elanus he had escorted a famed ambassador from his world to make peace talks with the cybernetic race. By that time, they no longer appeared to as frightening metallic skeletal beings but, rather, took the appearance of what they seemed to associate with "perfect" features belonging to members of his race. Not a single blemish could ever be found on their all-too-smooth skin and their eyes were too brightly colored to be natural. The peace talks ended in failure and during the firefight that ensued the ambassador suffered a nearly fatal wound causing her to end her career due to the experience. News of the incident traveled no further than his homeworld which only placed the blame on the Xen for the attack. Irrin could hardly disagree.

Once both he and Ana stepped onto the cargo section he left the science officer to run her scans to move to where the scraps of the pirate drone had been scattered. The weapons belonging to the intruders had been locked away in storage for him to inspect later but some sections of the ship had been closed off to prevent damaging of the remaining evidence. "Ritter, what can you tell me about the serial number of this drone?" The etchings on the inside of the wrecked drone casing were burned and warped from the gunfire but it was still readable to him. After reading off the long list of numbers, dashes, letters and their respective cases, and other symbols there was a brief pause in the response time from the computer AI.

"No match of this classification system can be found in the Coalition Databases."

Just as he expected. "Access the Pandoan Archives. Use my security clearance."

"According to the Archives, a similar classification system was last seen in use by Xen-created drones."

"And I'm going to bet we'll find that the weapons those pirates were using use their numbering as well." Irrin scratched his chin, thinking over it to himself in silence. Despite the tensions between their two peoples the Xen would never launch an attack against a Coalition starship. Other races were never dragged into their quarrels and he had a hard time believing they would willingly share their technology with any species no matter what the incentives were. Regardless of what he believed the evidence had already begun to point in one direction.

Taking a moment to drop the piece of metal and stand Quint looked over towards Ana. "Any luck over there, Miss Jereck?"

​

Janus raised an eyebrow at the tone in Yvette's voice and the defiance set in her eyes. If she was afraid she was doing a good job at hiding it. "You know, I would hardly consider being an ensign serving aboard the Coalition flagship a lowly position. Let me guess, you came out here to the vast reaches of space to prove yourself? That you're not some wealthy damsel in distress with her nose stuck up so high it reaches the ceiling." Janus outstretched his arms in a wide gesture. "Well look where you are now. Captured. Not doing such a good job proving yourself are you?" The man lowered his arms and motioned toward the ration he had given her.

"It's not as appetizing as whatever must be on the Ouranos but it'll keep you alive." Janus spoke, continuing to ignore Yvette's question for as long as he could just to remind her she was in no position to be making demands. The less defiant she was the better her chances for surviving the ordeal was. Janus leaned back against the door, his arms folded as he eyed the ensign who would stick out like a sore thumb should she be allowed to leave her quarters due to her Corps uniform.

"To be perfectly honest, I don't know why we needed a prisoner aboard. As far as I know, the commander of this vessel has no plans to interrogate, torture, or execute you. If I were you, I'd consider not meeting him a blessing."

 

A laugh reached Yvette's lips and Janus took a guess at what brought her to the coalition. She was quite entertained by his assumptions on her life really. "Clearly you have not spent much time on our home world then. I don't think anyone would call me a damsel in distress. Perhaps irresponsible, reckless, or stupid, but never a damsel in distress. I came to the far reaches of space to get a break from being treated like royalty. Sometimes even the most powerful of us just wish to be normal for a little while." Yvette admitted. It seemed like a safe enough thing to say. It didn't really say anything of importance about anyone.

Finally Yvette took a seat on her bed when Janus rested against the back wall. Pacing was getting her no where and only made the room seem even smaller. He tried to encourage her to eat the food once more, but food was the furthest thing from Yvette's mind. She had learned to keep a straight calm face and appearance in any situation, but her stomach was still doing twists. It felt like she would be sick the moment she ate anything, so she passed it off. It was how her nerves manifested themselves, in the pit of her stomach. If this went on long enough, hunger would overpower nerves and she would eat, but currently she wasn't hungry enough for that to happen. Yvette couldn't even stand looking at the food at this point and instead focused on Janus just to keep her mind off of how sick she actually felt from this whole situation.

Calm, cool and collected, three things she needed to be, three words she repeated in her mind before choosing to speak again, keeping her voice even and her gaze almost bored. "Funny that you are questioning it, were you not the one who took me prisoner because I looked slightly familiar to you? Should you not know why you are keeping the prisoner that you took? And I doubt they would kill me or interrogate me anyways. I mean think about it. Killing the Princess of Tyche's only daughter would only start a war that would bring the coalition to your doorsteps to kill all of you before you knew what hit you. I am only an ensign, so interrogating me would lead to no useful information, and torture is usually used as a form of getting information wanted. We already established that I don't have any useful information. So what then? Ransom maybe? If that is the case, they can't hurt me. Any way I look at it, I am pretty safe. Unless your boss is one of those twisted people who just like to hurt and use girls for fun, to get it on or whatever. But from what little I have seen of the ship, it is far to organized to be run by someone that twisted." Yvette fleshed out her reasoning why she should feel somewhat safe. Though her words sounded carefully thought out and calm, Yvette was making this all up on the spot and trying to convince herself it was true. Trying to convince herself that she was safe.

"What are their plans with me then. It seems like you have some importance around here and you were the one to take me prisoner. I would like at least a little information so I can prepare myself for whats to come. Surely you would have that much mercy." Yvette hoped he would at least. If something bad was going to happen to her, she wanted to know before hand, she liked being prepared even if it was for the worst. Though Janus had already avoided the question once, so this didn't bode well for her. ​