Dex and Sette spent all their time in the engine room. The new additions to the engine were strange and alien. Clearly the work of the Hnnet. In addition, parts often transformed into some other working part when needed. Simple buttons had the propensity to change into a touchpad. No one quite knew what to make of it. They went to see the captain. Dranke was still mulling over leaving Vaxe behind. He had the sneaking feeling that Kell was behind her whole sudden reveal, but he couldn't pin down where the thought had originated from. Dex cleared his throat "Captain, the engine has components which transform on their own. We are unable to get a fix on how to stop that, or even why it happens." Dranke looked at him in surprise "We must find out. Have you tried everything?" Jen interjected in his head "Ask Dex to look for the programming. Its a learning smart program. The transformation is just the outcome, not the effect." Dranke told Dex and Sette what Jen had told him. They nodded and marched off to the bridge. All the computing was done there.
The ship also jumped faster. Dranke could not explain it. He asked Jen. She told him to check their fuel. There was almost no utilization. Dranke did a double take. Jen giggled in his head "It's using any subatomic particles which get trapped by the engine during jumps and enhancing the energy patterns. Don't try to understand the physics. Your people will know about it soon enough." Dranke was flabbergasted. The Hnnet had tech which humans would have given an arm and a leg for. And now it was on his ship as well.
Piteer came down from the navigational deck and got himself a coffee analogue. "You know captain, there is another thing. We are now able to jump very near gravity wells. So maybe you don't need a navigator anymore." He gave a twisted smile at Dranke. Dranke raised his cup in response "We should all get to be superfluous. Though we still need you Piteer, so stop daydreaming of walking off my ship."
In all the banter they almost missed the message which had been received from spacecommand. Since Sette was sitting at Vaxe's desk, she noticed it first. It was for captain's eyes only. She pushed it to Dranke who looked at her with glazed eyes as the message played "Captain this is a matter of grave urgency. We suspect that Captain Niket and her crew has been taken by the Jexx. We have lost contact with the darkmatter starcraft some days back, and even the auto-ping has not confirmed its existence. We need you to investigate at the soonest and attempt a rescue if so required. As of now, we are not sure if the Jexx are involved, but all indications are that they had a hand to play in this new development. Since the time for you to revert to us will be a few weeks, we are only waiting for a ping. By order of the Leader." It was ominous.Dranke relayed orders quietly to Fenie who came to his side unbidden. She always knew when she would be needed. He looked at her searchingly "I know you and Niket are close, so please let me know if you have any problem.I need the crew to be on the ball." Fenie nodded "I'm okay. I'm keen to find out what happened to her." She rushed off without any further explanation.
The Raven had already changed its course and started jumping towards the Jexx homeworld before she could even look at the starmaps. She stared at the course. It had cut down time to almost half from what she would have estimated. The ship was anticipating their moves and working around any possible permutations she could have looked at. She stared some more before telling the captain what had happened.
At this rate, they would be at Jexx in under a week. She just hoped it would be in time to save her partner. If not, everyone would know in any case.
Pic courtesy: NASA / Wikimedia commons - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Pleiades_large.jpg
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