“Are you certain you understand your orders, Commander Zyn’vak?” Xing’che asked over the weak connection.

  She had added the man’s formal name along with his title of commander as a show of respect. It seemed to work because the man straightened slightly, and a smile flitted across his face for a brief instant. At least that proved that her words were being transmitted. She could never be entirely certain with the Concord-era comm system.

  Using the ancient FTL communication method had its upsides and downsides. The major upside was that nobody bothered with the outdated tech—the little of it that even remained—so having their communications intercepted was unlikely. They still used modern encryption, however. There was no point in taking unnecessary risks.

  The t’uk might still have a few of the ancient FTL communication units in some museum, or even actively monitored, but she doubted the latter for a few reasons. During the purge following the signing of the Sovard Accords, most Concord tech had been destroyed either due to outrage or fear. That zealotry to remove Concord from the history books set technology back centuries. Xing’che was certain that some technologies had been lost for good. It had also doomed the Alliance. Targeting the FTL buoys was a good tactical decision, but the destruction of the Concord’s communication network crippled not only Concord’s means of communication but also the Alliance’s.

  That eventually led to the Astryx reaching out to the t’uk fifty years later with an offer to pardon them of any wrongdoing in exchange for their help building a new FTL communications network to replace what was lost.

  Xing’che didn’t blame the t’uk for taking the offer. Her people would have done the same if they had been given the opportunity. Unfortunately, her people had not created the original FTL communication network that the alliance had tried so hard to destroy.

  “Yes, Adjunct Xing’che,” the man replied with a slight bow, returning her act of respect by acknowledging her civilian achievement of earning the che designation along with her title. Speaking like they were was overly formal, but she didn’t mind. In fact, she was used to it since most outsiders didn’t know better and always used at least her full name and designation.

  His words came through distorted, thanks to the age of the comm unit, but she still understood him.

  “And the device to reprogram the AI core?” she asked.

  It had taken considerable effort to locate and purchase the device from a collector, and even more to hide the fact that an eiraxin was doing the purchasing. It took even more to get the device to a third-party contact who had no compunctions about selling stuff to her people. The amount of money she spent could have purchased another ship with the entire crew fully outfitted for war, but the cost was worth it in her opinion.

  The Primogen might not see it that way if he ever learned of the expense, but the money had come from some creative business dealings she had going on, so the cost would never trouble him.

  “We have the device and verified its functionality with a blank core,” the commander confirmed.

  Xing’che bowed slightly. “Very well, I will leave the specifics of the mission up to you. May the stars protect you.”

  “You as well, Adjunct.”

  As the call ended, Xing’che couldn’t help but worry. This might very well be her people’s last chance to break free from the Astryx before open rebellion spilled out into the streets. It wouldn’t be the first time her people had rebelled since the Astryx took over, but each time the multi-species government quelled her home world, more draconian measures were applied. She feared that eventually they would cease their ‘reform’ efforts, and her people would join the lau as just another footnote in history.

  Even with that worry hanging over her head, she would not—could not stop her efforts. Her people would be free one way or another.

  ***

  Commander Zyn’vak was in motion as soon as his call with Xing’che ended. He had received notification of an operation a few weeks ago, so everything was on the ship and ready to go. He had just been waiting for the go order.

  “Ka!” he called out as he entered the barracks. The small group of combat-trained individuals quickly stood as they heard their military achievement being called out. They stood stiffly, waiting for him to address them.

  Zyn would have preferred a group of rek, or veterans in the common tongue, but he would take what he could get. Maybe once the mission was complete, a few of these trained soldiers would distinguish themselves and earn that title. One day, they might even achieve a vak of their own and command a unit just as he did.

  “We have our orders. Pack your bags and prepare for a long trip. Any questions?”

  One of the fresh-faced soldiers raised their hands. Zyn inwardly sighed, wishing he had time to train them more. “Yes, Tahl’ka?”

  “Will we see any combat, Commander Zyn’vak?”

  “Possibly, but don’t get your hopes up. Our mission is to secure a station and a ship docked to it, nothing else. If we can do that without risking our lives, we will. If the people in control of either put up a fight… we have our orders.”

  The group turned serious at that statement and gave a single nod of acknowledgment before they hurried to grab their packs and weapons.

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  Within a few minutes, they were aboard the beat-up transport shuttle that their contact had procured for them. The ship lifted off the surface of the sparsely populated planet they had hidden on and hurried into orbit.

  The vessel had no weapons, but it did have shields, and Xing’che’s contact had been able to procure a broken Concord IFF transponder. With a bit of effort from Vo’tek, their engineering specialist and pilot, they transferred the IFF code from the transponder to the shuttle.

  It should keep the station and ship from targeting them, not that its void cannons could do anything against shields. Zyn was more concerned about any unknown modifications that whoever had docked with the station might have made to the planetary conditioning vessel.

  All he knew for certain was that the ancient ship’s AI was still intact. Historical reports stated that the AIs aboard the planetary conditioning vessels were given far more neural leeway to fulfill their directives, and some reports even suggested that more than one had gone rogue.

  Zyn didn’t know if any of those third-hand reports were true or not, but the IFF should keep them safe until they boarded the vessel.

  ***

  The beat-up old shuttle survived the multi-week journey, but there wouldn’t be any going back. The phase coil was barely hanging on after being pushed so far, but they had made it.

  Zyn stared at the screen showing the massive shipyard, and he felt a pang at what his people had lost. Assuming the histories were accurate, the Concord Imperium had deserved it, but it still hurt to see the wonders his people had once produced.

  “Um, Commander, the station is sending landing instructions in old Concord standard, as well as trade-common. It also sent an emergency burst using the old FTL system, alerting the headquarters of our unauthorized arrival.”

  “Thank you, Vo’tek. We expected it might, but is it targeting us?”

  “No, Commander.”

  Zyn grunted at that. “Then ignore it for now. What about the ship?”

  “Uh…Probably best to see for yourself.” Vo’tek pulled up a view.

  Zyn looked at it in confusion. “What is that?”

  “That’s the planetary conditioning vessel,” the man replied apologetically.

  The thing was a wreck. It shouldn’t even be functional at all, yet some mad bastard had reactivated some of its systems and flown it to the shipyard. Likely to make repairs.

  “Are we close enough to scan for life signs?” Zyn asked, glossing over the state of the ship. They would deal with that problem eventually, but he had to secure the station first.

  “We will be in a few minutes.”

  Time seemed to crawl by as the shuttle pulled itself along.

  Eventually, Vo’tek pressed a button on the control console, and a progress bar began to fill.

  A quiet chime indicated the completion of the scan, and the pilot bent forward and squinted as he parsed the readings. “Um, looks like there are no life signs aboard either the ship or the station, Commander.”

  “How can that be?” he muttered.

  Vo’tek shrugged as he sat back in his flight couch. “Maybe they left to get components to repair the ship? The station should be fully automated, so if it had the necessary parts, repairs would be ongoing. You can see where some repairs were started, but that’s a lot of damage to fix.”

  Zyn nodded slowly at the pilot’s assessment. It sounded plausible, yet he would have thought that whoever brought the ship here would have had someone stick around to keep an eye on things.

  He wasn’t going to shout at the stars for something different, however. His people were due a win, and it looked like they were just handed one.

  “Find an entry spot we can use on the ship.”

  “You don’t want to dock with the station?” Vo’tek asked in confusion.

  Zyn shook his head. “If we dock, we leave a record of our arrival. I’m willing to bet that whoever set this operation up has at least some way to keep track of things while they are gone.”

  The pilot didn’t argue and quickly found a missing section in the massive ship’s hull large enough to slip the shuttle in with room to spare. That alone spoke of just how much damage the massive vessel had taken.

  The area they entered appeared to be some sort of storage area, but whatever had been contained inside had long since been blown out into space. A few lights flickered in the cavernous space, but other than that, everything was silent.

  The shuttle touched down gently, and Vo’tek shut everything down before quickly donning his helmet. Zyn didn’t have enough people to spare one to watch the shuttle, not that it mattered, since the vessel would never make the trip back to their base. They would either succeed or be stuck out here until the adjunct sent another crew or they ran out of supplies.

  Zyn donned his helmet and checked his oxygen. It was full, and they had enough recyclers aboard to go an entire month if needed, but with no resistance, he hoped they could secure the ship’s AI in a few hours, then move on to the station.

  The cargo elevator lowered, and flashlights attached to weapons swept the room before they moved off the lift to secure the area. The za were a bit on edge, which was good.

  Zyn had chosen not to inform them of the lack of life signs and had asked Vo’tek to keep quiet on that detail as well. He didn’t want the soldiers to think it was safe and let their guard down in case there might be other dangers aboard.

  He activated his comm. “Vo’tek, do you have a map?”

  “One moment, Commander.”

  The pilot/engineer wrestled with his pack for a moment before pulling out a small pen projector. He moved to a bit of open floor and projected a diagram on the smooth surface.

  “We should be somewhere around here,” Vo’tek gestured to the vague map. “And the core should be around here.” The second area the man pointed to was near the other end of the vessel.

  “You couldn’t get a more accurate map or find us a closer landing spot?” Zyn sighed.

  “I’m lucky our people even found these in the archives. As for the landing spot, this was the only space large enough to land inside. The other spots would have required us to spacewalk.”

  “Alright, let’s get moving. Stay in the center of the formation; we can’t afford you getting hurt.”

  Vo’tek nodded and went to put the projector away, but Zyn stopped him.

  “Keep that handy; we may have to take alternative routes if the damage inside is as extensive as the damage outside.”

  The map, as poor as it was, came in handy. They had to detour four times around suspiciously placed blockages before they arrived at the door to the core chamber.

  The group was on edge as they scanned the silent corridors with their weapons while Vo’tek worked in the side tunnel to get the door to open.

  His people must have picked up on what Zyn had. While the ship was quiet, it wasn’t dead. He could feel the deck vibrating slightly beneath the shoes of his suit, but it wasn’t a consistent vibration, meaning that something was moving around onboard. Multiple things if he had to guess.

  It might be automated systems from the station making repairs, but it could very well be combat drones.

  If it were combat drones and they were shielded, his people would need to retreat to the shuttle. They had enough ammo to punch through one or two shielded drones, but that was about it.

  “I got it!” Vo’tek exclaimed.

  At the same moment Vo’tek was celebrating, all vibration ceased. A moment later, the vibration returned, only much stronger. Zyn cursed; they had alerted the security system. “Everyone inside the room!”

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