Nako slumped in his quarters.

It had been [days] since he had made the slight error of judgement in allowing the messenger through. Swollen on his own pride he answered the questions of another Ranger Branch Lieutenant. When pulses got out that Nako was answering questions, he was bombarded. After the 40th [hour] of unofficial meetings Nako then redirected the insistent streams to Comm’s staff.

That plan was foiled however, when Comms Comander Kervan Dav recalled that is was Nako’s responsibility to handle all bureaucratic matters regarding the Rajavan vessel on Kotorns orders.

Then even minor ship captains were asking for an audience.

Sorted to his satisfaction indeed.

The Lieutenant Commander had never been so sick of hearing his own voice.

Answering the same questions over and over again whilst having to maintain the same composed demeanor, tedium to the highest degree.

Every Branch Commander and Lieutenant from the frontier wanted to know exactly what had happened and how the offensive took place, and why he had made the decisions he made. Nako did his best to weave the narrative in a positive light. Gathering a handful of uncontrollable deviants or securing knowledge on their immoral nemesis? Hardly a comparable target, Kotorns dismay at the loss of the armarda was understandable, citizen lives were the Knight Commanders priority, but Nako could see the trajectory of the landing shot.

In the grand scheme of the universe, the Rajavan Transport would be more valuable.

They had no idea just how valuable the Rajavan vessel was just yet, the true data haul wouldn’t be analysed until the selected companiess had properly researched the contents, or until Viitoic had his crew slice open the Rajavan ship and extracted the information they needed.

Until then it was just answering with what little information he had.

Nako’s weary mind sparked with annoyance.

It was only a little information they had

It had been almost three days since Viitoic had his entire crew dive into the hull, and he nor Nako nor anyone else had even heard from the preening Qzetillain.

They should have a report by now, or at least an initial analysis.

It wasn't like Viitoic to keep to himself for this long, were they simply engrossed in data extraction or trying to stall for selfish curiosity?

Nako decided to give into his suspicions and hail the head engineer.

He flicked a hand to his suit comms and contact Engineering.

The transmission was denied.

Nako tried again.

Transmission denied.

Now Nako was annoyed.

He stood and walked over to his Comms terminal, patching a direct line through to Engineering.

He was greeted with silence.

Nako’s wings ruffled under his regalia, six eyes narrowed in contempt.

It appeared that if he wanted answers, he would have to handle it, like he always handled Viitoic, draw out the information personally.

-*-

Engineering took up an entire platform all to itself on the enormous station and was the second most populated arm of military operation.

GCR ships were the most advanced in council space and needed the personal to care for them. Most of the fleet were replicas of those that been created in the beginning of the Divided Dynasty, and while the schematics were ancient in their age, nothing created the in the Painful Dynasty could compare to them. The seamless melding of synthetic and organic had given birth to biological processors that could calculate the continuously accelerating dimensions of the universe without needing an anchor gate, whist bearing the near immortal shell of steels and carbon ceramics.

When the fracture between the Rajava and their people became complete, the knowledge required to create such wonders was lost. The Rajava abandoned synthetic materials all together whilst the remnants of the Galactic Council could only compromise on whatever information they had left.

Only the most expensive and purposely built of scientist could ever achieve the skill in keeping such wonders running. The slightest changes of pH balances in the internal systems could jeopardize the shipbrains calculations and throw off every trajectory of other ships in the fleet if the frequency pulse from the jump was misinterpreted.

Having someone so vital to military operations taken away from regular maintenance for a period of 3 [days] even had Nako worried.

The inner workrooms had personnel running about everywhere, transporting minor transmitter organs and fresh equipment too and fro. Every one of the sealed suited attendants moved out of his way as he stalked for the Engine Lord.

Within the centre of the controlled system Nako began to notice machines that were, not the usual ship components. They were vehicles, that was certain, but the designs and functions could only be arbitrary or convoluted at best.

One was in the most horrible state of disrepair, there was rust, rust! It’s chassy covered in mud, what little paint that was left on it was scratched and peeling. Its top was completely missing, not from being removed but from never being there to begin with, no protection from the elements at all! Nako peered over and into the thing, the citizen sized seats were incredibly cramped and worn, primitive console with too many functions and dials, more dirt and rust. The manufacture of the thing would have been better as ammunition slag than any kind of transport.

It looked like modifier scrap.

The engineer assigned to this monstrosity stood to Nako’s right, waiting for the superior officer to acknowledge him, tools quivering in hand.

Nako tempered his response to the underling.

“You had best go and find your Lord, the fact that he is assigning work hours to these, constructs is concerning.”

The engineer's head bowed low before they rushed off to the chaos. Nako was then able to see the astounding mess he had gotten himself into.

His eyes lead him over to a long work bench, polished to a mirror with several small items laid out for categorization. It was a strange mix of ancient and new. Dataslates of all different sizes, barbaric hooked jewelry with colourful attachments, scattering of cloth, paper, actual, physical paper. He had not seen that since the maturing ceremony. Scrolls worth of paper bound between a hard case, indecipherable runes scrawled over and within them. There on that work bench were several items that caught his eye

The first needed no explanation, Nako knew exactly what it was.

A banner.

He lifted the cloth and was surprised at its weight and size. It shimmered, almost weightless in his hands, sheer like fresh polymer. The colours were vibrant, green base, a sparking blue moon sat within a yellow diamond. Runes marked the moon, but he was unable to read it, lost language. It was, admirable, not quite the work of art his own people could have made, but certainly a step above most GCR affair.

And it was unique.

He would be the only one in the GC with this bannerment, he considered his interest piqued.

Nako turned his head sharply to the another item that had been put aside.

It was a sword, a small one, but it was not of a style he had encountered.

It sat within a crafted sheath, runes and and an emblem burnt into the material. It was thick, soft to the touch, the emblem a creature Nako had never laid eyes on, but he acknowledged the intricacies, the detail of the work.

The personalisation of it all.

He unclipped the blade from its sheath with care and examined the craftsmanship.

A solid, carbon cast blade, no dial to change the length of it, it was clean, sharp. Care and diligence had been given to his blade, the sheen of fresh oil still stained it.

This blade was cared for, revered even, but most importantly, it had been used.

Tiny scratches of use permitted the fuller and guard, dark stains speckled the grip and pommel.

He returned the weapon to its case with as much care as he would his own. Placing it back upon the work table, he turned his attention to the other curiosities to be found.

The engineer underling had returned in the meantime, patiently waiting as Nako inspected the haul of cargo.

The scared Sulin dared to speak up.

“Luitenant Comman-”

Nako held up his hand to silence the engineer, his gaze had decided one of the dataslates wasn't like the others. Laying amongst the black jewels was a table that was painted the most vibrant of pink. He lifted it from its place, but before he could properly inspect it the screen lit up, as if it had been waiting for him.

The soft light cast a pleasant glow and he was treated to the most, beautiful image he had seen.

A flower, delicate blue petals blooming and within its center, stars spilled out and into the sky, lighting up the darkness under a single, pale white moon.

It was simply enchanting.

Reminding him of the sermons he had listen to as a larva, fond memories came flooding back only to be interrupted with a hasty.

“Salutations Lieutenant.”

Lord Suumeir Viitoic was an example of function over aesthetics, he was designed to be the smartest and most physically capable of all the intelligence classes. Large Qzetillian head, decorated with six black eyes, sharp zenthi teeth and a wit to match. Five long arms protruded from his upper torso, held aloft by six more legs and a sizable tail. A lone tentacle stuck to his back, distracting and forever moving.

The best way to describe Viitoic was, practical, but unfortunate.

His large sulin lizard legs moved him toward the workbench as he gave one final freq shout to his scuttling assistants, who immediately dropped what they were doing to greet the superior officer.

“Salutations Engine Lord.” Nako replied, his attention torn away from the beauty in his hands to the reason he had come down in the first place. “So, How goes the Ships vivisection?”

“Slowly,” Viitoic replied, his hissing voice lowering. “We have still yet to locate the Central command brain, this Vessel is, unlike anything we’ve encountered before…”

That was not good news.

“Explain.”

Viitoic wasn’t technically an officer, but his authority was at least as respected as the Knight Commanders. He didn’t appreciate being ordered like an underling.

He snarled softly bearing all of his teeth as he did so.

“It is not made from the usual materials,” he elaborated “and it is not responding to any of our equipment. There is something severing the connection, the ship is still alive, but its not connecting to any of the known frequencies or direct connections. What we have here Lieutenant, is a completely stiffed Rajavan vessel.” Viitoic clamped his teeth together before adding quietly. “I believe, you may have stumbled onto something so profoundly unorthodox it terrifies even me. So we are taking the utmost care in documenting everything for our strategy logs, it is frustrating to say the least.”

A stiffed vessel, Nako had hoped for better news. Without access to the ships internal data it was unlikely he would be able to regain anything from the venture, the losses in [hours] worked, resources used, not to mention reputation. There had to be something salvageable onboard the ship.

“Engine lord,” Nako proposed “You dont suppose the Rajavan had found an untouched planet? it certainly would explain the unknown biomasses in the stasis pods.”

But the Engine lord waved it off.

“Hardly, while the biomasses are unknown to our databases, the Rajava still have the entirety of the Prosperous Dynasty archives in their logs” he explained with distaste, or perhaps jealousy. “Reclamation efforts are still up turning useful, unknown resources, we just happened upon a ship transporting goods. It may have been stiffed during its voyage and thus lost to time during the Painful Dynasty, Although…” Viitoic looked over the strange collection of vehicles and devices his assistants had laid out for him. “We can only assume that the Pirates had already taken anything of use, and whatever else was lost to the vacuum of the void. We have recovered some more, unusual items. Whatever planet they came from it was most certainly not apart of the Painful Dynasty.”

“Are you claiming these are lost relics?” Nako asked. That wasn’t so bad, information for the Audchives was still a creditworthy reimbursement.

“That is the current theory, we figured the vehicles are of the same tech path your ancestors would have continued had you not met us in the void of space, chemically powered machines. They're slightly improved versions of early Arvas generational ship engines. A novelty of times long past.”

But none of the constructs were Arvas made.

None of the writing runes were legible.

The GC often claimed they had lost untold amounts of knowledge before first contact, but Nako couldn’t dismiss the feeling that these items were not of GC origin.

“So I am left with an unconventional ship hull, no data and an abundance in amusing trinkets.”

Nako sighed aloud, Viitoic clicked his teeth together.

“May I put aside any items that might be of, special interest to you Luitenant?” he offered, trying to alleviate the mood. The knight looked down to the dataslate in his hand.

“There are a few items,” Nako announced, lifting th pink dataslate back into his line of sight. “I will be acquiring this for one.”

“Hmmm? “ Viitoic reached for the slate and his six eyes scrutinized the technology. “My my, that certainly is unusual isn't it? Allow my assistance to properly examine it for you,”

Viitoic, raised his back tentacle and an assistant with an accompanying dataslate clamoured his way over. Two dataslates held within 2 pairs of arms as Viitoics eyes scanned and prepared to join the dataslates.

The engine lord snapped his teeth in a deep snarl.

“Implausible!” he abandoned the regular dataslate and began clawing at the offending pinks back, peeling the pink case to the internal systems in the back.

“Engine Lord.” Nako warned, his voice icy cold. “Do NOT damage that dataslate…”

Viitoic’s wry fingers hovered over the back, hesitantly prying into the device.

Six black eyes shot open, and the air was filled with silence.

“Implausible…” he repeated in a shocked tone. “It's completely synthetic,”

Nako noticed the assistants whisper in hushed tones.

“And that is a problem?” Nako inquired.

The engine lord snarled in frustration.

“They're dataslates, but without organic parts they can’t function anything like ours. Without a frequency conduit or memory bank there us no way for our apparatus to speak to one another!”

The exasperated engineer then realised the horror of the multiple dataslates on the workbench.

“We won’t be able to recover ANY of the data without extensive research.”

Nako’s hand lifted the pink dataslate from Viitoic’s claws, before carefully replacing it’s pink casing.

“Then you have a lot of work ahead of you.” The lieutenant remarked, “Kotorn will be very upset if you have spent all this time and nothing to show for it.”

Viitoic arched his shoulders to retort but just lashed his tail in response.

“I WILL have results before the Knight Commanders return.”

Nako tucked the dataslate under his blue cape, and prepared to take his leave.

“And I will look forward to the report Engine Lord.”