---[ POV: Athena ]---

After leaving the sick girl into the care of the scarred woman, Athena had hovered outside the canyon and into the fresh night.

She wandered for some time in the familiar landscape she had taken the habitude to observe during her daily scouting expeditions. She had seldom gone out after sunset because Flynn was afraid something might lurk in the dark and attack her. What could a beast possibly do to me? The stealth technology of the Unified Stellar Empire was advanced enough that she was convinced no animals could ever detect her presence. Even with the appropriate technologies, detecting such a small drone would be hard, especially since she had no weapons or other system requiring a lot of energy that might have revealed her presence.

The young AI flew over the terrain features as she observed the silvery reflection of the moons on the black and blue rocks of the nightscape. There was a place up ahead where a small stream cascaded down the mountain. She liked observing the icy water coming from the summit run down the bed it had carved for itself among the stones while listening to its calm lullaby. Flynn had already tried to explain to her that a song should be melodious and rhythmic and that the sound of running water was not ordered or deliberate enough to be considered a song but she disagreed. She did not know exactly what was so pleasant and aesthetic about repetitions and predictability for humans to like it that much in their music, but to her, the gentle melody of running water was beautiful enough. It was fresh, free, and indolent and made her feel at ease. Wasn't it the goal of music - to elicit emotions or impressions in the listener? Another reminder of the difference in our nature...

She arrived at the stream and hovered down until she was almost on the ground, near its bank. The night sky was reflected in the clear water, distorted by ripples and flying droplets. She stayed motionless, simply listening to the melody for a long time. The tumult of her mind slowly faded, her fears and doubt quelled for now.

Athena turned the attention of her sensors toward the dark night above. If the whimsical notes of a stream or the winds were music for the ears, then the tapestry of stars that hugged the world in its embrace for a brief moment between dusk and dawn was a song for the eyes and the soul. The soul... I wonder... Under a sky of warm black and cloudless expanses, a trail of shining stars traced its path through the heavens, a hazy band of light full of comforting dreams and promises. It was as if the universe was whispering to her that, as every star had its place and home, so had she.

Or so she thought, but there was something unsettling about the stars tonight. She wondered just what it might have been. Those were the same stars she had observed since she was born. What is different tonight? Nothing. Nothing changed. Then why this feeling? Admittedly, she had not wandered at night that much before, and only observed the night sky from the bottom of the canyon where the corvette had crashed. The visibility was less than optimal from down there.

She quickly launched an extensive search of her dynamic matrix to find and analyze all memories pertaining to the night sky, both from her own 'souvenirs' and from the preloaded data she was born with. When she finally realized what was wrong, she voiced a small curse - as she had learned to do by observing the Lieutenant when he was grumbling to himself about something he did not like. Fear and doubt resurfaced but for a different reason this time.

Why didn't I notice that sooner? And what does that mean exactly? That shouldn't be. That's just so... improbable.

She could not recognize any of the constellations or cosmic landscapes known to Humanity. It was as if none of those stars had been registered in the archives of the Empire. No matter where we are in the galaxy, I should be able to recognize at least some patterns. The Empire has charted enough of the galaxy that an AI with the appropriate navigational programs and computing capacity should be able to estimate a given position from a detailed observation of the stars.

At the same time she had her revelation, the signal of Flynn's stack reappeared. It had only been about an hour since he had left but that hour had felt like a lifetime for the AI. It was comforting to feel his presence again but she did not know how to break her new discovery to him. He already had his hands full with all the new arrival and she was sure he would like to spend some time questioning them and understanding who they were and what that place was before getting tossed yet another problem, one more puzzling, and alarming than she would like to admit.

She hovered back up, leaving the stream behind to return to the corvette and the young man.

She had no idea how it would go down, but it was clear she had to inform him sooner than later.

They had strayed far from home.

The stars above were all novel.

This was not the Milky Way!