For a brief moment, unsure what was happening, Milly was unable to move, unable to feel time passing, unable to sense her orientation and only able to see bright white fill her sight. It was as if she was in space again only where her physical form no longer existed.

That is until the light faded, and every sensation flooded back into her. It was as if her hop into the ring before continued, and now she landed where she thought she would have expected to be.

That, however, was far from true.

Stopping herself as fast as she could, her mind catching up to the transition alongside the strangeness she felt when the light had hit her.

The next thing she experienced was shock. Raising her hand in an almost incoherent manner, her legs gave way from under her, and she fell buttocks first onto the floor. Staring in confusion her hand shook violently, her mind still not able to process the whole experience.

Barely able to hold herself up with her other hand, she waited until the shaking stopped and for what happened to her to sink in.

Once composed enough, using what strength she could muster, she pushed herself up, straightened herself up, picked up her gun, then looked around to take in her surroundings.

It was then, her jaw dropped.

She was in space, but not in space. How could she be, when;

“A floating tree!?” Was the first thing she noticed. A giant floating tree some hundred or more meters away, attached to a massive platform of some kind. It was hard to get most of the details at this distance and realising there was gravity, Milly looked under her, to finally take in what it was she was standing on.

By all appearances it seemed to be a small circular platform with vine like handrails around it made out of what looked like the cross section of a tree. It did not have any bark at the edges, and on its surface, three copper metal concentric rings seemed to be embedded. There was an opening in the handrails that seemed to point towards the larger platform but there was no bridge between them, only the vast expanse of space.

“Where is this place?!” It was then looking behind her, she saw something.

“The Ventra?!!” Sat parked where she left it, was the Ventra, doing nothing whatsoever except sitting there. The strange thing being, that it would be impossible to see it at this angle.

Confused and slight spooked to see her ship in this place, she felt some dissonance in her mind, telling her that something else wasn’t quite right. It was then something else struck her as odd.

“Since when did space look so… pretty?”

Instead of the normal expense of nothing she was used to, it was as if looking at a strange mash up of different sunsets and pallets of different colours, even the shape of distant clouds could be seen. Colours mainly consisted of blues and purples along with reds, yellows and oranges. There were some spots flushed into cyan, leading to white. The entire Universe had been painted in vibrancy the likes Milly had never seen. She eventually came to recognize a few places, one in particular, a massive golden sunset far off in the distance.

“Sagittarius A!” The centre of the galaxy; although still visible under normal circumstances, this time it dominated one side of this space, in a burning scene of colour.

While in wonder at what she was seeing, she hadn’t realised that she had wandered close to the opening in the handrails.

“Waaah!” Feeling her body lift up, she flailed around a little as she found herself flying against her will towards the larger platform.

Looking back during her flailing, she saw that the smaller platform she had been on was indeed just there, floating in space. Its underneath came down into a spiral point of vines and wood Like a cone that curved in on itself.

Milly settled a little now on her way to the larger platform, her helplessness changed to a forward posture as she held her gun ready. Under her she noticed now, a hardly discernible tinge glowing under her feet, as if there was some kind of fluffy light bridge carrying her to her new destination.

For a while now, both her suite and her gun had remained relatively silent. She wondered a little as to why this was. Glancing at her gun she wanted to try and find out, but she quickly became distracted by the gradual onset of a looming shadow.

“It’s, pretty big…” She said innocently, as she looked up to see the giant tree that had cast its shade on her. For the first time since coming here, this was the first tree she had seen with dark yet vibrant green leaves. Its bark just a little darker than the coniferous pine cream colour of the ship’s décor but at the same time relatively smooth in texture.

With a soft tap, Milly was deposited on her feet onto the port side access platform. The platform, or deck had to be about two to three hundred meters long, and no more than one hundred and fifty meters wide, in a long egg like shape. The pointier end of the main deck formed what could only be described as the front, and the blunter end forming an almost perfect circle that was raised above the rest.

With two levels in total, the rear circular one was the highest. This was where the tree had been planted, some of its roots sprawling above it, trailing like vines that ran either side of the edge of the raised platform. Its trunk which would take over thirty to forty Milly’s arm to arm to completely wrap around, shot up into the air a good one hundred and fifty meters with just as much making up the total circumference of its canopy. It stood there quiet, like an old majestic oak tree, completely unaffected by the passing of time.

Milly walked up a set of stairs, under an archway of roots, attached to one side of where the tree was planted. When she got to the top, she was greeted to a cream wood deck with concentric channels of water just over a hand’s width, sunken into the floor surrounding the tree, while the water within, crystal clear and flowed at an audible pace. There seemed to be no origin to the water on the innermost channel, but at the same time no sign of the water level dropping as it left inner ring onto the outer ones through radial channels that connected them all at different places. This eventually left the last ring, through a similar radial water channel directly in the centre of the deck, falling off the edge and down to the lower one.

Apart from the tree, the rest of the higher platform was very minimal, elegant and clean. The most prominent feature being a chair in the centre crux of the tree’s roots. It gave the feeling of some kind of throne, made from smooth vines and polished light granite.

Backing behind the throne was a fan like partition between it and the tree trunk made of solid crystals, the same kind found on the floor from before, only this time unpolished, with radiant light flowing through constantly it like waves on a sandy beach. It all looked simple yet sturdy, emanating an almost majestic quality that Milly found hard to define.

At that moment, the leaves of the giant tree rustled.

Looking up, Milly saw how the branches of the tree all shook in the same direction, while all the leaves shimmered. It was if a brisk wind was blowing around her. Although she could not feel any wind resistance on her suit, she could not help but feel a sort of connection when looking at the scene in front of her. A reminiscent feeling started to twinkle in her mind, as if standing on a hill on a summer’s day during sunset as a light calming breeze whisked through a feeling of melancholy. Looking down at the “throne”, a solemn lonely feeling crept within her.

For her it felt strange, almost alien, but at the same time, it felt nostalgic, like visiting a place you used to go to a lot with a loved one, only now that loved one was not there anymore.

For Milly, who had never had anyone close enough to know the sensation of such loss, felt this was confusing, yet it was like her empathy alone was enough to understand what this really meant.

Sadness.

Loneliness.

Longing.

Grief.

Although not for the same reasons or the same context, ironically Milly had been experiencing the same emotions for longer than she could remember. However, due to her obligation to “the company”, she had never really recognised or addressed them.

Looking upon this scene had somehow rekindled these feelings. Milly couldn’t help but form a lump in her throat as a result and she did her best to fight it all back.

She stood there for a while. The muzzle of her gun slanted towards the floor, as she relaxed it into one hand. While trying to hold back her grief, a combination of stress and the day’s exhaustion, her head drifted slowly back up towards the canopy of the tree, where she stared almost blankly, taking in the sound of the wind in the leaves.

Taking a deep breath, she finally got herself out of it, thankful she hadn’t teared up as it would have made a mess in her helmet. Looking to the floor shaking her head as if to reset it, her thoughts trying to redirect itself as a distraction.

It was then she wondered;

“Where is this wind coming from? I can’t feel it…” Then looking up again but towards the direction the leaves were moving, gauging its trajectory roughly, her eyes tracked to where she thought it would be coming from.

Looking in that direction, the only thing there was this solar systems star, Vihkar, but a little different. The auspicious star seemed to pulse with gaseous waves that emanated from the centre. The light of the star, although very far away, would normally blind a person, but as she looked up at it, her helmet didn't react, and even though it was a ridiculously bright point of light, it wasn’t enough to hurt the eyes.

“This is… Solar winds? And this light? Wait, then in that case? So, this is...?” A small smile started to rise on her face, and an almost giddy feeling started to well up within her.

Bracing herself however, needing to prove her theory right, she started to rush around to find the final clues. So far, this new place had been very strange and hard to figure out as to what function it served, but if she could find the last parts to this jigsaw puzzle, then it would all fall into place.

The circular platform she was on had been surprisingly sparse other than the throne backed by crystal and the massive tree. Since no real evidence could be found here, she walked to what had been assumed to be the front end of the platform, where the channels of water fell off the edge.

Reaching it, she saw the parts of the platform below, as well as two staircases either side that hugged the curve of the circular deck.

More details came, the closer she was to the edge. One such detail, for example, was where the water ended up once it fell. Directly below the upper deck was a small circular pool, no more than four meters wide raised a half meter above the floor, its perimeter made from thick vines. Surprised at what she saw inside it, she decided to climb down the stairs to her left to take a closer look.

Once she reached the lower level, she could finally see the clues she had been looking for. Not only that, but looking back at the pool, she saw what surprised her from atop the upper level.

It was yet another crystal, only this time, precisely shaped to that of an elongated octagonal bipyramid, or in other words, an eight-sided prism capped by eight-sided points, top and bottom. Light blue in colour and quite opaque but somehow giving off the illusion of a limitless cloudy blue expanse of space within as if it was a portal trapped behind thin panels of glass. What's more, the blue cloudiness inside seemed to shift, phase and even slowly move. The crystal looked polished, shinier than a mirror but as the light reflected off it geometric lines in nested bismuthic right angles covered its surface as if etched in. Occasionally it gave the illusion of electrical energy passing through it. It didn't look like circuitry, but strange ancient geometry with some form of energy zipping around along its etching almost aimlessly, from point to point. Spinning ever so slowly clockwise, the crystal floated there, suspended just above the middle of the small pool of water.

What interested Milly more though, was what was around the edges of the pool. There was one channel outlet at the front of the pool that let the water fall again into a singular channel that ran the length of the middle of the deck. This too, ran all the way along to the front of the deck to what seemed to be a final waterfall. However, what caught her eye was what was either side of the channel and also ran concentric to the edge of the pool.

Three seats with accompanying desk like consoles, with six being the total. There were no visible screens, and everything looked like it was grown rather than manufactured.

The seats, like grey cups found on lichen or fungus, grew from the floor. The top of each one indented to form a bowl, while the stalk that grew on looked like it could twist like rubber, allowing it to spin nut unable to move in any other way. Milly found this out when she nudged it with the muzzle of her gun, which cause the seat to turn and its stalk to twist, but it didn’t bend or shake at all. As soon as the muzzle was removed the chair sprung back untwisting itself. In some ways, it was kind of like a weird office chair.

As for the desks, they were a quarter of a meter in depth and a meter wide, built from intertwining vines that grew vertically on the left side. Eventually they formed a slanted “bud”, the petals of which were open yet flush with the desk’s top surface in a fanned-out arrangement.

Growing out from this, which then formed the slanted console surface, a cluster of crystals which looked strikingly like a fly wing; The netted lattice framing each segment that appeared to have transparent aerogel like qualities. The lattice itself, thin vessel like straight vines, hard and dark yet chaotic in the angles connecting between them. Each crystal was slightly raised from what framed it with a gap for the vines in between. Surprisingly, despite its slightly chaotic shaping, all the segments were somehow all neatly arranged without any unnecessary gaps, like a jigsaw puzzle laid out from pieces of shattered glass. They were all roughly the same size in what looked to be an ergonomic keyboard.

Looking around the rest of the platform, Milly noticed similar desks and chairs were arranged, only sunk into diamond shaped pits in the floor. There were four such pits, and each pit had two sets of desk chairs inside it. The pits were arranged around what Milly now realized was another small circular pool flush in the middle of the floor. All the seats and desks made its occupant’s face the opposite direction of the pool, as each pit was angled that way. The pool itself was bisected by the channel that ran in the middle of the deck making it so only two pits were either side of it.

Feeling a sense of elated gratification, Milly almost jumped in excitement.

“I knew it! This is the bridge! I’m on the bridge of the ship! The sky, are they screens? Maybe Holographics? How was that wind generated? Why is there water everywhere? What is that crystal for? No! no! Stop! First things first! I have to get into the ship's computer!” Flustered, her mind bombarding itself with a myriad of questions, Milly did everything she could to put the brakes on and try to think clearly. Despite her limited experience and ability, Milly was still a technician, and the thought of having first gander at suspected alien technology, regardless of the dangers, blew her mind as she started to metaphorically drool at the prospects ahead.

“But… where do I start?” Despite her best effort to understand, there was no writing on any of the “keys” on the console desks. No indication of each station’s intended function, with every “keyboard” having an identical layout.

Pondering for a moment, all she could come to was that, there was only one thing she could do. Making her choice, hesitantly at first, she sat down at one of the desks that surrounded the crystal’s pool.

The moment she turned around and aligned her body to the desk, symbols appeared on each key and a multi coloured semi-transparent square holographic screen panel appeared in front of her. As that happened, more screens appeared all around the deck. Some above each of the desks, while others were dotted around floating in the sky. One massive such screen suspended itself height up in the front at an angle, as if it was some sort of view screen, suspended high enough so even the person on the throne on the upper deck could see it clearly.

When she noticed this happening, in a small amount of jittered panic, she looked around to see all the screen coming into existence. At first, she didn't understand what was on them, but gradually she started to see numbers, waveform charts, and other statistical representations she recognised.

“But… what does the rest of this even mean??” Turning her head back to the small screen of her desk and then to its keyboard, she couldn't make out what any of it said. Each symbol was unlike anything he was familiar with. What was worse, was that there seemed to be no physical access point. If there was, then there was a possibility of wiring in her suit’s computer and hacking the console system. However, even if she could do that, Milly had already judged by the way everything seemed to work, that the conventional concept of computing didn’t really apply here. This meant it was highly likely that there was no way for the two systems to talk to each other. What's more, she wasn’t even sure if there was even anything that could be called a “computer” to begin with.

Her perplexity had frozen her in place as her mind raced to find a solution, yet her thoughts also wandered aimlessly towards questions such as “if I applied the seating mechanism to my bunk, would I be able to slingshot myself out of bed?” and other such situationally irrelevant things.

The reason for this was Milly’s set of unfortunate habits that would come to the surface whenever it came to machinery. The first of which being overly curious, distracted and absorbed in the thing in front of her, and would even end up coming to some very strange conclusions, and the other being;

“If only I could get inside you! All of this is so enticing, it’s making me shiver!” That while absorbed in her excitement, would absentmindedly subject innuendos towards whatever she was obsessing over. This was made even worse by how innocently she did it, since she herself had almost no knowledge of sex whatsoever.

“Come, time to open your secrets in front of me!” Hovering her hands and wriggling her fingers just above the keyboard, she was about to jump right into pressing buttons at random to get a reaction, when;

As if terrified for its chastity or its impending molestation by the girl, the symbols of the keyboard started to change to ones she could understand. Some of them blanked out completely, but most had turned into a proper alphabetic symbols, while others were function keys to specific settings the console controlled.

“Oh!?” Pleasantly surprised while at the same time too excited to realise or even ask why it knew her language, she soaked in the new information in front of her.

Looking up at the screen, a diagram of the crystal that floated above the pool was drawn in front of her. Various labelled pointers marked in red where dotted all over the diagram, which seemed to indicate a failure in the area it was pointing to.

It didn't take long for Milly to comprehend what to do, her hands buzzing around as if she’d been using the keyboard all her life. This wasn’t anything alien to her and was what got her top technical marks during her training. In fact, she was well known for her speed at adapting to newly implemented systems or software. Although she never had a choice at her job, nor what she was trained in, it didn't mean she wasn’t good at it, in fact it was as if she was “born into it”.

After a moment, she had completed what she thought the system needed. Most of the errors it indicated had been “reset” somehow, although in the end she didn’t totally understand how, she could at least grasp some basic concepts.

“Now then… I want to see your specs! What makes you tick? How should I do this?” mumbling to herself, her fingers wriggled again as she thought about what to do next. She still had not fully ascertained the function of her specific desk but judging by the functions on the screen and the keyboard, it didn’t appear to be all that limited. At least at first.

However, she eventually gave up on that idea. It seemed that although it wasn't limited, the desk had no way of accessing general information about the ship. It was instead all about the ships “dimensional transceiver”, and the celestial traversal prediction system which the crystal seemed to control.

“The fact you can calculate star positions so fast is simply incredible, but it's not what I want to know. Hmmm…?” Thinking a moment, a new and strange compulsion came over her. A similar hunch to the ones she’d been getting all day, had started to form in her mind.

Getting up from the chair, she started to walk towards the front of the deck. She stopped just before the inlaid pool that lay in the centre.

She first looked up at the bigger holographic screen in the air in front of her, then to the pool below her, its waters calm and serene. At first there was nothing of note, except that the bottom of the pool was a perfect bowl shape indented in the floor, with an inlet and outlet of water connected channels. The bowl was a little shallow however, too shallow to make it a perfect half sphere, if anything it was about one quarter of one. At its centre a single flat crystal flush with its bowled surface shone a dim light on its wood grained walls.

Closing her eyes for a moment, trying to figure out why she felt this was the right way, only to then shelve those thoughts as quickly as they came because “she had to jump first”.

Steeling herself, mainly because there was a high chance her next action might result in nothing and she would look like an idiot, she slowly charged ahead into the centre of the pool.

As she walked, the water came to just above her ankles. The ripples she created less than what she would have expected in spite of the energetic activity attacking it as she wadded forward.

Once her feet touched the bottom in proximity of the light, faster than she could react, the water at the edges of the pool raced up and over her to form a perfect sphere. This in turn then picked her up from the ground as it started to float in place barely a meter from the bottom of the bowl. Droplets of water dripped from the floating sphere, the pool beneath swirling as the inlet channel spiralled in only to loop back out to the outlet again, as if an invisible force made it so that the water would not fill the bowl again.

Now submerged in the centre of this sphere of water, her compulsion proved right yet again, she looked up at the screen. It was due to this same compulsion that she felt a sense of urgency that niggling at her.

Ignoring the strange new sensations that now surged through her body as a result of entering this sphere and for no other reason, other than it “felt right”, she shouted out in a commanding tone;

“Tetomi! Damage report!” She then realised a slight incongruity in her words. “Wait, Tetomi? Why’d I say tha-”

Before she could challenge the situation of her mind, her attention on her own disarray was snatched when the “main screen” changed to a complete white wire frame schematic of the ship. What was pictured was a complete “undamaged” version of what the ship would have looked like, and a sidebar itemisation of currently damaged major systems. The items listed as “missing” were in red, and “partial damage” in yellow. Most of the left side of the ship was marked red since it as in fact missing at this time.

As this happened, two smaller screens appeared next to each of her hands, and seemed to be a touch screen holographic interface, with some additional details.

Without realising, once the sensations had faded, she had become almost instantly comfortable inside of the sphere. This was also in spite of the feeling of almost weightless suspension it gave her. Her posture became a semi sitting stance with her legs forward a little. Her back reclined ever so slightly as her head comfortably looked up at the larger screen.

Using her right hand, she typed in some commands and then used her left to scroll through each item on the sidebar. As she did this, the item would expand to a new smaller screen that would then pop in front of her, giving her the exact specifics that item had and what damage it had sustained.

She knew, although it would be unlikely to find a complete spec sheet of the ship out in plain view for anyone to see since it presented a security risk, it was more likely to get it to give a roster of its systems part by part, leaving Milly to figure out the rest. Which as it happened, turned out to be the correct answer.

“I was right… half of you really was lost. I’m… I’m amazed you’re still alive…?! Alive?” her voice trailed off a little. Things have not been right within herself for a while now, and the more it happened, the more she became aware of it.

“You! You’re in my mind?! I know it’s you! Why couldn't you just speak up? You should have just told me what you wanted! Why bother going to all this effort, leading me around like this?!” Reminded of the hypothesis she had in the hallway and angry at whatever it was that was obviously manipulating her, she tried to slam her fist on the smaller control screen, only for it to pass right through.

Not feeling any impact on her hand, shook her out of her indignation a little, and she blushed at her own foolishness. She was still unnerved and a little upset however, and the actions that had taken place were obviously to get her to do something, but what she still couldn't figure out.

All throughout her journey, she had felt scared, alone, excited, wondrous and a tone of other vibrant feelings she would find hard to describe. In retrospect, however, she felt now that somehow she wasn’t really in much danger. There were occasions that felt a little hairy, but looking back, if it had meant her dead, she probably would have been by now…

So, if that was the case, only one real question remained;

“Just what do you want from me?!” Panting a little she then stopped and waited for a response of some kind.

Still none came, as she sat back floating in the air. Her arms folded, her index finger tapping at her other arm impatiently. She realised however, that despite this she was in fact completely trapped, unable to do anything else at this moment.

This did not stop her, so as if to snub it in abject defiance, she did her best not to show her realisation on her face. Even though most of it was covered by her helmet breather, she still felt it important to act as if she was in control of the situation.

‘AH!... It can read my mind, so it probably already knows what I’m thinking!’ upon Milly’s second realisation, her facade started to crumble, knowing that acting all unpretty and protesting wouldn't be getting her much in the way of leverage.

Despite this, as if now committed to her act, five minutes had passed with no sign of Milly’s self-proclaimed tug of wills ending. She knew it could understand her, and she knew it was listening. The fact it hadn’t responded however was starting to erode her assumptions, her confidence losing its lustre.

It was then, the boredom of waiting began to play tricks on her, and in the corner of her eye certain items started to catch her attention again.

Ever the mechanics nerd, unable to resist her compulsive curiosity, yet in a half-hearted disinterested manner at first. It was her attempt at continuing to her snub her captor, but slowly she motioned her hands on the smaller holographic screen to present certain items in front of her.

“A-Adaptive hull p-p-plating…” She started out in a soft stuttered mumble, her eyes trying to tear itself away from the screen;

“K-K-Kinetic dampeners?!” her voice starting to steadily climb as she began to forget herself.

“I-I-Internal Micro inertial compensators?! *gulp*! OH. MY. THE SHIELDS!” Without realising it, her hands started to move faster, and her voice raised in excitement. Again, and again, as her tempo increased, her act crumbled with each and every item she looked at.

“A comet half the size of a Ventra could hit you and nothing would happen!” By now, any attempt at hiding her fascination had all but gone. Immersed with this information, her mind in its element, he continued to talk to herself excitedly.

“Hold on! What's this?! I kinda knew your propulsion wasn't much different to conventional Fusion Bombardment Thrusters, but if I read this right…” Her eyes widened and her excitement increased, like a kid in a candy store.

“Oh my, girl, even if your ran at half your power output, forget any of the company’s ships, you’d even outrun a Coalition cruiser by twice and in half the speed! These improvements to the thruster’s concussion matrix, and the particle injection system?! It’s so simple! Why haven’t we done this yet?!” The more she kept reading the more she wanted to know, but it also slightly overwhelmed her. This was in part due to certain discoveries she made in her reading that had her concerned.

“This is?” Frowning a little at an item she had scrolled to.

“Same with the damage here. Here also…” Some of the things she looked at felt like it shouldn’t be there at all. It really made no sense.

“I have no idea where to start. To fix some of this I don't even know if you would need a mechanic, a veterinarian, a botanist or a mycologist… Just what the hell are you?!” Reminded of the sights she had witnessed, as she looked at the technical read out, she continued to ponder on some of the terminologies used to name certain systems.

“I mean, what is this about damage across the primary, secondary and tertiary cardiovascular systems, disconnections in the mycelial sensory net with photosynthesis efficiency down to twenty three percent?!” It was then through her ramblings, she caught on to these familiar terms.

“These… these are all biological terms to things I know about...” Then a crazy idea popped in her head.

“Hey… Alien life wouldn't necessarily have any of these sorts of systems, right? I mean… no in fact, I'd go as far as to say it's impossible right?” Her thought process was simple, would an alien even have a heart? Would it need flesh and blood like Earthbound life?

“I mean I saw a human shaped fairy on the way here, there are plants I recognise and last of all this list in front of me!” It all made sense in some ways, but at the same time, none of it did.

“I’d be a complete idiot if I hadn’t suspected anything until now… I mean, it’s that right…? you… you’re…” pausing, the tension in the air increasing as if the universe waited for her response

“You’re from Earth, somehow right?” she said as she cocked her head to the side innocently.

Milly then sensed a small bit of disappointment inside her somehow… This was then reciprocated when she could have sworn at first that the larger screen had sagged a little. However, since that would be impossible, in the end, she dismissed that as a visual artefact from being suspended in water.

Ignoring it all, the best she could, she continued down the list.

“Sigh… still, you’re amazing! Even your navigation systems are unlike anything I’ve ever seen! I have no idea what a Slip Drive is, but I want to get my hands deep inside and play with it! If only everything wasn’t so badly damaged. Even your wep--...” Her hands at the time moved faster than she could really think, as her conscious self was lagging behind the rest of her, as if being dragged from behind only to provide a babbling commentary.

That was until she saw the last item before stopping, frozen. A chill running up her spine.

“W-w-weapons… Oh No!! Oh, Baby has teeth! Oh, Baby has lots of big teeth! Oh, oh... Oh no” A slight panic started to run all over her. Pictures of weapon schematics started to pop up one at a time, each showing which systems were still active. Names of things she didn’t understand burned into her eyes, all of which made everything all that less understandable. However, one thing was clear.

“This ship, no you… you’re a warship?! Oh no… oh no! And not just any warship either… These… Muon Cascade Disruptors?! Are these energy weapons?! Rail guns, lasers and missiles! That’s all anyone should have! Forget the company, not even the Coalition uses full on energy weapons!” Her hand shaking. A combination of excitement and white-faced dread washed over her as she tried her best to stop herself from looking down the list. The more she looked the more she knew she was headed in a direction with unforeseeable consequences.

“What's this? Nimian Burst Cannons?! W-what does that even meeeeean?! How would you even use them?! Just how much energy would you need to fire these thingssss?!” It was quickly becoming apparent, despite her limited understanding of military technology, that this ship on its own would give a fully complemented company flotilla a run for its money.

A terrifying prospect popped in her mind; If this was indeed an alien ship, despite all indicators saying it probably was not, a war with humanity wouldn’t end very well. She and the rest of mankind would be on the short end of the stick, with total annihilation on the horizon in a very prompt, bloody and efficient manner.

To her, it also meant that her current predicament or even the safety of her ship was in greater jeopardy than before realised. If she then, somehow offends this ship, or triggers it to fire, it could take out the Ventra with the power of less than a quarter of a single shot.

She had wrongly assumed, in a blanket of single-minded hopefulness, that this was a civilian ship or that whoever built it had no need nor concept of war. Every ship had some sort of defensive system, even the Ventra, but that was just a safeguard against meteorites.

However, military ships had proper weapons, and as it so happened this particular ship was a very big bad wolf, filled with a mouth full of very sharp fangs.

“I don't know what to do! Oh no… I really have done something ridiculous! What am I going to do now?!”