“I’m in!” Ryan yelled with excitement, “I know enough about computers to know my systems probably aren’t compatible with alien file systems, but the OS booted up just fine and there doesn’t appear to be a password.”

Ryan pulled up a hologram of the alien OS.

Becky turned to the new hologram, “No wonder the probe got taken over so easily.”

Chie started studying the hologram, “They must not think anything in the probe’s database is worth concealing.”

Ryan started prodding around the alien system, “Can’t read anything, of course, so I guess I’ll poke around until we find something interesting. I’ll see if I can figure out the language too.”

Becky scratched her head as she watched Ryan move between menus and opening files, “How big is the database?”

Ryan wasn’t sure how to check, “Uh… No idea.”

Chie got up from the chair she sat in and picked up one of the many computer parts that sat near the scanner on the floor, “If the aliens’ storage medium uses ones and zeros like we do, it should be quite simple.”

Ryan could tell that much with a simple check, “Yeah, it does.” A few seconds later, “Hmm, looks like somewhere around fifty quintillion.”

Becky cocked her head to the side, “Hmm, how many bytes is that?”

Chie turned the part she had picked up in her hands, “I believe that is in the exabyte range.”

Becky whistled, “That’s pretty good.”

Chie nodded, “For a single device, yes. I believe there are server farms that hold much more.”

Ryan wondered how big his storage was, “Hmm, you know, I’ve never checked to see how big my storage is.” A moment later, “Huh, I can’t tell. I’m not even sure where to look.”

Becky turned in the direction of the Growth Chamber, “It’s probably in the machine part of your brain.”

Ryan recalled his half flesh, half robot brain, “Probably. It’s definitely not in the bridge’s computer. That thing was more Swiss cheese than the probe’s computer.”

Chie nodded, “I concur. We have yet to find another computer outside of the bridge and yourself.”

Becky turned to look at the pile of the parts to the probe’s computer they’d salvaged, “A shame one of the particle beam hits damaged the probe’s processor.”

They had discovered the shot Ryan had fired that disable the probe had taken out the computer, though most of the parts still seemed undamaged, “Hey, it’s probably what finally took out the probe so I’m fine with it. Besides! You’ve got me! Don’t need another computer.”

Ryan felt jealous at the thought of another computer on Luna. What need would there be for him if there was a “dumb” computer that could automate everything? Maybe he could get Anton to make him a robot body and use it to pretend he was human again?

Mayu, who was searching inside the probe, stopped and focused on something.

Becky chuckled, “I don’t think you need to worry about that. We have better things to do than build a computer we don’t need.”

Chie placed the object in the scanner, “Indeed. You are doing a spectacular job running Luna.”

Becky nodded vigorously, “Yep! Sometimes I feel kinda useless because you learn how to do things so quickly.”

Ryan felt somewhat relieved, “Thanks.”

Mayu stopped at the spot where Ryan’s last shot had pierced the probe’s hull “Eto… everyone. I am finding a box like before.”

Ryan recognized it immediately. It was one of their tool boxes.

Ryan brought up a hologram for Becky and Chie, “When did that get there? I’m pretty sure I checked there.”

Mayu pulled the box from the hull, “I will be looking.”

Becky and Chie both turned to watch.

Becky looked curious, “You think that glowing light dropped it off?”

Chie tapped her chin, sighed, then sat down, “It is the only explanation I can consider.”

Ryan recalled the note they’d found in the first box, “The note in the other box did say they were going to ask for a favor.”

Becky returned Chie’s sigh, then sat down too, “But why leave it in the alien probe?”

Chie crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair, “Mayu, can you open it?”

Mayu’s camera bobbed up and down in a nod, “Yes.”

Mayu opened it, revealing another note:

Congratulations on your first victory.

As I mentioned in the first letter, I have a task I would like you to undertake. I would ask that you rescue one of my associate’s subjects. In the next day, she will be caught up in the conflict between the two factions you introduced to each other.

Rescue her from the last system the wormhole led to and I will invite you to my realm, where you can rest and find new opportunities in your journey.

To make your task easier, I have included a picture of the subject and a map of the place she resides.

Please make haste. The longer you take, the harder it will be.

Mayu turned the note around and found a picture of a woman. She was pretty, with a delicate nose, large blue sleepy eyes, long brown hair tied with fancy braids, slim body, a modest chest, and wore simple but beautiful blue silk robes.

Ryan found her tired eyes seemed a bit of a turnoff. It made him think she’d lost all motivation in life.

Below the picture of the woman was a blueprint of some sort of structure shaped like a donut, with four spokes in the center connected to an inner hub. Eight spires jutted from the donut, two in each quadrant on opposite sides of each other. The only places marked were suggestions on where to find the woman, all of which were on the two lowest floors in one section of the donut and spires in that area. It also had a suggested entry point.

Becky stood up and started pacing, “I don’t like this… Is a war going to happen because of us?”

Ryan felt a little excited, “Who cares. They attacked without even trying to talk to us. If they don’t want to start wars, they should be a little more friendly.” He thought about the woman, “I say we try to save the woman. It’s kinda our fault she’s in danger in the first place. We can send in Repairy McRepair Face to find her and let her ride it back to us. I’ll even try making a space suit for her to wear just in case.”

Chie nodded, “Mayu, can you bring that back so we can study it more closely?”

Mayu’s camera bobbed up and down, “Yes. I am wanting to look more too.”

Mayu grabbed Repairy McRepair Face and Ryan piloted them out of the probe toward Luna.

Becky stopped her pacing, “I think we can at least look. If we open a wormhole about a light year away, then use the FTL to cover the rest of the distance it should be safe. I want to know where we let the Meatballs go. Maybe we can find a way to stop the fight from happening while we’re at it.”

Ryan could just imagine more meatballs entering Luna as they passed through the wormhole, “Yeah, I think it's worth looking into. Still, what about meatballs attacking us as we go through? I’ve seen them go through the hull and walls, so they could attack us from anywhere.”

Chie tapped her chin, “It also appears they can interact with systems, so it’s possible they could disable Luna.”

Becky crossed her arms and looked up for a moment, “They haven’t done it so far. I wonder why?”

Chie tapped her chin, “I can think of a number of reasons, but we are dealing with an alien intelligence that might think in ways the human mind cannot comprehend.”

Ryan agreed, “Yeah, that makes sense. We’re dealing with balls of flesh that come from… somewhere, can turn invisible, go through walls, and fly through space.”

Becky sighed again, “I think it’s worth the risk.”

Mayu entered Luna and let go of Repairy McRepair Face, “I am wanting to be helping too! It is bad to leave her to be dying.”

Ryan turned Luna to the nearest gas giant in the system, “I’m gonna stock up on some fuel first.”

Becky mmhmmed.

Chie headed to the science lab’s door, “We should all grab plasma cannons and pistols. I will provide protection for the wormhole drive and Becky, the main reactor. Mayu can move around as needed.”

Becky nodded, “Sounds good.”

Mayu headed towards the living area, “I am happy to be helping!”

Ryan moved Repairy McRepair Face into an empty bedroom to avoid the winds they’d experience during refueling, “I’ll have Repairy McRepair Face patrol the areas that don’t have cameras.”

The three crew members headed to their spots after grabbing their weapons.

No one spoke as Ryan refueled.

Once back in orbit he entered the coordinates the meatballs used, but adjusted them slightly to open about a light year away from the star, “Charging. Glad it doesn’t take as long to charge jumping around inside the galaxy.”

The five light year jump they’d done earlier had taken less than a minute.

Becky checked her plasma cannon for the umpteenth time, “I find myself wishing it would take longer so I have more time to prepare myself.”

Mayu seemed excited, “I am thinking it is being better to do fast.”

Chie waited outside the wormhole device room since it wasn’t safe inside until it fired, “I am in agreement with Mayu. I would prefer to wait until Luna is fully repaired, but we do not have that luxury.”

Becky took a few deep breaths, then relaxed, “You’re right. We also need time to study the system and see what we’re dealing with.”

Ryan thought back to the blueprints given to them, “You think it’s a space station? The place we’re going?”

Becky shrugged, “That’s my guess.”

Chie tapped her chin, then nodded, “I concur. The more intel we have to work with, the better our chances of success.

Mayu seemed a little let down, “We are doing more waiting? I am wanting to go saving fast.”

This earned a soft chuckle from Becky, “I know. I want to save her as soon as possible too.”

Ryan felt Anton would be making a bigger fuss, “Good thing Anton isn’t here right now. She’d… Uh… He’d probably be making a big stink about heading in right away.”

Becky sighed, “Yeah, yeah, he would.”

An awkward silence came with the mention of Anton.

It wasn’t until Ryan started his ten second countdown that the silence was broken.

Becky raised her plasma cannon and fiddled with it again.

Chie started rapping her fingers on the door to the wormhole device room.

The wormhole device fired, “Here we go!”

Mayu picked up her plasma rifle from her desk med bay and entered the hallway, “It is becoming time to be cooking meat!”

Becky paused, “Whoa. I think you’re a little too excited about this.”

Mayu raised her plasma cannon above her head, “If anyone is hurting my friends I will be hurting them!”

Chie entered the wormhole device room.

Ryan felt the sight of Mayu holding a weapon nearly half her size comical, “How light are those plasma cannons? Mayu’s making hers look like it’s a toy.”

Becky hefted hers, “I’d say about ten kilograms.”

Ryan spotted the telltale sign of an invisible meatball, “I think I see one!” Another meatball appeared but soon reentered from wherever it was it came from and the other followed, “I think they left. Moving us through before they change their minds and come back.”

Ryan heard Becky gulp.

Mayu lowered her weapon and held it at the ready.

Ryan watched carefully with the sensor and the turret.

The turret’s sensor was nowhere near as good as the main sensor, but it helped him cover one of Luna’s many blind spots, so he was thankful he could use it.

Ryan spun Luna around as soon as they were through and watched the wormhole collapse.

He saw no more meatballs, “I think we’re good.”

Chie lowered her weapon, “Perhaps they realized how far away from the star we are? I don’t recall them appearing in numbers when we opened a wormhole to the globular cluster.”

Becky still seemed tense and continued to scan the reactor room, “I hope so. We can do the same thing every time we use the wormhole device to keep the meatball aliens out of systems.”

Chie tapped the chin area of her helmet, “This is worth more experimentation. If there are indeed probes in every system, we could potentially infect more probes if we are not careful.”

Becky finally relaxed and lowered her weapon, “I wonder if we can find a way to communicate with the meatball aliens. They seem to be using us more for transportation and aren’t hostile like the other aliens. If we had been more careful with the infected probe, maybe they wouldn’t have attacked us?”

Chie shifted her weapon in her hands, “Or they have some reason they cannot attack us.”

Becky considered this for a moment, “Maybe, but they seem to have no trouble actively going after the other aliens. They even used,” she paused and Ryan heard her sigh, “Sucker to get closer to them.”

Ryan felt anxious at the mention of Sucker. He’d put it in standby mode in a crater on an asteroid and forgotten to check up on it thanks to all the other things that had happened, “Sucker!”

He connected to Sucker.

It floated next to the alien space station. He couldn’t see any of the alien spaceships, but judging by the fleshy growths along the station’s hull, he had a good idea what was going on.

Ryan brought up a hologram showing Sucker’s feed to Becky and Mayu, “Uh, guys… I think they got Sucker.”

Becky’s face darkened as soon as she had enough time to examine the feed, “That’s right… The meatballs hitched a ride on Sucker when we dropped the communication drone off. One or two might have stayed on and infected it.”

Mayu hefted her weapon, “We are helping getting Sucker back?”

Ryan turned off the holograms, “Eh… We can build another one. Sucks losing it, though.”

Chie hadn’t seen the feed because there was no camera in the wormhole device room, “Do you have any control over Sucker?”

Ryan tried steering Sucker, then a few other systems but got no response from any, “I don’t think so, I only have access to the data feeds from each system but can’t do anything else.”

Chie nodded, “Then we shall have to consider Sucker lost to us.”

Becky shook her head, “As much as I hated the name, it’s a shame we lost it.”

Mayu leaned the plasma cannon over her shoulder, “We will be worrying about rescuing the woman, then building another Suckah?”

Ryan turned Luna towards the star and turned on the FTL, “Right! The woman! Moving us closer to the star. We should be there in about three and a half hours at max speed.”

Becky took one more look around the reactor room, “Alright, unless they’re hiding somewhere we should be safe.”

Chie relaxed and headed for the exit to the wormhole device room, “I concur. We should spend the next three hours devising a plan on how to rescue this woman.”

Mayu stopped at the hatch to the lower deck, “I will be checking more for meatballs.”

Ryan opened the hatch, “Alright, sounds good to me.”

*** About three hours later ***

Becky chewed on her lip and her brow creased with worry, “I’m not sure we can rely on these shields to protect us from these security turrets.”

A large rectangular metal shield lay on the table in front of her. It was simple, with just a strap on it for an arm.

Chie ran her fingers across it, “It is the same alloy used for Luna’s hull. I cannot think of anything better to use for protection.”

Ryan all too easily recalled Luna’s hull damage, “Yeah, and Luna looks like Swiss cheese.”

Chie lifted the plasma pistol she held, “We already tested it with this, and it held up well. Providing the defense turrets are not much more powerful, it should be adequate protection.”

Becky nodded, “I guess it is the best we can come up with on such short notice.”

Ryan had to agree, “Probably. Luna went up against anti-ship weapons, we’re not.”

Becky nodded again, “That’s true.”

Ryan moved Repairy McRepair Face from the wormhole device room where he’d been fixing the largest breach, as he didn’t feel comfortable leaving it exposed to space anymore, “Alright, unless anyone has anything more to add, I think we should get these armor plates I printed for Repairy McRepair Face mounted.”

Both Becky and Chie nodded and headed for the fabrication room.

Ryan opened a channel to Mayu, “Mayu, can you help install the armor on the drone?”

Mayu was currently poking around the room with the still damaged second FTL drive, “Yes.”

*** Half an hour later ***

Ryan turned off the FTL and immediately started scanning the inner system, “Hmm, found some planets already.”

Ryan zoomed in on the closest. It was a greenish gas planet with dark and light bands and the occasional larger storm.

Becky studied it for a moment, “Gas giant, huh.”

Ryan moved to the next closest. It was a depressingly grey planet with no remarkable features he could pick out from this distance.

Becky studied it, “Hmm, rocky terrestrial planet.”

Ryan moved to the next, probably the second closest to the star. It looked similar to Earth, with large oceans and continents covered in greens and browns, “I think we found what we’re looking for.”

Becky looked grim, “What would the meatballs want here?”

Ryan wanted to get a better look, “I’m gonna move us in closer so we can get a better view.”

Becky nodded, “Sounds good.”

Mayu started bouncing on her feet, “This is so exciting! We are meeting more aliens soon!”

Chie chuckled, “Let us hope they treat us with less hostility than our last meeting.”

Ryan jumped them three quarters the distance to the planet.

This time he was able to pick up much greater detail. It didn’t look good.

Becky gulped, “How many ships do you think that is?”

Ryan took a quick guess, “I see three small space stations, and the hundreds of those pill ships?” He zoomed in on a larger station, “On the bright side, I found where Ms. Sleepy is.”