— Sunday, November 20, AD 2129 —

“…Ah, Kirstin! You’re still here?”

“U-uh…” Kirstin glanced uneasily toward the office entrance, where Sarah currently stood, dressed in a pale green t-shirt, jeans, and a lab coat while holding a mug of coffee. Kirstin’s own attire was little different — a black t-shirt instead of pale green, and no coffee — though her posture was significantly weaker as she practically wilted under Sarah’s gaze. “…Sh-should I not be…?”

Sarah let out a laugh as she fully stepped into the room, allowing the door to close behind her. “It’s fine,” she declared with a smile, “besides, it would be a little hypocritical of me to tell others to go home, wouldn’t it?”

A small, amused smile crossed Kirstin’s face for a brief moment before she averted her gaze. “I-I guess…”

“Still…” Sarah crossed the office to look through the virtual window on the other side, at a view of Earth slowly rotating below. “…That we’re both working this late on a Sunday…” She then glanced at Kirstin again. “Just goes to show that time really does fly, doesn’t it?”

“L-late?!” Kirstin exclaimed, and then looked down at the clock on her computer. Her eyes went wide as she realized that it read out a time of 9 o’clock in the evening.

“Your work is just that interesting, eh?” Sarah questioned.

“W-well, uh… s-sort of…”

“What are you working on…?” Sarah crossed the room with a confident stride before stopping behind Kirstin’s chair, peering over her shoulder to inspect the contents of her computer screen. “Ah, the Dreadnought coordinates. There really are a lot of them, aren’t there?”

“Uh—!” Kirstin reflexively flinched away from Sarah as the latter placed her hand on the back of Kirstin’s chair. Sarah drew back in response; the moment Kirstin realized this, her eyes went wide again as she snapped her attention between Sarah and the computer screen. “Uh—! Th-that’s, um, s-sorry! I-I’m just, uh, t-tired…”

Sarah offered a warm smile. “It’s fine. Maybe you really could use some rest, though. I was just about to head out myself; care to join me?”

Kirstin stared blankly at Sarah for a couple moments before averting her gaze and fidgeting uncomfortably. “Um… I-I guess—“

“SARAAAAH!! Are you in here?!”

Neither Sarah nor Kirstin had any time to react between hearing the shout and the office door slamming open. Through the now gaping entrance strode Kate, wearing her signature red bandana, red and golden greaves, and green uniform with black trimming and rolled-up sleeves as her eyes swept across the office. The moment she spotted Sarah, she barged over and slammed her hands down on Kirstin’s desk, across from Kirstin and Sarah.

“You’ll never fucking believe what just happened!!” Kate exclaimed.

Sarah and Kirstin exchanged a glance — Sarah’s of amusement, and Kirstin’s of abject confusion — before Sarah commented, “back from your mission, are you?”

“Yeah, fucking duh, that’s what I’m talking about,” Kate retorted. “And let me tell you, being stuck on a fucking Frigate for an 8 day round trip is a real fucking pain in my ass! Those things are fucking tiny!”

“Size isn’t everything, so they say.”

“Bullshit! Bigger is always better! And speaking of ‘bigger’!” Kate slammed her hands down on the desk again, causing Kirstin to jump in surprise — an action which Kate ignored as she continued, “we found another piece of Aldredian tech. It was locked behind one of those stupid-ass doors that only respond to the Aldredian armor, but it was fucking there! With Drakkars and EA fighting over it, too, so you know it was fucking important!”

“Fantastic!” Sarah remarked. “What was it?”

“Well that’s the fucking thing, isn’t it?!” Kate crossed her arms and scowled. “EA’s stupid-ass robot did something to it, and it just fucking dissolved! Into a million tiny pieces! What the fuck is that about, huh?!”

“Dissolved? Into a million pieces? Hmm…” Sarah paused to take a sip of her coffee while she pondered Kate’s claim.

“Th-that sounds, um, f-familiar…” Kirstin eventually commented.

“Yes, I was just about to say the same,” Sarah replied, passing Kirstin a quick glance before returning her attention to Kate. “These ‘tiny pieces’ — they wouldn’t happen to have been blue particles, would they?”

“What?” Kate stared at Sarah incredulously. “How’d you know?!”

“And what was the robot holding at the time? It wouldn’t happen to have been a scythe, would it?”

“Yeah, a fucking big one! How the hell did you know?!”

“EA used it b-before…” Kirstin pointed out. “O-on, um, Austin…”

Sarah nodded. “That’s right. According to Austin, EA claimed that it was ‘Subspatial storage’. Fun fact, it’s something all of the Ayas weapons can do, as well.”

“Subspatial storage…?” Kate echoed cluelessly, only to scowl a second later. “Oh, shit, that’s that thing where you can shove something into Subspace and then pull it out later, right? Like a fucking bottomless bag? I heard about that… but if that’s what EA fucking did, then he has that god damn Drive! Fucking bullshit!”

“That does sound unfortunate…” Sarah commented. “But how did EA manage to put up a fight in the first place? And what was he even doing over 25 thousand light years from Earth?”

“I don’t fucking know,” Kate snapped as she kicked at Kirstin’s desk in frustration. “That fucking asshole…”

“W-what about this, um, D-Drive…?” Kirstin questioned.

“Huh? Oh, right! The Drive!” Kate slammed her right fist down on her left palm, her face lighting up as though she had just recalled something important. She then turned toward Sarah, saying, “I wanted to ask you about that! I didn’t get too long to look at it, but I was at least able to tell that the Aldredas called it a ‘Superspace Drive’. Have you heard of that?”

“Superspace…?” Sarah echoed questioningly.

“…W-wasn’t that, um, o-on the Dreadnought…?” Kirstin asked.

“Yeah, I fucking remember that, too,” Kate declared, “but this time, I actually found out what it’s supposed to do — supposedly, the fucking thing can teleport you to anywhere in the god damn universe, just like that!” she finished as she snapped her fingers.

“Anywhere in the universe?” Sarah echoed incredulously. “Are you sure that wasn’t hyperbole?”

“It was in the fucking technical specs, who uses hyperbole in technical specs?” Kate retorted. “But I guess you don’t know anything about that either, huh?”

“Not really; spacecraft technology is Scott’s area of expertise. I’m much more familiar with Chaos Energy and all else derived.”

“Go fucking figure…”

“Still, it’s an interesting idea, this Superspace. We do already have Subspace. That doesn’t necessarily imply the existence of a Superspace, since it’s just a name that the galaxy gave to an alternate plane of spacetime — but it would be an interesting complement.”

“Wh-what would Superspace be like…?” Kirstin questioned.

“Hmm… well, if what Kate says is correct, then whatever it is would have to allow for instantaneous travel to anywhere in the universe,” Sarah mused. “It’s difficult to think about how that would work. Even if it was some kind of wormhole generator, it would surely require astronomical amounts of energy.”

“That’s what I thought!” Kate exclaimed. “It just doesn’t sound possible!”

“Not with conventional power sources, no. But there is an alternative…”

“…Th-the Ayas…?” Kirstin suggested.

Sarah nodded in response. “That’s right. The Chaos Ayas are the only objects in the galaxy capable of actually creating Chaos Energy, and that makes them incredibly potent power sources — even for conventional technology. It’s possible that the Ayas could be used to power something like a Superspace Drive.”

“You’d still need several of the Ayas together, though, surely,” Kate stated. “The Ayas put out a lot of power, but it isn’t fucking infinite!”

“You’re right, of course…” Sarah thought for a few more seconds, and then shrugged. “Well, until we can learn more about this Superspace, everything we say is just speculation.”

“All science starts as speculation!”

“Yes, yes, but at the moment, we don’t even have a reasonable starting point to investigate. We have no way to look for signs of Superspace, or detect its existence, or access it. We don’t even know what to look for.”

“…Tch. What a pain in the fucking ass… if only we’d gotten that fucking Drive…”

“There’s no use crying over spilt milk. Instead, let’s focus on technology we do have access to — like those Aldredian mechs.”

“Oh?” Kate immediately perked up at the mention. “Did you find anything out while I was gone?!”

“Well, yes and no,” Sarah admitted, and then glanced down at Kirstin. “I was looking through some of the mechs’ databanks with Kirstin’s help, here, and we found something potentially interesting about the joint drive systems. See…”

The three then continued discussing the mechs and other pieces of Aldredian technology that SERRCom had discovered, none of them paying the clocks any heed as they continued on their unstopping march toward midnight.

---

“…Oh, sir. Hey.”

“Hmm?” Colonel Saito looked up as he came to a stop at the end of the hallway, just next to Major Hackett — who had just called out to him. “Oh, Major. Just out of the shower?”

“These are the locker rooms,” Hackett replied, jerking her thumb toward the nearby doorway as she did. She then adjusted the towel draped over her shoulders as she looked down at Saito. “Heading in yourself?”

The Colonel yawned before replying, “yeah… could use a shower before bed. Good time to think.”

“This about your earlier meeting with the General, sir?”

“You could say that.” Saito sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Wasn’t a long meeting. Just a quick debriefing, really. He seemed concerned, though.”

“About EA showing up?”

“Well, yes, that, but other things, too.”

Hackett regarded Saito with a confused expression. “Other things?”

“It’s about all of our missions over the past couple months,” Saito stated. “If you think about it, even just across our two previous missions, CSF-1 has encountered all of SERRCom’s enemies: the Drakkars, EA, the…” He glanced to and fro, noting that he and Hackett were alone in the hallway before continuing, “…metallic infection…”

“Oh, I see…”

“And on top of that, we’ve come across a lot of Aldredian technology, and worked briefly with the Black Suns. And then there’s also the matter of the new Chaotic recruits. Things have been moving at a breakneck pace ever since the recent Chaos Energy Quake, and General Lead seems concerned about it. So am I, to an extent.”

“When you put it that way, I can see why. Did Lead say something to you about SERRCom’s plans to address all this?”

“Sort of.” Saito sighed again. “He said he’s going to call for a Command Meeting, and he wants me to be present on behalf of CSF-1.”

“A Command Meeting?” Hackett echoed incredulously. “As in… High Command?”

Saito nodded. “Yep.”

“And he wants you to be present? All due respect, Colonel, but High Command is a little above your paygrade, isn’t it?”

“Well, Director MacTavish will be there, too, and he’s O-6 — so we get paid about the same,” Saito replied cheekily, and then frowned. “You’re definitely right about actual High Command, though, Major.”

Hackett smirked. “Are you scared, sir?”

“You’d have to be crazy to not be at least a little bit wary about attending a meeting with High Command,” Saito shot back.

“You seem to be on good terms with General Lead, though.”

“Sure. And I’ve worked under Director Hamasaki, so I have a decent working relationship with her, as well. But Commander Shepherd is another story entirely. Everyone knows that he and Lead don’t see eye-to-eye, so me being on good terms with Lead can make things… weird whenever I deal with Shepherd.”

“Right…”

“And then there’s Markovic, the Commander of the Space Navy. She might as well be the second most powerful person in SERRCom, after General Lead, given how big and important our space navy is. I’ve never actually met her, but I hear she and Shepherd get along even worse than Shepherd and Lead.”

“I’ve heard that, too… though I’ve also heard that Director Riese helps a lot to keep the peace.”

“He’s probably the most sensible member of High Command, sure. But he’s the Director of the Earthian Colonization Command; CSF-1 and the Eximius Vir don’t interact with the ECC all that much, so I’ve never spent much time in Riese’s presence. This upcoming meeting will be the most I’ve ever seen of him.”

“Right… well, even so, sir, it sounds like you already personally know most of High Command.” Hackett held out her right hand and began counting on her fingers. “General Lead, Commander Shepherd, Director Hamasaki… that’s three of the five.”

“Six,” Saito corrected. “You’re forgetting Surgeon General Penningston.”

“Oh, right. Still, sir, three out of six is half of High Command. Most people don’t have those kinds of connections.”

“Are you trying to say something, Hackett?”

“…This is probably just speculation, sir, but has it ever occurred to you that General Lead might be, uh, ‘grooming’ you to replace him?”

The Colonel audibly scoffed in response to Hackett’s claim. “Me? General of the Space Forces? I can’t think of a faster way to drive SERRCom into the dust.”

“You don’t think you could do it?”

“Of course not. Field missions are where I excel, not organization-level long-term strategy. I just don’t have the head for it.”

Hackett smirked in amusement. “Says the Colonel.”

“Says the Major,” Saito retorted with a similar expression. “Look, Hackett, we’re commissioned officers doing field work in a small team. That isn’t necessarily rare for spec ops groups like us, but it’s still very different from what most Colonels or Majors are doing. And on top of that, we work with the Eximius Vir — SERRCom’s only trained Chaotics. As a result, our responsibilities look a lot different than most other people of our ranks, which also means that we’re never put in command of large groups of soldiers — which means we never learn how to handle large groups of soldiers. That puts a cap on how high up the ladder we can go.”

“I suppose so…”

“To be honest, I’m surprised I ever made Colonel in the first place; I think it was mostly just to give the Eximius Vir greater latitude in how they operate, without promoting them directly. I highly doubt I’ll ever make Brigadier General.”

“I somehow doubt you’d accept that promotion anyways, sir.”

Saito grinned. “You know me well! Although…” The corners of his mouth turned down as he continued, “this is something you should think about for the future of your own career, Major. If you don’t want to put a cap on your own promotion path, then you should consider transitioning into a more conventional position. I can always put in a good word for you.”

Hackett glanced away and took a deep breath as she pondered Saito’s words. “…I appreciate you saying that, Colonel,” she eventually responded, making steady eye contact once more, “but I think I would go nuts in a ‘conventional’ Major posting. Besides, I get to see a lot of things as a member of CSF-1 that I’d never be able to see in a conventional posting.”

“Sounds like we’re cut from the same cloth, then, Hackett.”

“I wouldn’t have worked with you all these years if we weren’t, sir.”

“Ha! That’s a good point.”

“Thanks,” Hackett replied, and then looked off to the side. “…With all that said, it is rather late, sir.”

“Ah… right.” Saito sheepishly bowed his head. “Didn’t mean to keep you. I’ll see you later, Hackett.”

“Likewise, sir,” the Major replied as she began walking down the hallway toward her quarters, leaving Saito behind to shower and wrap up his own night.

---

“Wow, this is great! There really is no place like home, huh, Mote?”

“Mm…” Mote grunted in response as he stepped next to Danielle and gazed through the virtual window alongside her, taking in the sights of Earth as viewed from the SERRCom space station Opportunity in middle Earth orbit. The view before them was entirely holographic, but its black background dotted with white specs coupled with the gently rotating orb of green and blue that was the planet below still evoked the same sense of wonder as a true view of Earth.

“It really is good to be back,” Danielle remarked as she rested her elbows on the guardrails in front of the vast virtual windows. “Getting to go out on missions is fun, too, but coming back and seeing everyone else… it’s kinda like a reunion every time!”

“I suppose,” muttered Mote.

“It’s a little sad Kate isn’t here right now, but it’s also funny how often she gets wrapped up with her research stuff. Mark, though… this is the longest we’ve ever been apart, isn’t it? I hope we get to see him again soon.”

“Mm…”

“I bet he’s having a really fun time on Nimalia! It is an alien planet, after all. Just think of all the cool people he’s getting to meet, and all the cool sights he’s getting to see! Oh! Oh! I heard that, on Nimalia, there’s this one forest where the trees grow all the way up to the sky! Do you think Mark’s seen that?”

“Mm…”

“…Mote?”

“Mm… …hmm? What?” Mote glanced over at Danielle, only to find her giving him a concerned look. “…What is it?”

“Are you…” Danielle frowned. “…Is something wrong?”

Mote stared blankly at her for a couple moments before looking away and taking a deep breath. “…I suppose you could say that.”

“Is it Mark? You miss him, don’t you? I know I do…”

“…That’s not quite it,” Mote refuted, his attention directed downward at the virtual image of Earth. “The fact that we were split up does still annoy me, but that isn’t what I’m concerned about.”

Danielle stared at him questioningly. “What are you concerned about, then? Did you miss dinner…?”

“No, Danielle… I didn’t miss dinner.”

“Oh. Are you tired, then?”

“Not anymore than would be expected at 11 o’clock at night.”

“Oh…” Danielle looked down. “…I’m not helping, am I?”

Mote passed her a quick glance before returning his gaze to the virtual Earth. “Don’t worry about it, Danielle. None of it is your fault.”

“Well, maybe, but… whatever it is is worrying you, right? And… we’re friends, right?”

“Practically siblings, really.”

“Yeah! So if there’s something worrying you, you can tell me! I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong, after all!”

A deep sigh escaped Mote’s lips. “…You sound a little like Mark when you say that.”

“Oh, cool!” Danielle replied with a grin, only to quickly replace it with a confused frown. “Wait, is that cool?…”

“I meant it in a good way.”

“Oh! Well, then, cool! But, uh… what’s wrong?”

Mote remained silent for several moments, turning his thoughts over in his head in search of the best way to word his concerns. Eventually, he said, “it’s… about our recent missions.”

“Oh, right. And all the Aldredas stuff we’ve been running into, right?”

“Yes, sort of. But I’m not talking about the armor. Not really…”

“…What’s wrong, then?”

“On our last two missions, we discovered valuable information… but both times, we were either forced to leave it behind, or it was stolen from us. In other words, those missions were failures.”

“That sounds kinda harsh…”

“But it’s the truth. And that isn’t even the worst of it — both missions have revealed that threats we previously thought were small, are in fact anything but. The metallic infection, and EA… and even the Drakkars, if you think about it. The fact that they were able to track down that Aldredian outpost, with that Superspace Drive… even if they didn’t get it in the end, it should be concerning that they’re beating us to these Aldredian discoveries without access to the coordinate stash that we have.”

“Is EA really that much of a threat, though? He hasn’t really done all that much…”

“That, too, is concerning, in a way. While he himself didn’t show up during our last mission, the fact is that a Cruiser bearing his insignia did. Either EA himself made that Cruiser, or he’s aligned with an unknown organization that made the Cruiser — either way, the fact is that there is some entity out there capable of making new, Subspace-capable spacecraft that isn’t one of the galactic navies. And they’re associated with a known enemy of SERRCom — an enemy that hasn’t made himself seen in a month. He could be up to anything right now…”

“…I guess I hadn’t thought about it that much…”

“And that’s just one issue of many,” Mote muttered. “Ever since that new Chaos Energy Quake three months ago, it feels like the galaxy has changed. And from where I stand, it’s for the worse…”

“Oh, c’mon, Mote!” Danielle inched closer to Mote to elbow him in the side. “Not everything is bad, you know! I mean, sure, our last couple missions were duds… but before that, we found a lot of cool stuff! Your armor, that Corvette, those special mechs… those are all good things, right?”

“…It’s true that access to new and advanced technology is typically a good thing. But it all seems so… flawed.”

“You mean the part where they only activate for you?”

“Yes… if Kirstin’s findings on that space station are correct, then the Aldredas actually intended to create gene-locked technology. But why? For what purpose? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I guess not, but it’s still lucky that you can turn it all on, you know? Without you, all of that stuff would be as good as junk!”

“That’s just another issue. We can’t afford to rely on just one person to use all of this technology. It just isn’t strategically sound…”

Danielle passed Mote a wary glance. “…You really think about all of this stuff a lot, huh?”

Mote scowled. “Someone has to.”

“I guess. But you can think about other stuff, too, sometimes, you know? It’s not good to just think about work all the time.”

“This isn’t just work. This is potentially the safety of Earth we’re talking about, here.”

“Well, yeah, okay. But it’s still better to be rested and stuff, right? It’s a lot harder to fight when you’re all stressed and tired than it is if you’re relaxed.”

Mote gave Danielle an annoyed look. “You sound just like the Colonel right now…”

“Is that a bad thing…?” Danielle questioned with a frown.

Several moments of silence followed as Mote simply stared at Danielle, finding it difficult to come up with a response. He then released a deep sigh and looked down upon the virtual Earth once more. “…I suppose not.”

“I bet you could just use some sleep,” Danielle declared. “We spent most of today traveling on that Frigate, after all! It was really hard to sleep on that thing…”

“I thought you didn’t need to sleep.”

“Well, no, I don’t need to, but it’s still a good way to pass the time, you know?”

“Right…”

“And then, tomorrow, we can have an actual breakfast, and then get some training in! You like training, right? Maybe it’ll help you relax!”

“…Heh. Maybe it will…” Mote replied with a small smile. He often thought that Danielle was too laissez-faire in her approach to life, but in that moment, she seemed to have a good point. Perhaps he really was thinking about things too much.

“I’m glad you agree!” Danielle remarked with a grin. She then spun around and skipped down the hallway toward her quarters. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning!” she shouted over her shoulder, “I’ll try to get Kate to come, too!”

“…’Night, Danielle,” Mote replied, watching her bounce off down the hallway. He then turned his attention back to the virtual Earth one final time. …I guess she’s right. Things might be weird in the galaxy right now, but just sitting and thinking about it won’t help. Not until we have something to actually do…

His gaze lingered on the hologram for just a few more moments before he pushed off of the guardrail and turned down the hallway himself, prepared to finally call it a night.