Blood Impulse

Part 26.3 - THE VISITORS

Polaris Sector, Battleship Singularity

It was a feat of incredible engineering. The cavernous portion of the ship normally held in vacuum had been pressurized to atmospheric standard in under half an hour. Now, a civilian cargo transport ship, the Badger, sat atop the landing bay's immense plane.

The bay had been folded down, where it sealed airtight and level with the ship's internal gravity field, then pressurized with breathable air. Making her way across the dark, flat surface, Keifer Robinson could recognize the space for what it was – a striking display of what resources and capabilities hid beyond the Singularity's scarred hull.

Here, walking in this artificial cavern, it was impossible to forget how truly massive the old battleship truly was. The bay seemed to stretch impossibly far in both directions, entirely unobstructed. The lights illuminated everything from a great distance, their height making them a distant, artificial sun in its own right.

The blocky little Badger sat in the middle of the bay, safely secured to the deck by the invisible mag-locks and the pull of the Conjoiner Drives. In this space, the transport looked small, but as Keifer paused on the edge of its shadow, she recognized it to be the size of a three-story building, only furthering her realization of the Singularity's astounding proportions. Living and working in the core of the ship, traveling through the maze of corridors, it was easy to forget the ship's great size. While it never felt small, she visited only a mere fraction of the ship on any regular basis.

However, with the realization of the Singularity's great size, always came Keifer's subsequent realization that to their ship, the crew could be no more than bugs. Compared to the machine, their own size was equivalent to tiny insects, perhaps even smaller creatures still.

In some ways, that was a discomforting thought. Lieutenant Robinson could only hope that their importance amounted to more than insects – the squishable bottom of the food chain that could be so easily replaced. But, as an expert at communication, verbal and non-verbal alike, Keifer believed that the differences between the Singularity and her human crew were unimportant to the old dreadnaught. The machine had never seemed to be anything other than caring to the humans that worked regularly with her – never hostile, if sometimes oddly temperamental. After all, the Singularity had been built by human hands to serve humanity's needs, a fact that was all too easy to forget.

Keifer quite liked the old ship. While the Singularity and her commander had a rather gruesome reputation amongst the worlds, she had never found either of them to be entirely deserving of it. The Admiral was a mystery of his own, but the ship... To Keifer, the ship's quirks had never felt hostile. As that air anger in the Homebound Sector had, the old Singularity generally had a protective aura to her. At times, it could be odd or unnerving, but ultimately, it made Keifer feel safe.

It gave her the strength to approach the Badger with confidence. No one had gotten off the cargo hauler yet. They were probably waiting for permission to disembark, so Keifer made a last sweep of the crew doing inspections around her and stopped where she would be visible from the bridge windows. She could see no one through the polarized windows, but she waved upward and waited.

A minute later, the Badger's cargo hold opened with a hiss, its large door lowering into a ramp. The anxious faces of thirty-odd kids waited beyond. Among that sea, three adults clearly stood out by height. Slowly, they all shuffled down the ramp and Keifer met them at its end, trying not to feel uncomfortable. While she was the communications specialist on board, it was rare she dealt with anyone unfamiliar in person. Issuing warnings and information over the radio was different entirely, and something she was more familiar with.