//------------------------------// // Growing Disquiet // Story: Starbound // by Rytex //------------------------------// Starbound Chapter 09 - Growing Disquiet “Twilight?” “Yeah?” “I still can’t believe we had to hunt a giant jelly monster.” Twilight almost screamed as she buried her face in her hooves.  Jack, meanwhile, was snickering across the intercom. “Sorry, couldn’t resist,” he said between chortles.  “I’m sure we’ll both be laughing about this in a few years, eh?” “You won’t let it rest until then,” she accused, glaring out into space at his ship from her spot in the Enterprise’s cockpit.  “Seriously, when you die, your last words are probably going to be ‘I can’t believe we had to hunt a giant jelly monster,’ and it will probably show up in your will that someone will have to torment me with it…” “Now that you mention it, that does seem like a good idea,” she could almost hear Jack smirking.  “Only, it would probably be even more entertaining to see how your Princess Luna or Celestia would react to being constantly reminded that I can’t believe we hunted a giant jelly monster.” Twilight snorted.  “Knowing Princess Celestia, she would probably find some way to troll you back, just as hard.” “Almost done, almost done,” Jack muttered quietly.  Yet again, they found themselves in space, running a search for similar systems to the Celestine System “Since we’re into more dangerous territory, we’ll have less detailed information on planets,” he explained through the communicator.  “That being said, if we get a few matches, we’ll likely have to visit the planet ourselves to make sure.  If it’s not the planet we’re looking for, I suppose we could beam down and explore, maybe mine a little bit and get some ore for better armor.” ”Sounds like a plan!” chirped Twilight, smiling to herself.  Even if they didn’t find Equus in Sector Delta, which she figured was probably going to be the case, at least she got to spend more time not hunting giant jelly monsters in ridiculous wastes of time with him. “Right,” Jack grunted.  “Oh!  And I picked up a little gift for you while I was out yesterday.” “Really?” “Yeah.  Check your ship’s storage compartment.” Twilight did just that and pulled out a strange, C-shaped yellow-orange metal device, with a sleeve of metal in the center of it.  A blue diode glowed at the end of the object, and Twilight noticed a little switch further into the sleeve of the thing. “What’s this?” she asked out loud. “Matter Manipulator,” Jack’s voice answered.  “New model, too.  Old model could only handle little bits of rock and metal at a time, but the new ones are definitely a lot better off.  Had to pay quite a bit extra to get those penguins down at TSPC R&D to modify it with your hoof in mind.” “What does it do?” she asked, sliding it onto her right forehoof. :Well, it does what its name implies,” Jack answered, most unhelpfully.  “It manipulates matter.  In theory, this allows it to manipulate, solids, liquids, gasses, even a few plasmas here and there, but they have yet to make a model that can manipulate gasses and plasmas just yet.” “So, it just messes with solids and liquids?” she asked, feeling a bit disappointed as she inspected it. “Not exactly just ‘manipulating’ it,” Jack replied.  “Think about the implications.  It can mine large chunks of stone or metal at once, faster than we could with pickaxes and drills, it can even change the color of things with the right module, and if it’s a simple-enough thing.  Just imagine how efficiently this could help us mine!” Twilight continued to stare down at it. “How?” she asked, thinking about how much easier their mining could be, especially without having to constantly replace their pickaxes every few weeks. “You’ll see when we find another world to go mining in,” he promised.  “Gonna make our materials-gathering so much easier.” “Sounds like a plan!” chirped Twilight, already looking forward to it.  Jack’s description could only do so much, after all.  It would be far better to test it out herself.  “So, need me to repeat specifications?” “I think I have it,”  he replied.  “Yellow star system, five planets, second planet is the only one with a single moon, varying climate type,” he recited. “Sounds about right.” “I’ll just save the query.  But… oh.” “What?” asked Twilight, a slight bit of hope springing within her. “Seven possible matches,” Jack said.  “No data on five of them, though.  We’ll have to visit them in person.  Beam aboard the Ulysses and we can see if these two are the ones you’re looking for.” It took her only seconds to comply.  The white interior of her ship vanished around her, to be replaced with the metallic white interior of the Ulysses, where Jack sat in his armor, next to a navigation console, typing away. “New armor?” Twilight asked, noting that the armor plating was a dimmer shine than the titanium plates that had made up his Pioneer-class armor. “Yeah, had some of the durasteel taken to Jason yesterday,” Jack nodded.  “Apparently, he was able to add a few more things to it to make it fit the specifications for the Outrider-class model of armor.” “Did you know Jason when you were on Earth?” Twilight asked, recalling how they had seemed a bit more casual with each other than a business paradigm would suggest. “Nah,” Jack shook his head.  “I met him when I arrived in Terra Stella for the first time.  He got me a job working at the foundries and forges there for a while.  It’s how I learned to smith my own basic stuff, though I could never do armor efficiently.” He keyed a few lines into his console, and then got up and stepped back for Twilight to see.  There were seven different planets that matched, but only two of them had any visual representation.  The others were just blank circles with a question mark inside them. “These two definitely aren’t Equus,” she pointed at the two visible ones.  “Their continental shape is all wrong.  The others, I guess, we’ll have to visit?” “Probably,” Jack shrugged.  “When we hit Sector X, we’ll likely have to hit up every single possible match.  With the USCM running around, there’s so little data on worlds beyond the border that we’ll likely be required to scout out these worlds in person.” “That ought to be fun,” Twilight sighed.  “Dodging USCM ships, finding out exactly what makes Sector X turn up a Level 10 Threat Rating…” “Cheer up, love,” Jack moved over to the cockpit chair and started flipping a few switches on the console.  “Maybe I can hire help.  I’m sure Timaeus is wanting to know all about what can be found in Sector X.  Especially if we can find a good source of Solarium or some of the rarer ores.” “What kind of ores are we talking about?” Twilight asked, curiously, welcoming the distraction to avoid any remote fluster from Jack’s offhand use of “love.”.  After all, they did always seem to find new types of ore in each new sector.  What more was there to find? “Well, there’s three new ores and then an upgraded version of each one,” Jack said, heading back over to the computer that seemed like a fount of infinite knowledge these days.  At his keyed command, three bars appeared on screen.  One was green, another blue, and the last red.  “Aegisalt, Cerulium, and Rubium.  With enough coal, you’d be able to further refine them into Ferozium, Violium, and Impervium, though apparently they just discovered this new way to refine them without coal involving Solarium.” “How often do you keep up with the new discoveries?” Twilight asked.  She had read something about this not long ago, even though she didn’t quite understand it at the time. “Every few months,” Jack shrugged.  “Things change so much and I have so many things to do, it’s hard to keep up with what’s current with technology.” “What kind of things?” Twilight asked, bemused.  “You’ve been dealing almost exclusively with me for the last few months.” Jack shrugged again. “Right,” Twilight said delicately, her mouth a thin line.  “Okay.  So we actually gotta go visit some of these planets to make sure they aren’t Equus.” “That we do,” Jack nodded. “Odds of none of them being Equus?” Twilight smirked humorlessly. “Oh, I’d say it’s guaranteed,” Jack nodded sagely.  “It’d be poor form to end this story now, with that climax being teased and all these loose threads still hanging around.” “That and it hasn’t been properly updated since January,” added Twilight. “But enough with breaking the fourth wall.  Let’s get back to the story.  Beam back to your ship and let’s head to the first planet.” Four planets later, they found themselves floating not in front of a planet, but an asteroid cluster within the same stellar system as one of their planets, as their ships were low on fuel and this cluster apparently held high concentrations of both aegisalt for armament and plutonium for fuel.  Jack, clad in his armor, now pressurized, was floating next to a giant rock with traces of aegisalt in it. “Time to test out your new Matter Manipulator,” he announced into the commlink in his helmet.  “I’ll show you how mine works.” He produced his own U-shaped device, aimed it at one of the floating rocks, and fired.  A beam of blue energy erupted from it with a subtle but recognizable laser sound, and even as Twilight watched, the rock crumbled away into smaller, more manageable chunks, leaving behind a few chunks of green metal.  As Jack batted the rock chunks away, leaving them to drift out into space, he grabbed ahold of the aegisalt and put it into a duffel bag he had secured to his waist. “Now you try,” he instructed.  Twilight aimed her matter manipulator toward a rock containing some ore behind its surface and added a bit of pressure to a switch on the surface via magic.  The same blue beam erupted from the device, hit the rock, and crumbled it to reveal a few more chunks of aegisalt. “Pretty nifty, huh?” Twilight had to agree.  It would certainly make mining that much easier. “Has several other useful features, too,” Jack continued, flicking a switch and watching as a bright LED light lit up the asteroids around them.  “Apparently, this is a precursor to a model that can scan things, but that one’s not commercially available yet.” “How does it do it, though?” Twilight asked, shooting the mining beam at a random chunk of rock. “Best I can tell, it condenses everything it is powerful enough to reach  into smaller like-material chunks.  Stone gets compressed to like stone, metals compress with identical molecular structure, and so on.  Don’t ask me how it knows,” he added before Twilight could, “but if anyone knows how, it would be Timaeus, since this is his baby.” “I thought matter manipulators are commercially available.” “Oh, they are,” Jack nodded, snatching at a chunk of aegisalt before it could drift away.  “Timaeus is one of the guys in charge of making better models.” It didn’t take long before they had mined out several asteroids.  A good stock of aegisalt for better armor in the future looked pretty promising.  But then Twilight noticed something. “Jack?  What’s that over there?” she asked, instinctively flapping her wings to propel herself over to a strange shape embedded in a large asteroid. “You know that doesn’t work when there’s no air, right?” Jack asked as Twilight went nowhere. “Sorry,” she was glad Jack couldn’t see her face.  “Force of habit.” Jack pushed off of one of the larger asteroids and floated toward the strange shape.  With a quick adjustment to his matter manipulator, a light turned on, illuminating a small metal door with the letters USCM spray-painted on it. Twilight felt her blood go cold, but Jack didn’t seem to be concerned. “Just one of the old USCM’s asteroid emergency caches,” he muttered over the commlink.  “Come on in, there’s no one here.” “How do you know?” Twilight asked skeptically.  It was a big asteroid, but there wasn’t enough room for a full complex or base.  Probably a few rooms at most. “They’d have come out by now.  I want to see what they’ve got in stock in here.  And besides,” he glanced at his wrist device, which displayed a clock that was synced to Terra Stella time, “it’s night time and we haven’t found any plutonium.  We’ll need to sleep here” “How did you know this was here?” Twilight asked, convinced by Jack’s arguments, mainly because there wasn’t a bed on her ship and if this were an emergency cache, there likely would be one here. “Used to be standard procedure that they installed emergency caches in asteroid fields, in case ships ran out of fuel or needed a place to hide out and radio for help,”Jack pressed a button by the door, causing it to open to reveal a small, square room.  “Come on in, this is an air lock.” Twilight floated on over to where Jack was, and once inside, the door shut behind her.  A soft white light suddenly appeared, and a cool female voice rang out, “Artificial gravity engaged.” A humming sound reached their ears, and they both felt their feet touch down on solid ground again.  A whooshing noise filled the room, followed by light spurts of steam, before the inner door opened to reveal a small living area, featuring a few chairs, a small bookcase, a subspace radio, a few small kitchen appliances, a cabinet likely filled with food, another cabinet also likely filled with food, and a single double-wide bed over in the corner. The walls were bland, but Twilight reasoned that, in case of emergency, interior decoration probably shouldn’t be a terribly big deal. “Nice and cozy,” Jack said, pulling off his helmet.  “One cabinet’s got food, the other has some tools in case of emergency repair, and maybe a fully-loaded weapon or two in case of defense. The place is powered by stellar energy.  Panels outside absorb the light from the star and use it to power everything.  It’ll all shut down except for air and gravity when we sleep.” He yawned. “Speaking of,” he added as he finished, before stripping down to his undersuit. “There’s only one bed,” pointed out Twilight as Jack started to climb in. “So?  You sleep in my bed all the time,” Jack replied, patting a spot beside him.  “It’s more comfortable than trying to sleep on one of those chairs, and I figured you wouldn’t be terribly opposed to the idea.” Twilight rolled her eyes under all her armor, before proceeding to take it off and climb in. “You seem to know your ways around these facilities,” she noted, as he slid himself under the covers. “This is the fourth time I’ve had to camp out in one of these,” he replied, before settling down and tweaking his wrist device, probably putting it to low-power mode.  “They all operate the same way,” he said, before raising his voice.  “Activate Night Mode.” “Night Mode initiated,” the cool female voice repeated.  “Good night.” The lights went out and the room instantly became a good deal colder, though the covers (and Twilight’s fur) kept them warm. “Night Twilight,” Jack said, turning his back to her and starting to drift off. “Night Jack,”  Twilight replied, having to turn toward him out of necessity due to her wings. It didn’t take them long to drift off to sleep. “Admiral Drogun, sir!” the young man snapped to attention as he stood before the leader. The viewing deck of the ship was almost completely empty, aside from a throne-like chair and a few bookcases.  The admiral enjoyed spending his time here, in the quiet and serene environment while he could continue poring over his collection of human literature.  It also helped that his own quarters were located a floor below. As the crew typically operated at maximum capacity almost around the clock, situations involving his advice or intervention rarely arose, which meant that in all likelihood, this was simply a report of something interesting going on. “Yes, what is it, Ensign?” came a pleasant, middle-aged voice from the chair, even as the ensign could hear a page turn. “We’ve compiled a report of the noteworthy events we’ve managed to get an eye on.  I apologize for the lateness,” he added, inclining his head in case the admiral saw, as he didn’t want to meet the admiral’s eye, “but there was a development only a few minutes ago.” “Let’s hear it, then,” the admiral waved a black-gloved hand. “Science Team III reports that the Novabane aerosol has begun testing in The Rock.  They estimate it will take up to fourteen standard days for the formula and implementation to be perfected.” “Good,” Drogun muttered.  “Finally, a weapon that can truly harm the Novakid race.  Perhaps now we might finally gain ground with our prisoners.  What next?” “Science Team IV reports that they have discovered a new radioactive substance on a meteor-impacted planet in Sector Pi and are setting up research bases and mines to begin extraction and experimentation.  Team IV reports that this new substance seems to be leading to beneficial mutations that could prove to bolster our forces beyond hope of being able to match us.” “Hm,” grunted the admiral, idly turning a page.  “What substance is it, may I ask?  There’s so many radioactive mutative substances these days…” “They have yet to identify,” the ensign shook his head. “Hm,” grunted the admiral again. “Occasus Cult leader Asra Nox escaped from a Protectorate prison, and former Grand Protector Esther Bright just appeared in the Ark mere hours of the development.” “Bright ‘appeared’?” The admiral shifted, obviously surprised. “Yes sir,” the ensign dipped his head.  “Our contact doesn’t know how or why she showed up, but she just popped into the Outpost less than four hours ago and apparently is spending her time deep inside the Ark studying.” “Good,” the admiral smiled to himself.  “With the Terrane Protectorate occupied by the Occasus Cult, that leaves only one more concern.  How soon can we begin testing on the Ragnarok Beam?” “Preliminary power tests have already started,”the ensign read off of the tablet he had brought with him, “and firing tests are slated to begin tomorrow.  We’ll head to the nearby asteroid cluster for target practice.” “Good,” the admiral’s smile widened.  “What’s the timetable for the Valkyrie to be declared fully operational?” “As soon as tertiary firing tests are completed, within two standard weeks, we are expected to be fully operational.” The admiral’s grin hit its widest, and he dipped his head.  “Excellent news.  And what is the ETA on the last few USCM frigates?” “They should arrive tomorrow, sir,” answered the ensign, swiping over to a schedule that showed which ships had arrived and which hadn’t.  “Only seventeen ships remain, and then your fleet will be fully assembled.” “Excellent,” repeated the admiral, standing up from his chair.  “Dies Irae approaches.  On that day, the wicked shall perish, while we the righteous will reign.” He ran a hand through his short brown hair, before adjusting the sleeves on his immaculate uniform, the gold epaulets shaking slightly with his movements.  He turned away from the large window staring out into the emptiness of space to face the ensign for the first time. Despite being at least forty-five, he looked no older than thirty.  His eyes were cool and grey, the slight amount of stubble on his face gave him a rugged appearance, which the high cheekbones, square jaw, and hollow cheeks added a hard, angular quality to it. But despite the somewhat intimidating appearance, Ensign Joanes knew the admiral to be a kind man, the epitome of human goodness to those who deserved it. It was always the small things that set the admiral apart.  Joanes’ father had known Charles Drogun when the USCM was still whole, tainted by the United Nations’ orders to protect even non-humans on earth colonies.  When the admiral was still only a commander. Drogun was always quick to toss a few pixels to the poor soul left homeless, to the waitress receiving abuse from the ungrateful, and he even showed mercy when mistakes were made. A far cry from the leaders who were quick to fire their subordinates or otherwise throw them under a bus when things went south. “Do you have any other news to report, Ensign?” “Two more things, sir,” Joanes glanced down at his tablet.  “First, Science Team II reports that the Black Project is complete, and have even sent me a sample.”  The ensign pulled out a vial of black liquid from his pocket, which he handed to the admiral.  “They noted that you do need to configure an incubation chamber with it, which can be done via the instructions sent directly to your private comms terminal.” The admiral nodded.  “When we’re finished here, Ensign, send word that I will be having Talon Outpost configure everything.  What is the maximum distance it works from?  And how long does it take until the process is complete?” “It begins incubation from the moment you inject,” the ensign read off of his memo, “and it continues to update data as long as it is in your bloodstream, and all data is sent to the incubation chamber to create the perfect clone, though it takes approximately one standard year for the clone body to mature.” “I assume it will not cheat death for long, but in cases of emergency?” “Yes sir, repeated exposure has apparently caused degradation over time,” the ensign read from the report.  “Similar to how when you copy a paper, it gets whiter and whiter until it’s illegible, the more you use this, the more it degrades both body and mind.  More than one prisoner either went insane or just fell apart.” “More testing is needed, then, to really nail down how much exposure a human can take,” the admiral instructed, leading the ensign to make a couple of notes on his tablet to be sent to Science Team II at earliest opportunity.  "And you said there was one more thing?” “Yes,” the ensign finished his notes and slipped the tablet into a satchel he wore fastened to his belt, before pulling out a small slip of paper from the breast pocket of his olive-green uniform.  “As I said before, this is a very recent development.  One of our emergency caches has been raided.” “This is not news,” the admiral waved his hand dismissively.  “Alien scum raid our caches all the time, and they will get their comeuppance.” “No sir, you’ll want to hear this,” the ensign promised.  “The radar scan of the area turned up two ship signals.  One of them is a standard, albeit modified, human Sparrow-class vessel with the callsign Ulysses.  The other, however,” he pulled out a small holographic emitter and clicked it on to reveal a strange, palatial white ship, with golden towers and purple patches of painted metal decorated with stars, that all in all strangely looked like an aquatic vessel, “is an unknown ship in both design and energy readings, but does turn up a callsign:  the Enterprise.” The admiral frowned down at the strange ship, studying it.  The four-pointed star adorning each side was new; he couldn’t think of a race or culture that used it as a sigil. “Investigate further,” instructed Admiral Drogun sternly.  “We must know the make and origin of that ship, be it human or otherwise.  Do we have camera access?” “No sir, and it would take seventeen hours for our closest scout ships to reach them at top speed.” “Do whatever you can to ensure we continue to keep tabs, but do not lose that ship if at all possible.” “Sir!” the ensign saluted. “Return to your post, ensign.  I have work to do,” the admiral smiled at the young man, before waving him away.  The ensign nodded and exited the room, leaving the admiral alone to think. That design is unlike any I have ever seen, he thought, no small amount of disquiet raging through his mind.  It could be human, but it is more likely something… else. Another minute of careful thought on how to proceed shed no light, but this would be something to continue to ponder. If the owner of that ship was human, he or she had nothing to fear, so long as they were not aiding any non-humans. But if it is nonhuman… Drogun thought as a smile came to his face.  Their Day of Wrath will come as swiftly as the others. “More tea, Princess?” asked the elderly maid, offering a teapot toward the alicorn. Princess Celestia, as she had done countless times, managed to conceal her distaste.  Tea had never been one of her favorite drinks.  Unfortunately, she’d had to pretend it was to convince the unicorns to allow her to move into their castle after Luna’s downfall, and eventually, the charade had gotten so ingrained that it just couldn’t be stopped. “No thank-you, my little pony,” she said, waving her away.  “I have had quite enough for the time being.” “As you wish, Princess,” the maid bowed and retreated out of Princess Celestia’s sitting room, leaving Celestia to wait for her sister. After the maid had left completely, Celestia let the worry that had permeated her being for the last eight months finally flicker through. Eight months… she thought.  Has it really been so long? Contact with the Enterprise had been lost mere hours into her voyage.  Of course, so few ponies were privy to the mission’s details and schedule.  Twilight had known just how risky this mission was and had volunteered regardless. She wasn’t dead.  Celestia was beyond certain of that.  Every alicorn had a unique connection to each other, and if Twilight had perished, they all would have known immediately. But if the Enterprise had crashed, leaving Twilight forever alone on a deserted planet… “Sister?” Luna poked her head in.  Upon seeing that her beloved sister was, in fact, in here, she strode in.  Perhaps most telling was the lack of the GameColt she usually carried around with her at all times, tapping away even without her looking. Luna must have some very alarming news, indeed. “Has there been any news from Hoofston?” Celestia asked, immediately turning her full attention to Luna. “Neigh,” Luna shook her head.  “A few probes have been sent out, including one following the coordinates Twilight first warped to, but I fear we will not know of what has become of Twilight until she either returns or long after she is beyond help.” “I see,” Celestia replied, a frown developing.  “And has your stargazing revealed anything new?” Luna was, without a doubt, their greatest asset when it came to astronomy.  Her magic with the moon and stars gave her an unprecedented ability to see further into space than any of Equestria’s or Grifffonia’s observatories. “Nothing relevant to Twilight, I fear, but I have learned some very disquieting news.” “Oh?” Celestia’s eyebrows rose. “As we have long theorized, aliens do exist,” Luna said, frowning deeply.  “I have seen many ships of a common build gather in a place of emptiness.  I first discovered them many moons ago, but I was not sure whether or not they warranted any kind of serious investigation, so I merely kept an eye on them.  At the very least,” she added, as if to justify herself to Celestia, “we could learn more about this alien life.” “Why tell me this now?” Celestia asked, though not angrily, as she raised a conjured cup of wine to her lips (it was 5:00 somewhere, after all, and she needed something with taste to wash the tea out of her mouth).  She knew Luna had an excellent reason to withhold the information. “Because I have just discovered, it is an invasion armada,” Luna announced gravely. Celestia dropped the glass. “What!?” “As far as I can tell, it is not meant for Equus,” Luna interjected before Celestia could add more.  “These ships are a fair distance away, and I have double- and triple-checked the surrounding space and there is no sign of any probes or ships keeping an eye on our location.” “How did you know it was an invasion army?” Celestia asked, paying no attention to the spilled wine.  “And do you know where this armada is headed, if not here?” “I cannot say,” Luna frowned.  “I can only see so far.  But what tipped me off was that a massive construct suddenly arrived with the fleet.  I couldn’t even begin to describe how large it is.  It must be…” she shook her head as she searched for the right analogy, “it had to be about the size of… of a moon!  And right at the center of it… I know a cannon when I see one, and this thing was large enough that whatever projectile it fires could level mountains!” An icy tendril curled in Celestia’s gut, sending chills up her spine. “We… were not ready to explore space,” she realized aloud, swallowing as her mouth went very dry.  “If such armies exist out there…” “We cannot trust that they do not know of our existence,” Luna stated, a grave look matching Celestia’s own feelings working onto her face.  “We should begin preparing defenses of some sort.  We may not be able to do much, but we should at the very least begin training unicorns in shielding magic.  But we cannot get ahead of ourselves,” Luna added, seeing the look on Celestia’s face.  “We are in no immediate danger, as best I can tell, but it would be foolhardy to not start strengthening what little defenses we have.” Celestia nodded, still reeling from Luna’s revelation.  Her sister would never lie about something this serious. “Send…” she licked her lips, “send word to the World Council informing them of your findings.” “I will,” promised Luna, before exiting the room, leaving Celestia alone once again. “Should these aliens visit Equus, what hope would we have?” she moaned quietly as she hunched over her table.  “Who could possibly stop them?” She felt her insides constrict all of a sudden at the thought of Twilight out there, caught up in this mess. “Please, stay safe Twilight…” Twilight woke alone.  She had felt Jack get up from the bed, heard him put on his armor, and heard him walk out of the airlock to do who knows what, but she guessed he was off mining some more in the asteroid belt. Getting out of the bed and stretching, she languidly strode over to the radio, where a small note had been left with a channel on it, along with the words “Tap three times.”  A few adjustments to the radio’s settings gave way to radio silence, and she tapped on the microphone of the radio three times as the note instructed. “Morning, Twilight,” Jack’s voice resounded out of the speaker.  “I didn’t mean to alarm you or anything.  Just thought I’d get an early start.” It’s fine,” Twilight assured him.  “Found any fuel yet?” “Yes,” Jack said.  “Your ship is fueled up enough to last for a few more warps.  Just topping off my fuel as well.  Only got two more planets to check out today, and then we can head back to Terra Stella, get some new armor, weapons, and tools, and see what we can do about Sector X.” “You know, out of curiosity,” Twilight realized out loud, “this really isn’t a well-thought-out emergency cache.” “What do you mean?” “It would have fuel stored for people who weren’t able to mine it,” she answered. “I imagine it was salvaged before we got here,” theorized Jack.  “I mean, check the food and tools cabinets and you’ll see what I mean.” Twilight opened each one to reveal nearly-empty interiors.  Only a few MREs remained in the food cabinet, and Jack’s rifle sat in the tools cabinet. “Your gun is here.” “I swapped it.  This one was better.  A LOT better.  And it made big boom.” Twilight could almost hear him grinning over the mic.  Nothing seemed to excite him more than finding something that, in his own words.  “Bigger boom than boom I make.” “I don’t suppose you’ve been using it to clear asteroids.” “Did you even need to ask?” Jack asked.  “Oh!  More plutonium!  I do believe that’s enough to power the Ulysses.  Go ahead and salvage anything else you might want to hang on to, because it’s time to go.  Let’s get those last couple of planets checked out and we’ll start making preparations for Sector X.” Twilight needed nothing more from the shelter, so a few taps of her watch and she was beamed aboard the Enterprise. And rather than beam aboard his own vessel, Jack opted to beam aboard as well.  As soon as he was nice and fully beamed in, he dropped a stack of purple plutonium rocks and stored the matter manipulator away. “Excuse me,” he said, pushing past her without so much as a “nice to see you.”  Twilight was pushed to the side as Jack stalked right over to the AI system and started tapping the keys. “Erm, what are you doing?” Twilight asked, naturally a bit taken aback. “Something’s wrong,” he said.  Twilight could almost hear the frown from inside his helmet.  “There’s a set of coordinates to a planet in Sector Delta saved to my list of preloaded coordinates.” “Okay,” Twilight said in confusion.  “And that’s bad how?” “It’s not bad, but…” Jack sighed, “I’ve never even been in Sector Delta before yesterday.  How could I have saved that set?  I want to see if... “ He trailed off and drew himself up to his fullest height. “It’s here too,” he said, pulling his helmet off, which triggered a whoosh of air as it depressurized.  “A set of coordinates in Sector Delta is saved to your system too.” “What?” Twilight practically flew over and shoved him out of the way.  “How!?” “I don’t…” he shook his head, reaching a gauntlet-clad hand to massage his temples.  “It’s…” “How did you find this?” she asked as she looked up the date of entry and found that it had been added at some point when they were exploring Sector Beta. “I loaded one of the coordinates to one of the planets we were heading to, and it preloaded this set of saved coordinates.” “This is one of the planets we have to check?” Twilight asked, an idea forming in her head.  “What if it’s Equus?  What if the computer recovered the coordinates and put it back in?” “What if it’s a trap?”Jack asked back, leaning back against the pristine white metal walls.  “What if someone is looking to kidnap you?  Or worse, what if it’s the USCM trying to lure you to one of their outposts?” “And what if it’s not?” Twilight asked back, giving him a look.  “I want to go check it out one way or another.” She smirked as she trotted over. “I guess you,” she poked him with a hoof, “are just going to have to come with.” Jack scowled at her. “Twilight, you need to understand, this is not just some little cutesy adventure you’re trying to go on,” he returned his gaze to the screen, but leaving Twilight with the distinct impression that he was intentionally trying not to meet her eye.  “This is your life.  And possibly the lives of everyone on Equus.  If it’s a trap and the USCM get us--” Whatever he was about to say was cut off, as Twilight simply reached up and stuck a hoof to his lips.  His blue eyes widened and he jumped a bit at the action. “I love you too, Jack,” she said teasingly.  “But really, I understand your misgivings.  But I want to exhaust every option before we head into Sector X.  And I know a thing or two about magic, so I don’t think we’ll have too much trouble fighting our way out if we have to.” “You freeze up when it comes to combat,” Jack reminded her, giving her a chilly look.  “Twilight, I trust you with my life, but you still need to get over what happened with Dreadwing.  If we find ourselves in another sticky spot, I’m afraid you’ll just freeze up again and doom us both.” Twilight’s smirk devolved into a glare. “I won’t,” she promised him through grit teeth, before leaning even further in so that they were mere inches apart.  “I’m going to this planet.  You can either come with me, or you can leave me to go alone.” She stomped off to the pilot’s chair.. “It’s up to you, Jack.” “For the love of…” Jack muttered to himself, before tapping a few buttons on his wristwatch and beaming over to the Ulysses. Twilight didn’t dwell on it too long, however.  She was already keying in the coordinates of the planet saved to her AI System.  She would explore this planet with or without Jack. One way or another, they’d just continue their explorations after she had a looksee at this planet.  A looksee that would be starting right… about… Now. She pushed the Warp button and her ship shot off into space, leaving behind Jack, the asteroid belt, and everything.  Barring, of course, Jack deciding to come along after all. But she would cross that bridge when she came to it.  For now, she wanted to make sure this planet wasn’t Equus. And maybe see why the coordinates were in her computer if it wasn’t.  If that meant visiting the surface, so be it. “...and then she just warped off!” Jack complained loudly over the comm channel.  “I swear, that mare is going to go blundering off into trouble.” “And you, her gallant knight, shall rescue her,” Jack could almost hear Timaeus roll his eyes.  “Yes, yes, exactly like when Dreadwing attacked her.” “Seriously, though, Tim, any particular insight into why she did that?” Jack said, hitting his own warp button and blasting off on the three-hour warp to whatever the name of this planet was. “Don’t call me Tim.  But I can think of a few reasons, actually,” Timaeus replied, which actually surprised Jack.  “While you were out and going about your business, Twilight would stay behind at our R&D center, getting a handle on our technology.  I have had many opportunities to speak with her and get to know her.” “Cool,” groaned Jack, rolling his own eyes.  “You two getting comfy behind my back?” “Is that.;.. jealousy, I detect?” Timaeus queried. “No,” replied Jack flatly, dutifully staring straight out into the tunnel of light his ship was barrelling through. “Hm,” Jack imagined Timaeus tilting his head.  “To answer your question though, Mr. Thomas, in our conversations, Twilight Sparkle has fit the mould for a textbook perfectionist.  She takes great pride in everything she does, and whenever possible, she goes the extra mile to impress.” “I see,” Jack replied, only half-paying attention as his mind drifted toward thoughts of this planet being a USCM planet.  And what would happen if Twilight were to get caught. “With that in mind, her experiences with Dreadwing have forced her to confront a fact she does not wish to accept,” Timaeus continued, his words getting heavier with meaning.  “She was not ready.  She was not prepared.  And she is never not prepared.” “Well what can she do about it now?” Jack asked, exasperated.  “It’s not like I can fix that.” “But you have!” answered Timaeus.  “You saved her, and you helped her get accustomed to the current state of our space-faring.  And she has been a quick study when it comes to how most of our gadgets work.” “And this makes her react like that how, exactly?” “She flashed back to her experiences with Dreadwing when the Fatal Circuit went haywire,” reminded Timaeus.  “She was reminded of her failure against Dreadwing, and that created an entirely new failure:  not helping you.” “That still doesn’t--” “I’m getting to it!” Timaeus cut him off.  “You humans…” “I resent that,” grumbled Jack, glancing at the clock.  It was going to be a long warp with no one fun to talk to... “She wants to be useful, after everything she’s learned,” continued Timaeus unperturbed.  “She told me of a time in her life in which she felt as though she did not know what her purpose as, and how much it ate at her.  Now, however, with her condition, she can be a burden, and she knows that, and she hates that.” “She’s never a burden!” protested Jack indignantly.  “She’s been more helpful than Rory was when we traveled together.” “I do not know this ‘Rory’ of which you speak,” Jack could hear the sound of the slightly haughty adjustment of Timaeus’ glasses, “but be honest.  You wish to keep her from combat because you fear she will freeze up again, correct?” “Of course.  I don’t want her getting hurt in her current state.” “Consider that.  She wants to prove she is not a burden, and you believe her to be a burden during combat, even if you don’t want to.  Consciously or not, you pushed the wrong buttons by informing her of those feelings, even if you meant to be gentle or have her best interests at heart.” Jack’s mouth became a thin line on his face as he could almost hear Timaeus’ admonishing look. “Deter her from combat if you must,” Timaeus continued, “but make her understand it’s not because you see her as a burden.” Jack’s thin line of a mouth relaxed as he frowned.  “I just don’t want to see her in danger.” “Hmm,” the apex hummed.  “Mr. Thomas, do I have your permission to be blunt?” “Please,” Jack replied, grinning wryly. “Very well.  I believe you are attracted to Twilight Sparkle.” Jack’s breath caught, but before he could respond, Timaeus continued on. “As she’s the first companion you’ve had in years that you’ve really had a good relationship with, and she happens to be female, I needed a way to gauge your feelings on her.  Your reaction when I lied about us spending time behind your back--” “Hey!” “--all but confirmed everything, but your desire to keep her out of harm’s way pretty much leaves no doubt.” “You can’t be serious,” protested Jack indignantly.  “I’m not attracted to her!” “Oh, I apologize,” Timaeus said sincerely.  “I didn’t think you exclusively preferred male company--” “I’m not gay either!” Jack groaned. “Are you xenophobic, as far as romance goes?  Obviously not as far as platonic relationships go, of course--” Timaeus hastily added before he was forced to put his primate foot into his mouth. “Tim,” Jack cut him off, “I don’t think I’d mind a relationship with a non-human.  I’ve just…” he sighed.  “I’ve just never given it much thought.  Been too busy trying to make my way after Rory left.” “Well, you have a few hours before you reach your planet,” pointed out Timaeus.  “Mr. Thomas, whatever your feelings for Twilight Sparkle are, I suggest you give them some thought.  In my experience, running around confused about your companion only muddies the situation up.  Once you have time, I would also advise sitting down and actually talking about this with her.” “What if she finds that idea disgusting?” Jack fired back reflexively.  Timaeus didn’t answer at once, giving Jack a window of opportunity to realize exactly what he’d said.  “I… well damn,” he muttered.  “Maybe I do like Twilight.” “Something tells me she wouldn’t, but that’s not to say I believe she would be all for it,” answered Timaeus, either not hearing or just ignoring Jack’s sudden realization.  “Which is why you must talk about it.  It would not to do have all of this unresolved feelings on the matter when you’re out there trying to keep her safe and guide her to her home.” There was a long moment of silence as Jack considered his words. “Just something to think about,” Timaeus finally added.  “I must go, Mr. Thomas.  It has been nice talking to you, friend.” “Tim, call me Jack,” Jack replied to the intercom. “Very well, Jack, but only if you stop calling me Tim.” Jack chuckled.  “Deal.” The feed cut out after that, leaving Jack to stare out of his ship in silence as he waited to arrive at his destination. A few hours and no one to talk to…  It was going to be a long flight. DISENGAGING WARP IN 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… The tunnel of light around the Enterprise vanished as it exited warp. As Twilight had expected, the planet sitting before her was definitely not Equus.  The earth looked a light green with purple oceans, and preliminary scans revealed it to be a mostly-forested planet, bordering on full jungle. A few clearings here and there made for a perfect landing spot, and Twilight was about to set one as a good spot to beam her down when an alert went off. ALERT!  LIFE SIGNS AND ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURES DETECTED! Twilight’s heart skipped a beat.  Someone was down on that planet.  Perhaps the USCM…? “Computer, set a transporter tag at the clearing closest to the artificial structures,” she instructed as she trotted back to put her armor on.  Whoever was down there likely put these coordinates on her ship, and if they were friendly she had nothing to fear. But if they weren’t… She shook that thought from her head as she stepped onto the transporter in her gleaming durasteel armor, a spear slung over her back and a pistol sitting in a holster up on her withers.  With a quick bark at the computer, down she went, dematerializing and being reassembled down on the surface of the planet. The first thing she realized was that though the system’s star was in the sky, the sky itself was still dark, with the stars glimmering.  There must not have been any moisture in the air, whatever the air was comprised of. Her suit’s survival systems were supplying her with oxygen, just in case the system didn’t have a breathable atmosphere, but she wasn’t too keen on testing it. “Computer,” she whispered, “Analyze the atmospheric composition, and find the magnetic north pole of the planet and let me know where the artificial buildings are, relative to me.” “CONFIRMED,” the ship’s cool voice echoed in her helmet.  “ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION IS NON-THREATENING. MAGNETIC NORTH FOUND.  ORIENTING COMPASS.  ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURES LOCATED APPROXIMATELY ONE-POINT-OH-EIGHT MILES NORTH-NORTHEAST OF YOUR PRESENT LOCATION.” “Thanks,” Twilight muttered as a holographic compass appeared on her heads-up display pointing NNE, before she started walking in said direction.  She had beamed into a small clearing, around fifty yards in diameter, with several trees around it, which meant she was going to enter the brush. The sound of someone beaming down behind her put her senses on alert, but before she could do much, something had picked her up and tackled her into the foliage nearby. Before she could do much else, her helmet was pulled off. “WHAT THE HEMMMPH!” “Quiet!” hissed Jack’s voice as an armored hand clamped over her muzzle and held tight.  She immediately tried to pry his fingers off, but he just shifted his legs to hold her down and used his hand to stopper the magic. “Stop struggling and be quiet!” he hissed again, the electronic filter of his voice not doing him any favors in calming her.  Twilight didn’t heed his words, but she did have to wonder what brought about this sudden change.  “Twilight, I’m serious.  I… need… you… to… stop!” he grunted as she redoubled her efforts. Finally, he had no choice but to gently body slam her, just to shock her enough to renew his tight grip. “There’s a massive life-sign headed this way, Twilight.  I need you to be quiet and hold still!” She froze, turning her head to give him a look that, even through her helmet, clearly said, “Why didn’t you say so?” “Because you were about to go traipsing off into a noisy forest in full armor,” Jack replied in a low voice, loosening up and letting her out of his vicegrip.  “Stay low and keep quiet.” “What massive life-sign?  Were you able to tell what it is?” she asked quietly, ducking low into a bush as he followed.  The clearing they had beamed into was still quiet, but now Twilight noticed, it was eerily so. She slipped her helmet back on and rebooted her heads-up display. “The moment you beamed down, some massive creature started making its way over here at an alarming rate.  We have to be careful not to alert it to our presence, and we need to beam out of here and try to beam down at a different location.” “Why?  There’s a settlement nearby,” she informed him. “I’m aware,” Jack nodded.  “It’s an old apex research facility.  Not exactly a welcome place for us, knowing what we’re likely to find inside.” “Do you think whoever’s there is the one who put those coordinates into our ships’ computers?” “Most likely,” Jack nodded again, before suddenly tensing. “What?” asked Twilight. “It’s coming!” he hissed. “Why can’t we just beam away like we did with those avia?” Twilight asked. “Not in a forest,” Jack unsheathed the durasteel sword on his back.  “Not with any kind of overhang.  You can try it now and see what I mean.  And if we run out there, we’re standing still for a few moments while that beastie has precious time to claw us to shreds.  One of us is gonna have to fight our way outta here one way or the other.” “You’d better not say what I think you’re gonna--” “I’m not!” Jack interrupted her with an askance look.  “I wasn’t going to make you be the one to run.  Only… only if you wanted to.” Needless to say, Twilight was very taken aback by this. “Jack…” “We’ll talk later.  Let’s get out of this mess first.” And then, it happened. A loud roar sounded across the landscape, making Jack tense all the more, and causing Twilight to remove her spear from its spot on her back. They heard three great whooshing sounds, before suddenly, with an almighty crash, it landed. Everything was made of bone.  There appeared to be no skin on it at all.  Its feet were pale white and ending in sharp claws, its wings were massive, yet cracked.  It had a tail that extended several feet behind it, and sitting atop the ribcage that made up its torso was a horned white skull, with great glowing red eyes staring right at them, and a maw filled with extremely sharp teeth. “Oh shit…” Jack moaned.  “A bone dragon.”