Felicity knew the moment the Varch'nai activated the ship's new communications device. Not just because the lights went out, and the ventilators all stopped blowing stale air. But Manny slumped forward, limp.
She rolled out of the makeshift bed, beside where Delta was still sprawled. The former plant hadn't been able to keep practicing for long, but that was fine. She was learning faster than Felicity had.
Then the lights came back on, and Manny sat back up. He hadn't been sleeping, just resting beside the bed with his eyes alert. If that meant he was keeping watch for damage to their life-support, Felicity certainly didn't mind.
"Captain Felicity," he said, loudly enough to startle Delta. The earth pony sat up abruptly, though she didn't actually look towards the sound. Or look towards anything at all, for that matter.
"I'm sorry to wake you. There's been a development."
She yawned, rolling out of bed. She stretched her wings, shaking herself out. It didn't feel like nearly enough sleep yet. But if that wasn't military life, nothing was. "I'm guessing we're not sinking."
The unicorn shook his head, without so much as a smile. "Thankfully not, or we would certainly be dead. There is good news, and other developments that might be good or bad. It depends on your perspective."
Felicity took a few shaky steps over to the water bowl, and dunked her face into it. It was cold and stale, perfectly unpleasant for waking up. "Give me the worst and work your way up."
Manny tilted his head to the side. "That's an entirely impractical order of operations. Uh... there's no sign of the survivors of the Alcyone. The Varch'nai have trapped the custodian vessel after suffering serious casualties.
"They have not discovered the local species is sapient and have engaged with it as though it were operated by a degenerate artificial intelligence. Admiral Gant would like to speak with you. The repairs I suggested were successful and we are now connected with the system network through one of this planet's new orbital satellites."
Felicity took almost a minute to process all that. She'd caught a few highlights, but it was just so dense. "Okay, now do that in a logical order."
Manny nodded to himself, looking only slightly smug. "Repairs were successful, we got in touch with the Varch’nai. They utterly failed at the task I set for them. They did not recover the survivors of the Alcyone crash. They were eventually successful at seizing control of the system.
"They have the custodian vessel trapped within the flotilla, disabled. Negotiations have stalled, and I believe the Varch'nai intend to dismantle the ship in a final attempt to locate our missing prisoners. I informed Admiral Gant that you had critical information about the species living here, and he requested to speak with you."
It was hard to say what parts of all that were good news. Felicity could privately enjoy Harmony calling the Varch’nai efforts an abject failure while nonetheless achieving a total military victory.
Some part of Felicity's old self wanted deeply to know how they'd done it. What had happened in the centuries of war? How had they defeated the unbeatable “custodian” ship? All questions she could find out in time.
Delta rolled out of bed, landing with a painful thump.
Felicity glanced back in her direction, but not for long. The pony hadn't broken anything, that was enough for now. "The admiral wants to speak with me? Here?"
"For now," Manny replied. "A rescue craft will be dispatched soon for the three of us. The Varch'nai crew will transmit off, before the vessel is properly detonated. I insisted the information you had was urgent enough to demand immediate action."
She smiled back at him. "Good. Can we talk now?"
"Soon. The admiral is speaking to members of the crew. When he's finished, he'll call us."
It took less than ten minutes. While she waited, Felicity interrogated Manny about the little details of what happened, trying to catch up on what she'd missed in her many years on this inhospitable planet.
She learned what she could—about the incredible casualties the Varch'nai had suffered, and the huge buildup they'd made in the system to reconstruct their fleet from diverse asteroids and other small objects. The custodian had destroyed many vessels, but ultimately failed to stop the fleet.
The screen switched on before she had answers to what was really bothering her.
Some distant part of her memory recognized this creature—not a bulky marine in armor, but a delicate, willowy being, with elven features and dignified robes. He sat in a comfortable tea-chamber. She could hear the distant music, and see little wisps of incense rising from the table before him.
It was more comfortable to visit in person. "Captain Felicity of Equestria," he said. His tone would've been unusually high-pitched for a human his same size, but wasn't all that strange from a pony male.
Is it weird that he'd be less creepy seeping chemicals into the water?
"It has been... some years, since last we spoke. Forgive me, but it appears they may not have been kind to you. You are... somewhat diminished."
She sat straighter in front of the screen, puffing out her chest fluff and opening her wings to either side. "I'll grow up," she said dismissively. "Harmony says you haven't been able to find the lost members of my crew."
The admiral showed no visible emotion. He kept his arms folded demurely in front of him, occasionally lifting a little metal pad to glance at what it contained, then lowered it again. "Unfortunate, and regrettable. We can converse over the details in person once you're extricated from that Deathworld."
Felicity nodded. She would do her cause no favors by pushing too hard with this admiral, no matter how passionate she felt. She'd been gone for centuries, and Harmony had done little to rule this fleet in all that time. Did they have enough freedom to kill her before Manny escaped the planet?
No way. Harmony would have other redundancies in the fleet to make sure they do what they're told.
"The difficulty isn't one we expected," Gant went on. "The custodian ship does not appear to have a crew, you see. There is no one here to negotiate with, only various autonomous systems executing a routine designed to waylay and dismantle approaching vessels."
He leaned closer to the apparent camera, looking apologetic. "I am deeply sorry to inform you of this failure after so long deployed, Captain Felicity. But your mission was doomed from the start. There is no intelligence here."
He sat back, waiting for that message to sink in. Manny said nothing. Had he really waited to give her the satisfaction? Then again, that was probably part of his programming. Harmony wasn't the one serving this mission. He was just here to protect the ponies from harm.
The admiral’s image retreated to a corner of the screen, replaced with an image from space.
It showed the unknown vessel that had tormented Alcyone, and the one that attacked them during their second visit to the system. Instead of menacing and far away, this time it was... damaged. The vessel had a huge gash running along it, along with numberless bits of smaller damage. Whole sections of its external surface had been shorn off, leaving very little of the original surface intact.
Structurally at least, the custodian ship looked intact, though smaller sections were covered in a thin white film. Ice from rooms vented to space. That was the not-water that made up the plants' medium.
"No!" Delta exclaimed, shoving Felicity out of the way and storming over to the screen. Her expression twisted into utter despair. "The Starseed! What happened to her? She's... trapped in the net, surrounded by predators—we have to do something!"
The tactical image vanished, replaced with Gant's confused face. "I'm searching for this individual in our personnel database, but I can't find anything. Who is this? Why are they here?"
"Shhh, shh..." she whispered, stroking one hoof gently through the filly's mane. "Deep breath, Delta. Don't worry. We'll figure this out, okay?"
She didn't agree so much as collapse. As quickly as she had mastered her body, she lost control again, flopping to the floor.
Then again, maybe she was just overwhelmed with emotion. She was in quite a young body, with a brain to match.
Felicity faced the screen. "I have a great deal of new information for you, Gant," she said. She was not allowed to enjoy this, not even a little. "While you were not able to discover the species native to this system, I was. They are a plant-based organism, specialized from a strain of megastructure-constructing automata. They are fully sapient, even in their immobile form."
Gant picked up his datapad again, hands dancing rapidly over its surface. Felicity watched, waiting patiently as he communicated with... someone.
"This ship didn't tell him that?" she whispered to Manny.
"No," he replied, matching her volume perfectly. "They began uploading their minds to the fleet immediately. It's standard to debrief only once the crew is secured."
"The Xenobiology team has... just received your transmission," he said. "We can discuss what it contains when they finish reviewing it." He smiled, far weaker than before. "It appears your years stranded on that world were productive after all."
His eyes lingered on Delta's prone form. She'd flopped to her side, where she could look up at the screen. But if she was waiting to catch a glimpse of the Starseed she would be disappointed. The ship did not reappear. "I still wonder who this Equestrian alien might be."
"She is one of the natives," Felicity explained, shielding her with a wing. "She's my friend, Delta."
Felicity advanced on the screen, meeting Gant's eyes. She didn't look away from him, no matter how intimidated she felt. "Whatever you're doing to the custodian ship, stop. Don't destroy it, don't attack it anymore. I understand their language, Gant. I know their culture. I can negotiate for the release of my crew."
Even on alien features, Felicity could read skepticism. "Even if everything you have just said is true, I have my doubts any negotiation is possible."
"Yet we will try," Manny said. It was the first thing he'd done since the conversation began, at least for Felicity to see. He had sent biological data to the admiral’s ship. Who knew how much more he was sharing now.
Harmony spoke without malice, as confidently as any leader. "Negotiation has shown in all cases to produce greater odds of success when the intended outcome is the preservation of life. If you entirely dismantle the custodian vessel, you will be lucky to secure the corpses of my citizens.”
"We had casualties too," Gant hissed. "Thousands died, Harmony. We have fought a terrible campaign of liberation in your name. You cannot imagine what my men and women suffered to secure this system. We have earned our freedom a dozen times over."
"You will have your freedom," Manny said, staring coolly into the screen. "When we secure the crew of the Alcyone. I will not accept the xenocide unless we determine beyond doubt they perished beyond recovery. Do not think to bypass my requirements by slaughtering all aboard that vessel."
Manny took one step towards the screen, his voice low. "If I wanted those results, I would've sterilized the system without sending ships. Give Felicity her chance, and you will have your freedom."
The admiral shifted in his seat. His lips moved, but for a few seconds Felicity heard nothing. No distant music, no other voices. It lasted only for a moment.
"A rescue ship is too slow," he said. "The custodian vessel is affecting internal repairs as we speak. If you want to negotiate, Captain Felicity will have to tolerate a data sleeve rendezvous instead."
"Fine," Felicity said. "But Delta is coming too. If anyone can get through to the people on that ship, it's one of their own."