Chapter 1 - 09: What People Don't Know

"I think there's something they're not telling us," Cassandra muttered through the radio as she was taking Kanya for a practice run through space. The MV2904 still had to stop temporarily to resupply, so she had decided to take Kanya for a practice run. "Like what?" Kanya replied.

"I don't know, maybe they put something on our ship before the last stop or something."

"What was our last stop?"

"Oh right, you don't remember. Anyway, it's all a little mysterious. What could possibly be so important that even the Aegis engineering team would be looking around our ship?"

"But they were just nearby. It's possible they just thought of helping out."

"It's obvious the last pause in our journey was due to sabotage. They didn't mention the pirates I saw on the long range sensors in the announcement. They just mentioned a security concern."

Kanya was silent. He already guessed correctly about the 'security concern'.

"Apparently among the engineers in the team is a expert pilot. I asked her if she would join us, and she said she had to attend to more 'pressing matters'."

"So they're not ordinary engineers?"

"Chances are they're all heads of some kind of engineering department on the Aegis. They pounce on 'away' missions whenever they come along. All of them are supposed to be pretty well versed in combat."

"Even the young girl?"

"That 'young girl' is the expert pilot. She's supposedly a prodigy of some kind when it came to anything. A lot of people on the Meganet say that she might as well be the 30th Gifted. Of course, she's a mystery of her own. All her files are classified, even to most of the Admirals in the Terran fleet. Some databases even deny her existence. Then again, it's probably some bug concerning her age. She's supposedly still below the age of majority, which would make the secrecy around her files sensible. A child in the military is extremely rare."

***

In a makeshift interrogation room on the ship, the supposed culprit was caught. He was being interrogated, for obvious reasons. Behind the scenes, Pandora was watching.

Within several seconds, she drew a conclusion. "It's obvious he's not the one behind all this. He's just the scapegoat."

"A very well prepared one at that. Even a memory scan didn't yield anything."

"This is pointless. Send him back to his holding cell. We'll drop him off at Nakamura and have him rehabilitated."

Having said that, she leaves the room and heads for the MV2904 hangar. She had an appointment to keep.

Chapter 1 - 08: The Team From Aegis

The following morning, Kanya's PDD had a message. It came from the central system of the ship.

The crew that came to aid us yesterday will stay onboard and not return to the Aegis due to safety concerns. Hence, do not be alarmed if you see some new faces onboard. They have been instructed to wear their official uniforms whenever possible to prevent any misunderstandings.

We will rendezvous with the Aegis at Nakamura, and the Aegis will escort us out of the system from then on due to recent security and safety concerns.

- MV2904 Central

Kanya was not concerned about this, since he had nothing to do today. He lazily made his way to the cafeteria. Along the way, he saw a 16-year-old in what appeared to be an Aegis uniform. She was frantically walking through the corridors when she saw Kanya.

She immediately headed for him and asked, "Could you lead me to the cafeteria? I generally don't carry a PDD since I have to lug around all these other devices."

Kanya obviously replied, "Sure."

Of course, no one would be without suspicion. Sure, it was not a strange thing to have extraordinarily young engineers, but to have them on any ship like the Aegis was very rare. Either that, or she was just tagging along on some parent on the ship. But would a child follow their parent on a away mission?

"By the way, my name is Pandora. What's yours?"

"Kanya."

Pandora had obviously sensed Kanya's intention to not have a conversation. She then kept quiet and followed him to the cafeteria. While Kanya did not notice, she was always looking around the ship, making mental notes.

It did not take long for them to arrive at the cafeteria where they parted ways. She went to a table that was obviously filled with people from where she came from. Their uniforms were distinctly different from medical vessel staff, who didn't wear uniforms to begin with. Only military or security personnel were required to wear uniforms. Kanya didn't have one - yet. He wouldn't need one until he got onto the Kirkor.

The Aegis was run differently since it was an exploration ship with heavy military staffing. Of course, Pandora was obviously a civilian who was trained lightly under military protocol. Or at least, that would be the conclusion any ordinary person would draw, considering the circumstances, there wouldn't be any time for her to have gone through proper military training anyway.

Of course, no one would be preoccupied with thoughts such as this. However, all of this coursed through Kanya's mind as he pondered how long it'll take to reach Nakamura. The delay would be minimal, but it still meant an additional week to travel from the trade gate to Nakamura.

For now, no one else on the ship knew that something was going to happen soon enough. That is, except the Aegis engineering team onboard.

Chapter 1 - 07: Pandora's Arrival

Classes were over, dinner was finished and Kanya was tired. Of course, nothing could beat the timing of the announcement that was to come at 10pm. A loud voice boomed through the speakers. "This is an announcement regarding our arrival at the trading station. Our arrival at the trade station will be delayed indefinitely due to an issue concerning our engines. We have an engineering team from the TRi Aegis to assist our own in order to expedite the process."

Kanya was too tired to bother.

***

Meanwhile, an investigation was ongoing in the engine room.

"Someone tampered with one of the limiters on the one of the zero point control modules," one of the engineers said.

A girl, probably not much older than 16-17 years of age, was next to him, looking at the same thing. "It looks like it had to be someone ranking pretty high on this ship. No ordinary engineer could have gotten access to the innards of these systems."

"Whoever did it replaced an entire board here so force it to overload."

Another engineer suddenly rushed in. "Pandora, our long range sensors just detected a group of pirate ships closing in on our position."

"The nearest pirate base is way too far off for them to have not planned this attack."

Pandora replied, "I have my suspicions, because I'm quite certain we don't have any pirates on this ship. Something else is up. Either way, this ship is ready to go. Inform the Aegis of our findings."

"Aren't we going back?"

"It's way too dangerous to return now."

"But all the equipment is back on the ..."

"I will not have all of you risking your lives over something as trivial as the analysis of the control board. An operative aboard a medical vessel is of a small concern. I've contacted the adminstration of this vessel, and they've agreed to house us until we arrive at Nakamura."

"Nakamura? Isn't that a lot further into the Dekaten System?"

"This ship cannot be allowed to dock this close to a possible attack. The upcoming trade station has been warned, and we are immediately making a jump from the trade gate from there to Nakamura. Erse already knows of this plan. Move along."

***

A loud voice boomed through the speakers again at 11pm. "Due to the risk of pirate attacks, the MV2904 will be making a jump as soon as we arrive at the trade gate. We will make a longer stop at Nakamura instead."

Assignment Due Soon

I have an assignment due soon, so I'll be working on that. While I don't expect to spend all that much time on it, I'm expecting to be spending a reasonable amount of time working through it properly. I've actually written the 7th part of Chapter 1 of the story already. If I think I'm fine with it as it is, I'll publish/post it tomorrow on my blog. For now, I'm returning to my assignment. :D

Chapter 1 - 06: Protocol Class. Maybe.

"She probably pissed off at you getting a better assignment than she did or something," the rookies suggested to Kanya as they were sitting through the protocol lecture. "No accident could ever let you forget something as important as what this lecture is about, that we happen to be ignoring," they continued.

"They've been pounded in hundreds of times even before we get the our real assignments, let alone when you're actually in one," another commented.

"So where did you get posted?"

Kanya replied in a very unhappy manner, "The Kirkor."

"The Kirkor?! Isn't that one of those 'classified ships'?"

"Huh?" Kanya was puzzled.

"A classified ship is a ship whose every move is completely secret. The only exception is that the existence of the ship and its crew are confirmed. There are 29 of those, and they usually have a Gifted on the bridge. My brother's been trying to get on one of those for years. Apparently, it's impossible unless you're handpicked or something."

"Odd though why they placed you on this ship. The crew on the Meganet generally unclassify those movements anyway, since the only reason their really classified is to prevent assasinations of the Gifted. The Gifted don't really care much since they very much think that people should know where their ship is at anyway."

"The Kirkor isn't going to go anywhere near this medical vessel, not at least for another few months. It's on an expedition to visit the Arltian Alliance. That means you're stuck here with us at least two more months. That is, of course, unless Erse decides to steal you first before you can get to the Kirkor, but that's unlikely."

"The crew of her ship said that she hasn't added anyone new to the ship for a long time. She used to go on these recruitment sprees for her ship, picking up a crew member from every ship she ever came on."

Kanya just sat silent, as the others busy chatting suddenly felt a cold glare upon them. The lecturer was obviously displeased with the heated discussion that was going on at the rear of the class.