Adventures of Eira

chapter 1

In uncharted space, the galaxy screams in silence, the ever expanding void echoes in the cold harsh environment as my convoy of ships drift through the darkness. I sit watching over the bridge of the flagship, Beowulf, resting my head on my fist, occasionally issuing orders and requesting information as needed.

I let out a long breath before adjusting my posture to look down at the set of stations below me and asking my navigator, "What is our current position, Kerner?"

"We are currently thirty light years away from our last way point and approaching an unknown star system. The Manfred Fuchs is currently conducting a preliminary scan," Kerner responds.

I look around, my eyes locking onto my coordination officer, as she taps the console in front of her. I can only assume she's reading over the data from the research vessel.

"Gold or bust?" I ask Tritten.

"Hopeful, no hostile extremes detected."

"Good, send out two probes to conduct deeper scans for mineral deposits and any other relevant data."

"Understood your Ladyship Eira."

I take a moment to think about the past, remembering a long and drawn out conflict that claimed the lives of many. It was a long time ago but it's the source of my current frustration, establishing a new colony with the remnants of the Eisesland Imperium. This babysitting is not my theater of war and logistics.

This dead zone, an area around inhabited space, we've been traveling through has nothing but overactive stars or lack resources to establish a stable orbital colony with what we have.

Seven colony stations converted into generation ships, a scout carrier, seven frigates, five destroyers, some mass-production corvettes, my Beowulf, research ships, and the patrol craft that can be stored aboard the stations.

Oh, and three Prolix-class auxiliary cruisers that are nothing but a railgun with ion thrusters. Its point defense is a joke, and it requires a data link with another ship to hit anything. Why did I even bother bringing them with us?

"Becker, is there any indication of unknown radio sources or anomalies on the sensors?"

"Nothing as of yet," she says, not bothering to look away from her work. "All I got is background; if there is anything else out here, we can't pick them up. Hold on, what's that..." her eyes narrow upon the screen in front of her before throwing it to the false window above us.

The grainy image shows a boxy object with cylindrical protrusions coming off one side. Around it float small pieces of material too small to make out their shape.

"Is that a ruined ship? Adjust course and prepare an exploration team." What the hell is something like this doing all the way out here? My fleet is the first ship to venture out this far, at least the first on record. So why is this thing out this far? "Run the ship through the database of missing vessels. We don't want to go in completely blind if we don't have to."

"I already ran it through all known models that could theoretically make it out here and none of them match. So it either predates our records or is from an unknown civilization."

"So it's possibly an old world ship? When we get within range, start a scan for signs of life or what remains of its crew." I glance over at my weapon operators, "Even if it's uncrewed, the AI systems might still be active. Be prepared to intercept whatever it might throw at us."

"Yes, Your Ladyship Eira," they say in unison.

"Send an update to the rest of the fleet to keep their distance as we investigate the anomaly. Call for the fleet to be at Condition I till further notice."