Echo-1 The Whale

46: One More Trade

Luckily, the Brick appeared ten minutes later. I went in through the cargo bay and there parked in the airlock was the remains of my destroyed scout ship. I moved past it opened my suit and reached down into my boot. I got the wand in hand and went back into the airlock. I opened the door and aimed the wand at the Banga, setting the virus into the dormant state. 

I was able to communicate with them. I told Charlie he could begin resetting parts of the ship still infected if he restarted them with a non-infected system. He was thrilled.

"You turned it off just in time. The Magus set the core to overload. It would've destroyed the entire ship. We're initiating a total restart. We'll be drifting in the space lane for awhile. Good luck!" 

I closed the outer door and went up to the control room. Blunt welcomed me aboard and I told him that the Banga was going to be ok. The Sentinel was in the back of the room against the wall. 

"I figured we might need the Professor." 

Blunt opened the blast shield and for the first time in a while, I looked out the front window of the Brick. He laid in a pursuit course. 

"They're moving out of the shipping lanes and heading back toward their comet." 

"Maybe we should let them go?" 

Blunt looked over at me. "We should. They don't have much left." 

We looked out the window. It was a peaceful state for me, cruising through space. Feeling at peace with the universe. I let my mind wander to all of the events that had happened. The stars sat still in the distance. It was a really big galaxy.

A half-hour later we caught up with the scout. The top of the Magus was just ahead of them. Taegu and Uzi came on the screen. 

"I don't know how they're getting this much speed out of that ship. It's got repair droids all over it." Taegu said this in Varan and Uzi said about the same thing in English right after she was done talking. 

They landed the scout on the roof of the Brick. Mox climbed down the side and entered through the bay door. 

We couldn't get a good scan of the ship and they were attempting to jam our communications. We moved up next to them to survey the state of the Magus. They closed off the hole and reconstructed a blast door entrance out of it. They had seven functioning decks and were getting a surprising amount of speed from modified fighter engines. 

Mox came through the door. "If there's one thing you can say about the Vedma, they're resilient." 

"Resilient and survivors," I added.

I think at that moment Mox, Blunt, and I were on the same page. We respected a species that endured for so many eons. Yes, they were predators, and yes, they were dangerous, vicious, relentless, possibly even pure evil, but who were we to eradicate them.

"I don't think I have it in me to kill Faye again?" 

Blunt licked the side of his snout, "I feel you've nearly completed your destiny with the Vedma." 

Mox slapped down his hands, one on each of our shoulders. "Boys, I think it's time for one last trading session with the Vedma." He turned around and looked at the Sentinel. "You still with us Professor?" 

Silence. Mox gestured and the robot opened its chest and pulled out Professor Mildabbar. His tentacles were moving. He opened his eyes. 

"Yes, I'm still here, you pathetic lizards." 

Mox walked to the center of the room. 

"Alright then Professor, do you have any additional information you'd like to share with us about your species, the virus, the light ray, your robot repair protocols, use of dead whale brains for intelligent biocomputing, really anything you'd like to offer?"