“Holy Tony Stark,” Jace whispered. “Guys, this is… you know that tech in Iron Man that Tony is able to use to help him design stuff? That’s this! I mean literally this. The Osiris… ” Jace’s eyes widened further and he let out a delighted laugh as he understood what was happening. “It took the idea from my mind! It knew I would understand this!”
The Osiris is adapting to you, Gehenna agreed with a shake of her tentacles. General Intoshkin sidestepped again. Very clever though there will probably be some miscommunications this way.
Yeah, but it makes it so much more understandable and cool. You have to admit it is cool, Gehenna, he teased her.
Oh, yes, very much so! Much cooler than this cleaning bot. I think General Intoshkin is afraid of me.
Aw, don’t worry. You’re just… tall. That’s all. Just a little tall.
I will find a cuter form! Gehenna muttered.
Jace smiled but then he turned his attention back to the model. He tilted it so that the rip was on top for them all to see. He took two fingers and drew them away from one another, much like he would do on a touchscreen. The model disappeared and a large screen appeared with an up-close view of the rip all along the Osiris’ side. It reminded Jace of what he’d imagined an iceberg had done to the Titanic. But, unlike the Titanic, just like Thammah had said, the rip was closing. The wound was healing. There was text--in English--scrolling beside it with a description of the process occurring.
Hull Integrity - 76%
Time to full Hull Integrity - 2 hours, 17 minutes, 32 seconds.
“It has adjusted to English and the local time,” Khoth remarked. When Jace looked over at him in confusion, he added, “When I requested information on your vitals, it delivered the information in Thaf’ell, in my local dialect.”
“Whoa,” Jace breathed. “That’s cool. It knows its audience.”
“He doesn’t mean the temperature, Khoth. He means it's fascinating,” Thammah laughed.
“I am aware,” Khoth stated, but his eyes flickered to Jace as if perhaps he was saying a white lie.
Jace repressed a snicker.
“Before the model, did you notice the descriptions of areas?” his mother asked. She gestured around the now empty room. “Those were sections of the ship, I think.”
“I saw them too!” Thammah stated with an eager gleam in her eyes. “I saw a Docking Bay. Do you suppose there are other ships in there? Perhaps some Paladin-class fighters?”
Khoth nodded. “But would they still be intact? The Osiris is at an extreme angle. The crash likely would have dislodged them from their holdings.”
“Still any of them would likely be in better shape than the Kryptoria,” she muttered.
“There’s one way to find out,” Jace said with a grin.
He pinched the screen with his fingers and it popped back into the model. Then he grasped the model of the ship and pulled it apart. Once more, floating all around them were sections of the ship. The Docking Bay glowed gold as it floated to Jace. He touched it and another huge screen blew up in front of them.
It was dark at first, but then the ceiling glowed softly before becoming brighter and brighter showing a cavernous space filled with spacecraft. Thammah let out a squeal of delight. Jace immediately started looking for the Storm Spike.
It’s there, Jace. In the far corner, Gehenna told him.
“They’re still intact! Fully intact!” Thammah cried, jumping up and down. Seeing everyone looking at her with either repressed smiles or just repression from Khoth, Thammah stood at attention and cleared her throat before saying calmly, “It appears that your concerns about the ships were unwarranted, Commander Khoth. In fact,” she paused and leaned nearer to the image, squinting, “these are Paladin-class fighters, but different than--”
“Jace, please shut this down,” General Intoshkin stated firmly. His gaze steely.
“What? Why?” Jace frowned.
“Son, I’ll be blunt. The Alliance has not treated humanity like partners. In fact, to say we have been second-class citizens would be a stretch,” General Intoshkin said and Jace knew he wasn’t exaggerating. Though his mother had rarely spoken of the general, one thing she had said about him was that he was honest, which was something. “They don’t deserve to see this. Because if they’d had their way, we would have been completely at the Khul’s mercy.”
Jace looked between the general, his parents and the Thaf’ell. He had assumed after seeing the soldiers with Precursor tech that humanity was prepared for the Khul. But was that true? There was only Thammah and Khoth there. Two ships against how many? If he hadn’t called down Metal Rain…
“Why?” Jace asked this question of Khoth. “Why are only you and Thammah here?”
Khoth’s blue on blue eyes dipped from his. “Earth is not… was not considered an important world to the Alliance.”
“So you would have just let the Khul kill everybody?” Jace stared at him.
