She was like a statue. She had her tablet, her termite communicator, she had one of the consoles open on the ship, and she was moving between the three of them, rapidly switching between Standard, her native tongue, her secondary Earth language, and the coding language she developed that was a combination of all of them. The strange way she communicated with her bots was such an odd but elegant merging of so many languages, symbols, and numbers.
It was hypnotizing, beautiful, to watch her like this.
A side of her he had never seen. One that would probably never need to exist if the situation wasn’t as serious as it was.
He had no idea what she was doing, of course. He didn't know how her termites worked, even if he could read the language she had made up for them. She wasn't telling them what she was doing either. She outright ignored any questions tossed her way. They had eventually stopped trying to ask and just let her work while they waited.
The first sign of her success didn't come from her, but instead from the harsh, distorted, fragmented voice that tried to talk from overhead.
“Alred!” Goldie called out, tears already glittering in her eyes. Though they couldn't make out words, that was definitely Alred's distorted voice.
At the sound of it, Haven's brow got even deeper.
The harder she concentrated, the cleaner he became until, though it was still rough and distorted, they caught the unmistakable growl of
“-to kill them-”
The corner of Tanin's mouth turned up in a satisfied smirk as Goldie let out a sob of relief, covering her mouth with both hands as though to catch the sound.
“Welcome back,” Tanin said. “Hope you enjoyed your vacation. What can you do?”
“N-N-Not much-ch,” he said, voice glitching and strained. “It-t's trying to get control back-ack. What hap-hap-hap-” His question ended with crunchy static.
“We were hijacked. We're in subspace. We are being taken somewhere. We need a plan before we swing out so we aren't right in our enemy's hands or blown up.”
“One-one-one… Give me…”
More static, but the message was clear and they waited for him to return while Haven kept her fingers busy, still communicating with her termites. What little control she and Alred had wrestled away was not easily kept. It took longer than it normally would for Alred to return with an answer.
“We can't-can't stop the swing. Not mid-swing. Our momentum is already-read-ready built. We h-h-h-have to ride it out-t.”
“What can we do then?” Tanin asked.
“We can swing away when we arrive,” Sway suggested from the navigator’s chair. “But I would need a little time to get the math done for a new swing.”
“Time we won't have,” Vytln said. “Their first action will be to disable us to prevent exactly that.”
“Any idea how?” Tanin asked.
“Knowing my brother, the flashiest and simplest way.”
Tanin looked at Sway who already had an answer ready.
“A tether would be my first choice. If they lock our ship to theirs, it would throw off our subspace calculations and prevent us from swinging because it wouldn't take their ship into account. It's the cheapest, easiest option. The second way would be to use a pulse to completely disable our ship. It's certainly flashy and would leave us totally stranded, but it is not technology that's easily obtainable. It's for military purposes for the Coalition Army only. It's illegal for anyone else to have it. So, to get it, you need both connections and a lot of credz to burn.”
“My family is wealthy,” Vytln shook his head. “Not forbidden military tech wealthy. And even if we were, my brother would never be able to keep that kind of secret. He'd need to flaunt it to show off exactly how wealthy and connected he is.”
“Any other methods they could use?” Tanin asked.
Sway shook his head. “Maybe. But the possibility of them being able to utilize any other method is very low. Not unless they have access to vitulli technology. And only the rarest few do. If he can't get pulse tech, he certainly can't get vitulli tech.”
“Then we make our plans based on those options. Sway, you and Alred figure out a way to swing with a tether locking us tothem. I'll get with the others to get a battle plan if we're left stranded and powerless. Vytln, help Haven to keep Alred with us as long as she can.”
“Aye, captain,” Vytln and Sway said at the same time.
Tanin turned to leave the bridge. Trove was in charge of weapons. He’d be the one who would help Tanin with battle plans. Sorbet and Tebros would, no doubt, also be involved. The others would all fall in line based on whatever they could do.
Sway, however, turned back to his console. Alred was speaking directly to him. Goldie, focused only on Alred, walked up to stand behind Grace. Needing to be near her male but not wanting to interfere with their job.
