For days, they tasked her with identifying structures and architectures. She still didn’t know how they were able to create these images, as there were no satellites in the 1890s to take them. Everyone was being quite secretive, operating on a need-to-know basis, only asking questions or giving her more images to look at. With the satellite array complete, they could provide her with complete pnetary scans. But she was no idiot. Even with very little information, from rumors among her guards or murmurs in the cafeteria, she was slowly connecting the dots.

  A beep echoed from the doorway. It quickly slid open before she could say, "Come in." She remembered she was a prisoner here, not a guest with an office. "Professor!" It was the XO; he looked as if he had run all the way from the bridge. Holding a data pad in his hand, he gnced at it while trying to catch his breath. "Has… has there ever been a magnitude 8 earthquake on the isnd of Japan?"

  "You’ve got to be more specific than that, Commander. Japan gets earthquakes all the time."

  "I... uh... how about the ones near Gifu and Aichi Prefecture?"

  Reed pondered for a bit, trying to browse through her memory. With Japan’s long history of natural disasters, it wasn't easy to pinpoint one out of thousands. Taking longer than usual, she finally replied, "Well, if we're talking about the 1890 era, there was one on October 28, 1891. Back when those areas were still called by their old names, Mino and Owari." Probably why it took her quite a while to remember. "Why do you ask?" A clue? possibly, being kept in the dark for so long, Olivia takes all clues she can get.

  Hayes looked down at his data pad, watching the quake spread across the Japanese ndscape as satellites provided him with topographical updates of the area. "No reason... Hey, how about that Southern Asian kingdom?" he said, trying to change the subject. In truth, since that day Professor Olivia looked at the first images, the senior staff had been in shambles about the possibility that they had not only traveled back in time but to an alternate reality as well.

  "Still no update on that one. It's like all the countries that lived in those territories banded together to create a new empire." She noted the influences of various cultures whenever she inspected the images from that region. She had her own theories, perhaps far too outndish, but so far all her clues pointed to the same conclusion. She had to use her bargaining chip to its utmost if she wished to satisfy her curiosity.

  Now armed with the correct date, Hayes sends the data to Apollo who then adjusted their astrogation map. With their satellite array complete, they were able to map the night sky, using a usual visitor, Comet 17/P Holmes, as a reference, it was easy to align their maps with accuracy. All of this was happening while Professor Olivia rambled about the unknown civilization. The Commander stared at his data pad the entire time, perhaps finding whatever Reed was saying uninteresting. "Well, thanks for the help with the Japan quake, Professor. I should let you continue your work."

  “Hey, wait a minute. Has the Captain made a decision about my offer yet?”

  “You are in no position to make one to begin with, Professor. Captain Irons is willing to allow you access to the file once you surrender it to us.”

  “But I want a copy of it first. My personal copy. I cannot trust you or ONI. Tell him I am willing to accept any other conditions as long as I get to keep a copy.”

  Ethan sighed, shaking his head before leaving and closing the door behind him. “Fine, I’ll tell him that.”

  “Any progress?” It had been two weeks since the Ghostwalkers found the derelict. Although, maybe calling it a ‘derelict’ would be inaccurate. It was an abandoned vessel. Usually, a ship would be left floating in space once it's destroyed, its crew killed, scuttled or sabotaged to ensure it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. But this vessel was not only intact; it had been taken care of. Somewhat. From what they knew, the vessel had seen its fair share of combat, but its armor had been properly patched up numerous times, even repainted.

  It took several days and several companies of marines and engineers to scour the rge vessel. It was almost as rge as the Prometheus. They checked every corner for booby traps, alien creatures, or unknown pathogens, but so far found nothing. Due to the ship's size, marines continues to patrol the halls while teams were able to secure several sections of the ship, setting up camp with equipment, generators, and security teams to watch every doorway.

  The vessel was retively intact, except for a missing dock bay door. Apparently, a huge piece of the armor was missing. It was meant to be held in pce by powerful tractor beams when vessels enter and exit the docking station, or secured with heavy cmps when not in use. The gaping pit was to be covered with a psma field to contain the atmosphere, much like in UNSC and Covenant hangar decks. But without main power, it was just one massive hole.

  “None yet, Colonel,” replied Valen for the fourth time. While most of her team and the ODST team Tristan brought with him were on the derelict, Maya, Jackson, and Colonel Stone remained on the Prowler, performing patrol duties around the derelict even though there weren’t any signs of the enemy. “Permission to speak freely, sir?”

  Stone simply waved his hand in the Corporal’s direction, as if barely interested in what she had to say. “Well… Sir. Why are you here? I mean, you said before you wanted to ‘stretch your legs’ and yet you aren’t on the derelict, scouting.”

  “The answer is simple, really.” Tristan adjusted himself in his seat, emphasizing his seriousness. “I don’t trust spooks,” he said bluntly. “I’ve got a long history with Captain Irons, you see, fought alongside him several times in the past, and so when I learned that he ordered your team off-world, I had to insist. He didn’t ask me to watch over you, but I know if I didn’t, you’d fuck off and fly to God knows where the moment you got out of sight.”

  “I see, sir. Thank you, no further questions, sir.” She highly doubted the man would trust anything she'd say anyway if she asked anything else. With the derelict still running on emergency power, all communications were reyed through the Eclipse Runner before being sent to Earth. Perhaps the Colonel was pnning on intercepting all communications if they had any other agents.

  Meanwhile, for Markus, an ONI Specialist for alien technology, this is quite a find. Everything about this vessel is completely new to them. Neither the Covenant nor their ‘gods’ made this ship. But for engineers, a capacitor is a capacitor regardless of its appearance. All one needs is a tester and a lot of patience. With some luck, they were able to turn on some basic systems, like the doors or lights, as the ship has no power. This gave Bke and the engineers free reign to test everything without short-circuiting the grid.

  Most of the storage, ammunition stores, and crew quarters were stripped of anything valuable, but not everything was taken. Some bits and bobs, artifacts left behind, bullets, some missiles, even entire vessels. The fuel for the ship appears to have been siphoned out, and Prometheus had to modify several cargo vessels before sending them up there carrying supplies. Captain Irons is worried that their activity would catch the attention of locals.

  Calliope was of great help. As consoles can only be powered through generators for now, the construct would then be installed into the machine and would give the engineers a rough idea of what the device is for. Through trial and error, they found out the only way to turn on the ship is to connect the ‘Unbound’ – a living being cybernetically augmented to become the ship’s AI.

  They don’t have one of those at hand, so they went for the next best thing. Recon 108 abandoned their mission for this ship, and therefore no obstacle would stop Markus from his new obsession. They sent a bunch of probes towards Mars instead of actually doing that mission. As they feared, the pnet is an unterraformed wastend. With the podium they yanked off from one of the cargo haulers jerry-rigged into pce, Markus pulls out Calliope’s chip from his pocket and slots her in excitedly..…

  Nothing.

  Confused, perhaps they mounted the podium incorrectly, when all of a sudden, power began to surge throughout the ship. Rooms and hallways soon start to light up one after another. Life support systems soon start to cough to life after prolonged disuse, finally filling the ship with fresh air, and the dockyard’s psma field emitters turning on to envelop the great gap, securing the atmosphere in. It would take some more time to normalize pressure and fill every section of the vessel with breathable air, but it's a start.

  “This ship… is really advanced,” Calliope commented as her projection finally appeared on top of the podium. She looked uneasy, scanning her surroundings in deep thought.

  “Calliope, can you run a transtion program on the computers?” Bke requested, already attempting to access one of the machines. The Covenant transted their computers first, giving them a grasp of Humanity’s nguage. UNSC simply reverse-engineered the same program to do it the other way around. However, trying to transte an entirely new nguage might take some time.

  “This ship… is really advanced,” she repeated once more, as if she hadn't heard what Bke said. The AI looked a bit distraught, scratching her arm anxiously. Suddenly, they felt the vessel begin to move. The rge vessel’s engines soon spooled into action, its retro thrusters aligning the ship to its correct orientation before slightly pushing itself away from the asteroid.

  “Markus! What the hell is going on!” Lieutenant Kane's radio suddenly crackled to life as he felt the gravity shifting. Era was with a number of her team, scouting around the ship.

  “It's Calliope! I’m trying to get her under control! Stand by!” Markus uneasily walked towards the podium due to the unstable gravity shifts, already about to disengage the AI’s chip when the vessel slowly powered down and stopped moving, pcing itself into a much stabler orbit a few kilometers away from the rock, ensuring the two would never collide.

  “Ugh… guys? Why is the ship vertical now?” Pierce called in as they watched from the outside. The massive banana-shaped vessel had now oriented itself under its own power.

  “I have no idea,” Markus said, looking at the construct’s projection. “Calliope, respond!” He double-checked the connections on the podium, making sure that if all else failed, he could simply rip the entire thing off.

  The AI slowly turned its attention towards him but said nothing for a few seconds. “I’m having trouble controlling this ship,” she admitted reluctantly. All UNSC warships had numerous Dumb AIs to handle the lesser tasks. Having the entire ship networked to one AI would only overstress their neural matrix.

  “Yeah, clearly,” Markus said, pulling up his radio. “All Clear. We've got everything under control.” He turned to the AI and said, “Just power down the non-essentials for now before you get an aneurysm.”

  “I… thought it would be easier…” If they attempted to connect from the outside, they would most likely go against some firewalls and electronic warfare defenses. Keeping the power offline and simply bypassing everything by directly connecting the AI onto the core was supposed to make it easier to commandeer the ship.

  “Calliope, hail Prometheus. Tell them the Mothership is Online.”

  A knock echoed through the grand hallway, reaching the ornate, heavy oak doors of the duke's study. From behind the door, a voice, clear and respectful, broke the silence, “Your Grace, it is I, Scribe Yuvan.”

  “Enter!” the governor called out. Sat behind a finely furnished desk, carved by a great European artist before being coated with rich cquer. Opulence was what one would imagine the man behind the furniture represented, though true the great empire to the east held great riches and was known throughout the world, instead of the bold arrogance one would expect from such a man of power, the desk was the only thing of consequence within the humble room.

  Yuvan was worried at first. Though it would be an honor to serve such a person, it was impossible to deny that she had some reservations, especially toward her, someone of common birth. But the Marquis did not care and treated her as equal… perhaps that is why he was out here, governing a piece of the empire, an entire ocean away from home.

  “Ah, Yuvan. Has my ivory arrived yet?” Encai looked up from his work with glowing eyes, excited to get his new trinket. Instead of vish paintings or trophies of great achievements, his room was adorned in every corner with bead jewelry, figurines and sculptures, woven cloth, ceremonial masks, musical instruments, pottery, and animal skins. Aside from the desk and the door, the rest of the room’s content was his collection, making the room appear as if a shaman were conducting voodoo magic in there.

  “I’m afraid not, Your Grace. I am here for something else.” She pulled out a file that she had tucked under her arm, pcing it onto his desk as soon as she got closer. “Here is today’s report, My Lord.”

  Encai quickly skimmed through the document, flipping through the pages as he took note of the happenings within his territory. “Anything out of the ordinary?” he asked.

  “The Belgian merchant arrived once more, Your Grace. He insists. He wishes to speak with you, My Lord.”

  “Bah! Him again,” the Marquis shuddered at the thought, looking through the pages. “I see here there is still a shortage of our import of rubber,” shaking his head a little. “Last time he asked for an extension, citing sve rebellion as the reason.” Svery within the empire had long been abolished, but that didn’t mean other powers would quickly follow suit. Encai hated this post, dealing with svers for resources that the empire needed. “What does he want this time?”

  “He is requesting to hire our warriors, Your Grace. Mercenaries to regain control of his camps,” double-checking her notes. “From what I have gathered, it seems he has sent a message to his liege and has received a ‘sum’ to gather an army.”

  “Have they gone mad?” he muttered, then asked the scribe. “Has anyone else taken that bait?”

  “A few opportunists here and there, mostly other European mercenaries and explorers. Other nations offered supplies instead of men.”

  Encai shook his head in disbelief, just imagining having to amass an army just to subdue people who just wanted to be left alone. The empire had always been neutral, so there was truly no need for him to entertain this. “What else?”

  “More rumors about the lights, Your Grace.” There had been rumors about unknown lights heading toward the heavens, not really something one would normally pay attention to but the frequency of such for these past few days sparked peoples’ curiosity.

  “More hallucinations from the heat? Insect bite? Narcotics?” Though it was unlikely that the Scribe would mention something so unimportant, the Marquis looked at her with curiosity.

  “Normally I would agree with that conclusion, Your Grace. But…” she reached across the table and began flipping through the file Encai was holding before stopping at a certain page. “Maester Seykins saw them too,” pointing out the report.

  “The Stargazer?” Surprised, he turned his attention to the report. Maesters were known for their extensive knowledge of almost any subject. The vast amount of knowledge that the empire had collected and archived throughout the centuries had been protected and studied by these Maesters, making their counsel more important than gold. Even to a nobleman such as himself, the intelligence of these great men was far beyond what he ever possibly dreamt of. And so as he read the file, he frowned, rereading that st bit again, and again, and again. “What do you mean, you don’t know?!”