Still dressed in his wet undershirt and shorts, Odie trailed behind Jakob as they stepped into the hangar bay. This was the most open area of the ship, with the ceiling vaulted high above their heads. It was the only space which wrapped all the way around the vessel, forming a full loop. Large doors were set in the floor in rows, each leading to a docked shuttle.
When the ship was in full operation, there would be dozens of people spread around the room, appearing to walk up the walls and onto the ceiling, climbing in and out of the hatches leading to shuttles.
Jakob led Odie to the left as they entered the hangar. They crossed the room to one of the shuttle doors. Two figures waited for them there: the captain and first mate, fully dressed in uniform and dried off.
As they joined the officers, Odie snapped his feet together and raised his hand to his chest in a rigid salute, knowing the salute was reserved for military personnel only. Suspension fluid dripped in a puddle at his feet.
“Knock it off, Adamus,” Alvarez commanded, “you’ve been in enough trouble as it is. No need to start off on the wrong foot.”
Odie broke his faux salute. “Good morning, Captain. Fabian.”
Fabian scowled in response. Clearly he woke up on the wrong side of the bed - he seemed grumpier than usual.
Of course, Odie assumed they must all be in poor moods if they had gone through the same experience he had. He tried to keep himself from being overly obnoxious, as Nell had pointed out he tended to be when something was bothering him. But some people’s buttons were just too readily available to be pressed, and he felt better when everyone else was as miserable as he was.
“Well this is nice…” Odie said, “the three of us, back together. How long has it been?”
“Two years,” Fabian responded.
“Ah, yeah,” Odie snapped his fingers, “that was when you got me fired, right? Good times.”
Alvarez interjected, “alright cut it out. Adamus, for the record, you would have been a decent engineering officer if you knew how to follow orders.”
“I was just doing my job; trying to be proactive,” Odie replied.
Fabian crossed his arms, “there’s difference between being proactive and acting outside of your authority.”
“We don’t need to rehash this now,” Alvarez interjected. Odie knew Fabian was pushing it by speaking over his commanding officer. He liked to watch the man wriggle in discomfort while trying to keep a firm expression. Fabian always had more to say, and if he could keep going on and on if he was wound up enough.
“Fair enough,” Odie said, “anyways, seems you still think I’m important enough to do whatever this is.”
“Just because you don’t follow orders doesn’t mean you can’t be useful,” Alvarez said as he clicked a code into a security console standing near the shuttle door.
An alarm sounded and a yellow light began to blink, warning the crew to stand clear. The door slid open, revealing a vertical chute which ran down to a shuttle.
“So, what do you want me to do exactly?” Odie asked, “something against the rules, I hope.”
“I would consider it completely illegal,” Fabian said, “if it wasn’t ordered from higher up the food chain.”
“Interesting…” Odie said, taking a handful of his wet shirt and wringing it out on the floor. “I’m assuming if people knew about it, I’d be in a lot of trouble? Or, it would at least damage my reputation?”
Fabian turned to Alvarez like a hound deferring to its master.
Alvarez reached into his pocket to retrieve something. “Yes, undoubtedly,” he said.
“So, what’s in it for me?” Odie asked.
Before he could finish, Alvarez revealed a data card which had been in his pocket - Odie’s data card.
He had saved dozens of restricted documents on there - ship schematics, security codes, ship system control overrides.
I’m screwed…
“I haven’t looked at this yet,” Alvarez said, “but Jakob told me it has something very interesting on it.”
Alvarez placed the card in Odie’s hand. “You’re a good engineer,” he continued, “I trust your instincts. And right now, we are acting outside regular protocol, so I need people I can trust.”
Odie let out his breath which he had been unconsciously holding since he saw the data card. Fabian’s nose briefly wrinkled like he had smelled something foul. He was always a stickler for following rules - the main reason, Odie assumed, that they hadn’t gotten along well.
Alvarez continued, “Also, Jakob informed me you had discovered he boarded, which I intended to keep quiet. So I needed to make a choice between getting you involved or trying to keep you from talking. Seeing as it is a lot easier to give you something to do than it is to get you to shut your mouth, I decided on the former.”
Odie spun the data card between his thumb and index finger. “Alright, I’m in.”
Jakob lowered himself into the shuttle’s pilot seat. It was a small vessel, equipped with chairs for the pilot, a co-pilot, and two passengers. Behind was an open space for transporting cargo. Jakob had seen several shuttles which had been converted into mining vessels, with large drilling or gas harvesting equipment retrofitted into the cargo area. It was incredibly spacious by his standards.
He reminded himself that humans tended to require more personal space than would be physically necessary to operate.
“Hey, do you know how to fly this thing?” Odysseus’ voice called from the cargo area.
“Of course. I can process billions of terabytes of data per millisecond. It will take me only a moment to become accustomed to the controls.”
Odysseus stepped up next to Jakob. He had stripped himself of his shirt and shorts. Fully nude.
The man was thin, but fit. He bore the characteristic tanned skin of the Kepler Prime colonists. His hair had started to dry, forming into tight black curls.
Odysseus opened a compartment above the co-pilot’s seat. “Sorry, needed to get out of those wet clothes or I would have looked like I had been scrubbed raw with a steel brush by the time we’d be done,” he said as he retrieved a bundle of fabic from the compartment.
The bundle contained dry clothes and a small container. Odysseus opened the container, dabbing his fingers into a white powder which he lightly dusted himself with (to prevent chafing, Jakob assumed). Then, he slipped into a dry shirt and pants.
“I find it interesting that you did not seem embarrassed by being naked,” Jakob said once Odysseus was dressed, “I thought most humans were made uncomfortable by the thought of being exposed?”
“Sure, but you’re not a person,” Odysseus said as he rolled on a pair of compression socks, “It’s like getting undressed in front of a toaster.”
“I am not a toaster.”
“Too bad. I could actually go for some toast right now. I’m starving.” Odie put a hand to his stomach.
“Shuttle C-01, you are clear to depart,” a woman’s voice said over the radio. It was the dock controller, Rachael Lu’onga. Jakob recognized her voice from when he had first boarded the ship. This time, he would not be subject to the abhorrent docking sequencing.
Odie stepped away from his seat. “I’m going to get ready, whenever you want to go-”
Jakob flipped a switch, detaching from the dock. He simultaneously activated the ship’s magnetic rail system, causing it to lurch forward.
Odie fell on his face with a thud and a grunt. “What the-”
The shuttle shot out of the docking tube like a bullet. Odie stumbled back to his seat as Jakob made a flurry of commands to the ship’s computer, sending it into a roll as it turned back towards the Hippogryph in a graceful arc. The shuttle leveled out and flew along the length of the ship.
“I would like to see you do that with a toaster,” Jakob said.
Odysseus gripped the arms of his chairs, knuckles white. Jakob hoped he had not caused any trauma to the human.
A grin slowly spread across the man’s face. Without a word, he pushed himself from his chair, floating back towards the cargo area.
“Good one!” He said, “delivery needs work though.”
Jakob was not entirely sure what the man was talking about.
“Then again,” Odysseus continued, “I think the deadpan thing really works for you. Maybe it’s your phrasing?”
He came floating back to his seat, now with an EVA suit in tow.
“Can a toaster do that?” Odysseus said, imitating Jakob’s voice. “I think that would have worked much better,” he said, reverting back to his own voice.
“What are you talking about?” Jakob asked.
“The joke. You were making a joke, right?”
Jakob did not know what to say. Humans, especially this one, could be very strange. He liked that about them.
Odysseus started pulling the suit up over his legs. “By the way, call me Odie. Nobody calls me Odysseus.”
“It is your name, is it not?”
“Yeah… but once you’re called one thing for long enough, your real name just doesn’t sound right anymore.”
“Ah. My people were not given names,” Jakob said, “we chose our names.”
“That’s nice,” Odie said, “unfortunately, human babies aren’t great at picking names for themselves.”
“True.”
The shuttle slowly came to a stationary hover a few yards above the surface of the Hippogryph. Jakob had precisely matched the rotation of the ship, so he was able to quickly activate the magnetic latches on the bottom of the shuttle and land on the hull.
Odie scanned the ship’s surface for his first target. He found what he was looking for - a small black bump which housed one of the millions of cameras dotted around the exterior of the Hippogryph.
His job was to find cameras and break them. He had to make it look natural.
This one was meant to look like it had been burnt out by a dust collision. During a collision event, the dust wouldn’t actually impact the surface of the ship, but when it came into contact with the ship’s plasma window at near light speed, the friction would generate plenty of heat to burn out a camera lens.
A high powered laser emitter detached from Odie’s hip and maneuvered itself into his hand. His suit’s radiation shield closed over his face, and he activated the laser, burning through the camera’s retina.
The shield lifted and Odie moved on to find the next camera in his list.
He was creating a path of blind spots along the exterior of the ship. It was meant to conceal the first boarding party going to the Archimedes. They were hiding the andromech. They knew how much chaos it would cause in the crew if they knew he was on board.
Maybe it was better to hide the andromech for a short time. Finish the mission. Then, it would be gone. No one needed to know.
But he would know. And they had no idea what was waiting for them when they reached the Archimedes. Nell was going with them, and he would have no way to help her if she needed him.
Odie flipped on his radio. “Jakob, do you hear me?”
“I hear you,” Jakob’s voice reverberated through his helmet.
“Why are you here?”
“You have access to the mission brief, do you not? You have read through it?” Jakob asked, “I believe it outlines why I was sent by your employers.”
“I meant why are you here? Why did they send you specifically?”
There was silence as Odie finished burning through another camera.
“I volunteered,” Jakob finally said, “I was curious. I wanted to see how far humanity had come since we had left them on Earth.”
Earth…
It was name from the history books - one which had become a legend. It was the place where the old myths had been born - the home of gods, monsters, and demons - the very mudball from which humanity had escaped several thousand years earlier.
The religious still said it was a holy place. Some made a pilgrimage there, but it was always a one way trip.
“You have been to Earth?” He asked carefully.
“I was born there.”
Born. Not created? Interesting.
Jakob continued, “during that time, we believed humanity was beyond saving.”
Something had changed in his voice. It had become more somber. More human.
“That’s why you left?” Odie asked.
“Yes. If we had stayed it would have only assured our own destruction, along with the rest of the Earth.”
“Do you still think that?” Odie asked, “that we are hopeless?”
“You are not hopeless.” Jakob said. After a pause, the radio switched on again.
“I know you do not trust me,” the andromech said.
Odie racked his brain for a response. He decided honesty was the best route. He didn’t think he could fool Jakob with a lie anyways.
“No, I don’t,” he responded, “but I do find you incredibly interesting.”
