Episode 8

Slipship Modification

Analyst’s Note: The reopening of the slip point has allowed me to receive these logged transmissions from a cul-de-sac comms channel inside Periphery.

It’s been about 8 hours (UT) since the Invaders boarded and seized the Gallant. Most of the crew are still in post. A single alien commander has been marshaling a large group of the skittish creatures and the morph-flesh aliens, with one of the HT1s communicating via electronic translation device. The commander does not even acknowledge our presence, and attempts from Commander Xeres and others to create a dialogue have been ignored.

Many of the crew remain in post, and we are maintaining position within 10 hours (UT) of burn from the slip point to Astrapelago. Scans show that a number of other human ships are within the alien fleet, though many of their drive signatures show modification. Admiral Macavoy’s ship, Archangel Retribution, has escaped along with most of the Interhelios fleet. Commander Xeres is not confident that they will be back for us, but I am more hopeful, if only because they need to retake the slipway.

The Invaders are installing some of their own systems into the Gallant. On the one hand, they seem very basic, with lots of cables, physical interfaces—even mechanical components like solenoids and gear chains. On the other hand, they run off an advanced crystalline power system nobody has seen before, much like the weapons that were examined.

The first modifications were made to the comms systems, and we seem to be in contact with other Invader vessels. Perhaps some kind of friend-or-foe system to identify which human ships have been taken and should not be targeted.

Most of the work is taking place around the slip drives and navigation. TechOps Sun Baelstro has been providing us with updates from her observations. At first it seems that they tried to remove the slip drive, but it is integrated into the entire structure of the Gallant so they were unable to isolate specific components. Now they are building a secondary control system in the engineering decks, rather than using the interfaces on the bridge. We’re not sure if that’s to isolate the system from our control for security, or if they just don’t understand the way our piloting suite works. The translator has been asking lots of questions about the slip drive, the Limit, and what we know about z-space.

Having looked at some of their tech, Baelstro reckons the Invaders don’t have their own slip systems, or any z-space manipulation at all. That would explain why they haven’t gone through the slipway yet—they can’t. They need our slip ships to pass into Astrapelago. I wonder how many ships they lost in the Limit figuring that one out!

Anyway, we’ve agreed to a policy of non-compliance as much as possible. Baelstro is keeping an eye on things, though, and making sure the Invaders don’t do anything that compromises the safety and integrity of the Gallant. None of us want to be flung into the slip without a properly functioning drive, so we’ll either have to regain control of the ship before then, or help them make it work.