Arc 1, Chapter 8: The Archive's Secret
The quarters Sarah provided were more comfortable than Stellar had expected, a suite of rooms designed with human physiology in mind, with adjustable gravity, temperature controls, and even something approximating Earth-normal furniture. The crew had dispersed to their individual rooms for the night, exhausted from the day's revelations.
But Stellar couldn't sleep.
He sat in the common area, Mitchell perched on the back of his chair, studying the data they'd pulled from the Korath database. His grandfather sat across from him, occasionally offering insights from his seventy years of experience with The Confluence.
"You're looking for something that isn't there." James said finally.
"How do you know what I'm looking for?""
"A simple answer. A legal loophole. Some precedent that will make everything work out cleanly." James leaned forward, his mechanical arm resting on the table. "The Confluence has been doing this for thousands of years. They've closed every loophole, accounted for every argument, refined their system until it's nearly perfect. If there was an easy answer, someone would have found it by now."
"So what do I do? Not look?"
"We look for the hard answer. The one that requires sacrifice. Risk. Maybe even breaking the rules entirely." James's organic eye met Stellar's. "That's how you beat a perfect system. You stop playing by its rules."
Before Stellar could respond, his comm chirped. It was Thorne.
"Captain, you need to get down here. Now."
The urgency in her voice had Stellar on his feet instantly. "Where's 'here,' Commander?"
"The Archive. Sarah took me on a preliminary tour. Captain, there's something wrong. Someone's accessing restricted files, and they're covering their tracks. I think we have a Confluence infiltrator."
Stellar's blood went cold. "I'm on my way. Don't engage alone."
"Sir, with respect, you know I'm not going to wait if they're about to escape."
"Thorne..."
But she'd already closed the comm.
"Damn it," Stellar muttered, grabbing his jacket. "James, with me. Clark!"
Clark emerged from his room, hair disheveled but alert. "I heard. Let's go."
They ran through Sanctuary's corridors, Mitchell flying ahead as if he knew the way. The Archive was in one of the older sections of the station, a vast circular chamber that had been part of the original structure, predating even the earliest refugees.
As they approached, Stellar could hear the sounds of a fight.
They burst through the entrance to find chaos.
The Archive was a marvel, a spherical chamber with platforms at various levels, connected by bridges and lifts. Holographic displays floated throughout the space, showing data from countless civilizations. And at the center, on the main platform, Thorne was locked in hand-to-hand combat with something Stellar had never seen before.
It looked almost human. Two arms, two legs, a head, but its movements were wrong. Too fast. Too fluid. Its limbs bent at angles that shouldn't be possible, and its skin seemed to shift and flow like liquid metal.
"Shapeshifter!" Sarah's voice called out from above. She was on an upper platform, trying to find a clear shot with some kind of energy weapon. "Don't let it touch you! It can absorb DNA and mimic anyone it contacts!"
Thorne was holding her own, but barely. She'd abandoned her blaster, probably too worried about damaging the Archive, and was relying on pure hand-to-hand combat. Her movements were precise, efficient, the product of years of training. But her opponent was faster.
The shapeshifter lunged, its arm extending impossibly far. Thorne rolled under it, came up with an elbow strike that would have shattered a human jaw. The creature's head snapped back, then immediately reformed, unharmed.
"Captain, this thing is accessing the files on The Confluence's legal systems!" Clark shouted from a console. "It's copying everything...precedents, loopholes, communication protocols. If it escapes with this data..."
"The Confluence will know we're looking for ways to fight them," James finished. "They'll close any vulnerabilities we might find."
Thorne landed a solid kick to the shapeshifter's midsection, sending it sliding across the platform. For a moment, it looked like she had the advantage. Then the creature's form rippled, and suddenly it split into two identical copies.
"Oh, this is some bullsh..." Thorne muttered.
Both shapeshifters attacked simultaneously, forcing Thorne to defend against attacks from two directions. She was good, maybe the best hand-to-hand combatant Stellar had ever seen, but even she couldn't hold off two opponents that could reshape their bodies at will.
"Sarah, can you shoot it without hitting Thorne?" Stellar called out.
"Not while they're moving like that!"
Stellar looked around desperately. The Archive was full of ancient technology, holographic displays, and data storage systems. Nothing that seemed immediately useful as a weapon.
Then Mitchell screeched and dove from Stellar's shoulder, flying straight at one of the shapeshifters. The eagle's talons raked across the creature's face, and for the first time, it showed a reaction...recoiling, its form flickering and destabilizing.
"The bird's DNA confuses it!" Carmelon shouted, arriving behind them. "Mitchell's enhancements make his genetic code partially synthetic. The shapeshifter can't read him properly!"
"Then we need more confusion," Stellar said. He grabbed a data storage device from a nearby console and hurled it at the other shapeshifter. The device exploded on impact—not with force, but with a burst of holographic data that enveloped the creature.
The shapeshifter's form flickered wildly, cycling through dozens of different shapes as it tried to process the contradictory information flooding its sensory systems.
Thorne didn't waste the opportunity. She launched herself at the confused shapeshifter, grabbed what approximated its head, and slammed it down onto the platform with enough force to crack the metal plating. The creature's form destabilized completely, collapsing into a puddle of silvery liquid.
But the other one had recovered from Mitchell's attack and was flowing toward the edge of the platform, clearly trying to escape.
"It's heading for the ventilation system!" Sarah shouted. "If it gets into the ducts, we'll never find it!"
Thorne ran, but she wasn't going to make it in time. The shapeshifter was already at the platform's edge, its form elongating to slip through the vent grating.
Then Thorne did something that made Stellar's heart stop.
She launched herself off the platform, diving through empty space toward the lower level where the main ventilation controls were located. It was at least a thirty-foot drop, and while the gravity was lower than Earth-normal, it was still enough to seriously injure or kill her.
But Thorne wasn't planning to land.
Halfway through her dive, she grabbed one of the holographic display projectors, a physical emitter anchored to the wall. Using her momentum, she swung around it like a gymnast on a bar, redirecting her trajectory toward the ventilation controls.
She hit the control panel with her boots, smashing it with the impact. Sparks flew, and throughout the Archive, emergency protocols engaged. Blast doors slammed shut over every vent, trapping the shapeshifter halfway through the grating.
The creature writhed, trying to squeeze through, but Thorne was already there. She grabbed it by what might have been a leg and hauled it back through the grating with strength that seemed impossible for her frame.
"Nobody," Thorne said, slamming the shapeshifter against the wall repeatedly, "infiltrates," slam, "my," slam, "crew's," slam, "operation!"
With one final slam, the shapeshifter's form collapsed, pooling on the floor like mercury.
Thorne stood there, breathing hard, her hair disheveled, a cut over her left eye bleeding freely. But she was smiling.
"Off the record..." Stellar called down to her. "Didn't know you could do that."
"Off the record...." Thorne replied, wiping blood from her eye. "Neither did I. But we've got our infiltrator. Now someone want to come down here and figure out how to contain this thing before it reforms?"
Sarah was already moving, descending via one of the lifts with a containment device. Clark and James joined Stellar at the platform edge, all of them staring at Thorne in a mixture of admiration and disbelief.
"Your second-in-command is either brilliant or completely unhinged," James observed.
"Both," Stellar said. "Definitely both. Clark, can you determine what data the shapeshifter accessed before Thorne turned it into a puddle?"
Clark was already at the console. "It got into the legal precedent files. Specifically, it was looking at cases involving species that successfully challenged Confluence claims. There are only three in the entire database." He pulled up the files. "All three were overturned on appeal within a standard cycle. The species were eventually harvested anyway."
"So there's no precedent for beating them," Stellar said, feeling his hope deflate slightly.
"Not legally, no. But Captain..." Clark's expression changed as he scrolled through more data. "The shapeshifter accessed something else. A restricted file that's been locked for over two hundred years. It's labeled 'The Architect Protocol.'"
"The Architects?" James moved closer. "That's what the ancient species who created this sanctuary are called. The ones who left behind the gravity well technology."
"Can you access the file?" Stellar asked.
"Not without authorization from the Council. It's got more security layers than anything else in the Archive." Clark tried a few commands, but each one was rejected. "Whatever this protocol is, the Council really doesn't want anyone seeing it."
Thorne had climbed back up to the main platform via one of the maintenance ladders, the shapeshifter secured in Sarah's containment device. The silvery puddle pressed against the transparent walls of its prison, clearly trying to escape but unable to maintain enough coherence to do so.
"A shapeshifter infiltrator." Sarah said, studying the creature. "These are rare. Expensive. The Confluence doesn't deploy them unless they're looking for something very specific." She looked at Stellar. "They know you're here. They know you're looking for ways to fight them. And now they know about the Architect Protocol."
"But they didn't get the file." Thorne pointed out. "I stopped it before it could complete the download."
"Did you?" Sarah pulled up the access logs. "It was in the system for forty-seven seconds before you engaged it. These things can process terabytes of data in seconds. It might not have gotten everything, but it got something."
An alarm suddenly blared through the Archive. Red lights began flashing, and holographic warnings appeared throughout the chamber.
"Proximity alert!" Clark shouted over the noise. "Captain, Sanctuary's outer perimeter has detected multiple ships dropping out of FTL. Configuration matches Confluence enforcement cruisers."
Stellar felt ice form in his veins. "How many?"
"Six contacts. No, wait...eight. More arriving every second." Clark's face had gone pale. "Captain, it's a fleet. They've found Sanctuary."
Through the Archive's transparent sections, Stellar could see the exterior defense systems coming online. Weapon platforms emerged from hidden compartments, shield generators hummed to life, and throughout the station, alert sirens began to wail.
"All defense personnel to battle stations!" Commander Vex's voice boomed through the station-wide comm. "This is not a drill! Confluence enforcement fleet detected at the perimeter. All civilian personnel proceed to emergency shelters. This is not a drill!"
Sarah was already running toward the exit. "I have to get to my ship. The defense fleet will need every pilot."
"Go." Stellar ordered. "Thorne, you're with me back to the Pathfinder. Clark, James, Carmelon..."
"Already ahead of you, Captain." Clark said, saving the data from the console to a portable device. "If Sanctuary falls, we need this information to survive."
They ran through corridors that were now filled with beings rushing in every direction. Species of all types were either heading to battle stations or moving toward shelter. Children were being shepherded by adults, their cries of fear transcending language. The organized calm of Sanctuary had been replaced by controlled chaos.
"Captain!" Lieutenant Hayes's voice came through the comm, tight with stress. "We're detecting massive energy signatures approaching Sanctuary. The defense fleet is launching, but there are too many of them!"
"We're on our way, Hayes. Get the Pathfinder ready for immediate launch. Full power to shields and weapons."
"Sir, if we launch, we're committing to this fight. There's no going back."
Stellar glanced at Thorne, saw the determination in her eyes despite the blood still trickling from her cut. He looked at his grandfather, at Clark, at Carmelon with Mitchell now perched on his shoulder again. His crew of seventeen against a Confluence enforcement fleet.
"Then we're committed." Stellar said. "Because if Sanctuary falls, every refugee here will be harvested. And we're not letting that happen."
They burst into the docking bay to find the Pathfinder already powered up, engines humming. Other ships were launching around them, the hybrid defense fleet rising to meet the threat.
But through the bay's transparent shield, Stellar could see what they were up against.
Twelve Confluence enforcement cruisers, each one massive, bristling with weapons. And behind them, something even larger was emerging from FTL...a dreadnought-class vessel that dwarfed even the cruisers.
"Captain," Hayes said as they rushed onto the bridge, "that dreadnought... our sensors can't even fully scan it. Whatever it is, it's beyond anything in our database."
Stellar settled into his command chair, Mitchell immediately flying to perch on its back. Thorne took tactical, blood wiped from her face but still looking rough. Clark was at sensors, James at the engineering console, providing guidance to Chief Ramos below.
"All hands, this is the Captain." Stellar said into the ship-wide comm. "We're about to engage a Confluence enforcement fleet. I won't lie to you...the odds aren't good. But these people gave us shelter. They're fighting for their survival, just like we're fighting for Earth's. We owe them our support. Battle stations. And may whatever gods you believe in be with us."
He closed the comm and looked at his bridge crew. "Reeves, take us out. Stay in formation with Sanctuary's defense fleet. Thorne, target priority on weapons emplacements. Let's try to even the odds. Clark, I want constant updates on enemy positions. And Hayes, open a channel to all allied ships."
"Channel open, Captain."
Stellar took a breath. "This is Captain Bub Stellar of the UES Pathfinder to all Sanctuary defense forces. We stand with you. We fight with you. And we will not let The Confluence take this place without making them pay for every meter of space. Let's show them what happens when survivors stop running and start fighting back!"
A chorus of responses came back, some in languages the translator could handle, others in forms of communication it couldn't. But the meaning was clear: determination, defiance, unity.
The Pathfinder launched from the bay, joining the swarm of hybrid vessels rising to meet the Confluence fleet.
And as the first shots lit up the darkness between stars, Stellar knew that everything had changed. They were no longer just investigating The Confluence, no longer just looking for legal loopholes.
They were at war.
And the shapeshifter's infiltration, the timing of the attack, it all meant one thing.
"They were waiting for us to come here." Stellar said aloud. "The Confluence knew about Sanctuary all along. They were just waiting for the right moment to strike."
"Or waiting for someone important enough to make the attack worthwhile." James added grimly. "Bub, I think we just triggered the very thing we were trying to prevent. By coming here, by seeking allies, we've given The Confluence exactly what they wanted...a chance to eliminate both Sanctuary and Earth's only hope of resistance in one battle."
On the viewscreen, the dreadnought's weapon systems were powering up, energy readings that made the enforcement cruisers look like toys in comparison.
And somewhere on that ship, Stellar was certain, someone was watching. Someone who knew exactly who they were and what they represented.
The question was: had they played right into The Confluence's trap?
Or was there still a way to turn this around?
Mitchell screeched once, sharp and defiant.
"The bird says we're not done yet," Carmelon translated. "He senses...possibility. An opportunity in the chaos."
"Then let's find it," Stellar said. "Because we don't have another option."
The battle for Sanctuary had begun.