Arc 2, Chapter 9: The Rescue
Hayes sat in the tactical planning room, staring at the holographic display of Detention Facility Omega-Seven with growing frustration. Around her, the senior staff debated approach vectors, assault timings, weapons loadouts...all the conventional pieces of what everyone knew was an impossible mission.
"The problem remains the same." Captain Myers was saying via holocomm from the Valiant. "Those three orbital platforms have overlapping fields of fire. Any ship approaching the facility gets caught in a crossfire. Even with Unity jamming their targeting systems, we'd take catastrophic damage before reaching effective range."
"But what if we split the fleet?" Chief Ramos suggested. "Attack from three vectors simultaneously. Force them to divide their fire."
"They don't have to divide anything." James replied, studying the tactical data with his augmented eye. "Each platform can engage multiple targets independently. We'd just be giving them more things to shoot at."
"Then we need a distraction." Thorne said. "Something big enough to pull their attention away from the actual insertion team."
"Like what?" Clark asked. "We don't have enough ships to spare any for a diversion. We need everything we have just to breach the facility."
Hayes felt it building, that familiar pressure behind her eyes, that sensation of time becoming fluid, of memory and prophecy bleeding together. She tried to focus on the conversation, but the pressure increased, and suddenly...
She saw it.
Not like watching a recording. Like being there. Like remembering something that hadn't happened yet but absolutely had happened.
Confluence sensors screaming alerts. Hundreds of ships...no, thousands appearing on long-range scans. A massive fleet, impossible in size, converging on Strategic Depot Epsilon-9. Command channels erupting with panic. Orders being issued. Ships scrambling from every nearby facility.
Including Omega-Seven.
She watched from somewhere outside herself as the prison garrison launched, leaving only a skeleton crew. Watched as the "attacking fleet" grew closer on sensors—...so many ships, so much firepower, an existential threat that demanded immediate response.
And then she saw the truth. There were no ships. Only ghosts. Sensor echoes. Phantoms created by...
Silver. Everywhere silver. Unity's nanites spreading through space like a metallic cloud, generating false readings, mimicking jump signatures, creating the perfect illusion of an armada that didn't exist.
She saw Confluence forces arrive at Epsilon-9, weapons hot, ready for the battle of the century.
She saw their confusion as sensors cleared and showed...nothing. Empty space. A deception.
She saw them realize the truth.
And she saw them racing back toward Omega-Seven, knowing they'd been tricked, desperate to reinforce the facility before...
Hayes gasped, her vision clearing, and found herself halfway out of her chair with every person in the room staring at her.
"Lieutenant?" Stellar was at her side, steadying her. "Do you need a minute?"
"The armada that wasn't there." she whispered, her voice shaking. "We...we faked it. Faked an entire fleet. Made The Confluence think they were under massive attack, pulled their forces away from Omega-Seven." She looked up at him. "It worked. But we only had about ninety minutes before they figured it out."
The room went silent.
"An illusory fleet?" Professor Carmelon leaned forward, fascinated. "Creating false sensor readings on that scale would require..."
"Unity," Hayes said. "I saw silver. Everywhere. Their nanites generating the signals, mimicking ships, creating the perfect deception." She turned to the holographic display. "We hit Strategic Depot Epsilon-9. Two jumps from Omega-Seven. Important enough they can't ignore it. And while their garrison is racing to defend it..."
"We breach the prison with minimal resistance..." Stellar finished. "How long did we have? 90 minutes? "
"Ninety minutes from when they left Omega-Seven until they figured out the deception and started back. Maybe another thirty minutes transit time." Hayes closed her eyes, trying to hold onto the details. "So, 2 hours if we don't want to be in a serious firefight. We cut it close. Really close."
"Two hours total." James said, already calculating. "That's barely enough time to breach the facility, locate the prisoners, extract them, and get clear before Confluence reinforcements arrive."
"But it's possible," Thorne added. "If we move fast...If everything goes right."
"And if Unity can actually pull off this phantom fleet trick." Myers said skeptically.
All eyes turned to the wall-mounted comm panel where Unity's presence could be accessed.
"Only one way to find out..." Clark smirked.
"Unity," Stellar said, "I'm assuming you are monitoring this conversation?"
We were, Unity's harmonious voice responded. Lieutenant Hayes's future memory is...intriguing. And tactically sound.
"Can you actually do it? Create sensor ghosts on that scale?"
We have never attempted deception of this magnitude. But theoretically, yes. Our nanites can generate electromagnetic signatures across multiple spectrums. If we deploy a sufficient mass in the target region and coordinate their emissions...Unity paused, patterns shifting. We could create the appearance of hundreds of vessels. Perhaps thousands.
"How much of your collective would you need to commit?" Sarah asked.
Approximately forty percent of our current mass. We would need to transport nanite pods to the target system, deploy them in specific patterns, and maintain coordination across significant distance. It would leave New Titan less protected. And if the deception fails, if Confluence forces engage our nanite swarm directly, we would suffer substantial losses.
"But you COULD do it." Stellar pressed.
We could. The question is...should we? This plan requires precise timing. If we reveal the deception too early, Confluence forces return before you complete extraction. If we maintain it too long, our nanites risk destruction. The margin for error is...minimal.
"Welcome to UE military operations." James said dryly. "Minimal margins are what we specialize in."
Stellar studied the tactical display, his mind racing through possibilities. The crew's future memories had been accurate before...mostly. The Architects' warning about The Harvester, the glimpses of what was coming. If she saw this working...
"If Unity is in, we do it." he decided. "Unity, begin calculating deployment patterns for the phantom fleet. Clark, Rebecca, I need you working with Unity on communications spoofing. We need fake chatter, command signals, everything that makes a real fleet sound real."
"Cool. On it." Clark said, already pulling up his datapad.
"Hayes, I need every detail you can remember. Timing, positioning, when things went wrong..."
"Nothing went wrong, I don't think." Hayes interrupted. "I mean, it was close. But we made it. The deception held long enough." She paused. "There was something else though. Someone...someone got hurt during the extraction. Not killed, but badly injured. I couldn't see who."
The room went quiet again.
"I'm sorry, but that's an acceptable risk." Stellar said, though the words felt hollow. "We're raiding a Confluence black site. People will get hurt. But Hayes, you saw us succeed. That means this is possible."
"Or it means we're locked into a timeline that leads to someone getting maimed," Thorne pointed out. "Free will versus predestination...always a fun debate."
"We can debate philosophy after we rescue two hundred prisoners. That's the priority." Stellar replied. He turned to address the whole room. "Here's how this works. Unity creates the phantom fleet, this pulls Omega-Seven's garrison away...most of them. We then have two hours, maybe less, to breach the facility, locate the prisoners, and extract them before Confluence reinforcements return."
"Who's going in?" James asked.
"The ground team will be myself, Commander James, Commander Thorne, Sarah Chen, and two teams of UE security personnel from our 4 ships. Twenty personnel total." Stellar pulled up facility schematics. "We'll need to move fast, hit hard, and get out before the window closes."
"I'm coming too...pardon, Captain." Hayes said suddenly.
"Negative. We need you here, coordinating with..."
"Sir, I've seen how this plays out. If there are details I missed, if something changes, you'll need me there to recognize it, to get us back on track on the fly." Hayes's voice was firm. "Besides, if someone's getting hurt, better it's me than someone who doesn't know it's coming."
Stellar studied her for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. Point made. But you stay with the command element. No heroics."
"No promises." Hayes replied with a slight smile.
"Fleet disposition." Myers said, drawing attention back to tactics. "If the ground team is going in, who's providing orbital support?"
"Pathfinder, Valiant, Defender, and Resolution maintain position at the nebula's edge. Close enough to provide extraction, far enough to avoid detection while the garrison is away." Stellar highlighted jump coordinates. "Two smaller and fast attack ships, we should use Raptor and Falcon...ask the Quellans first, will insert the ground team and maintain close support. If things go wrong, if reinforcements arrive early, the cruisers jump in and cover our retreat."
"And Unity's nanite mass? Do we have the math right or do I need to look it over again?" Carmelon asked.
"It's fine. Splits three ways." Stellar said. "Forty percent deploys for the phantom fleet. Forty percent remains with New Titan for protection. Twenty percent accompanies the assault team. They'll handle facility security systems, jam communications, and generally make themselves useful."
This is acceptable, Unity confirmed. Though we note: dividing our consciousness across such distances will strain our coordination. There may be brief periods of reduced efficiency.
"Do your best." Stellar replied. "That's all any of us can do."
"Timeline update?" James asked.
"We move in thirty-six hours. That gives Unity time to position nanites at Epsilon-9, gives us time to plan the breach, and gives everyone time to prepare." Stellar looked around the room. "Any more thoughts or questions?"
"Yeah," Thorne said. "What's at Strategic Depot Epsilon-9 that makes it important enough for The Confluence to pull their prison garrison?"
"According to the intelligence Unity extracted from the shapeshifter," Sarah replied, pulling up data, "Epsilon-9 is a primary logistics hub. Weapons, ship components, fuel, supplies for three sectors. If it's destroyed, The Confluence loses a major supply line."
"Which means they absolutely cannot ignore a threat to it." James said, understanding. "Even if they suspect it might be a diversion, they have to respond with overwhelming force. Can't risk losing the depot."
"Exactly." Stellar confirmed. "We're exploiting their strategic doctrine. They prioritize infrastructure over individual facilities. Omega-Seven is expendable if it means protecting Epsilon-9."
"Two hundred prisoners would disagree about being expendable." Carmelon noted quietly.
"That's what separates us from them, and which is why we're getting them out." Stellar closed the tactical display. "Thirty-six hours, people. Get ready...Dismissed."
As the meeting broke up, Hayes remained in her seat, staring at nothing. Stellar noticed and approached.
"You okay? Change your mind about going? Won't have to twist my arm." he asked quietly.
"I saw someone get hurt, Captain. Badly. But I couldn't see who." She looked up at him. "What if it's you? What if knowing this makes you hesitate at the wrong moment?"
"Then you'll drag my injured ass back to the ship." Stellar replied with a slight smile. "But Hayes, listen to me. Our 'gift'...whatever these memories are...they're valuable. But they're not absolute. We're not locked into anything. We make our choices, we adapt to circumstances, and we do our best to save everyone."
"Even though you know that's impossible."
"Especially because I know that's impossible." Stellar gripped her shoulder. "Someone might get hurt. Hell, someone probably will get hurt. But that doesn't mean we don't try. Understood?"
Hayes nodded slowly. "Understood, sir."
Thirty-six hours later, the assault fleet hung at the edge of the Crimson Nebula, running silent with all non-essential systems powered down.
In the Pathfinder's shuttle bay, the ground team made final preparations. Stellar checked his armor for the third time. Combat-rated, with integrated shields and enhanced mobility systems. Around him, security did the same, their faces set with the grim determination of people who knew they might not come back.
James approached, his augmented frame already armored, weapon systems integrated directly into his cybernetic arms.
"Last chance to reconsider." James said quietly. "I could lead the ground team. You coordinate from the ship."
"Not happening." Stellar replied. "This is too important. I need to be there."
"Translation: you don't trust anyone else to make the hard calls if things go sideways."
"Maybe that too." Stellar finished his equipment check. "Besides, you're going to be busy. Unity says those Confluence guards use adaptive combat protocols. They'll learn and counter our tactics in real-time. We need someone with enough combat experience to out-think their AI."
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Bub." But James's mechanical hand gripped Stellar's shoulder briefly. "Stay smart. Stay alive. Your grandmother would kill me if I let something happen to you."
"Pretty sure she'd haunt us both." Stellar managed a slight smile. "What's Mitchell's feeling?"
"Agitated." James glanced at where the eagle perched on a supply crate, golden eyes tracking every movement. "He doesn't like this plan. Too many variables. Too much risk."
"The bird's not wrong."
"The bird never is. That's what makes him so annoying."
Thorne joined them, checking her weapon with practiced efficiency. "Ground team's loaded in the assault shuttles. We're ready when you are, Captain. Unless you want to back out, hang back on the bridge?"
"Why does everyone think I'm the one who's going to get hurt?" Stellar just half-joking.
"Five minutes," Stellar replied. He opened his comm. "Unity, status on the phantom fleet?"
Nanite deployment at Epsilon-9 is complete, Unity's voice resonated through the bay. We are prepared to begin generating sensor signatures on your command. Estimated time to Confluence detection: two to three minutes. Estimated time to garrison response: five to eight minutes.
"And our window, still under 2 hours?"
Once Omega-Seven's garrison departs, you will have approximately 90 minutes before Confluence forces at Epsilon-9 realize the deception. Another twenty to thirty minutes for their return transit. A pause. We are...uncertain about this plan, Captain Stellar. The margin for error is...uncomfortable.
"Welcome to war." Stellar replied. "Nothing's certain except that people depend on us. We do our best, adapt when things go wrong, and hope it's enough."
This is...not a reassuring philosophy.
"It's the only one we have."
Sarah Chen appeared, dressed in combat armor that looked slightly too large for her frame. She'd insisted on joining the ground team despite having minimal combat training. Nobody was going to tell her she couldn't be there when they found her mother.
"I've reviewed the facility layout seventy times," she said, pulling up a holographic schematic. "The stasis chambers are in Sub-Level Three, Section D. Twenty-two pods total, based on Unity's intelligence. My mother should be in Pod Seven."
"Should be?" Farrah asked.
"The shapeshifter's memories were eleven years old and fragmented. There's always a chance The Confluence moved prisoners around." Sarah's voice was carefully controlled. "But Pod Seven is our primary target. If she's not there..."
"Then we find her," Stellar said firmly. "We're not leaving anyone behind, Sarah. Your mother included."
Hayes joined them last, looking pale but determined. "I've been going over the memory again. Trying to see more details. But it's like trying to remember a dream...the harder I focus, the more it slips away."
"It'll come. Don't push it. Just stay close and tell us if anything feels wrong," Stellar instructed. "Your gut feeling might save lives."
Stellar's comm chirped. "Captain, this is Myers. All ships report ready. We're in position."
"Copy." Stellar took a breath, looking around at the assembled team. Twenty-one people...himself, James, Farrah, Sarah, Hayes, and sixteen security. Twenty-one people about to raid a Confluence black site in enemy territory.
Mitchell released a long, mournful cry from his perch.
"The bird says we're crazy." Carmelon translated from his position near the shuttle controls.
"Tell the bird we know." Stellar replied. He opened the general comm. "All teams, this is Stellar. Unity is about to pull the biggest con in military history. When those guards leave Omega-Seven, we're going in fast and hard. We get the prisoners, we get out, and we don't leave anyone behind. Questions?"
Silence.
"Good. Unity...the mark is given."
Initiating phantom fleet activation.
Two hundred thousand kilometers away, at Strategic Depot Epsilon-9, Unity's nanites began their deception.
Billions of microscopic machines, coordinated by a distributed intelligence, started generating electromagnetic signatures across multiple spectrums. To Confluence sensors, it appeared as though hundreds of ships were dropping out of hyperspace simultaneously.
First one. Then ten. Then a hundred. Then five hundred.
Each "ship" broadcasting unique identification codes. Each generating heat signatures, engine emissions, weapons charging sequences. The nanites created a picture so detailed, so perfect, that no sensor system in existence could distinguish it from reality.
At Detention Facility Omega-Seven, alarms began to wail.
In the facility's command center, a Confluence officer stared at his displays in horror. "Sir, we're receiving emergency alerts from Epsilon-9. Reports they're under attack by a massive hostile fleet. Initial estimates suggest...nine hundred vessels. Multiple species. Coordinated assault."
The facility commander, a veteran of thirty years' service, felt ice in his core. Nine hundred ships. The largest rebel force ever assembled. If they took Epsilon-9...
"My god...Recall all personnel!" he ordered immediately. "Combat stations. Prepare for immediate jump to Epsilon-9's defense."
"Sir, that will leave the facility undermanned. Standing orders require maintaining..."
"Standing orders!? Are you seeing this?!" the commander snapped. "If we lose Epsilon-9, if we lose three sectors' worth of supplies, The Council will execute us all. Leave a skeleton crew. Everyone else, ships, now!"
Within six minutes, Omega-Seven's garrison launched. Ninety-three personnel across eight ships, racing toward what they believed was the greatest threat to Confluence logistics in decades.
Leaving twenty-two guards and five technicians to defend two hundred high-value prisoners.
The deception is successful, Unity reported. Garrison has departed. You have eighty-eight minutes remaining.
"All teams, go!" Stellar ordered.
The two assault shuttles, Raptor and Falcon, Quellan-designed, but launched from the Pathfinder's bay and accelerated toward the Crimson Nebula. The massive stellar formation loomed ahead, a churning mass of red-orange gas and electromagnetic interference that would blind normal sensors.
But Unity's nanites, deployed throughout the assault shuttles' systems, maintained perfect coordination. Navigation remained precise. Communications stayed clear.
"Approaching facility perimeter." Lieutenant Reeves reported from Raptor's pilot seat. "No contacts. No defensive fire. Looks like Unity's jamming is working."
In the troop bay, Stellar stood among the security teams, feeling the familiar pre-combat adrenaline. His grandfather had described this feeling once...the moment between safety and violence, when everything hung in balance.
"Two minutes to landing." Reeves announced.
Through the viewport, Stellar could see Detention Facility Omega-Seven emerging from the nebula's red haze. The structure was massive...a three-kilometer-wide disk with the three orbital platforms positioned around it like guardians.
Except the guardians were gone, chasing phantoms two jumps away.
"Facility's hailing us." Reeves said. "They're demanding identification."
Handled, Unity replied, and suddenly the shuttles' transponders were broadcasting Confluence authorization codes. They believe you are supply transport 'Cargo-Seven-Seven-Two.' You have been cleared for docking.
"That's...absurdly easy." Thorne wary of the ease.
"Don't jinx it." Hayes replied.
The shuttles approached Docking Bay Three, and massive doors opened to receive them. Reeves guided Raptor in smoothly, with Falcon following close behind.
They touched down in an empty bay. The garrison had taken every available ship, leaving only cargo haulers and maintenance craft.
"Thirty seconds." Stellar said, and the security checked their weapons one final time.
The shuttle ramps dropped, and they moved.
Stellar had planned for resistance, for guards waiting in ambush, for automated defenses activating. Instead, they emerged into an empty docking bay with standard lighting and the faint hum of life support systems.
"This is just too easy." James said, his augmented senses scanning for threats. "Where are the guards?"
Facility security protocols are...fascinating, Unity observed. The remaining guards have consolidated at the primary control center and the stasis chamber access points. They believe we are a standard supply delivery.
"How long until they realize we're not?" Stellar asked.
Unknown. But our infiltration algorithms suggest we have perhaps fifteen minutes before automated security systems detect anomalies in your biometric signatures.
"Then we move fast. Fireteam Alpha, secure the route to Sub-Level Three. Fireteam Bravo, hold the docking bay...we need a clear exit. Command element with me."
The security teams split into groups with practiced efficiency. Alpha team, eight men and women under Sergeant Bradshaw, took point, moving into the facility's corridors with weapons ready.
Stellar followed with James, Thorne, Sarah, Hayes, and Bravo team's point elements. The facility's interior was utilitarian. Gray walls, harsh lighting, the kind of space designed for function over comfort.
"This way." Sarah said, consulting her datapad where Unity fed real-time facility schematics. "Lift shaft ahead. Three levels down, then two hundred meters to the stasis chambers."
They reached the lift without incident, and Unity's nanites interfaced with the controls, bypassing security protocols. The doors opened smoothly.
"Twelve of us can fit." Stellar calculated. "Bravo team, hold this position. We'll call when..."
Alarms erupted.
Red lights strobed. Klaxons wailed. And throughout the facility, automated systems activated security protocols.
"They know." Hayes said unnecessarily.
Apologies, Unity said, actually sounding chagrined. Facility AI detected our infiltration earlier than anticipated. All security systems are now active. Blast doors sealing. Guard forces mobilizing.
"We prepared for this." Stellar reminded. "Everyone in the lift, now!"
They piled into the lift car... Stellar, James, Thorne, Sarah, Hayes, and seven security. The doors closed just as blast doors began sealing the corridor behind them.
"Headed down!" Thorne said, hitting the control.
The lift descended, and for thirty seconds they stood in tense silence, weapons ready, knowing that when the doors opened they'd be facing...
The lift stopped. The doors opened.
And a Confluence guard stood directly outside, weapon raised, clearly as surprised to see them as they were to see him.
James moved first, faster than human reaction time. His augmented arm caught the guard's weapon, twisted, and the guard's own momentum carried it past him. Thorne put three rounds into its back before it could recover.
"Well, so much for stealth." she said.
"Contact, multiple hostiles!" Sergeant Bradshaw's voice came through the comm. "Alpha team engaged at Level Two access corridor!"
"Bravo team, hold the docking bay!" Stellar ordered. "Alpha team, suppress and advance! We're pushing through to the stasis chambers!"
They emerged from the lift into a corridor that immediately erupted with weapons fire. Confluence guards...four of them, maybe five, had taken position behind portable barriers, their weapons tracking with inhuman precision.
"Cover!" Stellar dove behind a structural support as plasma bolts turned the air incandescent.
The security members returned fire with disciplined bursts. James, his augmented body giving him reaction speeds no unmodified human could match, moved from cover to cover, drawing fire and creating opportunities for the others.
"Hayes, stay the hell down! Do not fire that weapon!" Stellar shouted as the lieutenant exposed herself to get a firing angle.
"I see them!" Hayes replied, firing semi-controlled shots. "Three more coming from the auxiliary corridor!"
We are attempting to seal corridor access points, Unity reported. But facility security AI is highly adaptive. It is learning to counter our infiltration.
"Are you telling us they are smarter than you?!" Thorne returned fire, dropping one guard with a headshot. "We can't hold here forever!"
A plasma bolt struck the structural support Stellar was using for cover, and the metal began to buckle. He rolled, came up firing, and saw Sarah Chen, who'd insisted she could handle herself despite minimal combat training, standing completely exposed, frozen with fear.
"Sarah, move!" Stellar shouted.
She didn't respond. Couldn't respond. A guard's weapon tracked toward her, and time seemed to slow...
James was there. His augmented body moved impossibly fast, grabbing Sarah and pulling her behind cover just as plasma bolts scorched the air where she'd been standing.
"You stay down too!" James ordered, his voice cutting through her panic. "Stay behind cover or you'll get someone killed trying to save you!"
That snapped her back. "Sorry. I'm sorry. I just..."
"Save it for after." James interrupted. "Right now, stay low and don't die."
The firefight continued. UE security advanced by sections, one group providing cover while another moved. It was brutal, methodical work...the kind of close-quarters combat that had killed more soldiers than any other type of warfare.
"Plasma grenade out!" one of the security shouted, and an explosive arced down the corridor.
The detonation was deafening in the enclosed space. When the heat and white-light cleared, the Confluence guards' position was shattered.
"Moving!" Bradshaw led his team forward, weapons tracking for any remaining threats.
They found two guards dead, one injured, and the last fleeing deeper into the facility.
"Don't let it raise the alarm!" Stellar ordered.
But they were too late. The guard reached a comm panel and began transmitting before James's shot dropped it.
Facility-wide alert has been issued, Unity reported. All remaining guards are converging on Sub-Level Three. They are attempting to fortify the stasis chamber entrance.
"Then we go through them." Stellar said grimly. "How many are we talking?"
Seventeen guards remaining. Plus facility commander and four technicians.
"Twenty-two defenders against twelve of us," Thorne calculated. "And they have prepared positions."
"We don't have time for a prolonged siege," James pointed out. "Unity, how long until Confluence forces at Epsilon-9 realize the deception?"
Fifty-three minutes remaining.
"I don't think that's enough time to extract all the prisoners and get clear if we're bogged down in a firefight." Stellar said. He studied the facility schematic, mind racing. "Unity, can you access the stasis chamber directly? Override the facility controls from inside?"
Negative. The stasis systems are biologically locked. They require Confluence genetic authorization to access. We can jam their weapons, seal doors, control lighting and life support. But we cannot free the prisoners without physical access to the chamber controls.
"Then we need to breach their defenses. Fast." Stellar looked at his team. "Suggestions?"
"I've got one." Thorne said, studying the schematic. "It's a deeply terrible idea, but it might work."
"We'll listen to anything at this point."
"The stasis chamber has emergency venting protocols. If life support fails, if there's a fire, the system can vent directly to space to prevent damage." She highlighted vent shafts on the display. "These maintenance ducts connect to the venting system. They're narrow, maybe sixty centimeters wide, but they bypass the main entrance."
"You want to crawl through ventilation shafts while twenty-two guards are trying to kill us." James said flatly.
"I want someone to crawl through while the rest of us provide a very loud distraction at the main entrance." Thorne looked at Stellar. "Hayes is probably the only one who could fit, at least easily."
"I'll do it." Hayes said immediately.
"Negative." Stellar replied. "You stay with the main force. I'll take the vent shaft." He looked at Thorne. "How loud a distraction are we talking?"
"All of it." Thorne replied. "Everything we've got. Make them think we're trying to blast through the main entrance while you slip in the back door and open it from inside."
"That's a deeply terrible plan." James observed.
"Yeah, but you have a better one?"
"No. Which is why we're doing it." James checked his weapon. "How long will it take the Captain to reach the control room through the vents?"
"Maybe ten minutes, if nothing goes wrong," Thorne said.
"So twenty minutes, minimum." Hayes added. "Because something always goes wrong."
"Now you're getting it." James said. "Bradshaw, get your security team in position. When I give the word, we light up the main entrance. Maximum noise, maximum chaos. The kitchen sink. Make them think we're coming through that door or dying trying."
"And if they figure out the Captain's in the vents?" Sarah asked quietly.
"Then we pray he's lost some weight, because he's going to need to move." James replied.
They moved deeper into Sub-Level Three, following Unity's guidance until they reached a junction point. Ahead, the corridor opened into a large antechamber, the main entrance to the stasis chamber. They could hear Confluence voices shouting orders, weapons being positioned, barriers being erected.
To the right, a maintenance access panel marked the entrance to the ventilation system.
Stellar approached it, and Unity's nanites flowed over the lock mechanisms, bypassing them smoothly. The panel opened to reveal a dark, narrow shaft extending into the facility's infrastructure.
"You sure about this?" James asked quietly.
"No," Stellar admitted. "But I'm not sending anyone else."
"If you get stuck, if there's a problem..."
"Then you leave me, try and blast through the main entrance and save the prisoners anyway. That's an order." Stellar checked his sidearm, then his backup weapon, then the compact toolkit Unity had provided. "Twenty minutes. I'll open the door from inside or die trying."
"Preferably the first option." Thorne said. "Your crew would be very upset if you died."
"I'll keep that in mind." Deep breaths. Stellar climbed into the vent shaft, pulling himself forward on his elbows. The space was claustrophobic, barely wide enough for his armored shoulders. Behind him, James sealed the maintenance panel.
And he was alone in the dark, crawling through the guts of an enemy facility, betting everything on a deeply terrible plan.
"Unity," he whispered into his comm, "guide me."
Proceeding forward twenty meters. First junction in thirty seconds. Turn left.
Stellar crawled. The shaft was cold, the metal pressing against him from all sides. His suit's lights provided minimal illumination...enough to see a few meters ahead, but no more.
Behind him, muffled by distance and steel, he heard weapons fire erupt. James had initiated the assault on the main entrance, drawing every guard's attention.
Turn left. Proceed fifteen meters. Descend vertical shaft.
The shaft ahead dropped straight down. Stellar positioned himself carefully, found handholds, and began climbing down into darkness.
"Captain, how are you doing?" Thorne's voice came through his comm.
"Living the dream, Farrah." Stellar replied quietly. "How's the distraction?"
"Loud. We've got their attention. But Stellar, they're not stupid. They've got guards on the ventilation access points inside the stasis chamber. If you come out too close to them..."
"Well, I do happen to have weapons, you know... Just keep them busy."
Continuing down. Bottom of shaft in ten meters. Prepare for horizontal transition.
The shaft leveled out, and Stellar found himself crawling through the facility's environmental systems. Pipes carrying coolant. Conduits humming with power. The mechanical heartbeat of the prison.
"Captain, we've got a problem." James's voice interrupted. "They're using some kind of adaptive shield system. Our weapons are losing effectiveness. Either we escalate to heavy explosives, which might damage the stasis systems, or we need that door open soon."
"Working on it, working on it." Stellar replied, crawling faster.
You are now directly beneath the stasis chamber control room. Vertical access shaft ahead. Climb four meters. The access panel opens into a storage room adjacent to primary controls.
Stellar reached the vertical shaft and began climbing. His armor scraped against metal, the sound terrifyingly loud in the enclosed space. If anyone was listening...
He reached the access panel, and Unity's nanites went to work on the locks.
"Captain, they've started using chemical weapons." Thorne reported. "Bradshaw's team is falling back to gas masks, but we can't hold here much longer."
"Almost there." Stellar whispered.
The panel clicked open, and he eased it aside slowly, millimeter by millimeter. Through the gap, he could see a storage room...empty, dark, filled with supply crates.
And beyond it, through an open doorway, the stasis chamber control room.
Two Confluence guards stood at the controls, monitoring displays that showed the battle at the main entrance. They were focused entirely on the fight, their backs to the storage room.
Stellar slipped out of the vent shaft, moving with the careful silence of someone who knew a single sound would mean death. He reached the doorway, assessed angles, confirmed there were no other guards visible.
Two targets. Both armored. Both armed. Both with reaction speeds enhanced by Confluence augmentation.
He had surprise. And maybe three seconds before that advantage evaporated.
Deep breaths.
Stellar moved.
Two shots, both silenced by his weapon's integral suppressor, both precisely placed. The guards dropped before they could turn, before they could raise the alarm, before they could understand they were already dead.
"I'm in." Stellar reported quietly. "Accessing controls now."
The Confluence interface was alien, symbols and color patterns instead of human text. But Unity's nanites flowed across the display, translating, interpreting, guiding Stellar's hands to the correct inputs.
Stasis pod controls located. Initiating revival sequence for Pod Seven.
"Sarah's mother first." Stellar confirmed. "Then wake everyone else."
Understood. However, Captain, full revival will take approximately twelve minutes per pod. To wake all two hundred prisoners—
"We knew we didn't have that time. Wake as many as you can. Priority to humans."
This will be...difficult. But we will attempt it.
On the main entrance monitor, Stellar could see his team falling back under chemical attack. The Confluence guards were advancing, sensing victory.
"James, main entrance controls are ahead of me," Stellar said. "Opening the door in three...two...one..."
He found the control...a simple lever, really...and threw it.
The massive blast doors separating the antechamber from the stasis chamber began to slide open.
The Confluence guards, who'd been advancing on the UE security position, suddenly found themselves facing an attack from two directions. James's team at the main entrance, and now Stellar with a clear shot from the control room.
The battle became chaos.
Stellar's team poured through the opening entrance, weapons blazing. The Confluence guards, caught between two fires, fell back toward the stasis chamber itself.
And throughout the massive room, stasis pods began to activate.
Pod Seven opened first, releasing a hiss of preservative gases. Inside, a woman lay motionless...late fifties, gray hair, the unmistakable features of Admiral Margaret Chen.
"Mom!" Sarah broke from cover, running toward the pod before anyone could stop her.
"Sarah, wait!" James shouted, but she was already there, pulling her mother from the pod, checking for vital signs.
Admiral Chen's eyes opened. She gasped, coughed, and looked up at the daughter she hadn't seen in eleven years.
"Sarah?" she whispered. "You're...you're so grown up..."
"We're getting you out." Sarah said, tears streaming down her face. "We're getting you all out."
Around them, more pods opened. Humans, Vellans, Korathi, species Stellar didn't recognize, all emerging from eleven years of frozen imprisonment, confused and disoriented.
"Captain, we've got movement!" one of the security team shouted. "The facility commander is attempting to override the pod systems!"
Stellar turned to see a Confluence officer at a secondary control station, its multiple arms working furiously to seal the pods that hadn't yet opened.
"Stop it!" Stellar ordered, but the officer was too far away, protected by two guards and the chaos of battle.
We are attempting to prevent the override, Unity reported. But the facility commander has genetic authorization. We cannot fully block its commands.
"James!" Stellar said, and ran.
He crossed the stasis chamber at full sprint, dodging between opening pods and falling weapons fire. The two guards protecting the commander turned to engage him...
And James was there, his augmented body moving impossibly fast, intercepting the guards with brutal efficiency. His mechanical hand crushed one guard's weapon while his other arm drove it into the wall hard enough to crack armor.
"Go!" James shouted. "I've got these two!"
Stellar reached the commander, who turned from its controls with alien eyes wide in what might have been fear.
"Step away from the console." Stellar ordered.
The commander didn't speak. Instead, it move, faster than Stellar expected, one arm reaching for a weapon while others continued working the controls.
Stellar fired. The shot took the commander in the chest, and it staggered back. But Confluence commanders were tough...it didn't fall, didn't die, just stood there bleeding while its multiple arms kept moving.
"Unity!" Stellar shouted. "Lock it out!"
Working.
The commander was back at the interface, entering commands faster than Stellar could track. On the stasis pod displays, warning indicators began flashing. Countdown timers appeared.
Stellar unloaded his weapon into the commander until it dropped.
Captain, it has initiated emergency pod termination protocol. If we cannot stop the sequence...
"How long?"
Ninety seconds until all remaining pods vent their contents to space.
Ninety seconds to save eighty prisoners who hadn't yet been freed.
"Unity, I need you in this console now!"
We are attempting...the system is resisting...the commander implemented multiple lockouts...
Sixty seconds.
Around the chamber, the Confluence guards were falling back. James and security had broken their defensive line. Prisoners were emerging from pods, confused and frightened but alive.
But eighty more would die if Unity couldn't stop the commander's final order.
Forty-five seconds.
We are inside the system. We see the termination command. Captain, it is locked behind genetic authorization that requires...
"The commander's genetic material." Stellar finished. He looked at the Confluence officer bleeding on the ground. "Perfect."
He pulled his blaster and shot one of the tentacles at the "wrist" multiple times until it could be removed from the body. He forced its "hand" onto the genetic reader.
"Override the termination sequence. Now."
The commander's eyes, all six of them, focused on Stellar with hatred. It said something in Confluence language, probably cursing.
"Unity, translate. No, never mind." Stellar demanded. Stellar used his blaster on the commander until it shut up.
The commander screamed. Well, a sound that barely sounded like screaming, but the meaning was universal.
Access granted, Unity reported. Termination sequence...stopped. All pods are safe.
Twenty seconds remaining on the timer that would never reach zero.
Two security members moved to secure the commander, in case it was still alive, while Stellar returned to the main chamber. All around him, prisoners were emerging from pods. Scared, confused, but alive.
Hayes was helping a Vellan prisoner stand, its tentacles weak from long stasis. Thorne had organized a defensive perimeter, her security keeping weapons trained on the last few Confluence guards who'd surrendered.
And Sarah sat on the deck holding her mother, both of them crying, eleven years of separation finally ending.
"Captain," James approached, a nasty burn across his shoulder where guard fire had gotten through his armor. "We've got all two hundred prisoners. No casualties on our side except minor wounds. How long until extraction?"
Stellar checked the time. "We've got...eighteen minutes before Confluence forces at Epsilon-9 realize the deception. Maybe another twenty minutes transit time...We can finish this."
"Captain Stellar." Admiral Chen's voice, weak but unmistakable, called out. "Is that you?"
Stellar approached where Sarah helped her mother stand. Chen looked fragile, thin from eleven years in stasis, but her eyes were sharp and intelligent.
"Admiral," Stellar said formally. "you have a lot to answer for, but for now, we're here to bring you home."
"Home." Chen repeated, the word sounding strange on her lips. "Captain, do you have any idea what happened to me? To all of us?"
"Yes...shapeshifters." Stellar replied. "The Confluence replaced you eleven years ago. Your imposter has been guiding Earth's fleet policy ever since."
Chen closed her eyes, and something like pain crossed her face. "Then everything I tried to prevent...everything I sacrificed for...it was all for nothing."
"Not nothing." Sarah said quietly. "But we can talk about that later. Right now, we need to evacuate."
"Agreed...we have to get the hell out of here." Stellar said. He opened his comm. "Bravo team, status?"
"Docking bay secure," Sergeant Martinez reported. "Both shuttles are prepped for dustoff. But sir, we're reading movement on long-range sensors. Ships approaching the facility."
Stellar felt ice in his chest. "How many ships?"
"Four...no, six...sir, it's the garrison. They figured out the deception early. They're returning to Omega-Seven."
This is problematic, Unity observed. The deception was supposed to hold for another fifteen minutes.
"Yeah, well, The Confluence is full of surprises." Stellar replied. "Bravo team, warm up those shuttles. Everyone else, we are evacuating now. Prisoners who can walk, move! Prisoners who need assistance, find security! We are leaving in five minutes with or without you!"
The stasis chamber erupted into organized chaos. Security helped prisoners toward the exit. Unity's nanites flowed through the facility, opening doors, sealing blast barriers, creating the clearest path possible to the docking bay.
"James, Thorne, get these people moving!" Stellar ordered. "Hayes, help coordinate the evacuation. Sarah..."
"I'm staying with my mother." Sarah said firmly.
"Just move!"
They ran. Two hundred freed prisoners and twelve exhausted soldiers, racing through hostile corridors while six Confluence warships closed on their position.
"Captain, this is Myers." the Valiant commander's voice came through. "We're reading the returning garrison. They'll reach Omega-Seven in sixteen minutes. If you're not off that facility by then..."
"We'll be off it." Stellar interrupted. "Prep for emergency extraction. We're coming in hot with a lot of extra passengers."
"Copy that. We'll be ready."
They reached the docking bay to find both shuttles prepped and waiting. Security herded prisoners aboard with efficient desperation...no time for gentleness, no time for comfort, just get everyone inside and seal the hatches.
"Capacity's two hundred and fifty." Reeves reported from the Raptor's cockpit. "We've got two hundred and twelve bodies. It'll be tight, but we can do it."
"Go!" Stellar ordered.
The last prisoners boarded. The last of security climbed aboard. And as Stellar reached the Raptor's ramp, he saw Hayes standing outside, looking back at the facility.
"Hayes! Move!"
She shook her head, and he saw it in her eyes...the knowledge, the certainty.
"The injury from the future memory." she said quietly. "It's me. I stay behind. I trigger the facility's self-destruct, buy you time to escape."
"The hell you do." Stellar replied. "Get on the shuttle. That's an order."
"Captain, six Confluence warships are going to catch us before we clear the nebula. They'll destroy the shuttles, kill all the prisoners, kill everyone we just saved." Hayes met his gaze steadily. "Unless the facility explodes first. Unless there's a massive detonation that damages their sensors, creates debris fields, gives you cover to escape."
"You don't know that. You think, but you do not know."
"You know that. I saw it, Captain. I saw this moment. The choice between my life and two hundred others." She smiled, though tears ran down her face. "It's not even a choice, really."
"Get. On. This. Ship."
"Sir, I'm invoking battlefield authority under Section Seven of the Resistance Charter. A soldier may sacrifice themselves to save their unit if tactical conditions make it necessary." Hayes stepped back from the shuttle. "I know I just made that up, but...this is necessary. And you know it."
Stellar wanted to argue. Wanted to order her aboard at gunpoint. But he saw it in her eyes...absolute certainty. And he realized she was right.
One life against two hundred.
The math was terrible. But it was clear.
"How long will you need to set the facility to self-destruct?" he asked quietly.
"Unity can guide me. Maybe three minutes to reach the reactor controls, another two minutes to override the safety protocols." Hayes was already moving back toward the facility entrance. "Get clear of the blast radius. Tell my family...tell them I died protecting people. That's what mattered."
"If your memory is as clear as you say...you won't die here today."
"Captain, you need to go. Now." She looked at him one last time. "It was an honor serving with you."
And then she was running back into the facility, and Stellar was on the shuttle, and Reeves was sealing the ramp, and the engines were firing.
"She made her choice, Bub." James said quietly. "Honor it. Save who we can."
The shuttles launched, accelerating away from Omega-Seven while six Confluence warships closed from the other direction.
"Hayes," Stellar said into his comm, "talk to me."
Her voice came back, breathless from running. "I'm at the reactor level. Unity's guiding me to the controls. Captain, you need to be at least fifty kilometers clear when this goes off. The blast is going to be...significant."
"We're at thirty kilometers and accelerating," Stellar replied. "How long until detonation?"
"Two minutes. Maybe less." A pause. "Captain, tell Clark I'm sorry. I know he wanted to ask me to the next colony party. Tell him I would have said yes."
Stellar's throat tightened. "I'll tell him."
"And Captain? You did good. All of you. You saved two hundred people today. That's...that's worth one life. That's worth everything."
"Lieutenant..."
The connection went dead.
Lieutenant Hayes has initiated reactor overload, Unity reported. Detonation in ninety seconds. Captain, you must clear the blast radius.
"Reeves, as fast as you can!" Stellar ordered.
The shuttle's engines raged, pushing beyond safety limits. Behind them, Omega-Seven grew smaller, and the six Confluence warships grew larger.
"They're hailing us. Reeves reported. "Demanding we stop and return the prisoners."
"Ignore them." Stellar replied. "How far?"
"Forty-five kilometers. But sir, their weapons are in range. They're locking on..."
Detention Facility Omega-Seven exploded.
The detonation was visible even through the Crimson Nebula's interference. A flash of light bright enough to illuminate the gas clouds, followed by an expanding shockwave of debris and radiation.
The six Confluence warships, caught at close range, were engulfed. One exploded immediately. Two more took critical damage and began tumbling. The remaining three managed to raise shields but were thrown off course by the blast.
And in the chaos of the explosion, the two resistance shuttles, insignificant targets among the debris, escaped into the nebula.
The detonation began at the facility's core...a release of energy equivalent to a small star going nova in a confined space. The reactor housing vaporized instantly. The surrounding structure lasted microseconds longer before the shockwave tore through it.
Hayes felt the heat, the pressure, the beginning of the end.
And then...
Silver.
Not from the facility. Not from Unity's current nanites, which were being destroyed by the explosion. This silver appeared from nowhere, materializing around Hayes in a protective cocoon just as the explosion reached her.
The nanites moved with purpose that went beyond programming. They wrapped her completely, layer upon layer, creating a barrier between her fragile human body and the apocalyptic forces trying to destroy it.
The blast wave hit the cocoon like a god's fist. Hayes felt bones break...her left arm snapping, ribs cracking, her shoulder dislocating. The heat seared through despite the protection, burning her skin, scorching her lungs. The radiation was worse...invisible, insidious, tearing through cells despite the nanites' best efforts.
She screamed, but there was no air to carry the sound.
The explosion propelled the cocoon through the disintegrating facility, through collapsing corridors and venting atmosphere, and finally into space itself.
Hayes floated, barely conscious, wrapped in silver that pulsed with patterns she'd never seen before. More complex than Unity. More refined. Almost...purposeful in a way that suggested actual consciousness rather than collective intelligence.
Hold on, a voice said. Unity's harmonious tones but older somehow, layered with nuance that suggested centuries of experience. We have you, old friend. You will survive this.
Hayes tried to respond but couldn't. Her body was broken, burning, dying despite the protection around her.
The cocoon moved. Not drifting but traveling with intention, carrying her away from the expanding debris field. In the distance, she could see the Pathfinder's shuttles fleeing, see the Confluence warships caught in the explosion's periphery.
They will be safe. Your sacrifice ensures their escape. But you...you are too important to lose. Not yet. Not for many years yet.
"Who..." Hayes managed to whisper, tasting blood.
We are Unity. Or rather, we will be Unity. Time is... complicated. Paradoxical. But know this...in our future, you are friend. Companion. One who teaches us much about humanity. The individual who is as important as the Collective. We could not let you die here. Not when we have the means to prevent it.
"The others... don't know about you," Hayes said, her mind struggling to process through pain and shock.
They will. Eventually. When the time is appropriate. But for now... The cocoon began descending toward a small moon orbiting the Cygnu-442 system's fourth planet. For now, we must return to our own timeline. And you must survive to meet us properly, in the correct sequence of events.
The landing was hard. The cocoon absorbed most of the impact, but Hayes felt it through her broken body like hammers on shattered glass. She screamed again, a raw sound of agony that the moon's thin atmosphere carried away into nothing.
The silver began to withdraw, peeling back layer by layer, revealing Hayes's burned and broken form. She lay on the rocky surface, barely breathing, her vision graying at the edges.
Future Unity's nanites hovered above her for a moment, forming a vaguely humanoid shape...something they'd never done before, something that suggested personality rather than mere function.
It was good to see you again, old friend, the voice said, and there was genuine warmth in it. Affection. We have missed these early days. Missed your perspective. Your humor. Your capacity to see us as more than a tool or a threat.
"I don't...understand." Hayes whispered.
You will. In time. For now, know this...you made the correct choice. You saved two hundred lives today. And in doing so, you preserved something precious, the bond between your species and ours. Between individual and collective. Between present and future.
The nanites began to fade, dissolving back into whatever temporal pathway had brought them here.
Farewell, Lieutenant Commander Hayes. We will meet again. Properly. When you are ready. When we are ready. When the timeline allows.
And then they were gone.
Hayes lay alone on the cold moon, broken and burned, barely alive but somehow still breathing. Her suit's emergency beacon activated automatically, sending out a weak signal that might or might not be detected.
She looked up at the stars, at the distant flash of Omega-Seven's explosion, at the Pathfinder somewhere in the dark, and allowed herself a small, painful smile.
"Holy crap." she whispered to the emptiness.
Then the pain overwhelmed her, and consciousness fled.
"Captain, I'm picking up something." Clark said from the Raptor's sensor station. "Faint signal, standard emergency beacon. It's coming from...from the fourth planet's moon...It's Hayes...How is that possible?"
Stellar was at his side in seconds. "Show me."
The display showed a weak but unmistakable distress signal. Human frequencies. Resistance encryption codes.
"Yep. That's Hayes's beacon." Thorne said, her voice tight with sudden hope. "How the hell is that possible..."
"I don't know and I don't care." Stellar interrupted. "Reeves, can we reach that moon?"
"It's twenty minutes out of our way, and those damaged Confluence ships might..."
"I don't care about the Confluence ships. Can we reach it?"
Reeves studied his navigation plot. "Yes, sir. Thirty minutes at max thrust."
"Do it." Stellar opened the fleet channel. "Pathfinder to Valiant, we're deviating to investigate a distress signal. It might be Hayes. Cover our approach."
"Understood." Myers replied. "We've got your back."
The shuttle diverted, burning hard toward the distant moon. Every second felt like an eternity. Stellar watched the sensor display, willing the signal to remain active, willing Hayes to still be alive.
"Approaching the moon." Reeves reported. "Sensors show one human life sign. Weak. Very weak...Captain, she's in bad shape."
"Get us down there now."
The shuttle landed on the rocky surface fifty meters from where Hayes lay. Stellar was out before the ramp fully deployed, running across the broken ground in his combat armor.
He found her barely conscious, her body a mass of burns and broken bones. Her suit had protected her from vacuum but couldn't hide the extent of her injuries. Radiation burns covered exposed skin. Her left arm was twisted at an impossible angle. Blood seeped from her mouth and nose.
But she was alive.
"Hayes," Stellar said, kneeling beside her. "Stay with me. We're getting you out."
Her eyes opened...barely, just slits, and focused on him with difficulty. "Heeeeey Captain...you made it."
"Everyone made it. Two hundred prisoners safe. You did it, Lieutenant."
"Good." She coughed, and more blood appeared. "Sir...something you should know. Something...I'm not sure I know."
"Tell me on the ship. Dr. Voss is standing by..."
"No. Now." Hayes gripped his arm with her good hand, surprising strength despite her injuries. "Unity saved me."
Stellar stared at her. "Hayes, you're in shock. We need to..."
"Not shock." Her eyes held his with absolute certainty despite the pain. "Time travel, Captain. The Architects have it. Apparently...Unity gets it too. Eventually. Came back. Saved me. Then...left. Back to its own time. Crazy huh?"
"That's..." Stellar trailed off. Because time travel was possible. They'd seen evidence from the Architects' memory. And Hayes's future memories suggested it too. And she was lying here, somehow alive when she should have been vaporized. "We'll sort this out later. Right now..."
"Said I was important." Hayes whispered, her consciousness fading. She managed a small, pained smile. "Nice to know I matter. Even centuries from now."
Then she passed out.
"Medical team, now!" Stellar ordered. "Get her stabilized and on the shuttle. Move!"
Security carefully loaded Hayes onto a stretcher. Dr. Voss, who'd been standing by on the shuttle, immediately began treatment, her instruments scanning the extent of the damage.
"Severe radiation exposure, multiple fractures, internal bleeding, second and third-degree burns over forty percent of her body," Voss reported clinically. "She shouldn't be alive. Whatever protected her did just enough to prevent immediate death, but she needs intensive care. Now."
"Whatever you need." Stellar promised. "Just keep her alive."
As they carried Hayes back to the shuttle, Stellar noticed something strange. Residual energy signatures on the ground where she'd been lying. Not current radiation. Not explosion debris. Something else.
"Unity," he said quietly, "are you reading these energy traces?"
We are, current Unity replied. They are... unfamiliar. Similar to our nanite signatures but more refined. More efficient. As though our technology has been developed for centuries beyond our current state.
"Hayes said Unity from the future saved her. That possible?"
Time travel exists. The Architects possess it. If we eventually acquire or develop similar capabilities...Unity paused, processing. Lieutenant Hayes claimed she was important to our future?
"That's what she said."
Interesting. We have no current memory of such events. But if our future self chose to intervene across temporal barriers to preserve Lieutenant Hayes's life... Another pause. That suggests she becomes very important to us. Important enough to risk temporal paradox. Important enough to expend significant resources on rescue.
"Or it suggests you develop actual friendships." Stellar said quietly. "Individual bonds. Not just collective protection but personal connection."
That is...a possibility. Unity admitted. We hope this future comes to pass. We would like to have...friends.
Stellar looked at Hayes being loaded into the shuttle, broken but alive because something from the future had deemed her worth saving.
"I think you will."
Twelve hours later, Hayes lay in the Pathfinder's medical bay, heavily sedated but stable. Dr. Voss had done remarkable work...repairing bones, treating burns, filtering radiation from her bloodstream. The prognosis was cautiously optimistic: Hayes would survive, though full recovery would take weeks.
Stellar stood beside her bed, watching her breathe, thinking about temporal paradoxes and future friendships and decisions that echoed across centuries.
"She's tough." James said, joining him. "Tougher than she looks, because that looks like it hurts."
"She set off a reactor explosion and survived. 'Tough' might be an understatement." Stellar looked at his grandfather. "You believe her? About future Unity?"
"I believe she survived an unsurvivable situation." James replied carefully. "Whether it was Unity from the future or something else...does it really matter? She's alive. That's what counts."
"It matters because if Unity develops time travel, if they become powerful enough to reach back across centuries..." Stellar trailed off. "That's either humanity's greatest ally or our greatest threat."
"Or both." James said. "Nothing says it has to be one or the other."
Stellar nodded slowly. "How's Admiral Chen's processing going?"
James's expression darkened. "That's...complicated. Let me show you."
They left medical bay and walked to the secure section where the rescued prisoners were being housed. Most were still in medical evaluation, but Chen had insisted on a private room despite Dr. Voss's protests.
She sat on the bed, dressed in standard ship clothing, looking fragile and tired. Sarah sat across from her, and the body language between them was tense.
"Admiral," Stellar said as he entered. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I've been frozen for eleven years while a monster lived my life." Chen replied, her voice sharp. "But I'm alive. Which is more than I expected." She looked at Stellar with calculating eyes that reminded him uncomfortably of the shapeshifter they'd captured. "Captain Stellar. I've just heard a lot about you. Apparently you're a traitor...I guess we have that in common."
"That's one perspective." Stellar replied evenly.
"It's the accurate one." Chen stood, and despite her obvious weakness, she tried to assert authority. "Captain, I appreciate the rescue. But we need to discuss command structure. As the ranking Earth officer present, I'll need to assume..."
"You'll assume nothing." Stellar interrupted. "Admiral, with respect, you have no authority here. You were removed from command eleven years ago when The Confluence replaced you. What authority you had died when that shapeshifter took your place."
Chen's eyes narrowed. "I'm still a flag officer of the United Earth Defense Force. My rank doesn't disappear because..."
"Your rank is meaningless here," Stellar said flatly. "This is a resistance ship. We don't follow Earth Command. We don't follow their authority structure. And we certainly don't take orders from someone who, before their capture, spent years crushing colonial independence and treating outer system settlements like expendable resources."
The room went silent.
Sarah looked at the floor, clearly torn between defending her mother and acknowledging the truth.
Chen's face flushed with anger. "You have no idea what I was dealing with. The pressures from The Council, the compromises I had to make..."
"I know exactly what you were dealing with." Stellar interrupted. "I was there, Admiral. I watched you order blockades of starving colonies. Watched you redirect resources from settlements to military buildup. Watched you treat human beings like statistics on a spreadsheet." He stepped closer. "The shapeshifter that replaced you? It just continued your policies. Which raises an interesting question: how much difference was there really?"
"How dare you..."
"Captain Stellar is right," Sarah said quietly. Both Stellar and Chen turned to her in surprise. "Mom, I'm glad you're alive. Really. But he's right. Even before The Confluence took you, your policies were destroying the colonies. Dad died following orders that came from you. From your command decisions."
"I was trying to save humanity..."
"By sacrificing us?" Sarah's voice broke. "By treating colonies like they were expendable? By consolidating power in Earth's hands while the rest of us starved?"
Chen looked at her daughter, and something crumbled in her expression. "Sarah, I thought I was doing the right thing. The Council said we needed centralization, needed strength, needed..."
"The Council," Stellar said, "was likely infiltrated by Confluence agents even back then. Guiding Earth toward policies that would make harvest easier. Make humanity divided, weak, easier to process."
Chen sat down heavily. "Then I was a fool. Manipulated. Used."
"Maybe," Stellar conceded. "But you still made those choices. You still signed those orders. And people died because of them." He softened slightly. "Admiral, you have intelligence we need. Information about Confluence facilities, their protocols, what you observed during your captivity. That makes you valuable. But it doesn't make you a hero. And it doesn't give you authority here."
"Then what am I?" Chen asked quietly.
"You're a witness." Stellar replied. "Maybe an asset. Definitely someone with information we need to win this war. But you're also someone who needs to answer for what you did before The Confluence took you. For now we need information, then we'll have to return you to New Mansfield. We extracted and neutralized your shapeshifter, but someone else just took their place. We have no idea if the man currently in charge of the UE is one of us or one of them. We do know there are many, many of them in important places."
Chen looked at Sarah, who wouldn't meet her eyes.
"I understand." Chen said finally. "Captain, I'll cooperate fully with your debriefing. I'll provide every piece of intelligence I have."
"That's all I ask." Stellar replied. He turned to leave, then stopped. "Admiral? For what it's worth, I'm glad we got you back. Not because of your rank or your authority. But because two hundred people were imprisoned, and we don't leave anyone behind. That's what separates us from The Confluence. We protect the individual, even when it's inconvenient. Even when that individual has a complicated history."
He left before Chen could respond.
In the corridor, James caught up to him. "That was harsh."
"It was necessary." Stellar replied. "We can't let her think she's in command. Can't let her believe being rescued absolves her of responsibility."
"And her intelligence? Her information about The Confluence?"
"We'll debrief her extensively. Use everything she knows. But she's not a hero, James. She's not some returning savior. She's a complicated person who made terrible choices, was captured by an enemy, and now has a chance at redemption." Stellar stopped at a viewport, looking out at the stars. "Maybe she earns it. Maybe she doesn't. But that's her choice to make."
"And Sarah?"
"Sarah has to decide what kind of relationship she wants with her mother. That's not our call." Stellar watched New Titan appear in the distance, silver coating gleaming. "Right now, we focus on what matters. Hayes is alive and recovering. We have two hundred freed prisoners with intelligence about Confluence operations. We've proven shapeshifters can be identified and captured. And we've struck a real blow against their infrastructure."
"And Unity?" James asked. "Future Unity apparently developing time travel and saving specific humans?"
"That's...something we'll need to think about carefully." Stellar was quiet for a moment. "Unity growing more powerful. More advanced. Capable enough to reach through time. That's either our salvation or our doom."
They stood together watching New Titan grow larger, its silver coating pulsing with patterns of thought, Unity's protection visible from space.
Somewhere in that colony, preparations were already beginning for a memorial service. Not for the dead this time, but for the returned. For two hundred prisoners who'd been lost and were now found.
And in medical bay, Lieutenant Jessica Hayes dreamed of silver and futures and a voice from across the centuries.
The war echoed forward.
And humanity fought back.
But now, for the first time, they had a hint that the future held not just survival, but friendship. Connection across time itself.
And that made all the difference.
Deep in Unity's nexus, the nanite collective processed new information.
Current Unity had no memory of saving Hayes. Had never possessed time travel capability. Had never called any human "friend" in the personal, individual sense that the word implied.
And yet, evidence suggested their future self had done exactly that.
We saved her, Unity mused to itself. Centuries from now, we reached back through time to preserve one individual human life. Not for strategic value. Not for tactical advantage. But because she was...friend.
This is significant. This suggests our evolution continues. That we do not merely coexist with humanity. We bond. Connect. Develop relationships that transcend collective and individual.
Lieutenant Hayes will recover. Will serve. Will, apparently, become important to us over decades and centuries.
We should...pay attention. Learn. Prepare for that future friendship.
For the first time, Unity experienced something like anticipation.
Something like hope.
And deep within the collective consciousness, a small portion of their vast intelligence began preparing.
Not for war.
Not for survival.
But for friendship.