Countdown

As Captain Kallou walked through the ship's corridors, his boots clanged on the metal flooring, the sound echoing while mixing with the constant humming from the hyperdrive. He caught none of it, his earbuds filtering out all non-vocal sounds while playing some sensor noises to help him keep his focus. A part of his mind analysed the sounds, searching for any anomalies despite knowing there would be none. Practice for the long trip ahead.

On his datapad, he went through the inventory list, verifying the latest changes his bosun had made to the manifest. Four Wolves holding sixteen Hoppers, eight Ravens to accompany them, as well as all the supplies needed to operate said starships for two years. Normally, he would consider this massive amount of redundancy beyond excessive. In his entire career, he only had needed a second redundancy twice. Now, even triple redundancy made him feel insecure.

As he reached the dock, he greeted the crew members loading up the crates with supplies, preparing to send them to the ships. Verifying the labels with his list, he chose to ignore the presence of stormshine barrels and bottles, though he did falsify some weights on his list. Best that the final mass calculations would work out, even if it involved the presence of morale-boosting contraband.

Kallou suppressed the urge to triple-check the list again. His crew had checked as well, and the bosun had never let him down. To distract himself, he looked out the window. Out there he saw the defense ships, rotating around the research vessels in a spherical formation. The ships guaranteed safety, but that in turn made him worried. Out there, they would be on their own. Complacency would breed danger. He hoped his crew would take the threat serious.

Inbetween his current vessel and the defense sphere, he saw his fleet. All fresh off the shipyard, a shipyard that Thales Station would never admit possessing. He felt strangely proud of being in charge, despite knowing he would have to share the ships with Stormfarers they would soon pick up. All vetted carefully, but still not his to command.

As final distraction, he made a gesture at his AR controls. Recognising the command, his earbuds switched their sound source, loading in the recordings they were going to investigate. As his eyes danced over his ships, his mind picked up the anomaly within the noise. There it was, that strange flow, one the machines failed to properly consider anything special. A presence which he still could pick up, with a potential that justified this endeavour. The sound that was about to launch a dozen ships. Subconsciously, his mouth turned into a smile.