Archive of Our Own ^beta

“That,” Jessamine said as she eyed her stolen ship, “is the strangest ship I have ever seen, Cap.”

They were standing in the Key’s observation hallway, right outside of the docking station. Outside of it, right at the edge of the ex-United Colonies space station, was the ship Erin had stolen from the strange man she had run into in New Atlantis.

Erin hummed affirmatively. “Oh, it is,” she said. “I think it’s called The Scorpius.”

“The Scorpius? That’s an odd name,” Jessamine said. “Do you have any idea who built it?”

She shook her head. “Not a clue,” she admitted. “It has no visible markings. No manufacturer. The hull doesn’t even register as any element or material we are aware of.”

“Is it… safe?”

“Jasmine seemed to think so,” Erin replied. “You should see its inside, though. The command console doesn’t actually have any… Well, anything that’s recognisable as a command console. It works perfectly well, though.” She paused. “The only thing Delgado cares about is the fact the ship’s somehow strong enough to withstand electromagnetic storms.”

Jessamine’s face fell at the words. “Electromagnetic storms?” she echoed. “Does this have to do with the Legacy?”

Erin’s lips twisted into a sardonic smile. Her brief excursion into New Atlantis had been a disaster for almost everyone and everything, but at least she got the location of the forgotten Galbank transport ship. It was less than ideal as far as locations went, of course, but the ship she had privateered had turned out to be an unexpected boon.

Erin gestured for Jessamine to get closer to her. “As it turns out,” she whispered, “Kryx’s Legacy fell over Bannoc IV.”

“Bannoc IV?” her friend echoed with horror. “You don’t really mean that gas giant, do you, Cap?”

“The very same,” Erin affirmed. “I’m not sure what we would have done without the ship I stole, to be honest, but it should all work out just fine. Jasmine’s guaranteed it.”

And hadn’t that just been one of the strangest things she had witnessed? Erin didn’t think she had ever seen the Crimson Fleet’s head engineer smile quite as widely. Even Shinya had been interested in the strange ship; particularly by its systems, which were, apparently, excruciatingly difficult to so much as detect.

Erin’s good mood soured as she remembered the task ahead of her. “Say, Jessamine, I think it might be best if you stay here this time,” she said hesitantly. “I don’t know how the Legacy will be, but I don’t want to risk anything happening. It could be dangerous.”

“Good, I could use a rest,” Jessamine said good-naturedly. Then, more seriously, “are you sure? You might need help in there.”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “Besides, Fleet is family and all of that, but I’d like there to be someone I can trust to raise the alarm if I don’t reappear in a week. I’m not keen on starving inside a ship full of credits.”

Jessamine nodded. “You can count on me, Cap.”

“Great, thank you,” Erin replied. “I’ll be seeing you soon then, hopefully; with the credits.”

“I reckon many people here will be quite happy to see you as well.”

Erin’s lips quirked up into a wry smile. “Won’t they just?” she asked. “Do you think Delgado will actually share the credits?”

“He better,” Jessamine said. “Else his successor will be the one doing so.”

And that was that. Erin said goodbye to her friend and crewmate and entered The Scorpius, only to find herself momentarily dazed by its smooth, pristine interior. There were no signs anyone had assembled any single part of its interior, nor any production marks. Then there was its appearance, which felt too bright and clean—too unnatural.

Walking towards the captain’s locker, Erin placed the extra food she had purchased at the Key besides the only personal objects the ship’s previous owner had seemed to have—equation-filled notebooks and old Earth memorabilia. As she did, she found herself wondering at the ship’s lack of anything so much as resembling furniture. Just how did that man travel with this thing? she wondered.

He must have slept and eaten somewhere, clearly, but she had found next to nothing that showed he had done either of those things; at least within the ship. The only things she had been able to find were a collection of objects all but identical to her ill-acquired unidentifiable, unsellable own. To call him an avid collector of the damned things would be to sell his obsession short; he had even built a sizeable hologram depicting them at the centre of the cockpit.

Shame he wasn’t around when I was trying to get rid of the damn thing, she thought with frustration. That way, she could have at least made some money off of it. Instead, she now had an entire collection of them—nevermind that she still didn’t even know what they were for. Perhaps a weapon or some sort? she mused, watching as the shards of metal orbited around one another. A sculpture, maybe?

Erin’s hand reached into her jacket’s inner right pocket and felt the long shard of metal she had kept after her brief stint at Vectera. Worthless though it may be, it had at least found a second life as makeshift, half-passable armour; a role it had proven itself to be remarkably adept at. Perhaps she’d be able to fashion the stranger’s collection into shielding for her new, lightweight ship; something that could add to her ability to commandeer cargo and vanish unseen and unscathed.

Sitting at the command station, Erin began the strange process that was turning on the ship’s controls, made worse by the ship’s lack of any legible language. A few minutes passed until she undocked the ship and got it moving. 

Inputting Bannoc IV’s coordinates, she allowed the ship to begin its Grav Drive calculations. It didn’t take long, and before she knew it, she was well on her way to the gas giant.

She allowed herself to relax at the command station during the jump before mentally going over her plan. Docking the ship would not be a problem, but finding her way through the Legacy would likely be a very different story. Still, all she had to really do was to get to the Vault Control Centre, obtain a transfer module, and transfer the Legacy’s credit reserves. Ideally, she’d then have enough time to make a comfortable escape, but she was ready to rush out if need be.

All she had to do for now was wait in the sparse, barren ship. Its silence was completely unlike what she had grown used to. It was a physical, near-palpable thing. That it was only broken by the eerily soft hum of The Scorpius’ life support systems made it worse.

A chill of apprehension ran down Erin’s spine when, hours later, The Scorpius finished its journey to Bannoc IV and she began to approach the location Galbank’s data had listed, manoeuvring around the gas giant’s asteroid rings. Her eyes widened with unease as she caught sight of the looming shadow of the old transport ship. It hadn’t been left stranded alone; two ships—the one as black as night and the other a more boring, standard white and red—remained impossibly attached to its sides.

It really exists, Erin thought, feeling amazed. She had believed almost from the start that Delgado knew what he was talking about, but seeing it was different from believing. It’s really here.

This would change everything for the fleet; for everyone. They’d be a threat from now on—one the United Colonies and the Freestar Collective couldn’t ignore.

The Scorpius withstood the lightning generated by Bannoc IV’s electromagnetic field with ease and docked with no problems. Taking a deep, shaking breath in, Erin got ready to enter the Galbank transport ship. She did so ten minutes later, weapons at the ready.

The path to the Legacy’s Vault Control Centre was not an easy one. Whole hallways had collapsed, either due to decay or the harshness of the planet’s electromagnetic storm, and finding the right way to traverse to its interior was more difficult than she had initially thought. The ship’s fall had left its emergency systems powered on, and none seemed to have failed. Then there were the robots and turrets that had been left active, which didn’t make anything easier.

A few things were off, though. 

Not all robots were intact; some had been destroyed prior to her arrival, though it was hard to guess at when that could have happened. Anachronistic ammunition casings, all too modern to be from Jasper Kryx’s time, dotted the floor around the destroyed machinery. Then there were the scorch marks that she found on the floor of a large storage hall, which were unlike anything she had seen before; either in this ship or elsewhere.

The Vault Control Centre, thankfully, proved to be a different story. 

Transfer module obtained, Erin set about beginning the transfer of the Legacy’s reserves. As she waited, she pocketed the three tapes Kryx had recorded whilst trapped in the ship, the pile of credits at his side, and the few other things of value that she could see scattered about. 

It was only once the transfer was completed that things fell apart. The ship’s shields failed without the energy that had been left in the vault, and security alarms began to blare warnings about the ship’s impending collapse. With a wildly beating heart, Erin was forced to run back to her ship, retracing her steps. Chunks of wall exploded as she advanced, almost cutting through her on more than one occasion.

She barely made it. The Legacy collapsed under the intensity of Bannoc IV’s electromagnetic storm mere seconds after undocking The Scorpius from it. From there it was only a matter of powering up its engines and piloting away from its orbit and to the relative safety of another of system’s planets.

It was only then, when she had just started to feel relief at her escape, that a gloved hand grabbed her by the shoulder.

Erin jumped from the command station. She scrambled to draw her shotgun and point it at her unknown assailant, heart beating frantically, only to freeze at the sight of the laser pointing at her from just over a metre away.

It was the stranger in the black spacesuit—the one she had stolen this ship from. The same stranger who, for whatever reason, had recognised her during the terrormorph attack at New Atlantis. 

Erin paled. It was her ship’s real owner.

In an attempt to put distance between them, she retreated until her back hit the white raised platform that held the floating hologram. “You!” she yelled. How had he managed to get into her ship? To Bannoc IV, for that matter? “What—. How did you get here?”

The stranger chuckled darkly, with a hint of malice. “Yes,” he said with a metallic, distorted voice. The black cloth that covered his spacesuit shifted as he stepped towards her. “Me.”