Uncharted Space
Two space ships sat idle with only a few kilometers between them, one was the Anbruch an independent vessel captained by Tanja Dunst, the other was an ASE made supply ship, fitted with all sorts of equipment to manufacture things on the go. These two ships were paired together for a complicated mission, but normally they would not get this close, only when there was a need to deliver something from one ship to the other.
That delivery had just been made though, and it was not supplies, rather it was a few missing members from Tanja's crew that had ridden the ASE ship during launch. There was no time to relax however as a meeting was immediately called to discuss the situation.
Anbruch - Wardroom
Inside the crew was seated at a table with the captain standing at the head of the table. She had a serious expression and her voice was strong, to make sure her message got across.
"Thank you all for getting ready so quickly. I'm sure most of you can guess why I called you here, after having an incident so early in this mission there are some serious matters to discuss." The captain placed her hands on the table and leaned forward as she spoke. "I'll get right to it though. To start, Hana is going to be out of commission for a while, she's stable and will recover, but it will take time."
She then tapped a button on the table and on the screen behind her, a picture of the strange objects from before showed up. "We then have these things that almost ruined our attempt at installing the first beacon...Stefan."
At those words, the ASE scientist spoke up. "Yes, after carefully examining one that we salvaged I was able to understand some things about it. First what they are...they are a synthetic metalloid life form. To the naked eye, they look like just a hunk of metal, however, they have a type of nanomachine in them that rearranges the structure as needed. There is little I understand about them, but I can tell you their intelligence is very rudimentary, but you could consider them an inorganic life form...like some sort of space ant."
Tanja gave a soft nod "We have adjusted the sensors to recognize their material composition and not just mark it as miscellaneous debris. So we should be able to detect them in the future, assuming they are all made out of the same material. Also so we can stop referring to them as 'it' I propose we address them as 'Cloud Bugs' until we have a proper name for them."
She cleared her throat and stood up straight before offering a smile to her crew. "Now in spite of all this, your mission was a success, the first beacon was installed, and the cloud bugs have not damaged it. The signal is coming through strong. So good work everyone."
Two space ships sat idle with only a few kilometers between them, one was the Anbruch an independent vessel captained by Tanja Dunst, the other was an ASE made supply ship, fitted with all sorts of equipment to manufacture things on the go. These two ships were paired together for a complicated mission, but normally they would not get this close, only when there was a need to deliver something from one ship to the other.
That delivery had just been made though, and it was not supplies, rather it was a few missing members from Tanja's crew that had ridden the ASE ship during launch. There was no time to relax however as a meeting was immediately called to discuss the situation.
Anbruch - Wardroom
Inside the crew was seated at a table with the captain standing at the head of the table. She had a serious expression and her voice was strong, to make sure her message got across.
"Thank you all for getting ready so quickly. I'm sure most of you can guess why I called you here, after having an incident so early in this mission there are some serious matters to discuss." The captain placed her hands on the table and leaned forward as she spoke. "I'll get right to it though. To start, Hana is going to be out of commission for a while, she's stable and will recover, but it will take time."
She then tapped a button on the table and on the screen behind her, a picture of the strange objects from before showed up. "We then have these things that almost ruined our attempt at installing the first beacon...Stefan."
At those words, the ASE scientist spoke up. "Yes, after carefully examining one that we salvaged I was able to understand some things about it. First what they are...they are a synthetic metalloid life form. To the naked eye, they look like just a hunk of metal, however, they have a type of nanomachine in them that rearranges the structure as needed. There is little I understand about them, but I can tell you their intelligence is very rudimentary, but you could consider them an inorganic life form...like some sort of space ant."
Tanja gave a soft nod "We have adjusted the sensors to recognize their material composition and not just mark it as miscellaneous debris. So we should be able to detect them in the future, assuming they are all made out of the same material. Also so we can stop referring to them as 'it' I propose we address them as 'Cloud Bugs' until we have a proper name for them."
She cleared her throat and stood up straight before offering a smile to her crew. "Now in spite of all this, your mission was a success, the first beacon was installed, and the cloud bugs have not damaged it. The signal is coming through strong. So good work everyone."