“I get what you mean about perspective. Maybe we can figure this out together,” she said quietly.
“As crewmates?” I grinned at her.
“Call it whatever you want.” I caught the playfulness in her voice, and she poked me in the arm. “Do you mind?” She pointed to the cockpit.
“Sorry.”
Holland, R11, and Luther were up there, and Luther excused himself from the pilot’s chair when I arrived.
“How’s everything?” I asked.
“Fine. We’re about an hour from Eris’ orbit path.”
I checked the radars and confirmed that Killer was in position near us. Jinx had recovered fully, and he cursed himself for not remembering that someone could infiltrate their cockpit from afar.
“Varn, let’s drop from FTL past Eris’ marker. We’ll do a system scan and see what we’re up against.” I waited to hear his response.
“Roger that, Pilgrim. Glad to be home,” Varn said.
The next hour was tense. None of us spoke as we mentally prepared ourselves for all the potential obstacles we’d face. Holland wanted to find his dad, and I was hoping Earth was intact. I clung to the chance that the communications had been blasted in an attack, but that our Defenders had done their jobs and prevented an invasion.
Eris was actually half a system away, closer to the sun in its oval orbit. Recalling it reminded me about the strange mossy aliens and the Matriarch. I had the vials on board and hadn’t needed to use them yet. I didn’t know if I ever would.
“Preparing to cut FTL, returning to Core drive for the duration,” Varn said.
I checked the time and couldn’t believe a full hour had passed. My palms were sweating as I began the process, and two minutes later, the view out the screen shifted as the normal thrusters took over.
I didn’t know what I’d expected, but this space was silent. Empty.
“Attempting to use long-range scans,” Jade said.
After a tense minute, Luther finally checked on them. “Anything?”
“Something’s wrong.” Jade sounded worried. “The long-range sensors are bounced off satellites at Titan, Mars, and Mercury. There’s nothing coming back.”
“Try again,” I suggested.
“Silence.”
“What does this mean?” Holland asked.
“That the satellites are destroyed or powered off.” Jade spoke softly.
“This vicinity is clear, Captain,” R11 said.
“Hawk, what are we doing?” Varn’s usual jocularity was missing from his tone.
I ran a hand through my hair, trying to decide. “We enter the system. Obtain a visual.”
“Roger that.” Varn ended the call, and our two Racers thrust farther in-system.
On my mark, we returned to FTL, making a hop to the Belt. It was the first line of defense, and if we sought any answers, I suspected we’d receive them there.
We arrived, cutting the modifications again. The Belt was a complex region, with dense cover at some parts and open space at others. I used the Primary-approved trajectory to maneuver from the outer edge toward Belt Station.
The route was extremely familiar, and this calmed me. I knew that in an hour, I’d emerge from the belt into the comfort of the Station. Major Hewitt Barnes would be waiting, supervising the construction of our fleet of Defenders and Velibar flyers. It had been just under three months since we’d departed, but I expected a plethora of new vessels to be assembled.
The minutes flew by, and when I checked my local radar, I knocked on the dash, thinking there was an error. “Crew, are you seeing this?”
Luther was the first to respond. “It’s gone.”
“There’s no Belt Station,” Jade whispered.
I stared at the radar, and when we entered the region, the planetoids and asteroids giving way to a large section of open space, I couldn’t believe it. Pieces of the Station littered the area. It had been completely obliterated.
“Hawk, we’re in trouble,” Varn said almost instantly.
We couldn’t use the long-range sensors to check on Earth, but we could shift to Saturn. Maybe we weren’t too late. I wanted to convey this to the others, but I couldn’t find my voice.
“Search for signs of life,” I ordered R11. “Someone has to be out here.” There were protocols in place, including safety cases. A space station like the one at the Belt would have over a hundred of the units.
They didn’t show up on the common radars, so I asked Jade to filter for their specific beacon. We had one result, five hundred kilometers away. “That’s it?” I had her try again.
“I’m sorry. Only one is registering,” Jade said.
“Whoever attacked the Station came fast.” Luther cleared his throat. We were all stunned into disbelief.
“I wish we knew if they had a chance to evacuate.” I almost ran an organic scan of the area but decided against it.
“You guys pick up the case’s signal?” Varn asked.
“We did. Approaching now. You want to provide backup?” I was already flying into the debris, letting small bits bounce from our Racer’s shields.
For most of the trek, we pierced through numerous pieces of the station, and R11 identified some of the materials as matching the Defenders. Whoever was in the case might be able to give us answers.
They’d been created as a safety measure at the mines. The ones at Belt Station were there because of a possible balancer issue. The older model stations fell out of stability, and one had crashed against the gravitational pull of a large planetoid. The cases provided a protective shell against asteroids, radiation, and countless other possible issues.
I didn’t like the fact that only one had been deployed. It spoke volumes. The station had been ambushed.
“We were here when the pirates came for the Defenders,” Luther said. “They were prepared for something like that. We saw to it.”
“But they didn’t have us to blast those bastards away,” Varn boasted.
“Barnes knew what he was doing,” Luther told the Sage pilot.
“Then what do you call this?” Varn went quiet as we neared the target. It was shaped like an almond, the exterior ridged gray metal.
“Jade, can you connect?”
