For Though Dark They Stand,

[Ultimatum]

The Sovereignty lay silent in deep space, as if it were a dormant beast waiting for some great disturbance. All lights were off and the massive engines were still. If not for Ultimatum's previous knowledge, he would have concluded that it was a rather peaceful scene, especially with the breathtaking beauty of the stars surrounding it. The deepness of space was of stark contrast to many people. Some proclaimed it a beautiful and welcoming expanse, while yet others declaimed it as a horrifying abyss that was more fearsome than any living beast. The artificial being could certainly see both perspectives, now even more so. Under most circumstances his view was of the more positive form, but at the moment he was rather disturbed by the vacuum.

From his view aboard the small shuttle the Fate, he could see the seemingly lifeless ship ever so slowly drifting deeper into the unknown. The stars seemed to shine palely as if artificial. Ultimatum had to return to the Sovereignty. The Fate's hyperdrive had been damaged during the short flight out of the hangar and was now the only hope of reaching home. Even that aside, the droid wanted his ship back. The ancient vessel was a part of his life that he would not abandon to the ownership of the void.

From the rather small relay aboard the Fate, Ultimatum had sent out a distress signal. Nothing more than a short audio message could be transmitted. In the hopes of attracting aid sooner, the artificial being manipulated his voice to contain more fear and urgency than his usual voice would have had. "This is Ultimatum of the ship AS Sovereignty. We are in need of immediate emergency assistance. Our ship has been commandeered by pirate forces."

While the droid waited for some form of response, he thought back to the beginning of this little escapade.

-------------------

A hyperspace jump to a random point in deep space, the droid had been hoping to rendezvous with the Primogenitor. The fact that the ship had not showed up on schedule had not been a worry at the time. The occupants of that starship always seemed to have a loose concept of timeliness. When the small meteor had flown through the shields and bashed a hole into the hull near the engineering decks, Ultimatum had not been concerned. Such damage was easily repaired and was not debilitating to the Sovereignty. It became problematic when the sensors began to malfunction.

"Sir, sensors indicate unregistered life on engineering deck." The sensors monitor reported as he manipulated the scanners to refine the detection. "Rather blurry, maybe using some form of stealth."

"Thank you. Get Engineering on the line. See if they can check it out." The message was sent and Ultimatum waited for a report. Three of the droids on that level reported that they would investigate.

A few minutes passed during which Ultimatum found himself steadily becoming more peeved that the Primogenitor was not arriving. At this point the droid believed that either the navigators had been sent the wrong coordinates or the timing had been incorrect. Whatever the reason, he knew he was going to have a stern talk with Gara'Nets about that. When the droid communicated with the bridge, Ultimatum heard the report.

"Nothing here. The insight scanners show no stealth technology." That was the first indication of the disaster that was to come.

[member="Daniel Imura"] [member="Aleister Grey"]

 

[Daniel Imura]

"This is Ultimatum of the ship AS Sovereignty. We are in need of immediate emergency assistance. Our ship has been commandeered by pirate forces."​

​

Daniel let the message play over a few times as he munched on the space equivalent of a hot pocket. He was having one of his lazy days, and really didn't feel like doing much. However, each time the message played, he was a little more swayed. Maybe he could lend a helping hand. After all, he wasn't typically too fond of pirates. There were the good kinds, like a certain [member="Jack Sparrow"] he'd heard of here and there, but then there were also the kind that was only good for getting a blaster bolt to the head and being left to rot. There was also the fact that the voice in the message seemed... robotic. Was a droid sending out the transmission? And if so, where was his master, that they couldn't send the message? Or any other sentient for that matter? Not that he had anything against droids, but one had to admit the whole situation was pretty curious. Soon enough, curiosity overtook him, and he found his hands typing in the coordinates that had been given. Once out of hyperspace, he saw a large ship, which he assumed to be the Sovereignty, floating by itself, with a smaller transport nearby. Figuring the transport was the one to send out the message, he sent his own in return. "Sovereignty, my name is Daniel Imura, and it looks like you could use a hand or two."

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Harvey]

HV-3YA walked next to Ultimatum, his hands clasped behind his back. The android was dressed in a single-piece space suit, ideal for comfort when venturing the void. Not that he cared for comfort. Such trivial things were irrelevant. The bald man furrowed his brow at the situation at hand, then turned to Ultimatum and spoke in a polite, though cold, voice.

"I've ran through the possibilities. There is a near astronomical odd that pirates have boarded the vessel without detection. To put it in lament terms, it is highly unlikely that we are boarded by any organic being. Besides Elsa, of course."

Harvey glanced behind him to look at Elsa, his female companion. The two were inseparable since the fateful night they had ran away from her father, a controlling senator. She was likewise dressed in a simple one-piece flight suit, which did little to hide her lithe, youthful body. Her beautiful face seemed distraught at the moment.

"Harv, how much longer is this going to take? I don't like being stranded in the middle of nowhere."

"By my calculations, approximately 20.2 minutes."

Harvey turned back to Ultimatum and spoke to him again.

"There is more likely another anomaly, one that I can not pinpoint. Stand by. I will have a concise list of possible scenarios momentarily."

[member="Daniel Imura"] [member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

The entrance of a ship gave Ultimatum a moment of hope. This situation could be salvaged, the artificial hoped that nothing more catastrophic would occur and that [member="Daniel Imura"] was not some pirate looking for an easy ship to steal. It was entirely possible that the man was pretending to come help in order to have a better chance at stealing the ship himself. At the moment though, Ultimatum was going to be too picky about allies. "Thank you, Imura. Last I heard the pirates had sealed off most of the ship, that was about half an hour ago. I believe that some of the remaining crew made it to the hangar bay. If I may make a recommendation infiltrate through the Hangars and link up with who we have inside." The droid was lying on the part of the pirates sealing the ship. He had ordered it. As the danger had increase Ultimatum had decided the best way to slow the interloper was to lock the ship down. It had not been as useful as he had hoped.

-------------

"What would you say then? We have been boarded by an artificial? Or is there something other that you believe is going on?" Ultimatum was glad for [member="Harvey"]'s support in this situation. The artificial intelligence spoke to the comm officer of the Sovereignty, "Have them check the asteroid." The message was sent and Ultimatum waited to hear the report from his crew. Whatever was going on, it was worth some time to spare. He was still waiting on the Primogenitor.


@Allana Badeaux [member="Aleister Grey"]

 

[Harvey]

"Calculating. I don't believe the source of the intrusion to be artificial. The ship's sensors would have picked up the electo-magnetic signature from the intruder. I cannot create a likely scenario. There are not enough details. It is possible, though highly unlikely, that the breach was caused by something, or someone, who is out of the scope of my extensive database. Odd."

Harvey looked troubled at his analysis, a slight scowl on his face. Elsa Dawnset stepped forward, concerned as she walked up to Ultimatum, talking lowly.

"I've never seen him like this. I genuinely don't think he knows what's going on. Strange. Harv always has the answers. His database is the most up-to-date source of information for anything in the galaxy. Plus, with his AI...he's one of the smartest people in the galaxy. If he doesn't know what's going on..."

Nervousness started to work its way into the young woman, and sweat started to creep out on Elsa's face.

"We need to get out of here."

[member="Ultimatum"] [member="Daniel Imura"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum almost fell to the same uncertainty, but reprimanded himself and reminded [member="Harvey"] and Elsa, "It is entirely possible that a glitch has occurred due to the asteroid hitting an array. There is no definite proof that we are in any danger. If you feel inclined, I can have the Fate prepare to lift off giving you some safety. I am certain that the crew would enjoy being able to talk to someone other than each other."

The artificial being knew that strange dangers did lie out in the void of space, but at the same time he also knew that often the most prevalent danger in space was overreacting to the unknown. The droid was taking as close as possible a logical route to the problem. A minor malfunction, or even perhaps some small colony of microbes on the asteroid had been blown off by the impact.

Truthfully the droid was a little unsure about the situation, but there was enough in the situation that did not point towards a definite attack that he allowed himself to believe that the situation was entirely harmless. He just needed to wait until the droids responded.

 

[Harvey]

"I've taken the liberty of running through the ship's hull integrity. While there was a breach, no sensor arrays were damaged. Scans are running at 100%. Odd. Odd indeed."

The android paced the bridge of The Sovereignty, a hand clasped around his chin, deep in artificial thought. Elsa stood still beside Ultimatum, silent as her companion processed data.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

"You are correct, but that does not completely rule out the possibility of misreadings. Comms, what is the status of those droids?" The droid suddenly turned to the communication officer, who was busily moving through channels other than the one the droid was using.

"They are checking the asteroid over..." The robot stopped and listened to the chatter from the other side, "They say there is an unusual amount of smoke, but that it is clearing quickly with the air scrubbers, not that it matters to them any."

Ultimatum nodded thoughtfully. He spoke again to [member="Harvey"], "Do you think it could be a new microbe? Perhaps something that has adapted to space and was on the asteroid and proliferated in the oxygen rich environment of the ship." The possibility of it being such was small, but with the forms of life that had come to be in other worlds it was not entirely impossible. That could explain the appearance of the organic being on the sensor before dissipating and therefore disappearing. Of course the question was then why more bursts did not appear.

A sudden burst of activity from the droids came across on the comms, and the officer spoke again, "Team has found something, the asteroid had some form of pockets inside that have opened, supposedly from the heat in the ship. What was inside, if anything, the team has no clue. If the asteroid could be taken down to research..."

Ultimatum waved his hand as he answered, "Give the order. If there was anything inside that rock I want to know what it is." He looked to his artificial companion and his organic friend. He was not afraid of the situation but Elsa might be and if she was this would certainly not be helping.

[member="Daniel Imura"] [member="Aleister Grey"]

 

[Harvey]

"An adaptive microbe is possible. I do have several scenarios on file of similar situations. In one, a preserved virus, encased in an asteroid, landed upon a planet. The heat of entry into the planet's atmosphere awakened the pathogen, and it spread with virulent, lethal efficiency. In another, an organic being was encased in a ball of ice, and when it landed upon a world, he sat up and walked around as if nothing happened. The possibility of the asteroid that struck the hull of The Sovereignty housing anything lethal is minimal...but I would recommend we proceed with caution."

The android continued to scrub his database while Elsa resigned herself to her fate and sat down, sighing lowly.

"So it might be something that kills all of us or only me. Great. I like my odds."

[member="Ultimatum"] [member="Daniel Imura"]

 

[Ultimatum]

"There is little to be concerned about. It is incredibly unlikely that a disease would reach the bridge before it is identified. Further more, should it somehow escape the ventilation scrubbers, we have advanced medical equipment aboard on the lower levels of the ship." The droid was always concerned with caring for potential passengers and had paid much attention to design, to ensure that the Sovereignty was capable of handling most situations that may involved danger to organics.

The lights on the bridge flickered for a moment and the scanners spoke of a sudden change in generator power priorities. The comms officer stated, "Power generators in that area shut down. Engines shifting power to the level. Droids not responding. Sensors?"

"Droids are down. Still nothing organic in the area. Suggest sealing off the area and microscans." Ultimatum nodded his approval before glancing to @Harvey. Perhaps a mutable pathogen was the least of their concerns.