Chapter 14 #2
Melessra brought the data to Marina and Toren in the research caverns.
The green-scaled scientist's expression carried a quality Marina had never seen on her. It wasn’t alarm exactly, and not excitement.
Something between the two. The face of a researcher encountering data that didn't fit the model.
"The long-range detection arrays picked up something at the edge of the system," Melessra said. "It's not natural. The energy signature is structured with regular intervals, consistent frequency. It's artificial."
Marina looked at the data on the tablet. The signature was faint, barely above the noise threshold, but Melessra was right. The pattern was too regular to be stellar phenomena. Something was out there. Something producing energy in organized pulses.
"How far?" Toren asked.
"Outer system. Beyond the asteroid belt. It’s moving inward at a speed that suggests either advanced propulsion or extreme patience."
"Do we know what it is?"
"No. The signature doesn't match any known Weredragon technology. It doesn't match the human vessel profiles in the database either." Melessra set the tablet down. "It's something else. Something neither of us has encountered before."
The three of them stood in the research cavern and looked at the data, which was a tiny blip at the edge of a solar system that was already dealing with dying suns and a brand-new alliance and eleven humans learning to eat cave moss porridge.
Another unknown, another variable, another reason the alliance mattered.
"What kind of energy signature?" Marina asked, pulling the tablet closer.
The data scrolled across the screen to show frequency readings, spectral analysis and trajectory calculations.
Her scientist's brain was already sorting, categorizing, looking for patterns.
"Is it consistent with any known propulsion system? "
"Not Weredragon or human. The frequency pattern is…
" Melessra hesitated, which was unusual for her.
Melessra didn't hesitate. She stated facts and let other people hesitate about the implications.
"It's complex. More complex than anything our detection arrays have recorded.
Whatever is producing this signal has technology that exceeds both our species' current capabilities. "
"That's not reassuring," Toren observed.
"It's not meant to be. It's meant to be accurate."
Marina studied the data for another minute.
The signal was faint, but Melessra was right about the complexity.
The frequency pattern had layers, nested oscillations within oscillations, structured output that didn't occur naturally.
Something intelligent had built whatever was producing this signal.
Something with engineering capabilities that made the Vulcana look like a rowboat.
"How long before it reaches the inner system?" she asked.
"At current velocity, months. Possibly longer. The trajectory isn't direct, but it's following the system's gravitational lanes, which suggests either fuel conservation or reconnaissance. Something that's mapping the system before it commits to a destination."
"Or something that's being careful," Toren added. "Something that doesn't want to be noticed until it's ready."
The three of them were quiet for a moment.
The research cavern hummed around them. The instruments were processing data, the bioluminescent organisms were pulsing on the walls and the constant background sound of a civilization that was already managing one existential crisis and might be about to acquire another.
"We monitor it," Marina decided. "Full tracking, shared data between our team and Earth's observatories. If it's heading toward us, we need to know what it is before it arrives."
"And if it's hostile?" Toren asked.
"Then we face it together. That's what the alliance is for."
She looked at him. He looked at her. Through the bond, she felt his concern and his confidence in equal measure.
She felt the combination of emotions that defined who he was.
A man who worried about the future and faced it anyway.
A prince who'd been preparing for this his entire life without knowing what this was.
"Together," he agreed.
Melessra looked between them with the expression of a scientist who was watching two data sets converge and who approved of the trajectory. "I'll set up a monitoring rotation," she said. "Human and Weredragon observers, around the clock. If that signature changes, we'll know within minutes."
She left. The research cavern was quiet. The data point blinked on the tablet screen. It was a tiny mystery at the edge of everything, patient and unknown.
Marina filed it. She was good at filing things like observations, concerns and questions for later.
The energy signature would be addressed.
The threat, if it was a threat, would be met.
But not today. Today she had an alliance to build and a planet to help save and a bond mate who was looking at her with those blue eyes and that quiet smile.
"Worried?" he asked.
"About the energy signature? A little."
"About us?"
"No." She meant it completely. Through the bond, he felt her certainty, and his smile widened.
"We've crash-landed on alien planets, survived earthquakes, negotiated with kings, and faced down Khrelan across a council table.
An unknown energy signature at the edge of the system is just another data point. "
"That's very scientific."
"I'm a very scientific person."
"You're the most scientific person I've ever met, and I love you, and I love the way you respond to existential threats by calling them data points. It's the most attractive thing about you."
"More attractive than my eyes? You said my eyes were a stubborn color."
"Your eyes are a stubborn color. But your brain is a stubborn instrument, and the combination is irresistible."
She kissed him. In the research cavern, surrounded by equipment from two worlds, with a mysterious energy signature blinking on a tablet ten feet away. His scales flushed copper. His wings twitched. The bond hummed.
* * *
That evening, Marina and Toren walked to the Colony's surface entrance.
They stood at the threshold between underground and sky.
The twin suns were setting. The primary sun was first, its amber light slipping below the horizon, and the smaller secondary sun lingering above it, white and sharp and doomed.
The sky shifted from brown to amber to a deep rust, and the stars began to appear.
Not many; the twin suns' atmospheric shimmer obscured most of them, but enough.
Points of light in a darkening sky, each one a reminder that the universe was vast and that two species on one planet were just getting started.
Toren's arm came around her. His wing extended behind them both, creating a shelter against the cooling air. The rose-gold membrane caught the last of the sunlight and glowed like stained glass.