Because he had been the one that killed the thing, Kathra made it a point to bring the cook along. Something had kept him separate from the others when the invader had apparently taken over everybody else’s minds. That much was obvious from the security tapes she had reviewed.
And Kathra made a note to remember the extra uses of a fire extinguisher in a fight. There was dirty, and then there was rude. And she quite approved of rude.
“Haunt, hold here,” Kathra called as the ships circled the alien ship like a school of sharks.
Nothing had changed about the thing. It still resembled a Star Turtle, as Daniel had remarked. The bow was still pointed at exactly the spot that it had before, where WinterStar had been resting during the…
Could she call it an attack? Attempted kidnapping, perhaps? Something. Enough for a lethal response from the least dangerous person on her crew.
The Star Turtle lurked there in the darkness. If it had any weapon turrets aboard, none had emerged to track any of her hunters.
From here, the top and bottom were both slightly curved. Like half the curvature of the top had been stretched into the bottom, leaving the legs emerging from exactly the centerline, rather than along the bottom, like a sea-going reptile.
Kathra brought the nose of her craft around and triggered just enough thrust to push her aft relative to the thing. The ass end looked like a turtle as well. Flippers from where it would have had corners, were it rectangular. Stubby tail like a whip, trailing. No place where engine nozzles emerged from the carapace.
How in the nine hells did it get around without thrusters? Even the Septagon had engines on the aft facing. Seven of them across, of course.
Did this thing swim?
Worse, she had hoped that moving The Haunt around would allow the targeting computers to perhaps do a better job at scanning the interior of the creature than WinterStar’s eyes. But every scan reflected off the skin of the thing.
She could see the shape. Measure its dimensions in perfect detail, but nothing penetrated.
“Erin, tell me again about the airlock,” Kathra called over the team line.
“I triple-checked the logs, Commander,” her wingwoman said in a tired singsong. “There was nothing that docked and triggered the outer housing. He got in and pressed the inside panel to close the airlock, like we do when we’re in a suit.”
“He wasn’t wearing a suit,” Kathra said absently. “How did he get from here to there?”
“He flew,” Daniel muttered low enough that the mic probably didn’t pick it up. “But where was his suit after he arrived? Or is that the gem?”
“What was that?” Kathra cut the comm so she could have a private conversation with the lethal chef.
“How did he take control of all of your minds?” Daniel asked in a stern voice. “He was doing something, and it required concentration, because once I hit him, he lost it. Was it the gem? Iruoma said it seemed to be a power source of some sort, but banked. Was he controlling it? Was that how he did these things?”
Kathra opened the radio again and checked her transmission power.
“Iruoma,” she said simply.
“Here, Commander.”
“Take the Scrutinizer and scan the gem specifically,” Kathra ordered. “How much power is there contained it in?”
“Stand by.”
“Merde!” the woman continued a few moments later.
“Talk to me,” Kathra said calmly.
“There appear to be two sources of…something, Kathra,” Iruoma said in a voice suddenly much shakier than normal. “The gem itself is a massive sink of power, but there’s a second something behind it, I think. Like the gem is resting on the platinum housing and a second one is contained in the metal somewhere. The gem contains much power, but is not doing anything. Whatever is behind it is much brighter on the scanners, but not emitting external signals I can detect.”
“What’s that even mean?” Daniel asked, apparently loud enough for the microphone to pick up.”
“The signals are only visible if I almost touch the scanner on the thing,” Iruoma said. “If I’m even forty centimeters away, they disappear.”
“The gem and the frame are communicating?” Kathra asked.
“Maybe,” Iruoma said. “Never seen anything like it.”
“Haunt, return to the ship,” Kathra decided. “There’s nothing more out here we can learn, and if it’s not going to pick a fight, we won’t either.”
Kathra brought the nose of Spectre One around and began a burn. She was the farthest away of everyone right now, so she’d be the last one home, but they couldn’t start without her.
Whatever it was they were doing next.