Chapter Three

  The Hollow Moon

  “Do you think they will be okay?” Nellie asked Lucy as the shuttle Indomitable set out from the Emissary, en route for the distant moon orbiting the system’s second gas giant. The trial was fresh in her mind as Lucy took control of the shuttle, sending it on an elliptical course around Planet Haven.

  “They will be fine, Nellie,” Lucy smiled at her. “Besides, you need this break. If they can’t look after themselves for a few days, then we have a bigger problem.”

  “I suppose,” Nellie admitted, trying to shake off the worry she was feeling. Lucy was dead right about how much she needed a break from being Queen of the Nanite Imperium. “So, what’s so special about this moon?”

  “You’ll have to wait to find out,” Lucy grinned over at her.

  Nellie looked at her Silicate girlfriend, noticing how much she had really changed. Obviously, she had changed from being a small silver orb into an actual person, but more than that, Nellie noticed how different Lucy was from the woman she knew before what Paren insisted on calling the ‘egg-cident.’

  They were doing much better these days, but there was still a subtle distance between the two. In days past, Lucy would have flirted or leaned over to hold Nellie’s hand, but now she seemed hesitant to try that without Nellie taking the lead.

  Yeah, this holiday was something they both needed.

  Something to finish the process of moving on from the events of the past.

  Feeling a little better, Nellie reached out and took Lucy’s hand, leaning forward to peer ahead of them as the tiny dot orbiting the green gas giant resolved into a barren and lifeless moon.

  “Uh, yeah,” Nellie said, in her best attempt at sounding excited, “Looks great, babe.”

  Passing the looming form of the massive carrier-turned-mining ship Sparklight, Lucy curved their path to approach the moon from the bottom.

  Spatial orientations like ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ were difficult to decide on when dealing with bodies moving in space, but the mind did like those kind of labels. For the Imperium, as in many other places, they had assigned those terms dependent on the central star. It marked ‘in-system,’ and the orientation of the planets in relation to that star defined the up and down, with the moons taking their orientation from their parent planets.

  They could have used other systems, such as establishing a certain ‘plane’ that marked the central dividing line, but Nellie preferred this method, so that is what the Imperium used.

  There were advantages to being the Queen.

  Nellie’s initial impression of the moon had not improved as they got closer. Sure, it had a reddish color instead of grey, but other than that, it seemed as dull as Earth’s own moon. Rocks, dust, and bugger-all atmosphere to speak of. It certainly wasn’t her choice of vacation spot.

  She was busy planning out how she could use nanites to convert the surface into something close to a hotel when the shuttle dropped to scoot over the barren landscape, heading for what looked like a large mining operation.

  “So, uh, what did you plan on us doing on this vacation?” Nellie asked as innocently as possible.

  “Oh, you know,” Lucy winked. “A little exploration, a little cuddling,” The shuttle shot over the rim of the mine, angling down to show a pair of massive metal doors studded with crystals. “Maybe a little light archeology.” She chuckled as Nellie gaped. “Come on, let’s go change the galaxy.”

  Feeling a little stunned, Nellie watched the massive doors rotate, opening into three large pieces that the shuttle slipped through easily. As soon as they were inside, the doors closed behind them.

  Lucy hadn’t sent any kind of signal, Nellie knew, so the doors must have opened on their own. Remembering the thick rock that they had passed through, she was amazed anything buried that deep had worked at all, let alone that its sensors were still functional.

  Peering out the windows before giving up and hooking directly into the many sensors and cameras on the shuttle, Nellie saw they were in a massive airlock, complete with docks the size of football fields. The only ships in the Imperium that wouldn’t fit in here were the Imperium Class battleships like the Emissary or her own Harbinger. Whatever base they had built in here had to be truly massive. Nellie felt a thread of excitement start to rise as she looked around.

  The initial flash of worry that this was another hidden I.E.S. base had vanished before it could form; the technology on display here was simply beyond anything the bastards had used anywhere else, and the style was wrong, too.

  There was a sense of ceremony in the massive doors and the airlock as well. The metal doors looked like they were covered in silver and bronze, with something like black marble inlaid in intricate patterns.

  That was in no way I.E.S. style.

  Just as she was looking around for a good place to dock, the inner doors opened as the atmosphere levels rose to stable, life-sustaining levels.

  As the information washed over her, Nellie felt herself go blank… completely overwhelmed with shock.

  Lucy piloted the shuttle slowly out into the hollow moon while Nellie tried to believe the evidence of her own eyes and the Indomitable’s sensors. The entire moon was hollowed out, with a shining star in the center so bright that the Indomitable automatically darkened the viewport to compensate.

  That was far from the most amazing thing Nellie was seeing, however. Laid out against the moon's interior was a sprawling city divided into six segments, like massive orange slices. A complex set of color-coded energy shields covered each segment, giving each one its own shade.

  As they flew on, Nellie saw the large central area at the base, directly below the star. From up here, it looked like it had been designed to resemble a massive sun symbol, with a large circular center and long, thin arms that divided the base of each segment. In the very center of the area was a tall atrium-like building of white marble inlaid with severe patterns in dark metal.

  The exterior readings showed the atmosphere was completely breathable and even pleasant, although the oxygen levels were a percent higher than what they usually used in the Imperium ships and stations.

  “How is the star not burning up this atmosphere?” Nellie asked, thinking out loud more than expecting an answer.

  “It’s not a star,” replied. “It emits light and heat enough to keep this place comfortable, but there is no fusion source we have been able to detect. Whatever is powering it, the energy levels it gives off are completely off the charts.”

  “How completely?” Nellie asked.

  “That single source, whatever it is, could power the entire Imperium with some leftover, including all the ships.”

  Nellie let out an awed whistle, a hint of greed joining her excitement.

  Lucy put the shuttle down on an ornate landing pad on the closer side of the central atrium. From the ground, the place looked significantly more impressive, which was quite the feat. Large obelisks lined the way from the pads to an archway shaded by a column-supported roof shaped like falling leaves.

  No matter what the atmospherical readings said, Nellie was planning to get into her armor and space suit, just in case. That changed as she saw a familiar figure striding out of the doors to meet them.

  Vicky might not have been everyone’s idea of a miner, but Nellie had to admit she carried herself confidently.

  “No armor?” Nellie asked Lucy. “Is that safe?”

  “They’ve been here for weeks,” Lucy nodded. “Regular scans show no ill effects.”

  Trusting that they knew what they were talking about—Nellie didn’t recruit people who didn’t—Nellie felt calm as they exited the shuttle through the cargo bay. It was a habit Nellie got into during her time as a merchant captain on the original Bly, and it was not one she felt any need to break.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Simply put, walking down a ramp onto alien soil would never NOT be fun.

  Vicky gave them an awkward bow and then smiled.

  “Welcome to the universe’s weirdest moon.”

  /====<<<>>>====\

  As they neared the central archway that would bring them inside, a flush of power swept through the floor beneath their feet, and a pair of previously hidden holoprojectors cast an image above the arch.

  Museum of the Endless.

  Archive of the First Interstellar Empire.

  “Okay, that’s new,” Vicky stopped. “Any idea what it says?”

  “You can’t read it?” Nellie asked as she and Lucy exchanged a look.

  “No, can you?” Vicky asked.

  Nellie read the message off to Vicky, and then all three women watched as the strange script flickered, replaced with the universal standard, or as Nellie thought of it, English-ish.

  “What the fuck?” Vicky swore. “How did it do that? I mean, it’s standard now, right?”

  “This never happened when you visited?” Nellie asked Lucy.

  “No, never,” Lucy frowned. “Although I was only ever down here via hologram.”

  “Could this be some ancient Silicate place?” Nellie asked.

  Lucy looked around them for a moment and then shook her head.

  “You’re sure?” Nellie asked.

  “I am,” Lucy said, “The Silicate architecture hasn’t changed much. Ever. This is definitely not it.”

  “So weird,” Vicky shook her head. “But if this is some archive, they didn’t have much to show.” She led them inside, and Nellie could see what the captain meant immediately.

  The interior of the Museum of the Endless was pretty damn sparse for a civilization that was capable of building this place. Idly wondering if the museum was made by someone who had just found the place, Nellie followed Vicky as they walked through the vast, echo-filled space.

  The bottom level, where they currently were, was utterly outsized. If the other buildings they had dimly seen through the energy fields were not normal-sized, Nellie would have been thinking of giants. The central space alone could have hosted several football fields simultaneously, with the first landing wide enough for more. That landing was almost twelve meters above the floor, with another thinner one running around the base of the massive dome that made up the roof of the atrium itself.

  You would expect somewhere this grand to be decorated and clustered with impressive displays, but instead, there were empty floors, blank stands, and columns of stone and crystal.

  Her nanite-improved sight showed Nellie several large, oval arches set at even distances around the walls, with doors on either side that she assumed led to the ‘arms’ of the sun symbol this place was modeled after.

  As they crossed the floor toward the small camp set up on the far side, more holographic writing appeared above the arches.

  “Ignoring that,” Vicky said, shaking her head and hurrying on. “Let’s get you over to the camp to catch you up on what we know so far.”

  Vicky led them through the camp while the miners within made several wildly varying attempts at salutes. Some people were suited to the military life, and a lot were not. The people in this camp were in the second category, and Vicky kept up a constant stream of swearwords as they moved.

  “Idiots!” Vicky hissed as they passed another pair, who both gave the worst salutes in history in almost comical synchronicity. “I swear these bastards are actually competent. It may not look like it, but they are.”

  “They really don’t need to salute,” Nellie offered. “Really.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Vicky sighed and then swore as one of the miners curtsied as they passed. “But it makes them feel proud for some reason.”

  They arrived in front of a larger tent, and Vicky waved them inside.

  The four people inside paused, clearly mid-argument.

  “Problem?” Vicky asked quickly.

  “Ezra said I can’t cook,” a muscular woman said, crossing her arms and huffing.

  “No, I said I can’t eat your cooking!” A man—Nellie assumed it was Ezra— snapped, wiping his grease-stained hands on his trousers as he stood. “Completely different thing, you hear?”

  “What’s the problem with my cooking, then?” The woman glowered.

  “Nothing, I just have a condition,” Ezra replied.

  “What condition?” Vicky asked quickly. “Any medical issues need to be reported immediately.”

  “Working taste buds and a non-flame-retardent asshole.” Ezra chuckled, clearly pleased with his own joke.

  “Everyone, the Queens of the Imperium,” Vicky said, glaring daggers at a quickly blushing Ezra. “Queens, this bunch of walking embarrassments used to be my senior staff.”

  “Used to be?” A man asked. “What did I do?”

  “Nothing,” Vicky growled. “But I won’t want to leave witnesses when I use this pair as target practice.”

  “Hello,” Nellie said a little awkwardly.

  While the team reported the little they had managed to find out so far, Nellie got to know them a little better. The angry woman was Elsie Turner, a natural-born genius with a mining laser and an aspiring cook. She apparently lacked control over the level of heat she put into her cooking and considered anything with less than ten chilies in it ‘baby food.’

  Her counterpart in the argument was Ezra Morgan, and he ticked every stereotype about a miner off in one man. He was crude, simple, and a little saggy around the middle. For all his complaining, it was clear he ate enough to have a paunch despite the nanites present in his system. That was practically impossible, so he clearly enjoyed the food at least a little. He was their resident handyman, able to fix or modify just about anything they had ever come across.

  Finally, there were the two men who ran mining teams for Vicky, Al Davis and Sam Green. Both were apparently made of steel, able to wrangle anything that got in their way.

  Or at least, they had been able to until they arrived here.

  “Absolutely nothing we do lets us access the segments,” Vicky explained. “We’ve tried everything we can think of and gotten precisely nowhere.” She pulled over a hand-drawn map of the atrium. “We’ve been using the colors of the segments they lead to when talking about the irises. Yellow and Red will both open if we are inside a Boost Suit with the exterior sealed, but we can’t go in. Some force locks us in place, like the air turned to concrete around us. If we step back, it vanishes.”

  “Energy field or something?” Nellie asked.

  “Yes, but not one we can even remotely understand.” Vicky nodded. “If the suit isn’t sealed, or we approach without one, the doors stay closed.”

  “What about the other four?” Lucy asked.

  “Won’t open at all.” Vicky shrugged. “No idea why.”

  From there, she moved on to what they had found in the atrium itself. The report was similarly bleak.

  “We haven’t found a single display or anything like it anywhere around here. Believe me, we’ve looked. I could show you scans of every inch of this place to prove it as well. Nothing but a bunch of empty displays and solid columns of various widths and heights.” Vicky jabbed an irritated finger at the marked points on the map. “Even if everything else was taken, why the damn columns of stone or crystal. We’ve scanned them with every sensor we have and…. Nothing.”

  “Let’s go take a look, shall we?” Lucy suggested.

  Nellie followed Lucy out, marveling again at the sheer size of the building as they went to examine one of the pillars. This place was truly amazing, but she was wondering exactly how this was much of a vacation. Sure, they were both taking a break from running the Imperium, but there didn’t seem to be much to do here. There was certainly a lack of things like sunny beaches, drinks with umbrellas in them, or other holiday-themed items. Still, at least it was interesting.

  Unlike the columns they examined. Vicky had been spot on, with every sensor she or Lucy had showing nothing there but a solid chunk of stone or crystal.

  When no holograms or anything else appeared, they moved over to the first iris, dubbed yellow by the miners.

  As they approached, a pair of words appeared over the top of the oval.

  Early Empire

  To the left of the oval, a smaller set of glowing golden writing appeared.

  No technology is allowed above the level of the first age.

  Let your history guide you and find enlightenment.

  The First Age:

  The secret to the establishment of the First Interstellar Empire was the boundless mastery of the basic technology of the time.

  Through the use of primitive starships and the steel in our spines, we went out into the stars and brought them to heel.

  To the right of the oval, a series of images appeared one after another. Some of it Nellie could recognize, while others were too strange for her to even guess at the possible use.

  “Those look like the T-Rigs Haven uses,” Vicky offered. “And that is clearly a mining barge. Oooh, that looks like some kind of hovercar.”

  “Let’s check the other one,” Nellie said quickly, an idea starting to form.

  They hurried over to red, where the process repeated.

  The First Expansion

  No technology is allowed above the level of the second age.

  Inspiration pushed us to new heights.

  The Second Age:

  Much had evolved with our society as we stretched beyond the horizon to discover secrets unheard of at the time.

  Inspired by the past, but reaching toward a greater future.

  Do the same, and witness the greatness of the second age for yourself.

  The pictures appeared again, but this time, it took no time at all for them to start to recognize things. While the strange T-Rigs appeared, something similar to a Boost Suit did as well. There was also something that reminded Nellie of a tank or minelayer from back on Earth, but it seemed to be suspended from three large metal canopies, like overgrown umbrellas.

  “Okay, I think I have a plan, but let’s look at the others.” Nellie was pretty certain now and hoped that Cheape had some time to spare,