Space Odyssey: Spectre

"Well you look absolutely exhausted." Jace told Taylor Hielo as she staggered into the briefing room. She had a stack of datapads held up to her chest.

The Judas docked with the Anvil. Jace and Nina came back aboard and properly got cleaned up and ready. Then they had to report to the briefing ready room for a meeting with Taylor about the gravitational anomalies in this system.

The meeting was not classified like it was before when they went to the Labyrinth. So the meeting would obviously end up having a lot more people in it. This included the captain of the Judas and a few of his officers along with Hammers and a few of his upper level officers. Then there was Jace's entire unit. Vana, the Woltar intelligence agent that was stationed aboard the Anvil for the time being. As well as dozens of officers and engineers from the Anvil who were curious about the anomalies in the system.

He was sitting near the holotable since he was one of the more high ranking officers present. Sitting next to him on one side was Nina who was peacefully sleeping. While on his other side was Vana who had been glaring at him since he entered the room. He had a feeling she could smell another woman on him. He recalls seeing something about Woltar being able to pick up on lingering scents.

"I am more than exhausted. I am spent." Taylor told him as she dumped her stack of datapads on the holotable. She then began sorting through all of the datapads. "Now let's see this is the meeting about the gravitational anomalies. Ah! Here we go."

She took a minute to shove a datapad into the receptacle in the holotable. Then a bunch of charts, graphs, and pictures appeared above the holotable. It was an unorganized mess as far as Jace could tell. But he knew that Taylor had a system, so he just waited a moment.

"Okay… so the gravitational anomalies we are seeing because of the formation of an exploding star at the same time as a blackhole is sucking it in. Which in turn created a loop of spent energy. At least as far as the energy signatures are concerned. But I do not think that is the case."

She pulled up a picture of the glowing blackhole. It had a white edge that almost shined. "If I am right, then an ancient species either built something around the star or set off a device near it. Either way it created a distortion in space that does not just suck everything into it. If I am right then the device was a gravity device that was supposed to stabilize the star before it exploded."

"It worked and delayed the star's detonation but they failed to account for the requirement of additional mass. Which is why it appears as if there is a blackhole. It is sucking in mass to power the machine or reaction."

"But at the same time there were other high-tech devices or stations in the system that it likely could not suck in. So I believe that the reaction between these stations are causing the other additional anomalies." She brought up a chart of the system.

The chart had all of the noted anomalies and their approximate locations. Most of the records came from a study that the Vexical Empire did of the system.

"After taking several scans and studying the records I noticed a pattern." She then brought up an overlay for the chart of the system. It showed three points away from the glowing blackhole that were in a rotational orbit like it was a normal system. "There are three of these stations in the system."

An engineer raised his hand like he was in a classroom for some reason. Then Taylor pointed at him, "you have a question?" That was why he raised his hand, Taylor must have done a few of these meetings and always treated it like she was teaching a lesson.

"Yeah, a few actually. Why can we not see them? Why can we not pick them up on our scans? Also how does that explain the anomalies?" The engineer asked.

"I was getting to those things." Taylor seemed like she was starting to wake up as she spoke more. "We cannot see them because of the reaction between the gravitational pull of the star-blackhole anomaly thingy and the station's shielding. It acts differently to our own camouflage technology in that the light is forcefully bent around it." She then clicked a button and pulled up a picture of space.

Jace noticed something odd almost immediately. Taylor glanced at him and chuckled at his expression. "I see Spectre Jace has noticed. Would you like to point it out?"

Jace sighed, "You can see in this picture that the space is forcefully bent around something. In a larger setting you might miss it but there are several stars that look like they are stretching towards the top or bottom. Which is probably where the shielding originates."

There were murmurs and whispers as people began looking over it. Most of them were writing down ideas and discussing the feasibility of using this on a smaller scale. But a few others were discussing ways to detect something like this.

"Correct!" Taylor then clicked another button going back to the chart of the system. "Now as for the station avoiding our scanning technology. I can only make an assumption that part of these stations' shielding is resistant to our scanning technology. That or the anomaly in the center of the system is absorbing the scans."

"Then there are the anomalies. We have cited several. All of which are gravity related. These occur because the ships get too close to one of these stations or fly between them and the central anomaly. Which resulted in ships being crushed or pulled apart."

"Then how can we get close to them and where did Hoodwink's ship go?" Jace asked, getting a frown from Taylor when he did not raise his hand.

She pulled up another overlay for the chart of the system. This one had red sections, yellow sections, and black sections. "It is incomplete but I have partially charted where each anomaly occurs. The red is where space ships would be crushed under the pressure. Those as you can see mostly occur when you are flying into the trail of the station, like the wake of a ship. It is because they leave a wake of gravitational effect. This compounded with the effect of the central anomaly causes ships to be crushed."

"Then the yellow area is where ships would be pulled apart. It occurs between the stations or between the stations and the central anomaly. The reason it occurs is because of the station's gravitational generators which pull towards it. As well as the central anomalies own gravitational force."

"Finally there is the black area, I honestly do not know if it is safe to go in those areas. But because the stations are constantly rotating it is safe to assume that the original investigators of this system assumed the anomalies were appearing at random."

She then looked around the room. "Are there any questions?"

"Have we sent probes to check the black areas?" Captain Arthur asked.

"We attempted to, but we kept losing contact with them. So we stopped." Taylor answered with a sigh, "so much lost data that would have been useful."

"What about the anomalies aboard our ship?" One of the engineers asked.

Taylor snapped her fingers as she pulled up another chart. "It is because of our proximity to the anomaly system and our own gravitational device. For some reason our gravity device is reacting badly with the pull from the central anomaly. So it has been causing power surges throughout our ship. Nothing too strange."

Jace nodded as he began doing calculations and estimations in his mind. "Hey you know which of these stations that Hoodwink went to correct?"

Taylor nodded and pointed at one of them. "This one, it is the one closest to the edge of the system. I also figured out its rough flight path."

Jace grunted and stood up. "Good, fit a transport with an enhanced engine. Remove its gravity device and inertia dampeners as well." Jace told her, causing several people to begin whispering hurriedly in the background.

Taylor tilted her head for a moment. "Inertia dampeners could cause gravitational problems as well." She reasoned and then realized something and made an expression between horror and shock. "But if you do that the force on the pilots and passengers will be…"

"Deadly for normal people. I know." Jace sighed. "That is why only my unit will be going." Taylor began making an expression of annoyance when Jace chuckled. "Aside from you, you are far too exhausted to be reliable. Just start getting our ship outfitted."

"Who is piloting? I do not think any of us are certified." Tako asked.

"I am." Jace answered.

Taylor nodded, "Jace is a certified combat and test pilot."