Epilogue
Signal Received
Location Unknown
It would be a terrible waste of time and resources if the 260 ships of the standard expeditionary fleet remained huddled together in a single place. There were few powers left in the galaxy that could pose any threat to the Imperial Navy, so a single fleet could be spread out to a maximum of forty different locations according to accepted protocol, though there were some ambitious commanders who would spread out their forces even thinner.
It was scout ships like the Rauchschwalbe-209 that could range the farthest without support. They could go a month on their basic loadout and up to six for the rare long-term ranging. The 209 was on her third week of a two-month outing. Ranging was typically uneventful, but that was what happened when you explored the dead parts of space.
Leutnant zur Raum Desi Idris was pacing around the bridge as he would do, even though the Captain often chided him for making the operators at their consoles nervous when he did. The Executive Officer of the 209, Leutnant Idris was due for a command of his own soon, unless he was transferred to a larger class of ship. Either way, he wanted his diligence to be known for the sake of his career advancement. He did not want to end up like the Captain, who seemed quite content to remain where he was.
Leutnant Idris did not approve of any idle chatter while sailors were on the clock, so whenever he was around, the bridge was rather quiet. This made it all the easier to notice when Gefreiter Braga the crypto tech spoke up.
"Sir?"
Leutnant Idris walked over to Gefreiter Braga's console and asked, "What is it?"
"We've picked up something from the probe network, sir," Gefreiter Braga replied. "The third moon of Al-Tamir V."
Leutnant Idris corrected him, saying, "The pronunciation should be At-Tamir. The tā assimilates the lām."
Gefreiter Braga was still rather young and did not yet have the good sense to simply reply, "Yes, sir." Instead, he had to ask, "Then why don't they write it that way, sir?"
"Old convention that persists into the present," Leutnant Idris said. "Anyway, enough with the elementary Arabic lesson. What have you got?"
"A distress beacon has been activated, sir. I didn't call you sooner because I was waiting for a response from Central."
"Why did you feel the need to connect with the Central Database? The ship's computer has every registered ship and personnel code in the Empire."
"Not this one, sir. The computer recognized it as one of our codes, but not one in the active database. That's why I had to connect to Central."
"And what was the response?"
Gefreiter Braga brought up the results on his screen, saying, "Dubcic, Marko. General. Chief of Staff, Military Affairs. Last recorded contact 21 December... 434."
It had been over three hundred years, but there was not a single person in the Empire who did not know that date.
"December 21st, 434... That would be..."
"Tianyunzai..."
It was a testament to the tragedy of that day the way Gefreiter Braga spoke its name in such grim reverence. Somewhat out of character for him, Leutnant Idris could not help making a frivolous comment.
"At least your Mandarin is better than your Arabic, Gefreiter."
Giving the comment all the attention it deserved, which would be none, Gefreiter Braga then asked the Leutnant, "Sir, how can that be? He would be 391 years old now. Even if he's an upload, Al—, er, At-Tamir Five-dash-Three is a Lost World. The chances of them having the infrastructure to maintain an upload this long... If that was the case, we would've picked up on them a long time ago."
"Unless they didn't want to be found and the situation has changed," Leutnant Idris said. "Has a planetary survey been conducted?"
Gefreiter tapped on his console to bring up the status of the world in question. After scanning the report briefly, he said, "Not yet, sir. There's one scheduled in six years."
"Well, with a distress beacon activated, we can't afford to wait," Leutnant Idris said. He then called to the radioman, "Palowitz, contact the Fleet and inform them of the situation. 'Distress beacon detected on At-Tamir Five-dash-Three. Please advise.'"
"Aye-aye, sir," Hauptgefreiter Palowitz replied.
While Palowitz was executing the order, Gefreiter Braga asked the Leutnant, "What do you think will happen, sir?"
"We have never had anything like this happen before," Leutnant Idris replied. "The Lord Admiral may decide it warrants his personal attention."
"But isn't the Fleet already busy with the reclamation of Haftar III?"
"You don't need the entire fleet to reclaim a single Lost World, Gefreiter."
"Wouldn't that apply to Al—At-Tamir Five-dash-Three as well, sir?"
Leutnant Idris felt the corner of his mouth twitch at the Gefreiter's continued struggles with the pronunciation of Al-Tamir. This was, of course, entirely contrary to the sort of image he strove to convey to his subordinates.
Masking his amusement, the Leutnant said, "It is SOP for the fleet commander to be present for first contact, but we may be sent on ahead for reconnaissance."
"Would that include rescue, sir?"
"If an Imperial citizen is in danger, we would be expected to do what we can."
Leutnant Idris did not relish the thought, though. A crew of 25 pitted against unknown odds? He valued the lives of his fellow Imperial citizens as much as the next man, but depending on the sort of threat they faced, any rescue attempt could be as good as suicide. The decision was not up to him, however.
"Continue to monitor the situation," he told the bridge crew. "I need to go wake up the Captain. He will want to be here for this."
"I don't know about that, sir," Gefreiter Braga replied.
Even though his doubts were well-founded, Gefreiter Braga probably should have been reprimanded for his cheek. Of course, it was as much the Captain's fault for failing to project the appropriate aura of dignity expected of an officer in His Imperial Majesty's Navy. Leutnant Idris would let it go this time. There were far more pressing concerns at the moment.