He was also more fit. Soon after realizing he was alone and adrift within the station segment he started doing workouts he had learned during his time with the infantry. That expanded as he swung from the supports spaced underneath the walkways, engaged in aerobics he had seen his sisters do growing up, and other physical activities that were challenging but not daring enough so he could end up seriously injured and alone. As a result the man they found years later was covered in lean muscle and he had never been in better shape. He hadn't lost any of his skills either thanks to fighter pilot and marine simulations that were loaded into his command and control unit.
He wasn't malnourished thanks to the materializer and the natural foods he grew. Minh knew that he had been very fortunate in his circumstances but he didn't feel that way yet. The therapists told him that he would eventually realize how lucky he had been despite his isolation. One of the points they kept bringing up was that he finally had time to do so much he had never gotten around to before his isolation, like learning how to play classical electric guitar and write in Quoc ngu and Chinese. He had even started writing a few fictional interactive settings, but without access to holographic reference images or help from anyone else none of them were ever finished.
He gathered his long hair with his hands and strapped it into a ponytail. “ Pssst! ” he hissed between his teeth, surprising Ayan and evoking one of her bright, winning smiles. “I was starting to wonder if you had cold feet,” he teased.
“Are you kidding? I've been looking forward to this my whole life. Going out into the galaxy on some secret mission, it's like one of the contraband movies Jonas would send to me over the networks before we met.”
“What do you think of the colour?”
She looked around at the inside of the twenty two by twelve meter cargo bay. “It's…” she hesitated “… yellow.”
“I know, I found the paint in an old locker just outside. The deck master said I could have it.”
“Well, it's a lot better than the mix match that used to be in here. What did you do with everything you cleared out?”
“There was a lot of garbage, we cut it up and fed the mass converter with it, so I guess it's all reserve power now.”
“Even that old statue?”
“The Indian one?” Minh smiled.
Ayan nodded.
“Oh no, the old chief's in my room. I hollowed his head out so I could use him as a planter.”
She laughed and shook her head. “At least he'll be put to good use.”
Minh closed the hatch behind him and took her luggage. “Shall we? We're scheduled for departure in twenty…” he looked at his command and control unit, the same one he had used for nearly eight years, “twenty-three minutes.”
“Let's. I meant to be here earlier, but I ran into my mother then had to say goodbye to Doctor Anderson. He wishes you luck, by the way.”
“He came by the ship yesterday. How is your mother?”
“Alive, sad to see me go, but I don't think she'll try to talk Intelligence out of making it happen.”
“Good, I'm glad she made it out of the Blue Belt.”
“So am I.”
“Did she say anything about what happened?”
Ayan didn't think about it until then, but her mother didn't say a word about the Paladin or why she was forced to abandon ship. “No, I guess that's above our pay grade.”
Minh's eyes went wide, his jaw dropped, and he gasped exaggeratedly. “We're getting paid?”
Departure
The command deck observation area was dim and quiet. Several high ranking officers sat quietly working through reports, reviewing intelligence materials or just watching the ships come and go. Admiral Jessica Rice knew the show she had come to see would be starting soon and she walked to the large observation windows towards the area of space used for projecting wormholes. The view from her office, just on the other side of the large command deck was all wrong, and she didn't feel like watching on a monitor.
For the first time she could remember she felt old. When her daughter had set off on her first military assignment she wasn't there to see her off, nor was she able to watch her leave on the First Light or any assignment in between. She had watched Ayan take her first steps, say her first word; 'ommy'. Her heart felt full in that moment, there was nothing more precious, no one more dear than her daughter.
Her daughter. Was it the woman who had most likely died in a part of the galaxy she'd never seen? Was it the woman who was about to leave again? Was it both? Could it be both? Every time she started thinking about Ayan she started down a long spiral of distress and confusion. So many beginnings and endings all at the same time and she felt as though she just didn't know what to think anymore. Nothing felt as simple as it should have been.
The sounds of orders being shouted and urgent action being taken on the deck behind the forward observation area shattered the quiet for a moment as the transparent doors behind her opened. They closed and brought near silence down on everyone present.
A hand was placed with care on her back, and she realized she must have looked absolutely lost then. “She's on her way?” Jessica Rice asked quietly.
“She is. Intelligence has arranged the main wormhole generator to operate under Ayan's old pass codes. Everyone will think she hacked in on her own and forced the systems to create a wormhole using all of Freeground's power reserves.”
“Full deniability,” she whispered with a nod. “I hope this is the right thing for her.”
“So do I. I'll be stripped of privileges by the end of the day. Once the investigation is complete they'll reinstate me.” Doctor Anderson whispered back quietly.
“The investigation could take weeks.”
“I don't think Intelligence could do anything about it without tipping their hand.”
“I'm sorry it came to that. If I had known, if you had told me-” she said quietly, she didn't want to scold him so it came as a whisper. It was just another instance in which she felt helpless. Far too many of those had been happening recently.
“You would have done the same thing Jessica. When you're afraid of something you push it away, find another place to be. When you started to panic right before Ayan was reborn I knew you had to get some distance, I'm sorry.”
“I don't regret being reassigned to the Paladin. I was in the right place at the right time, saved thousands of lives. We'll need them all.”
“Is it that bad?”
“The Sunspire is self modifying. Using everything in its database to improve itself autonomously. The last time I saw it on sensors it was headed straight for a blue dwarf.”
“Gathering power.”
Admiral Rice nodded slowly. “The automation systems and other improvements made while she was the First Light were still in place. We guess the crew didn't take them offline yet and an AI was able to take full control. The computing and communications package started broadcasting to other ships and when it detected that we unplugged the AI's on the Paladin in time to save the ship it began to hunt for us.”
“I read the report. I'm surprised so many made it out alive.”
“We were lucky. I'll be under review for abandoning ship so early but if you could see what the Sunspire did to us in just a couple of minutes,” Jessica shook her head slowly. “By the time most of us were in hyperspace escape shuttles you couldn't recognize what was left.”
“Are you sure it's coming here?”
“Yes, it'll hunt ships down at our outer perimeter. What it can't infect it'll destroy. We put too many powerful technologies in one place. It's too well armoured, fast, smart and too advanced for any one ship in our fleet to destroy.”