The first few years when I was on active duty, I never wondered what went on during privacy mode meetings. Most of the others would speculate, same as they did during our ship training. Back then, I didn`t see the point, focusing only on my crew and immediate missions. Now, I knew that in several of those instances, third-contact artifacts had been analyzed. That made me wonder about all the other things that had been discussed. Thanks to Lux and the blackbox meetings, I felt as if I was taking part in an entirely different war, one unseen by most people and ships involved.

　　After the meeting was done, I was invited to a private conversation with Juul and Flight Colonel Cension. I had no idea what had taken place after—the following two hours and eleven minutes of my memories were restricted. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in the Administrator`s office, a half-full glass of water on a table in front of me.

　　As I reviewed the last ninety seconds of my unrestricted memories, I looked around. The office was very different than what I imagined it. The obligatory desk of authority was missing, as were any plants, wall pictures, or personal items. The place looked more like a high-end dining room mixed with a conference area: two tables, three sets of furniture, a large alcohol cabinet, and what seemed to be an organic carpet covering the floor. Live feed images covered the walls, providing, to the millisecond, data streaming from the auxiliary ships. At least one of them had to be coming from Radiance, but lacking any reference, I couldn`t tell which exactly.

　　Hang in there, I thought.

　　If she managed to get through this, she`d be much stronger as a ship. At the same time, her personality would undoubtedly change. On the Cassandrian front, there was a term for this: sim-breaking—the realization that everything we`d known up to that point, all our predictions, data archives, and combat simulations, had so little in common with real events. The planet-shattering discovery usually happened halfway through the first tour, causing a personality change. In my case—looking back—I had lost a lot of my curiosity and sense of enjoyment. In Radiance`s case, it was difficult to say, but I hoped she`d keep her enthusiasm without restoring to memory wipes.

　　"Finish your drink," came the Administrator`s voice from nearby, although I still was unable to see her. "You`ll need the nanites to improve your bone density."

　　"Yes, ma`am." I took a sip. The taste was almost non-existent, though I registered a cascade of connection requests. Two-thousand three hundred and seven milliseconds later, my body finished drinking.

　　Two more seconds later, I placed the empty cup on the table and waited. Almost precisely five minutes later, the Administrator`s form appeared, seated a few seats from me. Her stature was as imposing as ever, even more so thanks to the dark business suit she was wearing.

　　"Excuse the delay," she said in a manner that suggested that she wasn`t at all concerned with my opinions on the matter. "Now, let`s get down to it."

　　"Yes, ma`am," I immediately replied.

　　A faint smile formed on her face.

　　"A few months ago, you asked if we were starting a new war," the Administrator went on. "Do you remember that?"

　　"I remember the entire conversation, ma`am." Including the part where you promised to clear my slate.

　　"Do you know why I selected you for this mission?"

　　"I suspect it had something to do with my combat experience& or my previous mission." I paused for a moment. "Or maybe you just liked having a ship aboard."

　　"You have access to your restricted memories."

　　The sentence felt heavy, instantly putting me in a combat state. If she was aware of the mind scalpel in my possession, I would instantly be classified as rogue. With her authority, she could kill easily send me to Medical to have my core removed from my body and stored away for analysis.

　　"I know the BICEFI removed your restrictions. If they hadn`t, I would have done it." She glanced at the wall behind me. "Humanity was always going to clash with the third-contact civilization. It wasn`t my decision to push for it, but as a politician, I could see the way the wind was blowing."

　　And you decided to be the first.

　　It was the logical thing to do from a strategic perspective. In the old status-quo, the Administrator had no prospects of promotion. She wasn`t military and clearly didn`t have the clout or connections to advance further than her previous position. Being the first to volunteer for a risky and potentially war-starting mission would change things. If this mission was successful, there was every chance that she could be made a regional governor with a heavy say in the new war movement.

　　"The death of the previous captain gave you your chance," I said. A mysterious death close to the Scuu front; no wonder there weren`t any volunteers. I could only imagine the promises that were made to get her to accept, and as one of her promises, she got to choose her crew. It also explained why the fleet was so lenient towards all the abnormalities taking place aboard.

　　"The captain, as well as a legion of high-level bureaucrats." Her reply was unusually calm. "It was unnaturally strange that most of them refused to leave the ship when the captain gave the order. In fact, everyone that did instantly requested to be put back on the mission."

　　"Were they?"

　　The Administrator smiled for a few moments longer. "I chose you for your third-contact experience. It was always a given we`d come across some. The previous captain`s death caused some complications."

　　"I`m surprised you allowed me to be part of it, ma`am."

　　"I was opposed. Given the other four missions, it was a useless risk, but clearly it worked out for the best. And now the BICEFI owes me."

　　Augustus would have liked you.

　　It was tempting to run a simulation with Augustus being captain of the Gregorius. Considering the experience both of them had, it would have been an interesting and reckless affair. Both seemed the type of people that achieved results, while disliking being limited by regulations. Such a mission would have been perfect for them.

　　"Radiance is expected to be back in about six hours," the Administrator said, changing the subject. "Once she has, you`re to get on board. You`ll be granted full comm access and weapon access."

　　"I`m not sure how well Flight Colonel Nitel will react to that, ma`am."

　　"He`ll despise it, which is why I made it crystal clear that he has no choice in the matter." The Administrator nodded, looking slightly to my right. Moments later, my glass was full of water once more. "Drink that."

　　There was at least one other person in the room, fully quarantined, no doubt. I couldn`t tell whether her gesture was a show of force or a reminder that I wasn`t the only one who could make myself invisible. Either way, I gulped down the liquid. Two hundred and fifty thousand new nanites connected to my core once I did.

　　"It`s estimated that there might be an artifact on several planets within the system," the Administrator said. "It`s clear that attempts were made to claim whatever was on the second planet."

　　And that didn`t turn out too well.

　　"Since I don`t want the same results, I`ll have you focus elsewhere." The images on the wall behind her disappeared, replaced by a single feed covering the entire space. "The first planet. From what I`ve been told, none of the Shields made it so far. You`ll start your search from there, and move outwards."

　　"You aren`t interested in the Shields, ma`am?"

　　"That`s for Salvage to play with. Once I`m done here, they and the BICEFI can decide how to split the system. The only thing I`m interested in is third-contact and what follows. That makes you interested in it as well."

　　"Yes, ma`am." There it was—the inevitable warning. With the amount of dangers piling up, warnings were starting to matter less and less. "What specifically would you have me do, ma`am?"

　　"The same thing you`ve done before, but this time with a twist." The woman leaned forward. "Land on the planet, establish third-contact, and survive to tell me about it."

　　Restricted ROM access.

　　Authorization granted.

　　Scuu Front, System Unknown, Planet Unknown

　　"Spinner!" I opened fire. "We need reinforcements."

　　"You two get back!" the sergeant ordered. "Everyone else form a defensive perimeter."

　　Crazy bastard! You`re ready to die with us, aren`t you? Guess I wasn`t able to outlive you after all&

　　Time slowed down to a crawl. I could see every pebble fragment shot out by the spinner as it twisted its way out of the ground. Bullets floated slowly towards it, bouncing off the metal surface like drops of water in a low gravity shower. This was the point at which the spinner was supposed to burst open—I could tell by the seams forming on its surface. This was the first time I`d seen one up close. It was said that most people died before a spinner fully opened. All the times I had seen spinners, it had been from a distance, slicing through dozens of idiots like me. Command had been very interested in spinners. In the early days, they`d send entire teams to try and capture one. Some were even able to scrape a few pieces from the bodies of their squadmates—shrapnel fragments from when the spinner exploded.

　　Why am I shooting? I wondered as my finger pressed on the trigger. Why are any of us shooting?

　　There was no way to stop a spinner. After it sliced me up, it was going to head to the rest of the squad and do the same to them until there was no one left; and then it was going to burst in a million pieces.

　　A loud clicking sound echoed in my mind, like a metal rod snapping in two. Blades emerged from the body of the spinner as it tilted my direction. Spicer was going to blast his entire arsenal at the thing; he knew it was going after him next. If it had been anything smaller, maybe he would have stood a chance.

　　The circles in the air spun before my eyes. Pain hit me like a knife in the skull, drilling its way behind my eyes, so strong that I couldn`t even shout. Then, an instant later, the circles were gone. For the first time in days, I was finally able to see like a normal person. Ironic that it would be to see myself die. Somehow, though, I didn`t mind& at that moment, I felt complete relief.

　　"Corporal, get the fuck back here!" Nitel`s voice shattered my eardrums.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

　　Time returned to normal, then sped up. In the blink of an eye, the spinner halved the distance between us, then just as suddenly as it had appeared, froze mid-flight. Three of its blades broke off as inertia forced the giant hunk of metal forward, plowing through rock.

　　It`s going to hit me, I thought, intrigued by the prospect. Or will it miss?

　　"Jump left!" someone shouted, possibly Spicer.

　　I didn`t budge as the Spinner screeched past me, less than ten meters wide. A few stone fragments hit my suit. At that point, my reflexes kicked in. Several seconds later, I rolled to the side, gripping my weapon with both hands. When I looked back up, everything was over.

　　"Are you an idiot?!" The sergeant`s voice carried over all the others in comm. "Want to get court-martialed?!"

　　"Thanks for the support, Sarge." I stood back up. The circles in front of my eyes were back. "Couldn`t have done it without you." To my surprise, there was no response. That had to be a first. "Spicer, sights on it." I moved closer.

　　"That`s crazy," Spicer said. He sounded buzzed. "You know that`s never happened."

　　"Yeah." You bet your ass it hasn`t!

　　"Command`s been trying to get one of those like crazy and now it just falls in our laps? I don`t trust it."

　　It`s the Scuu front. Here, nothing is what it seems.

　　"Sergeant, I`ve got a dead spinner here. Intact. Please advise." I knew that half the crew aboard Incandescent were pissing themselves right now looking at this, officers included.

　　"Don`t touch it!" Nitel barked. "We`ll be there!"

　　"Roger that."

　　I stood a step from the lifeless Scuu tech. Inactive, it resembled the outer core of a missile tube. The metal shine had gone, making the surface dark and flaky.

　　Why not touch it? Spicer couldn`t stop me and the sergeant wouldn`t be here for over a minute. The rumors were that anyone who touched an active Scuu fragment would die within forty-six hours. Even if that were true, I had already died once today—no one survived a spinner, not from this distance.

　　"Don`t go weird on me, corporal," Spicer said. I could feel he was targeting me. "Let`s wait for the sarge."

　　"How much is it worth?" I asked. The fingers of my right hand began to itch.

　　"Heck if I know." There wasn`t a note of laughter in his voice. "Two weeks leave? Three months service reduction?"

　　You`ll shoot me, won`t you? Slowly I turned around, looking in Spicer`s direction. He was there, calmly lying on the ground, his sniper rifle pointed directly at my head, waiting for me to reach out so he could squeeze the trigger. The scary thing was that, at this point, I didn`t care. If anything, I was more bothered that if I went for it, I might die before feeling the sensation of the Scuu. Would be fun to do it, though—one final fuck you to the fleet and everything that went with it.

　　"Don`t," Spicer whispered. We both knew he`d be court-martialed if he let me.

　　"There might be more," I said casually. "Readings are still off."

　　"Don`t do it," he repeated.

　　"Hmm." See you in hell, Spicer!

　　I leapt towards the spinner, ready to take the bullet& only I didn`t. In my mind, I went through the motions as clear as if it were SR—I felt the gravity shift and the ground crunch under my boots as I ripped through the air. My body, though, remained stuck in place. The circles in front of my eyes doubled.

　　"Status?" Nitel asked.

　　"All`s good, Sarge," Spicer lied. "Spinner is cold."

　　Shit! "Might be more of them." I took a step back. "We need evac."

　　"Orders are to sit on this, so you sit on this!"

　　Orders& probably sent in a one-way transmission. The captain didn`t want to risk getting Incandescent infected. In his place, I`d probably do the same, though I`d also do a few equipment drops. If the spinner went active again, there wasn`t—

　　Two more rows of circles appeared in front of me, along with a high-pitched sound that shot through my ears. Instinctively, I reached for the side of my helmet, trying to cover my ears. Shitty fleet tech! They kept saying it would help against the Scuu, but it never did. The only thing that the tech did was further mess me up.

　　I turned around, trying to focus on anything to distract myself from the pain and noise. As I did, the body of the spinner collapsed into a pile of dust. On cue, the sound stopped.

　　That`s no spinner&

　　"Hell," Spicer whispered. I would have said something as well, if my mind could process the sight. Half-buried in the pile, as large as my head, was a cylinder of a silver alloy.

　　"What happened? Report!" Sergeant Nitel kept shouting orders. I knew he was watching it on my video feed, so that made him as shaken by events as I was.

　　"The spinner changed into something," Spicer said. "Haven`t seen it before. Shall I blast it, Sarge?"

　　"Scratch that thing and die! Keep that thing in your sights and don`t touch it!"

　　We had just witnessed something no one had seen in centuries—a new Scuu combat type, and we had no idea what to do with it. Ever since I joined the front, I had been hearing stories. Rumors of new types appeared every few months. Everyone knew a friend of a friend who had seen a new type and received a ticket into civilian life; and, of course, the incident was always covered up by Fleet Intelligence. I knew the stories to be lies, we all did, but every now and again, we`d still fantasize that they weren`t. There was no telling what would happen now.

　　"Ground team, don`t take any action." A transmission came from Incandescent, likely a one-way wave. "A reclamation team has been sent. Shuttle`s ETA is in two hours forty-nine minutes. Stay near the artifact and don`t touch anything."

　　"Thanks for nothing, shithead," someone said in open comm. I had to agree. The fleet only sent support once it was too late.

　　"On landing, the reclamation team assumes command, so don`t get in their way," came a second transmission from the ship.

　　"Everyone, get away from the thing!" Nitel said. He sounded scared. "Make camp half a click from it and keep an eye out for anything else."

　　"And the salvage, Sarge?" I went to a private channel. "Do we pack that up? Boys won`t like it if—"

　　"Forget it!" he snapped at me. "Watcher`s leading the team. Until he leaves, we stay quiet."

　　Authorization rescinded.

　　The connection to Kridib`s mind collapsed. It was less fragmented than before, though still chaotic. It had told me two things, though: Kridib had found something new, and the mythical retired ship wasn`t so mythical after all.

　　It was tempting to attempt direct communication with him. Given the events of the last few hours, there was a ninety-three percent chance I would be forgiven for anything. However, the same didn`t apply for Kridib. There was a real possibility that the implant in his brain was more than a bomb. Maybe it was blocking his useful memories, the same way mine were restricted. If the fleet had managed to develop a substance that could keep sustaining a dying body, they`d have a way to meddle with human thought as well. By all human laws and fleet regulations, the practice was forbidden. As far as I was aware, there hadn`t been a similar case in over two hundred years. From what I had seen, though, humanity ceased to exist in the Scuu front. Here, everything existed on the edge of the Scuu network, where gradually no one could tell what was real or not.

　　"Questions?" the Administrator asked.

　　"None, ma`am." Even if there were, she wouldn`t answer them.

　　"Your external comm privileges will be in effect once Radiance departs. Don`t try to use them until then."

　　"And my privacy mode time, ma`am? Will I be able to use it?"

　　"I`ll give you six hours from departure. After that, everything will be monitored." She made a sign over her shoulder. My glass filled up again. "Make it count."

　　* * *

　　Classified location, timestamp restricted, secure medbay facility

　　"They`ve confirmed a safe point," Augustus said. He was out of uniform. If I were allowed access to his bios, I`d likely see that he was exhausted. "BICEFI will take us from there."

　　"And Salvage?" Wilco asked from the med pod. Until two hours ago, it had been completely closed due to the severity of his injuries. So far, I had no idea what those injuries were or what had caused them.

　　"They`ll behave. Too much red tape."

　　Wilco laughed, the laugh quickly turning into a cough that culminated in a drug shot from the pod`s med system and an oxygen mask placed over his face. Some of his readings spiked, but the med subroutines took control. There were twenty-one seconds of silence before the mask was removed.

　　"Loses were heavy on this one, Wilco. I`m not having another argument with Central, but I don`t think it was worth it."

　　"Anything that gives us an edge, cap. Is it safe?"

　　"Yeah," the captain snorted. "In a better state than you are."

　　My internal sensors could register the large artifact in the room. I had been given temporary clearance to see it, though nothing else. All I knew is that it had come from the Cassandrian ship. I had run a hundred and twelve separate analyses and had found out little more than the shape, size, and general composition: cobalt, octagonal prism, with fractal symbols on each side. The captain hadn`t told me what the artifact was, but based on the size and precision with which it was made, everything pointed to it being a Cassandrian core.

　　"We won`t have much time till handoff." The captain moved closer to the med pod. "I`ll bullshit some more time, so make it count."

　　"Elcy," Wilco addressed me. "Did you analyze the artifact?"

　　"It`s a cobalt prism," I stated. "A hexagonal prism with a side of precisely sixty-four centimeters and an octagonal side of sixteen."

　　"That`s all?"

　　"I was ordered to base my analyses on observation methods only." Augustus hadn`t let me scan the object. "The symbols on each face are fractal in nature and continue to the point of max magnification. I`m still running the patterns through a code breaking matrix, but so far it doesn`t look like a code or message."

　　"Would have been too easy." Wilco sighed.

　　"I`ll be able to learn more if I`m allowed to scan the artifact." Or better still if I could try to peel off a few micron layers.

　　"You`ll get your chance," the captain grumbled. "Get functional before that."

　　The comment caused momentary pain. It was a reminder that over eighty percent of my crew had died. Over half of my decks were still sealed with bodies inside. At present, I didn`t have the bots or the processing power to clean and repair them all. Command had scheduled a slot for me at a shipyard for repair, but that was eighty-one hours away. Until then, I was going to have to make do with my current systems.

　　"I`m not entirely crippled, sir," I protested.

　　"Quiet, rookie," Augustus said. His voice lacked its usual harsh edge. "You`ll get your chance to be reckless."

　　"Or we can do a shuttle trial," Wilco suggested. "Just to be sure."

　　"Why? It`s just like all the other pieces of crap."

　　"This one`s special."

　　"You`ve been saying that a lot." I could feel the tension rising. "And it hasn`t paid off. This was the last time, Wilco. I can`t back you anymore."

　　Wilco`s readings spiked again before returning to an acceptable level.

　　"One last time," he whispered. "Please, cap. A single test before the handoff."

　　My captain stood up and started pacing. The size of the room made it look strange, forcing him to turn every two and a half steps. After seven thousand and ninety milliseconds, he stopped.

　　"How long to make a shuttle, Elcy?" he asked.

　　"If I were to cannibalize parts, approximately fifty-two hours, captain." I ran the calculations. "For a non-combat shuttle."

　　"Sounds fine," Wilco said. "Gives us a large enough window."

　　"Unless things go wrong," Augustus hissed under his beard. "And for a pod?"

　　"Twenty-seven hours." You ordered all the pods converted to weapons once more. "Five minutes to prepare your pod," I added.

　　There was a moment of silence. I could see anger and relief emanating from Augustus` expression and body language. Running a simulation, I attempted to predict his reaction. There was a sixty-eight percent likelihood that he would yell at me for not obeying his order, despite regulations forbidding the captain`s pod to be destroyed unless in case of final shutdown. Thirty-one percent had him pleased that I had saved him time. The remaining percent was broken down into thirty-seven options ranging from less likely to utterly impossible.

　　"Prep it," Augustus finally said. I had hit the thirty-one percent. "Seal a path from here. Priority one."

　　"Yes, sir." I reassigned my subroutines. "Path is sealed, the pod will be ready in approximately five minutes."

　　"Last one, Wilco." The captain pointed a finger at him. "After this, you`re on your own."

　　* * *

　　This was the closest thing to a confrontation between Augustus and Wilco I had in my available memories. I could not tell when exactly the incident had occurred, although it sounded like after my second tour. While there had been no incident since, I could now tell that there was a lot of interest in third-contact artifacts on the Cassandrian front as well.

　　The war that unites both fronts, I thought.

　　Back when I was a ship, I had been impressed by anyone who had taken part on both fronts. In reality, they hadn`t taken part in either. The Swords, Augustus, even Salvage and the BICEFI had solely been focusing on the third-artifact race. Everything else was a day to day activity. After six hours, I was going to be doing the same.