Chronicles of Sol: The Fall-Chapter 240 - Two Hundred The Deep Storm

Sali nervously stood next to Fuji, after several days debating it, she'd decided to go through with the implant procedure. White was nearby and took her hand, "It will be just fine, you will see."

Sali nodded and stepped through the door. Fuji called, "I'll see you when you get out, make us proud!"

She gave her a smile, then turned to the nurse. "Right this way."

Sali found herself led down the hall up a flight of steps and into a room. Equipment lined the walls, advanced medical equipment, some of which she didn't even recognize, but she did notice the robotic arms hanging from the ceiling, each one fitted with a long needle. The bed in the middle of the room had raised sides and was clear.

"Alright strip, trust me, you don't want that goop in your clothes. We'll get you a gown when you wake up and a nice warm shower."

Sali nodded and striped out of her uniform, placing it into a provided basket and got onto the bed. The nurse came by with an injector, "Okay, this will help you relax and we can get started." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

She gulped but let the other woman inject her. After a moment she felt much calmer, as the table began to fill with nanogel. The doctor appeared, another woman Sali noted. The doctor smiled and got to work. Before she fell asleep, Sali watched the arms push several needles into her deep tissues, feeling only mildly uncomfortable.

Sali ignored that, as she considered what she might do with the new abilities these implants would bring. She wanted to match up with the others, they were incredible, coming out time and again despite long odds without the option to be replaced. The Enterprise didn't have a thousand pilots lined up to replace them, it was just them out there. Fuji was right, she was going to need any edge she could get and this was it.

January 22nd, 008 SDE; EFS Enterprise:

Countryman set the report he'd been reading aside, then smiled at the young woman who'd just come in. "Well Sali, you've really outdone yourself. Both Wing Commanders want you in their squadrons and you've passed all the tests with flying colors."

"I'm happy to officially be part of the pilot's corps."

"Glad to hear it, and how are those implants working out? You've had a few months to get used to them."

"Well enough, but it was strange at first. Can't say I regret it, should have seen my last mock fight against Fuji, I don't think I'd have done as well without them."

"It was good showing, you gave her a good challenge."

"Not good enough, she trounced me."

Countryman chuckled, "More experience, you'll match her one day, maybe even surpass her."

"Maybe," she replied.

"I heard you took the full package though, tried out the neural lace yet?"

"A little, why?"

Countryman smiled, "Well you and I are the only people on the ship with a neural lace. I wanted to know. Come with me, I think there is something you should experience."

She frowned but followed Countryman out of his office into the short hallway behind the bridge. Sali started towards the lift, but he turned towards the big blast doors with the guards. "The bridge?"

Countryman nodded and headed for the doors. She followed, registering with the scanner, then watching the doors slide open by retracting into the walls. They were thick, easily three meters of pure armored bulkhead, and then she noticed the forcefield projector ring around the inside of the doors, "Is that a security field?"

"Yep, Vera's work, we built it from components salvaged from the Valorian Dreadnought after she broke up. They've been added to all secure areas, but that isn't why you are here."

She knew that, and entered fully into the room and looked around. This was her first time on the bridge and it was glorious. Sali took it all in; they were on an upper balcony that extended over the lower bridge, giving them a commanding view of the command center. At eye level in every direction were huge high resolution screens showing the storm raging around them. For a second she thought it had been a massive ring shaped window.

She turned around and gasped, when the blast door closed, it revealed the other side of it was also part of the screen. Only the little controls gave its presence away.

The floor was solid, utilitarian gunmetal grey. On either side of the balcony was a utilitarian staircase hugging the curvature of the round bridge room and leading to the lower bridge.

At the tip of the balcony was a large comfortable chair, surrounded by a bank of displays and controls. Sali had a feeling that was Countryman's command chair.

She looked out over the lower bridge and was just as impressed, the viewscreens extended down there but only in front. The sides of the lower bridge were taken up by consoles, and there was a second ring of them in the middle. In the center of the bridge sat a massive raised table with a huge strategic master display of all the tactical data the ship's sensors were feeding it. The front of the bridge had a large helm console and she saw other consoles marked for tactical, engineering, science, and operations. Numerous people were actively working around the room.

Countryman suddenly placed her into the chair, "Activate your neural lace," he pointed at a port, "Plug in there."

Sali complied wondering what this was about, but then suddenly her world expanded. Thousands of systems competed for her attention as she became aware of the numerous computers that made up the ship. "What is all this?"

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"The Enterprise, you should be aware of the entire network, Weapons, Navigation, Propulsion, Armor, Shields, Sensors and more should be available to you. Don't try to control any of it. You aren't ready for that, just try to get used to it."

"It's nothing like my fighter, there is just so... much information."

"Yes, interfacing with a capital ship is entirely different. Why don't you try accessing the sensors, scan the asteroid bearing two one three mark six zero."

She held her head as it pounded, "Um, I see it, so much detail.."

"Alright time to unplug," he replied.

She gladly did and sighed as her awareness returned to normal, "How the hell do you handle that!?"

"Practice, but once you get used to it. It won't be any different from, say, a fighter."

"I'll, uh, take your word for it."

Greyman walked up, "Sir, we are reaching the Deep Storm perimeter."

Countryman smiled, "Finally. It certainly took us long enough to get here."

"Well now that we've charted the route we should be able to cut a month or two on the return trip."

"Small consolations," said Countryman as he took his chair. Sali, not knowing if she should leave, picked standing on his left. Her gaze turned to the changing forward screens, the roiling storm ever-shifting to reveal the perimeter of the deep storm. She watched a drifting asteroid slam into an invisible gravitational sheer which tore it apart. It didn't seem that different from the rest of the Storm, but everyone knew it would be more dangerous. They'd had a couple close calls getting here, but the storm beyond might just tear them apart even if they were careful about this exploration.

Countryman addressed Misaki, "Full sensors, what do we have?"

"I'm reading several local rip currents, gravitational sheers of almost a hundred Gs are being produced by them, give me some time to chart a course through it."

"Wonderful, and that debris field we were looking for?"

"I have it on long-range sensors, hard to say for sure, there is a lot of ionic interference but I'm reading very high mineral readings. Some of it looks like titanium, and I think I'm reading large quantities of Rydium."

"Rydium? Are you sure about that?"

Sali frowned, "Don't we use that stuff in our engines?"

"We use it in a lot more than just that, but yes. Normally we just make it, but the process isn't cheap, we need a lot of rare elements for it. Elements that are in poor supply, a natural source would be huge for us."

"Understood, anything I should be doing?"

Countryman nodded, "Get to the hangar, I'd like you on standby to escort our mining shuttles. We'll be prospecting that field soon enough."

Sali found Countryman was right, only a couple of hours after reaching the Deep Storm they'd reached the first debris field, numerous wrecked starships and shattered planetoids drifted here, alongside a number of meteoroids, some of which were quite large.

Sali kept an eye on her screens as her squadron flew into the field. The Enterprise was conducting heavy scans already, and she was now escorting a shuttle. They were conducting a mining survey of the debris field. Not far from here was the ruined remains of what was once a large capital ship, a dreadnought from the looks of things.

It was hard to say what she would have looked like, or exactly how large the ship had once been. The ruined hull had been ravaged by the storm, leaving little behind but twisted mangled metal. Old scars ran down the length of the alien hull, and there wasn't a single sign of life remaining. Scans showed that the hull was composed primarily of polycarbonate alloys, said alloys were rich in processed carbon, along with a decent amount of refined iron, tungsten, copper and some aluminum. It was an interesting mix, to say the least, and the wreck had already been marked for processing. Even if the systems were long dead, the hull itself looked useful.

The shuttle pilot spoke up on the comms, "Black here, I'm getting some interesting readings from object 1457-A. Changing course to conduct a scan."

"Acknowledged," she replied automatically while adjusting her vector to match the new one.

Her fighter rocked a bit as a wave of turbulence hit it. Sali noted that a plasma front was coming in, a wave of more turbulent storm. That might present some issues for the mining teams, but it wasn't going to harm the Enterprise or her fighter. Regardless, it was something they were going to need to keep an eye on that front.

Not long after, new data started coming in, this time on the shared network. Just moments before Black was speaking again.

"Got the reading, looks to be a motherlode, I'm reading a dense vein of Titanium here" there was excitement in his voice, "and that's just the start, this rock has a Rydium core, there is enough down there to build an entire fleet."

"Oh, that's going to get people excited. I know we can use the stuff."

Her wingmate interjected, "Any other useful minerals?"

"I'm reading a couple veins of Tungari and Ephon Crystals," he highlighted a few craters, "Seems whatever hit this side of the rock was rich in gold, there is a lot of it in the walls of these craters."

"Understood, mark this rock down and attach the survey report to the notes. We've got more rocks to check out," replied Sali while she considered the implications of those resources. Tungari was often used for the same things as tungsten, only it did the job better. For all intents and purposes it was super tungsten, and it was obviously a related metal. What made it undergo the changes it did, well that was up to some debate. The Crystals however? Well they were often used in hyperspace engines.

She turned to her wingmate, "I think we just found a shortcut to getting out of here."

"Hmm, what do you mean?"

"Well we are in hyperspace, Ephon crystals are used in hyperdrives."

Her wingmate chuckled, "Good luck with that. I don't have the first clue about hyperdrive engines, do you?"

She deflated a bit. "Okay, maybe it will take awhile."

"Report them to the ship anyway," replied her wingmate. "They'll likely be happy regardless."

"Will do," she said before getting on the line.

"We've found some Ephon Crystals out here, the rock has been marked, we are moving on to the next survey target."

The Captain's voice replied, "Excellent, Ruri and I have been in need of a supply, we are running low."

She blinked, "Captain? I wasn't expecting you..."

"I've been monitoring the channels. That is welcome news, anything else interesting?"

She tallied off what was on the rock, and he complimented her work.