Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 61: Salem Meets Elena

As the spacecraft lowered down to the landing zone its hull was giving off heat. Vents on the landing pad opened up and sprayed air up into the hull cooling it as it landed. A moment later the rear ramp began lowering. Revealing several younger soldiers in civilian clothing. As they shuffled out of the lowered ramp they looked around moving out of the way as a group of soldiers pushed a cart onto the Vulture transport ship. Which was larger and less defended then other transport ships but had a larger cargo area.

Salem felt lost now that she was in such a large open area. It was disorienting going from a contained and closed off ship's corridors to an open city like this. "Wow, there really is a giant city in a space station. I thought this would be more like those stations that are on the edge of the former Grand Hexarian Empire's borders with those various corridors and small hangar sized areas."

Taylor chuckled, "then you have not seen anything yet. Oculus Station is considered tame compared to some of the other stations. As you get closer to where the original capital used to be there are station's the size of a small moon. But a lot of those larger ones were destroyed due to the civil war that resulted in the Grand Hexarian Empire's collapse." Taylor had been to a few different stations while traveling with her family; she even traveled outside of the Vexical Empire when her father went to research one of those planetoid sized stations.

"Yeah just don't expect a military station to be that open spaced. They were designed to minimize casualties during an attack." A woman they were unfamiliar with walked up to them from the group of soldiers that were there when they landed. Most of them were boarding the ship, "I was not aware we were getting drop offs from the Wing of Pegasus."

"We are not drop offs. We got permission to come roam around the military dockyards until the midnight ship picks us up." Salem explained, "hey were any of you stationed aboard the Border of Downfall?"

"Actually we all were posted on that ship, why do you ask?" The woman responded while waving off her subordinates who stopped to check on her.

"Then do you know where we can find Jace Steel? We were told he was in the Red Sanix Mech Hangar in the Military Dockyard." Salem's question seemed to have caught the women completely off guard.

She looked around and pointed at a red haired woman that was walking away. "If you catch up to her and ask her, she can show you to the hangar." Then the woman walked up the ramp to join her comrades, "or you can just follow the directional sign if you can figure them out." The dockyard's signs were intentionally vague and cryptic in the event of foreigners taking over the station.

"Thanks," Salem responded before quickly jogging after the woman that was pointed out to them. Behind her Ulin and Taylor followed behind at a walking pace. As she ran forward she peeked into the woman's mind.

{Maybe Tani is right, I should just go for it and see if Jace is willing to go for a long distance relationship that is beyond just sex and friendship. But I am just worried it will ruin what we already have.} Salem slightly stuttered while walking, almost tripping as she overheard the woman's thoughts.

As she got closer she loudly cleared her throat, "excuse me." She waited a few seconds until it was clear the woman still did not notice her. "Excuse me." Salem said much louder this time attempting to ignore the woman's very distracting flurry of thoughts. But she still did not hear her and she definitely was not going to yell when it was not that important so instead she compromised, {Excuse me.} She transmitted her voice directly into her path of thoughts causing her to straighten up in surprise and look around not quite realizing it was a thought that went directly into her mind instead of the someone speaking.

"Oh sorry I was lost in thought." Salem had to roll her eyes at the woman. Because she could literally tell that she was 'lost in thought'. "What can I help you with?" The woman asked with an innocent smile.

"I was hoping you could take us to the Red Sanix Mech Hanger. We were hoping to catch up with an old friend." Salem told her, "sorry the officer that I asked said you would know." Salem quickly explained clocking both the confusion in her expression and the suspicion in the woman's thoughts.

The woman looked past Salem for a second and frowned. Before nodding, "okay, I can show you." She started leading the trio through to a hangar she could see in the distance. "Where are you three from?"

"Originally, like where we went to the academy? Or where we were just stationed?" Ulin asked. Her sudden appearance right next to the woman was disorientating for a moment.

"Umm… both I suppose, you do not have to answer if you do not want to. I just wanted to break the ice while we talked." She told them somewhat hesitantly.

"Well then why don't we start with introductions." Taylor suggested before deciding to go first, "I am Taylor Hielo, I mostly grew up on Kamot Prime and graduated from the military academy there. Then for the last few months I have been posted in the Rena System. Our original ship was downed so we have been moving between ships."

"Astella Ulin, spoilers I am from the same planet and same posting." Ulin quickly answered next.

The woman looked at Salem who shrugged, "Salem Wintry, same as them."

"Cool that you managed to stay together." The woman pointed out, "Anyways I am Elena Romav, I have lived on this station for my entire life aside from the few times I went for piloting lessons."

"What about your mandatory service time?" Ulin asked, as she was from a remote village so she only knew about local schools and mandatory service.

"I am technically an immigrant and therefore not required to do military service. But I went to the 'academy' for the exceptions to that rule which was essentially just taking online classes." Elena explained as they arrived at the hanger.

"That is actually pretty common. The Vexical Empire has a lot of immigrants and non-nano species that still need to have a basic education and options for growth and development." Taylor explained before continuing, "although it might not be as well known in remote areas like where you lived."

"City kids like us end up learning about it early on." Salem jumped in as well.

As they entered the hanger, Taylor quickly moved forward past their guide with a speedy walk. She pulled out a datapad as her eyes lit up in excitement and there was an air of curiosity about her.

"Oh no," Salem chuckled as she watched her friend look over an engineer's shoulder to peek at his datapad. "We lost her to her own curiosity."

"Do we have to watch her back again?" Ulin asked with a grimace on her face. Remembering the last time Taylor's curiosity had let them astray, which resulted in a week in the brig and an exploded spacecraft.

To be fair they did sneak into an enemy base when Taylor became curious about the enemy mechs. So they snuck in, were discovered and Ulin piloted one mecha to escape and which then resulted in a victory. But it was all without the orders from their superior, so they got a week in the brig as punishment.

"No it should be fine, we are within earshot." Salem grinned in amusement as they approached the largest mech where she could feel the almost robotic thoughts of Jace as he analyzed the area of the mech he was working on to come up with a solution. "We are going in this direction." Salem told Elena walking past her toward the largest mecha.

Elena frowned when she noticed the direction they were walking and followed after them.

Salem arrived in front of the mecha and watched Jace for a moment. Then she spoke directly into his mind. {Jace. Turn around.} Jace's head snapped up and turned around to see a forced smile on Salem's face and glancing slightly to the right of her and he understood the reason and grimaced.

Well, can the talk wait until I finish on the mecha at least?

{Jace I am well aware that it would take you only another hour or two to finish. So it can wait.}

But…

As they became lost in their telepathic conversation, Elena standing near Salem became confused. "Salem is a telepath." Ulin decided to explain seeing the familiar scene that she doubted they knew they resorted to. "This happens when they are having a full on conversation, Salem looked pretty serious so it should be a pretty long conversation."

"A telepath? How?" Elena asked.

"It's her talent. An incredibly versatile and sought after one as well." Ulin answered.