Chapter Text
Stratt was still her imperious, remote, and high-handed self that she'd been through when she drove the project to launch. The intervening years had taken their toll on her and she'd escaped prison through expensive lawyers who were as imperious as she was. There were still lawsuits about where the money came from for her to hire the lawyers.
The beetles had returned and no one but herself and her chosen team were given access to the data they contained. The solution to the Astrophage Armageddon was immediately released to the world. The rest of what was sent back was still in her possession and rarely shown to anyone.
"Dr. Lokken. Please come in."
Lokken made her way into the conference room. It wasn't that different from the ones during the time of the Hail Mary project, except that this time they weren't thousands of miles away from anything that would be missed if it blew up.
"I asked you here today to review footage from the Hail Mary."
Lokken's eyebrows raised. She couldn't help it. First, she had been asked and not commandeered. Second, Stratt was voluntarily sharing information. The past quarter century may have mellowed her.
"What you will see is classified. You may make notes on the pad provided. You will give me your notes before you leave."
She hadn't mellowed.
"What if I need to do research? If I can't answer questions based on the footage?"
"Then you'll be housed here and allowed limited access to approved outside information until you do."
She was exactly the same as during the project. Figures.
Lokken sighed. She wanted to see the recordings. Everyone wanted to see the recordings but those who were involved with the project were even more strident about being able to see them. As far as she knew no one had done so. Or maybe they had and they still feared The Wrath of Stratt so they didn't discuss what they found. Come to think of it she hadn't heard from a few of them in a while.
"Very well. Send for coffee and something to eat. I expect this to be a long meeting." She shifted in her chair. "And if there's a better chair, bring that." Lokken had learned early on to see how far she could push her luck in requesting things. It was the only way to get at least some of them.
Stratt nodded to one of the guards on the door before turning towards her computer.
"These are images and videos of the interior and exterior of Hail Mary. I want you to tell me what was done, why it was done, and what impact it could have had on the integrity of the ship." Stratt projected the mission logo image onto the screen.
"There were changes done?" Lokken was affronted that Ilyukhina would or could do much to change the ship design itself. She didn't have the materials or tools. Nor should she have reason to do so.
"There were many changes done. Ilyukhina did not do them, as far as we know."
Lokken was at a loss for words for the first time in a very long time. If the ship's engineer didn't make changes then what happened?
"Here is an outside view of the ship when it launched the beetles." The image changed to show a battered Hail Mary.
Lokken stood up and approached the screen. She pointed at one area. "Enlarge this."
Stratt did as she asked.
"What is this? These were fuel cells. Now they're some kind of metal I don't recognize. There was no metal like this on the ship." Lokken turned to look at Stratt, who looked back with that slightly superior blank expression that everyone from the project knew and very much did not love.
"No. There was no metal like that on the ship. Please tell me what you think it is."
Lokken reached back for the pad and started sketching out the area - the smooth aluminum of the original ship and the odd angles of whatever was in place over .. fuel cells eleven and twelve.
"Are the fuel cells under there?"
"No. They were ejected."
"Why?"
"Irrelevant. Please tell me what you think."
She pulled her phone over and started punching in numbers. She noted she had no phone signal and was completely unsurprised. Writing down the results she continued to work her calculator.
"I don't understand. Why would they replace the missing fuel cells? They didn't have fuel. There was no reason to replace them." She continued her calculations.
"Would they hold fuel if there was a reason for them?"
"I .. I .. I've never seen a structure like this. Those flat sections should have crumpled under the pressure of a full fuel cell. I don't recognize the metal either, if it even is metal." Her voice was rising as she looked at what she couldn't comprehend.
"From the records these are full of fuel and had been full for several weeks."
Lokken thought about it and her eyes widened. "How could they be full of fuel? There was a minimal amount left in the tanks once they reached Tau Ceti."
"How is not your concern."
The next image didn't make any more sense.
"What did they do to the interior of my ship??" She looked at the clear panel tubes running through, sometimes literally through, the ship. "They cut holes in the walls!" Standing up she traced her finger over the odd, triangular panels.
"These are similar to the design on the fuel tanks but a completely different material. The same person made these?"
"We assume so. How would they impact the structural integrity of the ship?"
For the next hour she had Stratt show images and video of the interior of the ship, comparing and contrasting. She did note that some of the video was edited and not all the images were full frame. She set that aside for later.
"What is this clear material? Again, it's nothing that we sent up there."
"Irrelevant. Please tell me what these changes would do to the ship."
Lokken was equal parts confused and irritated. "Well, besides hack it up so that it was roughly into two sections it would have created a second interior. The places it went through the walls could be braced, possibly by the tunnels themselves, to maintain integrity. If the material was strong enough."
“What are those things?” Lokken had her hands on her hips as she leaned in towards the screen.
“Tunnels.”
“Why would they build tunnels?”
“We only need you to tell us how they might impact the structural integrity of the ship, Dr. Lokken.” Stratt was her calm, implacable, info-hoarding self.
Lokken let out an exasperated sigh. “I can't tell you unless I know what they're made of. There's nothing like that on the ship."
“Guess.”
“I do not *guess*." Sheer affront made her bristle.
“Then make an educated inference as to what impact they might have on the structural integrity of the ship.”
Lokken switched back and forth between the slides presented on the screens. She paused on one that had some kind of shadow in the corner that didn't look right but couldn't make it out. Shaking her head she tried to put together an answer.
“Is there anything outside the ship?"
Stratt pressed a few keys on her laptop and new slides appeared on the screen.
“Here are exterior pictures, as best as we can get them. Many cameras were damaged.”
“You didn't tell me the cameras were damaged. How did that happen?"
“I'll tell you once you answer the first question. Then we will move on to the next one.”
“Stratt, you are tying my hands here! I need more information!”
“Dr. Lokken. This is the information I'm giving you. If you can't analyze it then I'll get one of the others on the engineering team to do so."
Her jaw dropped. Get another engineer to critique HER ship? Absolutely not!
With a huff Lokken flipped to a new page and started sketching. When she asked for the paper blueprints of the ship Stratt handed them to her from a folder, then ignored her while working on her laptop. “Of course she has access.” She grumbled as she fumbled for answers.
“I need access to material data.”
Stratt pulled another laptop out of the pile of papers in front of her. “What you need should be loaded on here.”
As much as Lokken wanted to be annoyed she was soon caught up in the challenge of solving the mystery. When she finished she frowned at the results.
“Stratt. There is no known material on Earth that would be able to stabilize the interior of the ship given how much was cut away.” For emphasis she pushed her stack of papers to the center of the table.
“Dr. Lokken. What would be the effect on the ship, given the interior changes, under 6G of centrifugal force along the longitudinal axis? That's how the cameras were damaged, by the way”
She froze. Her brain literally could not comprehend the question. A ship that had traveled for twelve years, had been mutilated, and then spun around like a child's toy? If a child's toy could create lethal amounts of centrifugal force.
“For how long? How long was the ship spinning?”
“Approximately 5 minutes.”
Stunned, she dove back into the calculations.
“Stratt, there is no way this ship should have survived such a situation.”
“These are images from after the problem was resolved so obviously it did. Explain how.”
Standing, Lokken studied the screens to buy herself some time to understand everything that she'd learned.
“Stratt. There is no way that I know of the ship should have survived.”
“Thank you, Dr. Lokken.”
The calm, almost detached answer, infuriated her. “So tell me what happened!”
With a sigh Stratt closed the lid of her own laptop. “Ilyukhina and Yao did not survive the trip to Tau Ceti. Records indicate they died before the ship left our solar system.”
“Dr. Grace? He did this? How?”
“Dr. Grace did not do this.” Stratt folded her hands and waited.
Frantically running ideas through her head Lokken dropped into a chair as she tried to make any sense out of what happened.
“If Ilyukhina wasn't there to make changes, and Dr. Grace didn't make them, then who did?”
“Dr. Lokken. Arthur Conan Doyle said it best. ‘When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’"