Tanya monitored via her link as the Vanguard landed smoothly onto Eden-Three's surface with barely a whisper from its engines. The data from the link allowed her to listen as the team made their final equipment checks. She could tell from their tone that they knew they were in for a grim mission.
"If we're not back within three days," Boss said, his voice carrying through the comm with unusual gravity, "Tell the captain the mission has failed."
"Just come back safely," Tanya replied from the cruiser's command center, surprised by how much she meant it. She had grown fond of the group, even if her interactions had been limited.
Eyes replied, his voice upbeat despite the tension. "Don't worry, Compass. We're professionals."
As the team disappeared into Eden-Three's landscape, Tanya found herself in an unexpected position. The artificial storms prevented normal long-range communication, but her link to the Vanguard remained crystal clear. She became the primary conduit between the ground team and Captain Davidson, relaying status reports and coordinating the information leaks designed to draw Tsu's attention.
The waiting was the hardest part. Between status reports, Tanya found herself wandering the cruiser's corridors with restless energy. The ship's living area was larger than anything she had been on before, but she quickly discovered that most of it was off-limits to civilian personnel.
She paused at the observation deck overlooking the main hangar, watching through reinforced transparent aluminium as mechanics serviced a squadron of military shuttles. The precision fascinated her; she watched as each technician knew exactly what they were doing, moving with the kind of practised efficiency that came from years of experience. But when she tried the access door, her clearance wasn't sufficient.
"Restricted area," the electronic lock informed her with mechanical politeness.
It was a reminder of her position here. She was useful enough to be consulted, but still an outsider looking in.
"Day one update," she reported to Davidson during their first regular briefing. "Team has made contact with local assets. No unusual activity from the tower yet, but they're beginning to seed the information about Agent Sage as planned."
"Any initial reactions?"
"Too early to tell. The locals are cautious about discussing anything related to the tower. Boss thinks it'll take a few days before word reaches the right ears."
With limited access to ship systems and no real duties beyond communication relay, Tanya threw herself into her beacon vessel design with almost manic energy. The project had become her main focus, a way to keep her mind occupied and away from whatever was happening on Eden-Three.
She set up a workspace in one of the smaller conference rooms, spreading her tablets and sketches across the table like a war map. The technical challenges were genuinely engaging. Each beacon required precise manufacturing tolerances, but she needed to source materials that would be available in most star systems.
"Sage," she muttered during one late-night design session, "what's the minimum beacon complexity that would still provide reliable navigation data?"
//Standard navigation beacons require positional accuracy within 0.3% margins. Simplified gravity sensors could achieve this using titanium-steel composite housings rather than exotic materials. The dimensional sensor will still need to be developed using the workshop machines, therefore, they will be a limiting factor.//
She sketched furiously, optimising component layouts and material requirements. The manufacturing bay would need to be modular, utilising different configurations for various resource types. A system that encounters iron-rich asteroids would operate differently from one that finds silicon-heavy debris fields. She would need to work out just how many beacons would be needed for a ship to be considered successful. This would allow her to determine the storage required for the dimensional sensors.
The mathematics was soothing and gave her joy. You plug in numbers, and an answer comes out. Unlike the human variables she'd been dealing with lately, she was glad to have Amara as her front lady but knew it was likely time to hire some more staff.
"Day three update," she reported to Davidson during their regular briefing. "The team has successfully seeded rumors about Agent Sage through local contacts. No direct response from the tower yet, but they're seeing increased electromagnetic activity around the perimeter."
"Any sign he's taking the bait?"
"Hard to tell. The locals are scared to get too close, but there have been reports of strange lights and sounds coming from the tower at night. Boss thinks it might be surveillance equipment scanning for the supposed agent."
After the briefing, Tanya found herself in the cruiser's mess hall, nursing a cup of coffee that tasted decent for once. She'd grabbed a table near the corner, hoping for some quiet time to think, when a woman in maintenance coveralls approached.
"Mind if I sit?" the mechanic asked, gesturing to the empty chair. "I'm Chief Petty Officer Martinez. I heard you're the one who built that ship that got some of our people to Eden-Three."
"Please," Tanya said, gesturing to the chair. "I'm Tanya. Though I can't take all the credit, I had help from some master engineers."
Martinez settled down with her own coffee, looking out through the nearby viewport at the stars beyond. "Word around the ship is you've got plans to help humans navigate space better. Make it so more people can get out there safely."
"That's the goal. Automated beacon networks, better navigation systems. Why?"
"Because that sounds like something worth doing." Martinez looked out the viewport, staring into vortex space. "I've been working in space for twelve years now, and I still get up early sometimes just to watch the stars. Most people never get to see this or get to feel what it's like to be out here, surrounded by all that infinity."
Tanya nodded, understanding immediately. "It changes your perspective, doesn't it? Seeing how small we are, but also how far we've come."
"Exactly. Back home, people argue about borders and resources like they matter. Out here, you realise we're all just passengers on the same tiny rock, flying through an ocean bigger than we can imagine." Martinez took a sip of her coffee. "My daughter's seven. She draws pictures of spaceships and asks when she can see space as well. Right now, I have to tell her it's too dangerous, too expensive, too complicated."
"But if navigation was safer, more reliable..."
"More people could experience this. Families could travel together. Kids could grow up seeing the universe instead of reading about it or visiting local orbital stations." Martinez's expression grew wistful. "Imagine if space travel to the outer edges of a system was like taking a train between cities instead of having to stay cramped up for weeks at a time.
Tanya felt a warmth in her chest that had nothing to do with the coffee. "That's exactly what I want to build. Infrastructure that makes space accessible instead of exclusive."
"The mechanics have been talking about it in the workshops. Half of us joined the service just for the chance to work in space, to be part of something bigger than planetary systems. If you could make that available to civilians..." Martinez shook her head. "My kid could grow up among the stars instead of just dreaming about them."
"It won't be easy. The technology is complex, and I can foresee many problems."
"Nothing worth doing is easy." Martinez said.
"Sometimes I worry I'm being naive," Tanya admitted. "Thinking I can solve problems that governments and corporations haven't been able to address."
"Maybe naive is what we need. The bureaucrats and executives, they see space as territory to control or resources to exploit. You see it as something to share." Martinez finished her coffee and stood up. "Keep building, Tanya. Some of us are counting on you to make the universe a little smaller."
As Martinez walked away, Tanya remained at the table, staring out at viewport. Her beacon vessel design suddenly felt less like a technical challenge and more like a bridge between the present and a future where children could grow up among the stars.
"Day five status report," she told Davidson, rubbing her tired eyes. "The team reports increased activity from the tower. Local witnesses saw Tsu on the tower's observation platform yesterday evening, apparently scanning the horizon with some kind of device."
"He's looking for his supposed visitor?"
"That's Boss's assessment. They're planning to stage a more obvious 'Agent Sage' sighting tomorrow to force his hand."
Tanya sat at her desk after her meeting, finalising her first design iteration. The beacon vessel had grown in her imagination from a simple automated platform to something approaching a mobile manufacturing facility. But theory was one thing but she needed to test the core manufacturing concepts.
"I need to build a prototype beacon factory, not just a single beacon," Tanya muttered, pulling up the cruiser's fabrication systems. "Can we simulate the manufacturing process without dimensional sensors?"
//Affirmative. I can mimic dimensional sensor outputs for testing purposes. This would allow evaluation of manufacturing variables and modular configurations.//
Working through the night with materials Martinez had helped her source from the ship's machine shop, Tanya fabricated what was essentially a miniature beacon production line. The system could manufacture beacon housings from multiple raw resources and install dummy dimensional sensors, integrate basic power cells, and attach transmission arrays.
"It's crude," she admitted, watching the prototype factory slowly assemble its first beacon. "But it proves the modular concept."
//Manufacturing sequence appears functional. Testing different material configurations would provide valuable data.//
Over the next day, Sage helped test various scenarios. Each showed only minor issues that were quickly sorted out.
"Configuration seven completed, Rosie is doing great work," Tanya announced as the newly named factory component Rosie finished another beacon variant. "That's housings optimised for high-radiation environments, power systems adapted for irregular energy sources, and transmission arrays configured for long-range deployment."
//Positional accuracy remains within acceptable margins across all configurations. The approach demonstrates efficiency improvement over single-design manufacturing. Real-world deployment will be required for further testing/./
Rosie completed its production cycle, having successfully manufactured twelve different beacon variants using the same basic components arranged and built in different configurations.
//Production flexibility achieved. Prototype demonstrates the capability to adapt beacon specifications to available resources without compromising core functionality. //
"This could actually work on a large scale," Tanya said, studying the crude prototypes with a mix of pride and exhaustion. "Layers of automated beacons, spread through human space, each one tuned to local conditions but built on the same core design. A constellation of guides, simple enough to mass-produce, reliable enough to work nearly forever." Her smile faded as she tapped the simulated sensor readout. "But it still leaves the hard part, figuring out how to navigate without your constant hand on the controls, Sage. Until I solve that, this is just half a solution."
The thought barely had time to settle and continue her work before alarms shrieked through her link. Tanya's head snapped up, heart racing. "Day seven, emergency transmission incoming," she reported to Davidson, her voice tight as fresh data flooded her display.
The cruiser's sensors detected the changes before she could relay them, as the storms that had been protecting Eden-Three's orbital space were fluctuating wildly before simply vanishing.
"All ships, storm barriers are down," Davidson's voice echoed through the bridge as the cruiser and its accompanying flotilla surged forward toward Eden-Three. "Move to extraction positions. Communication arrays are coming back online."
Tanya felt a wave of relief as normal long-range communications resumed after a week of relying solely on her link. The bridge's main screens flickered to life, displaying feeds from the Vanguard's internal cameras as the ship raced toward their position.
"Status report, Compass," Davidson called out.
"They've got him," Tanya announced, gesturing toward the main display where the team's condition was now visible to the entire bridge crew. "But the casualties are severe. Red's lost his left arm and as you can see by the emergency medical interventions. Boss has suffered facial trauma that's destroyed his left eye."
The bridge fell silent as the camera feeds showed the full extent of the damage. Red lay unconscious on a medical stretcher, Boss's face was half-covered in field dressings that couldn't hide the severity of his injuries, and the other team members bore burns, lacerations, and the hollow-eyed exhaustion of a brutal fight.
But it was their prisoner who commanded attention on the central screen.
Tsu Williams looked like a man who had been living on the edge of sanity for months. His elaborate robes were torn and stained, his hair wild, but even bound and defeated, his eyes held a manic intensity that made everyone on the bridge uncomfortable. The camera captured every detail of his condition, from the way he muttered to himself, to the occasional jerky movements against his restraints, the unsettling smile that would flicker across his face.
"Christ," someone whispered from across the bridge. "What did they do to him down there?"
"More like what did he do to himself," Davidson replied grimly, watching as security teams prepared to transfer the prisoner. He turned to Tanya. "I need you to come with me to observe the interrogation."
Tanya looked up from monitoring the medical readings. "Sir, I don't have any training in—"
"This isn't about interrogation techniques," Davidson interrupted, his expression serious. He leaned in close so only she could hear. "I think it would be educational for you to see the other side of being bonded to a Gardener. To understand what happens when someone like you chooses a different path."
As she followed Davidson toward the interrogation section, Tanya found herself thinking about her simple prototype beacon, still sitting on the conference table. Such a contrast to the complexity and danger surrounding her now, it was honest engineering versus the corrupted power they were about to confront.
The moment Tanya stepped into the room next to the interrogation room, everything changed. Tsu's head snapped up with predatory focus, his wild eyes locking onto the wall in front of her with immediate recognition.
"Well, well, there really was an Agent Sage," he said, his voice carrying an unsettling mix of amusement and hunger and maybe more than a bit alien.