Daion Echoes Through Transglass

3-5

"Oh, hey, look at this," Trevor called, grinning at Leo and pointing at the panel she'd just turned on. He came over for a quick glance on his way back to the handheld and stopped to stare.

        "Oh wow! That's got to be first or second generation InterStel!" he said.

        "Right?" she asked, as excited as he was. "I bet this even still has signal distance delay!"

        "It does! Look, right there" –he pointed at the corner of the display screen– "the option to have messages time stamped. So this is first generation InterStel. Wow."

        They grinned at each other before Leo turned away to get back to the handheld.

        "I knew Dockland was old, but I didn't know Dockland was this old," Trevor said. "I bet this control room was latest tech when this ship was built," she added. She'd already moved to the next bank of panels, her angle of sight giving her a partial view of the backs of ones she'd just powered on. She flicked the needed switches and then squinted at the first panels. "Stars align..." she muttered, walking closer so she could look down the InterStel panels' backs to the flooring.

        "What's wrong?" Leo asked as he walked to the third, completely unfamiliar panel along the bank he was turning on. The antique handheld said this one was called the P.O.R.A.

        "These lines have conversion couplings," Trevor said, tracing fingers along one of the connections on the back of one panel. Her eyes followed the cables to the floor and she saw the dark, half-crescent of an unfilled securement bolt hole at the bottom of the panel backing.

        "Makes sense with how many times Dockland has been upgraded," Leo said, shrugging as he flicked the switches and pressed a button to start power coming into the panel he was turning on. The screens of the first two were still scrolling through their start-ups.

        "No, not converting up. These couplings convert down to the hardline tie-ins," she said, staring at him and holding his gaze when he finally looked her way. "These InterStel panels weren't an addition to this ship, Leo. They were an upgrade."

        "What? No," Leo said, shaking his head as he came over to stand beside her. "Every registered ship prior first generation InterStel communication was decommissioned and destroyed as part of New Wave Anti-Martial Items laws back – what? – almost a hundred standard years ago."

        He studied the couplings, his complexion paling as he leaned over the gap between panel backs to scrutinize the cabling Trevor had just been studying. He also saw the edges of multiple bolt holes, and that the hardline cables by the floor looked more like the still images from his Technology History classes than the majority of cables he'd seen when apprenticing during Dockland's upgrades.

        "But... every ship prior first generation InterStel was destroyed by the end of demilitarization," he repeated quietly, straightening so he could see the look on Trevor's face clearly. She definitely appeared as close to throwing up as he felt.

        "What were those abbreviations you said were for the panels you turned on?" she asked.

        "P.D.E.W. and L.R.P.W.," he said. "The one I just powered on is P.O.R.A.," he added.

        The first panel he'd turned on beeped as ready. He and Trevor slowly turned to look at the dusty screen. Right out of one of Leo's Technology History classes, the backlit, transglass screen shone dully with a rotating, two dimensional representation of the three dimensional space around Dockland. The nearby planet, when visible, was shown as a skewed horizon.