It took Swanne a few seconds to realise what she was seeing, but as the blue dot grew larger, the answer became impossible to deny.
'Is that... the IRIS...?' she whispered.
Nobody answered her. Everyone was staring out of the viewport at the spectacle in front of them.
The IRIS was not small. It was roughly the same size as Zyanthis - Holgar's smallest moon - only instead of a rock, it looked more like a big blue bubble. Millions upon millions of nanosatellites arranged in a sphere worked together to create a powerful semi-transparent force-field that no normal ship could even approach, let alone pass through. But that was only the membrane, the anti-gravitational boundary that guarded the true prize at the bubble's centre: the wormhole.
Perfectly spherical in appearance, the wormhole was in a constant state of flux, never staying exactly the same size (up close it was said to pulsate like a heart), though most of the time it was no bigger than a marble. When needed, however, it could be temporarily stretched to the size of a sporting arena.
No ship travelled into the wormhole directly. A journey through the IRIS demanded that traversing ships first pass security checks at the orbiting space station known as the Torus before being loaded into the impulse shuttle - an enormous capsule capable of holding over seventy freighter ships like the Pegasus. When ready, the wormhole would suddenly expand, sucking the impulse shuttle into it at incredible speed before the wormhole collapsed back to the size of a marble again. Blink, and you'd miss the whole thing.
Kas had always wanted to travel through the IRIS. Gazing at it then, little over a hundred thousand miles away, she knew she'd likely never get another chance.
'But the IRIS should be days away!' Swanne declared. 'What is it doing here?!'
'Beats me,' Mack said. Swanne spun to face him.
'What is going on here, Captain?'
'I have no idea.'
Swanne's eyes glowed green, and before Mack knew it, Otto had hooked his arm around his neck in a chokehold.
'Explain yourself or die,' Swanne hissed.
Kas cleared her throat. 'Sorry to interrupt, but it looks like we've got company.'
Swanne turned around and looked out of the viewport. Sure enough, hundreds upon hundreds of tiny black specks were approaching, silhouetted against the calming blue hues of the IRIS. They were arranged in a complex, almost fluid formation, reminiscent of a flock of birds. Compare to them, Swanne's fleet of Wraiths suddenly looked very small.
'What kind of ships are they...?' Swanne purred.
'They're X1 fighters,' Kas replied.