The Gamma Crusis Incident: Prelude

The saintly star fell upon the cluster of orbitals. The looming sun of the red giant Gamma Crusis. Imposing its light on the minuscule speck where over a billion beings have chosen to reside in the face of that vast, dying star. It was a typical time cycle for the local inhabitant known as Noa, who levitated towards the panels monitoring the current flare activity. “No disturbances detected” it read. A typical cycle indeed.

Noa continued to advance in their activities, the tight and highly vertical corridors of the monitoring array built with the eventual construction of a solar mirror in mind. The project has had considerable delays due to infighting with the local asteroid harvesting communes who have Continued questions about the mirror and its intention. Much of which is due to the faction of harvesters who believe solar lifting tech is just around the corner and questioning the usefulness of a massive telescope situated at Gamma Crusis of all stars.

The shaft had finally been navigated to the proper location which Noa had sought as the final location of interest. A view at the mirror itself in construction. Noa peered out of the window, out there all one sees is a vast plain of glass with the pitch black sky only punctured by the lights of ships working on the mirror. It is a very serene sight on the whole, the gaze of Gamma Crusis is not present due to it being the “night” side of the mirror.

It was at that point Noa had been contacted by a local integrity monitor. Noa’s relief was near instantaneously punctured by one simple line-

“Noa. We have a complication.”

The frustration grew as the nature of the complication was further expressed in the form of a drone malfunction. A minor error from the stack of protocols followed by the construction drone led to it crashing into one of the support beams.

“I’ll take care of it directly.” Noa replied, knowing the task that now will absorb the whole cycle. Sending another drone is simply too ill advised. A generalized agent like themself exists to handle the convoluted tedium after all. Noa set out immediately, pulling themselves towards the airlock and donning the technician’s apparatus.

In the void, the scale of the mirror became ever clearer. The horizon was a glass horizon. The support structure the drone hit was over 7 kilometers from their location. Which was not a terribly long distance to travel using the apparatus. The journey was only half an hour.

After drifting for that half hour on the matched velocity Noa didn’t even need their sensors to see the impact. It was worse than merely a support structure beam getting mangled. The drone smashed into the damn mirror. Noa set to work immediately trying to salvage the situation.

The drone could not be salvaged.

The mirror for the whole sector was cracked, the chips and pieces kept Noa on edge as they were sharp enough to even puncture the apparatus should they be careless. Noa dodged around the large shards, never changing velocity too much and making touch down even as a sharp jagged tooth of a glass piece floated above them.

Noa got to work on the support beam itself, mending it with the graphene strand gel in short order and enameling it further with an adhesive. It was not optimal, but the alternative of disassembling hundreds of meters of mirror was simply not viable. Noa just wanted out of here. The glass shards drifting above making it clear the incident was going to need more than one mechanic with adhesives and gels. Using gels on the glass would further complicate their trajectories and be too much a liability. Noa only wanted to get back to the vertical corridors of the center monitoring tower and call in the heavy duty assistance.

But first, Noah had to take the broken beyond repair drone with them. Dislodging it was simple and the lack of gravity made it less difficult to carry in tow with the cables then it could have been.

Ascending the broken glass was all they had to do now.

The drift of the glass and timing it, navigated away from a large piece of glass that appeared to be headed towards them. The drift was anxiety inducing all the same as it glanced ever so close, this sharp broken crystal which was meant to power civilizations. Now a hazard for their own survival. Noa felt the smaller bits of glass regardless, tearing a bit on the suit. Mercifully, they managed to get out of the worst of it… the plains of solar panel blending into an indistinct bluish hue as they drift ever further upwards with the drone. The light of the recover craft illuminating behind them.

“Finally here?” Noa asked it, “I have the drone.”

Noa’s apparatus linked with the vehicle, the drone clutched in their hands. Noa would watch as they were rapidly flown back to the main control center, the simmering glimmer of the panels ever so distant now. The heat of the thrusters could be felt, but Noa didn’t hear them beyond the loose hum and vibration of the craft they are latched upon. It was strangely serene, as they watched the central tower of the power station come into view, a tower amid the ocean of solar panel below.

They finally got back to the station, drone in tow.

“Any new information?” Noa inquired.

“Nothing outside the repair crew being officially dispatched. Pending drone analysis.” the monitor replied.

The whole situation reeked of an absence. The repairs according the look up system were estimated to take 77 hours. Yet that estimate seemed painfully optimistic. The damage witnessed, the large shards floating over the sea of solar panels and the dust itself all pointed to an operation far more intensive than a mere glue operation.

Something simply didn’t make any sense.

Noa took the drone to the mechanical bay and got to work analyzing it. The drone was dead, as expected, but other strange anomalies were present. The navigation system seemed off-kilter. Which shouldn’t be possible, as these were drones specifically designed to keep the radiating heat of Gamma Crusis and its solar winds from perturbing the navigation system. Even the primitive probes the first space faring humans constructed didn’t run into that problem. Something else is tampering with it.

But what?

“The harvesters wouldn’t dare.” Noa stated out loud.