Omicron Minor was always a troublesome route to take, despite it being the most direct. With apprehension, she watches her scanners avidly for Order contacts, intentionally skirting around the planet on her route to Omicron Delta. Luckily, the system was only loosely patrolled this time, letting the sturdy Spatial SHF slip through more or less undetected. From the spacious cockpit, Sara surveyed the system that lay before her- a light green cloud of haze- and a massive asteroid field inside it. Even Toledo wasn't much to see, instead, focusing on the jumpholes signature barely 10 Kilometers ahead of her. Within a few moments, she had cut engines and slipped through the anomaly.
Travelling through nullspace was always disconcerting, but one grows used to it after a lifetime of travel through it. The weapons platforms on the opposite side jerk into sight- white spots, the remainder of the dimensional phase disappearing from her eyes. Hand darting over the controls, she initiates the cruise engines on the Spatial, the five huge engines firing up within a few moments, propelling the craft towards the jumphole she had marked, and traveled through many times before. She leans back, closing her eyes and humming softly, waiting patiently for the craft to approach the anomaly ahead.
There wasn't much else to do during these short bouts of nothingness. In a way, nothing occurring was both calming and disconcerting, in a way she couldn't quite place. But that bout of calm was over now, the jumphole now just ahead. Another jerk, although not nearly as powerful as the jump back into realspace occurred as the cruise engines cut- the autopilot lining up the trajectory and configuration of the anomaly ahead.
She closed her eyes, rubbing her temple absently as the ship slipped back into nullspace- opening her eyes again as the first telltale shudders of the wormhole ending reached the ship. Barely a few seconds later- the ship erupted back into realspace, the Spatials engines stone cold as she looks out of the broad cockpit window- a large obelisk not far from the jumphole itself, thankfully- not firing on her craft.
She keys in some commands on the console, the Spatials cruise engines now cold-starting as it's guided to the large blue nebula in-system. Another long wait, until the two defense satellite constructed by the Nomads- identical to the one guarding the entrance to the system come into sight, as well as the lane that they protected zealously. She guides the SHF into position, cutting the cruise engines for the last time, syncing with the Lane and racing into the heart of the nebula.
Within a few moments, a massive ring of those same satellites came into view, and in the centre of them all lay the great Nomad city of Dur-Shurrikun. This system would have struck fear into the heart of most humans, save the Specters and the humans controlled by Das Wilde and Iseijin. She grinned to herself amusedly, commenting; "Well, its a good thing I'm not ... Human, that is." Swarms of Nomads swiftly pass her by, paying the bulky fighter no mind as she brought the craft towards one of the docking rings of the Nomad city.
Shortly, the fighter was drawn inside- maneuvering onto a landing pad inside the massive city, herself leaving the craft unsecured, as the Nomads would have little use in depriving her of her ship. The city was somewhat familiar, or at least the area around the hangars were ...
She surveyed what she could see of the city in wonder- every time she came here, it never failed to make her mind churn at the physics, the architecture, the technology behind its magnificent construction.
She stands idly, feeling odd- as though she was supposed to be waiting for something.
The door opened on the far side of the room. A strange looking man entered, bald but having lots of tiny crystals seemingly grown into the skull. Sara was aware it was no ordinary person but a hybrid. A rare sight as they are very reclusive.
Came back. Always drawn back...
He didn't gesture nor said anything else beside that, but Sara knew he asked her to follow. They walked through vast halls of the city interior, it's segment that have environment suitable for humans. Sara noticed how every time she was there the city itself changed, becoming older, it's patterns on the walls becoming more sophisticated, it's design riddled with lots more tiny details she did not remember seeing before. She wondered if the city itself was alive. Along the way the man spoke quietly to her:
Eventually it all will change, to what end I do not know... There is lot uncertainty here. Perhaps it is too early...
Finally they came to an oddly shaped door. It were her "apartments". The human section of the city was adapted to the common human structure layout albeit mixed with alien design and materials. Unlike the nomad part which had zero gravity, no air and far more environmentally hostile to humans, but more like what nomads probably find comfortable.
But there is one thing I wonder. You've had a chance to be at any other place. Across Sirius you could have been a prize for the significant and rather unique genetic set you have. Yet you came here. Despite the rumors. Despite the unknown ahead of you. Knowing you could have been killed. Could have been forcefully assimilated. Didn't you want to turn away and go back... Plenty stories floating around having gruesome fates, more or less serving as a warning. So why have you not heeded those obvious signs? Instead choosing to be here than anywhere else, of all things houses and colonies had to offer... You could have found fame or make a reclusive life somewhere far from conflicts. So many opportunities for ambitious mind. Still rejected.
She stands idle for some time, thinking on what had been said. She smiles wryly, a familiar expression to her now, that wry look was. Not much to bring a real smile to her face in Sirius, but amusement, occasionally ... She crosses her arms ans nods slowly, not moving much otherwise.
"I suppose your answer lies in your own question ... I could have been a valuable prize for a human scientist- something he or she would love to have cut open and dissected, interesting bits and pieces placed in jars around their laboratory. Needless to say, I wouldn't particularly enjoy that, as dissection is notoriously hard to recover from."
She smiles, somehow finding humor in that thought, then letting her eyes wander across the hybrids features, curious- if not outright wonder emanating from her at the form of his body.
"And, yes I suppose I could have simply locked myself away, drifted into the far reaches of some obscure system, surely. I suppose I could have kept company with my AI, teaching it, growing old and eventually dying with it ... But I thought I had found humans with a ... cause. A reason to fight, reasons for what they did ... But, after becoming one of them, I realize that they are nothing more than ... well. Any other group a humans in this sector."
She smiles, that wry look crossing her face again.
"But ... that would seem to be rather an ... anti-climax, wouldn't you agree?"
Her eyes drift off, temporarily lost in the swirling designs and architecture of the surrounding area- her mind churning painfully as she begins to remember the destruction of the Naithir, before quickly shoving the thought back under the surface of her mind.
She looks back up slowly, a hardened sheen to her eyes as she does.
"As for the rumors I had heard of the Nomads, from the humans at least, were shocking ones, of terrifying creatures bent on the annihilation of the human race- beings without compassion or care. Monstrosities to be expunged ... Although, I heard a considerably different view from the Outcasts, who referred to them as spirits ... and it would be wise to let them be. I also noticed, that very few Outcasts had ever been openly attacked by them."
She laughs wryly again, a harsh laugh- with little humor or true mirth behind it.
"I look back on that now, realizing that human society has a tendency to alienate its enemies- and human factions have a tendency to make their enemies seem like the most evil, disgusting, vile things in existence. By reflecting on that, I slowly came to decide that perhaps these Nomads were far from the vile beings most humans tend to portray them as."
She shrugs lightly before continuing.
"So I learned, I dug, inspected ... gleaned as much as I could about the Nomads from inside Kusari ... learned from the Outcasts outside Kusari ... I had even made open conversation with beings the Outcasts referred to a 'Young Lights' ... the little ones of the Nomads. And, eventually I found something that showed promise, a bit of information what would have been commonplace awhile back. The fact that there had been a nomad-infested governor in the system of Tohoku, spreading the nomad infection through Kusari ... and whom had died at the hands of the Freelancer Edison Trent ... or rather, due to his efforts. That made me think, for a long while. Tekagi had been killed, but what became of the ones he had infested?"
She smiles wryly, her hands shifting to her hips as she bites her lip lightly, before continuing.
"Information of that caliber is hard to come by, but worthwhile, because it gave me a goal. I had spent a lot of time in Tohoku after that, the massive chunks of rock surrounding what I had assumed to be a military facility serving as excellent cover as I pieced together scraps of information I had observed from the occurrences there. And, eventually, I found something worthwhile- the fact that the Golden Chrysanthemum Pilot Amy Masako was also KNF Gunboat Captain Michiba ... not to mention the curious biological abnormalities if managed to pick up after extensive revisions ..."
She grins again, remembering the circumstances that followed the confrontation between herself and Masako.
"And ... well. I believe I found what I wanted."
She looks away again, her gaze drifting once more across the walls of the station, not lifting her eyes off them, she nods slowly, continuing.
"And yet, even then, there is so much more I'd like to know. I mean ... I don't feel simply drawn here, I find myself seeking the Wilde, Iseijin, even the Keepers ... and ... of course I still find myself drawn here, always ... Like a gentle tug at the back of my mind."