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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 4217123" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 584: Deep OrbitDistant orbit of a star system was an interesting form of camouflage. Usually it meant powering down most systems and dropping into an orbit typical of an asteroid in a somewhat erratic orbit. There was, of course, a great deal of care required in this, and at least a little bit of insanity needed to think that a ship could be mistaken for an asteroid...or at least ignored like one.    It rarely worked.    Rarely, of course, meant that sometimes it did.     The trick to it had nothing to do with those attempting it...rather, it was all in the hope that someone wouldn’t notice. For a metal ship, it could work. Most ships were composites, of course, but distant scans could read a ship as just a floating metal object. If no one bothered to look closer, then all was well and it worked. But organic ships had another difficulty on top of everything else...asteroids weren’t normally composed of non-metals. It was an immediate tip off to something odd, though, again, it took someone paying a little more attention than a cursory scan.    But then again, sometimes even that might not seem odd. It was possible that the Yuuzhan Vong might just ignore organic floating objects as space debris, usually the second guess of a not-so-attentive scanning officer of a ship after an asteroid. And besides that, the Yuuzhan Vong were from another galaxy. Who were they to say what was normal and not in this one? It was worth a try, at least...    And, for four standard days, it had worked.    “So what do you think?” Marix asked as she peered through the viewport and at the small globe of a star. There were dots, too. Planets. Colour could even be seen in them, though it took some careful peering at their current distance.    [I think they’re thick. Orbit right past the fifth planet and they didn’t even bat an eye. Bet we could do it again and they’d still miss us.] somehow, even though it was just a mental voice and not a real sound, Hermes sounded different than Loki. They were brothers, and there was a definite similarity in the way they both ‘spoke’, but where Loki could shift from sarcasm to serious, it seemed that Hermes only had the ability to be sarcastic. Well, sometimes he had a good-natured humour about him but there was always the sarcasm. It was why he had been the perfect match for Kyren: a foil to such a serious personality. And then Jyren, too, actually succeeding at sarcasm and general wit where Jyren tried far too hard and usually fell short.    Marix, however, just tried her best not to be annoyed by it. Hermes seemed to at least tone it down a bit when she was around, so the last week had actually been bearable. They had not discussed Loki at all except for the first hyperspace jump, and even then it had been short. Neither of them really wanted to think about Loki’s condition, even if they had been consistently assured that, by the time they got back, he’d be on his feet again, as it were. The saying only made things more frustrating, though, since Loki didn’t actually have feet.    Shifting slightly in the single chair within Hermes’ cockpit, Marix let her head rest against the curved headrest that Jyren had talked Hermes into going with. The chair was bigger than Loki’s, too, a more comfortable size for Jyren. Apparently Alyx hadn’t bothered to ask Hermes to change any of those little details, if he’d even thought about it. Marix sure wasn’t going to say a thing about it, “Nothing new?”    [Not since that flotilla left a couple of hours back.] Hermes sounded bored. [Too far out to get a good look at the planet, though.]    Idly, Marix patted the side of the seat, “Six more hours and we’ll be right in the middle of it again. Get one more good look at that big ship and then we can decide what to do.”    [And by ‘we’, you mean ‘you’. Or ‘me’, I guess. Pick a pronoun, you know what I mean.]    “You really do babble.”    A slight laugh sounded in her mind. [What else do you expect me to do? Just out here floating like a rock and staring at some star system I’ve never heard of looking for something you’ve only vaguely described to me. Even then, it was an idea and not an object. Its amazing anyone can put up with you for more than a day.]    “I’ve heard the same said about you,” Marix forced a smile on her face, at least a slight one. He hadn’t said ‘Loki’ he’d said ‘anyone’. It was deliberate, and they’d both been doing it for days. Sadly, though, it seemed that just not speaking the name didn’t mean they couldn’t stop thinking it. Not that they stopped the practice. It had to work eventually. Marix then decided to change the subject to something more practical, “Can you give me a view of the planet again?”    [Your friendly, babbling telescope obeys, my lady.]    In front of her, just over the viewport, an image appeared. At first, it was just a zoomed in image of the system’s single, boring little star. But then it shifted to the right until a green dot came into view, then again zoomed in until the dot was a planet. There were greens and blues and the whites of clouds obscuring much of it, but that was about the extent of the detail. Currently, Hermes was at the peak of his orbit, so far out from the rest of the system that it was amazing he could bring the planet into that clear a view at all.    Myrkr was a planet ignored by the galaxy for much of history. It sat in the Inner Rim, a planet covered in forests, jungles, and very unique wildlife that all used the Force to their advantage in some way. Through most of history, it was just a haven for smugglers and such. A nice place where no one bothered to look partly due to the natural wildlife and partly due to the fact that it was just considered a rather backwater world without any real civilization of any kind. In recent years it had been a blip on the galactic scene again, but nothing more. And now the Vong had it.    As she thought about them, Marix saw the obvious presence of the Vong gently orbiting around the planet come into view. At first glance, the object looked like a galaxy orbiting Myrkr. It was a spiral shaped object with those long arms so easily associated with galactic formations, but it was not composed of stars and dust. It was ship, and it was solid. It was one of the Yuuzhan Vong’s Worldships, their namesake being enough to describe them perfectly.    On their orbit through the system itself, both Marix and Hermes had spent a great deal of time examining the ship from a distance. It was over a hundred kilometers long, with protrusions on both hemispheres of its spiral shape that looked like typical Vong weaponry. Smaller cruisers and ships docked with the long, spiral arms for short periods of time before detaching and flying off to wherever they were going. It was an amazing sight, really. A world orbiting a world.    And something else, too.    Upon leaving the Gateway to look for the lost Knights, Marix had done the logical thing and picked one to follow. She plotted a course to her last known location and then went from there based on the Force and instinct. Marix and Hermes had ended up in a rather empty part of space just outside the Mid Rim and had sat there for a day while Marix thought and felt it out. The Knight had last reported from that location, though she’d undoubtedly gone somewhere else before her disappearance. It was a matter of finding where.     Through the wonderfully vague guidance of the Force, they had reached Myrkr. For a short moment upon entering the system, Marix felt a presence in the Force, distant but there and in pain. At that point, she knew they’d found what they were looking for. Seeing the worldship just solidified that. It also, however, presented a problem that had caused the four day orbiting and observation they were now involved in. Was the feeling from the planet below or the worldship?    Both would be difficult to reach, but the former was much more accessible than the latter. Marix wasn’t ready to barge into a Vong worldship just yet. It would take something drastic for her to go that far, and even then, likely something along the lines of the twins being on said worldship. That was about the only thing that could cause such a stupid action. Still, something about the planet was drawing her. It was hard to pinpoint, but it was important. They needed to get down there and have a look around.    “In my experience, the Vong aren’t fools,” Marix mumbled the words, but it was obvious to Hermes that she was speaking to him, “They have to have seen us and they’ve got to be watching us now. But lets ignore the whys on that for now. Lets also ignore your analysis of them as ‘thick’.”    At that, Hermes had to cut in. [That’s a tough one to ignore...]    Not about to dignify that with a response, Marix continued her slow approach to an important question, “I need the truth here, Hermes. Can you get us onto Myrkr’s surface without that thing noticing?”    For the first time, Hermes did not immediately respond. He obviously took a moment to think, then answered in a surprisingly serious way. [If I’ve calculated our orbit just right, we’ll swing around and reach a point where that worldship will be on the opposite end of Myrkr from us. We’ll be just past the fifth planet’s orbit when that happens, so we’ll have to make a run for it to get in that window in time....but yes, I think I can do it.]    “What about other ships? They aren’t stupid, Hermes, they’re not just watching one side of the planet,” Marix was covering every option. This wasn’t the kind of situation to have to improvise unless all hell broke loose, and even then, it would be improvising a way to the nearest hyperspace route.    [I’ve been watching that, actually.] Hermes was somehow keeping to business like she’d never believed. [All the Vong ships just head right for that big one and then leave. We’re pretty far behind the front line so I doubt they’re too worried. No one’s dumb enough to be this far out, anyway, right? Exactly. Course, only problem is if they are paying even the slightest bit of attention, they’ll notice when we’re not orbiting anymore...]    At that, Marix shrugged, “Can’t avoid that. You’ll just have to get us down and hidden quickly. Use that unrivaled speed you’re always bragging about along with your unmatched intelligence that Alyx said you claimed to be a holder of in the last few months.”    [Yes, well, I prefer not to brag.]    “I prefer the same,” Marix gently kicked the underside of the control consoles, “So you damn well better be able to do it. Otherwise you’re going down in history as Hermes the Slow and Thick.”    The feeling of a smile passed into Marix’s mind. [Well, we can’t have that, can we? Just remember, Hermes is spelled in all big letters that you can see from orbit. Don’t let them forget that part. And I’d like some music at my monument, too. Something fast with a good beat.]    Marix rolled her eyes, “If you keep this up for the next six hours I’ll build special little cave for you when we get back. It’ll be nice and private and sealed deep underground so no one can hear you claiming to be Hermes, Master of the Great Below.”    [That does have a ring to it...]    Marix just sighed.</blockquote>

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