Chapter 989 989 It's Gone
That one phrase changed everything. The Anomaly was closed. It was simply gone with no sign of reopening, and with it went this fortified planet's entire reason for existence.
Sure, they could argue that there was a chance it would reappear since none of them understood how it had vanished, but that would only buy them so much time before the government would have serious questions about the situation and what they were going to be doing in the future.
The Hunters were much less concerned. They had signed up to guard the entrance to the Anomaly and make sure that nothing came through it to threaten the Alliance. They had done that job perfectly, and now that there was no entrance, they considered their contract fulfilled in its entirety.
Part of that was just convenient thinking since they had every intention of leaving here before anyone started asking questions about what had gone on before the incident, but their logic was sound. The Anomaly entrance was gone, and they could return if it reopened, so there was no need for them to be here right now.
In fact, it seemed to Khan like this was a perfect time for a beach vacation aboard Absolution along with her entire Clan.
Max waited to see what might happen on the planet after the Anomaly closed, but it looked like there weren't going to be any major ripples or backlash from the energy that had closed the tear in space.
The nature of the wormholes that were affectionately dubbed the Anomalies was somewhat unclear to human science, but Max still suspected that there should be some sort of effect, like when you force closed a Portal.
But it could have been contained on the other side, and even with their advances in communication, it would take some time for the Shuttle that they had left in the other layer to contact them, assuming that it wasn't destroyed.
Max wasn't sure what orders Nico had given to the Android Pilot aboard the ship, but it was so far away, with that messed up region of space between it and the Koleska, that getting back to it would be very difficult, if not impossible.
Messages wouldn't pass that far due to the interference, so they couldn't even contact it from here, leaving the vessel essentially stranded in space in the other layer, awaiting new orders.
When he saw the Hunter mothership coming his way, Max reopened the Portal to let the massive vessel through, then promptly closed it again once everything was clear.
There were Alliance Envoys on the World Ship, so he could answer them if there were any questions, and there was no doubt that whatever future was in store for a fortress world without anything to guard was going to be a real mess.
[Huntress Khan, welcome back. This is Felicity, the traffic controller for Absolution. Please proceed to Port Stabilizer dock one for attachment.] The ship greeted them while silently sending the directions for Max's cutter to dock back in its usual hangar.
[Thank you, Felicity. Would you be the new intelligent control system for the whole station that we have heard so much about?] Khan's ship replied.
[Indeed. I have taken over many of the duties of day-to-day operations under the guidance of the Council. In fact, I have just finished implementing a holographic simulation room, which your people might greatly enjoy. The details will be available once you have docked.]
What she meant was that one of the biodomes in the Port Stabilizer had been adapted into a kilometre-wide holographic emitter, which could create solid images to be used as a safari park of sorts without the risks and upkeep of actual animals.
But for the Hunters, they could be switched out for aggressive species so that they could send teams in for a limited space hunt to go after the holographic animals with primitive or specialized holographic weapons.
The adaptation had taken Felicity 482 milliseconds after the vessel had arrived, and by the time she finished speaking, the arrangements had been finalized, and the next three days of usage had been booked for the Hunters' Colony Ship, which would be docked next to it.
Even Nico was impressed by the AI's efficiency. When they had first left, the program was largely unsocialized, but now it was an incredible host, and it had managed to set up three days of entertainment for a Colony Ship without inconveniencing anyone else.
The Stabilizer was one of the large fins at the back of the ship and over a hundred kilometres from the nearest population centre inside of the ship. They had been intended for the plant species like the Shin, whose official delegation was in the starboard stabilizer right now, but the population of that sort of species wasn't large enough that they needed more space yet.
As Felicity had realized, they didn't always want their own isolated space; the plant species liked to mingle with everyone else in the forest, and a lot of them liked to play pranks on the mammal species by pretending to be regular plants until someone came close.
Max checked on the ship's regular updates since the Council sent him notes on their daily meetings and decisions, but there was nothing huge in it, just the regular set of development notes and a few new plans that were still in the development phase, ready to be proposed to a focus group from among the residents to determine its likely popularity.
Only one message really stood out to him. The one from the leader of the Mecha team at the Koleska Anomaly. All attacks on the species and their allies had stopped nearly two days ago, and though the commander wasn't concerned about it at the time, the message had been sent before the recent events at this Anomaly, so he had no idea that something had gone horribly wrong.
Max quickly formulated a response and told him to look out for other species fleeing in the secondary layer, as it seemed to be the signal that whatever Great Enemy they feared was coming. Other than that, there wasn't much to be done, and the damage that it had done was so far away that it couldn't even be detected from Koleska space.
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