"We probably won't." I said. "Still, are you going to tell us?"
"There are two life boats. You need to come here ASAP." he said.
If it really was the case, he was right to get excited. I carefully, but quickly got Lodos out of the debris field and started flying towards Tachibana's shuttle at best speed.
"There they are!" Mei said.
"I will get them into the hangar bay." I said.
"I will get some of my crew and wait at the hangar." said Mei, and ran out of the bridge.
"We will have some explaining to do to them." said Nuan. "Once they are inside, they will find our crew complement to be a little... odd. Unusual."
"They don't need to know." I said.
"Feds WILL find a way to screw us over." she said. "You will see."
Her voice was... a bit different than before. I looked at her, and saw that she was sweating a little bit. She noticed me staring at her, so I turned back around.
"Stalker." she murmured.
I didn't answer her accusation, and continued my job.
The life boats were gently placed into the hangar bay, so I started viewing the rest of the process from cameras. Mei and her crew scanned the life boats first, and then opened the hatch.
Two people came out of one of the vehicles. They were Federation Navy officers, which was apparent from their uniforms. They injured badly, and could barely even walk.
"There are more survivors." Mei said.
Lodos crew went into the boat and pulled out a few disabled people, possibly a few dead ones too. The situation was similar in the second life boat as well. Lodos' crew transported them to the seriously undersized and understaffed medical bay. Automation systems did help a lot, but usually, they were no substitute for real medical crew.
Meanwhile, the hangar bay was cleared and Tachibana docked his shuttle to come back aboard Lodos.
"Mei..." I contacted her through the speakers. "How are the survivors doing?"
"They've certainly had much better times, but not too bad." she said. "However, I don't think we can help them much with what Lodos has to offer in medical situations. There is no medical crew aboard."
"No one? Really?"
"There are a few who's got some sort of medical training as a side skill during the academy, but we probably need surgeons and such. It would be the best if we could dock somewhere with a proper hospital." she said.
"Somewhere with a proper hospital..." I repeated. "There are a few on Ceres."
"We are not going back to that hell hole, are we now?" Tachibana said.
"Everything else is a bit too far away." I said. "What, are we going to Callisto or Europa?"
"We could try Earth." he said.
"Oh, right, Earth..." I thought about it. "Okay, could be it. Let's change our course."
"Wait." said Mei.
"What happened?" I asked.
"One moment..."
Tachibana and I looked at each other.
"One of our survivors has a request." she said. "Listen."
"Alright..."
"Commander." the voice on the speakers changed. "I am the tactical officer of Revolution. Thank you for saving us. We had disabled our boat's systems to hide from the enemy, but when we saw a Federation ship, we tried to draw your attention. Thank god you heard us."
"We only did our duty." I said.
"This voice..." he said. "It is familiar. Say, commander, do we know each other?"
I turned to Tachibana.
"Should I tell him?"
He just shrugged as an answer.
"Anyway, maybe that was a weird question, I am sorry." the man said. "Commander, I have something important to request."
"Go ahead, please." I said.
"Our ship was attacked by a previously unknown enemy." he said.
"We know." I replied before he could continue.
"You do? Did you encounter them?" he asked.
"Once, we did. However, still not much is known about them." I said.
"Oh..." he said. "Oh, exactly. That's what I was going to say. Before our ship was destroyed, we had managed to gather a great amount of technical data on the little buggers. The kind of information that could potentially save us from a second attack. Unfortunately, our ship is now in a million pieces, and the information is gone."
"Unless..." Tachibana, Mei, the man and I all said that at the same time.
"What do you want to do?" I asked.
"I want to search for the data banks. I am pretty sure they are intact somewhere within one of those larger, sturdier chunks of debris. I request a spacewalk." he said.
"Your crewmates are in need of medical help." I said. "We will be risking their lives."
"It won't take too long, trust me." he said. "I know my ship inside and out. Besides, I know it is not a good way to look at things, but the data we will get might save more lives than we are risking right now."
It was a hard decision.
"Okay." I said. "I will give you the necessary equipment for a spacewalk, and some of our crew will join you to speed up the search. However, should the search last longer than 3 hours, we will need to call it off and leave."
"I understand the risks and concerns." he said. "Thank you, commander."
"If we stay here for long, we might be found by the enemy again." said Tachibana.
"I know..." I said. "But the potential reward is equally great."
"Why..." Nuan suddenly moaned. "...did you go that way?"
"What?"
"Ms. Qing?" Frans suddenly got worried. "Ms. Qing, are you okay?"
"NO!" Nuan screamed. "I need a rifle."
"A what!?"
"Excuse me?" Tachibana said calmly.
"I mean... eggs." Nuan said, and laughed. "Haha, silly me!"
"Mei!" I called her. "Mei!"
"What? I hear you." she said.
"Come to the bridge." I whispered. "I need you to take care of... of Nuan."
"Okay, I got it." she said. It didn't take her longer than a few seconds to appear in the bridge.
"Ohmyshh..." Nuan said. "Mei!"
"Nuan!" said Mei.
"It's been a long time!" Nuan said.
"It has been?" Mei asked, trying to keep her uneasy smile on her face.
"I missd yu..."
"Nuan, are you drunk?" I asked.
"Mind your own business!" she said angrily. "You are jealous aren'chu?"
"Nuan..." said Mei. "Let's go."
She held Nuan and guided her out of the bridge.
"What the hell was that even?" I sighed.
"No idea." said Tachibana. "Anyway, I will prepare for the spacewalk."
"Okay." I said. "If you sense any trouble out there, don't be a hero, just float back to the ship."
"Yeah, I know, I know." he said, and walked away.