Anticipatory disappointment!
I snapped my fingers. “That’s right! It looks like those buildings they had, before the Consolidation Wars. Skyscrapers.” I gave the readings another look. “They could stuff a lot of people in one of those.”
“Yes,” replied Janusz. “And who knows how many aliens?”
“Depends on which species it was. Some of the Amalgamation races could get pretty big.” I scowled at my own telemetry. Quietly, I asked, “So what’s your field speciality?”
“Interfacing Amalgamation computer systems. You are a xeno-archeologist, yes?” Janusz looked more human just then than he’d managed the entire trip, to date. “And you are just as aware as I am that neither of us will be going to get onboard that ship.”
All I could say was, “Yeah. Well, at least we’ll be able to play backup for the field researchers.”
Which is fine. Well, I mean, it sucks. But me and Dan and Janusz and the other first-timers are just that: first-timers. The O’Bannion has an entire crew’s complement of fully trained computer integrators, xeno-archeologists, and Amalgamation design architecture researchers (Dan’s speciality). And finding a no-fooling Amalgamation ship would be a real big deal even if it was a slowly expanding ball of debris. If this vessel was really intact, or mostly, even a little hand’s-on research could uplift Earth’s technology overnight.
You just have to expect that this big a plum will get gnawed at from the top down. I can’t even blame them for that. If I could shamelessly pull rank on this, I would. And who knows? Maybe we’ll all get to do at least one quick tour before UNSO sends specialists in ship research.