Mara Chen's superiors did not like taking official on the record etings unless sothing had frightened them into it. Most of the ti they preferred euphemisms like statue alignnts, strategic check-ins, and informal briefings. It was only when fear entered the equation, they reached for capital letters and secure channels. Unfortunately, the eting Chen was getting ready to attend had both. She rarely used the board room, but this room was secure. She was pretty sure the anomaly that Max kept lovingly referring to as the Blinker would be unable to listen in. Chen checked the systems to make sure the equipnt was active and that the lines were secure before things got underway. The conference room holograms flickered to life, resolving into three figures suspended in immaculate imitation. Each of them a projection being bead through secure lines from millions of miles away. Chen walked over to her own seat and calmly sat down, while inside her head she was bracing for impact.
"Director Chen," called out Vice Administrator Holt, smiling with his mouth but not his eyes. "We have reviewed your preliminary incident report."
Mara kept a expression neutral.
"Then you've seen the teletry." Chen asked of her superiors.
"Yes," Holt recalled, "We've also seen Europa."
The word dropped into the room like a gravity well. Max, leaning against the far wall with the air of soone attending a lecture he hadn't enrolled in, straightened slightly. Europa was not discussed lightly.
"I was under the impression that Europa was a containnt failure," Administrator Reyes said, "An overreaction compounded by speculative science."
"You wish," Max snorted, "It was a massacre compounded by denial."
Mara shot Max a cold look ant to be a warning.
He ignored it.
Holt's smile thinned when he realized Max was also in the room.
"Dr. Howard," Holt calmly called out to him, "I believe your presence here is advisory, not rhetorical."
"Understood, Sir." Max replied, "I'll restrict myself to facts you don't like."
"Director Chen," Reyes continued, as he pretended Max didn't exist, "Your report suggests intentional behavior used by the asteroid."
"That is correct, Sir." Chen confird.
"And you allowed a civilian specialist to interact with it?" Holt asked.
Mara folded her hands as she knew and was prepared for this attack.
"Dr. Howard is not a civilian," Chen corrected him, "The last ti I checked, Max Howard is a contracted xenolinguist."
There was a short pause in the boardroom.
"Which," Holt carefully replied, "is still not a real job."
"It's quite real," Max said defiantly. "It just doesn't get you invited to dinner."
"Let be blunt," Holt said, as he leaned forward, "The Kuiper Belt Extraction Initiative represents the most stable revenue stream humanity has had in several generations. It has remained that way because it is predictable, scalable, and quiet."
"It was quiet." Max murmured.
"We cannot afford another Europa!" Reyes added, "Public confidence barely recovered from the last incident. If word were to get out that mining operations have attracted..."
"A sapient nonhuman intelligence?" Max guessed.
"An alien," Reyes snapped back, "The markets would freeze, our insurance will evaporate, and every advocacy group from Earth to Titan will demand a moratorium!"
Chen clenched her jaw, as she knew what Reyes was hinting at.
"You're asking to suppress data." Mara speculated.
"What we are asking," Holt suggested with a very stern tone, "Is for you to contextualize it. Aggressively."
Max laughed. It ca out sharper than he intended.
"Do you hear yourselves?" Max said, as he tried not to laugh again. "You're not afraid of it. You're actually afraid it might ask for a seat at the table."
"Doctor Howard," Holt said as his eyes hardened. "Europa taught us a valuable lesson. No one is suggesting that we take this situation lightly."
Max pushed off the wall, drifting forward.
"It sounds like Europa taught you the wrong lesson." Max concluded.
The hologram shifted as archived footage blood briefly between them: fractured ice, ergency beacons flickering out, a facility torn open like a crushed can. Max didn't look away.
"Europa wasn't hostile," Max lectured to the holograms, "It was startled, confined, and we had the audacity to poke it with tools it didn't understand. And when it naturally reacted, you dipshits called it an attack so the company wouldn't have to admit fault."
"You weren't there, Doctor Howard." Reyes reminded him.
"No, I wasn't." Max quietly confird, "I was the only one who told your people to slow down. I rember it was you and holt who decided to bury that mo."
Mara inhaled sharply. This was not in her briefing packet.
Holt waved a hand. The footage vanished.
"We will not repeat that mistake." Holt said, determined to retake control of the briefing from Max.
"Correct," Max concurred, "Now you have a chance to make a new one."
Silence.
Holt spoke again, this ti his voice colder.
"The Blinker appears to have already disrupted one station," Holt started, "If it interferes again, we will have no choice but to neutralize it."
"Neutralize?" Chen repeated, as her posture stiffened. "How?"
Holt smiled. "Decisively."
"This is ridiculous," Max called out to them. "You're talking about killing sothing you don't understand just because it might dent your quarterly projections."
"We're talking about protecting human lives." Reyes snapped back.
"You don't care about human life," Max retorted, "You're only talking about protecting this gravy train."
The phrase hung there, as it was both ugly and accurate.
"You brought in to manage risk," Mara reminded them, "Not to erase it."
Holt t her gaze.
"Your job," He replied, "Is to keep this project running."
"And if it can't?" Mara asked.
"Then you do whatever it takes to make it run!" Reyes shouted back. It was clear that he was slowly losing his composure.
"You're already at the wrong question," Max replied, as he wasn't going to let the suits push Chen around. "This isn't about whether the project survives."
"Doctor Howard," Holt's voice followed him. "What is the right question?"
"That's quite simple," Max answered, "It's about whether we deserve to survive."
He glanced back at Mara.
"And whether we're willing to listen when the universe finally answers back." Max added as he knew they wouldn't like his answer.
"If you don't like our suggestions," Reyes said, "Then what do you suggest we do about this?"
"Well, you have no idea if it's a threat," Max reminded him.
"The Blinker appears to have already disrupted one station," Holt said again.
"You have no evidence it disrupted anything," Max countered, "Which ans you have no reason to neutralize it."
"He ans we need to investigate," Chen finished for him, "We should send so of our specialists out there to actually access the station to see what really happened to it. For all we know the station is still running and producing, but we just don't know it. There's not need to panic unless we're given a reason to."
Holt sat at the table and paused while thinking about the situation.
"Alright," Holt finally said. "Send out your people and confirm what happened to the station. Once we learn what happened and what the current status of the station is, then we can decide what strategy to take from there."
"That actually sounds like a good plan, Sir." Max said, and he wasn't even sarcastic about it.
Without saying another word, the channel cut and both holograms of Holt and Reyes vanished without saying another word.
Mara exhaled slowly, shoulders sagging.
"Well," she said, "That went badly."
"Don't you worry," Max replied faintly. "That was just the warm-up."
"Well, get back to your pod and start packing." Chen ordered.
"Packing?" Max repeated.
"For the mission," Mara reminded him, "You're going with Gene and Tricia to investigate the station and determine its status."
"Excuse ?" Max replied, "You want going out there?"
"Yes, I do!" Chen confird, "Do you honestly want Gene to be the one that might make first physical contact with whatever is out there?"
"Ugh," Max said, as he saw her point. Letting Gene be in charge of eting up with The Blinker would make Europa look like a minor inconvenience with the way he conducted himself.
"You know I'm right," Chen added, aware what was going through his mind.
"Alright," Max agreed, "You make a good point. I'll start getting ready."
"Make it quick," Mara ordered, "Holt and his people are going to want proof that this thing didn't damage anything to keep their fingers off the trigger."
Outside, far beyond profit margins and policy briefings, The Blinker waited. Patient, unimpressed, and quite aware that humans were arguing about it instead of with it. The Blinker also knew that it was going to have company very soon.
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