They sat at the small table in the galley that night discussing their options over coffee and prepackaged snack cakes. After checking their remaining inventory of fabrication stock, they determined that they could manufacture some high-powered, full-spectrum lights, but not enough to surround every section of the city walls. The best idea they could come up with was to make as many as they could and space them so that a mass attack on any one section would be less likely. Sims was building the units now, using all three maintenance drones to assemble the components. This would be a short-term solution at best. It would not eliminate the threat, and it would not get them the palladium they needed to repair the Brane Skip device. Somehow, they needed to get more information on whatever was commanding the orcs and find a way to stop it.
Sims interrupted their conversation. "Notice: Orcs are approaching the ship."
"Screen on!" Lisa said.
The small screen imbedded in the galley wall instantly showed the nighttime scene of the section of town immediately to the stern of the ship. Figures scurried in and out of the long shadows created by the Brane Child's landing lights.
An unfamiliar sound caught her attention. It was just a slight tap, but she had never before heard the ship make a sound like it. Another, somewhat louder tap followed.
"What is that noise?"
"Small metallic objects have impacted the hull with minimal force," Sims informed them. "No damage is detected."
"They're shooting at us?" Sandra said.
"Everyone get to the bridge!" Lisa ordered, already in motion.
Sims had the main screen on when they arrived. It displayed a sweeping view of the area around the ship. There were indeed orcs out there, although most were merely fleeting shadows outside the range of the ship's lights.
Brax threw himself into his pilot's seat and began working the controls.
"I'm bringing up the spotlights to light up the ones near the walls. It will help the archers on top find things to shoot at."
A tattoo of impacts on the hull, probably no more damaging to the ship than a sudden sun shower, suggested that the ship might be the main target of the attack. Were the orcs testing them?
A heavier sound, more like a hailstone than a raindrop, supported the idea that they were.
"Sims, report. What was that?"
"We have been hit by a stone or piece of masonry with minimal force. No damage is indicated."
"Well, at least it seems they can't hurt us," Sandra said.
"That's not the important part," Brax said.
"To me it is."
"What I mean is that we can't just sit here and take it. If they're not afraid of us, they'll just go around us and attack the city."
"Sims, have you fixed the landing thrusters yet?" Lisa asked the AI. "Are we able to lift?"
"Physical repairs to the thrusters are complete. Test firing is required for calibration."
"Well, now seems a good time for that." She suspected that a bit of roaring flame would make the orcs take notice and convince them that the Brane Child was not something they should annoy.
"Everyone strap in. Brax, engage the thrusters. Take us up a few meters and rotate our nose out away from the city, then sweep the area with the forward lights."
The ship rumbled as she fastened the buckles of her restraining belts. The image on the main screen verified that they were rising and rotating slowly. The ship lurched in its progress briefly as Sims calibrated the thruster alignments, but the demonstration of their power had the desired effect. By the time the forward lights cast their full illumination on the overrun part of the city, the orcs were retreating into the surrounding woods.
"I'm not sure we can keep them scared for long with just lights," Brax said. "Eventually, they're going to figure out that we can't really hurt them."
"I know you'd like some phasers, but lights are all we have," Lisa said. "Do your best. Sandra, what are you getting on sensors? Are all the orcs leaving?"
"I think so, but I'm picking up something different at the edge of the woods to our right. It's not an orc. The heat signature is different."
"Sims, direct the forward lights at the coordinates of that anomaly. Show it on the main screen and magnify."
The screen zoomed to the tree line beyond the city, where long sharp shadows retreated from the ship's lights. Whatever the creature was, it obviously did not like the light or the attention, and it quickly slipped back into the shadowed woods, giving them only a brief glimpse of a man-sized figure in robes. It may have been a trick of the light, but Lisa thought something about the head suggested it wore dreadlocks.
"Sims, try to find a match for that thing in our data banks."
"Working," the AI acknowledged.
"Any ideas, Brax?" she asked.
"Sorry, Commander. I didn't get a good enough look at it."
"Sims?"
"The data we collected on the creature is insufficient to provide a conclusive match."
"How many inconclusive matches did you find?"
"Four hundred and eleven."
And she knew there was no assurance any of them was the right one.
"Keep analyzing information as we collect it and let us know if you can narrow that down. Sandra, are there any more orcs out there?"
"No. They all seem to have gone."
"Okay, Brax. Take us down. We need to figure out a way to get a better look at that thing."