Starcalled · Gabriel Alvarez

Book 1, Chapter 8: Through the Jump Relay

May 7, 2020·37 min·2 clips

Kron discovers a human woman named Foster locked in cryo on Deck 74 — frozen for six cycles since the war, with neural degradation from the process.

The corridor begins with queens. Their hollow portraits carry thousands of cycles of history, and the old warnings about the Arcor give way to a sharper worry: something worse may still be out there. Authority closes ranks. A director says true synthetic intelligence is within reach, while the High Council and Central Command answer with caution, procedure, and public concern. By the time the hearing starts, it already feels loaded. Lieutenant Kron is not really asked to explain himself so much as account for what he left out. His field reports are turned back on him before the board moves to Osborn. The human prisoner matters because humans are protected, and Kron's handling of Osborn becomes part of the case forming around him. The relay matters even more. His failure to report an unlicensed communications relay from Upper Idarian orbit shifts the room from battlefield judgment to possible breach. Zoran is called next. Her credentials are read with cold precision, from xenobiology to organic technology and theoretical intelligence, which makes the accusation sting harder. She chose the field over a core system research post or the Drebulon Institute because she wanted to work with the Rider module. Her reason is strategic: Instance 6-1-PC had possible colonial uses. The board wants to know why it was deployed. Zoran says she was ordered to do it, but obedience does not clear her of losing control. The charge lands hard, tied to the diplomatic mission and the effort to understand life itself. Then command language takes over: course locked, Ryder adjusting vectors, Kron getting a spare apology over DelaRev. The ship commits. Ryder confirms the jump, and the inquiry falls away only because the drive is already moving.

As heard by us

Interrogations, old grudges, and a jump drive push the story past Colonial borders.

StarCalled starts with a formal inquiry and keeps narrowing the field until the story feels like a chase beyond Colonial reach. Hollow portraits of former queens, a history that stretches across thousands of cycles, and the warning about worse things than the Arcor give the…

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A boardroom interrogation that ends in a jump beyond Colonial jurisdiction.

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