(https://i.imgur.com/Ckpr8zE.jpg)<br/><br/>It wasn't like the trivids would have you believe. Space flight didn't allow for old school juking, barrel rolls, and hard-g u-turns like those old flight sims and terrestrial combat stories portrayed. It was more akin to flying a boat, or a submarine moving under the waves. Slow, deliberate, and sustained. In the cockpit, though, Kristina still had many things to do while riding out the course correction, she was in a marathon battle making sure to keep the ship steady as it dove into the upper atmosphere of the 'cold' gas giant and keeping the ship on a corrected course. The sensors and warning glyphs on the HUD shown the threat enveloped the upper window of her trajectory, and so she had to dive deeper and burn the engines longer to keep away from it.<br/><br/>Eventually, the shuddering and the groaning would subside the choppiness of the turbulence. In the following hours, Captain Joe was furious over the stunt that Kristina had made. He had given her the leeway to make such judgments and perform as she saw fit and it made him wonder if that was a mistake to do so. Eventually, the computer and Ellie-7 had reconstructed a model of the events that had taken place. Centered in the volumetric display was the Twilight as roiling clouds from the planet atmosphere came closer, showing Kristina's descent. The object that caused this whole mess was detailed at the very edge of the ship scanners but what raised everyone's hackles was the sharp deviation of the projected course of that object. It had been well outside of Kristina's computations, but then, as if sensing the Twilight, it began to swing towards their ship. Kristina dipping low into the atmosphere seemed to be the correct course of action for the object seemed to skip and bounce at its higher elevation.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(https://img2.gelbooru.com/images/31/8f/318f76728c9605aedffa649da1bff10c.jpg)</div><br/>SLAM imagery from the external cameras managed to stay on target long enough to develop a coherent picture of what they had dodged. A massive elongated tube shown silhouetted next to the Forsellis star. The computer telemetry had listed the object as a mining class frigate, though no ISMS tags were broadcast. When the object was within five hundred meters of the Twilight, long thick tendrils reached out as if groping for the cargoship, again, thick atmosphere had saved the ship from being touched by whatever had reached for the ship. Captain Joe kept replaying the video over and over again, trying to glean some new detail of what they saw, but the dull grainy green-white video was all they had.<br/><br/>"Christ, its a leviathan!" exclaimed Jane. She was looking visibly shaken, and rightly so. This was down right spooky. There were always rumors of weird things in space, but never were there any concrete evidence to them. Then again... "And we got it on recording, Joe! This is big!" You could almost see the credits pouring out of Jane's eyes.<br/><br/>"Who'd believe us, Jane? Look at this and tell me it doesn't look exactly like all those old cryptid shows. We saw it, doesn't mean we aint going to be anything more laughed at by dirtsiders." If Irene was stressed, she didn't show it. She looked skeptical of the entire thing. Sure, the telemetry shown that it had changed rapid course towards the ship, but SLAM was just garbage overall. Sure, it survived and managed to cut through exposed ambient radiation, but it was just garbage resolution. And all the space corps had long decided it was the economic option for ship optics, having proven time and again that normal picture and trivid lens and electronics just melted and fried after short exposure to ambient radiation.<br/><br/>"Regardless, I think I owe you an apology, Kristina. I'm pissed at the fuel loss, and we could have avoided this whole thing, but I know you were trying to save us some cred.... and looking at the telemetry, this thing came at us. If you didn't dive, we'd have collided with it. So, again... I'm sorry." Captain Joe continued to go over the video, transfixed by the nebulous shadow. "As for what to do with this recording... I'm not sure. This is proprietary to the Company, but we are low on fuel. I don't want any rumor going out about us and we get stranded for some garbage quarantine. Or we can sell it, but I don't know how to scrub out our fingerprints from this to do so." Joe pointedly did not look at Ellie as he spoke, the android could do so, but then again, the android, like everyone here, also worked for the Company. Ellie had learned some nuance that humans just spoke out about their inner thoughts at times and didn't act on them and so she dismissed their outer musing. It was fifty fifty if she would tell the Company of their status if Joe gave her a direct order on something. "I dunno... we needed fuel coming in system, more so now, we have cred on hand, but I'd like to get something out of this mess."<br/><br/>The next couple of days were relatively dull, despite such a weird encounter.  Jane's nerves seemed to linger a bit, mentioning in passing 'it was eye opening how much danger they were in, and she didn't even know down in cargo save for the rumble of the ship's engines'. Irene was even keeled, but Kristina's and Irene's duties kept them apart mostly by dint of the ship layout. Irene was on the bottom deck in the repair shop while Kristina stayed up towards the cockpit, only passing during meal times and the occasional bit of rec time. Ellie-7 performed her duties like the machine she was, helping with computations to the ship telemetry and running diagnostics on the engines with Irene.<br/><br/>Joe and Jane kept busy moving through the cargo hold, checking that it was secure, and other basic duties of life aboard ship, such as cooking and cleaning. And of course they would fuck in all corners of the ship, at least they had the common decency to do it where neither Irene, Kristina, or Ellie would find them, but it was all too common to find one not far from the other when moving down the corridors or rooms on the ship. A button that wasn't done up properly, or clothing that was pulled on hastily. It was downright maddening that *someone* managed to keep high morale onboard the ship while the others had to go without. Literally they were women dying of thirst watching those two drown in an ocean.<br/><br/>"Kristina. Could you help me, please?" It was Ellie. Kristina had left the cockpit and was heading down for a quick bite before sleep, but Ellie had caught her before she went down the ladder. She was off on the side of the door, as if hiding herself. "I need help with a diagnostic routine, if you could be so kind." The normal mechanistic suit that Ellie had always worn was nowhere to be found, with her hair spilling over her shoulders. Despite being an android, her makers had taken the time to give her an appreciative form to go along with the functions she provided. "It is embarrassing that I need help with a few command line executions, but I can't remain conscious to perform them."