Eternal journey
"That's impossible."
Tel'ra's voice crackled and rustled through the radio into Elle's helmet. Her right hand instinctively put itself on her weapon, while she was still holding herself with the other. She hated being weightless in such a situation. Despite all the training, she felt exposed.
"What is?"
"Nothing you need to hit me like that Commander."
The answer came promptly and despite the spark, she could hear that the researcher's voice was relaxed. Elles took a deep breath. Keeping calm was the best advice you could give someone in space. She should finally follow it by herself. "
"What exactly is impossible?"
Her voice was calmer on the second question.
"Come down. It's easier to show."
Elles looked around and found the hatch she had passed through a few minutes ago and leaving Tel'ras alone behind. She dove headfirst through the narrow shaft and into the room below her. Tel'ras was still hovering in front of the console as she had left him, but something had changed. The display was activated and showed strange symbols.
"I found the transport register," said Tel'ras.
As he spoke, he was already typing some of the symbols.
"Are you sure that what you're doing is safe?"
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"Absolutely. Besides, I can't show you my discovery otherwise."
"Maybe that would be better," the thought shot through her head, "that would have saved us a lot of trouble on Atron."
Before she could express her concern, a console flashed to her right. After a few seconds, a glass tube slid out without any noise. Her hand flicked to her weapon again, but then Tel'ras floated into her field of vision.
"Don't worry, it's a cryogenic container. And yes, I'm sure."
He gave her a slightly annoyed look before suggesting that she should get closer. Elles pushed forward and went to his side. She could see him pressing more buttons on the column console. Thereupon something began to emerge inside the tube. Elle's eyes widened.
"That is..."
"Exactly, that's a tree."
There was a seedling of a strange tree in the tube. The trunk and branches seemed to shimmer gray and were strangely twisted. Dark green leaves were enthroned at the end of the branches. It almost looked like someone had taken the big, grown tree and shrunk it.
"It's fascinating. That's all that the spaceship transports. Plants. And we have no records of any of them."
Tel'ra's voice went over with excitement.
"No passengers? No other cargo?" Elles asked.
"No. At least not for a thousand years. Do you understand? This ship was already on the way a thousand years ago. At least the entries stopped there. Since then, only the computer has kept logs."
An icy shiver ran down Elle's back.
"Let's hope that the crew left the ship voluntarily and that there isn't anything lurking here in cryosleep."