Meanwhile, they analyze the samples the drone brought out from the alien ship in the previous issue: While many parts of the ship looks somewhat different, on the other hand, many of them are basically interchangeable with their own technology. They also reached the conclusion the previous owners of the alien ship used the same metric system they used in-universe, with the additional detail, whoever they were the previous owners of the ship, they used a base-10 system, while the anthropomorphics use base-8 because almost everyone (minus Equines and Ungulates) has 8 fingers, but translated to base-10 for the readers' sake, which means that the species to which the owners of the alien ship belonged had ten fingers. Also they also noticed the materials all those samples were made of came from some unknown method, other than are harder than diamonds, but with none of its weakeness, and are much advanced than anything they had right now. Based on these conclusions, they can rule out the ship could had belong to the ILR because, not only it doesn't match to any made by the, but also, even if taking into account the ILR is hellbent to lockout their designs with the EDF and Enchawah, they're many things so universal they cannot simply change overnight, so they reach the conclusion the ship could had being a military spaceship made for stealth purposes and that ship could had belong to another faction in conflict with their Creators, and very likely Arras Chanka, the planet when the all the anthropomorphics came from since the era of Awakening centuries ago and the main HQ of both the ConFed and the EDF, was probably a prison planet of sorts, meaning they were exiled from their Creator's homeworld.
After hearing all this, Dr. Kalahahaii warns about reaching any definitive conclusions, and also points out there's lots of sophisticated technology inside that ship, with unknown potential for them. Acon thinks that all the discoveries inside the ship could have military applications, considering the EDF and the ILR are actually in a "cold war" situation albeit Dr. Kalahahaii thinks anything inside that ship should be kept secret to the public, but she left any military potential to the hands of the crew of the DH112. Acon keeps insisting on the potential of the technology of the derelict alien ship, since it will change the balance of power, but Captain Shima thinks Acon sounds more like a politician rather than a soldier, and he reminds everyone all the discoverings will be forwarded to the EDF HQs and the role of the crew of the DH112 is purely academical, without political intentions, a fact that pisses everyone except Dr. Kalahahaii, of course. The rest of the crew thinks they should inspect the engine area of the ship, and Acon adds Dr. Kalahahaii's role in the mission is superfluous because they haven't found anything dangerous. The Feline scientist feels incredibly enraged by that comment, and in a very snarky way, she reminds everyone that outside what Captain Shima could consider a real danger for the ship, she is still in charge of the mission and just because she asked for questions and suggestions does not means she relinquished her position. She also adds that alien ship is still dangerous and it could still hold many booby traps inside, including undetonated explosives.
The next scene continues where it left off from the last issue, as we see Dr. Kalahahaii in a space suit inside the alien ship, checking what is inside that mysterious spaceship. She notices the ship is seriously damaged and the vehicle suffered of explosive descompression, and she also finds a base-10 keypad that allows her to enter into another room. She only found floating debris there, but suddenly, she finds something that really strikes her attention: a paper book and many loose papers, something really relevant for her because the Albedo universe doesn't use paper at all for writing. The Feline scientist is still distracted with all the discovering she already found inside the alien vessel, while still researching the ship. Dr. Kalahahaii managed tp reach the command bridge of the ship, and she noticed that everything inside there is very similar like their own ships, except bigger. But whatever she previously found earlier pales with what she found in that moment before her eyes: In front of her and in one of the seats of the bridge, she found the corpse of what the readers can recognize as the lifeless body of a human woman.
The next scene takes place in the DH112, and we we see Dr. Kalahahaii shocked with what she found inside that ship. When Captain Shima ask the analysis of the human corpse, she says the blood and tissue tests match with their own at 90%, albeit the genetic are still in progress. Meanwhile, she tried to previously translate the book she found, but without success, other than the human alphabet is somewhat similar that their own, but nothing useful yet. It's also explained that the rest of the crew researched the ship by themselves with Dr. Kalahahaii's blessing afterwards and they noticed the memory systems of the ship are based in LaserDisc, but it self-destructed somehow and they don't have a way how to read all that information anymore, not to mention it used a very different format from their own.
Meanwhile, Wally, the Marsupial medic of the DH112, already did the forensics of the human body, and he determinated the causes of the death of the human woman. It turns out the woman died when the ship was hit by a foreign object (likely a comet) and the woman was hit by the following debris. While she didn't died by the impact of the debris, she did expired due to lack of oxygen when the ship suffered of explosive decompression. Acon wonders how did Wally figured all that, and Wally answered, with a face of disgust, the state in which he found the human body, and it's heavily implied what he saw was really revolting for him. What happens next and, without any further explanation, Acon and Wally almost come to blows, but Captain Shima stops them before they do so and he warns everybody, while everydoy right now is downright paranoic, they should remain calm, and he gave a verbal beating to both characters, especially to Acon, who seem to have very ambitious ideas. Meanwhile they also analyzed the power source of the engine of the human spaceship...
...but while that was happening in the DH112, we see Erma in the EDF rescue ship, who woke up thank to the Net, and while the crew of the DH112 was explaining the power source of the alien ship, The Net was explaining to her in real time, in a language she could understand, the true power of the energy source used in that ship: The ship used an anti-matter reactor that converts any kind of matter to energy, from single stuff to even planets into energy, and, in the case of that energy being weaponized, it can destroy even an entire galaxy and destroy all life in universe. Oddly enough, Erma doesn't seem to be exactly surprised at all. Also, The Net gave Erma a brief resume of the analysis of the human corpse. The Net concludes that, leaving aside some species-specific details, she and all the anthropomorphics were created by humans...
Tropes
- Alien Episode: For all practical effect, this issue counts as this, since it deals with the main cast finding an alien inside a derelict ship, but with a twist: The main anthro characters found a human inside the ship, rather than the opposite.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Basically, and from the anthopomorphics' POV, what they found inside that ship is worth of H. P. Lovecraft for very obvious reasons.
- In Medias Res: Begins at the middle of the events from the last issue when the crew of the DF112 was still analyzing the samples brought by the robot drone, and the real story begins a few pages later.
- Wham Episode: The issue continue with the events from the last one, and it gives an ever bigger surprise than the previous one, one that shakes the very foundations of the Albedo universe. Not only they found an alien spaceship, that alien ship was inhabitated by humans and The Net finally reveals what it was suspected by Erma: She and her people were created by the human race, for some unknown reason.
