Three months later.

Ayaka and Captain Marinakis were in the captains ready room on the Farsight, attending a virtual meeting with the task forces leadership. Things had settled into a routine, and the meetings had gone from daily, to weekly, and now this was the second monthly meeting they were holding. Nothing of any note had yet been accomplished; the situation remained unchanged.

Were still functioning on skeleton crews to reduce resource consumption. Even though we have the replicators, our problem with the algae in the feedstock tanks remains unsolved, but were still working on it and should have a solution soon, the fleets head of logistics reported.

For the past six weeks, the crews of the ships had been rotating in and out of VR training simulations, with only skeleton crews maintaining the ships in reality. The initial mission planning had called for restocking their algae tanks and supplementing them with organic compounds from asteroids in Proxima Centauri and on the surface of Proxima Centauri b, but they had yet to discover any asteroids rich in organics and the surface was unreachable. Thus, their dilemma.

The stopgap solution the leadership had decided on was to step down the crews of the ships and put them in long-term training, rotating skeleton crews in to stand physical watches in case disaster struck. They had plenty of nutrient mash stock for the VR pods, but they hadnt counted on the mana-triggered mutations in their algae tanks making them completely unusable in the food replicators. It only took three deaths and a wave of illness before they tracked down the problem and decided on a solution.

Efficiency was the hallmark of the empire, after all.

Confidence level? Admiral Bianchi asked.

About 75%, Sir.

Not the best, but acceptable. Keep working on it. The admiral turned to the fleets head engineer. Anything to report, Scotty? he asked.

Weve completed the protostellar forge and are working on the construction queue, Admiral, Commander Gail Scotty Coleman reported. All head engineers were, by longstanding tradition, given the nickname Scotty when they took over the engineering department of their ships, or even task forces. It was only engineers that werent assigned to shipboard positions that had other nicknames.

How long until the exploration crews build requests are ready? Ayaka asked.

Youll be at the head of the build queue as soon as the planet becomes reachable, Commander Takahashi. Weve only got a hold on your modified landers and upgraded satellites because theres nothing we can do to get you in place to actually use the gear youve requested, so until that changes, youll just have to wait, Im afraid, Scotty replied.

Speaking of the planet, Admiral Bianchi began, turning to Dr. Standing Bear. Do you have an estimate for when the shield will come down?

Although our Henrys Eyes sensors are still being overloaded and rapidly burning out, weve been detecting a steady reduction in mana density across the entire planet. If the falling density remains constant and our calculations are correct, we estimate itll be somewhere between two and seven E-days from now when we can brute force a sensor signal through the noise, Sir. And after that, we should be able to get landers through to the surface in about a month, assuming, of course, that the reduction in mana levels remains steady, Dr. Standing Bear replied. She wasnt lazing around, nor was her staff, despite not having much to do in regard to the planet.

How long will our spares inventory hold out, Scotty? the admiral asked.

About another three weeks, Admiral.

Long enough, at least, to verify our calculations and see if the trend continues, Dr. Standing Bear interjected.

Throw your estimates to the engineers, the admiral said, then turned back to Scotty. When you get the data from the researchers, reorganize your build queue and time it so the exploration crew gets their equipment by the time the planets open to landers again, or no later than two weeks after. So six weeks from now, give or take.

Turning to Ayaka, Admiral Bianchi continued, Im afraid youll have to wait a bit longer than that to use your new toys, though, Commander Takahashi. Well need to reevaluate the planet before sending crewed missions to the surface, so expect to repeat the process you used when we first arrived.

Understood, Admiral, Ayaka said, her face schooled into as pleasant an expression as she could force it into without it coming across as forced.

No shortcuts, Commander.

Yes, Sir.

The meeting continued until everyone in attendance had a chance to report on the progress of their departments, but it was still a case of stagnation. Things hadnt become so hopeless that they would abandon the mission to Proxima Centauri and move on to the binary Alpha Centauri system, but they were still edging toward that level with every day that passed. If the planet remained inaccessible and they failed to discover organics in the asteroid belt, the entire mission might have to be scrubbed and Task Force Proxima would be forced into an early return to Earth with a failed exploration mission under their belts.

......

Two days later.

A constellation of upgraded Henrys Eyes satellites had been completed at the protostellar forge and moved into position around Proxima Centauri b. Powered by fusion reactors with many times the output of the standard recon satellites, their sensors matched the performance of those on the TFS Proxima, but without the risk of burnout. After all, they had been designed to be used to brute force their sensors through the jamming effect of the mana shield and the increased atmospheric mana density under it, while the cityship herself could only do that in a pinch, and only as long as the spares in her cavernous holds could last before they ran out.

Aboard the bridge of the Proxima, a soft chime sounded at the sensor station as the cityships AI alerted the watch of a change in status.

[Henrys Eye sensors have detected something,] the AI reported.

Captain! the watchstander said with some anticipation in his voice.

Yes, Lieutenant Commander?

Weve got something, Sir!