***

A/N - I hate having to do this, but since NovelHD has already started to pirate some of my books, here we go. These works are mine. My poor little brain came up with the plots and characters, and I'd really prefer you to not steal them. If you're reading this on a site that is NOT Wattpad then it is most certainly stolen.

Thanks!

Loiosh

***

Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose, her glasses suspended above her hand as she prayed for the headache to go away. Popping Advil like skittles wasn't helping the constant pain that was residing behind her eyes. Looking at the bank of computer monitors in front of her, she didn't think anything would. Her growling stomach wasn't helping either. She had been staring at the enhanced images of Uranus' rings for the last two years, ever since the MUSE spacecraft had started sending them back to Earth.

The MUSE mission almost didn't get off the ground, literally. It was a European program that was supposed to launch in 2026, and reach Uranus in 2044, but cost overruns on the power systems for the orbiter almost scrapped the mission entirely until Anton Joseph offered to put $1.5 Billion towards the funding, in exchange for real time access to all the information that was returned from the probe. But now, after four years of delays, and two years of images, Pepper was losing interest in her job.

She was part of the original team that worked for Pegasus Advanced Space Systems, one of the many companies owned by Anton Joseph. Well, owned by his daughter Vanessa these days since Anton had retired some five years beforehand. The company had been hoping for information from the pictures, Anton had been obsessed by Uranus since the old Voyager 2 probe had discovered several new moons, and that the ring composition wasn't the same as those on Saturn and were also newer. Pepper didn't know exactly what all the analysts had been looking for, but over the last few years, the excitement had started to ebb.

There were three teams, one for the planet, one for the moons, and her team for the rings. Each was staffed with a dozen people who would pore over the images sent back with contagious enthusiasm, and for the first-year things had been amazing. None of the things that the team found interest in were shared by those higher up in the company though, and gradually the teams stopped being as excited as they had at first.

People started to leave for other projects, funding dried up, teams were condensed. Several times, her coworkers had told her she should come with them, there were other companies that could use her abilities. She was constantly reminded that they worked for a company, and companies like to make money. This had always been an investment, and though it may not have paid off, it was all about trying to make money. She knew her job would be over within a few years, that was when the power generators for the probe were scheduled to run out since the craft was too far from the sun to use solar panels, but she still held out some glimmer of hope every day that today would be the day she found something that would make her bosses excited.

She could not have been more right.

Pepper stood up, stretching. The floor she was on was dark, the better to see the images in, and only small floor lights helped walking around. Her headache may not be gone, she thought, but she could at least get some food in her, and hope that helped with the pain residing in her head. She made her way over to the bank of elevators and pressed the down arrow. The high-speed elevator stopped with a low chime seconds later, not many people in the building at 3AM, and she was soon down in the basement cafeteria.

The office may have been empty, but the Joseph family had always made sure that their employees had access to food whenever they need it. So, while the cafeteria didn't have as many options as it would during normal business hours, it did have a short order cook on staff. "Hey Danny" Pepper called out to the cook. They had seen each other almost every night in the last two years, and she was beginning to think he was the closest thing she'd ever have to a friend, since she was too tired to meet anyone after the long hours at work.

"Pepper! Right on time! You want the usual?" Danny replied cheerfully.

"Yes, please. But I think I might need a milkshake tonight too; I need the sugar," She groaned.

"No problem, I'll get that going now," the young man said with a smile. "Here, have a few fries while you wait," he passed over a handful of them in a basket to Pepper to help take the edge off her hunger.

"Thanks Danny, you're a lifesaver!"

Sipping on her chocolate shake, Pepper made her way back to her desk, finally taking a big bite of her bacon cheeseburger when she sat down and moaning as the food hit her belly. Turning away from her monitors, she slowly ate, her eyes needed the break, and she didn't like working while she ate, it didn't help her digestion at all. After a few minutes, all that was left of her food was a few crumbs from the fries, and half of her shake to sip on. Good enough to get back to work!

Pepper checked out the image file and noticed that the latest download was finally done. The images were all high resolution and took a while to transmit from so far away. Hoping for better luck than the last two years, she opened the first image on the file, then started zooming in, trying to find anything of interest. The latest image was of the innermost ring, the probe was constantly scanning, but the inner rings hadn't had as many images sent back.

She tilted her head, then blinked a bit, what was that? It couldn't be real. Adjusting the controls, she zoomed out, then zoomed in again. Was this a joke? Standing up, Pepper went to the ladies' room, splashing cold water on her face, then closed her eyes for ten seconds, in case they were just overworked after all this time. They had to be playing tricks on her. Feeling a bit better, she went back to her desk and sat down, staring at her monitor.

It was still there.

There was a spaceship drifting along in the inner ring. A long triangular shape, it just sat there, mocking her sensibilities.

She took several screen grabs, and saved them to a thumb drive, placing it in her pocket, started scanning the rest of the inner ring. She didn't see another spaceship, but there was a larger piece that might have been part of one, if it had broken up over time. The piece was bulkier than the first ship, and definitely not natural, there were internal openings of some sort, but even with the zoom at maximum she just couldn't see enough.

She grabbed more images, and then pulled the drive out of her pocket to add them to it.

Holy fuck!

The worst thing was, she had no idea what to do. Nothing had been sent up the chain for review in over six months, and with turnover so high, she didn't even know who to tell. She didn't want to report this to some middle manager, and she had no idea who her director even was. The only group e mails she was on were companywide, nothing for a team, and for all she knew she had no boss. There had been no performance review this year, and nobody to bug her about setting the meaningless corporate goals, so she really might not have anyone to report to.

Who cares!

All right, she thought. Fuck it, this has to go all the way to the top. E-mailing the CEO at 3am seemed like the right move to her pain muddled brain.

[email protected]

Subject: Ring Images

Ms. Joseph,

I realize you don't know who I am, but I'm the lone analyst still working on the Uranus Ring images team. We haven't found much in the last few years, but I found something today that I think you must see. I know, this is a horrible breach of corporate policy, but can I see you at your first available convenience? I'm not sure where your office is, but I'm staying in the building until I can see you. Please let me know what time works for you.

Pepper Simmons

She stared at her screen, rereading what she had typed. Would that e-mail work? Would it make her sound crazy? If so, she'd be out of a job, but that was in her future anyway. She was still young, only 25, she could find another. Screw it.

She hit Send.