Alien Navigation Device
Current Holder: Aboard The Albatross, wired beside the navigation computer — autopilot linkage now behind a manual Autopilot Kill Switch
Origin: Found integrated into the navigation computer of the The Albatross, taken from the Kinetic Logistics Compound on Thides III
Overview
It has its own destinations. Shackleton Magellan found three coordinates pre-programmed into its interface:
- A point near the atmosphere of Phoenix III
- A location deep in the Sargasso Void, the dark-matter region
- A coordinate near Corwin II in the Corwin System
It overrode the crew. On arrival in the Corwin system the cube seized the autopilot and would not release it — every attempt by Ronin Sanchez or Shackleton to disengage was countered within seconds. It flew The Albatross down a fissure in a crater wall with inches of hull clearance and landed it on a powered pad inside Pratrock Dynamics Research Facility 42, a facility the crew did not know existed.
It is now disconnected from the autopilot. Ronin severed the override by pulling wires under the console during the escape. The cube still outputs navigation data — Shackleton used it to plot the Eris System jump by hand — but it can no longer fly the ship.
What it is: a miniaturised version of the large vortex arrays mounted on Federal Republic battlecruisers, which need dedicated power banks the size of a deck. Its own power source remains opaque — everything else aboard runs off the fusion plant. It was installed by Gary Johnson.
A device of unknown origin, patched into the navigation computer of the The Albatross. Its faceted body carries shifting three-dimensional symbols that change in response to navigation inputs — the same family of technology the crew have now seen three times: the Kinetic Logistics Container in Processing II, the hexagonal jammer at Relay Station 11, and this.
Shackleton Magellan spent the three-hour flight back to MacMillian Station IV working it out. His conclusion: it permits hyperspace navigation of extraordinary precision without beacons, mapping coordinates off gravity wells rather than off the Republic’s lane markers — and it can plot a jump directly into a planetary atmosphere without the catastrophic risk that normally makes such a maneuver suicide. That is a capability beyond anything the Federal Republican Interseller Fleet has fielded, and it explains the vortex-drop the crew watched land inside the Kinetic Logistics Compound in Session 3 without tripping a single sentinel satellite.
Together with the vortex engines that provide the thrust, this is the other half of gateless FTL: the engines punch the hole, this decides where the hole comes out.
A tangle of wires ran from the device toward the rear of the ship, to modifications nobody got to examine. Whatever they were went with it.
Properties
- Navigation: beaconless hyperspace plotting of extraordinary precision; coordinates mapped from gravity wells.
- Atmospheric insertion: jumps directly into a planetary atmosphere, without the usual catastrophic risk.
- Interface: shifting three-dimensional symbols across a faceted surface, responsive to nav inputs.
- Provenance: unknown. The crew classify it as “technology of unknown origin” — they have not established it as non-human.
Appearances
- Session 3 (Session 03 - Buckle Up Motherfuckers) — Found by Six in the transport’s cockpit during the compound infiltration, with coordinates logging a recent atmospheric jump.
- Session 4 (Session 04 - The Case of the Missing Courtesan) — Studied in detail by Shackleton Magellan on the flight home; its function established. Reported to Holger Graeme in flight and to Julija Borja under interrogation. Quarantined with the ship at Docking Bay 36 on the Marshal’s order — and then gone, when the ship left the Thides System.
- Session 7 (Session 07 - The Goodwin Contract) — The hijack proven, and a second expert eye on it. Shackleton Magellan’s dig through the comm logs established that the Corwin autopilot seizure was commanded from outside: an attachment on the ship’s communications array received an external signal and relayed it through the device to the navigation computer. The signal has stopped; the Autopilot Kill Switch now guards the linkage. Threading hyperspace by its bearing calls, the cube cut a five-to-six-day transit to four. On arrival, Roselyn Monroe spent nearly an hour examining it, identified the technology as Kinetic Logistics’ — since absorbed by a parent corporation, per her — and said she would look into it.
Relationships
- Part of The Albatross — Wired into the transport's navigation computer; left the system with the hull.
- Part of Vortex Engine — The navigation half of the gateless-jump capability the vortex engines provide.