Yrr attack on the Independence’s well deck

The Yrr attack on the USS Independence’s well deck turned the ship from a platform for attempting contact into a place the enemy had reached and could threaten from within. Its aftermath was marked by physical damage, a near-fatal confrontation among the crew, and Li’s effort to keep the mission focused on dialogue even as the ship’s defenses and confidence were tested.

Attack and Immediate Aftermath

After the attack, Li addressed the crew, acknowledging that everyone had been deeply affected and arguing that the enemy was trying to demoralize them. She assured them that the USS Independence was safe so long as they gave the Yrr no further opportunity to come aboard, but her reassurance carried an urgent qualification: speed mattered, and the crew had to concentrate on forcing a dialogue that might end the campaign against humanity. Her speech made the attack both a security crisis and a test of the crew’s ability to keep pursuing contact.

The well deck bore visible evidence of the assault. Soldiers and technicians later emerged from the basin after dismantling the shattered glass hatch, while the damaged structure and the work to remove it gave the attack a continuing presence aboard the ship. The crisis also unsettled the crew beyond the immediate destruction: Rubin remained pale and spoke hoarsely, and he explained that Greywolf had nearly finished him off.

Conflict Among the Crew

Rubin connected his near-death experience to events surrounding the opening of the sluice. He acknowledged that he had insisted on opening it, while distinguishing that decision from Greywolf’s attack on him. Rubin also said he understood the violence in light of Greywolf’s grief for Licia, describing the two as having been involved. His stiff smile and conspicuous movements as he looked around suggested that he was still registering the danger, even as he publicly said he held no grudge.

The episode thus left the crew facing two forms of vulnerability at once: the threat posed by the Yrr and the consequences of the attack within their own ranks. Oliviera exchanged a glance with Johanson but did not comment on Rubin’s account, leaving the uneasy mixture of injury, grief, and attempted reconciliation unresolved in the scene.

Recorded Images and Continuing Effects

The dolphins’ miniature camera preserved an incomplete record of the approach. Its footage showed the jelly’s blue glow fading into the depths, followed by shadowy glimpses of orcas; then the frightened dolphins crowded beneath the keel, filming the expanse of steel rather than the attackers. The recording offered evidence of the threat but little that could explain or counter it.

Greywolf withdrew after the attack. He stopped attending meetings and instead summarized the dolphin footage in handwritten notes. He argued that the remaining dolphins should resume patrolling the vessel as an early-warning system, while Anawak privately doubted that they could help and chose not to voice that doubt. Their different responses preserved the attack’s central uncertainty: the crew needed warning and protection, but the evidence gathered around the ship did not amount to control over what was approaching.