With the Orville keeping a tense watch and standing by in the distance, Annie, the robot Isaac, and the helmsman Gordon took a risk and slowly piloted the shuttle toward an area of signal and spatial anomalies somewhere between the star and the Orville. They worked with the crew aboard the distant Orville to collect and analyze data from the area up close.
"This is weird!"
"Hey!"
"Isaac, what the heck is this thing?"
"We clearly detected a whole lot of anomalies. There were irregularities in the spatial readings, the optical readings, and even some signal bands..."
"But you can see it too. There's clearly nothing here!"
"This is downright spooky!"
Gordon rapidly worked at his console, helping Isaac analyze and scan the anomalous area right in front of them, though they still had no idea what it was. All the while, he kept staring at the streams of never-before-seen data they were collecting, exclaiming in astonishment and grumbling curses.
But grumble as he might, he still had to keep working.
After all, that was the Orville's mission. Their ship had always been a mid-sized exploration vessel, so exploring unknown regions of space and investigating unfamiliar phenomena—like the one they were facing now—was simply part of their job.
"Sorry."
"I don't know yet."
"It could be some sort of spatial anomaly, such as radiation and light signals leaking out because of folded space or a spatial rift?"
"But we don't have enough evidence yet."
Isaac didn't say much more. It remained focused on its work, speaking in its usual unhurried tone.
"A spatial anomaly?"
"Got it!"
"Is it like that two-dimensional space we ran into last time?"
Gordon first froze, then glanced at the focused Isaac beside him. After a moment, he nodded as if he understood and cautiously asked