ISS Artemis 24 conducting in-depth survey of system 612-744
Date 1184-263 Imperial Standard
Time 0332 Shipboard
An annoying beep woke Vrain from a pleasant dream. He glared for a moment at the blinking light that accompanied the beeping noise. With a deep sigh he got out of his bunk. Being mad at the light and beeping was a waste of time he reflected. First off they didn't care and secondly they were only doing what they were designed to do, that is waking the duty officer, Engineer Vrain, to notify him the computer had a situation that required human intervention. A touch to the terminal screen shut off the alarm. The screen showed that the ship was receiving a priority message on the emergency frequency. That intrigued Vrain since this systemwas an Amber Zone and uninhabited. Indeed that was a major purpose of their survey; determine if the system had any worlds suitable for colonies or if there were exploitable quantities of resources present.
Awake and curious now, Vrain slipped into his coveralls and padded up to the bridge. He considered waking Commander Ishyn but figured that since the ship didn't sound a general alarm the matter could wait. Slipping into his station at the left rear of the bridge, he quickly checked the engineering status board. All systems showed green except for jump drives. Frowning he brought up a detailed readout; the drive coordination unit was out of sync again. It was within specs, barely, but not tuned to where it should be. He made a mental note to check on it later, then reconfigured his panel for comms and examined the message.
The signal was a continuous, repetitive automated message. An embedded video transmission was attached to the signal. Since there were no beacons in system, it had to come from another ship. Given the circumstances, it was probably a distress signal following a misjump. Unfortunately, Vrain knew from experience, the crew of the vessel was probably already dead. The attached signal however meant that somebody had either been alive to active the automatic signal or else the ship's master planned ahead and had pre-recorded a message in case of emergency. Vrain instructed the computer to triangulate the source of the signal then started and audio/visual play of the automated message. An ironically pleasant computer voice filled the air.
"Mayday, Mayday. Type R merchant November Six Seven Niner Kilo Two Eight Whisky register from Porozlo has a mayday situation… Mayday, Mayday. Type R merchant November Six Seven Niner Kilo Two Eight Whisky register from Porozlo has a mayday situation…"
The screen started scrolling a similar message as the audio repeated without variation.
MAYAY—TYPE R MERCHANT N679K28W ELLI'S CHANCE HOME PORT POROZLO—MAYDAY MESSAGE EMBEDDED
Vrain quickly assimilated the data. Type R, one of the most common light cargo craft in the Imperium. Standard design 400-dton aerodynamic ship, eight passengers, and nine in frozen transport, crew of five with a cargo capacity of just below 230 dtons; usually subsidized by a planetary government, as its economic feasibility was marginal. The registration number was not government or corporate so this particular ship was most likely a free trader. Definitely old, probably highly modified and maintenance a low priority. He gave a small shudder. Not at all surprising to be the source of a distress call. Porozlo was over a sector away from 612-744 but many free traders never see their homeport after they file their registrations. With a touch of the screen he activated the attached message, hoping against the odds that it would not be the last words of a dead man. The screen cleared to show a young man on the bridge of a small starship. He was obviously in distress and spoke rapidly.
"I am Walker Vizza, medic aboard the Elli's Chance. The ship has been overrun, I don't know how many of them there are out there." He quickly glanced over his shoulder then continued. "I might be the only one left of the crew. Maybe others are hiding as I was but I had to take the chance and start the beacon. If anybody hears this, please help. We.." A loud noise of overloading servos could be heard. The medic appeared on the verge of panic as he looked to his left again. "Oh no, it can't be. Shitshitshit." He turned back and could be seen working controls just off camera. He spoke even faster. "It's too late for me. Please save any that are left or else…" He spun from the camera towards the noise. His hand stabbed at another unseen control and the image ended.
Vrain sat back in though for a moment, not a drive malfunction obviously, could be pirates perhaps. That made little sense either, they wouldn't wait in an uninhabited, uncharted system for a ship to just happen along. A smuggling deal of some sort gone badly made the most sense. No matter, it will be unknown until they could get to Elli's Chance. The computer was still zeroing in on her location but the probability area was closing in on one of the system's gas giants. It was over a day away at max burn.
"Time to wake up kids" he spoke to the air. A push of a button sounded a siren throughout the ship. "All hands to stations, all hands to stations. Commander to the bridge please."
It took only a few seconds for the hatch to cycle and Commander Daryl Ishyn to arrive. Commander of the mission and the ship's navigator, he was the oldest member of the crew, more than twenty years senior to Vrain the second in command. "Chief Engineer Dematteis," he growled, "why in the name of all green worlds do you find it necessary to wake us up with an all hands call? It could not wait until breakfast?" He slid into his station.
"Sorry Daryl but it couldn't; Artemis picked up a distress call."
"Out here?" Ishyn sounded incredulous. "Have you played it?"
"Yes, it even has an embed."
The hatch cycled again and the two junior members of the crew entered. First came the pilot Valarii Wilkum. A good kid and competent pilot but lacking in experience, he was just finishing his first term. Right behind him was Mel, Vrain's apprentice. Born with the name Melany Coburtan she was even younger than Val, still in her first year of service. The Scout Service was Mel's ticket to a life other than the street gangs she grew up with on her home world however more than once her lack of discipline cause Vrain a headache.
"Nice of you to join us," Ishyn scolded, "being the youngest and having the rooms closest to the bridge after all." Val looked sheepish as he took his station. Mel scowled at Daryl, looked at Vrain then dropped into the commo station. Vrain though he heard her make a comment under her breath but felt it best to let it go. "The reason for this late meeting is that we have received a call for help. Before asking any questions I would like our Watch Officer to play the message for us. Vrain if would put it on all screens please."
Daryl had the message played twice; everybody looked lost in his or her own thoughts. "OK crew, Scouts are supposed to be the best thinkers in the Emperor's service; let's here some of those thoughts. Val?"
"I think they were boarded by pirates. They must have been tracking down the crew and found the medic. That sound in the background was like a hatch being forced. I know it can be done but it takes a lot of effort. It seems strange, most pirates will just take the cargo and leave with out worrying much about the crew"
"If they knew they would be positively identified they might want to eliminate witnesses," Mel volunteered, "but pirates are usually thieves and mobile ones at that. If they were worried about being ID'd they could just move to another sector or else cripple the ship and strand the witnesses. Slavers on the other hand would take everybody. He never said the rest of the crew had been killed."
Daryl answered, "I concur with Mr. Wilkum that the sound was a hatch being forced. Slavers would make more effort than pirates would to capture the crew. Still this is a strange place to encounter them. Vrain, do you have any other ideas?"
"No, I am thinking along the same lines. The computer has calculated a 86 chance that the ship is orbiting planet six and that estimate keeps rising."
"We will have to check it out. I will send a reply; maybe no one is there to hear it but it might scare off any left over bad folks. Mel please give me a transmission line, send every fifteen minutes for an hour, repeat the message twice each transmission."
"Wait one… parameters set, ready to record at your station."
"Elli's Chance this is Imperial Scout Ship Artemis Two-Four, we have received your Mayday and are approaching with an armed party at maximum speed. Please reply with status of your ship and any medical emergencies."
Ishyn signaled to stop recording. "Short and to the point. Go ahead and start the transmission Mel."
"It's going. So what is this armed party you mentioned?"
"That is us. Since you asked, please give us an inventory of weapons and protective gear in our stores."
Mel tapped a couple of controls then read off the results. "We have four Imperial Army Type 4 shotguns with 200 rounds of ammo, two PCW-17 submachineguns, three 30 round clips each and four AS-09 sidearms, 200 rounds total there too. The pistol and shotgun ammo is split 20/80 between combat load and non-lethal; the submachine guns are two clips each non-lethal. For protection we have six Vacc-suits and eight hazardous environment suits."
"Not a well armed force, Daryl," Vrain added. "The Vacc-suits would give the best protection but would be bulky inside of a ship."
"I really don't plan to fight if we can at all help it. Val, how long will it take us to make orbit around planet 6 at max thrust?"
"Um… 32 hours 24 minutes, approximately."
"OK, here's the plan. We light up the engines to maximum, we're rated at 2.17 but I bet Vrain will have us a bit over that. We use the time to break out the weapons and polish out boarding skills some. Also we get out a rover probe. We will let the bot board first and check everything out. If the ship is in vacuum, we will have to use the Vacc-suits otherwise we go in the Haz –E outfits. Priority one will be to ascertain what actually has happened, pri-two will be to rescue survivors, pri-three is secure the ship and pri-four, care for any remains we find. We can refine this plan over the next couple of days. Questions?"
Val spoke up, "Commander, shouldn't the first priority be to rescue survivors."
"Not in this case Val, we don't want to become victims ourselves" Vrain answered. "If the ship was attacked and the attackers are still present they may have more firepower than us. Our job will then be to get word to the pros to do any rescue. Hopefully it won't include us by that time."
Daryl nodded, "Quite right. If there is nothing else, pilot set best course for the estimated location of the Elli's Chance. Full speed."
"Best course, Elli's Chance, full speed. Aye, aye sir."