Chapter One: Fallow Ground

As the ship came into shallow orbit, Natasha Rivera, the captain of the salvage vessel, Slick Willy, studied the display on which the derelict ship was being projected. The craft's hull was impenetrable to imaging scans. It was either something that had been built and launched by a rival company very recently... or of alien construction, though that was far less likely.

She turned to Russo, the Science Officer, "Anything?"

"Not as yet." She replied.

She folded her arms in the manner Natasha had come to interpret as her baffled pose. It annoyed her. Everything Russo did annoyed her. Especially the baffled pose. That really annoyed her.

"The fuselage is Hermesium, Captain... or Hitchium maybe- from the radiation signature... or lack thereof. The blast wave from the explosion at the terraforming colony would have caused greater damage if it was something less advanced, but..." She stopped and looked at the detailed analysis coming through on the readout. "That's weird."

"What's weird?" The Captain looked over at the information coming through and hit a few keys so she could see what Russo was seeing.

Russo highlighted two lines of text for her to see what she had spotted. "The surface accretion and erosion surrounding the wreck- it's getting on for five centuries worth."

"Five? You sure?"

"Looks that way, Captain."

"So, it's not been disturbed since before the meltdown of the colony's reactor?" Asked Natasha.

"Yah." Russo studied the information coming through.

The Captain chewed at her bottom lip. "So this thing has been here for- wait a minute: Hermesium? That wasn't invented till, what, the twenty-fifth century?"

"And Hitchium was only invented in the late fifties." Added Russo.

Natasha leaned forward onto the console on which the hologram was being emitted and pursed her lips. She was deep in thought.

Russo stayed quiet.

The Captain turned to her after a moment, walking forward until she was just about toe-to-toe with the older woman.

Russo wanted to back away, but resisted the urge.

A smile broke out on Natasha's face and she put her arms around her, embracing her strongly. This was very unlike her.

She pushed herself away, keeping her hands on Russo's shoulders. "It's an alien ship, Janet. A fucking alien ship. And it dates back to before we'd even discovered primitive life forms on other planets."

The Science Officer was nodding, appreciating her Captain's rare display of emotion.

"It's been lying here over five hundred years."

"Yes." Janet joined in.

"And you said it was dead, fallow ground, you silly cow." There was the usual contempt she would normally speak with lying under the joy she was exhibiting. "You said we wouldn't find anything fruitful here at all, didn't you?" She asked rhetorically.

They both laughed, though Janet felt a slight awkwardness at having her professional expertise mocked by her superior.

"That's right, Captain." She feigned a smile. "But here it is. It's here." She made a pose like an uncomfortable magician revealing her disappeared assistant from behind another curtain.

"You got that right." Said Natasha. "We need to get down there."

"Yes." Russo agreed.

"Well?" The Captain looked at her.

"Well?" She was still mentally off-balance from the uncharacteristic good-spirits of the woman.

"Send in the clowns, dick head." The Captain said humourlessly.

Janet nodded and got to work selecting the stasis chambers. Despite the 'dick head' jibe, she was taken aback at just how much of a personality change Natasha was going through right now. She'd known her over ten years. Served under her for seven of them. She hardly ever seen her crack a smile, let alone hug anyone. There was a sense of satisfaction, the person to receive the affectionate gesture had been herself. "How many do you want sending in?"

"Just send in a couple from Utilities and... Chan and Walker. Split them up. Don't want them fucking each other , getting spunk everywhere and contaminating the place."

That was more like it. She was back to her usual brash self.

"I'll send Baker down with Walker and Exeter with Chan. I'll put Findley on protocols."

"Send its optic feed through to my quarters. I want to keep an eye on it."

"Samuel said he fixed the glitch." Russo reminded her.

"I couldn't give two happy fucks what he said he did, Russo!" Natasha snapped back. "The fact is, I left him to oversee two days of mining, and the droid comes back with three digits missing and no idea of how it happened. Its memory didn't just wipe itself, did it?!"

"Okay..." Janet just wanted her to leave now. The celebrations were over. The happy Rivera had gone away. The bitch was back.

The Captain looked up at the slowly ascending read out as more information, mostly arbitrary, was being processed by the ship's computer. She was definitely happy with what the day had delivered so far. "We found one, Russo. We finally- fucking- found one. Get the others up too and have them ready to accept new cargo." Simple orders to be leaving her with as she left the main bridge and headed back to her living quarters.

Janet waited till she was out of the room before visibly relaxing and sitting down at the console. She flicked three switches before pressing the execute button to wake up the rest of the crew. Today was going to go down as a momentous one in the history of the human race. A new alien species. A 'sentient' alien species and one that was even more advanced than they were.

What ever happened, her life was going to change. She could see huge dollar signs attached to the hull of the broken ship down there. She could retire early and cruise the galaxy as a tourist rather than a slave to coin.

Maybe she'd be famous. Get a trophy wife out of it. Maybe she'd even have enough money to put out a hit on the Captain. Splash out on a few ex-marines. Oh, that would be just swell. The chance to get her back after so many years of belittling comments in front of the subordinates.

She leaned over the console and held the button down to address the ship. "All personnel report to the bridge for new salvage operation brief. Baker: activate Exeter and Findley and ensure all other droids are ready if needed. Chief Jakande please report to bridge. Thank you."

She looked back at the display. The weather had started to calm and the sun would be up in just over an hour's time. She smiled contentedly to herself and began typing into the ship's log:

13-09-2680. ADVANCED ALIEN SHIP DISCOVERED ON PLANETOID LV-426. WORK DETAILS TO BE DEPLOYED DOWN TO PLANET'S SURFACE TO INSPECT VESSEL AND MAKE DETAILED ANALYSIS. SALVAGE OPERATIONS TO FOLLOW.

"Salvage operations to follow." She read back out to herself. "You bet your sweet aunt, there will. And if there's something there for me- I'm keeping it." She hit the 'enter' button and sat back. "Thirteenth of September... I'll remember this day for the rest of my soon-to-be glorious life."

She stood and clapped her hands like an excited child during the gift giving season. Presents galore and all surprises!

She loved surprises and this ship was going to be full of them.

Yes, she was feeling good. She was feeling very good indeed.