DAY 32 – Exploration
Chapter 33 - Contact
Ara pulled the last strap into place to tighten the arm of her space-ready suit closer to her form, while two technicians worked on her helmet seal and ran last minute checks. She had been the last to arrive at the airlock, having waited until the last moment to hand over Central Station to her Second, and thereby allowing her to avoid all the standing around waiting time while the tech crews had prepared the way. The docking freight vessel had been set up between the Valse's main decamp airlock and the airlock entrance they had found on the Salvager's hull, and it would now act as a bridge between the two ships across which she would lead her boarding party.
"Report," she asked through the link pickup within her helmet.
Ahead of the two waiting lines of her already suited up boarding team, two technicians were hovering around the main control panel that allowed them control of the docking freight. The tech crews had found an access point alongside the Salvager airlock which the docking freight had been able to drill into and establish a power link up. Though not Alliance, it seemed the Salvagers had been smart enough to incorporate power tap points at their airlocks, allowing external power to feed in for just this kind of event when main ship power was down and access via airlock was required. With power suddenly available, the Salvager ship's systems had rebooted likely through an emergency response procedure and, from what the Valse's sensors could determine, the drifter had restarted its gravity and life-support systems. However, she wasn't about to risk her boarding crew's lives on unknown atmosphere and gravity in the big drifter, so she had ordered the space-ready suits.
"Drifter is still drawing constant power from us," Huxton's voice reported into her ear, the male's helmet turning towards her. He was her main tech member of the boarding team and he'd been overseeing the technicians' work, even while in his space-ready suit. "Readings suggest full gravity, and we're seeing temperature spiking through the ship, so basic life support systems do seem active."
"Suit good to go, Commander," a technician patted the back of her helmet, his voice echoing into her radio ear link.
She lifted her left arm and consulted the display panel that was the suit's primary computer systems. Everything was in green. She headed forward, moving between the two lines of her team. All their panels were also lit green across the board, so they were ready. She had selected six fighters and three technicians to accompany her and Elite Seifer for this initial excursion into the mystery ship. Each face nodded to her through the wide glass front of their helmets.
"Still no further computer link up?" She asked Huxton as she reached his side by the hatch into the Valse's airlock.
Huxton turned, allowing her sight of his face through his helmet. "None, Commander," Huxton replied. "Just this basic life-support response. I suspect the Salvager central computer systems run separate within the ship."
"Or were shut down on purpose," Elite Seifer suggested. His tone through the link was calm, with no hint of the eagerness one usually heard in a soldier's voice before a decamp mission into a waiting mystery that was the Salvager ship. That was Elite for you though.
Huxton waved away his technicians, leaving him at the airlock controls, and Ara turned round to face her team. All were well armed with Satedan energy weapons, though Elite Seifer had his Elite weapons, including a long sheathed knife attached to the side of his suit.
"Helmets to stay on throughout and magnetised boots on," she ordered as she lifted her left arm to activate her own boots. She felt the snapping pull of the boots locking to the floor just enough to keep her in place, but not enough that she couldn't lift her feet on command. Looking up, she saw everyone doing the same. "Good," she turned back to Huxton and the closed airlock. "Trigger it."
"Yes, Commander," Huxton's voice replied as she watched him press a control and the Valse's airlock door slid open in front of them. She led her team into limited space beyond, moving right up to the outer airlock hatch where she could see through the small thick porthole into the unpressurised docking freight fixed up against the outside of the Valse.
"All in," Huxton reported into her ear. She didn't look round to check her team were all behind her though, for everyone on the ship trained and rehearsed zero-gravity and boarding procedures, so she trusted her team to be in the correct place. "Matching freight pressure," Huxton added.
She felt the changes outside her suit, though she was thoroughly protected from the depressurisation effects, but it was an odd feeling being aware of the pressure change. She kept her gaze through the porthole though, able to see through the docking freight outside to the dark hull of the Salvager ship waited for them on the far side.
"Atmosphere vented," Huxton reported. "We can open the airlock."
Ara reached to the large flashing button on the wall beside the outer airlock and pressed it hard, knowing they needed a good shove. The hatch split into two parts, sliding out of view and opening the way onto the docking freight. Ara stepped forward, leading the way across the dark short bridge to the waiting alien airlock. As she walked, she could feel the effects of lack of gravity on her body, the suit's weight having vanished and her hair floating inside the containment hood within her helmet. In her peripheral vision she could see glimpses of Elite Seifer's gloves and helmet as he walked beside her, though a half step behind. It was a large sign of respect from an Elite, not that she wouldn't have enforced it if he'd not respected this was her ship.
It was common practice when working with Elite to allow them to take point on missions, but while on a Fleet ship Elite usually attempted to respect the ship's chain of command. But Elite Seifer had worked with the Valse enough now that he knew how best to behave on a Satedan ship and the crew had accepted his presence without near constant challenging him to fight anymore. Of course Seifer had handled it all well and, even to this day, he could be found in the training rooms every day, making sure he was available to spar with and challenge still. Her Second had kept her up-to-date on the antics and displays in the training rooms, it being the best part of the ship's social activities when drinking was banned on active mission. Elite Seifer hadn't lost a challenge yet, though a few had been very close. The last one had been only two days ago, which the Elite warrior had won only by breaking one of her best soldier's arms. It was preferred on ship that no one push sparring to that point, and especially as it was commonly known that, if pushed hard, Elite warriors were willing to break limbs to assert their skill, or be willing to have their own broken so they could win. Still, she'd been annoyed losing one of her best from active duty so close to mission arrival, and she'd had words with the man in the Healing Bay. Sparring was vital, needed, and required by her crew, but it had been stupidity to push an Elite that much that bones had needed breaking.
She'd not said anything to the Honoured Elite, after all he'd made his point well. Still, she'd heard that he'd indulged in further activities afterwards with several engineers. She hadn't heard of him bedding crew on the previous missions, but clearly breaking a limb had brought out something in the male, or perhaps the three female engineers had been the ones to pursue him. He'd at least been wise to keep his sexual activities to his assigned quarters, and it didn't appear that he'd hurt himself while satisfying three Satedan women. The last thing she needed was an injured Elite warrior on her boarding party.
Trusting that he was fully capable still to defend her side, she focused her attention forward and, with one final magnetised step, she reached the outer hull of the Salvager drifter. She considered the metal up close. Just as the sensors had revealed, there were no overt signs of damage, though the hull looked dirty and unmaintained, suggesting a long life in space. Beside her, Elite Seifer reached out a glove and brushed a thin layer of carbon off the airlock's border, finding the edge of a panel. He worked his thick gloved fingers in around a latch and she watched him pull it open with a hard tug. A small compartment was revealed inside. She dipped a little to let the lights of her helmet shine in on two big push buttons inside.
There were two labels in Salvager pictographs that neither she nor Elite Seifer could read, but one was green and one was red. Seifer pressed the green button, pushing hard, and the button lit up from inside. The airlock shifted in front of her, and she leaned her weight back, holding up her energy pulse weapon just in case. The door of the Salvager airlock drew inwards and then started slowly, and somewhat shakily, disappearing upwards, revealing the inside of the Salvager ship.
Her and Seifer's helmet lights, and those of her team behind them, lit up the interior of an empty airlock inside.
Lowering her weapon a fraction, Ara started forward. "Let's go," she ordered as her boot landed inside the Salvager and she instantly felt the heavy pull of the ship's gravity.
As she led the way in, she looked up and back, able to see that the airlock door had slid up along the wall above them. The inside of the airlock was surprising big, suggesting that the Salvagers didn't just bring personnel in this way. There was plenty of room in here to stack items high alongside people to go through pressurization before moving into the rest of the ship.
"Salvager airlock is empty," she reported over the link to the Valse. "No signs of any damage."
"Ship gravity detectable and stable," Huxton reported into her ear link for the Valse's benefit, as her team could already feel as much.
Running lights glowed around the far door of the airlock, the inner seal leading further into the ship. There was a rectangular porthole set into the thick door at head height and Ara approached the glass at an angle, peering carefully through into the ship beyond.
A palely lit corridor wall opposite was all she could see. She shifted to her right to look the other way down the corridor, but there was still nothing to see. "I have limited view inside the ship, but it appears clear beyond airlock," she reported. "We're proceeding in."
"Understood, Commander," her Second's voice replied over the link.
"All in airlock, closing Salvager outer seal and pressurizing," Huxton reported.
Ara turned round to check on her team, seeing Huxton stood at the back facing a glowing Salvager panel. She watched as the Salvager's outer airlock door began its rickety movements again, sliding down to close them in and then it pushed outwards, sealing back into its position in the thick hull. The running lights around it, and the inner airlock door behind her, began flashing red. Her team were stood ready in formation, weapons ready, eyes forward, the flashing red casting them in dramatic shadows. Ara turned back round to the inner door, her eyes briefly assessing Elite Seifer's position beside her, his stubby energy weapon held ready in his gloved hands.
The red lights slowed their flashing rate and she felt the shifting of pressure around the outside of her suit. The lights abruptly went green, shining odd contrasting colours over everything. She saw Elite Seifer reach forward and press a button on a green lit panel and the airlock door began to slide aside.
Slowly, the opposite wall of the corridor inside the ship was revealed.
Shifting further to her right, Ara shone her helmet lights and angled her weapon towards where the corridor disappeared to the left, while Elite Seifer did the same towards the right.
Nothing rushed to attack.
The airlock door fully open, she looked towards Seifer and nodded. Moving together, they stepped out into the Salvager corridor, her looking down the left-hand length of the corridor, he the right.
Her lights shone down a grubby, but entirely empty corridor stretching ahead of her.
"Nothing here," she reported, keeping her attention ahead.
"Nothing this way," Seifer's voice added.
"Move out," she ordered as she moved forward, aware of shifts of shadow and light that were her team all exiting the airlock.
Nothing changed ahead of her as she stopped a few metres down the empty corridor, trusting it had given her team enough space behind her.
"All aboard Salvager ship," Kosla reported, the team's Second who would watch the back of the group.
"Sensors?" Ara asked, her eyes still forward on the corridor ahead of her.
"Nothing," Huxton's voice supplied the simple clear report.
The lighting in the ship was on, but it was a strange odd frequency that looked weak compared to the brightness of her and her team's helmet lights. She moved forward a few more paces. Other than the light fixtures, there was nothing else in sight; no computer panels, no items scattered on the floor that might have been drifting through the corridor while the gravity had been lost. Though far ahead on the right, she saw an overlay of the ship's dim lighting, and she moved towards the left side of the corridor to gain a better view and let her helmet lights illuminate what it was: an entrance to a side corridor off this one.
"The corridor appears to carry on straight towards the stern of the ship this way," Seifer reported from the other direction of the corridor.
"I can see a side corridor further down in this direction," Ara replied. "We'll start this way," she ordered as she started forward, moving at a steady controlled pace, the speed so long practiced she didn't have to think much about it, and it allowed her to take in as much as possible as she moved.
The inside of the ship was not unlike the outside: basic, utilitarian, and bare of any decoration or attempts to make it more appealing. There wasn't even graffiti on the walls, which was relatively common on non-Military Alliance ships. Moving under a light fixture now, she could see that they were bare flat bulbs, the light shimmering slightly as if the power supply wasn't smooth and steady. She wondered whether, if she wasn't wearing her helmet, that she would be able to hear the bulbs buzzing.
She kept advancing forward, her attention shifting between the long corridor straight ahead and the entrance to a side corridor fast approaching. She slowed her pace as she neared it, moving further to the left so she could see further into the new corridor. Beside her, Elite Seifer had rejoined her at the front of the team and he stepped out across the entrance to the new corridor, his helmet's lights, and a new bright spotlight shining out from the top of his energy weapon, illuminating the new hallway.
"Clear," he reported instantly.
She moved up closer to him, looking down the side corridor herself now. He was right, nothing of interest, just another bare corridor with faintly shaky unevenly spaced lighting.
"I'm reading a faint power increase ahead," Huxton's voice reported and she looked back down the first corridor, weapon raised. "I think it may be a computer access point," Huxton added.
"Let's move to it," Ara ordered as she headed back down the first corridor, weapon high and ready, her team tight behind her.
As the corridor took a faint curve to the right, the predicted computer panel became visible as a glowing point on the wall up ahead. "Up ahead on the right," she notified the team.
And beyond the promised light of computer access, she saw another corridor branching off.
"Another corridor here," she added, quickening her step slightly as she crossed further towards the left wall again, casting her lights and weapon towards the new potential ambush point.
But nothing moved, sensors reporting nothing new, as they neared the computer panel and the new corridor.
As they reached it, she stepped forward first this time before Elite Seifer could do it, and shone her lights into the new hallway. "Clear," she reported of the new yet identical corridor. "Huxton, get to work on the panel," she ordered. "Kosla hold position on the far side here," she added as she headed to where Huxton was already tapping on the Salvager computer screen.
"Yes, Commander," Kosla responded as she and two others held position looking down the long first corridor, while Elite Seifer was covering the new side corridor, and the rest the way they had come. All directions covered, Ara moved up next to Huxton to look at the glowing computer panel herself.
"This looks like internal comms and I've got a ship layout here," Huxton reported hurriedly, the computer screen responding to the press of his gloved finger.
A slowly turning simplified schematic of the Salvager ship appeared and Ara moved a little closer to study it.
"Looks like we have more than twenty floors, perhaps two shuttle bays and large storage spaces towards the stern," she reported for everyone else.
"I think this could be their engineering section," Huxton indicated a space towards the stern of the ship that filled several floors. He tapped the screen, moving the image away up the ship towards the nose of the vessel. "This could be their Central Station, this smaller room at the front the Piloting section we saw through the front."
Ara nodded. "I agree. Where are we now?"
Huxton tapped a pictograph at the top of the screen and the image shifted to show a large blinking blue dot partway down the outside edge of the ship schematic. "This is where it started, so I think this is where we are," he considered.
Ara consulted the architecture around the dot. "Yes, that's the airlock there. So, this new corridor here should lead through into these more central series of corridors through the length of the ship."
"They run down towards the shuttle bays and, hopefully, engineering," Huxton agreed, tapping the screen to follow the central corridors.
"Can you link into the main ship computer from here?" Ara asked him.
He tapped on several more pictographs, which opened up new screens, but they were mostly in writing they couldn't read. He tapped back into another image, but only more indecipherable writing was revealed. "I think this is just basic ship information, nothing appears connected in with wider systems. I think we need to go to either Central Station or their engineering section."
"How do we get to Central Station?" She asked.
Huxton tapped back to the starting blue dot. "Not via those central corridors," he moved the image around, "instead we need to move up several more decks towards the bow."
"Alright, show me the main ship layout again," Ara requested as she lifted her left arm and tapped on her computer display.
Huxton tapped around until the ship appeared in various images and she used her computer sensors to record it all. That done, Ara consulted the layout and gathered the information she needed.
"Alright," she turned from the panel to her team, "we're going to split into two teams as per scenario one. I'm sharing the ship layout images with you all," she tapped several controls on her arm panel, sharing the images she had taken with her team. "Kosla lead team alpha up to find Central Station with Huxton. We need to get to the ship's main computer systems and find any intel on what happened. Team bravo are with me and Elite Seifer, we're going to head into the central aspect of the ship and head down towards the shuttle bays and engineering section. All eyes open and no one is to let their guard down for a second. Remember to keep sensors alive, we have no idea what chemicals or other contaminants could be leaking in the air here. Keep to your team's frequencies on local relay, but report to me and the Valse instantly anything significant is found."
A chorus of "Yes Commander," came back to her.
"Let's all move out," she ordered and headed towards Elite Seifer at the entrance to the new side corridor. She consulted her panel's image as she reached the Elite warrior's side. "We're going to take this corridor to cross through to join up with this central running corridor," she held her arm up so her bravo team could see the display, "and then follow it down through the ship."
"Good plan," Seifer agreed.
Lowering her arm, she held her pulse weapon up and ready, and led the way forward down the new corridor.
0000
Everything was working well.
Ru shifted his back along the floor of the small maintenance space and considered the plasma and filter readings displayed above him. It was nice to be back on the Sythus, even briefly, working with a proper understandable engine and not spending endless days staring at the complicated Skerti Drive. He enjoyed the mystery and challenge of the recent work, but today it felt good to be back in his true element again.
Plus, he was excited to make the new adjustments to the Sythus' filters. The Lead Engineer from the Hastos Son had sent him her latest successful adjustments to that first new engine and he'd decided to apply the same changes for the Sythus today. She'd seen a small but significant increase in power output from the plasma following the filter changes, so he was looking forward to seeing if these adjustments would make any noticeable difference when the Sythus had its in-flight test tomorrow once it left the repair dock. The poor ship had been in dock a long time, but she was looking good to his eye. Everything was structurally sound, and the ship had had a significant overall, inside and out. Plus, the additional hull and internal reinforcements throughout the ship were brand new and he was looking forward to seeing how they did once the engine was engaged in flight.
Of course, the ship and her engine were going to have to continue on without him soon enough, but he was determined to do all the last refinements he could before his reassignment. To prepare his latest baby of an engine ready for it heading off without him there to monitor and care for it. But, that was the life he lived and the work he loved. And his new assignment would certainly be challenging. But, until then, he had his Sythus to prep for her next battle engagement.
He shifted his back a little further along the floor of the maintenance crawl space, and watched his first small adjustments he'd made to the filters show on the small screen above him. It was looking good so far.
"Ru?" A voice called from the room beyond his boots. The room outside the crawl space was busy, as he had all his available staff working on a full and complete analysis of every single part of the engine before tomorrow, and routinely questions were called in at him while he worked.
"Mmm?" Ru replied as he adjusted the filter readings a little more, slowly dialling them in so as not to disturb the flow inside the engine too aggressively.
"Ru?" The voice was closer now and was recognisably Madesh.
"In here," Ru called out loudly as he watched the filter display screen above him.
A shift of the air and a brush of warmth against his lower left leg told him that Madesh was squeezing into the small maintenance space alongside him. Ru was used to such close contact; you didn't work on engines without a complete lack of fear of small spaces, heights, or being pressed up against other people in overly warm environments. However, this maintenance crawl way was far enough away from the engine core to be a reasonably comfortable temperature.
"Did you have Midday meal?" Madesh asked, his elbow wedged up against the outside of Ru's thigh.
"No," Ru replied dismissively as he dialled in the last part of the adjustments; almost there.
"Why not?" Madesh demanded.
"I'm just finishing this up," Ru answered. The filter levels hit what he had been aiming for and he lowered his fingers from the controls and waited, seeing if any adverse reactions started. He'd wait for a good two cycles of plasma to run and see the results on the filter readings before he would be happy. He lifted his pad within the tight space and consulted the Hastos Son's Lead Engineer's notes to him. She'd recommended the slow dial in on the filter and had listed the initial symptoms she'd seen when they'd dialled in too quickly. She had been pleased with the final results on her engine, but he knew each and every engine, even when built to the same specs, always ended up unique. No two engine housings could be identical, the plasma mixes faintly different due to natural inherent variety, but he had gained a good feeling for the Sythus engine and she had been a very agreeable engine so far.
"You know Tyoosi will notice if you don't eat regularly," Madesh argued.
"I know," Ru admitted, shifting his attention to his friend pressed up close in this space.
Madesh was lying on his front in the crawl space, held up on his elbows, squeezed in beside Ru' legs. Beyond him, the engine room was simply filled with his staff's boots, being all that was visible at this angle, but he noticed there were fewer than before. Actually, he did remember his Sub-Lead mentioning a shift change earlier, but he'd been focused on starting on the filters.
"I want to finish these final adjustments before the hyperspace test tomorrow," Ru explained.
"Can they really not wait until you've eaten something?" Madesh asked.
"They can, but I've got a lot to get through."
"Can't your staff help with them?" Madesh pushed.
It was a true enough point, but Ru wanted to make this particular set of adjustments himself.
"I just want to see this through correctly," he explained. "Then I'll have enough time to adapt any changes from the test tomorrow before the ship leaves on mission."
"There'll still be time once we've left on the mission to make adjustments," Madesh commented.
"Not for me," Ru answered, shifting his eyes from the reading to meet Madesh's gaze. "I'm being reassigned."
"What?" Madesh frowned.
"It was only confirmed this morning," Ru explained. "I'm staying on the Sythus up until it leaves on mission, making sure everything is as good as it can be, but then I'm leaving for my new assignment."
"Where are they assigning you?" Madesh asked, sounding kindly sad at the news. Though the new assignment was exciting, Ru was sad about leaving the Sythus as he had made good friends here, and he would particularly miss Madesh. Still, the new assignment was going to be very interesting work, and probably far more significant for his career and helping the Elite.
"Silvar is setting up a permanent project to work on the Skerti Drive," Ru explained. "I've been invited to join."
"Oh," Madesh considered. "That's really good. You are exceptional at what you do, and I know you'll be nothing but an asset in the project."
"Thank you, Madesh," Ru smiled at his friend before returning his eyes to the readings. Everything continued to hold steady.
"I will miss you though," Madesh commented. "Everyone here will."
"I will miss you as well, my friend. I'll miss all of the Strays," Ru agreed. "Though, at least Seeal will be there."
The maintenance space fell silent.
"Seeal's joining the Skerti Drive project?" Madesh asked, sounding confused.
"No," Ru replied. "But my work will be divided between the dock where the Drive is held and a project bay in the Elite Training Facility. She'll only be a few doors away, so at least I'll have one friend around still." And out of all the Strays, he was most glad it was her. He was looking forward to spending more time with her again, as he'd really missed her.
"Oh, that's good," Madesh replied, though there as a faint pause again afterwards. Ru wondered if perhaps Madesh was sorry he was not joining them, since he and Seeal appeared to have a very close friendship.
The filters were steady; just one more plasma cycle and he'd be confident in the changes. Hopefully the other system adjustments he had planned today would be this easy.
"Um, Ru," Madesh shifted against Ru' leg. "I wanted to, ah, talk something through with you about Seeal."
Ru glanced at Madesh. "Oh?"
"Um, yes, I am certain that she will be pleased to have your company in the Training Facility, but I wanted to just mention that Honoured Elite Oneakka spends a great deal of time with her," Madesh said, his voice a little lower than before, the maintenance area giving them some limited private space.
Ru was aware that Seeal worked with Honoured Elite Oneakka, as well as some other Elite warriors. Though he was not overly comfortable around the bigger more outwardly aggressive Elite warriors, Honoured Elite Oneakka was very well informed on engineering matters and had been very supportive of Ru' new engines for the Hastos Son and Sythus. He'd even helped with the construction of the Sythus' new engine housing when it had been installed.
"You may not be able to spend as much time with her as a result," Madesh added, his tone implying he meant more than his words.
Ru frowned down along his own body to Madesh. "Do you mean that he doesn't trust her?" Surely Seeal had proven herself a hundred times over, and he'd gotten the impression from her stories that she rather enjoyed her work in the Elite Facility.
"No, I believe Honoured Elite Oneakka does."
What then was Madesh implying? That the other Elite were limiting her freedoms? "Do you mean that the Elite are keeping her restricted and under surveillance even in the Facility? I thought they trusted her now?" Why hadn't Madesh said anything about this before now? Surely Seeal did not need to prove herself further?
"No, I don't mean that," Madesh corrected. "Though, in all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if they monitored her computer systems still, given her history. She even says as much herself."
"But they have Honoured Elite Oneakka watching her closely?" Ru asked, annoyed now on Seeal's behalf. "They need a watchman at her door?"
Madesh shook his head. "No, that's not what I meant. Seeal and Honoured Elite Oneakka have a proper friendship."
Oh, well that was more positive then. "That's good, she should be respected for all she can do for the Elite and has done," Ru agreed as he looked back up at the readings. All was still good so far.
"My point is," Madesh continued, "that Honoured Elite Oneakka is...the type of man who...should be respected with his time and..."
Ru frowned at Madesh's rambling. Sometimes Madesh did seem to struggle with expressing himself, whereas at other times he spoke with such wise elegance. Today, he sounded like he was tiptoeing around a point, unsure how to express himself. Or, perhaps, it was that he didn't want to speak ill of an Elite warrior? That made more sense, especially here with potential ears listening outside the maintenance crawl space and Madesh held Honoured Elite Oneakka in particularly high esteem.
"I understand," Ru assured him. "They have a close friendship and I must make sure to give that space. I will be careful not to impose myself on Seeal's time with the Honoured Elite." It was a good warning, as no one wanted to irritate the infamously intense Honoured Elite Oneakka.
Ru consulted the filter readings. Two plasma cycles were complete and no problems were obvious. Pleased, he reached up and started keying in a final systems check and then he would lock in the new filter settings to be permanent.
Madesh let out a small sigh. "Okay," he said and started crawling back out of the maintenance space. "Just make sure you eat something in the next hour or I will be back to drag you there myself."
Ru chuckled. "You sound like Seeal."
He heard Madesh chuckle too. "Eat something, my friend," Madesh's hand patted against Ru' shin. "I'll see you later."
"See you later," Ru agreed, but he was focused on the system check results, which were all pleasing. Brilliant. He'd watch the filters for the rest of the day, but it looked like the Hastos Son's Lead Engineer had been right in the adjustments so far. It was going to be interesting to see if the power output changes would be revealed tomorrow.
It was one job complete, but he lifted his pad and consulted the rest of his long list of adjustments to be made today.
He didn't mind though, because he had no idea how much longer the Sythus would be around. For all he knew, it could be launched onto its new mission straight after its flight test tomorrow and he'd be unable to crawl around an engine for some time to come, so he was quite prepared to enjoy a full and long work day today. Though, Madesh did have a point about eating to keep up his energies.
He reached up and added a new entry to his list: Eat Midday Meal.
0000
The dull architecture of the Salvager corridor stretched out ahead, the bulbs shimmering pools of dim light over her and her team as they followed the empty hallway.
Ara glanced at her arm panel, consulting the Salvager ship layout again. The distances were hard to determine, but there was a staggered turn to the corridor ahead, which would match with where she estimated they were on the ship plan.
Moving silently and in good formation with her, the team moved through the staggered bend in the corridor and, though there was nothing still head, finally, there was something new. Doorways set in each wall of the corridor.
"We should check the rooms," Elite Seifer suggested.
"Agreed. Three to that side," she ordered of her team of five as they neared the first set of closed doors, "two this side with me and the Honoured Elite."
Seifer reached the first door this side of the corridor and he stepped across it. With a shared nod between them, he triggered the door's control and she leaned in around the opening door to point her weapon and helmet lights inside.
The room was large though the space was almost entirely taken up with large square containers, most of which had fallen over, their contents scattered across the room. Moving into the space, Ara turned, allowing her lights to pass up over the ceiling and then down over the containers and the shiny lumps of rock littering the floor. "Ore," she decided. "Just a storage room." And nothing else of interest in it.
"We have ore storage this side as well, Commander," the team checking the other side of the corridor reported. "Two rooms of it."
Ara headed out of the storage room and back into the corridor. To her left, two of her team were checking the next room on this side.
"Ore again, but also two broken water canisters in here, Commander," a report quickly followed.
"Let's move on," Ara ordered, the two halves of her team merging back together in the corridor.
Seifer led the way forward now, leading them towards more sets of doors in the corridor ahead. "Same again," she ordered her team as she headed towards the first new door on the left.
The door slid open to a room of tumbled, fallen metal crates, several of them broken open. Except there wasn't ore in these. She moved into the room and shifted her boot through sealed plastic packets. "Food storage," she concluded. There were a lot of crates in here, suggesting either a big crew or a very long planned voyage. With Salvagers, and a ship this size, it was difficult to tell which had been the case.
"More ore storage on our side, Commander," the other half of her team reported.
"More food storage on this side," another reported.
"Commander Ara?" Elite Seifer's voice cut through the others, his tone catching Ara's attention instantly. "You should see this."
She headed quickly out of the storage room, glancing down the corridor to see that Seifer had moved on and was far ahead of them and was only just in view, stood at another staggered bend to the hallway. She headed quickly towards him, adjusting her grip on her weapon ready for whatever he had found.
"What is it?" She asked, her team's helmet lights shining around her as they followed her. She bit back her annoyance that he'd headed off without backup and was now being cryptic.
As she reached the Elite warrior, he led the way around the staggered bend and she followed quickly to discover what he'd found beyond it.
The corridor finished just ahead of them where it joined the central running corridor they had been aiming for. Except, the new hallway was dark, with just the closest shimmering bulb above them casting light into it.
"Broken bulb?" She considered.
Seifer moved forward slowly, the spotlight on his weapon shining the brightest across the central corridor's far wall, which was all they could see of the new hallway so far. She kept a pace behind him as they moved, allowing him to take the point position as they held close to the wall, their lights spilling into the central corridor and gradually revealing more of it. Half of her team crossed to the other wall opposite her and Elite Seifer, their focus covering the other direction of the approaching central corridor.
Almost at the end of this hallway, everyone slowed. Ara consulted her sensor panel on her arm, but nothing was showing. She saw Seifer had his Elite sensor pad in one hand, held close to his raised weapon, so she quickly focused on its small screen. Nothing but the dots that where her own team.
Still there was the very real possibility that there were hibernating Wraith hidden around the dark corner, which wouldn't show up on sensor readings. Though, rumour had it that Elite sensors were getting better at it. She glanced back at his pad screen again. Nothing new.
They had reached the end of the current corridor and Elite Seifer leaned out a fraction to spill his lights down the stretch of the central corridor out of view to the right. She watched him focus the beam of his gun up towards the ceiling, looking for hidden hibernating Wraith no doubt, and then he turned his light along the ceiling of the central corridor just out from them and then he turned, peering round the corner to check the other unseen direction of the central corridor to the left.
"Nothing," he reported after a beat, his voice lower than normal despite the helmets concealing their voices from anything that might be here. "But all the lights are out in the central corridor in both directions. As far as I can see."
"Let's keep to the plan," Ara ordered. "We'll head to the right, it should lead us directly to the stern of the ship."
Seifer moved forward first, though she kept close to him, and they stepped out into the darker corridor.
He was right, the way down the ship from here was pitch black, not even any emergency lighting visible. She turned and looked at the way behind them, and again it was all dark. Though her helmet lights caught across something shimmering on the ground ahead of her and she focused her helmet lights downwards. Light sparkled off broken pieces of glass littering the central corridor floor.
"There's broken glass here," she noted and then turned to look upwards towards the closest light fixture above her. Her lights shone up across the ragged pieces of the remains of the bulb still in place. "Broken bulbs," she concluded. "All of them," she frowned as she returned her attention on the way they were heading. Elite Seifer was already moving ahead, helmet lights and weapon spotlight moving methodically across the walls, floor and ceiling ahead of them.
"It could have been a power overload," her bravo team's technician's voice suggested. "Their power seems unstable."
"Possibly," Ara agreed. As she followed Seifer, she glanced up towards the next broken light fixture as she passed under it. There was no sign of any outward damage suggesting someone had broken the light on purpose, though, if they'd attacked from underneath...
As they moved further on from the previous corridor's light, the way ahead grew even darker, their helmet lights the only illumination and the beams were constantly moving as the team walked. Besides the glimmering pieces of glass across the floor, there was nothing to see; not even any doors leading off the corridor as yet.
Ara kept her eyes mainly on Seifer's weapon's spotlight as it slid over walls, floor, and ceiling.
Then he stopped suddenly.
Aras stopped instantly in response, every sense locked in on what was in his spotlight far ahead of them.
A black blaze of weapons damage blackened the pale wall up ahead. There was no way to tell how old it was from here, but as all their helmet lights focused on it, the angle of the shot was obvious; up towards the top of the wall. An odd angle, unless it had been fired that way unintentionally during a fight.
"Energy blast," her technician reported. "Level five at least."
Seifer was moving forward again, and she saw his spotlight pause again, this time up along the ceiling ahead. The beam glittered across a broken light, but, around it, another thick blaze of burned damage to the ceiling.
"Could be an old fire-fight," Ara considered. "Salvagers are known to be trigger happy."
She thought she heard what could have been a faint snort of amusement from Seifer, but he said nothing.
Then he stopped abruptly again.
Ara peered ahead.
His spotlight shone metres ahead, focused on the right hand corridor wall which was thick with blackened weapons damage. Not just from one hit, but easily from multiple high level energy blasts, one part of the wall noticeably cracked and warped from the impacts.
Seifer stepped across the corridor, directing his light onto what was opposite the area of damage.
A closed door.
If someone had been firing out through the doorway, it would explain the blackened and damaged opposite corridor wall.
"Valse," Ara opened up the wider link frequency back to the ship, which would also transmit to her alpha team, "we have signs of heavy energy weapons damage inside the ship, concentrated just ahead of our current position. Run a new full sensor sweep."
"Running now, Commander," her Second replied instantly.
The wait was short, but it felt long as Ara watched Seifer moving on, alone, towards the closed door ahead. It wouldn't be the first time she'd been in unknown territory with hidden hibernating Wraith. For a long time that had been the Wraith's technique to lure in the Fleet, leaving survivors to be rescued while they were waiting in deep sleep, hidden from sensors. The only moment the trap was revealed was when the Wraith started waking up and started appearing on sensors.
"The only life readings we are detecting are the team, Commander," her Second replied.
"Team alpha, report," Ara requested.
"We are proceeding up the ship through emergency access ladders," Kosla's voice replied, sounding slightly winded. "We believe we are two decks from the level at which we can access the Central Station."
"Any indications of a fight that way in the ship?"
"None, Commander. We have found nothing except various everyday items scattered across the higher corridor floors. Mugs, an electronic pad detailing ore processing, writing implements and a hairbrush," Kosla replied.
"Understood, keep on mission. Remain highly vigilant," Ara ordered.
"Yes, Commander."
Ara returned her setting to her team's local relay and the Valse. Ahead, Seifer had paused, wisely waiting for her command to proceed further.
"Valse, we are proceeding on," Ara told them and started towards Seifer.
Picking her way around more broken glass, she reached him. He had been consulting his Elite pad while he waited and, as she arrived, she looked down to the pad's screen. There didn't seem to be anything new, though there was a smaller box now showing with data scrolling across it.
"Is your tech able to detect hibernating Wraith?" She asked him directly.
"No, but sometimes," Seifer replied a very Elite-style answer. She knew they experimented constantly with their tech, their own specialised scientists having produced some of the greatest advances in weapons, sensors and engineering that filtered out to the Fleet in recent years. But then, when you got your pick of the best brains in the Alliance that was bound to happen.
"Sometimes?" She frowned at him.
"We're working on it," he replied and she saw him tap into the scrolling box of data for her to see it. "I think the weapons damage here is less than a year old, but since we don't know how long the ship was without standard atmosphere, temperature changes..."
She nodded within her helmet as she saw the conclusions displayed on the screen. Older than a month but up to a year old was the summary displayed by his pad.
Looking up ahead to the dark corridor stretching out beyond the waiting door, she peered into the gloom, her team's helmet lights growing weaker the further they stretched.
"Let's see if there's anything inside here," she gave the order.
Seifer tapped something on his pad and slid the tech back into a pocket on his suit, presumably having it set to vibrate an alert to him if it detected something. He set both gloves around the grip of his weapon and she moved forward with him.
As they moved closer to the large patch of damage and the closed door opposite, their lights picked up further blazes of weapons fire cutting up along the ceiling beyond their target. It looked to Ara like it had been a point of last stand.
She lowered her eyes to the waiting door. The team stayed silent on the approach, splitting into two and lining up on both sides.
The door and the wall surrounding it looked unmarked, which was odd, because normally an enemy fired back. Though, Wraith stunners left no mark behind.
Before the incursion began, Ara took a moment to assess her team. All were weapons ready, eyes on the closed door, so she turned towards the door panel that would reveal the room inside. Only, as her lights cast across the panel and its single large press button, she saw the faint outline of a print across it. She leaned a little closer, letting her lights catch the colour and shape of the mark.
"I've got what looks like a bloody handprint on the door control," she reported to her team and then pressed the large button.
The door shifted open, a faint judder to it as it pulled aside revealing a large dark room inside.
Their helmet lights cast into the room, highlighting the tangled mess within.
Bodies lay everywhere.
Ara moved into the doorway quickly, sweeping her weapon and lights around the room quickly, assessing high and low for any waiting enemy. Her and Seifer's lights spun up over the ceiling, his spotlight pinpointing from one corner to another, seeking out waking Wraith.
But nothing moved.
"Clear," Seifer reported for them all.
Ara wasn't sure that was the best word. "Valse," she said into the link, "we have bodies here."
In fact, it was difficult to get into the room properly as there were several bodies blocking the way, and which possibly explained why the door had initially been slow to open for them. Seifer stepped over the gruesome barricade and into the room.
"Keep watch over the door," Ara ordered her team. "Sprou, with me," she instructed her soldier who doubled as a medic.
"Yes, Commander," the male's voice replied.
"They weren't culled," Seifer reported what she realised she had already noticed. No, these bodies weren't shrivelled dried husks that the Wraith left behind. Though, that didn't exclude them having all suffocated in here together, or been poisoned by something.
She lifted her boot over the first group of bodies into the small space Seifer had used and shifted her weight into the graveyard. She turned in place, casting her lights around the mess filling the room. The bodies appeared intact, though it was difficult to tell in the gloom and because the remains were all lying in random positions, piled together and mixed up with furniture and what appeared to be various utensils and plates. All dumped together when the gravity had been re-established.
"This looks like it may have been their canteen," she noted as she found another reasonably open patch to step into.
"There have to be at least thirty bodies here," Seifer noted.
Ara's boot grated against something and she looked down, her lights casting over a large broken ceramic plate. It was bright white apart from a splatter of food across it, wait...was it food?
She settled her weapon into one arm and reached down. She picked up one broken piece of the plate and held it up close to her lights. The splatter was dark red and must have congealed on the plate before gravity had been lost.
She dropped her eyes to the bodies around her again, swinging her lights over the tangled piles of clothing and loose dead hands. Dark stains covered all of them.
"Blood," she reported hurriedly, her lights meeting one wall and she saw large dark stains splattered across it. "It's everywhere."
She dropped the plate back to the floor, her attention focusing on part of a woman's face staring out from a pile of death. Ara leaned down towards the woman's milky dead eyes. The female Salvager had previously had brown skin, but she was now a horrid unnatural pale, too ashen even for the dead. The woman's mouth hung open at an angle, as if she had been screaming at her end and there was a dark stain over part of her chin. The rest of her neck was concealed by the sleeve of the dead body above her in the pile.
Suspicion gathered in Ara's mind as she reached out to move the dead arm and its wide sleeve aside to reveal the dead woman's throat.
"It's them," Seifer whispered in the link.
The fabric aside, the woman's throat was revealed, coated in dried old blood. Two massive tears were visible in the side of her throat, so deep that part of her windpipe had been pulled out into the light.
Ara had seen a lot of battle in her years, but she felt her stomach turn as she straightened up quickly and looked towards Seifer's lights turning towards her.
"Skerti," Seifer confirmed he had concluded the same. Around his feet, he'd turned over several bodies, all of them pallid white and with obvious gaping wounds in their throats.
"Valse," Ara said hurriedly into her link. "We have likely confirmation of Skerti killings, immediately send everything we have so far out towards the relay." She looked back towards the entrance into the graveyard where three of her team stood guard. "Repeat full deep sensor sweep of the ship."
"Yes, Commander," her Second replied instantly. "We're still reading no additional signals on the ship but the team."
Sprou was crouched down by several bodies, the dark pools of blood dried across their clothing and faces. "Some of the victims display the small simple puncture wounds as we found on the Wraith killed by the Skerti Queen, but some of these people had their throats violently torn open. I thought the Skerti drink the blood," he asked looking up towards Seifer.
Ara had to agree, the room looked like the scene of a vicious animal attack.
"We don't know how many there were," Elite Seifer replied. "Maybe they drank their fill before the crew were all dead."
Ara grimaced at the suggestion, but she had more important things to worry about right now. "I'm more interested in whether they're still onboard," she told Seifer. "Waiting for us."
"The Skerti the Elite encountered on the Rogue Hive ran hotter than Wraith," Seifer replied as he looked down to his Elite sensor pad. "We'd see something on the readings." Though, she thought she had heard a touch of doubt in his voice.
"The science says they're related to the Wraith, so maybe they can hibernate like Wraith?" She pointed out hurriedly. "We don't know what they could look like on sensors."
Even across the metres between them, she saw Seifer's worried frown through the glass of his helmet.
"Commander," her Second's voice echoed into her ear, "emergency issue subspace link has been sent back towards Alliance space."
"Good. Keep constant sensor sweeps on this ship," she replied, her eyes still on Seifer as he frowned down at the victims lying around the room.
"These bodies have been dead for weeks at least," Seifer stated. "This ship had no stable atmosphere, no heat, no gravity," he said. "I can't see how the Skerti could survive that. Even the Wraith can't survive that."
"We have only one dead Skerti body to tell us anything," she reminded him sternly. "We don't know what they're capable of, or what tech they may use to conceal themselves."
She saw Seifer's eyes widen with growing alarm. "We need to search very foot of this ship," he stated.
0000
TBC