ISS Artemis 24 docked to Elli's Chance system 612-744
Date 1184-265 Imperial Standard
Time 1500 Shipboard
The scouts looked around the crew lounge of the Elli's Chance. It gave the same impression as it did when seen on the video, as if the crew were merely elsewhere on the ship and would return at any moment. The eerie was enhanced by seeing it in person and by their lights playing around the room. The galley had plenty of food. What reasons someone had to spill the cupboard's contents out was a mystery. Examining the port hatch to the bridge created another mystery. That was the hatch the medic kept looking to as it was forced open. The hatch itself was covered in scratches as if someone had struck it with an axe hundreds of times. At the center where the valve plate should have made an airtight seal, the flanges were bent out several inches.
"Vrain, how much force would it take to damage a pressure hatch like this," asked Val.
Vrain had the same stunned expression. "A lot." He took a closer look at the hatch, "I have no idea what tool would have cause the pates to be pulled out, most would push them in."
"Will it still open?" Daryl asked him.
"I believe so. It looks like there is no power here once that is established it should cycle."
"Then watch and learn."
Daryl stepped up and popped open the control panel. He quickly connected a couple of leads from the test kit to the exposed circuits, then added the extra battery to the system. The status lights came on the controls.
"Curious, the control is only set to manual. Whoever pried the hatch would have only had to push this button here."
He depressed the button and the hatch opened. Except for a squeal as the damaged plates moved against each other, it worked perfectly. Beyond the now open hatch could be seen the bridge, illuminated with red emergency lighting. Their beams of white light cut harshly into the scene settling on three main areas. Closest was the engineering station, heavily damaged. Just beyond there a pistol lying on the floor. Lastly, where all of the beams eventually settled, the pilot's station where medic Vizza made his recording. There were many scattered stains on the controls and the seat, apparently dried blood.
Ishyn's voice was subdued, "Vrain, see if you can get the ship's status on another station, see what the problems are. Val, bring up the log; Mel watch our backs."
Daryl picked up the pistol and examined it. It was still loaded but ten of the twelve rounds it held had been fired. Some droplets of dried blood covered the frame.
Mel yelped as the main bridge lights came on without warning.
"Sorry," Vrain apologized. "I reset the breakers. I think whatever melted the console here overloaded the system and blew out the power."
"What else can you tell us about this ship?" Asked Daryl.
"First off it has twice the engines I would expect. A common mod to increase interstellar range at the cost of cargo capacity. Sublight engines are stock so we are not aboard a smuggler, they always up then to run from patrols. The sublights are showing green. Jump engines should be good for two-parsec range but there are several warnings showing. At least one set is damaged so I wouldn't try for more than one parsec at a time. One powerplant is pretty ok, just needs some TLC; the other is offline. Looks like it might have some serious damage. Life support is alright for now but has some substandard readings; it took a hit somewhere too. Weapons are just fine, as are sensors. We know comms work. Power routing has issues, mostly around the engine rooms. Overall I would say this ship is spaceworthy and could leave system, but I would want to get it to a port very soon."
"Can you tell what caused the damage?'
"Not from here. I would say in was an internal event. The hull looks as solid from here as it did outside. Hmm, the auto log shows lots of minor issues, lights out in many areas, emergency lighting in most of the rest,galley equipment damaged, non-pressure hatches overloaded, forced maybe and a few of small fires. Nothing major by itself but a lot of them happened over a few hours."
"Any theories what caused them damage. And the fires, anything there."
"No, the fires were small and the ship's systems knocked them out right away. If I were a betting man, I would say that they had a running fight for a few hours."
"Val what have you found?"
"This ship received a charter about two months ago from a university in another sector. They wanted to explore beyond the fringe and collect samples. A lot of money was dumped in, upgrading the engines for extended range and adding science labs."
Ishyn peered over Val's shoulder. "I doubt that was a university sponsoring the charter. Most professors I know would give up an arm to have the funding it looks like this operation had."
"Everything looks to be routine until about two weeks ago when there was an accident in a science lab. One tech was killed and two injured. A specimen escaped that they considered dangerous so the captain parked the ship here until the specimen could be recovered."
"What was the thing that escaped?" called Mel from the hatch.
"It doesn't say. Just that the techs were put into cryo until they could reach proper medical care. Over the next week three people go missing while they look for the creature. Here it says 'they are getting smarter' so maybe it was more than one? The captain then went missing and the log really isn't well documented. There was some kind of fight in engine room two that must have caused the damage Vrain told us about. The last entry notes the distress beacon being activated. That was only a few hours before we heard it."
Everyone looked at each other then to the Commander.
"My first thought," he said, "is to pack up and get the hell out of here. It very well could be that there is a dangerous creature loose aboard. However we know at least two people are frozen and there could be others still alive. So here is what we will do. First Val and I will go to the low berths and check on the injured techs. Vrain and Mel, check on the engine room. If you can make repairs call us; we will provide guard so you can fix things up. All the while keep and eye open for survivors."
Mel spoke up, sounding more than a little nervous,"And if things aren't just peachy?"
"Then we will pack up, head to Lidquist. That is the nearest navy base; they and the marines can take over then. If we encounter something we haven't seen before, back off, retreat to the air lock, right?"
Everyone nodded agreement.
"OK, let's go."