by Jerome Kelly
“Report,” James said as the waves of hyperspace faded away and the ship came to a stop.
“We’ve arrived at the designated co-ordinates on schedule sir,” said Daniels, “we’re out of warp and awaiting your orders.”
“Ivanov, anything on sensors?”
“All looks pretty quiet, almost too quiet,” said Ivanov, “no active ships on sensor and no anomalous readings, I would say we are very much alone here.”
“I would still recommend caution,” said Saavoy, “we should assume that any potential hostile forces may use surprise or ambush tactics. It is likely that is how they took down all the previous ships that came this way”
“Agreed,” said James, “we’ll keep a sharp eye out, don’t you worry. Is there any sign of the lost ships we came out here to find?”
“Scans indicate the husk of a Tolian battlecruiser in the system,” said Ivanov, “it’s engines are out though and the ship is barely giving off minimal energy readings. It’s as if it’s a ghost ship sir.”
“Ghost ship huh?” Said James, “now that would make things interesting. What about the Churian ships? Any sign of them?
“There is a faint signal coming from the surface of the third planet of the system,” said Ivanov, “it looks Churian in origin. It could well be the missing ships and research teams.”
“Lets go in for a closer look then,” said James. Right on cue they had stumbled into the missing ships, powerless and with no signs of life in the system. Simple enough but as he knew from past experiences, nothing was ever that simple, they would need to keep their guard up no matter how quiet things seemed. Sometimes the mere suggestion of it being ‘too quiet’ was a great way to tempt fate.
“I get the feeling the we aren’t alone out here,” Kosare shuddered, “I’m getting a chill up my spine, something feels really wrong here.”
“That’s just your days on Juyoa talking,” said Morelli, “if there was someone here, I’m pretty sure we would have detected them by now.”
But James could understand the feeling. Something powerful enough to take down two Tolian battlecruisers had passed through the system fairly recently and there was no way to know what it was or when it might appear again.
As the Evening Star closed in on the third planet in the system, the one that fell within the life-band of the star, the outline of the derelict Tolian cruiser came into view. The closer they got, the more evident it became that the ship had taken quite a beating. It was in a really bad way, definitely no longer space-worthy and no longer functioning. There was something a little strange about it, something about the ship looked different.
“I guess this confirms what we already knew,” said Isha, “something big hit this cruiser, something a lot more powerful than us.”
“We’ll go to yellow alert, raise shields,” James ordered, “we don’t want to be caught off guard while we’re out here.”
“I’m detecting a faint signal coming from the ship,” Elena Stevens at the communications post piped up, “it’s very faint but it’s getting stronger the closer we get to the Tolian ship.”
“Can you match it to anything in out database?” James asked, “maybe it’s something used by one of the other alliance races, a damaged distress beacon or something.”
“No sir,” said Elena, “it doesn’t match up to anything in our system. I’ve never seen this signal before and I’ve studied the communications used by every race in the alliance.”
“Be on your guard then,” James warned his crew, “some of the attackers could have remained on board, we’ll have to be cautious.”
As they moved in closer, James scanned the area for anything out of the ordinary. He couldn’t make out anything unusual, it was just the damaged Tolian cruiser floating there dead in space.
“THERE!”
Ansare quickly drew everyone’s attention to it. There was a ship, a small scout ship just next to the cruiser’s port side, small enough so that none of them had noticed it until they had gotten close enough. It wasn’t a design James had seen before, the only conclusion was that it was alien and it had been using the dark side of the ship to blend in to it’s surroundings.
“Get in closer!” James ordered, “I want to know who they are and what they’re doing!”
They weren’t fast enough. Before they could close in, the ship sprang to life and darted away into the distance, quickly making the jump to hyperspace. No sooner had they seen it, it was gone, there was no way they would catch it now.
“Damn, I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Ansare, “did anyone get any kind of scans on it?”
“Didn’t get anything,” said Morelli, “they moved too fast, we’ve lost them. You think maybe that was one of the attacker’s ships?”
“A ship that small couldn’t take a Tolian cruiser down, no way,” said Saavoy, “it would take a hell of a lot of them to do this much damage and the chances are that some of them would have been taken down in the process but I don’t see any wreckage other than the Tolian ship itself. My guess is that was just a scout ship.”
“We should probably find out what they were doing,” said James, “does the ship still have life support?”
“Yes, just about,” said Ivanov, “I’m not detecting any signs of life on board so I think you’re clear for now. If you’re planning on going over there I wouldn’t wait around though, for all we know that was a scout for whoever attacked us and they could be warning the rest of their kind of our presence.”
“Good point, we’ll have to do this quickly then,” said James, “we need to search both the cruiser and the Churian signal on the planet below so I think it would be best if we break into two teams and search both at the same time. Isha, would you care to take the team down to the surface?”
“I can do that,” Isha said proudly. She was never shy about wanting to take the lead on missions, it was well known that she had the ambition of becoming a captain herself one day. Besides, she needed something to cheer her up now that their holiday was nothing but a distant memory.
“Great, I want you to take Kaydenne with you and also, Kasha and Kaldun, I want you two to go down with them. Julio, Jaiden and Loca, you three are with me. Also, I want the team heading to the surface to take the new orbital flyer, you might need it to make a quick return just in case anything comes up.”
“The Mantis!?” Daniels suddenly piped up, “you’ve gotta let me come with you on this one captain, I want to be the first to fly that thing.”
“Not this time Daniels,” said James, “I need you to stay here with the ship. You’re my best helmsman and we need you at your station just incase trouble should decide to show up.”
“Come on sir, you gotta let me fly that thing.”
“Hell no…” Melina contested, “. . . if anyone’s taking that thing out it should be me, I’m the best flyer here.”
“You aren’t even part of this crew,” Daniels shot back at her,”“I called shotgun on it way before you did. I should be first to take it out.”
“Ok, that’s enough you two!” James shouted over them, “you’ll both get your chance to fly it eventually so quit complaining. Daniels, I need you here if anything should come up, you’re the best helmsman we have and I’ll be relying on you to get us out of danger if trouble should show up.”
“Ok fine, I get it,” Daniels huffed, “I’ll sit it out this time but I’m taking that thing out next time, mark my words.”
The last thing that James needed now was his officers fighting like children over who got first use of the ship’s new flyer. The least the crew could do was take the situation seriously and stick to the jobs they had been given.
The group divided up into the two agreed teams and boarded their respective shuttles, Melina eagerly going for the cockpit of the Mantis flyer, clearly excited about getting to take it out for a spin while
Kosare took up the controls in James’s shuttle. James, Morelli and Julio strapped themselves in and let Kosare lift them off the ground and take them out towards the derelict cruiser.
“Just a thought,” Julio piped up, “how exactly are we going to get aboard that thing? Wont their shuttle bay doors sealed shut?”
“Leave that to me,” said Morelli, “Tolian cruisers have an emergency transponder within their computer core. All I have to do is send a signal at this ship’s correct frequency and command it’s shuttle bay doors to open. We can get aboard no problem.”
“You can seriously just hack into the ship just like that?”
“Obviously, because I’m such a genius I can hack into any ship in the galaxy…” Morelli joked, “. . . only kidding, the ship’s emergency codes were with the data the council sent us, I just happened to be the only one who bothered to read into it.”
“Ah… what would we do without you Loca,” James chuckled.
“Well for a start you would crash into those sealed hangar doors,” said Morelli, “but yeah, you would be pretty screwed if I hadn’t come along.”
She wasn’t wrong there. As the shuttle made for the Tolian warship, James noticed the Mantis flyer go shooting out of the Evening Star’s hangar bay and soar towards the surface of the nearby planet. Melina never missed a chance to show off her flying skills. James hoped that allowing Isha to take the lead on a mission would cheer her up a bit, she had not quite been herself ever since their holiday in Lahara had come to a premature end.
As promised, Morelli sent the access codes to the emergency transponder on the Tolian cruiser, overriding security and opening up the ship’s hangar bay doors. James could see that most of lights on the inside had either gone dead or were just barely flickering with life.
“Looks like a ghost ship all right,” James commented, the flickering lights creating all manner of shadows along the walls of the hangar bay.
“Not afraid of the dark are you, James?” Morelli chuckled.
“No, but I wont deny I’m getting a bit of a chill,” said James, “too late to turn back now though. I just hope we find what we’re looking for quickly, I don’t want to spend any more time here than I have to.”
Despite the severe damage to the outside of the ship, the interior was mostly intact and it was easy enough for Kosare to set the shuttle down in the hangar. The ship’s protective fields were still maintaining enough of an atmosphere for them to not need protective gear but the moment the shuttle’s doors opened, James could feel just how thin the air onboard the derelict cruiser was.
“Life support must be at a bare minimum,” Morelli noted as she stepped off the shuttle and into the bay, “I would say that the ship only has a few hours of air left, even if it is just the four of us here. We should hurry and get this done before the air runs out.”
“Agreed, we should probably head for the command deck,” said James, “If it’s design is anything like the old Morning Star then it should be easy enough for us to get there.”
“Reminds me a bit of the old days,” Morelli said as she observed the very familiar surroundings. The Tolians’ new warships had been build on similar interior designs to the old Morning Star and James too was feeling a little bit of nostalgia. He had been missing his old ship ever since it had gone down in the battle at Vulia. The Centaur had never quite lived up to the first ship that he had commanded. The Evening Star had gone some way to making up for what he had been missing though.
“Come on, lets get to the bridge.”
James lead the team out of the shuttle bay an into the inner corridors of the ship. They needed their flashlights to see where they were going for most of the way, many of the lights were still flickering on and off and some areas of the ship were absolutely pitch black.
“No signs of any kind of battle,” James noted as they continued towards the command deck, “this ship must have had a crew of about five hundred but I haven’t seen a single body yet, no signs of weapons fire either.”
“Strange, none of the escape pods were launched either,” said Morelli, “you think maybe the crew were all taken as prisoners?”
“Possibly, but would they just go without a fight like that?”
“If they were facing overwhelming odds, they may have had no choice,” said Kosare, “whatever attacked this ship was clearly far more powerful. Surrender may have been the only option.”
“Maybe…” said James, “. . . still, I’m surprised no one resisted.”
If he was faced with the same situation would he be prepared to surrender in such a manner? He hoped he would never have to find out but it was disconcerting that the fate of the crew remained a mystery and the intentions of the attackers still unclear. Hopefully once they checked the ship’s logs and the databanks, things would become clearer.
The group reached the command deck. There was still no sign of anything out of the ordinary. It was just continuous, dark corridors, empty and devoid of life in all directions. Morelli pointed them in the direction of the briefing room, the previous briefing logs would likely tell them everything the crew had known when they were sent into the region.
“Kind of exciting, huh?” Julio piping up to break the silence, his comment clearly aimed at Kosare who had been doing everything to avoid him since his rather unsubtle advances towards her back in Lahara.
“I have a gun, please don’t make me use it,” Kosare growled back at him.
“Lighten up,” Julio nudged her, Kosare clearly resisting the urge to hit him, “you’re too stressed at the moment, maybe when we get back to the ship I can help you…”
“all right stop!” She finally cracked, “we’re out here in the depths of uncharted space with a hostile enemy lurking in the shadows, investigating a derelict cruiser that could be our only lead and all you seem to be able to think about is how to try and get me in bed!”
“Well it’s not the only thing on my mind…” Julio said awkwardly, “. . . I’m a little curious as to what happened here too.”
“Just stop it Ok!? I’m not interested, never was, never will be, now do what you came out here to do or get lost!”
Kosare stormed off to the front of the group but Julio did not seem at all flustered by her reaction, his spirits were as high as ever.
“I think she likes me,” he chuckled but neither James nor Morelli were amused.
“She will shoot you, you know that right?” Morelli warned him, “she is right, this really isn’t the time or place for that.”
All these divisions between members of the crew were not helping, he needed them working as a team, not a set of individuals who were more interested in each other than the mission itself. He made a mental note to keep Julio and Kosare separate from now on or risk an incident. Thankfully the situation was just a brief distraction as the group quickly came upon the ship’s briefing room. It wasn’t all going to be plain sailing though…
“Doors sealed,” James noted as the doors refused to open for him, “Loca, will your override codes work on this one?”
“I’m afraid not, we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”
It took an effort from all four of them to shift it but they did eventually get it open, and James was kind of wishing he hadn’t. The moment the doors were open, the fate of the crew was revealed to them.
“I was worried about this,” he said, trying not to look directly at the scene before his eyes. What looked like half a dozen of the ship’s high ranking officers were slain on the floor, large smears of crimson covered the walls and briefing table. It wasn’t a pleasant sight. It looked as if the officers had been subjected to some manner of torture too, there were unusual markings on their faces and bodies although it was too dark to see exactly what had been done to them and James didn’t want to take a closer look.
James and Morelli edged around the carnage to the ship’s briefin
g computer, trying not to step on any of the bodies or the multiple severed limbs on the floor around them. The smell wasn’t too pleasant either, these bodies had been lying around for a couple of days at least.
“This should only take a minute,” said Morelli, plugging a small device into the ship’s main computer and entering the override codes, quickly bringing down the security and the firewalls protecting the ship’s main databanks.
“Try accessing the most recent ship’s logs,” said James, “maybe the captain knew something the rest of the crew didn’t and he made a record of it in here.”
“Already on it,” said Morelli, continuing to work her magic on the main computer, “Ok, I’m in, lets have a look at… oh, that can’t be right…”
“What can’t be right?”
“The log book is empty,” Morelli said with a very confused look on her face, “but it’s not that there were no logs made, the system has been completely cleared out, someone erased the logs.”
“Who would do that?”
“No idea but someone clearly didn’t want us knowing what happened here. I’ll try digging a little deeper, see if anything was stored on encrypted channels, maybe the captain had a backup log that survived the purge.”
Morelli continued to dig through the databanks but nothing was coming up. James was getting edgy, so were Julio and Kosare, both had drawn their weapons and were keeping a sharp eye out at the doors. The longer they had to spend in the carnage filled room, the more it was going to their heads.
“Anything?”
“I’m getting fragments,” said Morelli, “whoever erased the logs did it in a hurry, I might be able to piece a few of them together, one moment…”
The audio systems came to life. It was mostly static but there were a few words in the background that were just about distinguishable.
“. . . Feeling uncomfortable ever since we entered this region, god knows what the Churians were doing out here or what the council thought they might find in this dead region of space. The crew has been restless and I can’t blame them, something did a real job on those scout ships. All we have is wreckage with no sign of survivors and no sign of anything that could have done this. I’m preparing a team to visit the site and… chasing shadows out here, the signal disappeared as fast as it appeared. We cannot seem make sense of it, it does not match anything in our alliance databanks, I know for a fact we are not alone out here, we… barely able to escape, I’ve never seen anything like it, they came out of nowhere, overpowered our defences. What was Artennes thinking, he’s trying to handle forces he can’t control out here… please, if anyone finds this recording, take our findings to the council warn them about the… enemy are returning, there are two of them, two distinct factions but I have no idea what they both want… there is nothing more we can do now…”