Flatfoot lowers his weapon when his companions approach the hatch. He
scans up and down the access tube for movement or signs indicating that his companions may be attacked.
Yes, absolutely.
Mascot looks for the hatch mechanism. He also presses his shoulder gently against it to see if there's any movement.
It's not moving, but whether that's because it's barred or simply locked, you can't tell.
Flatfoot lowers his weapon when his companions approach the hatch. He scans up and down the access tube for movement or signs indicating that his companions may be attacked.
It's deathly quiet on this side save for your breathing.
Drifter pulls out the torch and starts cutting through.
As Drifter and Mascot work, Spider patrols the corridor, checking any hatches to see if they open.
Spider can see that all the hatches have been sealed from this side.
It takes Drifter more than fifteen minutes to cut through the hatch, but eventually he calls out a warning and allows the red-hot disk of metal fall past him to the hangar floor. Above is a dimly-lit corridor, its safety lights blinking fitfully.
Flatfoot atays back from the disk of metal as it slowly cools. He looks around until it is his turn to climb up to the hatch.
Drifter climbs up into the next area with his saber ready and then guards the hatch as the others come up.
Spider leaves the other hatches closed for now and he follows through the breached hatch.
Mascot lets the disk fall without watching it, knowing the threat remains at the door. He follows Drifter through the hatch, moving forward while the other man remains at the hatch.
You find yourself in a deserted corridor. Lights hang loosely from the ceiling on wires and flicker fitfully. Behind you are a pair of hatches clearly labeled "BRIDGE - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY". To the left (the starboard side of the ship, since you're facing aft) are doors labeled "Charts" and "Sensors". The same labels appear on doors to port. Ahead of you, a short passageway leads to a door standing ajar labeled only "C-1-B." Those of you with any naval experience know that indicates Deck C, Frame 1, Compartment B.
Drifter will start heading towards the bridge.
The bridge door shows no sign of tampering, but it is much more solidly built than any of the other doors, at least as solid as the armored bulkhead around it. It's clearly locked, but there is a comms panel next to it and a computer terminal to the side.
"This could take a few minutes.." Drifter says and then sets to work.
Flatfoot looks up and down the corridor as Drifter works on the door.
Drifter, that's an armored doorway. Nothing short of heavy weaponry or a plasma torch will breach that.
Drifter pulls out the torch and starts cutting through.
You've determined it's jammed. You'll need to figure another way or bring some new tool or advantage to bear.
Yes.
"The door is jammed. I can break in but we won't be able to close it again if things go sideways. Should we go with the torch?" Drifter says.
Mascot examines the door. "Going to be a tough one to break." He looks for any signs that someone else might have gone through recently.
Drifter tries to access the control panel.
Drifter soon determines that the bridge has an impassible lockout. It can only be opened with a physical key touched against the access panel.
"So it needs a physical key or passcard of some sort to open. I figure there is a fifty-fifty shot that the key is on the other side of the door. We can take the time to break it open or search the rest of the ship and come back to this. What do you guys think?" Drifter asks.
"What about this thing?" Spider pulls out the comms key they found around the first officer's neck, and tries tapping it against the access panel.
When Spider touches the key to the comms panel, the indicator turns from red to green with a small beep and the door whisks open.
Inside is the ship's bridge, empty but in perfect repair. There is a command chair and all the usual systems stations. Lights come on, and the computer blinks. <Checking... Ready... Command systems online.>
Flatfoot continues to keep watch, looking around for anything approaching. Once the door is open, he goes up to join his companions inside the bridge.
Mascot laughs. "Keep thinking like that, Spider, and they'll even give you your own team." He draws his sword and heads into the bridge. He checks the area before nodding and sheathing the sword.
"Well, no sign of destruction here." He moves to the sensor station to see if he can bring up any internal or external sensors.
Drifter tries to pull up logs to figure out what happened to the ship and why it remained out here instead of seeking a safe port.
The computers are very different from the ones used by the RC, which were designed to separate every system from every other system to avoid infiltration by Virus. This is both more complex and powerful but at the same time more vulnerable, as all the ship's computers are still interconnected. It seems that this system has some initial hardening against Virus, separating the powerful TL-13 computers from the comms system, but with your century of Virus knowledge, you know that the ship is still at risk from an infection. Only its dormant status has protected it for so long.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Drifter finds that the computer has vast reams of stellar data, far more than any average ship would need. A few things stand out. First, the ship originally had a significant missile bay. That bay is now labeled "Cryosleep Chamber." Second, the ship has not one but several fully equipped laboratories, each fully separate from everything else, in the upper foreward decks. Third, there are supposed to be eight subsidiary lander ships, but most are now gone. Fourth, the Captain had private orders from the Deepnight Corporation that were "eyes only" and not kept in the computer. Fifth, there is a Captain's log.
The last entry into the log reads: "Date Unknown. Acting Captain's Log, supplemental. Subjectively it has been nine days since we awoke, but the ship is in serious disrepair, as though it had not been maintained in a very long time. The chronometer indicates that it is the year 3,523, but the stars seem barely to have moved. According to stellar cartography we are in the Diaspora sector, but inertial nav indicates that we should be far to trailing of the Hiver Federation. Either we have moved two thousand years into the future or about a week, depending on which badly functioning machine you believe."
"Either way, it is now my responsibility to see that Deepnight Endeavor either continues on her mission or returns safely to base. We're not going anywhere until we get some major repairs accomplished to the starboard plasma injectors and many, many minor systems including, frankly, the toilets. There is a moon nearby with what appears to be a mining colony. Most importantly, we still can't get into Cryosleep or the labs. I've got Chief Ulaat scheduled for an EVA to get a look at the emergency access hatches later this afternoon."
"The people at the mining station are speaking standard Anglic, so I suppose we haven't really traveled in time, but that doesn't explain the condition of the ship. Everyone here is so busy with damage control and with the Captain dead I really am the least useful person here, so contrary to orders I am going myself to the station to see if we can obtain the repairs and parts we need. Shulmaali out."
"Damn, that sounds bad. Cryosleep? Is it possible that there's still people down there alive?" He tries to pull up a ship's roster to see who Shulmaali was.
Spider exhales as he looks around, gathering his thoughts. "Alright, Drifter, see if you can run some diagnostics on the ship's computer and see what systems we can control from here. Mascot and Flatfoot, check and make sure our position here is secure. When that's done, see about getting access to internal sensors - I'd like to do a least some of our exploring from a safe location. I'm going to dig into the Captain's log and the comms log and try and piece together what brought this old girl here."
Drifter sits down and starts trying to figure out what they are working with. As he works he mutters grimly, "Well, if there is something wandering around and people still in Cryo we may have figured out what its been eating."
"Got it." Mascot moves to check for any other exits to the bridge, then he double checks the way they came in, trying to see if he can re-lock the door using the key.
The bridge seems about as secure a location as they've seen on this ship. The door is fairly solid and can be locked or unlocked with the key.
Drifter and Spider spend more than an hour trying to learn the ancient data systems. It seems that Deepnight Endeavor was built for long-range exploration, where it was headed doesn't seem to be recorded on any file. Spider finds evidence that the ship was a very expensive joint project between the Deepnight Foundation (an offshoot of the old Tukera lines, an imperial-era megacorporation) and what was left of Imperial Scouts by 1224, when its keel was laid down.
Spider isn't an expert on imperial history, but he believes that the ship was launched during the period known as "Hard Times", when the splinter factions of the Imperium were at sporadic war with each other and galactic travel had already begun to break down into safe zones and "the Wilds", but the awful devastation of the Virus was still in the future. It seems incredible that the vast resources that obviously went into this ship would be spent on research and exploration at at time when civilization itself was teetering on the edge. There must have been something more to it.
Drifter finds evidence that thousands of people were carried onboard the ship in cryosleep. All were human and almost all of them were young men and women between the ages of 18 and 30. There are soldiers, scientists, engineers, laborers, farmers and medical workers listed among the "sleepers" and they were drawn from across the core worlds of Margaret's Imperium in Gateway sector.
Drifter can access almost all of the systems, but finds that the ship is completely out of power. No fuel remains to power any of the systems except for emergency power, which evidently runs on a compact nuclear reactor. Life Support and communications are the only operating systems right now. A nuclear reactor is an incredibly uncommon piece of technology on a spaceship. There's no need for it because of the virtually limitless fuel available from gas giants, water worlds and methane worlds. The only reason one would need a reactor would be if they were going to away from possible sources of fuel for an extended period of time. Even so, the reactor reads: 1%.
Reactor safety reading: Critical
--------------------------------------------
Spider, the last log was transmitted by the "acting captain" because when the relief crew awoke from cryosleep after what was to be six weeks, they found that the duty crew was dead... a very long time dead, from the mere bones they found in the tattered remains of their uniforms. It seemed to confirm the chronometer's contention that they had been asleep for over two millennia. But in fact they woke up a mere week of "objective" time. The ship was barely functioning.
There are two 5,000-ton Bluestone-class cargo barges attached to the ship's cargo rails. Each is vast compared to Resolution.
Mascot jabs a finger at the reactor reading. "Uh, I'm no engineer, but I think that's a bad sign."
He glances at the list of people on the ship in cryosleep. "This...this seems like who you might choose if you planned to colonize a new planet. Maybe a last-ditch shot to save a faction by resettling a new system? Or a hare-brained scheme to expand their power base. But it wouldn't be a fast plan. Are these people still alive?"
Flatfoot is still watching the corridors for evidence of the figure that they saw earlier. After some thought, he asks his companions a question.
"This might be an unwelcome interruption ... do you see any sign of a security or surveillance system? If there is a camera system, we could quickly scan the ship for any evidence of other life."
Flatfoot doesn't see any movement.
Spider can see that the security systems are functioning, but a quick check shows him that the system is down in life support, the cryo-bays and all the science labs.
"Sandman, can we transfer some fuel to get this thing moving enough to reach the gas giant to refuel? Or to somewhere safe while we set a point for a retrieval team?" Drifter asks.
"All the fuel on Resolution wouldn't amount to a rounding error for that ship, Drifter," the AI says. "That is what the Bluestones are for. They are fuel shuttles. Or at least, that is what they were originally designed for. They might be altered."
Spider quietly considers the wealth of new information, then speaks. "Several objectives suggest themselves. First, our original goal, searching this ship to see if it contains the means to repair Resolution. Second, finding a way to replenish the fuel for Deepnight's reactor, or perhaps finding a way to route power to her from Resolution or one of the Bluestones. This goal would include getting a closer look at the reactor to determine its status.
Third, finding out more about the current inhabitants of this ship - both those roaming freely and those cryogenically frozen - and determining if they are a threat or potential allies. Is there anything else I've missed? Does anyone have an opinion on where we should start?"
Mascot points at the screen that displayed the Acting Captain's log. "Don't forget that they had a mystery of their own. They thought they either woke up a little more than a week after they left, but the ship looked like it had been running for 2000 years." He shrugs. "Maybe we don't care anymore, but if something weird happened to this ship, it might be a factor."
"Good point, Mascot. Add number four to the list - figure out the mystery of what Deepnight's mission was, and what went wrong."
"The current inhabitants should be a priority. Both for our security and, possibly, to get some information about what happened to the ship," states Flatfoot.