"Holt your up, we have cables and an Access Code DKS121DH87, as to what next, your the engineer you call, but it said a data pagage was in that thing."
She nods at the captain to check it's ok one of her Navy crew do a task.
Ceres nods in agreement.
"Clearly someone intended for this 'message in a bottle' to survive some pretty harsh conditions."
Imagine if they actually found a sanctuary where they could survive ...
Holt nods and grabs her tools and some cables. Exiting the APC, she approaches the truck and begins examining the bolts.
Hmm, I wonder if I can get these things off without cutting them. After all, I wouldn't want to risk damaging what might be inside...
Holt takes a small bottle of oxalic acid and a few small rags. Tipping the acid onto the rags, she wraps them tightly around the bolts. Turning on her comms, she says "Hold tight, this is going to take a couple of minutes." After giving the acid some time to work, Holt brings out a steel brush and wipes away as much of the rust as possible.
Next, she grabs a vial of silicon oil and a pressure tube and applies the oil and place the tube over the bolts. Pumping as much air pressure as she can, she hopes that it will force the oil into the tiny crevices that should now exist in the threads.
Finally, taking out her wrench and grabbing it with both hands, Holt tries to loosen the stuck bolts...
Holt works on the small plate for about an hour, and manages to get all the bolts to come loose. With the last bolt, she has to get some help lowering the 200 lb plate to the ground.
Inside the plate is the vehicle that's been parked there, protected by the steel plate shell. Specifically is an access panel to the vehicle's internal electronic's system. The entire vehicle shell under the metal plate is coated with a combination grease/sealer designed to prevent the metal from rusting and also to keep out water and contaminants. The vehicle itself has had it's wheels removed, and is sitting in a foot deep container of the same liquid, along with dessicants spread out on top of the grease to absorb any moisture that get's inside. Other than being dirty and greasy, the vehicle looks in remarkably good shape where it can be seen.
The panel can be opened with a little elbow work and inside the power panel can be seen. Obviously it shows 0 charge currently, although there is a standard power plug to provide the vehicle with a charge (or to allow it's onboard systems to charge other things, much like the APC's power panel, which is behind several inches of armor plating that needs to be unbolted as well).
It takes hours for Holt to work off the other panel, it's half again as tall as her, and nearly 20 feet wide. But eventually she gets the last bolt off, while laying down on top of the giant metal cube. Having no way to gently lay down the 3000 lb plate of metal, the plate creates a huge reverberating banging sound as it topples over, sending a wave of dust out over the floor of the parking garage.
Under it is the back door of the vehicle. It looks very similar to an armored car used back home to transport valuables. A plexiluminum plate has been attached over the access panel, to keep the grease and sealant off it. Other than that, the vehicle again appears in excellent shape.
"Huh. Look at that! Hurry up and get it open!"
Ceres bounces around like a little girl slowly unwrapping a precious gift, not entirely fitting with her role as Captain. Quickly she glances at the time - then refocuses on the armoured car.
Aannra keeps a cold hard disaplin the whole time holt works, her and the other Merines go out and help with lifting and cables. She is all the wile stouic wile the others show a range of emotions, fear, hope, joy, exsitment. She how ever seems detached, somber, composed. It could be that her rank sits heavy on her, that she feels her obligations or It could be her noble rank, where a stiff upper lip was needed. It could be her brush with fame, knowing that the cameras where rolling here, recording ever action. But more likely it was her years of Psycopes training. Telepaths had to lean to shut out the emotions of others lest they be taken over by them. Empathy to a Psycopes agent was an on/off thing. As the captain spoke with exsitemet, Annara just stood there waiting for Holt to open the vehicle data cash, she added no comment, for right now there was nothing to add.
Holt activates her comms to reply "Don't worry Captain, I'm taking care of it.", her own excitement and playfulness leeching through the static of the transmission.
She unbolts the cover to the APCs power panel, grabs the cables she had gathered, and hooks them to the APC generator and the other vehicles power panel, watching for any signs of malfunction.
Holt looks for signs of malfunction, and sees what she believes may be a sign of malfunction. Namely a massive explosion of sparks and the sound of arcing and the smell of burned insulation from under the vehicle. White smoke roils out and over Holt.
However, the damage appears non-fatal, as the power panel comes to life. About a third of the indicators are flashing red, and another two or three flashing yellow, but the rest are green. Unlikely the vehicle will start or drive, but the rest of the system appears to be working. Perhaps someone replaced the critical components with better ones before encasing it in grease and steel, leaving the non-essential ones to stand the ravages of time.
On the rear of the vehicle, the rear access panel comes to life.
Upon entering the code, the rear door hisses and pops open ponderously.
Inside is a 3 ft square crate filled to the brim with the sealant grease. Inside that, with wires attached in order to pull it to the surface, is a briefcase sized container. It has simple mechanical seals on it to keep the sealant grease out.
Once opened, the case reveals a half dozen memory crystals. Memory crystals are old technology, not often used 400 years ago, and even less so now. However, they are the next best thing to unaging. Magnetic media deteriorates. Memory Crystals do not. The APC is incapable of accessing them. Nor is the ship. However, the electronics lab on the ship could fabricate a reader relatively easily.
Getting ready to move out her ladyship says.
"well now all we need is an device to read the cyrisals, could be one in the city but where?"
Holt examines the crystals, while cleaning grease from her suit gloves, and replies "I could probably build something that could. This technology is fairly well understood. But I'd have to go back to the ship to do it."
"well if that's what it will take. Knowing whats on them could save us a lot of time. What's your feeling Captian. Ship or keep looking?"
An obsolete but resilient medium. Understandable ... Ceres thought back to one of the legends told in the Navy - when mankind first tried to explore the stars, they sent an disc of gold engraved with information. The thought had been as long as the information was persistent - someone would figure out how to use it.
"Return to the ship then. I want the crystals safeguarded asap - and while the APC and suits should hold up to the atmosphere, no need over-tax them."
You return to the ship easily enough, Gomez flying the APC into the hold without slamming into anything. Reports are the ship is holding up fine, although it'll need a good scrubbing afterwards... or a few dips in the upper atmosphere to burn off the hard water deposits and sulfur.
Ziirkaa is as gleeful as Holt about the new find. Until now there hasn't been much he could contribute...hard mechanical labor is not his forte. But here in the workshop, tinkering with a machine based on Imperial Technology the sounds of his joy reverberate through the corridors of the ship, "Doctor Holt, would you please pass the photon regulator? Oh dear, that's not right...Get behind something QUICKLY!!! I'm going for the fire suppression system."
Holt, constantly passing new schematics, designs, and interface specifications between herself and Dr. Ziirkaa, could swear that he causes more accidents than any other scientist she has ever worked with. But one can't argue with results.
The two of them work furiously, pausing only to bite something food-like here and there, and to refill the fire extinguishers and first aid kit. But in the end, they had a socket of shining metal that worked with their simulation crystals. All that was left was to try it on the real thing.
The two work together all night, and finally finish it up. The six crystals had duplicates, the first 3 were duplicated in the second 3. The first crystal is filled with personal messages from 15,000 people. The second with messages from another 15,000 people. The last one with messages from just under 10,000 people. Each message is about 5 minutes long. Watching all of them would take weeks. However, the 3rd crystal has a message flagged to be read first (crystals 1 and 2 both have a notice that the third crystal should be played first). Of course, that's mostly because the good doctors picked the order to check them that resulted in the main crystal being last, as is usually the case with random choices like these.
The video file takes 10 minutes to read and decode from the cyrstal, and a woman's face comes on the screen. She looks haggard, and her face is thin. Bags are under her eyes, although she's neat and tidy otherwise.
The woman shows signs of malnutrition and lack of food. She's likely been eating under 800 calories a day for several months.
"I am Dislina Malvance-Ricin, Governor of Milthana II Mining Facility. It has been two hundred and seventy three days since the last ship came through the warp point. We aren't sure exactly what happened to it, nor when it collapsed, but that's all we can understand of what happened. We have no way of knowing when, or even if, the point will re-establish itself." She swallows, drinks some water with a hand that shows bones and spidery veins on it. "This colony was never meant to be self sufficient yet, and there is no way we can grow enough food to feed ourselves. We've converted the central park over to grow as much crops as we can, but it's only let us conserve food, not sustain ourselves." She licks her lips, taking a steadying breath, before continuing. "There are forty one thousand, four hundred, and eighty seven people in this colony, including all belters and mining staff. We have enough food to keep them alive for another three months. It has been decided by popular vote to not use it for that purpose." She swallows again. "Over the last three months, we have exhausted every medical supply we have to synthesize as much Deep Coma Compound as we can, and to manufacture as many Stasis Capsules as we can manage. We were able to manufacture enough for fourteen hundred and eighty seven capsules. The population of children under the age of fourteen in the colony is eleven hundred and thirty seven." She takes another unsteady swallow before continuing. "We've set aside eight of the remaining capsules for volunteers. All the capsules were placed onboard the Happy Sailor, a large bulk freighter that was in system. Along with every spare part for it we could cram into it's hold. We also added as much extra shielding around the ship as we could without damaging it. Alpha Ceti III is only 14.238 light years from our system. Our hope is, that as a major agricultural world, that it will have survived whatever happened, or that our situation is isolated and unique. Ten of the ships crews have volunteered to pilot the ship and keep it maintained in pairs for it's estimated one hundred and eighteen year flight. Even with all the extra fuel we can cram into it, we can't get it there any faster." She takes another swallow of water. "The crew has volunteered even knowing that they'll have to space themselves when they can no longer maintain the ship... there's barely enough food left that can survive the journey in deep freeze."
She stops for a second, and the recording flickers, as if it stopped recording and she continued sometime later.
"Sorry, I had to.. We're getting weak now. We've done what we had to to give as many a chance as possible. The remaining berths int he capsules have been given out via lottery, to children between fourteen and eighteen. Some.. some of the children have given up their slots for younger brothers or sisters." She stops, and struggles to continue. "It would be unconscionable to force the entire colony to starve to death. We renamed our ship Best Hope, and sent her off this morning. All remaining colonists have reported to the sports stadium. Ironic that it was built to hold fifty thousand, in the hopes the colony would grow to need it." She gives a bitter laugh. "The doctors are passing out lethal doses of barbituates to everyone. And the engineers have rigged explosive charges to the dome in strategic locations. Anyone who doesn't die from the barbituates will die from sulfur poisoning and lack of oxygen before they can wake up." She holds up a device in her hand. "This is the dead man switch, I'll be taking the last dose, and when I pass out, the dome will be destroyed. Once this recording is done, the last team will distribute copies to all the storage sites. Please don't let our colony die in vain. Please make sure our children made it to Alpha Ceti III, and if they did, please get our messages to them, or their decendants." She wipes tears from her eyes finally. "This is the final message from Milthana II. Please don't ever rebuild this colony. Too much pain has been here. The metals aren't worth it." And the video shuts down.
A data packet containing the names and ages of all the children on the Last Hope is contained on the crystal, along with the personal messages of all the colonists who stayed behind.
She sits back, there is no mistaking she has a tear in her eyes.
Her voice however even under iron control.
"They did what they needed to do, I hope I have such control when meet my end, I for one will do all I can to seek out and find such survivors as they are.".
Ceres couldn't help but feel a shiver up her spine when the recording played. The voices of the long dead and their unnerving fate stirred up primeval fear in her - the fear of being left alone, in the dark, with no-one coming to save you. She swallowed. However ... The colonists had endured it with stoicism. No reason for herself to not honour them by doing the same.
When the recording ended she sat still, staring into blank space for a while before Annaras voice brought her back. Shaking her head and blinking, she spoke.
"Indeed they did. And we should honour their last will. However ..." She stood up and assumed her authoritative 'Captain voice'. "The need of the dead does not outweigh the need of the living. We will not search for the survivors - should we find them by chance, we will remain silent. Anyone mentioning Milthana outside of this system or our home will be keel-hauled without a suit. We will bring back this set of crystals to Telthani Station where they will be safeguarded until we can make an official return to the greater galaxy."
She sits down again and soften her tone. "The ship should have arrived over three-hundred years ago - the original refugees are most likely dead by now. And we cannot jeopardize our home or mission for their sake. Have they waited over three centuries, they can wait a little longer."
With a deep breath she continues and gives a thin smile. "Now, they did give us some helpful information. It is highly unlikely that there is any ships left anywhere else in the system, if all the people gathered here. And since they probably salvaged some parts of other ships and collected more supplies then needed - if we find the launch place of the Best Hope we should stand a good chance of finding what we seek. Now, there might still be some ore left out there - but that is secondary. And - if misfortune smites us - they might have launched from the crashed station. But other then that, the cache should be somewhere in or around the city. Any guesses?"
Doctor Ziirkaa stares into the middle distance. "Captain, It's completely possible that the Best Hope is still en route. If they were conserving fuel, they might not be travelling at anywhere near the speed of light, and a journey of 15 light years could take hundreds of years at a more leisurely speed."
"I agree that a great tragedy has occurred here, but now is not the time to make emotional statements about the future of this system. There is plenty of time for that once we have processed all that there is to grieve over." He forces a weak smile, "We still have plenty of work to do... Now if I were launching a ship, I would launch it from the station. Let's not waste fuel on overcoming gravity... but I might have done some of the upgrades on the surface. So we need reasonable landing sites."
"Captain, Maybe we should survey the gas giant. If the last thing they would have wanted to do is fuel before launching, they may have launched from there... I suppose it's possible they may have also done the upgrades there."
Edit
Annara was relieved the captain has stated what needed to be ordered, She had dreaded a confrontation with the Captain over that fact that what had happened here was to be kept under need to know bases. They may have wished this colony not be remade. But their home world had little in the way of metals this worlds was abundant in. If they where to build new ships they needed that metal. But this had to be done legal and complete, her task as diplomat. It had to be done right, she flicked on a recording switch.
"I second that standing order by the Captain, what has happened here is not to be talked about out side of this mission and later only with security cleared personal. All recordings are to be kept for viewing by security cleared personal only. This standing order is for all crew on this mission. Standing order NH00-1 is here by instigated by Captain Viktoria Ceres and counter authorized by Baroness Annara Utoxier-Lee high council representative on the new hope mission. Date and time as indicated by recoding index."
She flicked the recording switch off. Now the familiarity where out of the way.
"Doctor Ziirkaa, The Large bulk freighters of 450 years ago can't land on planets so your idea about the lunching from the Gas giant seems right. Saving fuel with a sling shot out and being fully loaded there. If they had a fuelling rig there it may still be there."
The limiting factor on the colony would have been the medicine for the berths, the hardware is fairly standard and easy to assemble. However, getting enough drugs to freeze the humans without damaging the cells would have been the limiting factor. A colony this size simply wouldn't have had enough of the rather rare compounds, considering that it's not something they'd need. They had to have synthesized the drugs out of other compounds, a long drawn out, and resource intensive process.
Then to Holt she says.
"To make that many low berths they would have ripped out a lot of the tech in the colony. But they may have had a library, which may hold the blue prints to higher tech we have been looking for."
Then back to the captain
"If we can find the library or Mechanical centre we may find something far more use than hardware, designs and specifications Captain. Before we head to the Gas Giant we should sweep the whole colony for any thing like that in my view, do you agree Captain?"
She waits to see what they say.
The Doctor glares at Annara. "Was it really necessary to log a standing order to keep all this secret? Who in Neil DeGrass Tyson's name are we going to tell? Isn't there space in that regimented psionic superbrain of yours to give a little space to learn what is going on before making everything a gorram secret? Perhaps there is no reason at all to keep this tragedy secret. Perhaps it is better to shout about it at the top of our lungs to prevent it from happening again!"
Ziirkaa stands. "I'm going to take some time alone to process this... Don't worry Annara, I won't go outside and tell any unauthorized microbes what we found here."
The doctor storms out of the lab muttering about secrets.
As he walks out he thinks...humn... given the tech level around here, the real limiting factor in that many low berths would be the medicines to keep the patient stable.
She lets the highly strung Doctor Strom out in a tantrum with out comment. No reason at all to keep this tragedy secret, he was very wrong there. He was a man of science not a man of politics and once they got home, That last comment by Dislina Malvance-Ricin, Governor of the now dead Milthana II Mining colony, that the dead wished no colony be founded, and the events... That would not play well PR wise, there world need the metals here, now other place to get them right now, so they would need to rebuild this place and get new colonist here mining. Far better to just say they where "ALL" the Colonists left on a slow boat to a far off system. A story of hope not of loss, "Lets rebuild what our brave colonists left behind so they are not forgotten. Later when they where being debrief if that is what was needed then they could have a starting place of hidden truth. If it was felt the full story should come out then that was not her call. Her calls was to give the Council options, truth out gave them only one.
"I am sorry but it has to be this way for now"
She looked to the Captain for back up on this.
As Holt watches the recording all of that previous nervous and excited energy drains from her, her eyes becoming glassy. She could deal with knowing that such a tragedy occurred here, but seeing it was a completely different story.
All those people… choosing to die… giving up their lives for their children… and the children… knowing that back home their families sacrificed themselves for them… the burden that must weigh on someone…
Holt hears the discussion occurring between the Captain, Annara, and Dr. Ziirkaa, but she just stares into space, the image of the Governor still strong in Holt’s mind, her weak, almost desiccated form… and the sadness in her eyes.
Holt could tell that she wasn’t going to make it. Despite what her position may demand, she just does not have the strength for something like this.
How can Ceres stay so composed? I… I can’t let the crew see me like this. I need an excuse to leave.
Holt takes a few moments to gather her strength and, tears at the corners of her eyes, she clears her throat and speaks up, saying ”If… if they needed to salvage ships and vehicles… then the best bet for finding things might be in the... belter hangars in the asteroids… where things might have been… too costly to retrieve… Still… we should sweep through the city… I’ll study the recordings of our flyover… and try to assess the best spots to search.” Holt has to frequently pause to maintain her composure, but it may be mistaken as being careful and deliberate. Maybe.
Holt waits briefly to see if Ceres will disagree, and then turns to leave, heading back to her bunk. And once the door is closed, all of it comes bursting out, Holt not even taking a step beyond but simply sliding down the door and pulling her legs tightly against her.
Ten of the ships crews have volunteered to pilot the ship and keep it maintained in pairs for it's estimated one hundred and eighteen year flight
Ceres nods. Personal opinions on the ban aside, most of the suggestions put forth by the crew seems reasonable.
"Remember, we are not only out for ships and tech - but trade goods as well. It is very likely that the mines continued to operate for a while despite the jump-nodes disappearance and it is hardly likely they bothered to refine or remove it. Keep an eye out for it."
The crew spends a week surveying the city.
Refinery - Despite the governor's protestations of not using this place, it looks like everyone involved in it planned for it to be restarted at some point. All the machinery was shut down in an orderly fashion. Important bits were removed and stowed in storage cases, moving bits were smeared with grease sealant, computer cores were shut down and packed away in foam containers. It would take hundreds of people, but the refinery could be brought back on line in six months.
Hospital - Much like the government buildings and refinery, this place was shut down as orderly as it could be. Other than the actual medical labs, which are an absolute mess, the rest of the hospital was shut down in an orderly fashion. The central computer taken offline and stored in foam containers. Coolers emptied, linens washed and folded and stored in sealed boxes, beds cleaned and left without linens.
Stadium - The stadium is a sad sight to behold. The field is littered with bones and the remains of clothing. Tables litter the area, as do chairs. The bleachers are also littered with bones, where people sat and died.
Dome - The engineers who blew the dome knew what they were doing. The support structure is undamaged, only the transparalluminum was blown loose.
Warehouses - There are about 500 tons of refined metals, mostly iron, but also tungsten, titanium, copper, gold, and other metals. There's also a warehouse of transparalluminum panels, no doubt for repairing the dome.
Library - The colony library was also shut down in an orderly fashion. There are a couple of thousand actual books, in various states of disrepair, on it's shelves. It's central databanks are in storage as well.
Annara and Vathan will look into all tactical information they can get.
Vathan is sent to see what the policing force had by means of equipment.
Wile Annara sees if the found data-bases can offer up locations for belter minding sites and ship bays.
Central Police Authority - There's a central police authority building in the main government complex. Mostly the cops had patrol cars, stun guns, and at most light body armor. There weren't that many people in the colony. It also didn't have a military presence (give it was at the end of a long jump path, it wasn't cost effective). The police did have a SWAT team, and the swat team worked out of the CPA. Their weapons are locked up in a weapons vault (no power to open, no access codes). There are a couple of lightly armored 'SWAT Trucks' parked in the garage. They are not in great shape, tires dry rotted, metal corroded from exposure.
Police Stations - There's about a dozen smaller satellite police stations, checking a couple find they are all laid out the same, small cells, locker rooms, showers, a dozen patrol cars corroding and rusted. A small weapons locker (again, unpowered and with no access code).
They find that all the information on belter facilities and ship facilities were on the orbital station. The large open area the ship landed in was the primary landing area for passenger shuttles and ships not transloading cargo. There is a large landing area next to the refinery area, and there are a half-dozen old shuttles sitting there, corroding in the weather. They might be salvagable with enough effort.
Gives a full report at the next crew meeting.
Annara is going to remove all the bones in the stadium.
She asks no one for help with this, but if others wish to. She places them in containers, For later retrieval. She knows this will be weeks of work but dos in when not doing other tasks. When done she then places the plaque on a stadium wall.
Annara comes to see you and asks that you hear her out.
"Doctor Ziirkaa, Sir Ziirkaa, do you mind if we have a little talk"
If you say yes
"Did I ever tell you of my ancestry Doctor, my family and where they came from. I tell you this because I hope you will understand me better after. You talked of my regimented psionic superbrain , well let me tell you I did not asked to be born with one, but hear me out and my hope is you will understand why I am as I am. What I am about to tell you is known to just a few and its mostly talked about with in a select number of family's. Most of the human on home world are Solimani with a few others human types thrown in. The why of this is simple, they where the human stoke on our world when the Jump point was lost 450 years ago. Of other humans types one was Zhodani a lineage that I am from. Very little is known about who they where, or why they chose to erase there own history pre jump point loss. But they did. I do how ever know a few things about my ancestors Doctor. They where not colonist to our home. They where passing throw on root to another system. Bad luck and timing lead to the whole diplomatic ot trade delegation being trapped. This group was small, counting less than 40 we think. Of their culture there seemed to have been three casts, workers, Indentured and Nobles. ALL the nobles in the party where highly Psionic of a level rear on our world. Now this small Zhodani group trapped had to think about what they wound do until things returned to normal. As they years passed they had children and hoped. But over time it became clear things where not going to get better soon. Some felt they had to keep their Zhodani culture and blood lines pour. They knew that cutting themselves off from the colony was not an option, also trying to use interbreeding with such a small group would lead to problems. So they did an extraordinary thing. They put into safe keeping a stock of sperm and eggs from the original group. They erased their history from their own minds and worked fully to keep the colony viable as long as they could. There offspring gained in power and wealth, a number of Noble family's having links to this small group from the loss days. So where do I fit in, well remember that stock of original Zhodani DNA well every now and then, to a plan a test tube baby is lab conceived from that genetic bank. To order and to a plan set down 4 century's ago. They are always Psionicly gifted and have a distinctive Zhodani look about them. Tall thin with vivid blue eyes"
She gives the doctor time to look at her.
"One other things that is known about such lab children is that there DNA is not 100% natural. You see Zhodani culture seems to have leaned to manipulate there own genetics, why? well one can only guess, but one thing that it could have been designed is so that they could have a cold hard regimented psionic superbrain. Now imagine a child born like that Doctor. From 400 year old DNA, being told they where born with the sole purpose, to service the needs of the colony.. That their ancestors did not deem it necessary sorry Parents blood and surget to tell them any thing where they came from. That there whole family had been working to this end for many generations. That you where just one of a number of Old blood born to carry on the stock and keep the Gifts alive, to work and breed to do so. That knowledge doctor may have quit and affect on someone. All this wile world events are being shaped by that very same person. last year I was Told by my family that I was to have an arranged mirage, a number of candidates where offered up, each was exceptional examples of human kind. Your name was on the list, because of your scientific genius. One was chosen, my late husband the Baron. His gifts where mercantile, a flare for business. After his untimely death by his own hand on the orders of my family I had myself sterilised. It was felt I use of this mission and any others outway'ed my having a family. Another child would be born for that. My nice in fact, I should really call her my sister, she to is Psionicly gifted and will be trained. All this is known to the high council. Secret yes but known, and now you know it as well. If you worry about this see talk to your family, they know what I am and what others like me are. You do note reach such ranks of power and not know. Your a knight now, like me bound in ways you may not like but one way I hope you will understand about me. I was made this way, I did not ask to be but I was. My Gifts come from a group dead some 400 years and from earliest memorys I was told was a made thing, a crafted thing, that my left was not my own, and that I was made for one thing only. be work for the greater good, no mater if I liked it or not. Then all this, O how they rejoiced, the years of work paying off, their Gifted beinging about the end of the dark days. I am trapped Agamemnon by may past and the future I am helping to shape, the great task coming to and end, and me stood in the middle of it, with out a choice but to be what I as made to be."
She says that last part with some sadness, then sits back looking at him studying his reactions.
”Drink up. It will make you feel better. I know I usually feel like the king of the universe after a good snort.” Ziirkaa throws back his drink and quickly pours another. As he finishes the pour, a look of searing pain shivers across his face, eyes bulging, he begins coughing and slouches on to the table banging his hand against the bulkhead as if the physical pain in his hand will numb the pain in his throat.
Finally he pulls himself together and tries to seem dignified,”My comment about your regimented psionic brain was intended as a simple insult of your intelligence, apparently I missed and stabbed you in your pride by mistake. I should have known better.”
”So tell me Annara, is that the story you tell yourself after you have done something that you can’t live with? That your mission is so important that nothing else matters and you are only a prisoner of your role in that story?”
”That must be... comforting, to think of yourself as the end product of years of genetic manipulation, to think of yourself as the expression of all of your family's hopes and dreams. It must be comforting when in order to protect your family’s comfortable position in society you have to hurt people, steal from them, or even kill them. It must let you sleep as you sacrifice your humanity to hold on to power.”
”Everyone on this ship is just like you; a genetically engineered product of their families hopes and dreams. Whether or not genetic manipulation was intentional doesn’t matter, it happened. The Ziirkaa family is not that different from yours. We are Vilani, a family of Shugilii caste... Not that it would have any meaning to you. Like your family, my ancestors were simply on Telthani overseeing a wood contract representing Naasirka and were trapped there. Like your family, we made the best of a bad deal and played the political games it took to stay in power… Like your family, we hurt people too.
Like you, my family had plans for me. They told me I had a destiny.”
He looks into his glass and swirls it one time then thinking better of it pours it back in the bottle.
”Unlike you… I told them to stick their destiny felgercarb in the recycler. So don’t bother playing on my pity Baroness, I lost my pity for the tragic nobility somewhere in prep school. My advice to you: Be careful of secrets. They seem like power but they don’t stay secret forever.”
Over the last few weeks Holt has distracted herself from the history of this place by going out and spending as much time in her vac suit, away from people, as possible. Oh sure, she talks to Dr. Ziirkaa about the recovery efforts and the survey of the area, but most of the times her comms are silent.
But as they prepare to leave this place, this ruined husk of the dreams of an entire civilization, Holt finds herself solemn again. She feels as if she needs to do something.
Having told the Captain that she was going to do one last survey of the instruments of the government building, she put on her vac suit and took with her a thick metal case.
Arriving at the site where the group first encountered any signs of survivors, Holt removes her helmet, glad that this area is free from the rages of the planets surface. Removing the rest of the suit, she emerges in a pair of shorts and a tank top, one of the first people to stand comfortably, at least physically, in this place for centuries.
Holt looks across the barren floor, debris strewn throughout, like the rest of the city. She closes her eyes and says aloud "I'm sorry, everyone, for this tragedy... that we were not able to save you... And I'm sorry that you were forced to make the sacrifices that you did... I'm sorry because all of you deserved better... And I'm sorry that your last wishes are likely to be ignored..."
Holt stops in silence for a moment, tears in the corner of her eyes, as she continues "But please, rest in peace... Your sacrifice will not be forgotten... your bravery will be honored... and I can only hope to aspire to the courage that all of you displayed..."
Holt moves over to the case metal case. Opening it, she retrieves a beautiful violin. Pulling the bow against a well worn block of rosin, she stands and places the instrument against her chin, and begins to play a dirge, tears dripping from her cheeks.
She hears him out! as she dos so her manner changes. She takes the class when offered. But dos not drink right away. After the good doctor stops talking she looks at him for a few moments. The busts out laughing in real mirth, deep breaths of laughter. After a short wile she stops. Standing she offers him a silent toast, and drinks the whiskey in one go. Then puts the empty class down.
"Thank you Doctor, I needed that, the drink and the talking to. Your a very wise man"
She says this smiling at him, respect in her eyes.
The crew finishes up their survey of the city, and the ship, refueled, departs. As they leave, they do a fly over of the crash site, doing a detailed scan. There may be something salvagable, but it's highly unlikely. Radiation spikes under the ice, and the debris field is spread along a 20 square mile area. The debris is, in some places, over 400 ft below the ice. In other places, it's only a few feet.
The crew then spend the rest of the day flying out to the freighter in the lagrange point. It takes a couple of days to go through the freighter. There's no cargo in it, but there is a single corpse, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot sitting in the captain's chair on the bridge. The owner of the ship used it to ferry the last of the capsules to the Last Hope. His wife and brother were volunteers on it to take the ship to the next nearest colony. Being neither a doctor nor an engineer, he stayed behind. He and his crew put the ship into mothballs (long term storage mode), and then the crew flew to the planet to join the rest of the colonists. He stayed aboard his ship. The ship has sustained some damage from debris over the centuries, but should be able to be put back in service with a few months work and parts.
As they are working on the freighter, the drone sent to the gas planet begins to send in bursts of data. It has detect a large amount of debris at the gas giant, in it's L4 lagrange point. The drone can't tell the difference between asteroids and broken ships, but it is detecting high concentrations of metals.
The ship then spends the better part of two weeks flying out to the gas giant. As it does, it begins to get sporadic reports from the drone of metallic readings in the asteroid belt. But it can't tell the difference between a habitate, an asteroid habitat, a metal asteroid, and a stone asteroid with a metal artifact smeared over it's surface.
Reaching the gas giant, the crew do a whip around to slow down, skimming in it's upper atmospheres. This allows them to get a good sensor read. The planet has 8 moons and a faint ring structure that's all but invisible to visible light. The scan of the langrange point reveals 5 ships, two cutters, two freighters, and one refueling ship, all floating in the lagrange point. The sensors indicate either severe damage, or massive deconstruction, to the two freighters. The cutters also read as either damaged or partially dismantled (closer inspection is needed to confirm which).
The refueling vessel is massive, almost two kilometers long, and over 400 meters wide and 250 to 300 meters thick. The vast majority of it's structure is made up of massive fueling pods. About a third of those pods are missing, almost certainly in the wreckage of the space station.
Looks over the data coming in,
"I recommend a boarding on the fuel ship, we need to know if we can fix it and the others, when the tech teams get here. How much control do we have on the drones Doctor could we do a closer fly around?"
Holt looks over the monitors at the massive ship and then turns to Captain Ceres and says "Should I suit up Ma'am"?
"Closer isn't the problem M'Lady, it's sensor resolution. We can put the drones anywhere you like. But we will get a better view of just about anything from the Lightbearer."
"understood, well then let's see what the captain says, but no matter who someone's going to have to go on each of those ships and see how much work the repair teams are looking at. We are going to be here a wile."
Ceres nods. As usual, the crew had a good grasp of what to do.
"We'll bring the Lightbearer in closer and take a look. No need to suit up yet. I would like some data before we go in. And preferably a good enough scan to determine if there has been any fuel leakage before we come any closer. Let's proceed with caution. After all, like Annara said - we'll be here a while!"
She leaned back in her seat and smiled.
"But should we manage to salvage these ships - we'll almost have a small fleet!" Especially that fuel-tanker. Some quick conversions could probably make a decent transport out of it... and with extra life support, it could even ferry people!
As the ship flies down the side of the tanker, it becomes obvious that making into anything else would be difficult. The forward and aft sections have ports, but they are connected by what appears to be a shaft down the spine. The rest of the ship between the forward and aft sections is basically just a framework to hold massive fuel crackers and huge fuel tanks. Of the 16 massive pods (each ten times the size of Lightbearer), two are reading partially full, and one reads completely full. As the ship scans the fuel tanker, specs for the class begin to appear from the depths of Lightbearer's databanks.
Name : Ramond Porter
Class : Heleonis Heavy Mobile Fueling Station
Length : 2350 meters
Width : 620 meters
Height : 280 meters
Crew : 24
Weapons : None
Jump Drive : 2x
System Drive : 200 G
Cargo Capacity : 50 tons
Fuel Cargo Capacity : 240,000 tons
Fuel Conversion Rate : 10,000 tons per hour
Landing Capability : None
"Jump drive 2 that's a find in it's self
Annara says put loud