Special Pickup - Chapter 2: Tiberius
31 May 2016LordPsymon
Previous chapterSpecial Pickup - Chapter 2: Tiberius
---Arungu - Deep Space---
I had been scouring the Arungu system for signs of the missing ship for almost sixteen hours, and my scans had not picked up anything except for the occasional trade ship, passing by the system to either refuel or move on to their next waypoint. I was struggling hard to not drift off to sleep as the minutes begrudgingly felt like hours with the endless nothingness my search has so far turned up.
This better be damn well worth the hassle.
I made a swoop around a gas giant, scanning for anything that might resemble a wreckage or a stranded ship.
Still nothing… Bugger this, time to call it a night.
I started lowering the throttle ready to exit supercruise and power down for the night when a signal appeared on my sensors.
<Distress Beacon>
<Large Vessel Detected>
<Threat: None>
Well, so much for calling it a night.
I turned toward the beacon then disengaged the frame shift drive and exited supercruise to find an Imperial Cutter, tumbling slowly and drifting off toward deep space. I throttled up slowly, engaged Rattlesnake’s search lights and approached the Cutter to visually inspect the exterior.
The port engine nacelle was missing completely, floating away nearby the seemingly derelict vessel while the hull showed signs of scarring from laser fire. However most of the hull looked intact, as if whoever attacked the ship really knew what they were doing. I flew slowly by the front of the Cutter, revealing red lettering scored by laser fire - Tiberius.
Well, this is the ship. Let’s see if anyone’s alive in there.
I picked up the comms and hailed the ship.
“This is Rattlesnake. Is anyone alive in there?”
A minute passed
“I repeat, is anyone alive in there?”
I waited ten more minutes. Nothing.
Well, I guess I won’t be flying escort then.
I maneuvered my ship to the underside of the Tiberius, carefully aiming toward the lower cargo hatch. The sheer size of the vessel quickly dwarfed Rattlesnake as I slowed to a crawl, fired a magnetic tether at the massive hull and anchored myself in place. I readied a hatch breaker limpet drone to break open the cargo hatch so that I may enter the Tiberius. The drone sped off from below my ship toward the Cutter’s cargo hatch. Small flashes of light glowed from the front of the drone as its plasma torch cut slowly through the hatch.
Hatch break successful.
The drone sped back to my ship after it completed its work cutting an opening into the cargo hatch of the Tiberius.
“Good job little fella, time to go inside,” I said as I left the pilot’s seat to prepare myself for a space walk.
---Inside Tiberius---
I pulled myself along the tether cable toward the now breached cargo hatch of Tiberius, then grabbed on to the edge of the hole created by my hatch breaker drone and gradually pulled myself inside the derelict ship and switched on my helmet’s search light. The ship’s gravity was inactive, and the interior was dark, with the occasional spark lighting up small parts of the cargo bay from broken lamps in the ceiling. I turned my head around the cavernous cargo bay, looking for Caius’ cargo, but the entire bay was empty, save for a few containers of personal belongings of the crew on board, floating around slowly, occasionally bouncing off each other and the walls.
Well that’s just odd. All this space and no cargo…
I pulled myself around the walls of the cargo bay, searching for potential hidden compartments within. I figured that if this cargo was so special, and Caius wouldn’t tell me what it is, then it must not be legal, thus stashed away somewhere hidden from the scanners of prying authorities.
It took me two hours to check every inch of the large cargo bay inside Tiberius. Nothing.
Something’s not right here… Pirates maybe? No… There’s no sign of forced entry or any attempts to steal the ship’s cargo…
I activated the magnetic soles of my suit’s boots, attaching me to the floor of the cargo bay. I scanned the area one last time before deciding to move on.
Maybe it’s just not here… I best go retrieve that black box and return to Caius.
I made my way to a door, leading to the corridors of the Cutter. The door was half open, requiring me to crawl under. I entered the main corridor, stood up and…
Holy shit!
I jumped back as I was startled by a corpse of a man, his face frozen in the last expression he had before the life support systems went down - just floating slowly, staring right at me lifelessly. He was still clenching a rifle. I took a moment to collect myself and examined his suit, finding his ID card pinned to his navy blue blazer. He looked to be a bodyguard for an important individual. I took his ID and looked at it closer.
Name: Richard Prebble
Current Assignment: Guard duty to Viceroy Fink
System of Origin: Durius
Security Clearance: Alpha
Viceroy? If this ship was flying a Viceroy, then where the hell are the escort ships?
I slowly walked down the corridor, ascending several decks, following signage toward the bridge. The whole ship was pitch black, with the light of the star occasionally shining through windows on the hull of the ship. There was no sound, due to the lack of air inside, and lights occasionally flickered in rooms I passed, as if hanging on desperately to what little power the ship had left.
Another guard’s corpse floated steadily near the door of the bridge with his rifle suspended close to the floor near him. I examined a card reader by the door but it was offline, as with pretty much everything on the vessel. I grabbed a plasma cutter from the belt of my space suit.
Time to use the universal key.
It took around 45 minutes to cut a hole in the door large enough for me to fit through. Inside the bridge, a light blue glow illuminated the seats by the large window. It looked like there was enough auxiliary power to keep the bridge at least slightly online. I disengaged the magnetic soles and pulled myself through the hole I had cut, revealing an extensive bridge with four seats arranged throughout, each with the corpse of crew members who once kept the ship operating, still strapped in their seats. The canopy glass was mostly missing, with small sharp fragments remaining attached to the frame. None of the crew had Remlok pilot suits, instead opting to wear similar navy blue blazers to the ones that the guards wore. They didn’t stand a chance once the glass shattered.
I approached one of the consoles that was illuminating the pilot’s seat. I looked at the pilot, his face frozen with the shock he had when the canopy glass shattered and sent all the air and anything not bolted down out into the void.
“Sorry buddy,” I said sincerely, “I’m going to have to borrow this terminal. You don’t mind?” I paused. “Didn’t think you would, thanks!”
I loaded up the modules console to see if I could restore any of the power to the ship. Life support was completely destroyed, the power plant was on its last leg and the thrusters were all but shot up. Auxiliary power was showing at 20% remaining.
I guess it’s safe to say nobody survived this mess.
I searched around the bridge, looking for the ship’s black box. It was embedded in the wall by one of the crew seats toward the rear of the bridge in a sealed compartment, accompanied by a small card reader. I took the card I swiped from the guard in the corridor and tapped it against the card reader.
Access granted.
The compartment swung open, revealing a computer system with a small red LED glowing dimly, indicating that there was still power to the device. I pulled a small disk from a compartment in my suit and inserted it into the disk drive of the computer. A console lit up, prompting for identification. I inserted the the ID card from the dead guard into the computer’s card reader.
<Verifying identity…>
<User: rprebble>
<Access level: Alpha>
***Access Granted***
Decrypt contents of black box and download to disk? Y/N
I prompted the console to download the data, then sat back against the wall while I waited for the data to save to the disk.
---Aboard Rattlesnake---
I had never been so happy to be back aboard my ship. I had seen wreckages before, but none so intact, so ghost like as Tiberius. Just thinking about the corpses I saw in the pitch black corridors, and the flight crew, still strapped to their seats sent shivers down my spine.
It’s time to get the hell out of here.
I disengaged the magnetic tether from the hull of Tiberius then powered up the thrusters. As the hum of the thrusters slowly increased in pitch while they spooled up, I noticed something on the sensors I hadn’t seen previously while investigating the exterior of the ship.
Hang on… What is that?
I targeted the unknown object, revealing an escape pod slowly tumbling about a kilometer away from the Cutter. I turned my ship toward it and allowed my sensors to get a good scan of the escape pod.
<Occupied escape pod>
Inhabitant status: In stasis
Power remaining: 91%
Son of a bitch…