Two For One New Year's Special
05 Jan 2016Tuts
*** HIP 117870 system, Conway Survey, StarDate 1.1.3302 ***In a sentence: I rescued someone today, which is good, but I might have also ruined someone's life, which is bad.
Since regaining my wings, I have been avoiding planet or moon landings. Call it superstition, but I haven't wanted to tempt fate into finding a way to ground me again. However, most of the more lucrative trade contracts recently have been requiring dirtside deliveries. Credits aside, these missions also seem to be of more significance to the local government. As it happens, these Guardians of Harmony people aren't bad to work for. I've been doing some mining in the local rings, and they pay a fair rate for the metal I bring in. They also aren't in the habit of starting wars with their neighbors. So, as one of my 3302 resolutions, I've decided to stop being a diaper-baby and sign on for some space to ground work on their behalf.
While I'm on the pad at Conway, a new mission flashes up on the bulletin board - they have received a mayday from a downed pilot's escape pod, somewhere on the airless surface but they aren't sure precisely where. On impulse, I get the station techs to quickly swap in an SRV bay, and then I accept the mission. I retract gear, put full pips to engines and boost off the pad, reaching the optimal 2km altitude for ground scanning in a matter of seconds. It's unknown how long the escape pod's life support will function so time is of the essence.
Luck is with us, as my first scan turns out to be the downed ship, not even 20 klicks from Conway Survey. The wreckage is scorched and twisted to such a degree that I can't tell what model ship she was; only that she was one of the small hulls, sidewinder or adder perhaps? Not important, but it was definitely not a landing a pilot could walk away from.
The escape pod did, however, get free of the ship before impact - and now suddenly I have a problem: there are not one, but TWO escape pods lodged beside each other in the ground. Which one is the pilot? You can't tell from the outside,but it doesn't matter anyway because I'm not leaving ANYbody out here in the vacuum. Fortunately for all of us, the SRV has just enough space for both pods. These new model SRV's are small but extremely capable vehicles. I have no trouble returning to the ship with my charges safely stowed.
Happy ending, right?
Not exactly. Things get ugly once I return to Conway Survey. They only want to accept responsibility for ONE of the escape pods - the downed flier. And while they willingly credit my accounts with the promised reward, they are NOT willing to provide medical help for the occupant of the second pod! They shrugged their shoulders, saying the stasis is functioning optimally and that they were not in the business of thawing out illegals...!? For that matter the base management are not even willing to tell me the identity of either person. And so I had little choice but to leave, with one capsule of frozen John or Jane Doe still in my cargo hold.
Back on Lorenz Hub, I manage to talk the station authority into accepting the pod. They even gave me a few thousand credits for my trouble. But they wouldn't tell me anything else - who they were, or what was going to happen to them - citing privacy regulations, as I am not a relative or the original captain charged with the passenger's welfare, blah, blah legalese blah. They did allow me to compose a message for the occupant, hopefully to be read upon revival. I typed up a brief note explaining who I was, where & how I found their pods at the crash site, and the circumstances afterwards as best I understand them.
I also slipped the credits the station paid me into the envelope. Accepting payment feels a little too much like I just sold an anonymous crash survivor into slavery.
The whole experience has left a sour feeling in my stomach. How long will it be before someone decides to thaw them out? Who did I just abandon into the keeping of government bureaucrats? An escaped slave? A criminal? A kidnap victim? What if it's a kid or something?
Did I do the wrong thing?