Arc's Faith Day 3.5
06 Apr 2019Valcatta
I don't know exactly how long I had been sitting there, 10 minutes… 15 maybe. sometimes you lose track of time in the black, you know? With it taking about two hours to get to the distress beacon we were tracking, the engines had been steadily climbing up and up, the whine of the engines changing as speed increased. Slowly that on and on groaning would lull you to sleep. "Commander, we are approaching our destination." The ships AI startled me making me almost hit my head on the bulkhead of the ship.
"Um - Thank You, Astra," I said as I tried to stretch and blink myself back to full consciousness.
"Astra, can you extend our scanning range?"
"Yes commander, but I will need to draw power from another source, engines would be the most acceptable."
"Go ahead, we want to make sure that there's nothing weird out there when we arrive."
"Understood Commander, this will, however, impede our arrival time."
"Thank You, Astra, I understand."
Extending the scanner range, there was a noticeable change in the normal moan that the ship made. It was like it had been hit in the gut, as some of its energy was stolen for other purposes. "Commander, I am detecting a ship approaching our destination point."
"Can you identify it?" I quickly jumped up from the co-pilot seat that I had been lounging in and dropped heavily into the pilots' seat and started strapping myself in.
"No Commander, the range is too great."
"Can you anticipate any of its intentions, is it speeding up slowing down, changing course?"
"It is decelerating Commander. The ship has dropped out of hyperspace, it is now in normal space with the target signal."
"Give the energy back to the engines Astra, let's step it up a little bit - I have a bad feeling."
"Indeed Commander." Once again the tone of the ship changed, this time it was invigorated. yet we were in our descent so even more power to the engines really didn't do us any good. "Damn it," I slapped my head, my mistake caused us to lose valuable time since we can't tell what kind of ship that was.
"Commander, that ship that dropped from hyperspace has a signal range that is out of the normal range that it should be in."
"Ping the discovery and pull the FSS up on my console, please."
"Right away commander," Astra replied.
When I dialed in the signal, I heard it. That low guttural sound that made my skin crawl. I sat back in my seat staring at my console. Then there was a loud ball of static that made me cover my ears with my hands even though I was wearing my helmet. It made me close my eyes tightly and I grimaced. I had a bad feeling that I knew what that spike was caused by.
"Weapons fire detected commander, Threat level 4 calculated." I just sat there, trying to determine at this point should I go in, or should I turn tail and run and leave that other pilots fate to the universe.
"Commander the unknown ship has entered back into hyperspace, I am detecting a frameshift Wake leaving our destination. Our original signal has terminated, but I am still detecting a signal. This one, however, is very weak."
"Weak?"
"It is a short range signal, most likely from equipment."
"Thank you, Astra."
As the ship popped back into normal space, small bits of debris lit up my shields as they protected my hull, but made it difficult to see for the first few moments so I brought the ship to a full stop.
"Scan the area, Astra, is there anything hostile out there?"
"Scanning Commander." There was silence for a moment. "No hostile ships detected commander. But I am reading anomalies."
"What are you seeing?" I asked as I slowly throttled up to move further into the debris field. "Illuminate external lights please."
"External Lights on Commander." When the lights from the ship came on I could see that the big dark shapes floating around me, was the hull of a ship, a type 6 hauler from the size of some of the bulkhead pieces suspended in the black. I moved the ship close to one of the bigger pieces and, slowed to an almost full stop and looked at it. The edges seemed to have a green hue, this did make me come to a complete stop.
"What is that glow from the torn sections of that bulkhead?"
"Unable to determine commander, it appears to be a residual effect from weapons fire."
"What kind of weapon leaves a green goo behind?" I asked incredulously of my ships AI.
"Unknown commander." I leaned back in my seat and flipped on my targeting computer and noticed some target signals, so I locked in on one, It was a canister of wine. So, I cycled to the next blip on my screen, this time it was an escape pod.
"Astra, Lower the cargo scoop!"
"Right Away commander."
I throttled the engine and lined the pod up in the crosshairs of my cargo scoop and, gently drove over the pod. Once the pod was in the hold I shut the engines down and unbuckled my harness and ran to the cargo hold. Giving the ship some time to close the hatch and to decompress before I entered. Once I was in, I ran to the pod and tried to clear the ice that had formed over the inspection window, and there was a face, eyes closed… as if in a state of blissful sleep. Health monitors on the side of the pod showed the person inside was alive.
"Holy shit Astra, someone survived that attack. Are they healthy enough for us to take them out of this pod?"
"I advise against opening that pod commander. They are alive, but life signs are weak, plotting a course for the closest medical facility." I stood back from the pod and looked at it more closely, the insignia was from the Empire, and the word slave was painted on the underside lip of the pod.
"Wait, Astra, this is a slave pod. If we take this person back to a med bay, they will either turn them back to slavery if they survive or jettison them into space. Let's head back to Arc’s Faith, maybe Will can help us."
"Course laid in commander."
"Get us headed that way I will be back up to the cockpit in a minute."
"Right away commander. "
I sat there for a few moments longer, looking into the view window of the pod. The young girl lying in there looked to be no more than 15 years old. My thoughts were all over the place, unsure of what to do. But the one thing I knew for sure is that I could not turn this person over to the authorities.
Val.