Course Correction
18 Dec 2020Rex-Cramer
At just over halfway through the journey back to the bubble we were nearing the location Ash had sent us to for this data retrieval mission. We were one carrier jump away from being in reach with any ship in the inventory but I decided before the carrier would be cleared to enter I would take Icarus there as a scout-ahead. While it is not in any way a combat-ready ship it is fast and reasonably well shielded. Short of a combat class ship, it's able to keep the skin on my ass long enough to get away. Kayley was a bit worried, I think she has a bit of mother hen in her. "Let us jump in close and you can take 'kura (her nickname for the Cutter Norikura) down there. I mean it can handle just about any..."
I was buttoning up the flight suit and reached over and touched her shoulder, my sign for "Enough".
"No", I said. "The carrier stays back and Icarus can leave ANYTHING with guns and armor 20LY behind after the first jump". "I'll be fine".
I gave her hand a quick squeeze and said "Keep Roberto from running off with my baby, I know he thinks it's his these days" and I turned and headed out the stateroom door for the hanger elevators.
Icarus was on site in 8 57LY jumps and a quick scan of the system indicated a primary star that was a red dwarf and a couple of brown dwarfs further out. Then suddenly a man-made object lit up the scanner. As I knew this was an abandoned settlement I was not too surprised but a tense moment until it was clear that it was an old com sat. Finally the settlement was pinned down on the first of the planets orbiting the two browns. I took a moment to inspect the com sat in case anything of interest was located there. However nothing of note was picked up by the ship.
From here I moved on towards the planet picked up on the scanner. I had heard of these Confluence Settlements but had not paid much attention to them before because of exactly the reason Ash's people couldn't get a pilot out here for the money. They are about 8500LY from the bubble and that's a pretty substantial distance. Anyone that needs the money bad enough doesn't have a ship with the range and anyone with the range doesn't need that money and can make more doing something else. Good hiding spot. Well known but not exactly tourist locations.
In a few minutes I was dropping into orbital cruise and then gliding down to the marker. Scanner was clear, but Icarus has one glaring weakness. She's not got good vision scanning for other ships so I was keeping a careful eye out. Even another looky-loo could be a problem here. It was all quiet. I set down just outside the settlement. Not exactly stealth, but if company arrived I wanted to have the ship on hand and ready to fly. There was not much to go on for what to look for. Curiously there were a number of data points still functioning around the settlement. Nothing really interesting to be learned from them. Mostly pulled out some logs that sound like the group was trying to stay ahead of something but it's not clear what. Finally I found a curious bit that didn't really flow with the others. It took a bit of analysis but the ships computer indicated that it gave a vector and a distance. It seemed to point towards what looked like some storage boxes piled up at the perimeter of the complex. I headed that way and there I discovered a small data vault hidden under the containers. Using Ash's key I was able to unlock the data and download. Tried to take a look but without context the data really meant nothing to me or the ship's computer, it's best guess was tabular data.
Then a small warning light popped up. An EM signal was activated shortly after the download finished. "Shit, a booby-trap" was my first thought, but the signal was not anywhere near the power level needed to signal off-world. In a few seconds we had the answer. It was a life-pod beacon.
"What. The. Fuck", I gasped out-loud. The power level was low. VERY LOW. The pod was obviously now in power conservation mode trying to keep the occupant in stasis for as long as possible. After a few weak pings, the pod shut down again and went dark. The transmission indicated the life-signs of the occupant were nominal still. The cold of this place was helping to extend the life of the pod. The SRV's computer had a bearing but no distance. The low power signal made distance estimation poor. The ship however also picked it up and more clearly. It also had a bearing. Checking the intersection showed we were right on top of it. It was right near or within the administration building, or at least what looked like it. The ping lit up again and the fix was confirmed by both computers.
Searching the perimeter I could not find any visual indication of it. I parked near the building and got the helmet on the RemLoc. The building was locked up but gaining entry was a simple matter through a maintenance hatch that had clearly been use before. Once inside there was not any obvious sign of a pod stashed within, nor any clear indication where it could be. Then something caught my eye. It was a set of floor vent grates. All the grates were oriented slanted down, except for one in the center. It was facing so its grates slanted up. I got down and pulled out a flashlight. It was hard to see inside but there was something back there.
I opened the grate after a few trips to the SRV for tools and grinding off the security heads on the screws. When I popped out the grate I stopped in my tracks. It was definitely a life pod. A thousand what-ifs hit me. Why would this not have been mentioned? What if this was a bomb? What if, what if, what if. I started to get up and walk away. "Leave the door open and the grate off and the next looky-loo through will certainly see it. Let it be their problem, not mine. But I stopped at the door. My head sagged into my chest. I couldn't do it. I couldn't walk away. So the next hour was spent getting that monstrously heavy bastard out of there. Even at 1/3G they are heavy as hell. I got it loaded into the SRV and and took the SRV back to the ship.
"Lets get the fuck out of here" I said to Icarus as I jammed the throttle and booster to get to supercruise altitude. The moment I could make the jump for the next system I initiated and keyed in a message to the carrier that I was on my way inbound and to initiate the jump sequence to the next waypoint. We were not staying in this area a minute longer than needed.
I made contact with Leviathan's Reach with 10 minutes to spare before jumping. I'd radioed Kayley to have the deck crew ready with a cargo lift and and to get a portable power pack ready to go at the hanger. We needed to get something secured ASAP before the jump. When I set down and exited the Phantom she was there with the hanger crew and everything we needed. A cock of her head said she was not sure what we were about to unload.
"So yeah I got Ash's data, but you're not going to believe this one"
To be continued.....