Space Trials Log #3
16 Mar 2020Rexicles
I've decided against attempting a sacrifice in the Name of Science after discovering something strange. Whilst scanning a system about a thousand light years out of HQ towards the Vela Molecular region I came across scan responses which indicate structures. There's no human signals.A strong detection from what appeared to be something orbiting a gas giant warranted a closer look. As I dropped from cruise I could see a decidedly manufactured object and slowly moved closer - the comfort provided by the weapon systems suddenly became evident. It was massive - perhaps the somewhere between the size of a human platform and a coriolis. Gently edging closer to the object it started whirring - then three huge... well.... legs? slid out of the main structure. No comms channels requested. No ATC. It didn't want to talk.
A tense moment to be sure, waiting for incoming fire or detections of a targeting system... but none came. I retracted the weapons and engaged scans. Nothing.
It appeared to be inert, but then Susan noted that there was an low-level energy source glowing from the nearest extended leg. No reaction to composition scan or attempts to hook up the data link... what else could I try? Well I supposed I could try the shiny guns on it so with energy weapons alone I opened fire on the orb.
Success! Scanners detected a charge and so I repeated the exercise on each of the other legs. Susan had been right. Maybe I was wrong about her.
After the third leg was charged a huge section of the main structure started moving and extended to a point below. I hadn't been this enthralled since unearthing Jamesons sidewinder (and the tales of chicanery found in his logs). Data link engaged I probed the now detected data point on the structure and decoded a garbled remnant of a message about a nearby system. The language was barely translatable by the BabelFish module but there was enough for a co-ordinate.
Then the structure released an object. Damn - I forgot to equip a collector limpet controller. Have decon, recon, repair and fuel transfer controllers but no collector. If this type of event was going to occur in deep space I might have to swap out perhaps the decon for a collector controller. Note to self: difficult to manouver this size of ship to collect items directly into the cargo scoop. Couldn't fit the ship in so nudged the object out with the nose and scooped it up when it moved free of the structure.
Spending a couple of hours looking at this object in quarantine resulted in no further identification - the scanner detected it as an "ancient key". But to what? Surely the co-ordinates received in the garbled message must link to it. Who built this thing? Are they waiting on this system? Note to self: perhaps keep one weapon just-in-case. Course plotted.
Log ends.