The Sentinel Fulcrum, 6: The Ghost Ship
20 Nov 2021Meowers
That..stuff got me..anxious a bit. And..energised. Like, that mobilised state was turning on. Can't say that's good.. Yeah, now it's more chances to get through... Anything. But then, uh, the crappy aftermath. Thing that I really hate. But, had to be concentrated here and now. Dropping the guard even for a minute could be fatal, who knows. And who knows what stuff was that.. Why it was invisible on the sensors? They can spot some little metal debris, littering the orbits, from many kilometres, but this... And the photos were done from a relatively short distance.
The last thing I want in this life is to have some..thing spying on me. I quickly selected the nearest star on the nav panel and activated the jump sequence. We have to move fast now. Jumpdrive charged and blue streams of the hyperspace tunnel shrouded the Marshmallow, that's now piercing the void several hundred times faster than light. In the relative safety of hyperspace, I've opened the contract files again..Ah, so good that I've saved the copies, as they tried to delete any related info, abandoning the contract.
So, our Anaconda was in some Col 285 place. Col 285, HQ-H B25-7, orbiting planet #5. Blue gas giant. In the icy rings. Maybe the contract had something to do with the cargo?.. I've asked Creamy about possible mined diamonds or something else valuable, however, there was an 'object could be handled by a single person' line in the contract info... Anyway, he said that power on the ship went down the moment he activated the mining lasers. Instantly. So.. No cargo except things placed in the internal compartments, and he mentioned having some luxury goods in the interior, but their price couldn't match that fake contract payoff.
(A photo of lost Anaconda from the contract files)
Then that photo... It was messed up a bit as well, but no weird electric tint, no strange symbols, no marks, only the usual long-range camera noise and ice particles everywhere. And the location mark and all other picture metadata was correct, even the camera model. However. The Anaconda was enveloped in the same bluish glow... Barely, but still visible. So, whoever was there to take that photo, was... Afraid? Confused?..to move closer to the ship that looked inactive. Maybe..those Herthans Labour folks was forced to do it? Threatened? Ah, I don't know. Doesn't matter anyway, they're out of the equation already.
Emerging from another hyperjump, I put Marshmallow on a safe enough orbit...Temperatures were okay, hydrogen scooping activated properly. Fuel reserves were lower than 20% after series of consecutive jumps, so, yep, refueling time. Where are we... Ah, yeah. V538 Aurigae. Making sure that orbit is stable and we're within safe temperature zone, I stood up from the pilot seat and stretched out. Seating was fine, but, yeah... Had to do some activity to prevent..jellifying myself. Reaching my passenger, I showed him that photo again, explaining the details. But... Did he looked at my.. ummm.. posterior instead of examining the picture? Ugh... Why would anyone want to get rid of this stupid guy so badly?..
Ah, anyway, a melodic alarm signal from my personal communicator relieved me of this. Lunch time. Walking away and reaching the 'travel supplies' locker, I opened it, took a pack of jerky meat, two cans of black tea and the med box, and then returned to the pilot seat. And, yep... It's good to have some sunbathing.
(Stop at V538 Aurigae)