Logical Thinking for Positive Results
02 Dec 2017Robert Phillips
Both of my previous leads had lead to dead-ends.Feeling somewhat stuck, I considered the facts I had so far:
- Mysterious events had been reported in the Pleiades cluster and surrounding areas. But mainly in the Pleiades nebula itself.
- Maia had 2 definitive leads, which had led to dead ends.
- Electra had another definitive lead, which had also led to a dead end.
Maia and Electra are just 2 out of the 9 major stars that make up the Pleiades star cluster. It was a gamble, but maybe I could find more leads in the other 7 star systems, since they are almost all inhabited. My hope was that detailed system scans would reveal any structures or installations that could be worth further investigation.
I tackled the systems in alphabetical order:
Nothing unusual in Alcyone.
Nothing unusual in Asterope.
Nothing unusual in Atlas.
Upon arrival in Celaeno, however, my Nav Computer detected a Relay Station in orbit of Celaeno 1. The station was designated 'Relay Station PSJ-17':
The purpose of this station was unknown, and it did not have any active comms. However, it did have several Ship Log Uplink points that my ship could scan.
Unfortunately, as with my previous encounter with a similar station in Electra, my ship was engaged by hostile Elite ranked ships with unusual designations, so I was forced to defend myself. My fighter became extremely useful here, distracting the aggressors while I scanned the uplinks.
Transcribed audio logs from the uplinks are as follows:
PSJ-17 COMMUNICATION LOG 1/6:
Command to Recon 6
Come in Recon 6! Please respond!
Sir, we’ve lost contact with one of our recon ships. Last known location HIP 17746.
Final transmission indicated an encounter of some kind. Recon 6 bugged out to rally point echo, but it looks like they didn’t make it.
There’s something else. We detected a signal that exceeds our language parameters; It was embedded in 6’s last transmission. It’s the same signal that we detected in Pleiades Sector AB-W B2-4
Awaiting your orders.
PSJ-17 COMMUNICATION LOG 2/6:
Acknowledged Black Flight 12, mission is a go.
Target is Survey Vessel Victoria’s Song. Security systems adjusted for your cover. Apprehend if possible for questioning at Overlook, destroy if necessary.
Command out.
PSJ-17 COMMUNICATION LOG 3/6:
Affirmative Recon 2 data received
:12 15 3 1 20 5 4:UKHKMWK RFDKLI RMUQCT: RYRSTJ BFN 19026:NILKTS 0 1 C:ILS JFKUR 17:IMKD JFKUR 152:NITLRT QTJTJOTQ UR:DTS SBT JTRRLDT MUS:
Head to Overlook and await further orders.
SUMMARY: I applied a Keyed Caesar cipher decryption with the key of LOCATED (by transcribing the numbers to letters of the alphabet) to the remainder of the message, and I got the following:
UNKNOWN SIGNAL SOURCE: SYSTEM HIP 19026: PLANET 0 1 C:LAT MINUS 17:LONG MINUS 152: PLEASE REMEMBER US:GET THE MESSAGE OUT:
This is almost the same as the Tech Officer's message I found in Electra, but now with additional location data. Since there is no planet '0', then I'm going to assume it refers to planet 'B', and now I had some lat/long coordinates to investigate!
PSJ-17 COMMUNICATION LOG 4/6:
Command to Black Flight 22.
Regret to inform that survey ship Pandora suffered catastrophic systems failure. All hands lost. Please acknowledge.
Roger, Command, orders understood, no survivors. On intercept course.
22 out.
PSJ-17 COMMUNICATION LOG 5/6:
Communication Officer’s Report.
Sir, we’ve been monitoring the frequencies provided in the data package and it looks like we’ve found one located in the Merope system.
The signal is slightly different from the others we’ve identified.
Should I send a recon flight out to investigate?
Awaiting orders.
PSJ-17 COMMUNICATION LOG 6/6:
Mission Authorization report.
A maintenance crew linked to our comms corp. has intercepted a foreign signal inside the civilian comms network they operate.
Primary objective is to shut down the Zeta 12 communication hub being used by the company to decode the signal and gather all associated data.
All signals to and from the station have been rerouted to our network so we can monitor their comms traffic. We’ll pose as a team from their head office. Cover is the shut-down of the facility, as part of an automation versus human workforce issue.
This is a code red clean up operation with zero tolerance for this data making it into the public eye. All steps are to be taken to ensure nothing makes it off that station.
(I had already investigated Communications Hub Zeta 12, so this was not a new lead).
The danger encountered by the hostile ships was worth it - I now had several new leads:
- Investigate HIP 17746 for info on 'Recon 6' and Pleiades Sector AB-W B2-4 (the location of the original crash site).
- Locate and investigate survey Vessel Victoria’s Song
- Re-visit HIP 19026 B 1 C and investigate coordinates -17,9575, -152.6994.
- Locate and investigate Survey Vessel Pandora.
- Investigate a Listening Post in Merope.