Trails of the Past - Salomé’s Mystery - Knowledge Gap
16 May 2024Kasumi Goto
"Four old settlements, a mission to an unknown end, and a mystery greater than most I've encountered. That was all I found out there, and it left me with more questions than answers."
March 20, 3310
Location : Plaa Aec IZ-N c20-1
Above body A 1 A
A single, long-abandoned outpost lay below, on the surface of this moon - orbital scans confirmed that, rare 'visitors' aside, there hadn't been any activity in a few decades, though systems appeared to remain on standby and - somewhat - functional, too. The outpost itself was marked as the "Hawkin's Gap Alpha Site"... which already annoyed me, a little, because the galactic sector was named "Hawking's Gap", after a very old, but famous, astronomer, as my research on the origin of the name had yielded. Or it seemed to have been an astronomer, who greatly contributed to humanity's understanding of the stars, back when humans were still stuck on Earth, in the 21st century.
But that was not what I was here for. This old, mysterious site was, chasing down leads on... something related to a supposed conspiracy back in the Bubble. despite this being many thousands of light years away from it, the nonsense of the war against the Thargoids, and constant ongoing political strife, small and large. I wasn't in the possession of any answers yet, but there wasn't anywhere else I'd find them than here... or, at the very least, it seemed a better way than just digging - potentially unreliable - external databases, not to mention much less boring this way.
Some beacons - transmitters, more accurately - were present in the system as well, but of lesser interest to me, figuring they were merely pointing to the existence of these locations, which were kept in publicly accessible databases already, and accurately so, given what I had present in my nav panel right now. So, rather than bother investigating those transmitters, which powered up only periodically, I headed straight for the surface. Which removed another source of boredom by allowing gravity to take hold of my body, in quite a distracting way, deforming it to take up more space within the custom-size pilot's seat. If it was ever going to become something that wasn't a distraction in all of the worst of the best ways... I could not imagine it. Certainly not right now.
The sight on the surface was... about as expected. A few prefabricated, sealed structures, habitation and maybe some food growers. Slight signs of disrepair due to four decades of abandonment, but nothing that would stop me from recovering any data to be found locally. I hoped, anyway, but if the data storage hadn't totally been wiped clean of anything on it, the chances were good - those units were among the sturdier elements of such an outpost, to at least allow a recovery crew to find out what'd happened... if the outpost was ever found, in the worst case scenario.
I wasn't part of such a response element, of course... and there'd be little left to be discovered after four decades since the abandonment, on top of a few years of the sites being know. So, upon landing, I took off with the Scorpion I had onboard my Krait Phantom, dismissing the ship as a safety measure - because I couldn't know who or what would be watching, and as such didn't want it sitting there as a big target, easily visible to anyone 'dropping by'... which would not be a coincidence here - and set to scanning the various data storages scattered around.
Or, at least, those obviously marked as such in my contacts... because, for some odd reason, these sites, both from two centuries ago and newer ones, always had those strange uplinks dotted around outside, and they mostly contained the logs of the inhabitants. They weren't entirely security-free, but not so strongly protected that the regular data link scanner couldn't do the job, by just pointing it at the relevant object. And, though hoping I'd be told of what'd gone down here in the logs, some kind of riot or other violence seemed unlikely... these structures were effectively untouched, other than natural degradation. Once I had all the log uplinks, I set to inspecting them... finding text messages, four in number, waiting for me.
HAWKIN’S GAP ALPHA MISSION 1/4
Expedition Log: 21/08/3270
Damn we’ve come a long way. I really should have looked at the galactic map before I signed up for this. Weeks of endless travel and hyperspace jumps just to get into the vicinity of the place, and that’s before we get down to the work.
Nothing but a complaint from a worker about the distance and time taken for the trip to, here, probably. I moved along to the next.
HAWKIN’S GAP ALPHA MISSION 2/4
Expedition Log: 29/08/3270
Cargo hold is rammed full of strange tech. Looks like a bunch of satellites to me, but it’s all hush hush. Normal crew like me ain’t allowed anywhere near them. Don’t know what they’re for, other than we have to drop them off in very specific locations. Weird, eh?
Satellites which the 'normal crew' weren't allowed near, and to be dropped off at certain points... now that was interesting. I wondered if by that, the one I'd found orbiting the moon was meant. Possibly, though it then had to only be one of them. And tracking down a bunch of satellites with an unknown purpose wasn't of much interest to me, or my goal here... so the message had limited value beyond knowing they existed.
HAWKIN’S GAP ALPHA MISSION 3/4
Expedition Log: 15/09/3270
Bored rigid now, can’t wait to turn around and go home. I don’t care how good the money is, nothing is worth this tedium. We haven’t even started the return journey yet… Randomius Factoria – save me!
Just another complaint. And whatever "Ramdomius Factoria" was...
Given that this was not a leisure trip out into the void, I could understand the feeling, though. Especially if, looking at the dates of those mission logs, these people had been out here for at least three weeks, probably longer. And that was not to think of the journey itself, with the older, slower drives which had been rendered effectively obsolete by the development of the FSD. For those journeys where you only wanted to get from a point to another, and then maybe return, without doing anything along the way... it was definitely the most useful. And currently had no competition, anyway. I turned my attention away from those thoughts, and to the final log of this site.
HAWKIN’S GAP ALPHA MISSION 4/4
Expedition Log: 13/10/3270
Still, it could be worse! I could have pulled the Formidine Rift gig. Rumour is they’re having to double up on ships for that one as the crews are going void-mad and ejecting themselves into space because they’ve seen ghosts. Word is there’s something out there.
I wondered... was there actually something out there, driving people insane, or was it just space madness getting to people in a far-out region of the galaxy with little stars?
I'd probably find out when I got there, but for now, I still had another three sites to investigate locally... plus a 'midway' stop that was kind of more toward the core, than this. And those three local outposts hopefully had a little more, because other than a crewman or two getting bored, this 'Alpha' site had told me basically nothing of value.
I recalled the ship while leaving the outpost perimeter, still nothing but stars in the sky in sight. Sensors were equally empty, not the faintest blip of any heat emissions, or unnatural light reflections as I took off, pushed into the seat by acceleration and gravity, before I jumped into the system which supposedly held the "Beta" site. And... sure enough, there it was, a human signal on planet 2, with those odd beacons present within the system as well. I ignored them, too, and just headed straight for the planet, obtaining a precise nav marker after scanning the surface.
While descending, I thought about the naming of these sites. Something about it seemed familiar... so I dug through memories, and found that it was 'letters' of an ancient Earth alphabet, from first to fourth. Apparently, despite the dark period which humans had traversed on Earth before pulling back and becoming spacefaring, this particular piece of history, and that it originated from "Greeks". I wondered if their nation still existed now, but then the surface rapidly approached, and I was rather uninterested in risking to be thrown out of my seat, even with all of the 'cushioning' I had now to absorb such an impact. Because it was liable to still be unpleasant despite it.
Once down, I repeated the same procedure as prior - deploy in SRV, after a bit of fighting my body to get to and inside it, drive away after dismissing the ship, and gather the logs. I assumed no sensitive data to be present, as EDI would very likely have alerted me to it if there was. Four messages here, too.
HAWKIN’S GAP BETA MISSION 1/4
Expedition Log: 30/08/3270
Strange mission this, though the pay is good. Nobody seems to know who’s footing the bill, but Sirius Corp is favourite. Whatever this trip is, it’s expensive. It’s also hush hush. Even the captain doesn’t know what we’re carrying and he’s not happy about it.
Sirius... of course, they had existed back then, already. But what little I knew made it look rather unlikely they were the culprit behind this, even if I was aware of Sirius having their own terraforming-focused subdivision. Or it went in the direction of planetary terraformation, whether that was research or machinery... perhaps both, not necessarily being mutually exclusive.
I definitely knew they were doing research, thanks to a program to attempt terraformation of ammonia worlds, which just felt extremely spiteful, in the presence of many more candidate worlds that had a significantly lesser chance of upsetting the Thargoids if terraformed. Because they were either inhospitable to the species, or just plain, barren dead rocks, outside the habitable zone for an ammonia biosphere. The only advantage those would have for terraforming was part of the work being done already, but well outside human habitable limits, or the appropriate zone, anyway... which made it seem even more like it merely existed to annoy Thargoids, over any actual practical purpose.
I dropped the thought chain like a cold steak there, not wanting to further go down it, because it would inevitably lead down the path of getting annoyed at the war and its current state. Something that I was very eager to just distance myself from, for a time, if not entirely. Because it was far too obvious I wouldn't, and never was going to, have an impact in, or on, it. Not while both sides were only interested in killing each other without a purpose, and I was likely listened to even less due to the peculiar form of my body now. As if that was what made me serious, or not... when I would always be, in case of this subject. I opened the next of the outpost’s logs.
HAWKIN’S GAP BETA MISSION 2/4
Expedition Log: 12/09/3270
Big bust up today. Apparently this ship is flying without shields and without guns! We had an escort for the first few hundred light years, but then they peeled off and we’re on our own out here in the void! If we do come across anything nasty we’re going to have to hope we can run…
Whatever use that information was. I had no clue, that was certain, so I barely even bothered thinking about this one.
HAWKIN’S GAP BETA MISSION 3/4
Expedition Log: 18/09/3270
Not a happy ship. Crew is grumbling. Captain hasn’t been seen for weeks. Cargo bay is guarded by these very unfriendly types. Don’t know what they’re protecting, but it’s enough to get a man killed over, that’s for sure.
So, most likely, another ship transporting the same type of cargo, mysterious satellites. And I had a feeling the log insinuated the Captain hadn’t been seen because he wanted to know what the cargo was, and was promptly “replaced”.
If a mutiny had occurred onboard, it either had failed, or only came after the ship reached its destination, given how this was here, with some of its logs to be found.
HAWKIN’S GAP BETA MISSION 4/4
Expedition Log: 1/10/3270
Cargo dropped. Turned about and on our way back to civilisation. What it was, nobody knows and nobody is asking. It’s a bit more relaxed now, whatever that cargo was it was something important. Can’t see what use it would be this far out, but maybe someone knows something we don’t…
I briefly wondered whether these people had actually made it back after their mission. Or had spoken to anyone about it, but if they did it was obscure enough to not be that common, as knowledge went. The alternative to that was they encountered an “unfortunate accident” on the way back, to not allow even the slightest hint of this project’s existence to slip out… a thought which kind of disgusted me, just a little bit.
Yet, this second site was barely conclusive, too. ‘Waste of time’, I thought, and set up the jump toward the Gamma site, third in line, while the ship came back down from orbit. I had no particular hopes of it being any more telling than these first two, but I’d check it out anyway… as I was here already, and would barely save any time by not poking and moving ahead with the carrier, which itself was in the same system as the Alpha site.
Not to mention the fact that my presence was due to wanting to find out as much about what was out here, and the 'Zurara' megaship connected to it all - it would be at the end of this journey, though, and that was still a week out, at least. Probably more, because I was letting the carrier travel more slowly only doing a couple of jumps, maybe three, a day. And, while I was not too eager to go exploring right now, I still had it in the plan to look around occasionally. Maybe even poke around a planetary surface with biological signs... if I stopped being lazy enough around my body to actually do the walking, or hopping if gravity was low, down there.
For now, another site awaited. The Phantom had landed nearby during my thinking, so I drove up to and boarded it, but didn't rush to reach the cockpit. Given my peculiar movement, not trying to rush was currently easier anyway... nor was I sure exactly how fast of a pace I could manage, beyond maybe a slightly faster walking pace, or a light jog. But neither were too important here, so I discarded the thought until later as well. And, a few minutes later, I orbited body B 2 - just a frozen rock. As per custom... more beacons, too. I wondered if they were actually just location markers, pointed to the next site, or maybe part of a communication network.
In any case, they were still of no interest to me, so I proceeded to land for the third time today. Same routine, same number of logs, starting with number one.
HAWKIN’S GAP GAMMA MISSION 1/4
Expedition Log: 30/08/3270
Beautiful part of the galaxy this, really dense clusters of stars, pretty much halfway to the core. Been one long trip though. We’re out here dropping off a series of beacons. Randomius knows what for, but they’re paying, so no questions asked!
"Randomius" again. Still had no clue whatever that was, poking Kira's personality fragment in the implant didn't really yield any answer either. She had as little of a clue as I did, only able to suppose it was maybe some old spacer's thing from decades ago. That seemed likely, so I spent no further time thinking on it.
But maybe whoever recorded the log should have asked questions. Even if it'd led to them not taking the contract and staying in the Bubble... though they very definitely had a point in this region of space between the core and outer arms being quite pretty. Especially here, on the night side of the planet, further highlighting the increasing star density. Given the lack of useful info, though, I quickly opened up the second log.
HAWKIN’S GAP GAMMA MISSION 2/4
Expedition Log: 12/09/3270
Funny thing is, I’ve asked a few of the other hands about this mission and no one seems to know who’s behind it. We all picked up bulletin board adverts promising big credits for a long haul and kind of just ended up on board. Not sure it it’s the Feds, the Imps or the Alliance. Still, credits are credits!
Were those credits worth their life? Somehow, I doubted anyone would've answered positively... but they were probably already long dead, anyway. If they had survived getting here, there was a long way back without any kind of accountability of, or for, anyone, in all of that space.
HAWKIN’S GAP GAMMA MISSION 3/4
Expedition Log: 18/09/3270
Arrived on site today. Bunch of guys had to go EVA to drop off the beacons. We’re jumping around a bunch of systems here in the Gap. One of the beacons activated all on its own, started squawking some weird code before it got switched off. We were told we hadn’t heard anything.
Of course they "hadn't heard anything". And probably ended up dead, mind wiped or some other twisted thing the following day. My suspicion was the next - and final - message, would have something, so I opened it up.
HAWKIN’S GAP GAMMA MISSION 4/4
Expedition Log: 01/10/3270
I’m logging this, but I shouldn’t be. Bunch of guys were talking about the beacons yesterday and then there was a mysterious accident in the airlock – they’re all dead! Feeling aboard is mutinous. Just want to get back home. I ain’t doing no top secret missions again, that’s for sure.
At least this person - if not most of that remaining crew - had enough of a brain to figure out the "accident" wasn't really one. What surprised me was to find this log, mentioning this incident, at all... I wouldn't have been to learn the individual who recorded it also 'disappeared' soon after. As it didn't to learn that people who spoke of it, were just killed off, because god forbid anyone learn of a deep-space exploration mission.
Did the remaining crew mutiny against their definitely legitimate employers? There was no way for me to know. And even if they had... there was that suspicion it would've only played into the plans of the puppet masters, hiding in the shadows, making the ship unable to return to its starting point. Or if it hadn't done that, a failsafe had probably been installed on the ship, much like INRA had with the "Commander Jameson" at the end of the First Thargoid War... because of course, a genocidal weapon presented as a "moral obligation", or necessity, would have caused all kinds of reactions across the population, unlikely to be positive. Partially because they'd killed the "war hero", too.
Only the Delta site remained. I wasn't feeling particularly anxious about anything, out here, in what was basically the middle of nowhere... not even along the so-called 'Colonia Highway' - as much as a space route could be called such - but part of me also didn't really feel like hanging around. Abandoned outposts like this always had a strange kind of... 'aura' around them, which felt less than nice once it got to you, so I brought the ship back down and left the small assembly of structures behind. Doubted I'd ever find out the fate of this group, either.
Unsurprisingly, yet more beacons awaited, at least one orbiting the primary star of this system... one of many with a designation that was just a bunch of letters and numbers, thus not worth remembering. Nav would have it saved anyway, so I didn't even need to. Site Delta was, evidently, on moon 2 B. Part of me wished I'd thrown a supercruise assistance module into my ship, lean back, relax, get distracted with inappropriate things - because I always did when bored - instead of having to manually keep an eye out on things... or maybe I could ask EDI to do it. An AI would remain lined up better than anything I could do anyway, even with the various enhancements provided by the Thargoid modifications. If those were active, at least, given the still-not-quite-fixed state of my brain.
But I didn't, partly so it'd keep my brain focused on the radar, just in case. While it was doubtful anyone would be coming after me here... I couldn't rule out the possibility either. The people behind this had enough resources to make this expedition decades ago, when it would have been significantly more expensive, and if what I knew and had heard was accurate... they'd definitely also be willing to attempt dealing with anybody investigating these places, or the Zurara, and be aware that I was out here.
All was still quiet, though, and I didn't feel particularly concerned. For one, the existence of these sites was documented relatively well. But also, my carrier would be here within short time if anything did happen, and I could hold out that long against the odds which I did expect... those being, nothing extremely overwhelming, because I was still just one person.
A rather important one, maybe, that someone pulling the strings of humanity would definitely want to be keeping in check, but... still just one. Nobody sane would send a megaship or fleet ten thousand light years just for a single individual - with very few rare exceptions, I did not think myself a part of - but then, I was getting the impression I was not necessarily looking at the work of 'sane' people. And also somewhat still doubted the story of a shadowy group controlling everything... but less so now, as this operation, whatever it was, did exist, not just some tale told to send explorers searching for nothing.
So, I get that you're a bit doubtful, because who wouldn't be, but those idiots, they do exist. I've seen the signs for myself., Kira remarked, as I started the descent following a surface scan, to get the site's accurate position.
And... where did you find out about them?, I inquired, curious.
Not so much where as how... or when. Though, to be honest... I forgot it myself. Might've been the Zurara, stumbled across that thing by complete accident because I got a little too friendly with a planet, a little too quickly. Also consider that a reminder to watch your speed when you come in to land. I see you get distracted as easily as I did while moving to the surface.
I will be careful. I did not come here to crash... but at least, if I hit the ground too hard, I will feel the impact less.
Ha ha. You're just lucky you're the one with that body, I wouldn't have let it get so big. And fat.
You are sure? You seem to find it fun, too.
Of course I do, I mean, just look at the damn size of yourself. And we are basically the same person, only one half has more common sense about how large her unique features should be.
But only more.
Yeah, yeah. Go, get on with your data poking. At least you're not going to get stuck anywhere here, that'd be embarrassing for us both. Especially me who can't do a thing if you get your big rear bumper stuck somewhere.
I intended to respond with "I do not plan to go into a vent", but the presence withdrew before I could. The outpost was plainly within view now, and I touched down on the ground a minute later... with a careful enough landing to avoid any excessive motion in the right areas of my body. And another cycle of scanning data repositories later, I had more logs to read through.
HAWKIN’S GAP DELTA MISSION 1/4
Expedition Log: 30/08/3270
This is a bigger operation than I thought it was. A massive fleet of Anacondas all prepped for long endurance travel out to the edge of beyond. No ships have markings, no emblems, no political affiliation. Somebody with deep pockets must be paying for this, but who?
The fact that it was all Anacondas was quite interesting, but also not too surprising either. The ship was known for being quite sturdy while retaining a decent jump range and also cargo capacity. The mention of no markings whatsoever also definitely supported the idea of a clandestine outfit, but... I still needed more. At least I was getting something useful out of this site.
HAWKIN’S GAP DELTA MISSION 2/4
Expedition Log: 12/09/3270
Judging by the way the fleet deployed I would say there were three main destinations, all a long way outside of the core worlds. We got our orders today, we’re making for a zone called “Hawkin’s Gap”. It’s a seriously long way, not even the explorers have been out this way before. Strange mission.
So, three locations, all outside the Bubble... very far out, explored by nobody at all. That matched up with what I'd found publicly available data, and was also actually interesting, partly as the result of that, but also for telling me it was all the same thing. It said nothing about the Zurara though, leaving me puzzled as to how it played into things. But I was sure I'd find out, so I moved along to the third recovered log.
HAWKIN’S GAP DELTA MISSION 3/4
Expedition Log: 18/09/3270
Our little armada split up today, so we’re on our own now. Just us and the void. Still a lot of speculations as to what we’re doing. Cargo hold is full, that I don’t know. My guess is some kind of deep space survey, but I can’t figure out why we’d need to be so far out …
Why so far out, a good question indeed. and just as much a mystery to me as the person which made the log. At least, I could figure they had the same beacons as the other ships sent out this way, from the prior site logs. Not much else to think of in this one, though, making it easy to quickly skip over to the next one. System was set to automatically archive these, anyway, so I wasn't worried about not doing it manually.
HAWKIN’S GAP DELTA MISSION 4/4
Expedition Log: 01/10/3270
Cargo is being deployed. A series of artefacts of some kind. The handling bods aren’t part of the ship’s crew, so we don’t know what they’re doing. Captain has told us to turn a blind eye and wait for them to be done.
Either the ship's captain was in on the deal itself, or just was smart enough to figure that, with how clandestine the whole operation was, it paid to not ask whatever was being done. Maybe it had saved their lives, maybe it hadn't. I doubted I'd ever find out, despite my wondering. Finding the remains of even a fleet of Anacondas, from four decades ago, without some kind of precise navigation data... at these distances, it was effectively impossible. Especially for just one person. So I wouldn't try, purely from the lack of feasibility.
But what was this project for? Nothing had told me. Not here, anyway... still, there were three more locations for me to check. And, maybe, the other me, inside my head.
What did you do with the Zurara logs? I could not... find them., I inquired toward her. The response came in the form of a 'mental' shrug.
Don't know, to be honest. It's not the kind of thing I'd delete, but the ships I used over the years might've all taken a bit of a beating. Hell if I know though, maybe someone deleted them on purpose but missed the part where it said I've been there. Or the backup with my personal log, mentioning that I was.
Oh. But having those logs... would have helped explain, a lot. I am sure.
And would've saved a lot of time.
Are you sure you do not remember what they said any longer?
Some of it, I do. But you should just go there yourself. Beats just reading or getting told by... well, I guess, your other half of the personality. Assuming you're not just imagining this second voice because you've just lost it a bit after going through so much.
I would prefer the alternative. But... okay. Fine. I am going to just go there myself. And maybe explore a little. If there is life on the surface of a planet we pass ...
Oh. Sure. If you can handle lugging around all that mass in low gravity without magnetic boots. But I guess it won't be a total disaster if you trip or lose your balance. Plenty of time to catch yourself instead of landing flat on that big chest.
Very funny. I am just going to return to the carrier now.
Yeah, sure. And these people you're trying to find out about, they're known as the "Club". It's why that rebel movement whose comm channels you have access to call themselves the Anti-Club Accord... you're welcome, by the way. I tried getting in on things there before the Thargoids decided to be idiots and try to do... whatever it was they'd planned. If you're lucky, having such fat breasts and unreasonably wide hips will make them think twice if it's practical.
I chose not to comment on that attempt at stinging me for overly liking such a disproportionate body... while not missing that there was mostly just teasing hidden within it. My ship had landed nearby, by now, so I returned to it and set a course back to the carrier. Single jump away, orbiting the star of the system which contained the Alpha site. My next destination - the "Conflux" settlements, as they were called, still within the Orion Spur. Somewhere at the edge of the outer one, maybe, if I remembered correctly. Also in the direction of the galactic core, but quite far from this set of sites - over ten thousand light years in a straight line. But I had so much tritium, I could make the entire round trip and probably still have reserve upon returning to the Bubble.
So, while climbing out of the moon's gravity well to get line of sight to my jump target, I set up the first carrier jump, and began to think about how else I'd pass the time onboard, when I wasn't out exploring - which I was still unlikely to do, given a simple lack of motivation for it right now.
Hopefully, the rest of this journey would go as smoothly as the first leg. And not be hopelessly boring... because I was not always distracted by my nice form.