The Sirius Job, Part 3
17 May 2017User4296
Mitschigua SystemImperial Space
February 3302
The door to the cargo bay opened, revealing Takamura and his small team hard at work. They had converted the small cargo bay into half living area and half sickbay, having placed cloth curtains between each of the cargo racks and turning them into little makeshift rooms, in which one of the soldiers slept peacefully. The middle of the room was cluttered, as a large group of instruments sat clustered around an empty space, large enough for something to eventually occupy.
I had scarcely taken a step into the room before Takamura was upon me, preventing me from moving any further. He bowed, polite as always, but the undercurrent of cold business seemed even more intense now. I got the distinct impression that if I wanted a closer look, I'd have to go through him.
"Looks like you guys settled in all right," I said, returning his bow with a nod of my own.
"Indeed we did, John-san," Takamura said, then motioned toward the cargo bay control panel nearby. "I believe now we can tell you why we are here."
We moved over to the console, and the small screen there came to life as he tapped at the keypad. "As you are aware, Mitschigua is a large system, but sparsely populated," he began, as the screen flickered, showing the Universal Cartographics map of the system.
"A week ago," he went on, "We lost contact with one of our ships in the system. The ship itself is not a concern, however the cargo it was carrying is of value. We have hired you to help us find the cargo, secure it, and take it to coordinates to be given to you later."
I cocked an eyebrow. "We aren't going back to Avik?"
Takamura shook his head. "We merely subcontracted out to Sirius, so we will not need to return to Avik. You will be paid the other half of our agreement upon delivery, and we shall consider the matter closed."
I blinked. Whoever this group was, they were playing this close to the chest - which meant professional, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it meant something else, too.
"So where do we start?" I asked, pushing those thoughts to the side.
"The last transmission placed them in orbit around Mitschigua 14 - the larger of two gas giants in the system. We think the Type 7 became caught in a decaying orbit and fell into the planet's rings - or worse, into the planet itself," Takamura replied, as the screen shifted to zoom in on one of the system's two purple gas giants, easily more than twice the size of its counterpart. "That is the best starting point."
"I'll get us there, then," I said as I turned toward the door.
"One more thing, Commander," Takamura said, moving to once again block the door. "I would appreciate a degree of... discretion. There are many sensitive pieces of equipment in here, and if one were to -"
I waved a hand. "I'll give you your privacy," I said, before taking the two steps out of the room. As I turned back, Takamura had dropped into a respectful bow before the door slid closed.
That explains why you disabled the cameras, I thought. What the hell are you doing in there, Takamura?
***
The Pyrrha cruised along the ice ring to Mitschigua 14. It was a strange scene - to my left, taking up the side window and filling half the view out the front canopy, hung the purple gas giant. Even from this distance, I could see the violet and purple clouds dance as they mixed and broke apart, the never ending dance of hydrogen and helium in a body that never quite became a star. Below me hung the ice crystals that comprised the planet's rings, the remains of moons that never were or moons that had ventured too close, only to be torn apart by the giant's gravitational pull. Contrasting both of these was the ever-present blackness of the void, filling out the view wherever the other two were not present.
The Pyrrha barely skimmed the surface of the ring to better allow her scanners to pick up foreign objects within the cluster itself. She was moving slowly, both to allow for quick course corrections and maximum scanning efficiency, though the close proximity of the planet had also played a role in slowing the ship.
"Commander, adjust course 5.4 degrees left," Tucker, Takamura's "engineer and medical specialist," said, startling me from my reverie. I twisted the stick ever so slightly to make the correction, and the gas giant filled a little more of the view.
"Good, good..." Tucker said. "There! I think we have it."
One of the screens in the cockpit changed, focusing on a grey, discolored mass just inside the ice field, which stood in stark contrast to the bright white of the ice crystals that surrounded it. I thumbed a button, and the Pyrrha slowed, dropping out of supercruise, before I turned the ship toward the wreck.
"Scanning," Takamura said next. There was a pause as the ship's sensors swept across the area. "Ship wreckage suggests a Type-7," he said next. "Tucker, see if you can find a registration."
There was another pause as the wreckage came ever closer. We had just entered the ice field, and I now found myself gently guiding the Pyrrha around the large ice crystals while still trying to keep the wreck in sight.
"Registration scanned," Tucker said. The cockpit's screen changed to focus on part of a number emblazoned across the ship's hull.
I muted the audio. "Verity, run that registration number."
"Of course, Commander," Verity said, and went silent as she went to work.
"Commander," Takamura said next, forcing me to unmute the microphone. "Please bring us within a few meters of the wreckage. I am detecting multiple life pods in the area, and we will need a moment to detect the right one."
I nodded. "Got it."
"Commander," Verity said next, and I muted the audio again. "There is no record of that ship designation in any known databases."
Curiouser and curiouser, I thought.