Cursed and Haunted
27 Mar 2024Sagacious Panda
The coffee contraption whirred one last time just before the indicator turned on, casting a spooky green hue across the ship's interior. It was dark, all around. After Alpha Site and following the breadcrumbs among the stars since the Gen Ship and comfortably jumping from one system to another “close” system, they had to run simulations and route calculations to reach their destination. The vast distances between systems stretched out, a void they had to traverse. The only solace came from the distant view of the Milky Way, its familiar glow a dim comfort against the ebony canvas of space.Breaking the silence, Bella cleared her throat and spoke, her voice cutting through the quiet vacuum. "ICE, can you run it one more time, please? I have this nagging feeling that we are missing something." tapping the screen showing the scanners that offered little information, and the options seemed to dwindle.
Panda poured coffee for them and stood behind the chair of Bella, both staring thoughtfully at the same screen.
ICE responded “Sure, I will also show the process on the side screen.”
The screen showed their previous jumps up to their current point. Once a complicated entanglement of lines and curves became hectic sharp, long lines among a handful of dots. Colors traced their route backward, highlighting the complexity of their predicament. Within the first 40 jumps or so, there were no options.
Pan thought that they were sitting on the tip of a leaf hanging from a tree and where they had to go was on a different branch. The problem was, they could jump from leaf to leaf and there were no leaves close to them to jump to on the other branch…
An insect of no importance
A couple minutes later Bella sighed loudly “Fuck this, you mean we have to go back at least, what, 92 jumps to correct our route so we may end up in the correct path?” If frustration could have a shape, it would look like her at this moment.
Pan tapped her shoulder gently and while gulping massive amounts of coffee, he signaled her to stand up. They switched positions.
He looked at the screen blankly and closed his eyes. This whole thing was folly. It was designed to push others to the limits of their nerves. A trap. A joke…He smiled to himself.
“ICE, Buddy…” He said without opening his eyes and continued “Can you show me again the feed we found on board of the GenShip?”
“Main screen, Pan” ICE replied. It seemed like ICE was adapting extremely well and getting great at reading the room. His short, precise answers were fitting to the mood of others. As if he also didn’t want to spend any unnecessary words.
Pan opened his eyes, looked over his shoulder, Bella was already in her bunk resting her eyes.
While watching the feed, Pan delved into memories of their time on the drifting ship.
39 Standard Days before…
After arriving in the system, they had supercruised for days to catch up with the drifting behemoth.
“ICE, everything on scanners, I want everything” Pan ordered with a cold edge.
“Bell, you know…” he added.
Bella shook her head. “Standard proc, boss.”
“Initial analysis of visual, laser and telemetric scans are ready Pan” ICE bombarded the screen with information.
They could also see it now. Just outside of the canopy the colossal corpse of the once mighty ship filled their view.
“Calculating and parking to the Orbit of the desolate vessel. Be warned, around the vessel over eighty thousand debris detected” ICE kept shooting information.
The ship's structure has fragmented into distinct sections and was held together by damaged connections. Broken solar panel arrays reflecting their lights, painting the dark husk in various colors. Empty and partially ejected escape pods were hanging from the exterior like abandoned promises.
“Faint power and electromagnetic fields detected” ICE muttered “Backup reserves could power undemanding systems for centuries” he added.
Bella pointed some areas where the interior lighting still flickered, visible cracks, and breaches in the hull was eerily illuminated from within, creating a haunting visage. Like burning veins of a dying beast.
As if the radiation and decades of exposure after the sabotage were not enough, the exterior of the ship was bearing scars and pockmarks from impacts with micrometeoroids and larger space debris visible as irregularities, dents, and gouges on the ship's surface.
“Cursed and Haunted” apparently Bella said.
“Curses and Hauntings not detected Bell” ICE replied casually.
For the first time in weeks, Pan smiled.
“Let’s poke the dead…” he said, and Bella completed the sentence “…and walk among the ghosts.”
It was a cold, foreboding tomb.
No gravity generators, no power, no life-support. Decompressed and depressurized halls, rooms, stations. Cryo-chambers malfunctioned after the initial power failure resulting cryo-pods becoming coffins. Frozen, deformed bodies were entangled in cables and pipes, a macabre dance in the silent vacuum. Various personal items, floating in every quarter, a complete chaos.
In a particularly damaged section, they discovered a breached hull, a jagged tear exposing the void of space. Pan peered out, contemplating the vastness that had infiltrated the ship.
It got worse from there.
They found that some backup power was available, and some sections of the ship were cut off from the rest with emergency doors. Some areas designated as damage control stations were used in an attempt to repair breaches or maintain critical systems. Tools, equipment, and partially completed repairs were still visible. That was the first clue of the terrifying truth.
Pan felt it creeping and closing on him.
“The sabotage didn’t…It didn’t take everyone out immediately!” He said to his helmet.
ICE replied to comms “Based on the visual findings, it seems you are correct Pan” a moment of silence.
“I detected elevated heart rate and stress on both of you.”
On the 5th day of their exploration, they came across a working holo-panel. Once turned on a flickering hologram of a female became visible. It looked like she was talking, a recording. There was no air, so no sound. ICE extracted the sound file, and they could hear: “Emergency shelters 3 and 9 are available. Evacuation from decks green 4 to green 32. Yellow deck, breached. White deck, breached. Blue deck, no connection. Black deck, no connection. You are in purple deck. Emergency shelters 3 and 9 are available.”
Without asking ICE gave direction to the closest shelter area
The structure of the corridor and hull was different here.
“A vault within a vault in a safe”
The entrance had two decompression rooms, both non-operational. Whatever lay beyond was locked away from the rest of the universe. Bella and ICE worked tirelessly to restore the shelter doors' subroutines, revealing a space equipped with survival supplies, makeshift shelters, and medical equipment at the entrance. However, as they ventured deeper, the nightmare unfurled.
Damaged hologram recordings told tales of desperation and futility. Pan and Bella couldn't escape the voices of the doomed. "...ddy…om! We…tra..d in shel..r-static-static-static-…No hope!...t..ming…-static-static-static-silence-sobs-fuck! They are not coming!!!"
They looked at each other. Shaking.
ICE: “I can clean the static and enhance.”
“Stop it ICE” Pan said. “Nothing to hear more. She said it all.”
Next two days they learned that after the explosion and emp took out the main reactors as well as navigational systems, communications were still working.
They also learned that before the ship automatically broadcasted mayday, futile for sure, since Generation Ships were essentially large colony vessels sent out with the aim of finding habitable planets and establishing new human settlements. Back then there was no one to listen and respond to the mayday.
Finally, they discovered secured data storage deep within the ship systems. Pan took it with him and started to comb it for any relevant information. He learned that for 571 days people survived in various shelters, trying repairs and searching for a way to prolong the end until they just left records, data files, images, video feeds and messages like a time capsule.
With a whisper ICE “Boss, I’ve got something for your eyes only.”
Panda looked troubled and said “what’s up pal? Why not show it on the main screen?”
ICE replied cryptically:”Can’t boss, had to wait till Bella went to sleep”
Curiosity mingled with apprehension as Pan took his holo screen. "Okay, show it to me."
ICE: “I am sorry boss” and showed the feed.
The image was from some sort of a docking corridor. He could count more than 20 soldiers. Ready with weapons and in full tactical gear. No flags, no insignia. Based on the time stamp the recording was quite recent, 27 years ago. Stamp also was giving the name of the ship “Pollock.”
The second image had the same time stamp. The ship’s name was the same with the GenShip.
Pan couldn’t believe his eyes.
Image after image, he watched the unnamed soldiers boarding the Generation Ship, finding them undamaged! cryo chambers and sutting them down, severing their connection from the backup power reserves of the ship. Ultimately causing the cyro pods lose power and end life support systems, ending frozen lives of survivors from the generation ship.
It didn’t make sense. If the Federation, Alliance or any other faction found the long lost generation ship why they would make sure that there are no survivors and still keep the ship intact?
Recording turned static and after a short time he thought the recording is finished.
Until he heard a familiar voice. A voice he thought was lost in time.
It was his mom talking in distance“..and it will embed to the AI. Yes. At least this will survive.” And later her voice was clear and loud “These images are the proof we were looking for. It is not sabotage but a cover up. This is a GenShip only on the outside. This is…. a tribute, an example and a message for future generations. Whatever happened here, is just a small part of the sins of politics. Our priority is to find the research data. This ship was carrying it and now we believe it survived. We will try to (a distant explosion sound), yes, we will try to reach…No. CODE Bou0937662… ICE only you know where we went know. Goodluck kid and as always, keep him safe. And you my boy…. -static-static-static-“
Pan asked right away “ICE, an explanation, right fucking now.”
ICE “sorry boss, today when you were combing the data my memory core triggered. I believe I always had this recording. However, only now I have Access to it”
“So, you are saying you had to be outside of the fucking Galaxy to remember that you can make me listen to my mother’s voice!!!” Pan felt anger. And also, a distant panic came to him.
“I am afraid you can say that. Also, during the playback of the image, a code was mentioned. That also triggered several subroutines” ICE said as calmly as he can.
“Meaning?” Panda asked.
“Meaning, I also know where they went after here” ICE said.