State of Pleiades - Whitelaw
06 Apr 2018Commander-Wingnut
As Wingnut disembarked and connected to the Commodities Market, one eye on the grocery list from AEGIS Vanguard, he caught a whiff and gagged.Thargoid goo.
Again, evoking memories of cat urine and fossil fuel vapors.
Though Whitelaw Enterprise was not declared at risk of coming under attack (AEGIS was situated in the neighboring Mentor system), ships were coming in splattered in the stuff.
An Orca, drabbled in flecks of green, touched down on the neighboring pad and decontamination units went to work. High-pressure hoses atomized the stuff and sent it airborne, where even the starport's highly regulated air filters struggled to remove it all from the atmosphere.
There was not much that could be done about the smell.
Many of these ships could not be thoroughly scrubbed, and Wingnut noted with some curiosity the sheer number of contaminated hullplates being stacked in the corner of one cordoned-off hangar.
Even diluted, there was steam coming from the landing pads and walkways as puddles of the acid pitted and corroded the metal without remorse.
--:-:--
"Mister Vega, tell me about Whitelaw."
"Accessing. One moment, Commander.
-
Whitelaw Enterprise. Coriolis Starport, orbiting Tote ABC 2.
On the moon below us is the Barcelo Installation low-security prison facility.
The prison now mostly evacuated after Tote showed signs of extreme solar flare activity.
The station was set up as a refugee shelter to provide protection from the radiation, while evacuation ships arrived from other systems.
-
"Barcelo?" interjected Wingnut. "Any relation to the Barcelo Penal Colony on Mitterand Hollow?" He still remembered that moon, and the planet that spun through its empty skies at dizzying speeds.
He wasn't quite sure whether the swaying of his chair was from remembering the vertiginous Hollow, or smelling that awful bouquet.
Unperturbed as any disembodied voice, Vega replied.
"Same contractor. Privatized jails never quite went out of fashion within the Federation. Whitelaw Enterprise was built under the Barcelo umbrella to evacuate the colony, and since then the prison has not maintained much of a population.
It would be interesting to note that most of the general population of Barcelo Installation did in fact wind up at Barcelo Penal, and reside there even now.
This station, meanwhile, presently serves as an ad hoc decontamination depot for passing ships that encounter Thargoids and their caustic weapons."
--:-:--
Wingnut nodded thoughtfully. "That explains the uncanny surplus of emergency shelters they have on hand. The Vanguard happens to need a -lot- of these. And in turn, the Vanguard has something... that these people need.
Mister Vega... I think I have an idea forming.
Pull up the Hutton Helper on HOTPAD-02."