Derelict

[Ganelon]

Ok, having thought it over, and having asked a few questions.. I've been told that what he would be asking for is a "bearing". A "heading" would be what way his ship is currently pointed, relative to some coordinate system or absolute set of directions or known destination. A bearing is how you have to turn the ship to aim it at something, like another ship or destination location. It can be either based on some agreed coordinate system, or just relative to the ship itself. The "course" is the path travelled and would include distance and possibly stops along the way, like when planning a cargo run on the F6 map.

I stick by the "space is an ocean" 'trope', because I like it, and there was enough carry over from nautical terms into use for airships that it's possible it could carry over into space. I'm sticking with a cartesian system because it's simple and I agree with what has been said about it being more intuitive, so I'll use yaw and pitch, though I concede it would also be *possible* for a bearing to be done by degrees of roll and the pitch.

That's what I would have been looking for, a relative bearing. What way Jack should turn the ship to head towards whichever nearby system the characters are thinking of as "home". There's still some different ways that can be done. It could be however much of 360 degrees one needs to turn, or port and starboard, or red and green or positive and negative, or something like that to indicate which way to turn the ship. Like Green090 or Starboard: ZedNinerZed can mean "turn right" like a car would at a 4-way intersection.

The pitch is similar, except the names for "up and down" don't seem to be as established in "old-timey" nautical terms (or I don't really know much about such nautical terms). So, when in doubt, math usually sounds "scientific" enough. Positive and negative. That also would have the advantage of not sounding enough like the terms used for "right and left" to be confusing, and if things are noisy, "pos" and "neg" sound different enough to be workable.

It may not be perfect, but it makes a sort of sense to me, and it's not *too* complicated. This is one of those cases where if I had been really sharp I would have thought this through before blithely tossing out some numbers. I've gone with the 3 digit method for the number of degrees, but left the minutes and seconds as "twenty" or "forty two" since it's shorter and so long as the degrees were heard correctly, the minutes and seconds would be relatively minor corrections comparatively, if they were misheard. They would at least be headed in a direction that wouldn't be disastrously in error, I figure.

Fortunately this is just some fiction, and doesn't need to have any consideration of the needs of the game engine or real people in space. LOL Even in the story context, I imagine that no matter how it is written the reader will pronounce it quite correctly as "yadda-yadda-yadda". While it may be possible to write a story where the fine points of astrogation would be a critical plot element, I personally haven't gotten so fiendishly tedious as to have the writing of such a story underway. (yet)

On the yaw vs roll "controversy".. Umm.. I use both? The pitch, yaw and roll cover all the ways a ship can turn. They are just rotation on the x,y, and z axes, which most humanoid life-forms on this planet learned to cope with in math class. So to me it seems sensible to use them all? Sure, it's *possible* to turn by using either roll OR yaw, but for anything like docking or chasing close after an opponent who is trying to evade your laser, "both" works much better. When moving evasively, the NPCs should also use them all, really. I mean, if you're trying to stay alive, "No turning left, you have to lean first!" seems a rather silly rule.

I just don't see it as controversial. I've changed the offending line in the story as I've explained, and now I'll get back to writing the dang thing. LOL

[Ganelon]

Derelict

Part 2

Jack circled the station slowly, watching the scanner for any sign of other ships in the area. The surrounding space seemed as quiet as the small Coriolis station, as he finally slowed to a stop in front of the docking bay slot. He carefully edged the Sliver forward as he matched the station's spin, the bay looming slowly larger.

"We're coming in low, Jack." Yoofie warned. "Collision is not indicated yet, but our lower hull will come dangerously close."

"Intentional." Jack said, nodding as he continued to sail slowly into the docking bay slot. He throttled back to zero just a few meters short of the huge safety doors, which remained closed. He eased off on the roll control, letting the spin of the station bring the floor of the outer bay against their side landing skid with a thump as he quickly reached forward and pulled a lever. The ship jostled for a moment as the other two skids forcibly secured themselves on the metal of the docking bay floor. Jack checked the panel and nodded as he saw all three of the indicator lights for the magnetic emergency pads on the skids showed they were now secure. He took a deep breath and let it out, taking his hands off the controls.

"Good job." Yoofie congratulated him. "I've never seen you make a landing like that before."

"I've never done one before," Jack replied with a wry smile. "Except for in simulator back in flight school. It was part of emergency training." He started unbuckling his harness. "I figured the main doors wouldn't open automatically. Time for us to take a little walk, Yoofie." He pointed to a panel off to the side of the closed safety door. "That looks like a service hatch."

Jack took his time, spending most of an hour sorting through the toolkit to pick items he thought might be of use and then putting on his EVA suit before he was finally ready to venture outside the Sliver. He thought for a moment and then went back up to the command deck, unlatching a small panel near the main console and taking a small plasma laser pistol from it's charging dock. He checked the pistol and it's settings before hanging it by a ring on the back of the pistol from one of the gear clips on his suit.

"I am still reading no signs of life, Jack." Yoofie observed.

"I doubt I'll need, it." Jack nodded. "But I'd rather err on the side of caution."

His father had bought the pistol in case of boarding or hijack attempts. He had never needed it, nor had Jack, but Jack had at least a little practice with more modern versions from his training with the Naval Reserves.

"Besides, depending on how thick that hull is and what it's made of, our scanners might not pick up lifesigns." Jack checked his helmet. "It looks like human construction, but it might be alien or some sort of trap." He took a couple of protein pills from one of his suit's sleeve pockets and chewed them as he put on the helmet and locked it into place. The lights in the helmet came on, and there was a hiss as the suit pressurized, checking itself for leaks. It was a painful pressure he felt in his ears for several long seconds, until it suddenly eased and the green light came on in the lower inside rim of the helmet. He turned on Yoofie's hoofer, which he'd attached and connected to the suit's audio system earlier. "Ears and eyes ok, Yoofie?"

"I have you loud and clear, Commander." She replied. "Ready to override hatch safety on your command."

"Override hatch safety lock now." Jack confirmed. The red emergency lights came on, and the warning light on the crew hatch began flashing. Going outside the vehicle was not a common practice, usually done only in case of emergencies. But the crew hatch had a double door, and could function as an effective, if cramped, airlock in a pinch. It was one of those redundancies from older times that Jack was glad of at the moment. He unlocked the inner hatch and stepped inside, pulling the inner door closed behind him. There was no room to turn around, as he somewhat clumsily managed to fasten the inner door lock.

"Inner door is sealed, Commander." Yoofie informed him.

"Affirmative." He replied. "Opening outer door valve.. Now."

There was a brief hiss that tapered off quickly as the air escaped. Jack waited for several seconds after the sound ceased, fighting down a brief wave of claustrophobia, before pulling the lever to open the outer hatch. The hatch swung open and he almost fell out before catching his balance. He unrolled the small emergency ladder and climbed down to the surface of the landing bay deck. He could feel the "gravity" effect from the Coriolis station's spin, but decided to keep his magboots turned on for the moment.

"We are out and about, Yoofie. Let's get a closer look at that service hatch."

"Affirmative, Commander." She replied. "All ship systems are go, scanners clear."

Jack examined the opening mechanism of the service hatch. "Looks simple enough. No electronic lock, but other than that, it's pretty standard." He tapped the heavy glass of a small gauge near the hatch. "It's reading as zero pressure in the passageway, but I'm still going to be careful opening it since the gauge might be dead."

"No sign of electrical activity." Yoofie responded. "But it's possible that readout might be mechanical."

"Either way, best to be careful." Jack said, as he hooked a short tether between himself and the heavy wheel of the service hatch. Then he slowly turned the wheel. Though he could see no sign of any escaping atmosphere, he paused for several long seconds before pulling the lever under the wheel. The hatch swung open, revealing a dark narrow passage, just a little wider than needed for a human in a spacesuit to walk along. He switched on his helmet's external lights and peered into the corridor. It curved towards what would be the inside of the docking bay. He unclipped the pistol and retracted the trigger guard so his gloved hand could pull the trigger, if necessary. "Well, let's see where it goes."

"Affirmative, Comman..." Yoofie's voice suddenly cut off as Jack stepped a little ways inside the passageway. He moved back the entrance, and heard her voice over the hoofer.

"...iver to Commander, do you read?"

"Affirmative, I can read you now, but not when I step inside the corridor." Jack paused for a moment, thinking. "Normally, communications would go through metal at this short a range. I wonder if there's something odd about this station."

"Measurements are different than any Coriolis type we have in our identification banks." Yoofie paused for a moment, then continued. "Construction seems typical of human colonial, but the fittings and welds suggest it may have been made long ago."

"Is there any record of the use of some sort of signal damping material in older stations?"

"Negative, Commander." Yoofie replied. "While signal damping technology exists and is used on the outside of some hulls, this doesn't resemble any that I know of."

Jack nodded. "Roger. I'm going to follow the corridor and see if I can get inside and get those doors open." He stepped inside the corridor and started to pull the hatch shut.

"Be careful, Jack."

"Affirmative." He replied as he pulled the door closed, then locked and sealed it. He could hear the pounding of his heart in his own ears over the sound of his breath as he made his way down the narrow curving corridor. His suit lights managed to illuminate a small area directly in front of him, and so he proceeded cautiously until he made his way to the hatchway door at the end.

"This should open into the main landing bay area, assuming this station is laid out the same as a standard one." He thought, checking the pressure differential gauge and finding it either dysfunctional or reading no pressure difference, like the first one. He paused for a moment with his hand on the wheel before opening the pressure valve. If the ship's sensors couldn't manage communication through the hull of this station, then it was impossible to be certain that there were no life-forms either. He decided to proceed and turned the wheel.

Since there was again no sign of any air passing the valve, he tried the lever. The lever worked easily, and the door swung open silently onto a large dark space. The pressure gauge in his suit indicated that the room pressure was deep space vacuum, or close enough. His suit lights didn't illuminate the vast room well enough to make out all the details, but it was obviously the inner section of the main dock. He unclipped his pistol and slowly made his way around the perimeter of the room. All doors were sealed and though the tools were rather antique in style, many of them were familiar.

He located what had to be the lighting panel and was not surprised when flipping all of the switches had no effect. No air, no power. A dead station, then.

The emergency manual crank system for operating the main door was located in the same place it was on any station he had ever been in. There was no lock lever near it, and he struggled with the crank on the large wheel for a minute before he accidentally pulled the wheel out and it began to turn. Once it had been unlocked, the wheel turned normally, and he applied himself to the crank with both hands. He knew this would take a bit of time, since the mechanism had to move several tons of duralium and steel doors.

It was less than a minute before he could see the dark crack between the doors show, so he kept working at it steadily as the big doors crept open.

"Commander, is that you opening the doors?" He was very glad to hear Yoofie's voice. The silence other than his own breathing and movements within the suit had begun to become oppressive.

"Affirmative." He replied. "It will take a bit yet before I get the doors open wide enough to bring the ship inside."

"Can you take a moment to show me the inside of the docking bay?" Yoofie asked. "I may see something that could help."

"Roger." Jack replied, glad of a break from the tedium of working the crank. For all his work, the gap between the doors was barely half a meter wide, and at this rate he would be working for hours to get them open far enough to bring the ship inside.

He walked around the bay, trying to show all the angles he could think of. He had made it less than halfway around when Yoofie directed him to a square pillar near the center.

"I think there should be an umbilical connector in that pylon." She explained. "If there is, it is possible we could run a cable and power up at least the emergency door motor and the lights for the bay from there. That plate right in front of you, near the floor. Can you remove the cover, please?"

Jack knelt and took out a spanner from his toolkit and removed the hexagonal metal plate, exposing some sort of a heavy duty power connection system.

"That is the umbilical." Yoofie confirmed. "I saw a plug that matches it over on the bench thirty meters to your left. If you can bring it aboard, I'm fairly sure I can talk you through adapting it to our external power cable."

"On my way." Jack replied. He decided not to mention that even though his suit was heated, just the thought of the cold of space and the dark silence of the station were beginning to make him feel oddly chill. More than once he had imagined he saw something moving in the dark. It simply wasn't rational. He was rather glad to have any reason to get back inside the ship where things were comparatively bright and secure.

It took several hours of work before he could finally pilot the Sliver carefully into the docking bay and close the big doors again. The ships reactors could run for a very long time, if need be. While not nearly enough to power a whole station, they were ample to power the equipment in the landing bay that he would need to make external repairs to his ship. So the lights were now on in the bay, and there had been more than enough pressure in the station's reserve air tanks to begin the process of repressurising so he would be able to work without a suit. The station's internal doors could be sealed, but lacked individual airlocks, so atmosphere needed to be brought back to at least most of the station before he could explore and try to learn why this station was here in the middle of otherwise empty interstellar space and to find out what had happened.

The refuelling tanks in the bay had been nearly empty, but the small amount of fuel in them would be enough to cut the length of time they would need to cruise interstellar space to gather enough wisps of fuel to make jump. The Sliver could cruise on torus drive for as long as the reactor held out. It could go for years, even decades, only actually needing fuel for using the injectors or the jump drive. But his food supply was dwindling.

Nevertheless, it had been a long day, and since he had missed both his first and second meals, he decided on full rations for his third meal. He sipped the warm globe full of thick savoury meal beverage slowly, pacing it with nibbles of "dessert" and krunchee-stix. "So, what are we dealing with here, Yoofie?" He asked between bites. "What is a station doing abandoned all the way out here?"

"We won't know for sure until you can get to the command center, Jack." She replied. "But in some sources in the data banks we have references to older times that seem to indicate that witchspace travel was much different than we are used to. Wormhole generators were too large to fit in ships, and so they apparently were generated in system by some apparatus referred to as a 'Faraway'."

"Interesting." Jack responded, wishing he'd taken more history classes. "How long ago are we talking about?"

"At the very least, fifty years." Yoofie replied, then continued. "That's when the last Faraway was decommissioned. But this station appears to have been built considerably before that, judging by the fittings and construction. I would estimate that it might be as much as two centuries ago that it was built."

Jack blinked. "It couldn't be that old, could it? Not and still be capable of functioning?"

"It isn't actually functioning right now, Jack. Lights and nominal emergency life support are being run by transfusing power from our reactor." Yoofie reminded him, "We won't know how long it's been sitting out here or what happened until we can get the data core from the main computer. There's a chance that the station's own reactors could be brought online again, but that can't be done from here."

"So there were stations in witchspace in the past?" He asked.

"There are some mentions of stop points and emergency rescue stations in witchspace. Before the Thargoid incursions made it necessary to optimise the wormhole entry and exit until they now seem almost simultaneous, it used to be necessary to actually pilot the ships through the tunnel between wormholes." She continued. "A wormhole only appears to be a tunnel when travelling it, however. So those rescue stations actually existed in normal interstellar space, but at distances that would be huge compared to how far apart they might seem while travelling through witchspace."

Jack shook his head, trying to assimilate the idea. "So this would have been one of those rescue stations? I guess that makes sense. So they just abandoned the stations when the Faraway fell out of use?"

"I would guess that they may have had to evacuate some of the stations abruptly when the Thargoids became more aggressive." Yoofie replied. "But that is just extrapolating from the bits mentioned here and there in the database. We don't have much history in the ship database, since we don't have much need for it, usually."

Jack nodded. "So how is the pressurising going? How much longer will it take before we can head on up to the control deck and get that memory core to see what happened here?"

"The station seems to be holding atmosphere well." Yoofie paused before continuing. "It would take a few days before the air recyclers are in full operation, but it should be safe to explore in approximately nine hours."

"Tomorrow, then." Jack said, as he reached over and dimmed the lights.

Jack slept fitfully, having odd dreams that would bring him somewhat awake again and again. Whether it was true, as some said, that witchspace could cause nightmares, or simply the oppressive oddness of the old silent station around him, he had a less restful night than usual. Finally he awoke from a dream that had something to with the sound of a small girl crying and adult voices shouting in anger or fear. He couldn't remember more than that of it. Looking over to the ship's main chronometer and seeing that it was about half an hour before his usual waking time, he decided to just stay up.

"Good morning, Jack." Yoofie said, "You are up a bit early. I hope you slept well?"

"Not very well at all." Jack grumbled, as he set the dispenser to make a globe of "tee" and give a packet of krunchee-stix to have with it. "Tee" was a standard spacer beverage said to be based on an herbal transfusion that was supposed to have been popular long ago. During the diaspora, there had apparently been some disagreement as to what herb or herbs were actually supposed to be used. This resulted in tee being a rather different flavour on every planet you might try drinking it at. But one thing everyone could agree on, was that the beverage that came out of a ship's dispenser had no resemblance to any known version. It was mostly caffeinated water with small amounts of other stimulants, some brown colouring, and a strange bitter taste that your health computer would hide as many vitamins and other nutrients under as it could. People also differed as to whether it should be drunk hot or cold, but Jack took his hot.

"I think it's just this place getting to me, Yoofie." He said, as he opened the panel and took out the hot globe of tee and the packet of krunchee-stix. "The sooner we can get underway, the better."

"Should we forget about recovering the memory core from the station main computer then?" Yoofie asked.

"No." Jack replied. "I want to find out more about this place. Besides, we can turn it in when we get back to home."

"Affirmative, Commander."

The station's air smelled stale and somewhat metallic when Jack set out for the command deck. He'd smelled worse on many stations, though. Repeated recycling of air as well as solid waste and used water tended to eventually permeate everything on heavily populated stations.

The air circulation system would run for several seconds and then pause, and then resume falteringly. "It sounds like something huge breathing." Jack remarked.

"The air recyclers and circulation need more power than our reactor can supply to work properly." Yoofie told him. "They are running in alternating cycles, but it will be more than you'll need."

Jack nodded and opened the hatch that would lead to the core of the station so he could take the lift to the command deck level. As soon as he closed the hatch, he lost contact with Yoofie again. He opened the door and commented, "There has to be something unusual about this station. Normally your communications work fine in station."

"I think it may be those hexagonal plates covering the walls and floors and main surfaces, Jack." She said. "They seem to have a damping capability on all known bands."

Jack thought for a moment, then decided to ask. "Yoofie, is it possible that there's anything alive on this station, and maybe our sensors just can't pick it up through this stuff?"

"I can't say for certain at this point, Jack." Yoofie admitted. "Very few life-forms we know of can survive in deep space vacuum. I would say the odds are against it, considering the station was sealed up."

"How about other things, like automated defence systems or robots?"

"Also unlikely, but it can't be completely ruled out, since we know so little about this place." She agreed, then added. "Be very careful, Jack."

"Affirmative." Jack nodded, unclipping his pistol from his belt. "I'll set the hoofer on record, and you can review it when I'm back in range." He closed and sealed the door and proceeded down the corridor towards the hub lift.

The lift was slow, but it worked well enough. The command deck was open, all the way around the lift tube. As soon as Jack turned towards the computer section, he saw a problem. A large panel had been taken off the main computer and set to one side. Assorted parts and assemblies were spread out on the floor around it, but in the center of it all was what was left of the cube of the memory core. It had been methodically smashed to bits. Jack took care to make sure he had a good recording of it for Yoofie to look over, then proceeded to search the command deck. He found no personal items of any kind, nothing but panels, displays and the rather spartan furniture common to such places. The panel labels, like those down in the docking bay, were readable, but were in a rather archaic type and the abbreviations unfamiliar and in many cases baffling to him.

He returned to the lift, and headed down to the next deck, where he found the sick bay and galley. The galley was a disappointment to him, since he had been hoping against hope to find some food that might still be edible to supplement his diminishing supply, but the cabinets and storage areas were all bare.

"So they took everything with them when they left." He mused.

But the sick bay was reasonably well stocked with usual supplies. He pondered on this and decided to make a good recording sweep of both those areas as well and return to the ship to confer with Yoofie.

"The memory core was obviously deliberately destroyed." Yoofie said, "Perhaps it was to keep information from being found by the Thargoids?"

Jack nodded, sipping the bland unflavoured cold globe of the morning meal he had decided to have after all. He had run out of the flavours that he liked cold. "Yeah, maybe. I'm really wondering what happened here, Yoofie."

"There is no telling for certain, without the memory core." Yoofie replied.

"I'm going to head down to the guest and crew levels and check the quarters. Maybe I can find some clues." Jack said.

"Affirmative, Commander."

The guest level had nothing to find. It was nothing but bare little berths, the beds all still made as if for guest who would never arrive to use them.

Opening the first door on the crew level, pistol in hand, he found little more. A few discarded items that might have been left by someone getting ready to leave. There were no records or writings.

It was in the second of the crew quarters that he checked that he found a human skeleton.

[UK_Eliter]

I'm enjoying the story!

[aegidian]

He took his protein pills and put his helmet on!

[Ganelon]

UK_Eliter: Excellent, glad that you're enjoying it!

aegidian: Splendid! I was wondering if anyone caught that.

[Ganelon]

Derelict

Part 3

"I don't like this, Jack." Yoofie said, as she displayed the images of the skeleton Jack had recorded on the hoofer. "Skeletons that are bare like this don't happen in space."

Jack nodded. "I've seen a few bodies in old wrecks, and they certainly weren't skeletons." He shook his head as if to clear those memories. "Maybe it was some flesh-eating disease. Should I worry about contamination?"

"I don't think that is likely or necessary, since all of your immunizations are current." She zoomed in on one section of bone. She put a blinking box around one section of the image. "Look at this, Jack. These bones appear to have been gnawed."

Jack blinked, registering the implications, then checked the charge on his pistol. "They are also just too tidy, laid out on the bunk like that. People don't usually die that neatly. I haven't seen any sign of trumbles or other station vermin"

"No, Jack. The teeth-marks suggest something roughly humanoid in size. I found something else. Look at this." Yoofie showed an image of a panel with several lights. Most of them were dark, but one was lit up green. "There appears to be a ship in parking dock 'Delta'."

Jack nodded slowly, thinking. "Can we lock that dock from here?"

"I shut off power to the lines supplying the parking docks as soon as I saw it, Commander."

"Excellent." Jack nodded. "I need to check on something in the galley. Back in a minute."

Jack headed off to the Sliver's galley and returned in a few minutes. "I was sure I still had some of these." He set down several small surveillance cameras. They were small boxes, some no bigger than his thumb, made to be easily concealed. He started holding them up one at a time to Yoofie's camera 'eye' on the console. "Can you receive from these directly, or will I need to bring up the receiver boxes as well?"

"I can receive from those, Jack." Yoofie confirmed. "They all transmit on standard comms channels."

"Sometimes it's good to have a half ton of samples of 'Luxury Items' in the galley." Jack paused for a moment, thinking. "I'm going to seal all the doors to this bay and set these to watch them. One for Delta dock, too. I think our priority has changed to getting the Sliver's repairs done as quickly as possible, and I've had enough surprises for one day."

The discovery of the skeleton had shaken Jack more than he liked to admit.

"Affirmative, Commander." Yoofie agreed. "We should make repairs and depart immediately."

"Well, I want to make sure we're ready to leave fast if we need to," Jack said. "But there's still too much about this place that I'd like to find out, if we can."

"Station Eight Seven Alpha Nu." Yoofie supplied. "I noticed the name over the main bay door when I was reviewing the images while you were gone."

Jack nodded. "Good work. I didn't even think to look. That's an odd sounding designation. Was it maybe standard for the rescue stations or some sort of military station?"

"I don't know, Jack." Yoofie replied. "Our data bank doesn't contain detailed information about all known types of stations, just the most common ones and ones we have actually visited."

"Remind me to buy a bunch of historical bank supplements and anything else where the data might be useful after we get back to regular space, Yoofie." Jack ordered.

"Affirmative, Commander." Yoofie agreed.

It didn't take long to place the surveillance cameras, and Jack set to work on the repairs to their damaged engine. The damage was minor, and with Yoofie's guidance, he was done in a few hours. Jack found the manual work was good for steadying his nerves and also gave him some time to think things through.

When he returned to the Sliver's command deck, he noted that he was past time for his usual second meal. He decided to have just a small snack instead, and set the dispenser for a portion of tee and krunchee-stix. He settled back in the pilot's seat to relax for a moment.

"Here's the plan, Yoofie. I'm going to finish checking the crew quarters and the maintenance level. Then we'll take a look and see what's in dock Delta." He paused for a moment as the dispenser dinged, taking out his globe of tee and packet of krunchee-stix.

"I have to point out, Jack, that it would be more prudent to leave immediately and report what we found here to the proper authorities when we get back to home." Yoofie noted.

"They might never send anyone to investigate this place, Yoofie." Jack replied. "I want to know what happened here, on station Eight Seven Alpha Nu." He finished his tee and krunchee-stix much sooner than he usually would have and started going through the small storage compartments on the Sliver's command deck, taking out assorted items and clipping them to his belt.

"Some of those items are Naval Reserve ordinance, Jack." Yoofie observed.

"Damned straight." Jack replied. "If I run into anything unpleasant, I want to be prepared."

Then Jack opened a small access panel under the main console and started pulling some modular plugs and moving them to different places on the circuit grid.

"Jack, those are main control circuits." Yoofie noted.

"Affirmative. I'm enabling some of the circuits." Jack finished and closed the panel before continuing. "I've routed auxiliary control to your unused ports, Yoofie. Check and confirm."

"Checked and confirmed, Commander. Systems functional." Yoofie paused "But, Jack.."

"Here are your orders." Jack said, interrupting her objection. "If I am not back within one hour of expected times, or if anyone that isn't me comes through any of the doors, you are to open the main bay doors immediately. Disregard and over-ride all safety warnings. As soon as the bay doors are open, you are to launch at full power. Continue until enough fuel is collected for jump and then jump to home."

"Confirmed, Commander." Yoofie replied, sounding tense.

"On arrival at home system, immediately turn ninety degrees out of the spacelane and proceed on torus for thirty seconds, then head straight for the main station." Jack paused for a moment. "As Commander, I am hereby declaring a ship emergency. You are to ignore all messages from other ships, including apparent distress calls and proceed immediately to the station. As soon as you are within station aegis, engage autopilot docking and transmit the general distress signal. Continue to transmit through docking. Security will come very quickly and meet you on docking. Open the ship to personnel with security ID, and make all information and logs available."

Yoofie hesitated for a moment, then replied "Confirmed, Commander."

"It's just a precaution, Yoofie." Jack reassured her. "I don't expect you to need those orders. But if anything happens to me here, I at least want word to get back. I don't want to just vanish out here forever like whoever it was whose skeleton we found."

"I understand, Jack," She replied. "My programming requires that I remind you that computer control of main ship functions is illegal in the home system."

Jack nodded. "I'll set it back to normal as soon as we make the jump. Now let's see what we can find out. I should be back within one hour." He headed out of the Sliver and back down to the crew quarters level.

In less than half an hour, Jack was back and talking as Yoofie reviewed the images. "I found ten more skeletons, all picked clean and laid out like the first. No valuables or identifying records in any of the crew cabins. Checking the skeletons over more carefully, I found a hole a centimeter wide on the back of each of their skulls. It looked like it had been drilled."

"It does." Yoofie agreed. "I don't know enough to tell genders of the skeletons, but at least two of them appear to have been children. Eight of them are definitely human, two avian, and one batrachian."

Jack nodded and continued. "I also checked the maintenance and reactor deck. No clues there, either. No sign of anybody or anything, no signs of struggle or laser fire anywhere that I've seen. The recordings you've made should be enough for the authorities or the Navy to be able to determine what happened or to decide if an expedition for investigation is needed."

Jack shook his head as he set the dispenser for his second meal. "There's still dock Delta. That's the only place left where we might find some clues as to what happened here."

"Commander, I must repeat my earlier suggestion that it would be more prudent to leave immediately." Yoofie paused, then continued. "No matter what may have happened here, it will not help us get home safely."

"True, that." Jack nodded, sipping his warm savoury meal beverage. "But we humans are notoriously curious. If I don't find out what happened here, I'll end up wishing that I had taken the time to look just a little more. But your suggestion has been heard and noted, Yoofie."

They both stayed silent as Jack slowly finished his meal. He decided to save the packet of krunchee-stix for later.

"Power up the door to dock Delta, Yoofie." Jack said, standing. He opened the compartment where he usually kept the pistol and took out the second charged power pack for it. That would give another forty shots if he needed them.

"Dock Delta door ready to open, Commander." Yoofie replied. "Pressure reads good, and lights are on."

Jack proceeded to the docks, pistol in hand, and flipped the door switch for bay Delta. The door slowly slid open and Jack cautiously peered inside. "What kind of ship is that?"

"It appears to be some variety of a Python, Commander. A very old one." Yoofie replied through the hoofer. "One engine has been removed, and another is partially disassembled. No tools are nearby, which suggests they were perhaps waiting for parts or a new engine."

Jack nodded and walked around the ship, recording it from different views. "It does look like a Python. But I've never seen one with quite these lines. Military model, maybe?"

"Impossible to tell, Commander." Yoofie replied. "The trademark emblem indicates the manufacturer was Whatt and Pritney, but it does not exactly match any Pythons from their line in our identification database. It may have been military, or custom, or just very old."

Jack nodded, looking up at the bow as he continued his inspection of the ship. "Liberty Valence" He read aloud. "Any mention in our records of a Liberty Valence?" He made sure to get a good recording of the nose art, which was a picture of some sort of unfamiliar pistol that was apparently shooting at an old-style emblem for an atom.

"None, Commander." Yoofie replied after a pause of several seconds.

Jack proceeded to the crew hatch and after taking a few moments to figure out the manual latch, pulled it open.

Suddenly there was the sharp crackling hiss of of a plasma laser. The beam missed him by barely a centimeter and Jack dove to one side, rolling and coming to his feet in a crouch with his pistol trained on the dark hatch opening. The bright beam that was lancing out of the darkness continued for several seconds, burning a pit into one of the beams of the bay as the high voltage sparks played over the metal. Jack fired three shots in rapid succession into the open bay, and the beam from inside the ship ceased.

"Throw down your weapons and come out with your hands or other possible appendages on your head!" Jack shouted. "You are surrounded by a squad of Galactic Navy troopers!"

There was no reply.

Jack took a small clear sphere from a case on his belt with his free hand, then used his teeth to pull out a small plastic tab protruding from it. The sphere began to glow red and pulse. He spat out the tab and watched it for three pulses, and then threw it into the open hatch, looking down at the floor. There was a silent blinding flash of white light from the hatchway that continued for several seconds. As soon as it ended, he took a hand light from his belt and charged through the hatch, to catch his opponents while they were still blinded from the flash.

Inside he found nobody waiting in ambush. Instead he found a pistol jury-rigged to a support with a length of cord leading to the handle on the inside of the hatch. He sighed with relief, but stayed on guard. "It was a booby-trap, Yoofie." He took the pistol off the support and hung it from his belt.

"Affirmative, Commander," Yoofie replied. She continued after a brief pause, "Be careful, Jack."

He cautiously made his way through the ship, and finding no sign of anyone aboard in the main areas, he eventually reached the command deck. By reflex, he hit the power switch on the console and was amazed when the emergency lights flickered and came on. He heard a muffled clunk behind him and spun around, pistol at the ready. After a few seconds he realized it had been the sound of the mechanism for the Liberty Valence's reactor beginning it's power-up sequence. "She still has some charge in her banks, Yoofie." He said with a chuckle. "Amazing, after so many years."

"The Pythons, especially the older ones, are a ship well known for their reliability, Jack." Yoofie replied. "The capacitor banks can hold a charge indefinitely, and so long as the reactor was properly shut down, there is no reason it wouldn't still function after even a century or two."

Jack nodded, his eyes automatically scanning the console. He stopped, startled, then licked his lips and asked, almost not daring to hope.. "Yoofie, could fuel from this ship still be usable in the Sliver? I'm seeing a full tank here."

After a long pause, Yoofie replied, her voice cheerful. "I see no indication in the data banks that there was any change in fuel type over the years, Jack. We can test a sample to make sure."

Jack nodded, grinning. "Roger Wilco. I'm going to check the rest of the ship."

When he reached the Commander's cabin, what he saw almost prompted him to fire by reflex, but he hesitated and slowly lowered his pistol as he saw that the desiccated corpse was no danger to him. "So this is where you've been hiding." Jack said, as he set his pistol to safe and clipped it back to his belt. In the center of the room was a large mound of assorted items, obviously the personal belongings of the rest of the crew, stacked together to make a sort of improvised throne. Seated on the throne was the desiccated mummy of what had once been a human male adult. Looking closer, Jack saw that the left hand was wired to the arm of the 'throne' so that even in death the middle finger was held up in a still recognized obscene gesture.

"I think we found the last crew-member, Yoofie." Jacks said, approaching and examining the corpse more thoroughly. "His badge says he was 'Ding-Un', reactor engineer."

"He ate the rest of the crew?" Yoofie asked.

"That would be my guess." Jack agreed. "And judging from the pistol in his right hand and the char visible under under the jawline, he committed suicide, rather than starve to death."

"That is terrible, Jack." Yoofie replied, her voice a bit softer than usual.

"Yes, it is." Jack agreed. "Well, recorder off, Yoofie. I'm going to find something to take a fuel sample and I'll be coming back up to the Sliver."

The fuel sample tested out as usable, and though the only hose that would reach far enough was small diameter, they filled the tanks of the Sliver. Jack insisted on taking an extra hour to pump the remainder of the Python's fuel into the station's main tanks. "Finding this station saved our lives, and it won't take that long to make things a little easier for someone else, if anyone ever is in trouble and chances upon it again."

He also took bedding and other large pieces of cloth from the sales samples in the Sliver's galley to cover the skeletons and the mummified remains of engineer Ding-Un. "It's just a matter of respect. A human gesture." He informed Yoofie. He emptied the liquor containers from one cargo pod in his hold and stocked them in the station galley, then took anything from Dung-In's 'treasure trove' that looked like it might be saleable as an antique or might be valuable, and packed them into the cargo pod. He went through the tools in the landing bay, taking only those that were too old for him to recognise them and those unlikely to be needed for emergency repairs. Yoofie reminded him to check the Python's ship safe, and he found over one hundred kilos of platinum and gold, as well as a few hundred grams of gems. He removed several of the odd hexagonal plates that lined the walls of the station sections that seemed to damp his ship's scanners, since he wanted to find out what they were and how they worked. They might be useful for something later.

Jack insisted on taking the time to pump the station's air back into the reserve tanks, in case anyone else might ever need it. But before he did, he took some toys and stuffed animals from the samples in his ship's galley and placed them by the skeletons of the children. "Call it foolishness or superstition." He shrugged, explaining to Yoofie. "But they were just kids, left to die out here. It just doesn't seem right, and I don't really need those sample toys."

It was late into what would usually be Jack's sleeping time before everything had been shut down and they were ready to go. Jack decided they'd leave the docking bay doors open. The engines of the Sliver thrummed and throbbed as he took her up to full speed after they cleared the docking slot. After a few minutes, they made the jump and exited witchspace into normal system space.

Jack cycled through the space compass items to the station beacon and then turned their nose off the main spaceway and hit the torus drive. "Ah, beautiful space dust. I never thought I could be so glad to see space dust." Ha laughed, relieved.

"All systems are go, Commander. Local beacons have all been located, and ship's chronometer updated." Yoofie announced.

Jack decided they were far enough out of the main space lane, and adjusted their heading to take them directly to the main station. "We are going to take a few days off, Yoofie. I want to clear out that galley and stock it with some real food. Then we're going to head for a system with a good tech level and get a top notch dispenser system installed and a food recycler just in case of emergencies. When we hit station, check and find us a good system for that and also to have the databanks upgraded for maximum capacity. We're going to get them packed with all the history and engineering data we can get and anything else that might ever be of use. Getting caught short once was a mistake. Anybody can make a mistake. But making that same mistake twice is damned foolishness. Damned foolishness will get you killed in space."

"Affirmative, Commander." Yoofie paused for a moment. "Jack, what happened back there. Back on station Eight Seven Alpha Nu?"

Jack leaned back in his pilot's chair as the Sliver barelled through space and the planet slowly grew in the main viewscreen. The main station had just become visible as a tiny bright dot. "I doubt we'll ever know all of what happened back there, Yoofie. Not for certain. My guess is that the wormhole tunnel was disrupted and those folks were stranded, with nothing they could do but wait for help that never came. Eventually they ran out of food, and resorted to cannibalism." He paused for a sip of tee before continuing. "We don't know exactly how that went, since Ding-Un destroyed all the records. Maybe they all had to participate, or maybe Ding-Un killed them all and fed off their bodies to try and stay alive longer. If they were all involved, they might have just eaten each others bodies as they died or they might have used some sort of lottery or vote to decide who was next. There's just no way to tell."

"But why would engineer Ding-Un rig the booby trap, if he was the last of them left?" Yoofie asked.

"He may have gone crazy, at least at the end and thought that there was someone or something on the station with him that was after him." Jack took another sip of tea, adjusting their heading slightly as the station loomed closer, it's lights now visible. "Or maybe he got so bitter waiting for help that never came, that he decided they should die when they did eventually get there. Or maybe he figured the next being through that hatch would be a Thargoid. There's just no way of knowing."

"Will we be reporting to the main station authorities?" Yoofie asked.

"No." Jack shook his head. "Interstellar space is outside of their jurisdiction. We'll file a quiet report at the first Naval base we get to. There's no big hurry, no emergency and nobody to rescue. No sense in causing more of a stir over it than we need to." As the station aegis indicator came on, Jack opted for an autopilot landing. There were only a few ships waiting ahead of them, and the station's system uploaded automatic docking instructions as the ship began the "waltz" and the traditional Blue Danube music started playing.

"Yoofie, check regulations." Jack said, thinking. "Do we have to declare the non-alien items salvaged from witchspace?"

"There are no regulations concerning non-alien items salvaged from interstellar space unless they are contraband items such as firearms, narcotics or slaves, Commander." Yoofie replied after a brief pause. "The Thargon drone fighters will need to be reported, as usual, but regulations state that they may be sold after that."

"Excellent." Jack nodded, as the Sliver slowly coasted into the dock and the station docking clamps engaged with a soft thump. "We'll just quietly sell the antiques a few at a time to collectors and museums spread across a few different systems, then. That should get us the best price."

"Affirmative, Commander." Yoofie replied as the hatch opened and they heard the normal sounds of crew and people outside.

Jack unbuckled and stood, stretching. "I'll tell the maintenance crew to start the historical data uploads immediately when I give the order to top up our tanks and check my repairs. I'm off to that bath and dinner I've been wishing for. I'll be back later."

"Yes, Jack." Yoofie replied, closing the hatch behind him.

It was good to be home.


THE END

[drew]

Very nicely done. Enjoyed that. Lots of tension during the whole story - definitely a page turner.. A little disappointed we didn't find out 'exactly' what happened though. I was hoping for a tearjerking final entry in a diary, or some kind of log from the last survivor, or maybe a final twist that gave the evidence Jack found a different light.

Very good though. Looking forward to more from you Ganelon!

Cheers,

Drew.

[Ganelon]

Thank you, Drew.

I tried endings that had more of a resolution, but for me they all came out feeling too pat. So I stuck with the last survivor having eliminated all traces so that the characters can't even really tell any possible family (or descendants of family, anyway) of those who were on the crew of the 87-AN about what happened. The only one where there'd be much chance of maybe being able to find anyone to tell would be Ding-Un's family, and they probably wouldn't want to do that.

The reader is left in the same boat as the characters, having to pick the version of what might have happened that they can handle best and moving on. In real life, tragedy is often like that. Jack makes what good he can of the situation, but it's certainly not a happy ending, and the best thing that can be said about it at the end is that it's good to get home.

Heading for the stars and new worlds are pretty dreams. But space is a harsh place, and if anything goes wrong the dream will end up a nightmare for some. That's always been true of any frontier. Sometimes there will be grim endings to those brave enough to head out on that adventure.

My stepfather was what I'd call an adventurer. Wanderer, prospector, treasure hunter. His first name was Jackson, and the personality and dialog of the main character in this story is somewhat based on how he might have reacted and what he might have said. (Yeah, I know.. Cheap writer's trick there. LOL) In his younger years, when he was wandering, if he heard of something like a lost treasure in a haunted cave nobody returned alive from, he was off! Or a valley where there was so much gold in the riverbed that it glittered on a bright day, but where it was said anyone foolish enough to try and go there would end up with their headless body being found floating down that river, he'd be planning an expedition. Ah, now he told some stories!

In his later years, my early teens, he started taking me on "treasure hunts". We'd hear of an old farm abandoned a century ago or find the traces of a place where an old unrecorded road might have run long ago that might have had buildings on it at one time, and we'd get permission from whoever owned the land and get out the metal detectors, soil test gear, geo survey maps, digging tools, and we'd be off for a few days. Sometimes we would find what was left of old buildings. Sometimes so old that nobody left alive knew who had lived there or even that anyone ever had lived there. Part of the process is to try and piece together what room of the house might be where and think of the people who had lived there and try to figure out their daily actions to make a better guess on where to look for anything valuable. Mostly I'm not talking about buildings that are still standing, more often all you could see were changes in the elevation of the ground or differences between old trees and very old trees that might show where someone had cleared land long ago before the wilds reclaimed it. Things a regular person wouldn't even notice.

But like I said, part of the process is to try and piece together the lives of whoever had lived there, figure out something about them or what might have happened to them. All too often, we could find only a few clues, not enough to ever really know. A toy, some small fancy item that might have been a keepsake or an item intended to become an heirloom, maybe a pile of whisky bottles behind what might have been the barn, to hint that someone had a drinking problem. Given a century or two to cover the tracks, time may decide to keep it's secrets, and you are just left wondering with nothing but a bit of guesswork.

That's just the way it is sometimes.

Anyway, now that it's finished, a couple words of explanation. Somewhere early on after I started playing Oolite and joined this board, I think I recall someone mentioning stations in interstellar space or witchspace. Something about how the game engine always spawns at least one station. I've looked for them, but never actually found one. Maybe I recall wrong or maybe it was seen as a glitch and fixed at some point. But I always thought the notion of lost stations somewhere out there just begged for a story.

I've always loved "The Dark Wheel" ever since I first read it years ago. But how it describes witchspace travel is different (and far more interesting sounding!) than the game actually played/plays. Things like stop points and rescue stations are mentioned, but they just weren't something you got to see in actual gameplay. I agree with some of the timelines that put forth the idea that it *used* to be like that maybe.

So this story was spun off those ideas (obviously).

For any "hard sci-fi" fans out there who might read it, "plasma laser pistols" are a bit more than a buzzword. One actual piece of tech called a plasma laser is the idea of using a thin laser beam to heat a channel of air to act as a path for high voltage discharge. Such a discharge could theoretically be adjusted for either a "stun" (like a Taser) or "kill" by electrocution. Maybe not a perfect idea for a sidearm, but I wanted something that could be used inside a ship (or station) as an anti-personnel weapon without risking blowing a hole in the hull. Boarding or repelling boarders or hijackers isn't actually a part of Oolite gameplay, but it would probably be an occasional necessity, so it's my guess at a possible weapon for that which could still fit in the old-school sci-fi idea of a "raygun" or "laser pistol". It would bear little resemblance to the big lasers or plasma weapons mounted on ships in the current game, other than a similarity of name.

I had fun writing the story, glad to hear some folks enjoyed reading it.

[ClymAngus]

Ooo very nice piece of work! Serious suspense!

[Commander McLane]

Somewhere early on after I started playing Oolite and joined this board, I think I recall someone mentioning stations in interstellar space or witchspace. Something about how the game engine always spawns at least one station. I've looked for them, but never actually found one. Maybe I recall wrong or maybe it was seen as a glitch and fixed at some point. But I always thought the notion of lost stations somewhere out there just begged for a story.

I seem to recall that Elite used to place a station everywhere, and with a lot of determination you could find it in interstellar space.

Oolite doesn't, and if it did at some point, that was fixed a long time ago.

[Riff]

that was a great story,i really enjoyed reading it

[Ganelon]

Thank you! I am very pleased that some folks read and enjoyed the story.

Oolite fiction was one of the things that "hooked" me when I started playing Oolite. I read El Viejo's "Coyote" first, and after that, I had to go on and read everything that was here. I still read every story and every bit that gets posted here in the fiction section.

Commander McLane, it is very possible that I confused Elite gossip with Oolite gossip. I was playing Elite via an emulator before I started playing Oolite. Every computer I have owned over the years has always had some version or adaptation of Elite somewhere on it. I have been known to haunt Elite websites and discussions online over the years. In fact, before I found out about Elite, back in the old days of computers like the TI-99 and the early Radio Shack TRS-80 in the late 1970s, I used to write crude space games that were similar sorts of "cruise along and get in fights" things. It was the only way I knew to get a space game back then.

The discussion about Okti's OXP, Interstellar Rescue, jogged my memory about the rumours of lost stations in interstellar space. The Dark Wheel had also mentioned such things (though it mentions quite a few things that never actually existed in any version of the game that I know of). So I thought it'd be a neat idea to explore with a story.

Once again, thanks to everyone who read it, and I'm glad to hear some folks enjoyed it.

[DaddyHoggy]

I enjoyed it very much - and I still think EVs Coyote is probably the best bit of Short Fiction on the Forum - I keep waiting for him to write some more - but he seems to be having too much fun splashing spambots and actually playing the game!

I've currently got three more Oolite shorts on the go - but they're on hold due to RL(tm) issues and my need/desire to finish my novel before I turn 40 (4 months 10days and counting... )

[Cody]

I keep waiting for him to write some more - but he seems to be having too much fun splashing spambots and actually playing the game!

Damn right... but I am 5k words into another piece of Oofic.

[ClymAngus]

I just re-read this; it reminds me of a modern ghost story. They say that at some of the concentration camp sites from WW2 birds won't sing. That eeriness of the silence left after the perpetration of a horrible atrocity. The trespassing in a cold, silent and abandoned hell. The view of a rusted trap, battered, old, but still lethal.

They say there is nothing to fear but fear itself, I see this story as an excellent example of this. There is as much psychologically going on in this story as physically. The situation forces action where every rational thought screams leave well alone.

If this were a piece of music it would be the Moonlight Sonata.

A worthy addition, and one operating on a number of different levels of understanding and in sight. Bravo sir, Bravo!

Thank you! I am very pleased that some folks read and enjoyed the story.

Oolite fiction was one of the things that "hooked" me when I started playing Oolite. I read El Viejo's "Coyote" first, and after that, I had to go on and read everything that was here. I still read every story and every bit that gets posted here in the fiction section.

Commander McLane, it is very possible that I confused Elite gossip with Oolite gossip. I was playing Elite via an emulator before I started playing Oolite. Every computer I have owned over the years has always had some version or adaptation of Elite somewhere on it. I have been known to haunt Elite websites and discussions online over the years. In fact, before I found out about Elite, back in the old days of computers like the TI-99 and the early Radio Shack TRS-80 in the late 1970s, I used to write crude space games that were similar sorts of "cruise along and get in fights" things. It was the only way I knew to get a space game back then.

The discussion about Okti's OXP, Interstellar Rescue, jogged my memory about the rumours of lost stations in interstellar space. The Dark Wheel had also mentioned such things (though it mentions quite a few things that never actually existed in any version of the game that I know of). So I thought it'd be a neat idea to explore with a story.

Once again, thanks to everyone who read it, and I'm glad to hear some folks enjoyed it.