Vertangos System
The Hulk
Sinn'Are'Sen ducks beneath another cracked pipe and tries not to stare at the slowly writhing conduit on the other side of the duct. Even with his respirator keeping out the worst of the stench the sickly sweet odor of rotting flesh still manages to leak through. The thin rivulet of murky liquid in the drain channel looks to be covered in patches of oil and mold.
“We are going to need replacement clothes and hazardous environment suits after this one Dara Tonn. I don't think the smell is ever going to go away.”
“I will see what I can find in the requisition forms but I think you two will need worse then just a foul smell to warrant replacement equipment being issued.”
“A good sterilization field should handle the job.”
“Not disagreeing with you Aubrey but I'm not inclined to wear clothing that smells like a dead man farted any more then I have to. On the other hand, that field will tear cloth to bits over time when it gets rid of skin oils and the like...”
“I do not have any olfactory sensors so you two will have to make the call on if your equipment still smells after decontamination. Repeated sterilizations may be required.”
“Are you two always this creative in your requisition forms?”
“Creative? We are compliant to the letter of the forms and regulations!”
“I've heard that one before. Used it too myself on occasion. I guess paper pushers haven't changed that much. Left at this junction here. I think that should take us back forwards towards our shuttle.”
“Makes sense to me. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the logic of putting conduits inside of an air duct. Would that not make it harder to seal off in case of a breach?”
“Probably just the power conduits for the hatches to close the ducts off. I'm glad to have not found any more of those 'jaw' hatches yet.”
“I get the feeling that we'll see more of them as we progress. This hulk is too changed by Astral Veil energies, and perhaps inhabitants, to be otherwise. That conduit for example...”
“I'm trying to not look at it, yeah. The Empire never bothered with bio-metallic materials outside of things like neural connectors and boosters for cybernetics. What a ship would be doing with that has a humble power conduit...”
“Do you think the hulk might be alive in some sense?”
“RSC-2W-0571 with Dara Tonn 'in residence' is more alive then this thing but with Astral Veil energies involved who really knows.”
Sinn and Aubrey lapse into silence as they try to navigate the ducts but the monotonous uniformity of their surroundings and the sporadic junctions leave them disoriented. Sinn leads the way taking left hand turn after left hand turn in an attempt to find a grate back into a compartment. Unfortunately the ducts connect and loop back on themselves and Sinn finds the same four-way junction more then once before shaking the fog loose from his mind and taking a different turn.
“I think that the Hulk might be alive in a different sense then I am. Pert metal and part organic, like Aubrey, it has a body that could qualify as alive depending on what else you two find in there. It certainly has not shown any signs of a cortex or ganglia yet. Thus I do not believe that the Hulk possesses intelligence as of yet.”
Sinn shrugs the suggestion off, “Could be we just haven't found the 'brain' yet. Or that it got burnt out on Astral Veil energies. Or that it's 'brain' is an Astral Veil construct like so much else in here and we won't recognize it from a conventional scan.”
“Would you be able to spot it with a Psychic scan?”
“Possibly. There's so much ambient Astral Veil energy soaked into this Hulk that I'd probably have to be right on top of any sort of 'brain' to be sure. The same goes for any psychic phenomena or Astral Veil dwellers. Ordinarily I'd have my 'third eye' open all the time on an expedition like this.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Then why not? Oh, right, Veil energy saturation.”
“Exactly. Damn. This Y junction again. I think we came from the left?”
“Sounds right. But look there. We marked both forks when we came in.”
“So we've come through here three times now?”
“At least. Any luck mapping the passageways and ducts out Dara Tonn?”
“Negative, there is too much interference where you are at the moment. Even triangulating your signal is difficult. The video feeds from your shoulder cameras are showing significant signal degradation, I will need the locally stored copies for the log reports.”
Sinn shakes his head in frustration, “Can you triangulate our signals enough to get us a position relative to the shuttle Dara Tonn? That will point us in the correct direction at least.”
“Negative. Even during this conversation your calculated position has moved by over two kilometers. Given the physical dimensions of the Hulk and the duration of the conversation I suspect a Psionic Phenomena is in play.”
“I'm not too sure. Remember that radial passageway back on Steinhull? Our signals would show unusual distortion if it was a localized phenomena. Or have cut completely in the case of a full-on Reality Erosion.”
“You believe that the general presence of Astral Veil energies aboard the Hulk is generating interference.”
“On top of the hulk's hull, active power conduits, and everything else that would act to block or distort signals. The reactor compartment would be a damn Faraday Cage for the connections we have now.”
Aubrey perks up, “What about a hull-bounced radio to relay back to the shuttle instead of a direct link? Do we have something like that?”
“As far as I know that's what we are using.”
“Sinn is correct: your headsets are operation in hull-bounced mode at the moment. The indirect signal paths are not helping with my position calculations but direct signals are not getting through at all.”
“Ouch.”
“Your position is currently trending away from the shuttle.”
Sinn frowns, thinking hard, “we'll try going back they way we came then?”
Aubrey shrugs, “or we could take a random ninety degree turn and just go as strait as we can for a while. That should put us in a new section of duct work at least.”
“Worth a shot. Let us know if we start getting closer to the shuttle or half an hour passes Dara Tonn.”
“Affirmative.”
Sinn and Aubrey press on in silence, marking passageways as they go. Progress is steady but before long they are even more completely lost then they were already.
“Thirty minutes have elapsed. I am no closer to locating your present position relative tot he shuttle then before, but I believe that you must be in a new portion of the Hulk at least.”
Sinn shrugs and hangs a left hand turn, “Let's start looking for a grate then. Left and right alternating until we find a larger duct, a grate, or we hit our own trail again. Half hour timer again please Dara Tonn.”
It took only twenty four minuets before Sinn nearly trips over a grate fallen to the floor. Looking up he sees that the access point that it came from is clogged by debris that would be difficult, if not impossible, to shift from below.
“Damn. Aubrey, pick us a direction at the next intersection. Dara Tonn, restart that timer please.”
Aubrey ended up picking a passage that looped back on itself. Thus it was over fifty minutes before she found the next grate. This one was only half covered by debris and had sparking electrical cables laid across it. She sighs in frustration.
“Well, at least we should be close to the generator compartment where we started.”
“Or a completely different one.”
“Location data indicates that Aubrey is likely to be correct despite the absence of marked intersections for the past twenty minutes.”
“Reset the timer yet again then Dara Tonn. Right this time I think?”
“Left actually. We just took two rights so a third would loop us back. Probably.”
“Sounds good to me. Lead on then.”
It took the two of them another twenty five minuets to find yet another grate but at least this one was unblocked and unelectrified. Aubry poked hed through the opening iin the deck after levering the grate aside.
“I think I see a computer console. Or at least a desk with a lot of power and data cables. Lights are on, so perhaps we can pull some data from the Hulk's memory banks?”
“Great! It only took us how long to find out way out of that warren?”
“Four hours and Twenty four minutes, give or take a few seconds.”
“And we don't have a path back to our shuttle yet” Sinn groans. “Aubrey, check for working hatches before we get loaded down with artifacts.”
“I can see three, one of which is collapsed. I'd guess were are only a few dozen meters from the Generator we repaired earlier.”
“Please tell me you can reconstruct a map of the ducts we walked at least Dara Tonn.”
“Once you get back to the shuttle and upload the local storage chips form your headsets I can. However I do not think that Aubrey is correct in this instance. With standard passageways the interference is lessened enough for me to triangulate your positions to within fifteen meters or so. Given that margin of error you are nearly four hundred and sixty meters from where you entered the ducts, mostly towards the prop of the hulk. . I am detecting a new power spike on my sensors relatively close to your present position. I will monitor and attempt to determine a path from your current compartment to it.”