“Alright Xander, here is the situation, I came to Cullen Island looking for Tier 2 medical nanites to cure my illness. Yesterday I was going to salvage processing chips that would help in the cure and got attacked by two assailants. I flew away in my grav cart and tried to hid. After an accident with the cargo bay doors my grav cart was completely destroyed.”
Getting a nod of understanding form Xander, Ellie continued.
“I have tasked some sensor drones to scan the debris around here looking for a vehicle that works or parts of a vehicle I can build.” Finished she waited as Xander got a faraway look.
“I have reviewed the data and have found several grav carts and grav loaders that could work. I will mark the locations for you.” Ellie heads up display became dotted with yellow markers.
“Thanks Xander! I'll go look at them. Please look for anything useful, interesting, or valuable. More sensor drones would help.
“I'm also thinking about repairing this ship, so also look for electrical conduits.”
“Yes ma'am!”
Ellie giggled and skipped away. A companion, just like Rosa, she had wanted was found. Walking down the long corridor Ellie mentally added a grav sled for inside the ship to the list of needed salvage.
Exiting the ship through the engines compartment again, Ellie doffed her helmet. The bright sun, fresh air and breeze felt wonderful.
“Lights, need lights.” Ellie muttered, thinking about flooding the ship with bright beautiful light.
Ellie went to investigate the first marker. It was thirty feet away and a quarter of the way up a pile of debris, sighing Ellie donned the helmet for safety, and locked it in place. Then she carefully climbed up the pile of rubble.
Arriving at the marker she saw a small grave truck half buried. After a careful look at the fusion plant and wiring she shook her head.
“On to the next mark.”
Ellie carefully went over another five wrecks before she came to a heavy grav loader that could carry twenty tonnes. It was way too big for Ellie needs but the grav loader would be easy to fix. Marking the location in green on her map, she searched another three wrecks before she came to a military reconnaissance vehicle.
Lightly armored and sleekly designed, it had an oversized fusion reactor, grav plates, and eight nacelles, carry only two people and no cargo, it could fly fast and scan a wide area. Ellie grinned as she inspected the recon vehicle. Ellie would need to change out a few burned out circuit boards and electrical wires but the little craft was easy to fix. “
So one to large vehicle and one to small vehicle.” Ellie smiled, she was having fun.
Her commpad dinged. “Ellie, the sensor drones just scanned a ship that could have interesting salvage.”
“Thank you Xander. Please mark it in blue.”
The scanned ship was a few hundred feet from her. Ellie had to navigate a twisting maze of trash that made the journey four times as long to get to the ship. She finally arrived and looked over the hull of the ship.
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It was a medium size regular cargo ship with six small cargo holds. The engines were gone, jagged edges showed were they used to be. Ellie used her suits power to jump up and enter the open fusion room.
The fusion reactor was a ruined mess and Ellie quickly made her way into the main corridor of the ship. Starting port side at the first cargo bay door she came too, Ellie found the emergency lever and slowly cranked the door open. Inside was a load of desiccated fruit. After looking in a few bins she turned and walked across the hall. After she got the door open she looked inside and grinned, two almost new civilian grav utility tucks in dull red. After checking them out, Ellie found one even had some helium 3 left in the tank.
Happy to have finally found working vehicles, through a little scared they were not armored, she decided to look in the other cargo bays. The remaining cargo holds were disappointing, a couple of empty ones and the rest filled with a variety of petrified fruit. Still happy to have found the grav trucks, Ellie went to their hold and looked over the outside cargo bay doors. Not as big and heavy as the bulk cargo ship, Ellie figured her suit could handle cranking open the doors.
A slow and long period later, Ellie vowed to find some explosives for any future cargo bay doors. Grinning at the thought of making things explode on purpose, Ellie got in the truck that was still fueled. She would find a spare tank to transfer helium into and come back for the other truck later. The trucks battery had just enough charge to initialize the fusion reactor.
Driving the grav truck back, Ellie parked it near the airlock. Ellie was greeted to the sight of Andy's big form as she walked through the door separating the engine room form the fusion reactor. Ellie realized Andy was too big for the hallway out.
“I am sorry to leave you here big guy.” Ellie smiled sadly at the bot.
“Andy will wait for commands.”
Ellie's decision to repair the ship hardened. She would not leave Andy behind and would fix the ship to get him out.
“Come let's go see what Xander is up to.”
“Andy understands the command.”
Smiling more cheerfully Ellie traveled the long corridor again; she really needed to find a grav sled. Entering cargo bay 2 Ellie picked out an Instameal and went to sit by the servers. They were Xander's 'real' body right now. Taking off her suits helmet, Ellie activated its lights to provide a small circle of brightness in the bay.
Taking out her commpad she connected to the servers, Xander black hair and brown eyed face came on the screen. He had altered his dress to a severe black ship suit without any military rank tabs. Ellie nodded, acknowledging the changed uniform.
“Ellie I have been going over the military trash dumping logs, there are several military and civilian hospital ships that could contain nanites still. All have been here only a few years so any nanites should still be viable.”
Ellie grimaced. In keeping control of nanites the UEN had instituted a protocol that degraded all nanites in various time frames, only Tier 1 medical nanites and Class 1 manufacturing nanites were left out of this protocol. Ellie shook her head at the thought of Tier 1 nanites. They were so closely guarded they were almost a myth to the average person.
“I have also noted several ships that could still contain usable equipment. With Hemwell having one of the largest shipyards in space, outside of Earth, there are a lot of ships and ship wreckage in this vast desert. As you know, the United Earth Nations policy is to clear every star system they lay claim too of space wreckage and not allow ships to accumulate into a floating space junkyard.”
Ellie nodded at the common knowledge. So far no one had been able to invent any sensor that could detect a transitioning ship. It was like the class Ellie took on the net about submarine warfare. The submarine could hide underwater, then surface to attack anywhere. If you could not detect the sub the attack would be a total surprise, it was the same in space warfare.
A large collection of drifting wrecks and the enemy could surface and become just another ship among many. The navy would have to keep a constant watch on the debris.
Ellie took a bite of her lasagna. “I will be going to retrieve the Q607's. Once we get established better I will start looking for the nanites.”
As much as she wanted to drop everything and search for the nanites, they were only half the cure. She needed the chips.
”Understood. I well keep the drones scanning for equipment and protect our base as much as I am able.”
“Thanks Xander. Hopefully I can get there without any more trouble.”
Ellie hurried up to finish her meal, eager to get started. She decided to leave her bag here, this would be her home and she would return.