“Are you sure about this?” Ayna asked as Gaylen satisfied himself that his suit was fully sealed.

“This isn’t our first salvage,” he told her.

She, Bers and the passengers were gathered in the entry area to see them off.

“Nothing from the crew?” Vek asked.

“No,” Gaylen said. “And the hull is punctured. The air is long gone.”

The journalist nodded solemnly.

“Everything alright, Kiris?” Gaylen asked into the suit’s comm.

“We’re fine up here,” the Chanei replied.

The woman gathered beginner-level aptitude with various skills the way some people gathered empty bottles, or rocks from different planets. Her most recent one was piloting, and so she would occupy the chair until they got back. Herdis remained at the gun controls.

“I looked at the feed,” Saketa said. She stood with her arms crossed, looking severe. “Those looked like gun marks.”

“It did, yeah,” he said.

Then he joined Jaquan inside the airlock and sealed the inner door. He unspooled a cable from the wall and attached it to his suit. Jaquan double-checked that he’d done it right and Gaylen in turn did the same for him.

“Vacuuming now,” Gaylen said into the comm.

The air hissed out of the chamber and once it was all gone he put a hand on the handle.

“Opening now.”

The outer door opened with a thud and he stepped out onto the threshold. Below him, in the lights cast by the Addax, were those awful, sharp cliffs and the wrecked vessel that had come to a stop between two of them. This place really was an artist’s ideal foreboding planet.

He took hold of one of the outside grips and swung himself out, then let go and slowly lowered himself down. The rogue’s gravity was only about thirty percent of what was considered standard for baseline human physiology, but there was no reason to be reckless when professional rescue teams were at least days away.

Gaylen touched down on the ship’s roof, then hopped down from there onto one of the slopes.

“Is everything alright?” Jaquan asked.

“Yes, it’s fine,” Gaylen replied after a few moments of testing his footing.

Jaquan followed down onto the roof and from there to the slope. The ship had two airlocks, and thankfully one of them was accessible. It wasn’t powered, but Jaquan attached a battery to an outside port, allowing them to open.

“Stay here,” Gaylen said. “In case something goes wrong.”

It was standard procedure, but it was always best to keep everything clear.

With all the air already gone there was no reason not to simply open the inner lock, and so he did, trailing the cable behind him as he entered. The interior was quite interesting.

The ship was indeed new; all shiny and glorious in sharp contrast to the Addax’s... personality. Still, there was evidence of extensive work having been done; plates that were a slightly different colour, pipes and cable coverings that forced him to duck a couple of times, and hints of non-essential furnishings having been removed.

“Jaquan, what do you make of this?”

“This is for running cold,” Jaquan replied, watching footage of what Gaylen was seeing. “A bit different from usual, but then this is a new ship.”

“So, pirates?” Ayna suggested, clearly watching this as well.

“Rather fancy for pirates,” Saketa observed.

“Yeeeah...” Gaylen said slowly, contemplating this little mystery. It wouldn’t be physically impossible for Fringe pirates to get their hands on a ship like this, but again; what would they be doing with it here?

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He kept on walking, feeling clumsy in the suit and tether.

The engine room was as gleaming and modern as the exterior led one to believe, but heavily marked by the efforts to minimise heat output. And then there were the batteries. The long, dark cylinders were for the most part neatly arranged in clamps on a wall, but two lay on the floor, showing damage from being thrown around during the crash.

“Gaylen, grab an intact one before you leave,” Jaquan said.

“Alright.”

“You’re looting?” Vek asked disapprovingly.

“Yes,” Gaylen replied, simply and firmly. “You wanted a freelance flight. You’re getting one.”

He walked along the row, checking each battery. Most of them were used up. Starship batteries were a way of getting by without having to visit charging stations or travel along with a generator ship. They were way too expensive to just eat up at this rate for the sake of shortcuts.

“Black ops,” Gaylen concluded out loud. “This was a black ops outfit. Travelling unnoticed over great distances.”

Everyone was quiet for a few breaths.

“Huh,” Ayna then said. “This... sure is some find.”

“I didn’t think black ops were in the habit of sending out emergency signals,” Herdis said.

“Me neither,” he admitted.

He felt on shakier ground as he progressed through the ship. Black ops meant winds; winds easily big enough to blow a little thing like the Addax away.

He found the first two bodies just beyond a doorway; a man and a woman, neither north of thirty years old. They were seated, safety belts engaged, and unmarked. The injectors somehow still clutched in their hands indicated the cause of death.

“Do you think they drew lots?” Ayna asked sombrely. “As the air started running out?”

“Maybe,” Jaquan told her. “It happens.”

Gaylen kept on going, keeping focused. The third body lay in a simple bunk, crumpled up from the crash. The light on Gaylen’s helmet caught on another injector. He couldn’t see the face and didn’t feel like disturbing the body just out of curiosity, but the man looked young.

The fourth and final body was in the cockpit, strapped into the pilot’s chair. The man had been quite fit, and seemed to have shaved and cleaned himself shortly before death. Even his clothes were neat. Gaylen glanced around but saw no injector, and the man’s sleeves and shirt collar were fully in place. Perhaps this fellow had gone the distance, to the slow, bitter end.

Emergency power remained on the ship, but as they were designed to do, the automatic systems were conserving it all for sending out the signal pulse. And to keep a single, blinking light going amidst the controls.

The final log entry.

He glanced down. There between the two seats was the shield for the record keeper. Assuming the crew hadn’t wiped it before dying, it would hold the ship’s entire flight history.

Gaylen opened it, released the latches and extracted the small rectangle. It didn’t seem to have been messed with.

He slid it into a protected pocket on the front of his suit. Then, for whatever reason, he just stood there for a bit, gazing at the dead man in the seat.

Existence was harsh in the life he’d managed to land himself in for so long. So why was he doing this, and with an audience to boot, who could tell exactly what he was doing?

He glanced at that blinking light on the panel.

“Maybe... play it?” Ayna suggested.

Why not? A man’s final farewell to the universe.

He pressed the play button and the final log started up.

“The ship is lost,” a weak voice said. “Cascading... system failure. From the damage. We couldn’t... stop it. We’re just drifting. Oxygen running out. There’s a rogue up ahead. Can’t... adjust course.”

For a few seconds there were just breaths.

“My name is Vendyl Mars, and to whoever finds this... please. Please return the record keeper to Federal Command. Tell them ‘Black Tiger’. So much depends on it. So... save...”

Consciousness seemed to be fading from the man and for a moment Gaylen thought this was it. But Vendyl Mars gathered his strength for one last burst.

“I solemnly swear to guard the right of all human beings, of all creeds and breeds, to live free and healthy. To pursue happiness and be protected from authority by law. This I swear... to live by... until... the end of... my days.”

The entry ended.

Gaylen just stood there, lost in memory for a few more seconds.

“What was that?” Ayna asked, sounding subdued.

“That was... the oath of the Federation,” Vek said pensively. “The Oath of a Brighter Future.”

“Yeah,” Gaylen said. “Fed citizens are reared on it. He can explain the details to you if you want, Ayna.”

He walked away, trudging faster than before.

“So Jaquan, you wanted a battery?” he said as he moved up to the row on the wall.

“It would make for a good safety net,” Jaquan said. “Just in cas-”

“Gaylen, a ship just showed up!” Kiris said. “Swooped in right above us! Running cold! They’re armed!”