The crew stood a six-hour maneuvering watch, maintaining readiness in case of impacts from debris. The rendezvous was a boring event for the engineering team. They split themselves up among the Propulsion Gates and surveyed their assigned locations, making sure the engines and supporting systems were running well. Stocky was okay with their uneventful assignment but knew that Qureshi was bored out of her mind. At least she didn’t appear to be afraid of what was next.
He didn’t know what to expect from boarding the derelict. He would be doing a job that his designers didn’t have in mind when making him. He might not be able to fully rely on his engineered enhancements. And everyone else on the team was human. Patterson had helped develop the plan though, and he tried to convince himself that was good enough.
He arrived at the dressout station in front of the Main Airlock and met the others. The boarding team spread out to retrieve their suits from the lockers lining the walls. He opened his locker and donned his suit with a memorized sequence. He looked over his teammates, remembering an earlier conversation with Patterson where she told him to keep careful watch over them. She probably told Fuller the same.
Zhu seemed happier than ever before. Qureshi seemed focused again, and even Soliman appeared to have some enthusiasm and professionalism. Chandna was the exception. He was moving slow and appeared devoid of any enthusiasm. And he could tell that he was watching the others to see how to properly dress. He had been slow on the practice runs and still was. He was unprepared.
Why did the Company send you?
Surely Sci-Med was keeping some information within their department (he was only partly assigned to them). And that was their right. They had vital specialized knowledge. Even still, without basic extravehicular skills he would be a liability. Patterson’s admonition made sense, but he wished she were here instead.
“You’re slow doctor.”
Chandna did not show any offense or apprehension. “Yes, I’m afraid we don’t do this very often at the company office. It pays to be thorough and not rush.”
“We all need to check each other anyways,” Zhu said. “Buddy up. Stocky, you help the doc.”
“Yes, sir.” Stocky crossed the room and helped Chandna get a proper seal. He gave Zhu a nod when finished. Chandna shouldn’t be left alone.
Zhu inspected the team and appeared satisfied. Stocky didn’t feel as confident in their ability. The Nineveh was the Company’s best. But an alien ship could prove to be a challenge in ways that they could not anticipate. He thought it good that he volunteered.
“OK, Captain, the boarding team is ready to go,” Zhu affirmed. “Request confirmation that you hear my voice and that you’re reading our vitals.”
“Everything is good,” Holly answered from the Bridge.
“Request the order to commence the operation,” Zhu said.
Moussa gave a short recitation from Psalm 118 and then De Silva ordered them to commence the operation. “Remember, Zhu,” De Silva added, “you’re in charge, but I want every one of you to heed Samoylova’s and Chandna’s advice.”
“Understood and we will,” Zhu promised. “We’re entering the airlock.” He gave Stocky a nod.
Stocky quickly spun the wheel on the lock and opened the heavy door. He carried his equipment bags in and then he hooked one end of their safety line to the latch inside the airlock. He ran it through a D-ring on his suit and then handed it to the others to do the same. He latched the equipment bag to the line also while the others hooked up and closed the inner door behind them. After equalizing with vacuum, he opened the outer door. An endless sea of spinning stars appeared before them.
There was a flat platform outside the airlock that they used for embarking and disembarking. Out near the edge was a pedestal and they would rehook themselves to that to provide for a measure of safety during the passage. Stocky walked out to it and did just that, and then he scanned the sky with his eyes but he couldn’t see the derelict. The alien ship was strangely non-reflective and he thought it may have engaged in illicit activities. “HUD, bring up the target’s silhouette.” His suit projected the derelict’s silhouette in front of him.
He unstrapped a small maneuvering unit from his equipment bag – a device they called the “football” for reasons he didn’t understand. He always knew it as a Honeywell A1451 EMVU. It would provide the thrust for their journey and keep tension on the line. “Is everyone secured, ENG?” he asked, and Zhu answered affirmatively.
“Slow and careful,” the Captain said over comms.
“Understood.”
He launched off the platform. The football released a small amount of propellant to direct them towards the derelict and to correct the initial acceleration they possessed from the Nineveh’s rotation. He could feel it incrementally increase its thrust each time it pulled another off the platform. Driving was an exceptionally easy job.
They were all connected to a common comms channel. He could hear the exhilarated shouts of his team. It probably was best that he was the driver. Someone too excited could suffer lapses in judgment.
He began to dial back on their velocity as he got closer, and he manually steered them toward the area where they believed an open airlock was located. The extreme darkness this far from Delta Hydri meant he couldn’t see it yet even with the football’s lamp. The ship appeared as a nearly formless, faint hulk within an endless, dark void. After a few more moments of darkness the football’s light began to notably reflect off the object. They were now very close.
A dark abyss – the open airlock – contrasted with the dull light reflecting off the derelict’s hull. Soon, they would know if the inner door was open. He saw that it was noticeably smaller than the Nineveh’s and that they would have to pass through two, or at most three, at a time.
“The airlock is more constrictive than ours. We’ll have to board in small groups.”
“Understood,” De Silva said. “I’m trusting your judgment, team.”
He grabbed a curving structure protruding from the hull plating near the airlock. He didn’t know what it was – perhaps something functionally like the launch pad. It didn’t matter; it was just something sturdy to hold on to. The others began to pile up behind him, but he had limited his speed so that they didn’t impact with any appreciable force. He let the football float freely while he pulled himself over to a series of rings fitted the hull. They looked like clamp points and he tried to slap a D-ring through it. The first one he tried was too large and he searched his tool bag for smaller ones which fit.
Zhu climbed around him and opened a tool pouch on his arm and retrieved a neodymium magnet. He set it against the hull and it held fast. Then he hooked a line through the ring on the back side of the magnet, securing himself to the hull before unhooking himself from the Nineveh. He tapped Stocky on the shoulder and said, “The hull is ferromagnetic.”
Zhu repositioned himself so his feet were against the hull and, switching on the electromagnets within his boots, he stood up normally. “We can use this,” Zhu advised.
He grabbed Zhu’s right boot and easily lifted it off the hull. “The magnetic force is too weak,” he pointed out. “If anything happens, we will have a man overboard situation. I’m going to construct a proper rig for us.” He methodically worked the problem. Since the standard D-ring wouldn’t fit, he fastened several mini D-rings on the hull’s exterior connection points and then he connected each of them to the main tether with personnel lines.
“Wait up and let him work, guys,” the Captain said over comms.
He finished his work and then gently tugged at it in several spots. It held tight even though it looked haphazard. And it was a lot stronger than their magnetized boots. The rings and tether were both designed to be extremely resistant to tensile force. Even he couldn’t break them. It was safe for the humans. “Nineveh, this is Stocky.”
“Nineveh here,” the NAV answered.
“Nineveh, we don’t have a standard connection. It’s safe and as strong as I can make it, but we are going to have problems getting back if you can’t match the derelict.”
“I’ll keep the Nineveh in the proper position. Don’t worry about tension on the line. Do you foresee any other problems?”
He looked around at his team members. Zhu brimmed with excitement, and the others were gathering around with a cautious sense of wonder. Only Chandna stood out. He was just calmly contemplating everything. He probably had the soundest mind of the bunch. “No, we’re good to make our preparations to enter the derelict.”
“Understood,” she replied. “We’ll take care of you. Stay in comms.”
“Sounds like we’re good to go,” Zhu excitedly suggested. He was standing directly over the airlock opening, shining his light down into it. “And we’re lucky. The inner door is open.”
“That means they’re dead!” Qureshi said. “Don’t be happy about their misfortune.”
Zhu’s happy smile morphed to one of exasperation. “We didn’t cause their accident. And we aren’t profiting from their misfortune. We’re profiting off what others can learn from it.” He then went back to shining his light inside as if he had forgotten the whole matter.
“Step away from there, Zhu,” Samoylova admonished while she fixed various signal emitters on the drones to test for boobytraps. “The remotes need to sweep first. I’ll have them ready shortly.”
Zhu obediently stepped away from the airlock access and carefully looked over the hull. He seemed to focus on something encircling the airlock. He bent down and closely looked at it. “Captain, do you see this?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do,” De Silva answered. “Strange markings but there is a definite pattern. Stocky, do you have any idea what this is?”
Stocky looked carefully at the damaged points. They were scouring from explosions, and the ring like pattern they made around the opening proved that it was not from a random event. Their size was also not random, unlike the pockmarking throughout the Whipple shield. He had a good guess about what it was from its similarities from his work cracking asteroids to set up work tunnels. “It’s the scouring left by using explosive fasteners,” he said. “Somebody connected an umbilical to the derelict and then blew it off. We’re not the first ones here.”
“Hold on,” Holly said over the channel with apprehension in her voice, “TURING is analyzing known debris for evidence of that.”
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She confirmed that they had visual imaging of likely umbilical rings within the debris field, but still no contacts on sensors. Stocky saw their expressions become more tense. The Nineveh may have been detected weeks ago when they dropped out of FTL.
The Captain and NAV were certainly rethinking things. It was possible that aliens might still be lurking around. But why did they abandon the derelict in such a hurry?
“NAV and I think that whoever it is may have already left this system,” De Silva said. “The Elios might have sent a recon party and now they’re heading back to give information on how to tow the thing. I’m comfortable with the operation continuing, Zhu, with the restriction that no person advances into the ship to the point where they lose contact with the Nineveh. I want to be able to abandon this job in a minute if needed.”
“Understood,” Zhu said.
“Hey, ENG,” Moussa said over comms.
“What is it?” Zhu said.
“Send a couple guys to check out those possible latch points,” he said. “I’ll get working on finishing the rig ASAP.”
“Yeah, alright,” Zhu said in a somewhat disinterested tone. He pointed at Stocky and Soliman. “You two investigate those potential hold points. Cut away the Whipple shield and show Moussa what we have to work with. And if you see any problems, call me.”
“Will do.” He pulled a reel of line out of the equipment bag and hooked one end to the fixture he had made on the hull. He ran it through the d-rings in their suits for safety and then they walked off with their magnetic boots. There still was some danger of a suit puncture due to the debris, and he wished to quickly get inside where it was safer. Too bad he was with a slow worker.
----------------------------------------
Zhu watched Samoylova and Qureshi outfit the remotes with a collection of magnets, RF transmitters, and red and blue lamps. They had done this only once before – roughly five years ago when they salvaged a supposed “deuterium carrier” which law enforcement believed to be smuggling genetically modified microbial cultures. The concept was to send the remotes in as decoys to activate any deadly ordinance that might be configured to trip on the emitted signals.
He prayed for no booby-traps. He wanted to keep the alien ship and his team safe.
Qureshi got the control station set up and then they tested the flight control systems. Then they did the same for the RF transmitters and the strobing lamps (one for blue-ultraviolet and the other for red-infrared). “We’re ready,” Qureshi said. Samoylova nodded in affirmation.
“Nineveh, we’re sending in the remotes.”
“Understood,” the Captain said over comms. “We’re reading their video feeds. We’ll see how far that lasts. Mark locations where comms drop out and stay away from those spots when you’re in the ship.”
Samoylova and Qureshi sent the first remote through the airlock into the chamber on the other side. The chamber was expansive but had low hanging ceilings, and it appeared to be some kind of loading bay. Polymer netting was strewn between the ceiling and the deck and held various sacks and crates. Other crates were free floating within the room. Most of the crates and sacks were small too.
They’re smaller than us? It certainly looked that way.
The video showed architectural similarities with the Nineveh such as armored cable runs, access panels, and exposed ducting. It had a familiar industrial feel, but the internal geometries were strange. Passageways led off in unexpected directions without the mostly orthogonal, ordered layout of the Nineveh, and their proportions and the general shape of the interior was not conducive for human travel. The species which had constructed the vessel must have had a radically different anatomical structure.
“It doesn’t look like they had gravity,” Qureshi said.
“Yes, you can tell it isn’t built for rotation,” Chandna mused. “This is a fascinating development because it’s believed that the Eliohuatjay degrade physiologically in zero gee just like we do.”
“They wouldn’t degrade if they’re in cryosleep,” Samoylova said.
“That’s true,” Chanda said. “I find it hard to believe they would be so dependent on that though. Let’s go in further.”
Yes, let’s go in. “Samoylova, why don’t we get a second one in to explore one of those corridors while the first is surveying the storage room?”
“Sure thing,” she said.
Another drone separated from their flotilla and floated through the airlock while making little puffs of gas. Zhu brought the video feed from the second one up on his HUD besides the first. It left him blind to what was going on near him, but he figured that he couldn’t miss anything important. They were all just standing around. Having both probes in the loading bay gave a somewhat panoramic view. It was a mess. The lockers were covered with storage bins which were flung open, and several of the storage units inside the netting was opened too.
“Somebody was in a hurry,” Soliman said.
“Let’s hope some of the important stuff is left,” Qureshi said.
“We have the ship, even if they stripped it.” He stepped behind Samoylova and pointed at one of the passageways on the screens. “Take the drone down that one.”
“You don’t want the one at the far end?” she asked.
“No, I want to see what’s immediately inside the pressure hull. I need to see the extent of the actual damage. We’ll do the deep internals of the ship later.”
“You got it,” she said.
“Moussa, we’re going to be driving just inside the pressure hull.”
“Thanks,” Moussa said on his channel. “I’ll keep an eye on it.”
Zhu watched as the first drone began down the corridor which seemed to run directly inside the pressure hull. He didn’t know how far it would go, but he had time and more drones. He would be able to confirm the state of the structure eventually. The corridor had the same odd dimensions as the airlock, and the ceiling hung very low. The drone’s lamp revealed a familiar mass of haphazardly strung cables, ducts, and conduit, and lockers and storage bins frequently constricted passage.
Their engineering design doesn’t appear to be much different from ours.
“ENG,” Qureshi shouted. “Look.”
He looked at the monitor, studying the equipment visible. It wasn't immediately apparent what sparked the interest.
“We’ve got a pressure suit,” Samoylova said.
Zhu looked at what the other drone was shining its lamp on. An open locker held several container bins, most of which were opened, and various simple tools – wrenches and ratchets – were laying around. And, at the bottom, a pressure suit – which was clearly not meant for humans – was laying folded over itself. The crew’s excitement surged.
We found aliens. “Do you see this, Captain?”
“I see it,” he said over comms. “Bag it for Patterson later. Keep focused on your primary objective.”
“Aye, Captain. Samoylova, begin to stagger the rest of the drones in.”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “Same corridor?”
“No, pick another one.” He turned to Chandna, “Did you see those tools?”
“Yes,” he said. “Physical laws influenced their design just like it did ours. Our universal tooling should allow us to safely disassemble much of their systems and equipment for thorough inspection. I’m excited to get in here.”
“I didn’t think you had that emotion. But I’m glad you do.” He then called over comms. “Stocky and Soliman, how is your work coming?”
“We’re still cutting shielding away and inspecting what’s underneath,” Stocky said.
“Any problems?”
“Not yet,” he said.
“Hurry up, we’re probably going to be ready to enter in forty-five minutes to an hour.”
----------------------------------------
Holly straddled over the Nav plot on the Bridge. She stopped the simulation of the Nineveh getting a gravity assist for course adjustment with a planetoid codenamed Reggae. Like the simulated flyby she did earlier with the planetoid codenamed Jazz, it solved the momentum problem – refining the Nineveh’s hyperbolic trajectory so that they could get back on an outbound run without using gobs of propellant. Neither gave a viable option for providing a viable course for Zeta. But she knew that could be solved easily with a low, slow burn throughout the five-month outbound they would make before transitioning to FTL.
Jazz seemed to offer a remote possibility to get a second assist from Folk (she had named all of the planetoids after styles of music) to optimize their outbound trajectory. She hadn’t verified it yet, and she hadn’t gained a good enough estimate for the planetoid’s mass to be sure it would useful. The option for Jazz assumed eight to ten days for rigging the derelict and precisely determining the Nineveh’s new total mass and center of mass – which was only roughly estimated now. Reggae, however, was their breakaway option in case if another ship appeared and they had to abandon the derelict. She dead reckoned the distance from Delta Hydri they would attain over the journey. It would do for making a viable jump.
She walked away from the plot and came up behind the Captain in his chair. He was attentively watching the away team cycling camera views through his two display monitors. She was certain he knew she was behind him. But he paid her no notice. She saw Zhu grinning happily and talking to Chandna about equipment to disassemble and package.
You owe me for this one.
Chandna told him that physical laws and relationships would influence the alien ship’s design just like it does for the Nineveh. They could expect to see screwed panels for access, conductor cables would be isolated to prevent grounds and segregated by use for EMI immunity, plumbing systems would be used for temperature control, and their universal tooling should allow for limited disassembly and inspection. Chandna favored finding sources for organic materials first – clothing, life support systems, food stores, and such.
She didn’t interject and ask him why. Nor did she question him about why he was so certain their tools would work on an alien ship. Sci-Med did their thing and the Line Officers did theirs. And she liked it that way.
The Captain cycled through Soliman and watched him for a moment as he carefully pulled out another thin plate and bundled it. He was grumbling something unhappily, keeping it low enough to not be easily understood. She wasn’t concerned and the Captain didn’t seem to be either, and he certainly heard it well enough. Soliman did good work even if he did give a little lip. The Captain then cycled through Stocky working methodically at a brisk pace.
“He’s such a robot.”
“He’ll get more human,” De Silva said.
You have been aware of me. “I hope. He just looms around silently. I can get over his weird proportions, but he doesn’t try to fit in.”
“He’s already quite talkative with Zhu, Moussa, and Patterson. I hear he gets along well with Fuller too. I think he’s making good progress.”
“Has he done that thing with his eyes to you?”
“With the nictitating membranes? Yeah, I’ve seen them. Don’t let that freak you out.”
“They’re gross.” Monster eyes. She reconsidered her choice of words. “He can’t hear us talking, right?”
“He can hear every word but he doesn’t care. He’s a replicant.”
She looked at him in horror and he turned toward her with a smile. “I’m kidding. What do you need?”
“I’ve got a breakaway option using Reggae. I want your review.”
“Are the gees okay?”
“We’ve managed them before.”
He got up. “Alright, let’s take a quick look.” He walked with her over to the Navplot.
She started the simulation and talked through it as the Nineveh accelerated away from the derelict. “Our first problem to overcome if we get a contact is heading outbound to get to safety. This gets us that. Its mass is over three times Titan’s back in Sol and so we’ll pick up enough momentum to refine our course to increase our closest point of approach to Delta Hydri by several AU. And I can increase it even more with a series of short, low thrust bursts. We’ll need to rig the ship for shifting gees, paying particular attention to Green Gate.”
“We can manage that.”
“Right.” She traced ahead of the ship’s track with her finger. “The bigger problem is that, as you can see, we aren’t heading quite back home. I say let us run like this for a bit. But three months or so into our journey we can start a prolonged slow burn to correct.”
“I agree, get away from the derelict’s course and out where it’s dark first. How’s our flaring going to be crossing Reggae.”
“It’s as minimal as it can get. We’re travelling so fast that we just need a brief hard boost to get out of its gravitational reach as soon as it starts working against us.”
He nodded silently but approvingly.
“What do you think?”
“I think it will work for us. Let me play with your simulation for a few minutes. You go watch Zhu and the team for a bit.”
She nodded. “Yes, sir,” she said, and she went forward and took his chair. He called out “good job” just before she sat. That felt good. She wasn’t a superwoman, but she had made a good navplan. And she already knew he would be pleased.
She still had to refine the course they actually would take, however. The one stealing momentum from Jazz. There wasn’t much of anything now that could stop them from rigging the derelict for tow. If they detected a flare at this point it would almost be better to still spend a few days to rig the derelict; it was unlikely they would be spotted right away. The only uncertainty which could stop them was if the derelict wasn’t structurally sound.
But Zhu was confident that it was. The Captain and Moussa seemed fairly confident about it too. Remembering him, she called him up on comms.
“Hi, Moussa.”
“Hey, NAV,” he said. “What do you want?” He smacked his lips as he spoke.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“No, I’m just having a snack with the boys in the workshops while I watch what the team’s doing. We’ll be putting in a long day. But I’m free now.”
“I’ll keep it quick. I just wanted your thoughts on the feasibility for towing the derelict.”
“It looks good,” he said. He cleared his mouth. “I think we can fasten a rig to the hull. And the structural integrity inspection is looking good so far.”
“Great, I want to slingshot around a planetoid if possible. It’s the only way to get off this track and outbound without a massive burn, but I need a mass estimate.”
“Hey, I don’t want to stay here either. But right now, all I can tell you is that you’ll know as soon as I know.”
“Will you do that? Thanks.”
“I’ll get it for you. But you might have to help me pry Zhu from his new toy so that he can review it.”
“No, the Captain will. Catch naps when you can.” And they would need plenty of Outers coffee (not good but does the job). Everyone will be putting in several long days.