You let the crew automatons do the grunt work of forcing open unpowered hatch after unpowered hatch as you make your way through the guts of the SES Ann Child. So far you have seen no corpses or other signs of struggle. Structural damage is plenty apparent, from twisted structural elements, to cracked duct work, to dandling wires. The power has long gone out and the lack of shipboard gravity makes movement cumbersome but not impossible. You stare in envy of the automaton's in built magnetic boots and Midshipman Huckle's long practiced ease of movement in the lack of gravity.

“Spacer born Midshipman? I'd read your file but it has to be seen to be believed.”

“Orbital Warehouse Sierra Two Charlie, Arimond system Sir. Games of hide and seek as well as tag in the cargo holds is one hell of a zero gee training regime for a five year old. Royal Marines refined the skills a bit. It was always fun to watch the city-folk tumble nose over ass their first time in the training tank. Not doing to shabby their yourself Sir.”

“I'll take that as a compliment Midshipman. Been a good six years since I last hit zero gee outside of required refresher training though.”

“Just remember to brace if it comes to a firefight Sir, though I don't expect one. This all looks like gravity tide damage not combat damage.”

“What make you say that?”

“See that bulkhead there Sir? And the hatch next to it? Notice how it looks a bit like salt water taffy left out in the sun on a warm day? Something pulled on the whole frame to cause that appearance Sir.”

“I've seen a similar effect from weapons fire.”

“Agreed Sir, and I've seen the very same, but I'd expect a hole clean through from here to the void if that was the case. I'd wager good money that something pulled on this ship, pulled hard, and broke her back good.”

“Agreed. And the lack of bodies means that the crew and passengers either went deep into the hull or got out. Let's looks for an escape pod bank or shuttle bay.”

“Standard civilian emergency signage on the bulkheads at the intersection ahead Sir. Plus the Navy markings for the same.”

“Standard? I didn't recognize any of it.”

“Well... standard for fifty or sixty years ago Sir. Modern code and regulation uses the same sort of pictograms but the color and visibility is a lot better. Lets see here...”

You drift to a halt, holding onto the overhead frame of the hatch to brace yourself. The automatons march calmly beneath you and fan out down around the intersection. Midshipman Huckle bounces nimbly to the deck before going strait up to the overhead at the middle of the intersection. There he braces with an arm and a leg, leaving his other leg to drift and reaches out with his free hand to trace a pictogram half hidden behind a broken duct.”

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“Let's see here... escape pod bay to the left. Engineer's mark indicates three intersections if I'm reading this right. Might be three hatches though. I'll check as we go.”

“Lead on Midshipman Huckle.”

“Right this way Sir.”

A minute and thee hatches later later and Midshipman Huckle is once again clinging to the overhead at the center of an overhead.

“Glad I checked Sir. Escape pods are left out of this intersection, down eight decks by lift, and on our right from the exit. Oriented on the deck and not the overhead of course. That maps to just inside the ventral hull more or less. And it means the existing standard issue deck plans we brought along are about Eighty five percent accurate after the damage is accounted for.”

“Accurate enough that we can spread the automatons out on their own? You've had a bit more hands on time with them then me.”

“Ehh... I'd have to say no Sir. Not from aboard her at least. There still a bit too much damage. And without the ship board computer they are running off of hull bounced radio links instead. They can be remote commanded under these conditions but we'd be spending a lot of time sitting about just doing that instead of progressing ourselves.”

“Reasonable enough Midshipman. If we do go to full remote operations we can do it from the comparative comfort of the Night Horse.”

Seven minutes, one lift shaft, and one bumped head later you are perched at the boarding area for a bank of escape pods.

“All launched, no signs of a struggle or fight, no luggage left behind. Looks like an orderly evacuation Midshipman. What would you say?”

“Agreed Sir. Almost leisurely. Where is the external hull damage concentrated?”

“Dorsal and aft. FTL comm link masts are all gone. As are most of the sensor array spines and several banks of reaction thrusters. Your thoughts Midshipman?”

“I have the beginnings of a hypothesis Sir. What about the damage to the Robert Harbird?”

“Bow and ventral on the exterior at least. Why?”

“Both ships should still have had main thrusters but their roll, pitch, and slash or yaw control would be lost with that many reaction thrusters lost. They'd be rendered ballistic but not totally helpless. There is a planet in-system of here so I'd wager that both ships were able to evacuate to it's surface in good order. Plenty of time to plan and carry out an evacuation. Even time for multiple shuttle trips and the ships came back around on return orbits.”

“You think they bumped coming out of a warp jump, lost effective vector control, and decided to emergency land?”

“Damage patterns read that way Sir. Not sure if this system was in their planned route or if they had a failure and this was simply closest system in a storm.”

“We'll still need to do a full check, bow to stern and dorsal to ventral, but I think the bulk of that can be done by automaton. What are the odds they shut the reactor down on their way out?”

“Coin flip Sir. If they had the controls and the pilots able to make the last shuttle launch without ship board assistance they would have. If not they would have just left it on tick over, minimum power mode, and the hydrogen has run dry.”

“Sound logic. Let's get back to the Night Horse and give Midshipman Engel a crack at the Robert Harbird while the Automatons finish mapping the Ann Child.”

“Aye aye Sir! It'll be nice to eat a meal with a fork instead of a straw.”

“Lead on then Midshipman Huckle.”