He yawned as he pushed himself up from a console seeing the system was yet another bust. He wandered over to his coffee maker that he was still so glad he stole from his old ship. The smell of the 'wake-up juice' already awakened him. He popped a cover on the mug headed to the bridge. After almost tripping over the Landing Strut Access door in his slight stupor, cursing himself, opened the door and walked over to his NAV display.

"How many more jumps do we have left on our route?" He asked the air.

"With the current jump range, we will be at the outpost in thirty-seven more jumps, Commander." A feminine voice crackled from the hastily attached speakers.

He scrolled through the starmap along the path in an attempt to see if there were any significant surprises waiting for him, mostly K-class and A-class stars along the route. 'Easy fuel' he thought.

"Do we have any data on these next systems?"

"Only on systems within range of the outpost, Commander."

"A good thing we decided to to go the long way around, huh?"

Silence answered him. He sighed a bit, dumb AIs were great to run basic systems, but limited at best. It's been almost six months jumping around gathering more data. The URG pays some decent ccredits for the info he collects. 'Might even get enough for get a good repair done.' He took a sip of his coffee. He calculated to himself the estimated time between jumps and scans, he'd still be out this way for another month easily.

He sometimes wished he had picked up one of those newer ships. Longer jump range, higher jump speed, better sensors and shields, but those things were extremely expensive, on the other hand, since the last war, surplus spacecraft were pretty cheap, though a bit expensive to get them into working order, but still cheaper than even a used jump craft. He made his way to the pilot's seat, looking out the window at the starfield. He glanced a little further down, then used his foot to tuck a loose wire back behind the panel on the floor. 'Maybe next time I'll do a proper repair...'

He reached over and pressed on a compartment that opened to reveal a small headset. After withdrawing the object and closing the panel, he placed the headset over his ears and rested it on his nose. He slid the rest of the way around the chair before stepping on the footplate to boost himself up a little to turn and sit back, sinking slightly into the chair. He rested his coffee on a free spot on the dash to his left and began typing a few keys on the nearby panel while he tapped the side of his visor with his right.

A few lines of POST text appeared in his vision before a small green light appeared just to the upper right of his vision. After a few more keypresses on the panel the holographic panels appeared before his eyes. The throttle and joystick rose to meet the armrests. He took one more gulp of coffee before running his checklists. Sensor modules within acceptable tolerances, power plant optimal, drives warming up, small warning about his aft starboard hardpoint, but nothing to worry, just a finicky coolant line, inertial dampeners, shield emitters, comms, everything was pretty much green across the board.

"Spool up engines and jump on my mark."

"Acknowledged, Command..."

"Target the next system in route."

"Targeted, Co..."

"Play some music." 

"Of course, Commander."

He began humming as the music started to fill the bridge. He tugged at the stick to be aimed directly at the next system. A little more than seven light years away, so about anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour until dropout. Jumps were strange like that, sure they could jump, but time and accuracy left a bit to be desired. 

"Mark."

The craft nudged ever-so-slightly to be at a perfect alignment. Only way he knew was a brief burst he could see of the maneuvering thruster.

"FTL drive fully charged, entering slipspace in fo-err... three... two... one... Drive engaged"

He felt the usual feeling of the pit of his stomach dropping slightly as the envelope covered the ship and forced its way through the fabric of space, then black out the window. He reached in his chest pocket and pulled a small piece of ginger candy and tossed it in his mouth. Always settled his stomach after a jump. He opened a screen in front of him with engine data. He knew better than to try and look out the window, there was nothing to see. 

He took another drink of his coffee and he kept his eye on the panel, and pulled up some of the current sensor data, and that of the planetary scans he conducted in the last system to see if maybe he might have missed something. 

"Preparing to drop from FTL..."

He yawned, and looked over to the clock. 'Thirty-one minutes, not too bad.' He began closing down some of the open panels then reached for his mug only to realize it was empty. With a scowl he put the mug back down and braced.

"Dropping now."

He closed his eyes for a second to allow the main window to dim without the usual flash. When he opened his eye, he was face-to-face with the star filling his view. He throttled up and turned to the side to begin skimming the elemental hydrogen from the coronal ejections. The heat began to rise as he began his collections, but remained within safe limits.

"Begin system scan."

"Scanning started."

He watched as the fuel tanks began taking in the supply. While keeping himself out of the exclusion zone and keeping an eye on the gauge. As it neared full, he pulled from the star to begin cooling down, he was a little hotter than he'd like, but a full tank is a full tank. He pulled up some of the preliminary scan data as he made his way away from the star. A few asteroid clusters, a couple large bodies that seem in the rocky-type range, nothing too interesting. He might grab a sample from a cluster to see if there's any usable material. That kind of data sells for quite a bit.

"Artificial broadband signal detected."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Isolate and identify," he began pulling up the reading he was receiving from this signal source. Definitely appeared to be artificial, it seemed like an older wideband data burst, but nothing was making sense.

"Signal source, unknown."

"What?!" He was slightly stunned. Even military data packages could be identified for what they were, but this, nothing was making sense. Only thing he was positive of was the signal appeared to repeat itself after a time, the same data package, but he still couldn't make it out. "Give me an active sensor sweep."

A chirp was heard to indicate the sensor activation as he throttled up and began heading out towards the signal. As he made his way over, he began looking up any records of this system. Other than there WAS a system, no in-system scans, no travel reports to this system, and no information anything was to be here. Anything he could think of at least. However, if it was just telemetry data, there would be a change in the signal, however every burst was the same. A distress call perhaps? Maybe the system was corrupted so it wasn't recognizable by the system.

"Sweep finished. Object nineteen point nine three Megameters distance. Material composition, unknown. Size ten by four, by three meters."

He thought about all the data. Escape pod perhaps? Satellite? And unknown composition? Was it a prototype of something? Should be able to get it into the cargo bay at least. A lost prototype can be worth more than he can dream of. 'I'll know more when I get closer,' he thought. As he got closer, he began getting higher resolution images of the source. At this point seemed to look like a small shuttle, very small, like the kinda that would be used around a ship in dry dock to get a closer look for inspections. But why was it out here, and where was it's mothership?

He was finally within unaided visual range, it really did look like an inspection suhhtle, though it seemed as though it was an almost pearlescent blue with rather dark splotches on its surface. Energy weapons fire? He keyed hisw low powered comms, the same he would use for docking, don't need to over power it's systems now.

"This is Frank Barnet, commander of the Occasional Epiphany, registration Charlie Echo Victor dash three eight two five eight. Are you in need of assistance?"

There was no response.

"I say again, this is Frank Barnet, commander of the Occasional Epiphany, registration Charlie Echo Victor dash three eight two five eight. Are you in need of assistance?"

At this time, the data burst stopped. There was a different signal now, lower power but seemingly another long pulse of data.

"Please readjust your communications system to this frequency and return with similar modulation."

He began to tap his lateral thrusters to bring him around with his nose still pointing at the vessel. He then twisted on his axis so that he was essentially looking into the front of the other's cockpit. He couldn't see anything though. but he was still receiving something.

"chsssssshhhhhh...squell......xrrtts......"

It sounded to him like an old radio just slightly off in modulation as if he was listening to a single sideband transmission, from the wrong sideband. He waved at the vessel through his own glass to maybe signal he was still with them. He began tuning his receive frequency slightly.

"I can almost hear you know, I'm adjusting my own receive frequency to try and filter out the distortions. Maintain your transmit frequency and repeat message."

"ail....fe...kesh...bet....est.......ti....waahhhh....lator seems.oooiii..uplink..zzzt..data from..ckssh..tor"

"I'm sorry, but I can hear you for the most part now, but I'm having some issues with distorted audio, I can't seem to make out exactly what you're saying. It sounds like different voices on my end. Were your comms damaged?"

".....cies not...te...sing it to to fai...wahhhhooo...ting is being done on an automated basis, please use the uplink frequency to transmit the data from your translator."

"Vessel, I have received the last half of that communication. I'm unsure what you mean to transfer translator data? I'm transmitting a dictionary file on this carrier if that is what you're referring to," as he spoke he sent along a text dictionary, perhaps readout systems failed and they need a replacement text reference file. Stranger things have happened to computers in his hands

"It seems to have picked up enough of what you said and of that file you sent to automate the process. Our translator was attempting to figure out your language so that we may speak. Your kind does not seem familiar to us."

"Well, that's good, then allow me to repeat my initial message, I'm Frank Barnet, commander of the Occasional Epiphany, registration Charlie Echo Victor dash three eight two five eight. Are you in need of assistance?" He thought part of that message odd, but chocked it up to a bit of space madness.

"Very much so, our vessel was attacked and we ran here, however our main power generator was hit and we cannot power many of our systems anymore. Our emergency power is still operational however it primarily powers communications and life support." 

"Your vessel appears as though it may fit into my cargo bay. If you would approve, I can bring you on board and we can see if repairs can be attempted, or if needed, perhaps I can escort you to a reasonable destination for you to get help."

"I would be most grateful, however, we breath oxygen, does your environment support that?"

"Uhh... Yes?" He glanced at his environmental display at the odd question. This is getting to be a bit weird, but a rescue needed is a rescue given, as his grandfather would say. "The current environment contains approximately seventy eight percent nitrogen and twenty one percent oxygen, with about one percent trace gases."

"Only twenty one percent oxygen? That seems extremely low, are you feeling alright? Are your oxygen supplies depleted? We can supply some of our own to assist."

"This is roughly the makeup of my planet's atmosphere. If you do need it raised, I can bring it up to roughly forty percent oxygen. However, beyond that it may cause detrimental effects to myself in the long term." 

"If possible, we would like that. We are extremely grateful for your assistance and generosity."

"Very well. I'll begin recovery shortly."

"Most appreciated."

Frank sighed slightly. The weirdness factor was almost at a twelve. He pivoted his ship along its axis so that the vessel was almost directly rear to the cargo hatch. He adjusted the enviro-controls to the set oxygen levels. He grabbed his helmet off it's mount just to the side of his seat and began making his way to the rear. He went through the door on the rear of the bridge, stepped over the landing strut access door, beyond the living quarters and into the cargo bay. 

Before onboarding them, he needed to make a little room. He sealed the cargo bay door, and turned off the grav plating. After pushing things around a bit with the gantry, much less work without the pull of gravity, he double checked his helmet seal and hit a switch on the panel to begin decompression. Bright red lights began flashing as the bay was venting it's atmosphere. Eventually, they settled on a solid yellow. He pushed himself to the rearmost control panel. He grabbed a nearby tether line, clipped it to his suit and activated his mag boots to remain still.

"This is Frank, preparing to open the cargo bay door."

"Understood, we are waiting."

He opened the door letting it fold slightly downward. He had a nice clear and close view of the vessel. It still didn't look familiar even now. He activated the gantry letting it slide out above the craft. After a moment it settled and four arms descended down. Two on either side, like a talon about to grasp. Once he grabbed the craft, he readjusted its path and brought them inside, He brought them to the deckplate so the craft wouldn't fall down and cause damage, once it seemed settled he spoke through the comms again.

"I'm about to activate the gravity plating, please ensure you're in a stable position."

After a brief pause.

"We're low, you can enable it."

He activated the grav-plating and as the vessel settled down, a panicked call came over the radio.

"Gravity is too strong.... reduce...too heavy..."

He heard the strain in his voice and brought it down to 25%. He hated it being that low. At power the plates are only just over half earth gravity. Have they been out in space for so long their bodies atrophied?

"Many thanks, that's better, by far. Why was your gravity plating that strong, is it damaged?"

"I'm not sure how to answer that...'' he responded as he closed the bay door and began the procedure to pressurize the bay again. At least with the venting, the new air should be fully replaced with the amended ratios. The lights began to flash red then shift to a solid green.

"Bay has been repressurized."

He walked to the side of the craft why it appeared as there was an access hatch and heard a faint creaking from the vessel as it was settling. He leaned against the wall of the cargo bay hopefully giving enough room for the hatch to open, easily 4 meters, but who knows. He heard a hiss as the hatch opened upwards and what looked like a small set of stairs attempted to lower, if the craft wasn't already sitting on its belly. He could finally see the passengers, and he was not expecting it. He hoped his shocked look wasn't too obvious. 

Three individuals began making their way out of the hatch. First was what looked like a woman, possibly, in decently heavy armor, blood red skin, her hand was on the hilt or handle of what appeared to be some kind of weapon. He could see the handle of something over her shoulder on her back though a little hard to see though the raven hair, a couple red bumps protruding. As soon as she stepped off the craft, she sidestepped left of the door, her eyes darting to everywhere in the room then landed on him. Easily a couple feet on him.

Next was a reddish purple individual, possible male, streak of grey in his close cropped hair with a slightly large set or darkening red bumps through, another similar weapon on his side as the first one but seemingly more relaxed what a large plate over his back in something that looked a bit more like a uniform of sort. Some armor, but not as much so as the first, but like the first one, he sidestepped out the door, but this time to the right.

Finally one last individual stepped out. She seemed quite female, no attempt at trying to figure it out. Rather close fitting blouse with some kind of a skirt, silver circlet on her head contrasting heavily with her red skin and black hair, tall black boots, same bumps on he headthough her hair seemed to be done in such a way to emphasize them. He shook his head, still barely believing the group in front of him right now. She was holding what looked to be some kind of datapad. She whispered something into it he couldn't understand and she turned it toward Frank and it began to make noise.

"I am Lelith, daughter of Lelyvia. I am most gracious for your assistance in my time of need."