The Universe

Daeryk had his suit halfway down; with the zipper undone he had wrapped the arms around his waist and made a makeshift knot to keep it from falling down, but when he saw the captain approaching the airlock he quickly untied the arms and geared up properly, placing the helmet over his head and listening for the sound of it sealing. He had always been casual, despite his enjoyment of work, but this was no time to be relaxed anymore; definitely not with the captain at attention like he was, knowing full well what dangers may lie ahead. He walked forward and positioned himself behind the captain, watching the others fall in shortly. He knew there would be some problems with the airlock if there was no crew on the other side, but somehow he knew Theo had a plan for some such occasion, and glancing casually at the captain’s firearm, which made him curse himself for never keeping such things in possession, he posed a question to Theo.

“So Theo, what’s the plan? You must have some idea on that airlock, and I really hope it doesn’t involve me prying at the damn thing, or cutting it with a torch around these suits if ya know what I mean.”

He waited patiently, hoping the captain would actually acknowledge him this time, and glanced at the woman Alethea again out of the corner of his eyes. He was thinking about the brief encounter they had just had, and how she noticed the scars, it always come down to the scars now that he had thought about it, but explaining to medical personal that you thought something “wasn’t that bad” while you were working a long shift never seemed to play off too well. He had never really been bothered by the scars himself, merely thinking of each one as a lesson to remember, but he never seemed to quite get the hang of it, even after so many times, but the one on the back of his head was another story all together, and one he didn’t much like to share.

Daeryk had to shake his head for a minute to return to his previous train of thought, waiting for the ship to travel just a bit farther so they could attach the matting tube. Whatever lay behind those doors was best left a secret in his opinion, but what could he do to stop it now? He sighed brusquely, praying that nothing terrible was waiting for them on the other side.

Waiting in a sort of ill organized line, Alethea surveyed the group before her. Would one of the crew members get hurt on this mission? Or worse; lose their lives? "You don't know what you're talking about." Alethea mutters to herself, realizing just how small her knowledge was of anything that leaned toward the mechanical.

While waiting for the ship to get just a tad bit closer, Alethea saw Daeryk glance at her. She smiled, looking at him in her periphery. He was kind of good looking, with curly, black hair that hung at his shoulders and glasses that were precariously perched on his face, polishing off his look. 'Oh, stop thinking about that!' Alethea thinks to herself, 'you aren't here to find a date.'

Thaddeus went through his environmental suit checklist. Mouthpiece attached. Hose, no holes. He pressed the mic button on his belt, it emitted a oddly distorted beep. "Checking broadcast, channel one. Checking broadcast, channel one."

Carrying the omni-tool made Thaddeus stick out from it's sheer bulk. He ambled forward, swaying slightly from the weight. He prayed that he wouldn't have to run. The omni-tool slowed him down, but they wouldn't be able to move about the ship without it. He checked his handcannon's safety once and then replied to Daeryk, "Well, I'm thinkin' that the best way to get in is without explosives. This close to the hull? No, sirree. I could adjust the mechanism with the air gun here on the end of my 'tool. It's shoots a small jet of pressurized air into the actual mechanism and ever so lightly tappin' it. Basically manually openin' it with a lot of precision and time. Hopefully it won't come to that. We'll cross the bridge when we come to it. Heh, in just a few moments."

Thaddeus finished his checklist just after he finished speaking and moved pass the captain into the docking tube. He free floated down the hall way, it was like swimming but with more controlled movements. He stopped himself by grabbing some of the hand holds, on all four sides of the tube, just before he reached the airlock portal. He was worried at the complexity of the task before him, but was surprised to notice the outer airlock seal slightly open. He pushed the doors apart and entered the sealed decompression chamber. No gravity. Thaddeus swam into the docking room. "My suit is reading breathable oxygen. Still no gravity. Way is clear, Skipper."

Deladrier had a tendency to appear very quietly in certain situations, moving with subtlety uncharacteristic of his size. Now was one of those times.

Moving in his own personal hardsuit, several times bigger than what most of the crew would wear, the security chief leaned against the bulkhead, reviewing his five-man security team even as he checked his own weaponry. The massive pack attached to the suit carried ammunition and supplies enough for a five-day expedition into a warzone, so long as it was used sparingly, along with limited rations and a small emergency medical kit. On the outside of the pack was his heavy machine gun, with Clarice sheathed on the opposite side. Several knives and both of his revolvers rode at his hips.

When Thaddeus moved past him towards the airlock, Deladrier nodded to his team. The security chief pulled the featureless brown helmet over his face, and carefully sealed it in. There was a click, followed by the soft hiss of bottled oxygen. The mercenary clicked the machine gun off the side of his backpack and held it at parade rest. Giving the medical team a 'stand aside' look, Kenneth made his way into the tunnel after Thaddeus. His considerable bulk made the traverse across the umbilical considerably more difficult than the engineer's, but nonetheless he arrived in the docking bay shortly thereafter. The mercenary landed feet-first on the decking, taking a short length of emergency cord and attaching it to the railing that stood near the airlock door.

Slowly and carefully, Kenneth raised his MG to his shoulder, and thanked whatever was out there that the old wives' tale about guns not working in space was a lie. He turned to Thaddeus and flicked the transmitter on his belt, turning on his radio. "Thaddeus, Deladrier." He grunted. "Are we gonna try and re-establish gravity, or just leave it for now?"

Alethea watched as Thaddeus walked into the docking tube, wondering what exactly it was that he was doing. A few moments later, the captain of security passed a 'look' over the medical team, and walked off after Thaddeus, his considerable size making him stick out among the crew members.

Just then, Alethea started to fill excited about the trip. What would be on the other side? Of course, she was a med tech, and was there only because of regulations, but she was still interested in the mission. And, what if someone were to get hurt? Or someone that needed medical attention was on board? When it came to someone needing her expertise, Alethea took full charge, it was like she swapped personalities. Normally, she would be a follower, totally going along with what someone said, floating around in the background. But, when she was in her field, she wasn't afraid to order people out of her way. She has full confidence in her medical abilities. However, that's about where her confidence stops.

Dearyk watched patiently while Thaddeus and the mountain of a security chief bounded through to the docking bay. The size of Kenneth always astounded Daeryk, and oft times he wondered if this was a prime specimen of the missing link, even going so far as to make a sarcastic comment every now and again, he wasn’t afraid of the man, but he was cautious, and knew that there would be no room for jokes with a mission like this. So, steeling himself for the travel between, he made sure that he was behind first two brave men, not wanting to lose face at a moment like this, despite not having a side-arm, if anything could be said it would be that he was foolish at times, but his resolve to not use a firearm was always firm. With such thoughts in his head, Daeryk launched himself through the tunnel, using his hands to grab and launch at each hold that presented itself, letting his smaller-frame make itself advantageous, while he heard the others comment about the lack of gravity up ahead.

In this moment, however, he began thinking about the woman again as he passed her, seeing a slight change in her demeanor as she took control of the medical team, he wondered what his chances would be, and not particularly thinking they were not all together good odds frowned to himself. Yet, in the meantime while his thoughts drifted off, he was floating at a decent speed down the tube, and towards Thaddeus. At the last moment he focused once again on the important mission at hand, with just enough time to hold out his hands and holler as he connected with the engineer’s back.

The meds were at the back of the group, letting the people who had a job to do go before them. Alethea smiled as Dearyk walked by, but quickly checked herself, and got the other med techs in a line. "Okay, guys, here we go." She said, following as the group of people slowly dwindled down as each passed through. Into the docking tube, she sort of swam through, pushing herself off anything she could get a hold of.

She laughed to herself as she saw Dearky collide with Thaddeus. Turning on the mic, she asked if they were okay, while grabbing on to the nearest solid object.

Theo shook his head a little, watching as his old friend and cargo handler, Daeryk, went floating down the mating tube. He thought about sending a warning but Thaddeus was already through the outer airlock, so any bumping that might occur wouldn’t effect delicate tinkering to open up the wreck. A little laugh before hand would make exploring a dead vessel a little less spooky.

“Alright folks” he said, switching on his comme again, to all channels, “The plan is real simple. Once we get inside, we’re splitting up into teams of two and we’re gonna search the ship top to bottom. If….if we find someone alive onboard, then this is a rescue. If we find no one, then this is salvage. There are four hot spots we should hit first; the bridge, engineering, medical and the escape pods.”

“I’m heading to the bridge” continued Theo, slowly making his way down the matting tube, “Where some of us are heading, should be plain. Thaddeus, engineering. Doctor Alethea, medical. I need a volunteer for escape pods. Everyone else, room by room, deck by deck.”

Thaddeus was checking the ship's model with blueprints in the Dancer's files. He had not found the exact one, but there was a similar ship that was popular a few centuries ago as a scientific research vessel. The match would not be exact, or too reliable, but it might give them an idea of what to-

Thaddeus bumped along a wall for a time after he was sent careening through into the ship proper. "Sonuvabitch!"

He grabbed onto one of the hand holds inside what appeared to be the preparation room. It had lockers and benches as well as basic medical equipment and an old vid screen. After checking his suit he commed the lady doctor. "Fine, doctor ma'am." Thaddeus chuckled and broadcasted over all channels. "Thanks, Daeryk. I'm mighty glad you decided to show us a fine example of what happens when you ain't careful in Zero-G. Those hand holds ain't just for lookin' pretty, folks."

Thaddeus downloaded the schematics from the Dancer and sent copies to the Skipper, Deladrier, and Alethea. As he was prepping the data to be sent he pressed his comm button twice for the security channel. "Well, buddy, I don't really wanna try and establish gravity from here. It would be much safer and easier from engineerin'. I'm not sure what kind of security measures are in place on this ol' hag." Thaddeus sighed loudly. "Then again, if we have any other accidents like Daeryk's little stunt it could be fatal. I'll start to work on the nearest engineering panel I can find and see what I can do. Door and light controls should function as normally, so don't feel like you hafta wait up for me."

After Thaddeus said he was fine, Alethea looked at the blueprints of a ship he had sent her. Looking at it, she found where the medical bay was. The prints wouldn't be exact, but it was close enough. Most medical bays were in the same general area, anyways. Gathering her team of medical officers, they made their way through the ship. Grab, push off, repeat.

It had not taken as long for Daeryk to recover as it had Thaddeus, plunging into the engineer had slowed him down considerably, and sent him off at a slight spin that allowed him to latch onto a length of piping jutting from the floor. He regained his posture shortly when he heard a few quick buzzes come through on his comm.

“The plan is real simple. Once we get inside, we’re splitting up into teams of two and we’re gonna search the ship top to bottom. If….if we find someone alive onboard, then this is a rescue. If we find no one, then this is salvage. There are four hot spots we should hit first; the bridge, engineering, medical and the escape pods.”

"Well, buddy, I don't really wanna try and establish gravity from here. It would be much safer and easier from engineerin'. I'm not sure what kind of security measures are in place on this ol' hag." Thaddeus sighed loudly. "Then again, if we have any other accidents like Daeryk's little stunt it could be fatal. I'll start to work on the nearest engineering panel I can find and see what I can do. Door and light controls should function as normally, so don't feel like you hafta wait up for me."

“I’m heading to the bridge” continued Theo, slowly making his way down the matting tube, “Where some of us are heading, should be plain. Thaddeus, engineering. Doctor Alethea, medical. I need a volunteer for escape pods. Everyone else, room by room, deck by deck.”

Daeryk waited patiently while orders were being issued, and switch his comm to a private channel with the chief crew members.

“Sorry about that little bump Thad, I missed that last post on account of some…. Well I was a little distracted at the time, but anyways I’ll head down to the escape pods. They should be the easiest to find, that one part hasn’t seemed to have changed much over time.”

With his buzz-out Daeryk positioned one foot on the piping, bending his knee so as to give himself momentum, and sent himself coasting towards a local hallway. It was rather dim, it seemed the ship had lost most of its sustaining power, and with most of the lights out it became rather dark and ominous in the cavernous ship, so he picked a hand up to click the side-mounted lights on his helmet on. After a brief float he came upon a large set of double-doors that opened diagonally. He imagined it must be an elevator system, and if it worked it would save valuable time in making his way up towards the upper decks in search of the escape pods, which happened to be positioned on both sides unfortunately. He clicked his comm on again quickly, but this time using a channel to communicate with only Thaddeus.

“Hey, Thad, what are the chances of getting some power to these elevators, or even getting a door open, with the gravity the way it is it wouldn’t be too hard to hop on up or down using the shafts. Think it would be too much of a problem to take a look at what you can do real quick?”

Alethea and her medical team pulled and pushed themselves through the ship, passing no bodies on the way there. "Seems to be abandoned." She said through her mic to the med techs as they made their way closer to the medical bay. "Keep your eye's opened for someone, though. Don't want to leave a person to die because we weren't paying attention." The meds immediately started looking around more, trying their best to spot a body.

The map was a little off, but Alethea found the medical bay in due time. Upon getting close to them, two doors slid apart, revealing the room they had been searching for. "My team and I have found the medical bay, Captain." Alethea radios to him. Making her way in, she rests the handle of her medical supplies case on a cabinet handle, which kept it from floating off. And allowed Alethea to use both of her hands.

Looking around the room, it looked to be okay. Upon further inspection, she reports to Captain Harwood. "The medical bay is in fine shape. Other than some medicine the late crew used, all seems to be here. Including some pretty nice equipment." Alethea ran her gloved hand over an E.X. scanner, which would easily pinpoint anything out of the ordinary in someone's body. Many of the nicer ships used it on each crew member once a month as a sort of check up.

The interior of the derelict could have served as the set for at least a fifty of the low budget horror vids (both 2d and 3d) on almost any given planet. Some sections, the lighting was failing, flickering as little jolts of power from the emergency backups flowed through deteriorating wiring, causing the shadows to dance. Others were completely black, pierced only once helmet mounted lights were activated. It was hard to keep the mind from inventing monsters, hidden just on the edge of one’s sight, drool running down jagged fangs and waiting for you to turn around.

Theo didn’t wait for his engineer to restore gravity or reactivate any of the down systems within the old girl. No, he made his way right to maintenance shafts, working his way up to the deck that had the bridge on it. A smile was on his lips, despite the willies he had about the seemingly empty ship. Nothing drifting over the comm channels even hinted there was anyone aboard. It was looking like he was going to be able to slap a salvage claim on her and fill his bank account with more dollars then it had ever held before.

Stopping before the bridge (and waiting for his partner to catch up), the freighter captain tapped the control panel for the door. There was a grinding sound, barely picked up by the space suit he was wearing and the door remained close. Cocking an eyebrow, he tried again and still the door remained closed. A look of determination closed his face, he was going to get into that bridge, find out the name of this lovely scrap pile and maybe find a clue to what happened to her.

“Anyone bring a prybar” asked Theo, opening all of the comm channels.

Daeryk had been attempting to pry the elevator shaft open for quite some time now, perspiring profusely within his suit, and had to stop grunting with effort once his mask fogged up with the hot breath. He let himself drift backwards in the gravity-free environment, loving how he did not have to worry about seating himself on some hard metal floor. It had probably been a good half-hour since he had started with his vain attempts, but had not really paid attention until he heard Theo click in on the communicator.

“Anyone bring a prybar” asked Theo.

Daeryk threw his hands up in the air, despairing at the thought that the captain had raced all the way to the other side of the ship while he sat in the same spot, not even close to reaching the compartments that housed the cargo pods. He sighed with frustration, and smashed the prybar one last time into the doors, thoroughly cursing them for their fortified design. After he had finished with this much needed vent he clicked his comm over to reply to Theo.
“Yeah captain, you’re in luck today. Good old Daeryk always has the tool to break his back with.”

Shaking his head slightly he began skimming through the desolate hallways, stopping more than once to glance back over his shoulder, feeling like he had eyes watching him from the dark places. He had even managed to get himself lost for a second, turning down a wrong hallway, and stopped at what lay ahead of him. This one corridor must stretch at least half of the ship’s length, but was pitch-black down its entirety. He was hazarded a better look, but remember he was running behind as is, retracing his steps until he was on the right path again. It was another five minutes before he made it to the bridge, but floated towards the captain, breathing hard in his suit with the prybar jutting forth from an outstretched hand.

“Sorry it took so long Cap, I just made a wrong turn and had to back track. Hey by the way you shoulda seen that hallway Theo, even deep space has more light than that sucker.”

As he floated forth he let himself bump into the doors of the bridge that Theo wanted open so bad, and began to break his back once again with another door. This one proved slightly easier, actually opening after a few minutes, and Daeryk glided aside, waving a hand to usher the captain inside.

After reporting to the Captain, Alethea continued her inspection of the medical bay. It was rather large, full of interesting medicines and expensive equipment. If there was no signs of life in the medical bay, the crew must have abandoned their ship. If there was a battle of sorts, the medical bay would have been in use at the time. Coming to her conclusion, she made her way to an office like room within the bay.

Inside was a desk and a chair; nothing else. Gripping the desk, Alethea pulled open a file cabinet-like drawer, inside were folders. Inside the folders was paper. And on the paper were medical histories and reports on the crew of the abandoned ship. Captain. She radioed to him. I've found medical histories and reports on the crew members.

Thaddeus' upper body was completely inside the broken panel of an engineering terminal. He had found it like this a good fifteen minutes ago, which he considered lucky. Breaking into any of the other terminals might have harmed the delicate wiring inside. There were scorch marks around the edges of the plasteel panel, as if had been blasted open. He was carefully navigating through various wires when a heavy spark shot out onto the arm of his enviro-suit. Psssssht!

He rubbed the spot vigorously on his arm where the spark had landed. Smoke drifted off lazily for a moment, but no breach or flame. He checked the wiring again, this time with slight thermals turned on so he could find heat. All of the connecting wires to engineering were stripped and unevenly cut. "Skipper... it looks like I ain't gettin' into engineerin'. Someone manually cut off all connections with that portion of the ship. Also, be careful around these ole fashioned terminals. It seems they pose a fire hazard. Wait a second, I think I see a connectin' wire... lemme... Oops."

The lights all over the ship went out suddenly. "Uh, sorry, Skip."


Down the dark hallway past the blast doors and through the propulsion and life support systems a small light began blinking. A whirring sound started and red emergency lighting began flashing slowly all over the ship.


"Skip, that wasn't me. I think some of the automated systems are still intact... Skip?" Thaddeus reached down to his belt and pressed the comm. Nothing. He pressed it again. Nothing. Thaddeus continued to talk to himself out loud, it always made him feel better in the void and it worked here. Kind of. "Gonna hafta switch providers, no service. Damn Galactell."

He slowly extracted himself from the panel, looking around. All was black, no thermals or lighting. He flicked on his HUD lighting. The doors he had come through were shut, with a grunt of effort Thaddeus propelled himself at the wall nearest the control panel with his hands and feet. He pressed a few buttons on the panel. Dead.

Sweat began to bead on his forehead. He tried to regulate his breathing, a sudden movement then a crash behind him. "Arrgh! He turned around, and shot his handcannon twice in the direction of the sound. Ping! Ping!

It was only one of the plasteel tiles above him, it swung violently from the force of his soft bullets. He looked above the tile at the darkness of the inner recesses of the ship. Robert Fost came ot his lips almost like a mantra. "Let him get off and he'll be everywhere around us, looking out of trees and bushes 'till I sha'n't dare to set a foot outdoors."

Khadija knelt upon the prayer mat, her hands on her knees and her forehead resting upon the floor as she faced the cabin bulkhead for dhuhr prayer. In the old, old, old days you prayed towards Mecca, but here aboard ship and in the directionless void of space, how did you know which way Mecca was? Some, she knew, had purchased little homing devices that pointed the way back through the stars to that holiest of cities, but Khadija wanted nothing to do with any signal that could easily be tracked back to her. These days, she picked a direction and relied on God to understand.

"God hears those who give thanks to Him," she murmured, "Grateful praise to you, our Lord! As much as-"

Khadija gave a start as the communications unit in the bulkhead buzzed loudly. A voice she recognized as the captain's came on the intercom: "Get your butts down to the bridge."

Confused, she stared at the comm unit. What was going on? Was there an emergency onboard?. She rose to her feet. Travelers could get away with only three prayers a day, and for the moment the fate of her soul mattered less than the fear that they'd run afoul of pirates, or worse, the customs service.

Her toiletries bag sat open on the fold-out table by the bed, the space beside it covered with pill containers. The cabin was so small that a single step was all it took to reach the table, and hurriedly Khadija began stuffing the containers into the bag. She had over thirty of the containers, backed up by prescriptions from a dozen doctors for treatment of everything from arthritis to acne. On paper she looked like a medical wreck, but all those prescriptions were just insurance, in case some customs official got nosy enough to bother snooping around through her toothpaste and shampoo.

She started to throw one container, labelled as heartburn medication, in the bag, but stopped and instead unscrewed the lid. She popped two of the little white pills, and smiled as she felt the tension that had gripped her body begin to fade away. One of the perks of selling small fortunes of prescription painkillers was that you could always sample your merchandise.

When all the pill containers were safely stored away, Khadija zipped the bag closed and tossed it into her tiny closet. She stood still a moment, feeling happy and slightly light-headed as the drugs kicked in, and wondered what to do next. Experience told her to play it safe and stay with the goods, but curiosity got the best of her.

Khadija reached under the thin mattress of her bunk and removed her Luba from its hiding place. Checking to make sure the safety was on, she stowed it in the waistband of her sweats and made her way to cabin door. The door hissed open, and she slid out into the passageway, the only noise the sound of her flip-flops on the metal floor.

Khadija padded quietly down the empty hallway, following the sound of voices which echoed weirdly in the cramped space. She heard no commotion or sounds of fighting, so whatever had interrupted the ship's daily rhythm was most likely not pirates. A revenue cutter, perhaps? She found herself worried, despite the pills.

The passageway ended at an airtight door which stood propped, its convex surface cast in shadow by the lights from the next room. She clambered through the door and found herself standing in the communal room, at the back of a crowd of more than two dozen people who had gathered around a table in the compartment center. Through gaps in the crowd Khadija could make out the captain, whom she recognized, as he spoke and gestured toward the image of a ship, which she didn't.

"-It's our duty, as honest spacers, to board this derelict and search for survivors--" the captain was saying. Theo was his name, she recalled.

She tapped gently on the arm of the man who stood in front of her, one of the crew whom she recognized by face if not by name. "What's happening?"

"We stumbled on a wreck," the man replied, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the captain, "Big old thing. We're trying to decide whether or not to give it a look-see."

Khadija nodded and stared again at the projection of vessel above the table. She had grown up near the shipyards on New Cairo, and often her father had taken her with him to his offices near the local spaceport. This ship was unlike any she had seen at home or in the years since then, and even her amateur eye could tell that it was strange, very strange.

She half-listened as more of the crew took turns to speak, her mind turning over --as ever-- how to make a profit out of this. A ship like that had to have something valuable aboard, didn't it? Small things, the things she specialized in which could be transported in a suitcase but were more than worth the weight in gold?

She kept thinking, as she listened. When the gathering in the communal room broke up, Khadija slipped back down the passageway to her cramped quarters. She showered quickly, her mind still filled with visions of what treasures the derelict might contain.

The posibilities were nearly too thrilling to consider, Khadija reflected giddily. Nearly. If it was a new vessel, she might pay a visit to the ship's infirmary and rummage through its shelves. If it was an old vessel... she shivered with excitement. She had dealt occasionally in antiques and though it was a tough and often literally cut-throat market, the profit from a single small piece of antiquity could fetch an incredible price from a dedicated collector. A few of Khadija's business contacts, she knew, had made killings by selling off plastic bowls to wealthy people who liked to decorate their homes with relics from a time before petroleum was too valuable to turn into polystyrene and polyethylene.She might even find real nylon! Khadija actually laughed out loud, though it was probably the painkiller still talking.

She tied up the last lace on her boot, and as she stood back she caught sight of her faint reflection in the polished metal of the cabin wall. She had dressed herself for business: a trim black abaya cut short a mid-thigh, a matching black hijab, and gray baggy cargo pants tucked into high old marine surplus shipboard combat boots. A small bag at her waist held a flashlight, a jeweler's lens, and a personal organizer. As a finishing touch, she took her pistol from the table and clipped it to her belt, where it was hidden beneath the abaya.

Finished, Khadija stood for a moment and stared at the fuzzy image of herself on the bulkhead, It was difficult to believe it had been twelve years since she had fled New Cairo and left behind her friends, her family, and her whole former life. Was the drug-runner who stared back her, hardened and quietly cynical, the same person as the happy child who'd once done her schoolwork in the kitchen as her mother made dinner and who'd punched her little brother when no one was looking?

Thoughts like these depressed her, Khadija knew, and so she returned to her toiletries bag and downed another of her own pharmaceutical merchandise. She sighed as she waited for it to kick in: was there nothing dormicin couldn't make better? She was almost feeling happy again as she left the cabin, searching for the airlock.

***

The crew had already moved into the mating tube when Khadija arrived at Airlock B-17. There were still one or two environmental suits in a rack by the airlock door, but when she went to put one on, a crewman stopped her.

"Sorry, can't let you through," he said, standing in front of the rack. "Not until we secure the derelict and get the main systems back online."

Khadija thought of the potential treasures of the mystery ship; of the infirmary and its medicine cabinets lying open and unattended. "I have some training with first aid," she said, trying to step around the crewman. "I could help out."

But the man would not be moved. "Sorry, I can't let you in until the captain gives me the go-ahead."

Quietly fuming, Khadija made herself comfortable against the bulkhead and sat, arms crossed, waiting.

While filing through the folders, a red emergency light began to flash. "What...?" Alethea whispered, looking around at the med techs. The flashing light cast eerie shadows as it lazily blinked, giving the ship an unsafe feel. Alethea closed the drawer and pulled herself out of the small office.

Fearing someone was hurt, Alethea opened her comm to all channels. "Is everyone alright?"

“Not a problem Daeryk” said Theo, as his old friend arrived with the prybar. Floating there, before the door as the cargo handler worked on wedging the door apart, he couldn’t help be feel at peace with the universe. After all, it had delivered on to him a fortune, it would seem and so long as no one was found aboard this wreck, it was his. The smile on his face broadened, as the flickering lights of the bridge twinkled through the now opened door. Pushing off from a nearby wall, he glided forwards.

Just as the captain entered though, a pair of comme messages came through. The doc had found the medical records the crew and Thaddeus was going on about getting into Engineering. Something about wiring and then the ship went dark. Lost in pitch blackness, he was about to reactivate the lights on his helmet, when his stomach found the back of the derelict’s captain’s chair. As the breath was forced from his lungs, red emergency lighting blazed in a number of small spots in the command center of the vessel.

“God damn it Sparky” swore Theo, keeping the channel open to his engineer and using a joking, rather then angry voice, “The next time you go fiddling with shit, make sure it not going to shut down something more important!”

“Sparks” he asked, after several seconds had passed and Thaddeus hadn’t responded, “Sparks, can you hear me?”

“Daeryk” said the Captain, switching channels, “Come on, lets go see if Sparky’s finally fried himself. Call Doc Alethea and have her meet us down there.”

With a frown, Theo turned around and started heading away from the bridge. He really had wanted to get a look at the captain’s logs and the other files within the computers. Knowing just this ship’s mission and what happened on her last days with a crew could make her worth a lot more. Plus it would satisfy an itch he had. Ships that disappeared in space were forgotten, the souls of their crews unable to rest properly. If anything caused his ship to float out in the void, he hoped someone would find her and remember them.

After being called, Alethea told the other med techs to stay in the medical bay. Grabbing her carry on medical kit, she pulled and pushed herself through the hallways. For a second they were black, the next they would be lit up with a dim red light. Alethea flipped on the light that was on her helmet. It penetrated the lonliness and comforted the slightly scared doctor. It wasn't really fear, but the thought of being alone. What if there someone, or something, on the ship?

Shaking the childish thoughts from her mind, the doctor continued through the hallways, glancing at the blue print every now and then. Taking a wrong turn, she found herself going by personal quaters. Turning around, she saw Captain Harwood and Daerky's backs, retreating down the hallway. "Captain Harwood! Sorry, I took a wrong turn. What seems to be the problem?"

Daeryk had thrown himself into a horizontal position, floating in mid-air, while Theo ventured onto the bridge. He sat one hand on top of the other behind him, grasping the back of his left-hand with the palm of his right, and pushed upward into his mid-back, sending forth a string of popping sounds that could be nothing else but his spine, a bad habit of his that extended to his knuckles and neck as well, oft times disturbing other crew members with how loud it sometimes got. He had closed his eyes afterwards, and began rubbing his lower-back, hoping to relieve some of the tension when he heard Thaddeus going on about something on the comme. When he opened his eyes to take a look at theo, he could not see.

"Aww what the fuck Thad. You couldn't have picked a better time could you?"

The darkness only lasted a few moments, however, and he soon righted himself, but something looked wrong at one of the panels covering the electrical components by the navigator's chair. It seemed like something had scratched it, gouging into the metal partly, yet lost focus when he heard Theo call to him. Shaking his head slightly, he switched his channel over to contact Alethea, he set off to take a spot next to the Captain.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he came out like a bucket of fried chicken, personally. Not that I'm saying that would be a good thing though, Thad ain't too bad a guy, but he's about as bad as me about getting hurt."

They continued on down the red-lit hallway, the emergency lights casting different shades as they spun around, when Daeryk began to have one of those bad feelings again. He kept glancing back over his shoulder every couple of seconds just to make sure they weren't being followed.

"Captain something really ain't right with this. What do you think happened to these people?"

Just as he finished his question the youthful medical officer called out from behind them, inquiring the reason they had called her in the first place. Daeryk let a smile curve up on the side of his mouth before opening up his mouth to respond before his friend, a bad habit that had gotten him in trouble on several occasions throughout his life.

"Oh we just think that Thad turned himself into a piece of jerky is all. Besides, even if he is, we could always use the meat in case we take too much time with this wreck here!"

Daeryk winked after telling the tasteless joke, and for some reason he always forgot to think before he opened his mouth.

For a moment, Alethea only thought of the weird feeling that was fluttering in her stomach. But, attributing it to the creeping feeling of unease, she realized that a crew member might be hurt. "Where is he? We'll need to get to him immediately." Alethea allowed her medical confidence to overtake her, and pushed her slim body towards the Captain and Daeryk, as the trio made their way towards Thaddeus. "Did you find any of the original crew members?" She asked them.

Deladrier and his crew were deep in the barracks area of the derelict. A series of long halls, lined on either side with hexagonal doors, the environment here was perfect for an ambush. The security chief and his five-man team of mercenaries swept room to room, acting separately from the rest of the crew. As they hadn't drawn straws for medical, the bridge, or engineering, the tiny paramilitary group was tasked with sweeping the quarters for survivors.

Surprisingly, in every block that they had traveled through - the ship was massive, and could easily sustain a crew of several hundred comfortably; unlike the Dancer, and therefore the team had covered only a small portion of the quarters - everything had been empty. Kenneth had an uneasy feeling about the fate that the ship's crew had met - he had no idea what had happened to any of them, and they weren't doing anything to make themselves known. So the six-man team continued to slowly and quietly make their way up and down the halls of the ship's residential area, scanning for life, which they did not find.

Until the lights went down.

The red emergency lights that flashed in the hallway made visibility drop to near zero, but luckily the crew's headlamps were all in working order, and soon six high-powered LED bulbs probed into the darkness of the hull. Deladrier thumbed the comms unit on his hip, but when his ear was met with static he flicked it off again. The sound of gunshots from somewhere below them broke the awkward silence as the security team stopped to check their own comms units. Deladrier turned on the external speakers of his hard suit. "Team, split up." He grunted. "Two of you guard the medical team and two of you go to help lock down the bridge. The last one, come with me to Engineering."

The team split without complaints, and Deladrier and his compatriot hoofed it towards Engineering. Something felt deeply wrong to the mercenary, who normally was unshakeable. The security chief scowled and shut down any potentially distracting thoughts, focusing on the little wire-frame map of the ship in the upper right hand corner of his HUD, which guided his progress towards Engineering.

It was difficult to remove his enviro-suit in zero-G, to make things even more difficult all of his equipment had to come off first. Thaddeus tightened his comm belt around his waist awkwardly. His emergency re-breather and other specialized equipment floated around him aimlessly. With care and precision Thaddeus began to hook what was essential to the harness of his jumpsuit. The handcannon was strapped to his leg, a small multi-tool with a weak surgical laser was attached to one of the straps on his chest. Thaddeus settled the re-breather on his face but left it off. At most it would give him a few hours of oxygen should the ship lose life-support. He cast a longing glance at the bulky boots of his suit. They were just too heavy and cumbersome, he would have to continue bare-foot.

Leaving his suit and non-essential gear behind, Thaddeus pushed off from the door to his omni-tool. He began to type in a message that would relay to the Captain should his communications start working in his absence:

Skipper, I'm making my way to engineering via the life-support ducts in the ceiling.
I have my emergency gear with me and some liquid courage.
Seems like there was some sort of conflict aboard the ship.
The wires that connect engineering's crucial functions have been cut.
Life-support must be in the med-bay.
Anyhow, I'll see you after I get things operational again.

Thaddeus turned the omni-tool on standby and started to pull himself into the ducts with the swinging tile.

Theo rolled his eyes, listening to Daeryk and his jokes. One day, he was going to say something in front of the wrong people and end up getting a good beating or depending on the situation, get thrown out of an airlock. He had heard rumors that some smugglers had done that to the crew of a freighter, which had been suffering engine trouble, in order to claim the ship as salvage. Of course that had come from a rival crew of smugglers, so it was more then likely just a story.

“I haven’t found a thing Doc” he said finally, moving through a jammed door into one of the crew quarters, “And I doubt that we’ll know fore sure until we get power restored throughout the ship. The computer should have daily logs or final messages or damage reports or something to give us a clue.”

The captain suddenly grabbed a hold of railing and hovered in the air. He had spotted movement just a head of them. The light from his helmet moved back and forth through the hallway, until the beam centered on a teddy bear, floating around the doorway of a room. That in itself would have been creepy and unsettling but the bottom half the brown bear seemed to have been soaked in something gray. Almost like it had been dropped in a puddle and soaked up the liquid.