Chapter 5: A Derelict Ship

"It's been six hours since we should have heard from Minara, try and contact her again, Catana."

After several attempts, the quantum communication system just hissed static with no connection established.

Sisanna sat with her boots on the navigation console. "Maybe she has given up and left."

"No that's impossible, I don't care whether you like her or not, Sisanna, Minara is nothing if not reliable. She will do exactly what she says she will do and is certainly someone I would want at my back in a fight."

Sisanna snorted, "Why did you fall out with her then?"

Varna glared at her. "That is my business, Sisanna!" She snapped.

Sisanna put her hands up palms forward. "Okay I was only asking."

"We should jump to her last known coordinates and see if we can find anything. Bring up the map of the sector she was in, Sisanna."

The navigation system projected a three dimensional image of the area of space where Minara last reported her position. "Now from her planned jumps the next jump would have brought her here." Sisanna indicated an area off to the right of the map.

"Plot our jump to those coordinates," Varna ordered.

A short time later the jump engines were ready to be engaged when the long-range sensor array chimed.

"What is it?" Varna snapped.

"Ancestors! Have some patience." Sisanna sat up and turned to the sensors.

With a sigh, Varna pinched the bridge of her nose and shut her eyes. One day she would have to ditch the insolent bitch.

"It is a ship at the extreme range of our sensors, do you want to continue with the jump to Minara's last known coordinates or investigate this contact first?"

Varna looked at the sensor display, and for some unknown reason she felt drawn to investigating the new contact. After all, she told herself, it could jump away at any time and they would lose it. The only reason for Minara failing to make contact was either she had a system failure or her ship had been destroyed. In both cases she would not be going anywhere so Varna justified to herself and the decision was easy. "Plot a jump to the contact quickly. Our jump engines are charged so with luck we can disable it before it jumps away."

There was a lurch as the view from the front ports changed. Varna adjusted their position and moved them towards the contact.

"Theasa, Catana, lock weapons on the contact but don't fire. Petara, scan it." Varna's tone became business like as she turned towards the contact. Ancestors, why do I have a strange feeling about that ship?

Petara checked the scan readouts then turned to Varna. "There is minimal power and only one faint life sign." She turned back to her console and frowned. "The heat signature with respect to the life sign is strange however."

"How is the heat signature strange?" Sisanna asked.

"Well there is very little heat, it is just above the temperature of this region of space."

"That's fucking impossible, Petara, nothing can live at that temperature."

"Well, look for yourself, Sisanna, if you don't believe me! And there is nothing wrong with the sensors either, before you ask. I double checked"

Varna glared at them "Will you two shut up! We will board the ship, investigate what is causing the life sign anomaly and see if anything is worth salvaging." She rose from her command chair. "Petara, Theasa, you're with me. Sisanna, move us to the ship then match velocity and roll while we get ready. Catana, monitor the sensors and be ready with the main weapons." With a chorus of, "Yes Varna." Her crew got to work.

The boarding party made their way aft to the armory. "Petara, you arm yourself with a pulse rifle as a precaution, Theasa and I will just carry pistols." Varna reached for her armor suit belt and buckled it on, then unfolded the legs and torso so she could clip a pistol and spare charge to her belt. Theasa did the same and Petara pulled a rifle from the rack. They walked to the airlock.

Sisanna's voice came over the intercom. "I'm about to engage the docking process as the ship appears to have a Grojan design airlock, but the ship itself looks to be of human, type which is strange." There was a gentle bump followed by the clunk of a locking mechanism. "We are docked, have fun guys."

"All right, let's go." Varna punched the airlock and the inner door opened. They stepped in, and then each of them reached for the additional air packs clipped to the side of the airlock. They clipped the additional air to the back of each other's suits, and checked their total supply. There was sufficient for two hours of normal activity. They activated their helmets. Varna looked round at her crewmates. "Are you both ready?"

"Yes Varna, ready to go," they both replied. She punched the outer lock activation switch and the inner door closed. They stood a few moments while the air was removed, their suits expanding slightly due to the pressure difference. The outer door opened once the pressure had reached zero. They were faced with the outer airlock door of the disabled ship. As Sisanna had established, the airlock was standard Grojan design with a manual release in the center of the door.

Varna turned the release half way and waited. If the airlock had been pressurized the air would leak out slowly, preventing an explosive decompression. No air escaped so Varna opened the catch fully, and the door slid back and up into the hull. The inner airlock door stood open so the ship didn't have any atmosphere.

"Varna, look at this." Theasa pointed to the warning notice on the wall of the airlock. "It is written in both Grojan and human."

Varna stepped towards the notice. "That's strange, Theasa, let's go to the bridge and see if we can find out what happened."

They switched on their helmet lights, stepped out of the airlock and made their way towards the front of the ship. The gravity generators in their suits interacted with the floor plating of the ship, enabling them to walk and keeping them anchored to the floor. Several bodies floated in the corridor, causing Theasa to jump back into Varna.

"Easy Theasa, they can't hurt you."

"I know, but they still gave me a shock, sorry." She looked more closely at them. "Varna look, two are Grojan, but that one is most certainly human. They must have been bounty hunters like us and they boarded the human ship to kill them and take their ears."

"Yes, but there are no blast injuries, so I expect they were in the process of taking the ship when something went wrong and it decompressed."

"Humm..." Petara frowned and pushed one of the floating bodies aside. "But notice they are wearing the same uniform with the same insignia; there is something else going on here, Varna."

"Don't be ridiculous, humans and Grojan working together, it's impossible. At least we can still take the human's ears though and get the bounty these other poor bastards were unable to collect."

They reached the bridge and it became immediately apparent what had gone wrong. Something had smashed through the hull, destroyed the ship's life support and exited out the other side of the cabin causing an explosive decompression. Varna examined the damage to the life support console. "It looks like something went wrong and the bounty hunters fired on the ship."

Theasa slowly turned, her helmet light illuminating the whole of the bridge as she rotated. "There are more Grojan and human, a couple there are still in their seats." She walked over to the two seated corpses. "One is human the other is Grojan. If they were fighting, Varna, would they be sitting side by side?"