Chapter 4 - Lost in the Void

Taelor slips past Rena and Lola, moving to the front and drawing her knife. She and Lola had traded stories during the long trips between systems and the pilot knew the soldier was more comfortable with a bit of distance between her and her target. Comparatively, Taelor had trained to fight in the tight quarters of her ship, should it be boarded. Anyway, that's how she would rationalize her suicidal move later. If she survived.

Taelor shoots her pistol, seeing the heat from the laser beam score a gash on the creature's skin. She then goes into a low, wide-legged stance, getting ready to receive the creature's charge.

The unknown animal charges towards Taelor, the laser bolt burning another trace onto its hide. It flinches visibly and after the hit changes its behaviour visibly. Suddenly it starts flailing about its first four legs. It almost blindly hits in Taelor's direction. Taelor manages to duck under two legs, but the others then cut low and catch her without chance of evasion. Without realising that it hit its attacker the beast continues randomly flailing its legs and spitting its poison around.

Lola had been lining up the beast with her rifle, when she felt movement at her side and then Taelor slipped past. Her immediate reaction was to call her back, the civilians should be behind her. But she held off. Taelor was capable and intelligent, and if she felt capable of taking this thing on closer quarters, Lola had to try and trust her. They'd discussed in the ship earlier about her own preference for ranged combat. This could perhaps a chance to build on their ability to fight together.

All these thoughts rushed through her mind as she took a sidestep to the right, leaning against the wall with her shoulder, so that she could get a wider cone of fire on the beast. Quickly lining it up with her weapon she shot, before speaking for the benefit of those back on ship.

"Located and engaged what looks like the same creature. Taelor has hurt it badly but has taken a hit. Taelor step back if you can and we'll finish it from range!"

"Not-" Taelor ducks under one of the creature's wild flails "-sure-" she parries a leg with her knife "-it"ll-" she brings her right arm up to block another "-let me!"

Nitafrong wrote:

"Located and engaged what looks like the same creature. Taelor has hurt it badly but has taken a hit. Taelor step back if you can and we'll finish it from range!"

The situation sounds tricky, but not dire. Graham envisions Lola lining up a shot, Taelor uncomfortably close to the beast. Lola said nothing about Rena. "Just as well, no news is good news." He'd rather she stay out of immediate danger, but still able to shoot or provide assistance. She's not stuck in the middle of the firefight, and that's good enough. But Taelor has 'taken a hit', and this isn't over yet.

"Don't add to any confusion, only talk if they need info."

And, of course, to let them know stations are holding. "Understood", he says with assurance, and leaves the comms clear of clutter. Taelor is tough, he reasons, but he feels his brow furrowed, his jaw clenched, and he tries a bit unsuccessfully to uncoil his nerves.

Just before Lola finishes her message shouts and shots can be heard over the radio, then silence as Lola obviously has more urgent things to do than pressing the transmitter. Moments of dreadful silence pass, then the pad chimes again. Graham starts and pulls it up, only to see a reply from Haliant system control.
//Haliant system control to Undertow. No distress signal registered in your area, officers have been dispatched and will arrive in 36h. Salvage claim preliminarily granted, pending investigation of cause of emergency.
Free trader Vagabond was inbound from Gor, en route to Astyoc. //

On the Vagabond the fight comes to a whirling crescendo. Taelor can barely fight of the arms of the spider, the hallway and its occupants are drenched in sticky spider poison.
Lola and Rena try to get a shot through the chaos, but the risk of hitting their friend seems too great. But the risk of the spider crushing their friend seems equally real. At one moment Taelor gets thrown to the left side of hallway smacking into the wall like a puppet. This is the moment Lola had desperately waited for. Without hesitation she discharges a salvo of laser bolts into the unprotected side of the spider. First nothing happens and the spider starts to turn again. But then its hide rips, right where Lola had just hit it and with a gush of liquid the amorphous body of the spider empties onto the floor. Almost instantly the spider collapses and stops moving. Eerie silence returns to the scene of the fight.
Lola still has her rifle pressed to her shoulder, Rena, a bit towards the back, has her gun trained forward and Taelor sits half leaning against the wall on left side of the hallway, panting from the impact. Nobody seems severely hurt.

Taelor sits on the ground, waiting for her breathing to slow and her heart to stop pounding in her ears. She starts moving her toes, her neck, and her fingers, making sure nothing is broken. She then puts her knife down and wipes the goo off of her helmet's visor with her glove.

She looks around at the mess. The goo, the spider corpse, its... entrails? ... and fluids spreading across the deck. "Well. That's going to leave a stain."

Rena creeps tentatively closer to the brutal scene, and after confirming that her two allies are unharmed turns her attentions to the spider, or at least what's left of it. She pokes at the puddle of slowly expanding goo on the deck with a nearby piece of metal piping, then braves a few prods at the alien's corpse. "Initial thoughts..." she muses to herself, turning the body over gently and causing a gush of liquid to flow out of it. "...Apparently no more rugged than established Arachnida."

Lola watched the creature for a few seconds more, just to be sure that it had no last surprise to give out, and then relaxed slightly, moving the rifle down to waist height. That was a lot closer than it really should have been. If chance had gone another way, she wouldn't have got her shot and Taelor might have got more seriously hit
"Taelor how are you feeling? Anything we need to look at?"

Based on her movement and words though, Lola felt confident enough to send a message back to the others.
"Target has been eliminated. No hits apart from Taelor, but she appears to be ok. Rena is currently examining the creature. We will remain in position for a minute or so to see if there are any reactions in the local surroundings and then move to examine the rest of the ship."

Aware that the other two would hear her words, she added.
"Couldn't have asked for two better people to make first contact with. Backbones of steel. There's some I served with who'd already be back with you."
Confidence and team bonding was important to build in situations like this.

Moving over to Taelor she reached down with a hand, to help the other woman get up.
"Nice work with the knife there. Remind me not to piss you off."
Stepping over the spider, she slowly moved on up the corridor, from which the spider had came, checking out the different rooms, but not straying too far from the others.

Taelor holsters her pistol and retrieves her knife, then gratefully accepts Lola's hand up. She grins at the compliment. "Right back at you. You're one hell of a shot."

She looks over at Rena and the creature's corpse, and at all the goo coating the walls, floor and ceiling. "I know none of this shit got into my suit, but I'm going to need an hour-long shower to have any chance of ever feeling clean again."

<<Good work>> Elan comms, still wishing he had a rocking chair.

<<Watch out for, ah, offspring.>> Or, you know, a mate, but he's trying to remain upbeat.

Then, a thought: <<A grim task, perhaps, but we should survey for potential survivors. Someone locked in a hold. Or maybe the victims were cocooned for preservation but left alive for later. Trying to be hopeful here.>>

<<It probably bears asking how it got aboard. Stowaway? I can't imagine that it was cargo headed to Astyoc. Is there any literature from Gor on these things?>>

Nitafrong wrote:

"Target has been eliminated. No hits apart from Taelor, but she appears to be ok. Rena is currently examining the creature. We will remain in position for a minute or so to see if there are any reactions in the local surroundings and then move to examine the rest of the ship."

"Understood. Hey, did I tell you that I found a giant spider in my shoes the other day?" Graham pauses, partially for effect, partially out of shame. "He looked so stupid, they were way too big for him..."

He continues, back to business. "Check for positive pressure in your vacc suits, and if you have any damage, we can get one to you."
Graham rubs at his temples, both in relief and in renewed calculation. "Superb, all of you. Might not be a bad idea to keep your guard up, and keep each other in sight. I don't know about giant space spiders, but if we had one spider in our basement, it usually wasn't alone. And if anybody knows anything about biology, maybe we can figure out if we have an egg-layer or not. If you can, when you're on the move again, let us know what you're seeing as you're seeing it."  

He leaves out the part about Haliant security and their expected arrival time. "Keep them in the moment for their own safety", he thinks. They have other things to think about, and only one danger has passed...

Thelonius wrote:

//Haliant system control to Undertow. No distress signal registered in your area, officers have been dispatched and will arrive in 36h. Salvage claim preliminarily granted, pending investigation of cause of emergency.
Free trader Vagabond was inbound from Gor, en route to Astyoc. //

//Thank you, System Control. Please identify incoming ship and captain for verification.//

Graham knows that you can never be too careful in deep space. The message made it clear, 36 hours separates Undertow from ​any kind of assistance, no matter how dire the peril.

Middleton continues his message to System Control. He hates handing over so much information, knowing that quarantine could cost a great deal of time, but if the responding ship is unprepared for a quarantine operation, it could take even longer.

//Quarantine equipment recommended. Have encountered and killed large species of spider, perhaps 500 kg, that has apparently killed some if not all crew of Vagabond. Details to follow as investigation continues. If possible, please send documentation covering system salvage rules so Undertow can comply, and have responding ship switch on long-distance identification beacon. Undertow will reciprocate with updated position data once detection and identification are confirmed. Thanks for your assistance.//

Graham launches his message into deep space, vaguely aimed at Haliant Control. He wonders about Vagabond's cargo, wonders what was en route to Astyoc. In any case, there are 36 hours to find out, either through the ship's manifest, or by cracking containers open.

Taelor goes back to the first door in the hallway and opens it. She goes room to room, checking every one for additional beasts, survivors, or cocoons. When she finds the open room with the knot of webbing, she walks in and bends down to pick up a cup from the floor. She chucks it at the cocoon, waiting to see if it moves in response.

If it stays still she moves closer and begins to cut it down with her knife.

Lola slowly moves up the hallway, her gun trained forward. She instinctively always has a wall to her back, leaving no angle for an unexpected attack. The cabins, presumably of the other crew members, look a lot like the first - singled bunk, small closet, table, chair. Albeit they do not show signs of a fight, or a cocoon.
Lola continues forward, always keeping half an eye backward, towards her friends.
She gets to the last room on the right. It is the captains quarters, or what's left of it. The formerly tidy cabin is a mess of thrown over furniture, torn out contents of the closet and webbing. In the corner is another roughly man sized cocoon. Once Lola comes closer she can see something on the floor next to it. She kneels down and takes a closer look. Something handwritten, very poorly, it's very hard to decipher. 'Bumbcrg' is what Lola reads.

Taelor throws the cup into the cocoon and immediately steps back a few steps, awaiting a reaction, but the cocoon and its contents remain still. Slowly Taelor approaches the bundle of webbing and carefully starts cutting into it. After some cuts she reaches something soft and with horror looks into the grey, lifeless face of the former inhabitant of the cabin.

Taelor was prepared to find a corpse. She had steeled herself, so the urge to scream never came. However... Don't puke. Don't puke. Don't puke. She felt the bile and digestive fluids as they came up her esophagus, and tasted them as they reached the back of her throat. She turned away from the grey, lifeless face, kept her mouth closed and swallowed the sludge back down.

"I, uh... Oh, fuck." She took a few deep breaths, thankful she couldn't smell the corpse, and waited for the urge to throw up to pass. "I found one of the crew. In one of the cocoons. Pretty sure he's dead." She looked up at the webbing, careful to avoid the body with her eyes. "Rena? Can you come make sure there aren't eggs in there? Your bioscanner can do that, right? I wouldn't want to have to deal with a swarm of hungry baby goo spiders. I was a terrible babysitter."

Lola reached out with her gun and gave the cocoon a hard poke, before stepping back to see if there was any reaction from it. Following this, she listened to the communication coming through from Taelor.
She sounded a little jittery. To be expected really, it wasn't pleasant coming across a dead body, especially one which had been taken by an animal like this. It probably wasn't a good idea to imagine too hard exactly how the crewmate might have died. If they were anything like the spiders on her home world, then the human here was likely alive when it went into the cocoon.

"I've found another cocoon here in the captains quarters, along with what seems to have been a bit of a last stand. Something badly written as well, Bumbcrg or something similar. I'm going to check if this ones alive and then come back to join you."

After waiting to see if there was a reaction, Lola is going to attempt to cut around where she imagines the humans face would be, to try and free it.

Not for the first time in the past hour or so, Rena is glad of her vaccsuit's filtration systems as she sees why Taelor called for her. With bioscanner in hand she moves slowly towards the cocoon.
"I certainly don't want to jinx anything, but the prospect of obtaining a live infant specimen of this alien has me rather more excited than it should. Or I may merely be terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought."

Lolas prodding does not trigger any reaction. The cocoon simply gently swings on its suspension from the ceiling. Otherwise the room remains in peaceful silence.

Rena taps excitedly on her scanner waving it towards the cocoon. Her reading first only confirms what is obvious. The body inside is dead, the webbing was spun by some kind of arachnid.
The scanner does not show any signs of eggs, but Rena can see something small moving inside the cocoon. Several very small organisms are somewhere in the middle of the cocoon, by Renas estimate inside the dead body.

Faanku wrote:

"I certainly don't want to jinx anything, but the prospect of obtaining a live infant specimen of this alien has me rather more excited than it should. Or I may merely be terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought."

Graham squirms a bit at his console, considering the threat of bringing a live biological sample on board. In theory, this is the kind of discovery that S.T.E.G.O. might want to pursue, but Graham has no idea how they would contain it, especially as the specimen grows in the coming days and weeks. His primary concern, though, is making sure that the crew stays safe.

The other piece involves successful salvage of Vagabond. This brings income much quicker than space spiders.

"Rena, there's a fair chance that the offspring could leave the cocoon and infest Vagabond. Do you see a way to sequester their cocoon? Lola, Taelor, do you think one of the barrels in the cargo hold could be used for each corpse to confine the little beasties? Maybe we can look into that after checking on the crew, but if they're already moving, time may not be on our side. What's your assessment?"

It's possible that both objectives have a competing time component. Graham wants to save the crew, but a bunch of roaming space spiders would present a significant problem, and he doesn't want to see this get out of hand.

Taelor stands close to Rena, looking over her shoulder as she scans the cocoon with her bioscanner. She initially frowns when she sees the movement on the screen, but it soon turns to disgust as understanding dawns on her.

"Momma's had babies for sure, Graham. Lola, can you watch Rena's back while I go check the cargo bay for some sort of container? If I don't find anything, I say we load all the bodies in the airlock and blast the fuckers into space." She walks out of the quarters. "Probably should be doing that either way..." she mutters to herself as she heads down the stairs to the cargo bay. Hadn't the others ever seen a horror movie? This is exactly how those things started.

She starts rummaging for any type of completely sealable container that could conceivably contain the baby goo spiders.

moarhair wrote:

"Momma's had babies for sure, Graham. Lola, can you watch Rena's back while I go check the cargo bay for some sort of container? If I don't find anything, I say we load all the bodies in the airlock and blast the fuckers into space."

"That may be the best option, I'm afraid. If we don't do that, we may have to babysit one or more of these things for weeks. My guess is, they won't stay their small, cute and cuddly selves for long. It's a bunch of variables that could mess up our plans, and Nazir's." Graham ponders, purses his lips, gives his mustache a twist.

"Any objections to taking the cocooned bodies out, setting them adrift between the ships, and letting them freeze? We need to preserve the bodies and evidence for the system authorities. They're on their way here, and we have about 36 hours to do what we need to do. Those babies won't wait that long before they chew their way out, I'd wager."

"One at a time, give us your thoughts, and quickly, please. Don't want space spiders breaking loose while we're sitting around picking our noses. Rena -- start. What's on your mind?"

Graham recalls what he knows about spiders, and everything he remembers involves eggs. If there were eggs, they've skipped this step, and have gone straight to running around, and eating their way out of bodies. Profit be damned, he will NOT let their new cat get eaten by a God-damned spider.

Lola listened to the different conversations, as she moved back from the captains quarters to stand, her back in the corner, behind Rena.
"Got Rena's back now."

She was silent for a couple of seconds while she considered the situation.
"So far we have found three bodies. I don't have experience with this kind of ship. How many other crew members would we be expecting? If any others are alive and hiding, they would have heard the gun shots but they might not know it is safe to emerge. I'll send out a message shortly. If it does draw out any more creatures its better than an ambush."

Her eyes returned to the cocooned body.
"The bodies are infected. We don't know if these creatures can breathe in the void but considering that they were inside this sealed section of the ship, its probably a good first guess. Sealing them inside a box would be my preference just in case they can survive outside but if we can't I'd agree with putting them outside, after first linking the bodies by rope and tying this to the ship. Personally I see no value in these creatures, but if Rena wishes we can quickly cut one out and contain it.

This should be our first priority and once completed then we can see what shinies we can gather."

Asked for a sealable container, Taelor remembers a few barrels with vacuum seal in the cargo hold. With a satisfied smile she finds the barrels exactly where she remembered them. "Food Rations" the label reads. The barrel is roughly 120 cm high, has a diameter of about 80 cm and is accordingly heavy. When Taelor opens it, she stops in surprise. Instead of the promised food rations, the barrel contains what looks like sealed lab coats.

Taelor frowns as she pulls out one of the sealed lab coats. "I found some containers that should work to contain these things, but... Either whoever packed these supplies was a piss poor labeler, or this crew were smugglers." She takes out her dataslab, snaps pictures of the label and the barrel's contents and sends it to the others. "A ship in the middle of nowhere, mislabeled cargo, weird ass goo spiders... This is some shady shit."

A thought occurs to her. "Graham... how sure are you the people you spoke to were the system authorities? I don't want to get caught up in more crooked corpo shit, and whatever we've stepped into smells real bad."

She puts everything back and moves to another set of containers. She checks the labels for something innocuous, then opens it up to compare it with the contents.

moarhair wrote:

"Graham... how sure are you the people you spoke to were the system authorities? I don't want to get caught up in more crooked corpo shit, and whatever we've stepped into smells real bad."

"Not 100%. That's why I gave them the wrong coordinates, several hours away from this place. Won't give them accurate info until they've properly identified themselves, and given us information about their incoming ship that we can check independently. Things are definitely not as they seem on Vagabond."

"All good thoughts so far. Rena...Elan...anything to add?"

The variables keep mounting. Lab coats? Sealed lab coats? Were these scientists on board? And were they really going to Astyoc? Questions, always more questions. He can think of several reasons for this ship to go to Astyoc, none of them particularly good. He wonders whether the zombie population is considered fair game for corporate biological testing, and whether space spiders were about to be turned loose. Wouldn't surprise him in the least, but it's idle speculation at this point.

Graham knows he'll need a plan, and contingencies. And nothing is as it seems.

Still covering Rena from behind with her weapon, Lola glanced at the images Taelor sent.
"Would anyone have an idea, why someone would want to smuggle lab coats? I don't know much about them, but they don't look too valuable to me. Or could it be, the place they were supplying them too was a secret lab, so all supplies had to be hidden?"

Nitafrong wrote:

"Would anyone have an idea, why someone would want to smuggle lab coats? I don't know much about them, but they don't look too valuable to me. Or could it be, the place they were supplying them too was a secret lab, so all supplies had to be hidden?"

"Without more information, it looks like someone was planning on setting up a secret lab, apparently intended for Astyoc. All preliminary at this point, let's stay focused on the job at hand -- contain spiders, check/rescue crew, secure Vagabond, get Vagabond's log files. We may have to leave here in a hurry to get a head start on the ship that's headed our way. I'll keep working on that ship's origin and intent, but our work needs to be long done before they get anywhere near us."

Graham leans back somewhat heavily into his console's seat. So many things don't fit, and the presence of both the spider and lab materials don't seem like coincidence.
Astyoc.....why Astyoc....why now....who would send these -- wait... His eyes go wide, and he starts doing calculations, working backwards from today's date. "Who on Astyoc is doing bio research? Wait, could Sonia and Statton have ordered this??"

There will be time to speculate when the work on Vagabond is done, and the crew is already distracted. No time to discuss it now, but Graham starts to come to grips with the idea that he and this little crew had actually initiated these events. He hopes to be wrong, and he hopes that his imagination has gotten the better of him.

Taelor randomly pops various crates, boxes and other containers. None of the contents fit their labels. As Taelor already read earlier, the label read mundane contents that are usually sent to restock stations or colonies: Water, rations, repair materials, etc.
But what Taelor finds does not match this pattern. The cargo contains the previously found lab coats, medical material, blood and other transfusion bags with colorful liquids, petri dishes and vials. On one crate Taelor even finds an used centrifuge that was crudely unscrewed from wherever it used to be.

"All these containers are mislabeled. It's all medical gear." She shakes her head. What had they gotten themselves into? "Lola? Rena? Can you handle the bodies? I'm going to try to get into their computer."

She leaves the cargo bay and walks back up the stairs, then makes her way to the bridge. She draws her pistol, just in case, then tries to open the door. If it opens she looks around the bridge for any unwelcome surprises. Once it's all clear, she holsters her pistol and finds a console to try and access.

"Affirmative. We will focus on more immediate matters while you look into that. Taelor, Rena and I will start moving the bodies."

Looking over at the other woman, she swung the rifle over her shoulder.
"We'd best do this together. Carrying these things will take up both my arms so I'll need you to keep an eye out. We'll take the three bodies over to the empty crates. If you want then, you can see about recovering a baby, otherwise I'll seal them."

Taking out her knife, she hacked at the webbing until the body came free. Taking a hold under the shoulders she then started to drag it back down below to where the crates were. Once she had finished with this one, she'd move on to the other two. Despite her words to Rena, she wasn't really relying on her to act as a proper lookout. She might be competent but Lola had no evidence for this yet. Her senses were on high alert and any odd sound and she was going to drop the body and grab her gun.

"On what world are lab coats contraband?" Elan wonders. "I'm not sure if they are smugglers who are trying to conceal their cargo or thieves who are trying to conceal their loot.

"Or are they the patsies? Did someone else provide the cargo and they had no idea what they were transporting?

"What's the norm in the shipping business? Do you trust the labels or do you do any sort of scan to confirm that you're not carrying, say, a barrel of high explosives? I don't know what the etiquette or expectations are in the transportation industry."

The bridge is empty. All ship controls are in power safe mode, the console only allows access to the travel metadata and logs. Just what Taelor was looking for.
The ships roster lists a crew of six.

Ship roster wrote:

Archibald Lebedev (captain)
Nkoyo Candrama (pilot)
Kiril Zhang (first officer)
Melubari Berwick (engineering)
Charlotte Calabar (engineering)
Hong Saratov (various)

The last entries in the log paint the picture of the Vagabond flying from Haliant in the Mentta system to the Gor system. There it docked at the research station Bamberg, staying there for only a few hours and leaving back to Mentta and preparing the jump towards Xenthra. It seems like a normal merchants travel, but the extreme short stay at the station strikes Taelor as unusual at least. The manifest of the ship is still the same as leaving from Mentta listing supplies for the research station.

The search of the ship yields five bodies with equal fate, cocooned, likely without consent. But no living organism, neither two nor eight legged, appears.

Tecumseh wrote:

"What's the norm in the shipping business? Do you trust the labels or do you do any sort of scan to confirm that you're not carrying, say, a barrel of high explosives? I don't know what the etiquette or expectations are in the transportation industry."

"I'm not sure. I've never been a freelancer before. I'd wager they inspect the cargo, though. You don't want a nasty surprise when the system inspectors come aboard," Taelor says as she flips through the crew logs.

"Huh. This is weird. They stopped at Bamberg station, but didn't unload or take on any cargo. Officially, anyway. Maybe they switched to their contraband there."

Once the search is concluded, Taelor frowns as she reckons with the result. "Six crew members listed, but only five bodies? I wonder what happened to the last crewmem-" she stops and her stomach turns as she realizes what most likely happened: the last crewmember was eaten. "Oh. Gross."

Desperately needing to think about something else, she says: "I'm going to go see if I can get the reactor started now." She heads to the engine room and gets to work, taking comfort in the normalcy of fixing a broken machine.

Nitafrong wrote:

"Affirmative. We will focus on more immediate matters while you look into that. Taelor, Rena and I will start moving the bodies."

"May be best to bring the crates to the bodies, and only disturb the cocoons when you have the crate in position. No point breaking the cocoons for them, and letting them run wild, eh?"

Graham goes back to his mental math, figuring out where the response signal originated from. "Seems to check out. Best not to give the authorities any information about inconsistencies in the cargo hold, though. We'll keep that under wraps for now."

Tecumseh wrote:

"I'm not sure if they are smugglers who are trying to conceal their cargo or thieves who are trying to conceal their loot. Or are they the patsies? Did someone else provide the cargo and they had no idea what they were transporting?"
"What's the norm in the shipping business? Do you trust the labels or do you do any sort of scan to confirm that you're not carrying, say, a barrel of high explosives? I don't know what the etiquette or expectations are in the transportation industry."[/color]

"All good questions that need answers. System authorities get annoyed (they're easily annoyed), but switching cargo content is fine and mislabeling is not a problem -- unless the change isn't noted in the manifest. So what we have here is some rather naughty business. And as a general rule, the more dangerous the cargo, the more accurate labeling needs to be. Very, very naughty, indeed."

moarhair wrote:

"Huh. This is weird. They stopped at Bamberg station, but didn't unload or take on any cargo. Officially, anyway. Maybe they switched to their contraband there."

"Taelor, before starting the reactor, would you mind checking for video data? I'm curious whether they just changed cargo at Bamberg, or if some or all of the crew were replaced, as well. Looking for faces before or after Bamberg Station, in case the ship was commandeered there. Actually, strike that -- patch me in to Vagabond's console, if it's possible. I can do that research while you get to work on the reactor."

Whatever this is, Graham knows it's messy, and it's going to affect their (and Nazir's) timetable. Graham wants to secure the salvage contract in order to take possession of Vagabond. That's going to require some travel time in-system, as well as waiting for the system authorities to arrive. If Undertow leaves before the formalities are complete, they will lose Vagabond.[/color]

Taelor is taking her tools out when Graham messages. "Sure. Give me a minute." She makes her way back to the bridge. Once there, she accesses the Comms station and establishes a link between the Vagabond and the Undertow for Graham. "There you go, hackerman. Have fun snooping."

She makes her way back down to the engine room and gets to work on the reactor.

Halfway down towards the crates with the first body, Lola heard Graham's message. She gave a wry smile as she considered it. It was the longer and more awkward option. The crates, with bodies inside would have to be taken back down again. It was the safer option though, and considering what the spider had already done, that was important.

"Understood. I'll finish moving this body and then bring the crates up. I'd consider it unlikely that the sixth crew member has been eaten. Why would the creature treat it different from the other five? Could they have released it and then fled the ship? Someone was doing something with the doors."

Once she finished dragging the body down and sealing it inside one the crates, she then started to take the crates over to the various cocooned bodies and cut them down one by one and storing them inside.

"Thanks, Taelor, that's a big help", he says, wondering if there was anything she couldn't do. She could have landed anywhere, but she landed with this crew, and Graham couldn't be happier about it.

"Understood. I'll finish moving this body and then bring the crates up. I'd consider it unlikely that the sixth crew member has been eaten. Why would the creature treat it different from the other five? Could they have released it and then fled the ship? Someone was doing something with the doors."

"Sounds good, Lola, give us a heads-up when all the beasties are crated up. If you see one loose, even for a moment, let us know on the comms immediately so we can get another pair of eyes on it."

"Not sure about the 6th crewmember. This thing just gave birth, might have needed a snack. Or, maybe the video will show that one member of the crew didn't get back on at Bamberg Station, with all that implies. We'll know more after getting through Vagabond's video records. Starting that now."

Clicking off the comm, Middleton gets to work skimming through the video, wondering whether it will answer questions, or create new mysteries. The clock is ticking, and with all the unknowns suddenly dropped in his lap, a few answers would be a welcome change.

The bodies are moved with relative ease. The crates are unwieldy, but except for the uncomfortable feeling of spider larvae crawling about, the crew is under no kind of pressure. With joint effort the bodies are stored in crates and returned to the cargo space.

Meanwhile Graham gets busy scrolling through the video archive. The cameras only cover the cargo space and the airlock. After searching for some time, Graham finds the video material that covers the time spent at Bamberg station and after. It shows the crew first deboarding, then returning hastily. They disappear upstairs. After some time five of the crew, all but the captain as it seems, return from inside the ship, drive the contents of their cargo hold out through the airlock and carefully follow into the station.
Again a while later they return with the cargo, hastily loading it in the cargo hold. It looks like they are screening the outside with worried faces. Two of them carry guns.
They retreat to the ship and disappear from the cargo room to upstairs.
Now for a long time nothing happens. Every once and again a crew member appears in the cargo space passing by, or doing mundane chores.
Then Graham notices an unusual motion. First he is unsure what it is, but then the spider clearly appears in the frame. It is unclear where it came from and it seems to be a bit smaller than it was now during the fight.
Suddenly a crew member appears. He first does not notice the spider. It slowly creeps up on him. Then he seems to notice something behind himself, turns around, screams and then spins around and hecticly starts tapping on the controls of the airlock. Then the spider spits on him and he doubles over and starts convulsing uncontrollably. Slowly the spider creeps over him, grabs him and drags him out of the frame.
Then a long time nothing happens until Taelor, Rena and Lola appear in the airlock.

Turning the Vagabond's reactor back on is child's play, as it had simply turned off from being idle for too long. "Booted up the core. Should be up and running in a few minutes," she says over the comms. Once it begins cycling back up, Taelor heads for the captain's quarters. She uses the shower there to clean the toxic goo off her suit.

She then goes to the bridge and checks on the engine to see if the Vagabond is ready to get moving again. "If no one alive has a claim to this ship, we might have ourselves the start of a fleet!" she says enthusiatically.

moarhair wrote:

"If no one alive has a claim to this ship, we might have ourselves the start of a fleet!" she says enthusiatically.

"Good news on that front. System control sent me their salvage rules, and we have at least a preliminary claim. If no one shows up to claim Vagabond, she's ours. If someone does show up, they need to pay a reward for her. That may be preferable. We need cash more than we need two ships at the moment...", he says with a laugh over the comms.

With the space bugs sequestered in containers within their cocoons, the crew secures them to Vagabond, casts them into space, and hopes thermodynamics will do its work. To the crew's knowledge, cell membranes have never responded positively to absolute zero, so this seems as good a place as any for storing the 8-legged abominations.

The crew does a last-minute check for loose equipment on Vagabond, Taelor makes sure that their data core can be accessed from Undertow, and buttons up Vagabond for departure. With a little coordinated effort, Elan pulls Rena, Lola, and Taelor across the gap between the two starships. To Graham, they seem to be in surprisingly good spirits after the things they've done and seen. Undertow is still a mostly empty ship, but it's theirs, and it's a safe haven from the spidery horrors and stress of Vagabond.

After a couple hours of rest, the crew convenes on the bridge, where Graham has ported video to the main viewscreen. The crew watches the scenes of Vagbond's crew with curiosity, the spider's attack with revulsion. A glint in Lola's eyes suggests a certain satisfaction, though Rena's seems to convey inquisitiveness, even admiration. Taelor's gaze seems to say, "Yuck, I'm glad it's dead."

Afterwards, he shares the message from Haliant system control. Fully apprised, the crew is ready to discuss options for the two ships, and prepares for the arrival of the representatives from Haliant.

"Hmm, I'd better send them this...", mutters Graham, and sends a fresh set of updated coordinates so the patrol ship will find something other than empty space.

The patrol ship replies quickly to Graham. // Affirmative, thank you for updated coordinates. ETA 3h//

As the group starts their discussions about the whats and hows of the two ships a faint, but insisting beeping comes from the controls. Taelor quickly walks over to her station and checks for the source of the sound. With puzzled confusion and then alarmed realisation she sees the targeting sensors warning flash bright red. Someone has a target lock on the Undertow!
She alarms Graham and together they check the sensors, but no ship shows up within shooting distance of the ship. They check the sensor array for malfunction but everything seems to be alright. Taelor still has the idea to check the outside cameras, for signs of meteor impacts on the ship, maybe something like that messed with the system. They scan the hull of the ship, but everything seems to be alright. Could it maybe be the Vagabond? She directs the cameras over to the other ship and gives a shout of surprise, when she sees the Vagabond and behind it, barley visible another black ship. It is very slick, modern, small and bears no visible signs or color. Yet, despite being obviously rightly there, still nothing shows up on the computer.

"We've got company!" Taelor exclaims. "Looks like some sort of stealth ship... Looks a bit slick for pirates... Fucking corpers. I fucking knew it. This haul was too shady to be anything else."

"I can hop over to the Vagabond and maybe fight them off..." she says, the doubt plain in her voice. The Undertow wasn't armed, but the Vagabond had a sandthrower, possibly enough to deal with the small stealth ship. Their other choice was to run, leaving their loot behind and possibly getting shot down in the process. Not knowing what kind of weapons the other ship had was a problem. "Can you get more info on those fuckers?" she asks Graham.

moarhair wrote:

"I can hop over to the Vagabond and maybe fight them off...Can you get more info on those fuckers?"

"Lola, want to help Taelor with the gun?", Graham chirps.

Graham toggles the channel to system control, hoping it's monitored by the pirates: //Mayday, stealthed ship has locked onto us at close range. Looking forward to your 3 minute arrival time, make it less if you can.// He leaves the channel open, and gets to work. First order of business: scramble their targeting systems. With Taelor on the way to Vagabond, the black ship was likely to get the first shot, and Graham wants to ruin their aim.

"Compensating for point-blank focal range..." Graham had heard of stealth techs like this, and knew that at long range, it was easier to blend into the background radiation. With near-focus, the background shouldn't be as uni-directional, making nearby stealthy ships stand out more. He prays he's right, and patches the data to Vagabond's main console. "Next step, input data to the gunnery station, if I can."

Graham realized, almost belatedly, that as a result of the weapons lock, the very last thing he had considered was to open a channel to the stealth ship. "Ah, bother. If they wanted to talk, they'd have opened a channel to us."

Once back on the ship, Lola had relaxed again, leaning back against the wall, her arms folded. It had been a while since she'd eaten last and the last few hours had been a bit more stressful using up more energy than normal. She was just about to turn away to go to the kitchen when she immediately notice Taelor stiffen as she examined the monitor.

"Stealth ship? I think you are right. Donkey sucklers must be after the cargo. Fact they havn't fired on us immediately is a good sign, shows they have some concern for risk. Perhaps they wont be an inclined to shoot on the Vagabond and possibly damage its contents."

She nodded over at Taelor, a grim half smile on her face.
"Lets see how they react to some weapons being trained on them."

Taelor grins and nods at Lola. "Let's go show 'em our teeth!" She pulls away from her station and heads off the bridge. As she passes by Graham, she pauses. "Maybe you can hail them and buy off some time to cross over. They locked weapons, but haven't fired yet. Clearly they want our attention." She runs off, goes down to the airlock, and puts on her spacesuit as quickly as she can.

As a practitioner of the stealthy arts, Elan appreciates - even envies - the vantablack nature of the slick ship. Still, he is duly alarmed, and his voice rises an octave accordingly.

"Wait, what?" Elan says, belatedly catching up to what Taelor is suggesting.

"You want to JUMP over to the Vagabond and then use the Vagabond to fight?? While they've got a targeting lock on the Undertow??"

Elan doesn't know if this is a crazed idea or a sane one. Maybe if the targeting lock is on the Undertow then the Vagabond is the logical place to be.

"Hail them!" he urges Graham. "Ask them what they're doing. Find out if they're even human!"

The blackness of the ship unnerves him.

"Keep the Vagabond between us and them. Use it to screen us! If they don't want to damage it then they won't fire. Taelor, don't go! You can dance this ship better than anybody. Put us in a tight waltz around the Vagabond. Buy us some time until the patrol ship arrives!

"Graham, pour some honey in their ears! If they haven't fired yet it's because they don't want to. Let's figure out why!"

His head spins around, looking for Rena. Elan needs her to say something smart, to back him up on this.

"Rena, where's Rena?? Probably blitzed out of her mind, damnit...!"

Taelor pauses and looks like Elan like he just said his teeth were made of frogs. "I can't just dance around the Vagabond for 3 hours. It's the same size as us. Any pilot worth their salt will get a shot at us eventually."

"Maybe Graham talks them down, but if he doesn't, we need to be able to defend ourselves, and the Vagabond is our only option for that." She goes back to putting on her spacesuit. "You're welcome to come along if you'd rather be there than here."

Graham struggles to keep Elan's wild train of thought from derailing the three tasks needing immediate attention.

"Taelor, Lola, let me know the instant you're safely on Vagabond. Maneuvers will be tight, can't move Undertow until you're onboard." Looking at his screen, he adds "Positional data on the stealth ship has been sent to Vagabond's controls to help you target."

Graham opens the comms, while patching Haliant system control: "Stealth ship, this is Undertow, en route to Haliant after responding to a distress call from coordinates (4634.22, 6109.43, 784.37). Vagabond has been claimed according to Haliant salvage rules, sub-section 2-dash-A5 paragraph 3, and has been recognized by Haliant system control." Graham makes it as wordy as he can to buy Taelor and Lola as many seconds as he can get them. "According to Haliant salvage rules, any action taken against salvager and/or salvage claim by a 3rd party is in violation of Haliant system security, and said 3rd party (and governing corporate body, if appropriate) would be subject to all applicable sanctions and/or criminal punishments under Haliant piracy laws."

Graham drones as long as he can, waiting to hear Taelor and Lola confirming their arrival aboard Vagabond. He hopes to have given the pilot (or crew?) of the stealth ship some doubts, some reason to hesitate, or even withdraw. He knows half of this was bullshit, and that the crew of the Haliant security ship would likely be giving each other eye-rolling looks of incredulity. Graham laughs to himself about that, but in an unarmed ship, bluffs are the order of the day...

Taelor and Lola run to the airlock of the Undertow. As quickly as possible they help each other into the vac suits. Checking all the seals. Checking the partners seals. Checking seals once more. Then finally with two thumbs up, the cycle of the airlock begins again. The tense feeling from before repeats itself, but this time it's different. Or is it? Again they are going out there, not knowing what to expect. Once more danger might be hiding behind every corner.
As soon as the airlock opens towards the emptiness of space, Taelor and Lola hook into the safety lines and gently push off, towards the Vagabond, once more. The duration of the float seems to stretch on and on.
Finally they reach the ship at almost the same spot as last time. The mysterious ship cannot be seen from this angle.
Quickly, but carefully, the two women make their way over the hull towards the Vagabonds airlock.
Suddenly Lola spots a movement ahead on the hull, right in front of the airlock. She stops and crouches and gives Taelor a sign.
Now it is clearer. There are people entering the Vagabond. They are wearing dark vac suits and carrying some large objects.
Then they are gone into the ship.
A small piece of the mystery ship is visible in the background.

Back on the Undertow, Graham continues to contact the ship ahead, but all he gets in return is silence. The target lock alarm continues to beep patiently.