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Post by Grace Forjacks on Aug 31, 2009 23:46:11 GMT -6
The route of Nox was not a well-travelled one. Most ships went as far as Corus and then no further. There wasn't much to see on Glacies, even less on Nox. And so, for the poor souls aboard The Desert Bloom, they were dead the moment their engine suffered a catastrophic failure, even though they lived on for another four hours. The distress beacon kept on beeping for another two hours, until all power failed and the ship went silent.
Dozens passed it in the dark, not noticing the spot on their radar. Autopilot wrote it off as a rogue chunk of rock floating a day away from Corus. Other trained pilots didn't see it in the dark, eyes fixed on the space ahead, not the space beside. And so it floated there for a month or two, turning lazily in the dark.
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It was Grace who spotted it, or rather, it was the program she had one of her ex-crew members write for her ship. It was a little piece of software, completely unremarkable. As the ship scanned the space in front of it, looking for obstacles, the program scanned the data looking for particular shapes. The ship scanned the space ahead, the program ran the perimeters, and this time, came up with a match. It beeped.
Grace glanced to the console and the flashing button. She pressed it, taking a sip of her coffee and expecting a false alarm. But up came the scan and it was clear to her what it was.
She picked up the radio and opened a channel, aiming it at the silent ship, "Calling unidentified ship, calling unidentified ship, can you read me? This is the Queen of Spades, are you in need of assistance?" Grace waited a minute, and repeated the call. She did it one more time, just to cover her own ass in case she was caught mid-salvage. The logs would show that she had called three times, as required.
There was no response. Grace slowed the ship down and brought her in close. The ship, a BarGo 15-230, was dead. And yet, intact. Some internal failure had killed it dead.
She brought the ship to a stop, the top of her saucer brushing against the bottom of the ship. Grace flipped a switch. The internal magnets locked the two ships together, like a pair of lovers.
Grace turned on the intercom, "Gentlemen, we've found salvage!"
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Post by Klove Makem on Aug 31, 2009 23:51:26 GMT -6
Klove was lying in his bunk, curtains drawn as he watched a movie on his padd. It wasn't great quality, and the display was nowhere near as good as Grace's eInkr, but it was good enough considering he was watching a Terran monster movie.
He wasn't sure why he liked them. They were horribly wrong about werewolves, or wereanything really. But he watched them anyway. Maybe because they were so bad and so wrong that it went all the way around into hilarious again.
Grace's broadcast was loud enough that he heard it over the terrible howls of the movie. Klove sat straight up and yanked his earbuds out. Salvage? Yes! And here he'd thought the whole journey to Nox was going to be slow and boring.
He shoved the curtains aside and rolled out of his bunk, landing on his feet, "Fik yes!" Klove headed out into the hall and around the curve of the ship, up the stairs to the second floor. He popped his head into the cockpit to grin at Grace, then headed to the storage panels at the end of the short hall. He began pulling out spacesuits, making sure to set his favourite aside for him.
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Post by Jared Castle on Sept 1, 2009 10:18:03 GMT -6
Castle was polishing his Desert Eagle while sitting in his bunk. The gun was one of his few prized possessions. Even though it was loud. Any jobs that required not being seen by anyone would have been ruined if he used this gun. But it had a lot of power and it usually killed in one shot.
Suddenly, he heard Grace's voice over the intercom. Salvage? Did that mean they found dead ship to loot? If so Jared wanted in. He put his Desert Eagle into it's holder on his right thigh and made his way upstairs to the cockpit. Klove was pulling out spacesuits. He walked past him and entered the cockpit.
Grace sat in the pilot's seat. "Salvage?" He asked.
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Sept 1, 2009 14:01:54 GMT -6
Grace turned her chair as Castle came in. She gestured toward the screen, "It's a BarGo, and looks like it's been floating out here for a few months. I can't find anything wrong with the outside, so we're either looking at a systems failure, or a mutiny gone wrong. No life signs, but I'm betting on bodies of some sort."
Klove stuck his head in the doorway, already suited up. Grace pulled the steel cutter out from under the console and tossed the torch to him. He caught it and headed into the airlock. Grace put the ship on stand-by and set a timer for the internal gravity. Salvage was easier when you weren't rapidly adjusting between artificial gravity and none at all as you brought in the salvage. She turned on the intercom again. "Ship gravity will be going out in one minute. Secure your things."
Grace got up and gestured for Castle to head on into the Captain's Quarters. "Grab a suit. We play by fingers-keepers rules on our ship."
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Post by Klove Makem on Sept 1, 2009 14:09:44 GMT -6
Klove got the suits out, and got his own favourite on. It was the right size, and the helmet was without any scratched. He suited up and locked the helmet on, then opened up the chambers and made sure it got filled with air. They would do you for two hours, which was all you really needed for salvage since you would be in and out of the clean atmo.
He poked his head in the cockpit, beside Castle. Grace tossed him the torch and he caught it, headed into her room. The airlock was covered up, but it was easy to pull down the curtains and decoration to reveal it. The door hissed open and Klove stepped in, letting it fall shut behind him.
Grace announced the end of gravity, and Klove got the airlock open. It folded back, the aperture-style opening going wide and giving way. Beneath that was not space, but cold metal. The airlock was secure and shut, and Klove lit the torch, pressing it to the hull and beginning to cut. The super-hot flame slid through the hull like butter and he began to slowly pull it down.
The first time Klove had done this on his own, he'd simply cut a circle in the hull. And then a circle of heavy metal had fallen right down on his dumb head. These days he knew better. He carefully cut out pie-shaped pieces, which were still heavy but manageable. They were set down on the floor of the airlock as he got it open.
There was a beeping sound, a last warning to anyone who hadn't gotten their stuff put away, and the gravity slowly went off. Klove drifted off the floor, and he didn't need to stand on his tip-toes anymore. He braced himself with one hand on the uncut surface and continued to go around, this time tossing the weightless pieces into the growing opening in the ship.
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Post by Jared Castle on Sept 2, 2009 10:17:19 GMT -6
Castle nodded at Grace's order. He'd never done this kind of thing before and he wanted to. He grabbed a suit and slipped it on. He had worn a spacesuit similar to this one before so he knew how to put the helmet on. He checked to see if the air came through the open chambers.
Right after Grace made the announcement and Klove cut into the ship, Jared felt the gravity disappear. He floated upward a little. He always felt awkward in zero grav. Not being in control of where you're going wasn't exactly his cup of tea. He pushed on the walls and got himself to where Klove cutting into the dead ship.
Klove made it look like he's done this thousands of times. "You done this before?" He spoke and heard his own voice through the speakers.
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Post by Klove Makem on Sept 2, 2009 12:25:28 GMT -6
"Yeah, lots of times." Klove responded back, cutting away the last pie-piece. "Salvage is how I've got half the stuff I own. Cargo ships are great. If we're lucky, they'll have an intact cargo, and if not, there's still going to be a ton of supplies."
He tossed the last piece into the ship. "Grace, I'm going in." Klove grabbed onto the edge and pushed himself in. He floated through the air with ease and came up through the floor of the BarGo, right into the mess hall. He turned on the lights build into the suit and six spots (two on the back, two on the shoulders, two in front) lit up the space around him.
A body moved through the dark in front of him. Klove stopped to study them. They didn't look decomposed, which meant they'd died after the power failed and the body froze to death in the cold. He pushed off the floor and moved towards them, catching the body and getting a better look. Blue lips. Suffocation then.
"Found the first body. It looks like he asphyxiated after the power went off. You should test the air anyways." He wouldn't be taking his helmet off, but it was still best to test the air and make sure you weren't walking into a plague ship. Klove sometimes had nightmares about that.
He made his way through floating silverware, dragging the body along with him, and found another in the corner. Klove pulled out the safety line built into their coveralls and tied them to the cupboards. The last thing he wanted was them floating out of nowhere into his face. Even when you already knew they were dead, that stuff still scared the crap out of you.
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Sept 2, 2009 12:34:09 GMT -6
Grace kept one hand on the walls and she floated around. It was best not to be caught unawares and end up floating upside down like an idiot. She watched Klove dive up and into the belly of the ship. He was so graceful, especially without the gravity on to keep him down.
She went over to the airlock and turned on the filters. They quickly sucked in air from the chamber and ran it through the secondary filtration system. While the primary filtration system combed out dust and turned the carbon dioxide into oxygen, the secondary filtration system existed to filter out viruses and diseases. Everybody knew the horrors of tracking open a ship, only to find you'd stumbled across a new and deadly strain of something.
The system beeped. She scanned through the output. All fine. The air wouldn't be pleasant to breath, in no small part thanks to the dead floating around inside for who knows how long, but it would be fine once filtrated. She cranked up the filtration unit, closed the aperture and then opened the airlock, "Go on in."
She set it to auto-open. As soon as the door was shut, the aperture would open and Castle could head straight inside. Grace decided to see how the rest of the crew was faring with zero-gravity. She pushed off the edge of airlock and past Castle, out the door and, with another push, she was gliding down the stairs. The tight hallway was a blessing in zero-grav, since she could reach either wall in a heatbeat.
Grace popped her head into the bunks to see if anyone was there.
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Post by Jared Castle on Sept 2, 2009 12:46:51 GMT -6
Castle nodded and entered the dead ship. He turned his light on so he could see what was around him. He noticed Klove and followed him. He was carrying a dead body. Looked like it suffocated and froze. He watched as he tied the dead bodies down.
"Good idea." He said as he tapped a fork that floated towards him. He was never good at moving around in zero grav. He tried to float to the wall so he could easily move around the ship.
There was a lot of random objects floating around. A table almost hit him as it floated by. It wouldn't have hurt because it was so slow. "Are we looking for anything specific?" He asked.
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Post by Klove Makem on Sept 2, 2009 13:03:27 GMT -6
"We need to get the cargo bay and see if they're carrying anything valuable. If we're lucky, they'll be bringing a load of wood or steel. Clothes and basic supplies would be good as well. Let's just hope this isn't a meat-run." Klove checked the mess hall for more bodies. Just the two. Which meant the failure had probably happened while the bulk of the crew was asleep.
He flipped up, getting his feet on the ceiling and jetting through the silverware to the door. Klove cut open the lock's override panel and got one hand on the open handle, yanking it back and forcing the door into manual override. It slowly slide back, gears grinding against one another. But it stayed open. He slipped into the hall and got his bearings. BarGo's built all their cargo ships in the same layout. Which meant the cargo bay would be to the right. "This way." He called out to Castle, making his way along the hall, not going too fast so Castle wouldn't lose sight of him. As long as he didn't turn any corners without Castle behind him, he would be able to follow the lights on Klove everywhere.
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Post by Jared Castle on Sept 3, 2009 18:53:05 GMT -6
Castle knew the value of wood. It cost a lot because there was pretty much none on Terra any more so it was shipped from Antheia. The two bodies were the only ones in the mess hall. One must have been the captain. For if the rest of the crew was most likely sleeping, the captain was usually up early or even all night.
He nodded and followed Klove to where he was headed. He probably found the cargo bay. That'd be where the goods are. He tried to keep up even though Klove wasn't going that fast. It was still hard for him to maneuver in zero grav, it could take some getting used to. If he was correct, Castle assumed they'd be doing a lot of this sort of thing on the Queen of Spades.
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Post by Klove Makem on Sept 3, 2009 19:37:31 GMT -6
He found the opening to the cargo bay and started at the override with the cutter. It was pretty lucky that they'd come across a ship still full of air, even if the air was probably horrible smelling. At least the torch could work properly and they wouldn't have to spend hours moving the ship around and cutting into each section.
Klove yanked the handle once it was exposed, opening up the cargo bay. A quick glance inside revealed that it was mostly empty. "Damnit, looks like they were coming back from Nox." That figured. It also made sense why nobody had come looking for them. If they had delivered their cargo, whoever owned the ship had already gotten paid, and wouldn't care if the ship and crew disappeared .
Still, he headed inside anyways, looking to see what there was for salvage. He found a few crates floating near the top of the ceiling and kicked up to see them, landing solidly on the roof and grabbing onto them. Upside down, he cut the lock and pried one crate open. Under his lights, the gems sparkled. Klove held one up and studied it. The rock was as big as his fist, and flawless, which was a shame. "I've got a crate of industrial use diamonds. We might find more mining stuff in the other crates. Hopefully they'll be worth something."
He put the diamonds back. There had been a time when holding a diamond this big would have thrilled Klove. But that was before he found out that Terrans could grow diamonds, and because of that, they were worthless. Only real, flawed gems were worth anything, and those gems didn't get this big.
Klove put the diamond away and sealed the case up. He had floated away from the wall and could grab onto it for traction. But that wasn't much of a worry. "Hey Castle, catch." He threw the case toward Castle. The motion of movement sent the case forward, and Klove backwards. He hit the far wall, and kicked off of it to reach the emergency supply cabinet below. He unlocked it and got out rope. They would just tie the cases together and take them back to the ship. He kicked back up to the cluster of crates on the top right side, and started stringing them together.
"You can go check out the rest of the ship." He said to Castle, tying tight knots. "There might be something worth taking. Just watch out if you go into the crew quarters. You might get nailed by a bunch of dead bodies. "
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Post by Jared Castle on Sept 5, 2009 20:07:58 GMT -6
Castle waited for Klove to cut into the cargo bay. Once he was finished they entered the room. There wasn't much as he expected there to be in this storage bay. Not as much as the Queen at least. He looked around the few floating crates. Klove found one close to the roof and he opened it. Then he mentioned that it contained diamonds. Castle perked up. Diamonds were expensive, right? Maybe not. He didn't know much about those kinds of things.
Then Klove sent the crate his way. He expected it to go faster but was disappointed that it just floated into his arms. As Klove began tying the other crates together, Castle began searching the other parts of the ship. He went down a hallway to what appeared to be a medical room. There could be some expensive medicines or equipment in here. He began searching through the cabinets. Just the regular cheap kinds of medications that you could find in most pharmacies, nothing fancy.
He left that room and came to a hallway that must have been the crew quarters. He was curious. A couple of the rooms were opened and contained nothing of interest. He warily opened one of the closed doors of the dorm rooms. There was a dead body floating in it. Definitely happened while they were asleep. There was a book and a eInkr. He didn't have one so he took it and stuffed into his suit. The rest of the rooms were locked and probably didn't have much anyway. Not worth the trouble.
The rest of the ship didn't have anything that he thought would be valuable or even useful. He returned to the cargo bay. "I couldn't find anything in the other parts of the ship." He thought to keep the eInkr secret.
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Post by Klove Makem on Sept 5, 2009 22:02:19 GMT -6
Klove finished tying the crates and sent them floating toward the door. Then he took another look around the cargo bay. Most of the time, salvage was like this, but you still hoped you'd hit the jackpot and get something worth your while. But if a ship like this was carrying anything really worth money, you could be the investor would come looking for it.
Still. Hope springs eternal. He kicked off and came after the crates, grabbing hold of the front one and pulling them out the door. Castle was there, reporting back, "That sucks." He said and pushed the crates toward Castle, "Drag those back to the mess-hall and dump them into the airlock. Grace will pull them through. I'm going to go check the engine room and see if they've got any parts we can use."
He left Castle to drag it over. Klove didn't doubt for a second he'd manage to do it. Castle was already proving himself to be both professional and efficient. It would be nice to have someone he could trust again. He pushed off down the hall and got the engines open.
It suddenly became obvious what had killed them all. The big flywheel was lying on the ground, shattered into pieces, and the engine had leaked out all over the floor and then dried in the cold of space. It had died screaming and bled out like a gutted deer. Nobody had stood a chance. The power had died almost instantly, and then they'd simply suffocated when the air ran out. It was a nasty way to go.
Klove didn't linger. He checked over the tools and spare parts. While the hull had been a bust, at least this had been a solid find. Klove grabbed a few new sets of tools, and the few spare parts that were generic enough to fit into the Queen of Spades engine. He stuffed them into a box and headed to the mess hall.
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Post by Jared Castle on Sept 7, 2009 9:36:11 GMT -6
"You got it." Castle said as he grabbed the crates. He tried to move them towards the door out of the cargo bay into the mess hall. They were hard to maneuver through the door. They kept bumping the side or getting stuck. Jared became incredibly frustrated until he finally got it through.
As he passed through the mess hall, a fork hit him in the face of his helmet. He had forgot about the floating silverware. He got to the airlock and dropped the crates. He turned himself upside down, and pushed his way down into the airlock. They thumped when they landed onto the floor and bounced back upward. He looked around to see if Grace was there. He still floated upside down.
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