Some days earlier the Persephone had received a very faint distress call from a ship identifying itself as the ore freighter Gaumont. The ship was not on Persephone's index of active ships, but a vessel matching the name and description was on an obscure historical archive- it had vanished without a trace on a routine ore run over sixty years ago. Since the law stated that any military ship was obliged to respond to a distress call, unless of course it was engaged in battle, the Persephone was sent to investigate.
They found the Gaumont orbiting a fairly large asteroid in interstellar space. Scans of the ship indicated that there were no heat signatures and that the Gaumont had exhausted almost all of its power- just enough to keep the distress beacon running and to keep maybe six or seven people alive in suspended animation. The Persephone settled into a distant orbit around the asteroid and prepared to send a squad of nine soldiers, led by Joanna, to board the Gaumont and investigate. The rest of the company would remain on the Persephone.
As the boarding pod neared the Gaumont, Joanna compulsively checked her equipment for the fifth time. She had a bad feeling about the derelict freighter and so did the rest of the squad. Joanna looked out the window. In the faint starlight she could see the black hulking mass of the asteroid, covered in impact craters and looking decidedly creepy. In the distance there were the faint blinking lights of the Persephone. And in front of them, illuminated by the pod's headlights, was the Gaumont. It seemed to be structurally intact, although scarred and pitted from impacts with tiny micrometorites, but Joanna didn't like the look of it at all. Something weird had happened here.
"Okay, have you located the Gaumont's docking bay?" asked Joanna.
The pilot, nineteen year old Amy Beckman, replied that they had a lock and would be docking in about two minutes.
Those two minutes dragged by for Joanna, but finally she heard the dull metallic clunk of the two ships coming into contact, and then the whirr and hiss of the docking mechanisms locking into place. Amy said, "Now that we're in contact with the Gaumont, I'm performing more detailed scans... hmm, the ship's in deep-freeze of course and there's no lights working or any gravity because none of the artificial gravity generators are powered."
Joanna thought for a moment. Working in space suits with flashlights was fine for EVA but inside a ship it was a nightmare. "Can we route power from the pod to the Gaumont?" she asked. Amy replied, "We can, but we can only power the lights, heating and gravity generators for about four hours and still have enough to get back to the Persephone. Forget about engines, the ore cutting lasers or deflector shields."
"Do it." said Joanna. There was a slight hum as the pod's power supplies were diverted into the Gaumont, and then a lurching sensation from the reactivated gravity generators. "It's working. Most of thelights seem to still work and the heaters are operating. Scans are showing that the frozen air is thawing already. The Gaumont should have a livable temperature in a few minutes."
Again Joanna was forced to wait, her stomach knotted in apprehension. Finally the airlock door opened and Joanna, leading six of her squad, walked into the derelict spaceship. She left Privates Sarah Kerwin and Petra Callahan on board the pod to look after it.
"Okay, first we'll check out the..." |