17. Contact established

Vince hailed the Giant for a dozen times in the last hour then he pulled up the docking process designed to guide them entering the…

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

Vince hailed the Giant for a dozen times in the last hour then he pulled up the docking process designed to guide them entering the behemoth’s central spine. He looked for the emergency appendix, which turned out to be missing. Or the engineers never thought of a situation where outsiders need to access the ship as no one inside answers. Unlikely scenario. Vince being the process oriented reveled in reading other ship’s design and handling docs just in his spare time and even from same company the emergency appendix was a well structured checklist for all situations. This was the case of a rushed development, cheap buyer squeezing out the most perceived value sacrificing safety on the altar of profit, nothing new under the sun.

“We attempt docking. Maria, prep a few drones, I need eyes after we lined up, Greg, give me nav points, extend centerline out 2 clicks from the undamaged rings. Conn is mine.”
“Yes, cap, conn is yours.”

Vince programmed the ship to follow the nav points Greg plotted out, as the freighter slowly realigned its center line, the thrusters firing in quick succession like a concert’s fireworks during the most famous rock songs, he still kept his hand over the manual controls. Joysticks from the 20th century still held up as one of the best analog inputs humans could instinctively understand.

“Drones away, three in diamond formation. Rotation starts now.” — Maria’s calculated voice reported the usual manual docking procedure elements calming Vince with the familiarity.

They had no time to think of the situation or what they could find inside after no-one answered, they just focused on the next small task that made sense. In moments the drones entered the central spine of the Giant, circling around each other and continuously streaming their visual feed to the Perseus main computer which in turn presented it as a three dimensional render for the crew. A live feed map navigated as they wished, Vince’s experienced eyes searching for a docking bay safe enough to attempt lock.

“These hatches seem torned apart, can’t see any ships yet. What happened here?”
“I think they had a sudden deceleration.” — Maria was following the feed too from a different perspective, she looked on the edge of the data.

The drones were quick, unconstrained by the human body’s tolerance for high acceleration and their processing power mostly delegated to the freighter’s computers, they were just a high-definition camera attached to some rockets in essence. Maria could already see two thirds of the Giant’s main docking areas and the drones just passing by the section seen damaged from the outside.

As the drones went deeper and deeper, the feed showed the carnage of metal parts, smaller ships, shuttles, yachts and planetary excursion boats stacked onto each other like crumbled paper thrown into the garbage can. Most were so torn up, even their ship class could not be identified on visual alone.

“Cap’, this does not make sense, a blown ring itself would not have effect on normal speed yet they seemed to suffer at least ten G. Those docking rings are certified to hold that much.”
“All ports seem damaged, and further in the debris is way too dense to navigate. Pull the drones back, check the ring’s maintenance docks one by one.”
“I have only two drones, they are on their way back.” — Maria rolled back the data until the last frames of the now disconnected drone — “The third one was caught up in debris and destroyed.”
“Well, will put on the insurance claim. Scan the outside of the Giant with the remaining drones starting from the stern rings.”

Vince reacted in moments to the computer’s warning. A millisecond before the automatics would have kicked in anyway. Debris flying out of the docks right along the centerline. And they were in the way. Full thrusters to the right and they were clear before any substantial damage suffered. Scrapes on the bow, a few dents on the cargo modules and the proximity alert was gone.

“That was close, Maria, any idea what was that?”
“Can’t see it on sensors directly, I would bet it was one of the damaged spacecraft inside blown up. With all those reactors and engines stacked up, it might be just a time bomb there.” — Maria switched the main screen to the new feed coming in — “The fall to the moon may be our last problem, hurry to find if there are any survivors left. If not, we could wait for other ships far from here.”

Vince agreed with the caution yet he felt Maria may hide some kind of fear under it, which was unusual for him as they roamed the galaxy for years now getting through way worse situations. Vince had no time to reminiscence as he navigated the freighter next to the undamaged rings, following the wake of one of their drones.

“Perseus Train, I heard you, Captain, are you still there?” — a young lady’s voice came through the comms.
“Yes, we are here, I can hear you, who are you?” — the crew on the Perseus cheered in the background except Maria lowering her head.
“I am… you might know me as Steelgopher, but call me Gopher.”
“What?” — it was Maria’s turn to be excited — “Are you the Steelgopher? Lover your songs! Ohm, not the right time.” — Maria took back a notch when her glaze met with the surprised faces around her. — “She is a famous VR singer.”
“You are the first one we can talk with, what happened to you?” — Vince wanted the most out of their first contact.
“Not sure, one moment I was performing on stage then blackness. When I woke up, everyone around me was… dead.” — her sobbing as an under-tune — “I could reach out to a few survivors on the ship, they said everyone flew into the ceiling and that a lot of people are in makeshift hospitals.”
“You are great, Gopher, all will be fine. Other ships are en route to help, but we need your help now. We need to talk with the Captain so we are about to dock.”
“I could not reach the Captain, neither any official, or… anyone from the crew… but I can help with the docking. Even though we have gravity finally…”
“Can you access the stern ring maintenance docks? From the outside one of them looks working, but internal diagnostics would help us to not puncture a hole.”
“No, I can’t, only a few systems on the main hull through the comms, I tried to expand my rig into more but did not have access.”
“Can you go to the bridge? It should be at the center of…” — comms was cut to muted by Maria who intervened quickly.
“She can’t walk, a genetic disease, kinda public info but she is shy about it.”
“You do are a real fan, thanks, unmute please.” — Vince continued now more carefully — “Sorry for that Gopher, we try to dock at the rings, but if it would not work, can you find a spot for us on the main hull and guide us in?”
“Yeah… sure.”

The drones found multiple hatches around the maintenance ring, a smaller structure built in between the two massive drive rings for easier access of engineers. Especially handy while the main hull is gravitized by its spinning, now allowing the crew of Perseus Train to finally board the Giant and find out who and how to rescue.

The final moments of the docking to the nearest hatch went smoothly. Vince guided in the bow of the Perseus train for direct contact with slight help of the automatics and they had a seal in no time. All checks green, atmosphere holds and the locks are in place with hopeful smileys on the faces of the bridge crew.

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