39. Unwelcoming darkness

• “Michael. Khm, Mr. Rivera.”
• “Go ahead, John.”
• “Sending updated coordinates. And additional route data.”
• “Again? Thought it was already in the briefing materials…” — Michael replying while a soft computerized voice stating their depressurization in the background.
• “Team just finished new model calculations, we have the best chance there to find intact recorders.”
• “Chance to encounter resistance?” — chimed in Victoria.
• “Should be low, thanks for sharing the tracking data!”
• “John, these coordinates point us to the back of the ship…” — Michael took a deep breath in as he tried to count the red columns overlaid on his virtual map — “and it seems very unstable on scans.”

• “Well, that is actually the bow of the ship, it flipped during the fall. But you are spot on, anything can collapse there.” — John was so focused on the virtual map presented onto his helmet, he entirely missed their departure. — “The ion drives were used during the rescue operation and from public records we know there were people there operating it. So team thinks the recorders and computer cores may be in better shape there-re-re-re-re.”

Retrograde thrusters activated on high altitude, rattling the pod and everyone inside. John’s neck wasn’t used to this rough landings. He bumped his head back and forth into the helmet’s padding. The trained servicemen and women around him did not bob their heads, being used to much faster descents, their neck muscles barely working.

• “Touchdown in 5, 4, 3, …” — computerized voice narrating in their radios just as if they were about to invade a new land — “Touchdown, stable. Go, go, go.”

Two of the team ran right next to broken Giant and lit up the entry point by the time the remaining of the group arrived in a single file. Hand signals from the vanguard told about a clear corridor. Michael signed for his team to stack up to the entrance. He gave a minute for the vanguard to proceed through the first few turns before leading the bulk after them.

Low chance or not for resistance, he had two VIPs, one of them his captain, so he took no chances. His special ops commando well trained to secure hostages and VIPs from hostile territories, execute their mission by the book.

Essentially navigating the Giant of the Star’s wreckage wasn’t that different from extracting the president from a potentially orbital bombarded city ready to fall on their heads. A wargame they played regularly, a heritage from their military academy times.

Their short range radios turned off, moving in total radio silence. While no-one would be able to understand their encrypted messages, using the radio would still give away their presence. Doesn’t take a tactical genius to figure out their position and numbers in an abandoned wreck based on just the noise they would generate.

They could not hear when one of the vanguard let out a short scream as he fell through a floor plating. Being two turns behind, one turn behind, and Michael saw one his vanguard hand-signaling to stop. In the darkness at least their night vision ran.

While wasn’t expensive for civilians to get infra-red vision implants or helmets, it still required line of sight to see the beams. Anyone would be able to see them, would be shot and asked questions later. As everyone was ordered to leave the wreckage, they operated with assumption of hostile intent.

Michael signed for the team lined up behind him to stretch the line apart. While they were waiting for the vanguard to climb back up. John tried to refresh his map overlay to see the structural weaknesses, but they were too deep to download anything from the Irondome above. Without signal boosting, they have only the last model’s predictions.

He signaled to Michael to proceed slower, and soon they all filed along, one by one, on the side of the loose floor plating. A few turns and they are at the first ion drive’s control. John’s legs were shaking after the two hours of nervous climbing.

Michael ordered a new vanguard to go ahead as the previous two were holding up a bulkhead. Vacuum assisted magnetic clamps held the two tons heavy metal in the air. With the lower gravity and their integrated exo-skeletons the two comrade wasn’t even sweating under the weight.

As John passed between them, Victoria grabbed his arm and tossed him forward. Nobody could see John’s surprised face under the helmet’s reinforced glass. He sat up slowly, looking back and trying to figure out what the shapes in the night vision meant. He could not find the two vanguards holding the bulkhead.

Neither he could find the bulkhead, the place looked entirely different after he crossed. Michael and Victoria pulled him up and locked the trio into a triangle, touching their helmets together.

• “Can you hear me?” — John recognized the muffled Michael.
• “Yeah”
• “The floor just fell, they will find an alternate route.”
• “They? What happened to them, half the team was behind me!”
• “Calm down, they are all right. Check team telemetry on your HUD, bottom right.” — John followed Michael’s direction and the smart interface blow up the details where his eyes focused, showing the squad armor status.
• “Thought we have radio silence.”
• “Yeah, radio needs much more bandwidth, the telemetry is virtually impossible to see.”
• “Focus, lecture later. How far we are from the first black box?” — Victoria cut off Michael.
• “Just after the next corner. 20 meters.” — checked John.
• “Let’s go.”

Took two minutes for the vanguard to secure the room, planting proximity alarms to each entry point. When they finished, signaled clear for Michael to move in with John and Victoria. Remaining entire team was unknown but at least alive and moving, based on the telemetry.

While Michael pulled the vanguard into their triangle to update them, Victoria remained close to John. Well playing the guard, looking around and making sure he can do his job. Hard to notice that most of her attention is directed toward what John is doing with the recorder. She needed proof.

John connected the quantum comm module to the black box. In the darkness he could not examine the box for external damage. The connection quickly established and running through diagnostics.

• “Much more data available in this recorder, so it may take some time, around half an hour at least.” — John pulled Victoria’s helmet to touch his. — “And thanks.”
• “Can’t we just take it?”
• “We could, but you saw how unstable the place is. We can lose or damage the recorder while trying to get out with it. First we download the data, then we try to get it out.”
• “I don’t get you, if we already downloaded the data…”
• “Well, taking it is optional, but physical evidence is always stronger. Recovering as much we can is important. It may take years to analyze everything, may learn something from the physical damage, and…”
• “Okey, okey, understood.”
• “Let’s connect to the computer while we wait for this.”

As John moved away, she looked back to the black box. Infra vision showing steady glowing as the comm module heated up from the work. Staring at the module, she joined John again after a minute.

By that time John already downloaded most of the logs from the drive, surprisingly the operative memory still working after the wreck laying here for months. These systems were never turned off so they operated on the reactor’s and battery’s remaining power, self-regulating until the last drop of energy is gone.

Which may take a decade or more, the control systems drained much less than life support or the truly energy-hungry drives. Or until one of the structural failures will cut the power lines.

The minutes gone slowly as the team could not do anything but wait.

John fiddled around the exo-skeleton controls. He found a way to set the joints to rigid and held him up like a chair.

When the proximity alarm’s red box flared up on his display, his legs were faster to jump up than his menu control to unlock the rigid joints, leading to Victoria had to grab him before he rolled over to the ground.

As John was able to walk again, Victoria still holding him by the arm, her another hand holding a pointy metal object. John finally recognized her weapon raised toward one of the entry points.

The download at 98 percent, the team silently waiting in defensive positions around the engine control room. All pointing weapons except John.

Read the story leading up to now:

Giant of the Stars

Fictional story of a luxury starliner’s catastrophy