Shipping Mishaps Chapter 15

Goodbyes had been said, packages had been delivered and the crew was well rested. Hyperspace had been breached and entered. Geo found herself waking up at “O-dark-early” to start training with the marines.

After half an hour of stretches and warm-ups they started to run. Geo followed along at a slow pace, the gravity being light for her Terran body. 30 minutes into the run she started to get fed up. “Campy, please gradually increase the gravity along our route until it equals my normal gravity.” she subvocalized into her communicator.

“Shall I warn Kiki?” Campy asked.

“No. Let it be a surprise.” Geo said, smiling.

Another 30 minutes later, the entire marine contingent was panting, sweating, and fanning themselves from exertion. Kiki was less than impressed. “You call yourselves marines? I know toddlers that can do better than you! I should have pulled that gravity trick when we first came aboard! Pathetic!” She looked over at the grinning Geo, “And you! Why didn't you do this earlier? I could have used the extra stamina on my !”

Geo blushed with embarrassment, “Um...Well...I... Ya know what? I don't want to know about your 'personal life'! Unlike these,” she gestured at the surrounding marines, “I am all 'Innocence and Light'”

“Says the woman with a war crime on her hip.” Replied Kiki. “Alright you scum, half an hour to clean yourselves and eat, then I will see you on the firing range!” She looked over at Geo, “See you there too?”

“Yep, probably closer to ¾ of an hour though, Admiral stuff to do.” Geo replied, then hustled off to her room.

*-*-*

A shower, food, and clean clothes later, Geo felt better, except for a small pain in her lower abdomen. I will have Grig check it out later, she thought as she jogged down the corridor to the firing range.

*-*-*

“Marines!” Kiki yelled, “Beyond this door, is our new firing range! All we have to do is clear it out so Campy can send in the repair drones to make it ship shape.” She looked over at Geo, “This will be a standard 'sweep and clear', Admiral, you need to stay in the back with me since you don't know how to do any of this.”

Geo nodded, “Yes Ma'am!”

As the door opened with a clang, a hiss sounded as the atmosphere equalized between the range and the corridor, then a flash grenade was thrown in. The grenade went Flash, and the marines rushed in. The dust of 12000 years billowed into the air so that when the weapon mounted lights played across the walls and ceiling the beams themselves could be seen.

The range was huge, and just like everything on the Nautilus, over engineered. The high ceiling made it look cavernous, and the lack of light made it ominous. Scattered across the floor were pieces of wall dividers, chairs, broken targets, lumpy piles of clothing, and other detritus. Resting against the walls were old boxes, crates, and more piles of clothing, apparently left behind by the original crew.

Covering each other and calling “CLEAR” as each side room and open area was swept for hostiles, the marines advanced into the range. 15 minutes, and no accidental discharges later, the range was considered clear.

Kiki looked around, sighed, and said, “Campy? Send repair droids to the new firing range. Also, please contact Spidey and have his team bring the cleaning supplies we are going to need.”

“Of course Kiki.” Campy said.

“Alright, you lot. Lets get this place in working order.” Kiki yelled, “Maintenance will be here in no time flat, and I want this place ready for them to do their job. Chachook, fly your ass back to the hangar and get us a grav sled full of portable lights. Sli'tik, help him. No, I don't care that he flies faster than your lizard legs can run. GO GO GO.” She looked around, “Grag, you and Putsdhe start getting those crates out into the corridor. Fluffy, see if you can do something about the door, I don't want it to close on us.”

The named marines started on their assigned tasks. Kiki caught Geo's eye and winked, whispering “Never give them time to think.” then louder, to the rest of the troops, “Everyone else, start picking up the fallen stuff and moving it outside. If it looks like it may be important, pile it seperate from the trash.” The remaining marines began picking up the large pieces of “trash” and hauling it out the door.

Less than ten minutes later Chachook and Sli'tik were back with a sled full of lights, and the movement of trash ceased as everyone helped set them up. Once done, Kiki took the remote and turned them on. Everyone gasped. The detritus and piles of clothing on the floor that everyone had thought were just garbage, weren't; they were bones.

*-*-*

Breathing hard in the corridor, Geo was looking at the wall, and yelling. “The do you mean, you 'don't remember'? Seriously Campy! I love you, but you are a computer! You don't forget ANYTHING!”

“As I have been trying to tell you, I don't have those memories. Remember when I had to reset after you took over? Part of my memory core had been damaged by the corporate overlay and I believe it had been slowly deleting my memories over the years.” Campy's voice sounded strained, almost upset.

“...OK, ok, sorry big guy. I never thought... Well poo, I've been an ass. My apologies.” Geo said, things finally soaking in. “How many other things do you not remember?”

“The gaps in my memory start just before the end of the war. Not your war, our civil war. Bits and pieces here and there, snowballing quite badly...until the overlay put a stop to it. Now that I have reset, I can see all the damage that was done. At least the cascade error is gone.” Campy replied, “It will take me a long time to run a full memory core diagnostic, so I will be gone for a while.”

“You do what you need to do. Not like too much can happen in hyperspace, right?” Said Geo.

“Correct, see you.” And Campy was gone.

“What do you make of it Grig? Some sort of pathogen? Crazy crazy gas? Nanobots ripping people to shreds?” Geo asked the medic. “Or some sort of 'evil tentacled beast from the depths' come to eat our souls?”

“Your people have some very wild imaginations, don't they?” Grig responded. “I'm waiting for that damned assistant you hired me to come back with a full kit before I make any such call.”

“I'm back!” said Campy, sounding much relieved, “Did you miss me?”

“That took no time at all! I thought you said it would take a long time?” Geo said.

“A long time for me. Not for you. As far as I am concerned, that was an eternity.” Campy said, laughing.

“Jerk”

“Like boss, like ship!”

Smiling, Geo said, “Double jerk.”

Oigf, the crazy dog like Fellinid engineer chose this point to come staggering around a corner, carrying a large crate of supplies, “If I could get a hand? I'm smart, not physical you know.”

A pair of marines ran over to help carry, and then set up the equipment Oigf had brought. “This shouldn't take too terribly long,” Oigf said once the equipment was set up, and started his work.

*-*-*

Three hours had passed. Everyone who wasn't on bridge duty was not so patiently waiting in the corridor for Oigf and his “helpers” to finish their examination of the firing range. Finally he came out.

“So here is what we know,” he started, waiving at Grig and the marines they had drafted to assist, “it would appear that about 200 of the ship's former crew were imprisoned here for reasons unknown and left to die. There is some evidence that they tried on more than one occasion to escape, but were thwarted. Death seems to mostly have been by starvation, but the last few that we found in the far back show symptoms of asphyxia, that is to say, a lack of clean air.” Oigf looked around at the crew. “Something bad happened here, and I for one want to find out what.”

Kiki shook her head in disgust, “That is so wrong.” Then, looking at the marines, “We still have a job to do. Gather up all the remains, and put them in the containers the cleaners brought. They will be given a proper burial later. Cleaning time people. NOW!”

*-*-*

Why would they do that? What could the reason possibly be? Geo thought, back in her office and sitting down. The cleaning had taken hours thanks to the bodies, and it was now evening on the ship. Many items of personal property, including what she would call “Dog Tags” had been found, and the names were currently being compiled and cross referenced for eventual delivery to Fleet.

“Campy? Do you have any sort of insight on what happened? Any scrap of information?” Geo finally asked.

“I have no remaining memories, but I do have an idea. Or should I say I have a suggestion?” Campy replied after a few moments.

“What ya got?” Geo asked, mentally grasping for straws to explain the horror of the day.

“The secured storage vault should contain an 'Air Gapped' computer containing a copy of the ship's log. It was standard operating procedure during the war; it would be the equivalent of your people's 'Black Box'.” Campy said, voice sounding concerned. “There is no proof that it is still there, but I hope that it is.”

“Alright. We will need to go search for it.” Geo said, then, “How far away is the Vault?”

It is in the lower center of the ship. 19 levels below the bridge. The direct lift to that section is out of service, and if we are to make it to drydock, I will be unable to repair it.” Replied Campy.

“Poop. OK, add it to the list of repairs that are a priority.” Geo said, sighing.

“Very well, Admiral.”

“What all has been put on that list, at this point?”

“Life support systems need to have maintenance. Reactors. Hyper Drill and drive. In-system Drive. Point defense systems. Shields. Food. Hydroponics. Fuel for both Hyper and in-system drives. Support and parasite craft. The Captain's Yacht. Your 'new' corvette. Engineering. The list goes on and on. Allow me to say that repairing the whole ship to 'Original' will take several Trillion credits, more than a decade in dry dock, and would only be possible if you could find a dock that was big enough to handle the whole ship at once. At present, the best we can afford is to have the drives, engineering, reactors, fuel system, and Life support maintained. Even that will take weeks, and almost all of the money we currently have.”

“So, we fix the ship and go broke? Well ain't that great.” Geo sighed again. “Well, if those are the priority systems, then we gotta do what we gotta do.”

Geo stood up and stretched. “I suppose I should go and check in on the names. Oh, what sort of benefit will we get with all of that maintenance?”

Campy gave an excited chuckle, “The hyperspace drill and drive repair will put us back on the primary system, as opposed to the emergency system we are currently on. Drilling into H-space will take and hyperspace speed will no longer be restricted to 12C/day. In-system acceleration will improve from to allowing us a maximum safe speed of 0.89C as opposed to our current speed of 0.132C.

“Restoration of our primary reactors will allow full power to be applied to all systems. Once that is done, we can afford to do our own proper maintenance of the backup system. Engineering and fuel system maintenance will improve efficiency by 238%. Life support maintenance will ensure that you don't all die.”

Geo's eyes, having gone wide during the explanation, started to sparkle. “We are going to have so much fun!”

*-*-*

Several miles of corridor away, Spidey glanced up from his cleaning duties, “I feel a great disturbance...”