Dead Space Dissolution Chapter Two: Untimely Discovery
Chapter Two:Untimely DiscoveryMara returned the Captain's salute. "I'm Mara Brosson. I'm
the CO of this mission."She pointed first to me, then to Wardy. "These two are the
security officers under my command--Corporals Enneth Mason and Wardy Lesanch.
The other two are Donio Lezal and Juster Barnand. They're here to assist with
repairs."Captain Bennes nodded. "That's good. We lost more than a few
good techs in the accident. I'm sure they'll go a long way toward getting us
out of here. But where are my manners? I've yet to introduce you to the surly
gentleman standing beside me. This is Lieutenant Johnny River. I command the
ship and her crew, but he's the one in charge of the on board contingent of
marines."The Lieutenant gave a curt nod. "Basically, his guys do the
flying, and mine do the dying."Donio leaned in close to me and whispered, "I take back
anything I've ever said about Mara. This guy makes her look like a bright ray
of sunshine."Inappropriate though it may have been, I had to admit Donio
had a point. I knew that behind closed doors Mara could be perfectly kind and
gentle, but under most circumstances she could be pretty gruff. I hadn't met
anyone before that I could call more serious than Mara in the eight years that
I had known her, but this Lieutenant had broken that streak with a single dark,
humourless remark.Captain Bennes shook his head. "You'll have to forgive the
Lieutenant. Years of military service have made him a bit rough around the
edges. But that's beside the point. How soon can you begin unloading the
replacement parts?""As soon as we can get some help from your crew Captain. We
can't handle the unloading ourselves." Mara replied. "I'd also like to ask that
you brief me on what happened here."Bennes nodded. "Very well, I'll get some of my men to work on
the cargo. The Lieutenant and I will be waiting at the lift down that way."He pointed in the direction of the lift and added, "Please
join us when you're ready Miss Brosson."He then gestured to River and the two of them set off across
the Flight Deck, leaving us alone. Mara turned to us once they were out of
earshot. "Alright, Wardy, I want you, Donio, and Juster to remain here during
the offloading process. Once it's complete I want you to assess the damage and
report to me. En, I want you to accompany me."She motioned for us to wait for a moment then returned up the
ramp into the Defiant. When she came back a moment later she was holding two
pistols and had a third at her belt. "There's something I don't trust about
those two. I'm probably being paranoid, but better safe than sorry."She handed one of the weapons to me and the other to Wardy.
"Stay on your toes, but try not to get jumpy. Alright everybody, synch up your
RIGs. Let's get this done as quick as we can. En, let's go."I followed after her as she set off down the walkway that the
Captain and Lieutenant had taken. As we walked I took note of anything that
caught my eye. One of the reasons I was good at my job was that I was
observant. I would often notice things that others would overlook or think of
as trivial. That was exactly what I was doing. I was looking for anything that
seemed suspicious, or out of the ordinary. As it was I had already thought of a
few questions to ask Captain Bennes.After a moment or two we met up with the Captain and
Lieutenant River, the two of them waiting for us. The Captain quirked a brow
when he noticed we were armed, but made no mention of it, instead motioning for
us to enter the lift behind him. The four of us squeezed in and Bennes set it
on a path to the bridge. He then began to explain what had happened aboard the
ship. "In short Miss Brosson, I don't really know what happened. None of us do.
We were traveling through Shock Space when an explosion rocked the ship. Something
had gone horribly wrong in the drive section. Whatever happened killed most of
the engineering crew that were in the vicinity. Their bodies--or what we could
recover of them--are on our Medical Deck now. That explosion tore us out of
Shock Space, crippling our engines. We had just enough mobility and power to
establish an orbit around Kreemar. We sent out our distress signal, and we've
been waiting ever since."The lift came to a stop and the doors slid open. The four of
us stepped out and began walking toward the bridge, passing a number of crew
members along the way. As we walked Bennes continued to relay information. "Unfortunately
our long range transmitters were damaged, so we couldn't get out more than out
initial signal. All we've been able to do is float here, and hope. Any
questions?"Mara shook her head. "You seem to have summed up the
situation very well."I cleared my throat. "Actually I have a few questions. Three,
to be exact."Bennes looked me over briefly then said, "Very well Corporal.
What would you like to know?""Well first, I've noticed that many of the crew members' RIGs
are showing less than optimal health, some even yellow. Is the ship running low
on medical supplies?"Bennes nodded. "Our supplies of Medical Gel were greatly
depleted after the accident. Actually, they were low before the accident. Now
it's worse. We have men who are dying on our Medical Deck, and we can barely
keep them stable. We're heavily rationing our medical supplies."I nodded. "Sensible. Speaking of the accident, are you sure
it was an accident? I've seen drive explosions before. I used to work security
for a lot of salvage ops. Drive explosions--especially emanating from the Shock Point
Drive--tend to destroy most of the ship in the process. The damage I saw when we
docked looked more like it was intended to
cripple the ship."The Captain stopped and gave me a hard look. "Are you suggesting
sabotage?""Yes," I answered, "It seems like a possibility."Bennes scowled. "I have worked with the entire crew of this
ship for the better part of five years. Not one of them would do such a thing.""Fine. But what about the Marines on board?" I asked.Lieutenant River growled. "Not a chance in hell. They know
full well I would kill them myself if they even considered a stunt like that."I sighed in defeat. "Fine."I felt they weren't realistically approaching the situation,
but I let the topic drop as we started down the corridor again.Several seconds of silence passed before the Captain spoke
again. "You said you had three questions. What was the third?"I hesitated then said, "Well, when we docked I noticed
something that may or may not be important. In the shuttle bay, there were
enough places for three shuttles to dock. One spot was taken by one of the Spirit's
shuttles. Then the Defiant took another. So then, was there ever another
shuttle in that bay? And if so, where is it?"Benes didn't answer immediately, but after a moment said, "You're
a very observant man, Corporal. Yes, there was another shuttle. As for where it
is...it's down on Kreemar."Mara scowled. "Why? What would be worth going down to the
planet for?""A few hours before your arrival Miss Brosson, we picked up a
strange signal from the planet's surface. I ordered a team down to the surface
to investigate the source."I shook my head. "That makes no sense. Kreemar is
uninhabited, isn't it?"Bennes nodded. "Yes it is. From what we can tell, it's something
similar to an old S.C.A.F. signal."But what would the Sovereign Colonies have been doing on
Kreemar? And how could there still be anyone there?" Mara asked."I don't know. That's why I had a team go down to
investigate. We should actually be hearing from them soon." The Captain stopped
in front of a pair of doors. "We've reached the bridge."Bennes punched a code into a keypad on the wall and the doors
slid open with a hydraulic hiss. We all walked trough, the doors closing behind
us. It was immediately clear that the accident had taken a toll on more that
just the engineering crew. Looking around the room I could see a number of the
consoles were unattended, some looking as though they hadn't been used in days.Captain Bennes turned to face us and spread his arms. "Welcome
to the bridge. We've managed to keep most everything up and running thanks to
our remaining bridge crew."Mara nodded. "It's pretty impressive that you've managed to
maintain the ship so well after the damage. You must've led the crew well
through the crisis.""Thank you, but I don't relish what comes next. Once we're
back in colonized space I'll be tasked with informing the families of those who
died. Losing someone under your command is difficult, but I've always felt it
pales in comparison to seeing the heartbreak of those who loved--"Bennes was cut off by his RIG Link activating, the hologram
screen appearing about a foot in front of him. For a few seconds it only showed
static then cleared to show a soldier's helmet. The soldier spoke, his voice
slightly mechanized by his helmet's filters. "Captain, recon team reporting in.
As was suspected, the source of the signal was aboard an old S.C.A.F. cruiser.
Looks like it crashed here a long time ago. No sign of the crew."Bennes nodded. "Excellent work. The ship still has power then
yes? Have you managed to salvage any data from it?"The soldier hesitated. "Actually sir, the ship seems to have
only enough power to relay the signal. And...the ship itself isn't generating the
signal sir."All of us were confused by that information. It made no
sense."What is the signal coming from then?" Bennes asked.Again the soldier hesitated. "It...well we traced the signal
sir. It seemed to be coming from the cargo hold. So we followed it to the
source and we found..."He trailed off, prompting the Captain to ask, "Found what?""Well...uh...assuming that it is what we think it is...then...we
found a Marker."