Elinsys was grateful the suits were designed in case the wearer threw up. Something she was sure all of the other Marines around her were also grateful for, as most of them started to lean against the walls. The mess was a bloodbath, corpses maimed and covered in blood, piled on top of each other. Elinsys slowly walked closer. If she wasn’t wearing a space tight suit, the stench would have made her throw up. The corpses were kept in a pristine state by the void of space, but it looked like they were dead long before the ship’s habitation system failed. She inspected them closer, looking for what was used to kill them. From the cuts she would guess some kind of blade, but a few had more jagged cuts than the others. A saw, perhaps? “Major, what should we do?” One of the Marines asked her, still trying to stand up straight. “Search the rest of the ship, report anything that you find and then we will try to find out what happened.” Elinsys activated her comms. “Fera, please tell Henera’s team to search the lower decks. I will head for the blackbox. Also, please stay clear of the mess, it's a mess.” Elinsys and a small team made their way towards the bridge, where the blackbox was kept. The hallways were in perfect shape, so were the rooms. The only areas on the whole ship which were damaged were the mess and the engines, which had been ripped from the ship. “Tell me Major, what do you think caused this?” Fera asked over the comms. “Our scans don’t show any damage outside of the engine area. Could it be an extremely precise laser beam?” “That would be a very lucky hit and the engines are usually the extra armored parts on trading ships. Don’t want pirates to immobilize you when outrunning them is your only hope.” Elinsys responded. Elinsys and others reached the bridge. “How is Henera’s team doing? They find anything?” The Marines took cover on each side of the door, while the engineer cut it open. “Nothing out of the ordinary, which is concerning. Henera will be joining you, she is boarding the Wasted Hope, said she wanted a closer look. My theory is that the pirates ripped off the engine and then… killed the crew?” Fera sounded uncertain. “Selling them to the Consortium as slaves is worth more. Or asking for a ransom, if they feel brave. Killing them like that... can’t think of a good reason.” Elinsys thought it might have been the Dust. “Perhaps it was a message of some kind? That is if, we chalk this one up as pirates or enemies. I suspect the Dust. Something like this feels like it would fit its side effects.” Henera chimed in over the comms. Elinsys turned to look next to her. There was Leferia, smiling at her. “Not me, darling. I have been stuck with that noble from the station for weeks. I did not see what happened here.” Elinsys frowned, but turned her comms back on. “I too suspect the Dust, but the question is how did it make it off the ship? Are any rescue pods missing?” It was possible Leferia was lying to her or just not telling the whole truth. Elinsys still didn’t know all the details of how the Dust worked and if Leferia could influence anyone with it in their system. “No, but the ones which would have been near the engine are missing. It is possible some crew members used those to escape, but that would mean they made it off the ship before the engines exploded. So was the rest of the crew killed before or after the engines were ripped off?” Fera pondered. The doors were pulled apart by the Marines. “Major, we have access to the bridge. It appears as empty as the rest of the ship. In a pristine condition. How shall we proceed?” Elinsys looked in through the crack; there was nothing there, her scanners hadn’t picked up on anything. “Enter, slowly, and spread out. Engineers, pull out the blackbox and make sure it works.” The Marines entered, following her orders, and after a few seconds they cleared the room. The engineers did as told and extracted the black box from the shell of armour which was around it. It was a small thing, as compact as possible, but sturdy and reliable. “Perfect, we will take it to Rixva and have her look over the tapes.” “Tapes? What do you hope to find on them?” Leferia asked. Elinsys turned on her comms. “Fera, Henera, we have found the blackbox. Will send it back to the Veneration. Any updates from you?” “Other Marine crews have found nothing yet, some private journals and few official documents, but nothing that provides any evidence of what happened.” Fera answered. “Henera is in the mess now.” Leferia was moving around Elinsys, stomping back and forth. Elinsys turned her comms off. “If you wish to confess to what you did, do so now.” Leferia looked at her. “I have done nothing, nothing. This is not my work. Never was, never will be. Too… bloody. Do you really think I would do this?” She asked, moving close to Elinsys, trying to stare into her eyes. “The station attack fits with this and you refuse to explain what happened. Perhaps if you told me that, I could trust you.” Elinsys gave her the cold, dark truth. How could she ever trust something like Leferia? “I… I wasn’t in control then. I can’t just do that. There are others of my species, maybe go and ask them? Maybe they will-” Leferia started to shout in a sarcastic tone. The ships rumbled and the lights came back on, the emergency ones at least. “We have restarted the backup generators, can you access the camera feed?” Henera said over the comms. The monitor came to life and started to show the camera feed. “Quiet, you.” Elinsys turned her comms back on. “What is the latest date?” “Few months ago ma’am.” The screen showed the crew eating their meals, talking like nothing was wrong. Then the camera broke, first the mess camera, then the rest. One by one the feeds went dark, but there was a frame of movement in each one. As if someone was going around and destroying them. “What is going on with the cameras? Lijung and Trynell, check out the bridge camera now.” Elinsys ordered the pair. “Who is breaking them? Can you pause on those frames?” The Marine reverted and played the tapes over and over, going frame by frame even, but nobody could be made out. “Sorry ma’am, maybe if we had better equipment?” “Damnation. Fine, load the tapes and we will have Rixva go over them on the Veneration. Lijung and Trynell... Status report on the camera?” Elinsys turned to them, Lijung now holding a camera in their hands. “The lenses are damaged beyond repair, smashed, not shot, smashed. To pieces.” Trynell responded. “The whole surface is smashed, not one spot or few. The lenses are nothing but tiny shards now. It’s only the lenses, as if someone damaged only them and nothing else.” Lijung added. “And that would require you to get inside of the camera, pull out the lenses and then smash them.” Trynell corrected. “Or a blast wave, which only destroyed glass? Non-reinforced glass to be more precise?” Elinsys suggested. The pair looked at eachother. “Yes, that is possible, but the odds of that are...” Trynell said, before stopping. “It would explain why the camera failed from the front of the ship towards the back. Something hit it.” Lijung finished the sentence. Elinsys turned on her comms. “Henera, the glass in the mess is broken?” There was silence for a few moments. “Yes, why?” Henera asked. “Lijung, Trynell and I have a theory. A blast wave destroyed the cameras. Possibly from the pirate ship.” Elinsys offered her and the pairs’ idea. Henera was quiet, then responded. “What about the engine being ripped off? Was that the blast wave? I think you should finish your investigation and Melora on the Veneration, then we can fully discuss this… anomaly.” “Yes, I agree. Fera, prepare the meeting room and tell Rixva to get her tools. She has a blackbox to open.” Elinsys said. *** Veneration’s meeting room was crowded. Melora, Henera were sitting at the head of the table. Fera, Rixva and Elinsys on one side and Henera’s officers on the other. A few Marines and engineers from the ship were standing at the opposite edge of the table, waiting to give their report and then leave. Everyone in the room was watching Rixva, who was fiddling away with the blackbox. “Does it require a key? This is not standard practice, the only ships that did something like that were either Interior vessels or less… legally employed vessels.” She continued to fumble around, before putting the blackbox down on the table. “Useless.” Melora, with dark circles around her eyes, pulled the black box towards herself. “Could you crack it with a blowtorch?” She inspected the small box, it fit into her hand. Rixva looked at her for a few seconds, then at the ceiling. “Yes, but it might get damaged if I don’t take it slow.” She started to inspect the box from afar. “Few days, if I am extremely cautious.” Melora put the blackbox down. “Start working on it as soon as this meeting is over. Now, reports from our boarding parties?” She turned to the small group of Marines, Lijung and Trynell among them. Lijung stepped forth. “As we suspected, the engine was ripped off. Not exploded, but ripped away. It is possible the hull’s integrity was compromised somehow.” “How could the hull have been compromised? Wouldn’t the crew have reacted to the failing integrity?” Fera interrupted. Lijung just stood there. “Our engineers have no idea. In some places the metal is snapped in two, in others it is just… gone.” “Gone?” Rixva looked away from the blackbox. “Do you have pictures?” Trynell put up a few pictures on the screen they were provided. It showed the back part of the ship, where it was cut. “As you can see, something-” “We suspect a laser.” Lijung interrupted. “Yes, it cut off the engines. Now the interesting thing is how perfect the angle is. Whatever made the cut did it so perfectly.” Trynell finished. “Are you saying this laser cut through the ship that fast? Fast enough for it to cut a perfect line?” Rixva asked. “That is our working theory, ma’am.” One of the engineers responded. “We don’t have any other solutions, at least nothing logical.” “Your logical solution is that some pirates have access to a laser so powerful it can cut ships in half?” Henera asked, showing with her voice she didn’t believe that theory. “There have to be other solutions, yours would require for the laser to be more powerful than any we have ever seen or that the ship didn’t move at all.” “Salvage laser.” Rixva jumped in. ”If they used one of those, they would have to get close, but it could cut through the armor.” Henera stared at Rixva for a minute. “And the ship simply waited for the laser to finish?” “Don’t salvage lasers have to be right next to the ship?” Fera asked. “Yes, they do.” Rixva looked at her hands for a bit. “So, what if they were? What if the engine was cut away later by some… salvage crew?” Melora knocked on the table. “Please, before we continue further. Does the boarding crew have anything else to share? We will get back to salvaging lasers later.” Everyone turned to the Marines. “We started to compile the names of the crew; many are missing. Mostly those working around the engine. The captain's log... well, the new captain’s log provided some information.” “New captain?” Melora asked. “Yes, ma’am. It would appear at some point there was a change in leadership. What happened is not clear. The new captain started to ramble about how much she hated certain crew members. And how hard it was for her to get the position after and I quote: ‘We threw that bitch into the abyss with her precious treasure map.’ Other logs are garbled and the data appears to be corrupted. The old captain’s logs are completely missing, but we did find out about a few passengers. A trio of scientists traveling with the ship. Their logs are too corrupted, we will give it to the girls down in tech to look over.” “Treasure map?” Fera asked, her ears perking up. “I am sorry, did you just say treasure map?” “Yes, ma’am. We found out from other personal logs that the old captain became obsessed by some treasure she heard about. It is possible she dragged the crew through hell for some fairytale.” “What if they found the treasure, but she didn’t want to share?” Rixva offered. “What if it was the Dust?” Elinsys finally spoke up, she was quiet till now. Looking for Leferia, who had been gone for some time now. Which meant she was hiding from her, but why? “We still don’t know how that woman got it. Could it be that they found the Dust, pirates ambushed them and took it?” Everyone was quiet for a bit, pondering what Elinsys said. Then Melora spoke up. Melora spoke up again. “I heard the cameras were broken, what is your explanation for that? The pictures show the cameras themselves are untouched, but somehow the lenses are broken?” Lijung spoke up. “Yes, ma’am. We pulled a few cameras off the walls and only the lenses were damaged.” “Smashed to shards. It must have been a powerful hit or many small ones. The feed doesn’t show what happened. We suspect a shock from a blast.” “Wouldn’t security be aware, the cameras broke one by one. And it took some time before they were all broken.” Henera asked. “Could someone cut off the last few minutes of the tapes? Or seconds? Hide what happened?” Fera asked. “One could do that, but someone would have made a slip. There should be a trace of it somewhere, but there is nothing. The blackbox should keep all the information tho, so once I have the access to it we should see if there was any tampering. Hopefully they forgot about the blackbox.” Rixva answered. “If the Marines have nothing more to report, please leave. In fact anyone who is not a department head or higher please leave right now.” Melora relaxed back in her chair. The officers looked at each other and then filed out, the Marines behind them. Soon the room was filled with only the inner circle. Melora stood up and locked the door, turned off the screens and sat back down. “What I am about to tell you must not leave this room.” She looked around at everyone, as if calculating how likely it is that they would tell someone. After a few seconds, she spoke up again. “Wasted Hope is a terrible name for a trade vessel, don’t you think?” Melora said those words in a serious tone. Everyone in the room looked at eachother, confused, flabbergasted as to why this was important. Then Henera spoke up. “I guess so. Why is the name important?” Melora looked to her protege, then to others. “Because I suspect this was no trade ship.” She waited to see the reactions of others in the room. Which was mostly still confusion. “Let me explain. This ship was not built for trade, it has a suboptimal number of cargo bays. Only thing it can carry of worth is maybe some rare items, but why would such a ship be in unknown space? It doesn’t have any laboratories for scientists, so why is it carrying around three scientists who are still MIA?” Elinsys looked at Melora, there was an aura of confidence and leadership around her, a rare sight. “I suspect this was an Interior vessel or it was sent here by some other major power, be it a noble house, Consortium or the Alliance.” She counted the possibilities on her fingers. “Now maybe it's a smuggling operation, some drug lord has found the Dust and now wishes to sell it. But something stinks here, a terrible rotting stench. Something is wrong.” “What do you mean?” Fera asked. Melora looked at her. “A salvage laser cutting the ship, which would require a salvage rig, or something much worse. Crew which supposedly had no trouble with any of this and then was found slaughtered, but only some. Others are missing. A mutiny against a treasure obsessed captain. Three scientists with no names here on a research trip. Weird ship name, a trade ship, which doesn’t have enough cargo bays, moving about unexplored space where anything can go wrong. Only a fool would think this is an accident.” “So what is your theory?” Henera asked. “I suggest some pirates attacked, kidnapped some and killed the others as a warning. Then some salvagers came by and took the engine. Now, what is yours?” “Mine? Simple. Some drug lord hired the crew to bring the new chemists to them. A salvage rig was supposed to meet them and pick them up. Maybe get rid of the ship or refit it. Give it a new name. Now this lord wants no evidence or is mad the old captain was thrown into space. So they order the rig to cut the engine off, the crew are calm, this is normal. The important people, loyalists, are taken off the ship. The the boarding party is sent to murder the traitors. Leave a message. Because we all know somehow the press will learn of this, or at least rumors will spread. And all in the underworld will know who is the boss around here.” Melora let out a breath and leaned back in her chair. “Any other theories?” “What if it was Roaches?” One of Henera’s heads offered. “They attack the ship, steal whatever they can and then they kill the crew?” “How did they rip the engine off the ship? Roaches would take the crew for slaves or leave them alone. This feels… excessive.” Henera said, giving her subordinate a look of disappointment. “Yes, the crew being killed and the engine being ripped off just makes no sense. One requires the ship to not be moving, but then shouldn’t the crew react?” Fera added. “It is possible one happened and then the other, but why wouldn’t a scavenger ship report it? They are obligated to do it. Otherwise their scrap won’t be bought.” “Not on any legal market, but on a black market? To someone far away from the Interior’s eyes? They would buy it.” Rixva said. “My mother could get any part without having to pay any taxes on it. If you know the right people, you can get anything.” Most stared at her for some time, before Melora broke the silence. “Putting aside that illegal activity, let us focus on this anomaly. If the ship’s engines were ripped off before, then the crew was in on it or were ambushed by some new experimental weapon. Which means we are possibly dealing with the Alliance or Consortium. If they did it later, then it’s probably some crime boss or a salvager.” “And if they happened right next to each other? I still don’t see why the crew would be slaughtered?” Elinsys spoke up. “To cover up the new weapon. But… I do see the issue, they would just kill them. Not cut them into pieces and stack them onto piles. Hell, most likely they would have just blown the ship to bits.” Melora pondered. “I am telling you. This is a message of some kind. Now, who sent it and why is the question.” She spoke loudly, but quieted down when Melora looked at her. “There is still the Dust angle to consider. It would explain the violence at least.” Elinsys said. Her words were met with disagreement and later on shouting. *** They kept the meeting going for a few hours, but came to an abrupt end. Melora had had enough. Said they would wait for the blackbox and meet again once it was unlocked. Henera and her officers returned to her ship. Elinsys went to her room, where Leferia was waiting, sitting on her bed. “Oh, hello. You are finally back!” She got up and walked towards Elinsys, who did not greet her back. Elinsys moved past her to the bathroom and closed the door. Elinsys looked in the mirror, seeing Leferia standing behind her, causing Elinsys to flinch. “Why are you mad? I left you alone, just as you asked.” Elinsys turned around to face Leferia, but she was gone. “Where are you?” Elinsys was alone in the bathroom. “Uh, right here? Why did you turn around?” Leferia’s voice was coming from behind Elinsys. When she turned around once more, she saw Leferia standing in the mirror. “Why are you…? Why do I bother asking if you never give a straight answer?” Elinsys asked the mirror, exhaustion and despair in her voice. She couldn’t believe this was how her life had turned out. A part of her missed the ruins of her home. Leferia just looked at her through the mirror, then she made her way closer to Elinsys. Slowly she climbed through the mirror, as if there was no wall there, as if reality itself moved around to serve her. “I didn’t want to disturb you during the meeting, I know you take those serious and... ” Elinsys bit her tongue. She won’t take the obvious bait. Damn you space herpes. “And...what?” Leferia produced a slight smile, one would need a microscope to see it. “And… I am trying to work with you, not against you. So… how was the meeting?” Leferia knew how it went. Elinsys knew damn well she was listening in, they do share their senses now. “What theory do you think is the truth?” Elinsys left the bathroom and sat down before her terminal. “Well, the furball brings up a few good points, mostly poking holes in any theory that was offered. Henera is really hounding that message idea.” “Then what is it? If not a message, then what?” Elinsys interrupted Leferia, meanwhile she was looking for something on her terminal. Hoping Leferia wouldn’t notice until it was too late. “Hmm, a sadistic pleasure? A terrible accident caused by the crew going mad?” Leferia was walking from one wall of the room to the next. Something that took her less than a second, but she kept at it. “”You suspect the Dust, like me and Henera?” Elinsys was close. “Well, it wasn’t my Dust. If it was I would know, unless me being tied to Ms. Noble was distracting me too much. That happens with new hosts.” Leferia stopped and looked around the room, but it was like she was looking through the walls to somewhere far away. “So… not Dust… or do I have to eradicate two space herpes now?” Eradicate, such a harsh word. Hopefully it will distract Leferia for long enough, she enjoyed fighting over semantics. Just to download the final file and then we are set. “No. To both. There aren’t any like me. Not not, not never. Not in this galaxy, not in this reality or any other. And good luck exterminating me, I am immortal.” Leferia huffed around the room. Just what Elinsys needed. “Shil’vati have nine gods, and many spirits. You know any of them?” Elinsys looked at her terminal and the message on it. ‘DATA SENT.’ Leferia was standing behind Elinsys. Her maw hanging open. “Maybe. Why would I care about your gods? They are not… wait.” She approached the terminal. Now standing above Elinsys, she lowered her head to be between Elinsys and the terminal screen. “Well, well, well. Smart girl. Distracting me just to send some notes? How awfully clever of you. Too clever.” The stare Elinsys received would send shivers down her spine, if Leferia was real. “Checkmate, darling.” Elinsys smiled, turned off her terminal and sat down on the bed. “Can’t hide the Noble’s logs anymore, can you? I asked Rixva to look over them, and told her there were some corrupted files I hoped she could fix. Told her to look over them too, could be useful.” She laid down. “A security measure, if you wish to call it that.” Leferia was standing next to her, looking down at her. “What’s in the files?” She crossed her arms, no longer smiling. “You know, don’t you?” Elinsys responded. Shutting off the lights. “No. I do not. Most of my time spent with that… woman is a blur. So what do they say? Please, don’t make me poke through your head while you sleep. I don’t want to do that.” Leferia laid down on the bed. “Oh you know, standard noble complaining about how she isn’t respected enough, how she isn’t married yet to some, and I quote: ‘hot piece of meat’ and most importantly how little she earns.” “Sounds like her, she complained a lot. Constantly, one could say.” Leferia let out a slight chuckle. Elinsys couldn’t tell if she was only pretending or not. “Yes, then she finds a find of the century. That you?” Elinsys looked over to Leferia, who was looking back at her. “I would hope so. That is one hell of a compliment.”