Out of the Blackness

May 21st, 2125

We came around the corner and it was in my view port. There was this wall of steel. Like the slab in 2001, like the walls of Troy at night. It was just big, the end of the universe. It just was there as a statement. We came in and I just looked out of my window -- I had to look up -- because the Titanic shot up a hundred and some feet above me. I'm down at the very keel, and I just went 'My God.'
~Robert Ballard, discoverer of the wreck of RMS Titanic
"Watch your speed Jones, the debris here is pretty heavy."
"Alright Cap."
The salvage crew of the Calypso was on edge. The 150ft long salvage ship was designed for docking with old ship wrecks from the last war, not dodging debris from an old ship wreck such as this. None of us was sure what they were approaching, but the properly dressed frozen corpse, and the bed that hit the view screen was a clue that we were approaching a luxury liner. There was a thick cloud of dust that made it hard to see, but Jones was good at this sort of thing. As long as the cap didn't break that concentration, he was fine.
"Parker, how do the sensors look?" The cap asked me. I looked down at the screens, and saw that the target vessel was slowly getting closer.
"Four  meters and closing Cap." I said looking up from the screen.
I came into the salvage business after watching the war on my TV back on terra. I was only fifteen at the time the war ended, so obviously I couldn't enlist. But there was something about the possibility of finding riches aboard those lost hulks of starships that the ODC forgot about after the war that drew me to this profession. So, I went to school to learn deep-space salvaging, and after graduating, I was hired on with the Calypso and her crew. In the last five years, I've helped bring back about twelve wrecks. Most of them were small gun boats the ODC used, but we did bring back a Rana frigate once, which brought in enough money for the cap to finally get an overhaul that this ship needed badly. Most of these new sensors are top of the line, but ship herself is not. She was built ten years prior to the war, and when we got her, her reactor was shot, and even her artificial gravity system was shot.
The Calypso was bound for the scrap heap, but the Cap decided to buy her anyway. Although he states regrets getting that second loan that was needed for the repairs. Maybe he should have gone to a better dealer. But, with all the blood sweat and tears we put into this thing, we weren't about to let it go that easy, and she just became a second home to us. I just wish there were more women here then there are.
Aside from Debin Reed, and Rachel Gray, this ship had almost an all-male crew. But we were not an all Terran crew. Jones was Vulpine, and a dropship pilot during the war, while Colia was Chidori. We call him that because most of us have given up trying to pronounce his real name, but he took to the nickname, and he speaks perfect English, so we don't ride him about it. Then there were the Kingston's, Jake and Josh. This was their first time out, and both were eager to get to work on their first wreck. They were our cutters, their job was to, quite simply, cut open the bulkhead doors so we could move around the ship. Assuming we found one that is.
Our last two cutters were unable to join us on this trip. One had a child born recently, and the other had to deal with something in court. And Cap didn't want their home lives messing with their work, so he let them sit this one out, and gave Jake and Josh a chance to earn their keep. They normally waited back at the salvage yard and helped us break the ship down for parts to sell on the junk market. But this time, they got to come with us and do the job they were paid for. Watching them on the bridge almost made me wonder if they were going to push a panel out like a five year old kid on a train for the first time.
The Cap however… we didn't know much about him I've worked with him for five years, and helped him get this ship ready for salvaging, but I didn't know a damn thing about him. I could tell by the way he carried himself that he was obviously Prior Service Navy. Maybe he commanded his own ship while he was in. He was old enough after all.
"How close are we Parker?" He asked, snapping me out of my thoughts, and causing me to look at the screen.
"Two hundred twenty meters" I said after a quick glance.
I looked up, and through the view screen, I could see a shape. It was the ship we were looking for. Well, what was left of it anyway. I looked at the screens again, and on the Captains orders I ran a scan. Our scanner was off of an old Enterprise Delta Class Battleship. When those ships were retired, many of the components they no longer needed, such as sensors, hyper drives, and even shield generators went on the market. The scan was finished in almost no time at all, and I told Cap the results.
"O2, negative, she appears to be about seven hundred and twenty meters long as designed. There does however seem to be a slight spike in power readings. Her reactor is still running."
"How is that possible?" Colia asked me. "I thought Civilian reactors spin down after a period of no use."
"Do I look like a reactor tech?" I barked at him. "I do sensors, not reactors."
"Cool it, both of you." The Cap barked at us. "Parker, is there anything else we should know?"
I looked at my screen again. "Yes, it appears as if her Artificial Gravity generators are still functional, they just aren't running."
"How far are we?" he then asked
"One hundred twenty meters."
Before Cap could say anything, Jones eased back on the throttle, and began to put us parallel to the ship. Our docking collars were on the sides of the ship, and we needed to find those before we could get excited about getting to work.
"Hit the lights" The cap said as we passed seventy five meters.
The lights on the Calypso were extremely powerful, and they seemed to cut through the darkness with extreme ease. We could see the ships fine white finish, almost pristine, as if decades in space hadn't done a thing to her. Several of her life boats were missing, but not all of them. The most disturbing sight however, was the stern. From her bow, at what I would estimate to be the four hundred meter mark, the ship was torn apart. The absence of blast marks, or impact points told us she was not fire on, but it looked as if someone treated this ship like a glow stick. It was an eerie sight and it sent goosebumps up my spine thinking about the forces that must have been at work to cause such a ship to break up like this. Little did I know that that was only the beginning of my cold shivers.
Jones maneuvered the ship carefully, avoiding a lifeboat that failed to launch properly, and I felt sorry for the poor bastards that didn't get off the ship in that thing. The rear door on the boat was open, probably a bad seal before the ship itself depressurized, but I had to put it out of my mind. The poor souls on board were long dead, and there was nothing any of us could do about it.
I looked at the screen, and saw that we were approaching one of the docking stations, and pointed it out to Jones, who began his slow maneuvering to get us in position. Colia took control of one of the lights, and shone it on the docking station. As the light crossed over the door, Cap cought sight of the ships name, but couldn't read it.
"Colia, bring the light back a foot."
"Alright Cap." He responded, working the controls to bring the light back to the ships name.
'S.S. Olympia'
You could hear a pin drop from terra when that name was lit up. The SS Olympia, a star liner that disappeared ten years ago, was now less than thirty meters away from us. We had heard rumors that might have been attacked during the war, but we couldn't see any evidence of it. There were no scorch marks that would indicate she was fired at, just a 50 meter long gash towards her bow on the starboard side.
"You could drive a car through that hole." I said to myself when I saw the gash in the side of the ship. I could only imagine what she would have had to hit in order to cause such damage. I had heard of a ship that had similar damage, but that was an early 20th century ocean liner, and she ran into an iceberg. What could a ship like this have run into to cause this? There's no known asteroids or comets out this way, nor was there any evidence of them.
Cap snapped me out of my gaze, and then stated. "Looks like we're getting on her." There weren't any arguments. Everyone else just headed to the locker room to get their gear on. Me and Jones worked in tandem to get us aligned to the docking collar. Once we were aligned, Jones moved us slowly towards the ship, inch my inch. A metallic growl could be heard as our collar locked into the Olympias.
"We're locked." Jones said as he started to kill the engines.
"I'll go tell the cap." I told him as I stood up.
"Alright, I'll get us hooked up to the ships outer auxiliary so you guys can have some lights and gravity to work with."
The Outer Auxiliary Panel is a small box that allows our ship to provide power to a ship we're docked with. Normally, these are hooked up at stations so that a reactor can be powered down, and the ship will still have power. Salvage ships use them to provide power to a ship that is long dead. We may not get lights, but we will get gravity, and maybe even atmosphere on some models. The latter is more important. We have flash lights mounted to our helmets, so light isn't an issue. But our suits have limited time on the rebreathers, and having gravity makes our work both easier, and faster. The cable that hooks into it is about as big around as a soda can, but it allows enough juice to be pumped into that thing to power every light, artificial gravity generator, and even life support if it's working.
As I put my helmet on, I heard Jones come over the radio "We're hooked in, equalizing pressure." That was our signal that it would soon be safe to head over to the ship. Assuming the air was breathable, we could just breath through our filters, if not, we'd be using the rebreathers.
"Alright, pressure's stable." Jones said over the radio.
"Alright, we're on our way." The Cap replyed.
When we got to the air lock, Jones exited, and closed the inner door. Although the ships were pressurized, we still had to take the precaution of making sure that both ships didn't become death traps. It happened to a salvage team before a couple years ago. Thankfully, everyone was on air, and injuries were minor, but we weren't taking any chances. After the airlock door closed behind us, the door in front of us opened, and it turned out there was some equalization required, but we were still on our feet, so it wasn't a big deal.
As we entered the ship, the automated greeting system came on.
"Hello, welcome aboard the S.S. Olympia. The fourth ship of the Great Whales class of luxury star liner. We have over two thousand, four hundred rooms for passengers, and we are fully staffed with over one thousand crew, and officers. For more information, please see your nearest deck officer about your rooms, and enjoy your stay as we take you on a journey through the stars"
Hearing that made me cringe as I ran the math in my head. Based on those numbers, that meant that there was anywhere from five thousand eight hundred, to almost eight thousand people on this ship when she broke up. And based on what we saw as we arrived, none of them survived.
Before we moved on, Cap sent a message to Jones to have him come over, and it didn't take long for the fox to get suited up, and come through the airlock to join us. When Jones arrived, the Cap let out a heavy sigh, and then began telling us what to do.
"Ok, I don't know how many of you know this, but there is a reward out for anyone who finds, and returns this ship to a station. Now, while most of you are probably itching to get back and cash in, I should tell you. There is also a reward to anyone that can find out what happened to this ship. I don't know how many of you saw that big gash out there, but I can tell you that that was likely caused by an asteroid collision. While the fact that this ship is split like a twig can be a result of a reactor fuel tank rupture. These are only guesses though, and before we leave, I want to know for a fact what destroyed this ship. Jones, you're with Parker, and you two are going to head to the bridge and captains quarters. Locate the ship log, and the captains log. Reed, Gray, and Colia, you three are going to check out the reactor, and engineering, figure out what caused the split. Jake and Josh, since this is your first time out, you two are coming with me to check out the gash in the hull. Does everyone understand?" We all nodded in agreement. "Good, take your time, don't rush things. The ship isn't going anywhere, so you can be thorough. But most importantly, be safe. There are likely to be sections of the ship which are unpressurized. And I'm sure you guys don't want to be floating home." The Cap broke for a moment, and with a simple hand gesture, he then said "Alright, let's get it done and get out of here." Before walking off with the twins.