EliteCommander

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

There might have been a moment, however brief, where Jess found Light’s offer tempting purely to get a break from having to fight her own weight on every step. The climb out of the crater had not been long, and had not been too steep, but between that and the walk to the ship, she felt like she had just climbed a mountain. As soon as they had finally arrived, she came to a stop and sat herself down in the dirt. “I can handle myself, but I am taking a break. Why don’t you two look for a way in? I’m sure you can handle it.”

Overall, the freighter seemed large from where they were standing. It was almost twice the size of Light’s ship, but for these massive corporations, even that was on the small side for their cargo haulers. It was all of Human make, with by far the largest of its components being its cargo bay. These sorts of ships were known for having the bare minimum in living space and other crew accommodations, in favor of being able to haul more cargo at once and get the best returns per trip. Each hull component of the ship was simple, blocky in shape, and all completely modular. Each room of the ship, whether it be a simple habitation module or vital ship system, was designed to be easily removed, replaced, or added on to as needed. Companies that operated across wide regions of space had need of ships that could handle a wide variety of conditions, but buying a single model of ship that could handle everything would be expensive, as would buying and maintaining many different models simultaneously. Having completely modular vessels allowed them to essentially assemble their own specialized ships while having a wide stock of standardized, interchangeable parts.

It was all very efficient, even if it did make their freighters look like flying bricks.

On this arrangement of modules, there looked to be exactly one normal entrance into the ship, which was the cargo ramp. There was also a secondary escape hatch on top of the cockpit module, but both were still locked down tight. Peering in through the cockpit windows was awkward from ground level, but at a cursory glance, it seemed empty and unpowered. The main reactor was certainly offline, and no module they could access from the outside seemed to be receiving any backup power, though if an internal module was being powered, they would not necessarily be able to tell from outside. There were no active atmosphere leaks in any module, which of course meant that either there were no hull breaches, or the affected modules were already fully depressurized. The cargo bay comprised the largest amount of the hull by area, so it was the most likely to be breached, but a breach was also most likely to be on the underside, which they could not currently reach.

Given that the freighter did not have airlocks, for safety, there was also no easy external manual release on either entrance, so either they needed power, or to break their way in. So far, there had been no attempts to contact them, so either their arrival had not been noticed, or there was no one to notice them.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The three met up in the cargo bay after making their preparations. Senjen had been the first to make it there, and he felt like he had been waiting for half an hour before Jess finally came staggering in. She was suited up for a vacuum, but it did not provide any assistance to movement, and it looked like every step was a workout for her in double gravity. The suit was not overly bulky, as instead of air pressure, it dynamically constricted around the body to counter low pressure. Only the helmet created a rigid, sealed environment.

Senjen was going to tease Jess for being late, but seeing how she was already showing signs of struggling against gravity, he decided to go easy on her. Meanwhile, he looked to be moving around almost normally by comparison. His frame could handle the extra resistance without any real sign of difficulty. After a moment, he eyed the sack of equipment Jess was lugging around. Hey, uh...why don’t you let me carry that?”

Jess was normally someone who did not rely on others for assistance, but even this short walk was going to feel like a hike in this place. “Yeah, sure, whatever.” She sighed before taking a look up at Light. “Park all the way out here if you want, but you’re gonna be the one dragging the crates back to the crater. Let’s get to it.”

The cargo hold depressurized, and the whole world went silent. The cargo ramp lowered, and they felt the thud of its impact vibrating through their feet, or equivalent appendages. They stepped out onto the dull grey dust of the planet’s surface, and made an immediate right turn towards the shallowest incline they could spot to exit the crater.

To natural eyesight, this side of the planet was in near complete darkness, save from what light came from the, admittedly brilliant, night sky above. But, that bit of light was enough for the visual filters in both Senjen’s eyes and Jess’ helmet to give them adequate night vision.

“Radio check. All good, Light? All good, Jess?” Senjen spoke up.

Jess answered back quickly. “All good, Sen.” She stopped at the foot of the crater’s edge, looking up at the long climb ahead of her she was going to have to make at 2G. “Hate you, Light.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen gave a quick look at what their sensors were telling them about the environment below. “Let’s see...temperature on the dark side is not too far above absolute zero, but no atmosphere, so the vacuum will be a fine insulator for you. Initial scans show the planet’s crust is rich in heavy elements and metals. Very dense, overall. It’s gravitational pull is a little under twice that of Korit, so be ready to deal with that. Radiation on the daylight side is intense, as expected, but the planet shields the far side pretty well. Your suits should be more than enough for the background radiation, and it’s not nearly enough to fry my electronics.” He spun his body around to face Jess. “You do have a suit, right?”

“Obviously. I was expecting this job to be EVA salvage; I packed it with my things.” Jess moved past Senjen, then braced herself against the nearest wall before shoving Senjen out of the way. Since he was unsupported, she was actually able to push his relatively massive body away. On his part, he simply accepted his new, slowly spinning trajectory. “Damn, don’t like that gravity, though. Those crates ain’t exactly lightweight. Would’ve been easy to push ‘em through space, but now they’re going to be twice as heavy.”

“Then I guess it’s good you brought a friend with more muscle than a Tindrel and unlimited stamina.” Senjen answered. He made a motion as if flexing, despite the fact that his plating was rigid.

This time, Jess did not mirror his levity. “Maybe, depending on the state of the ship. Could still be hard to get it out if it’s a wreck. Though if it’s too much of a wreck, then the cargo probably wouldn’t even be intact to begin with.”

“Well, let’s not think like that. Like Light said, it might even end up as a rescue mission. If not...do we even need the crates? Could we just unpack them and move over the cargo like that?” He asked.

Jess paused a moment, staring at the console. “Eh, could work. Our cargo hold has enough radiation shielding for the components. And it’s not like we’ll be sticking around long after we have them. I guess we’ll just see what it looks like on the ground.”

---

Heading down to the planet’s surface, they could see that the freighter had at least been in a position to choose a sensible landing site. They had set down in a wide, flat, open field that was more dusty than rocky. That said, it still looked to have been a hard landing. There was some debris from the ship scattered in a short line behind it where it had slid across the ground, but it was mostly intact.

“Okay, not...the worst.” Jess remarked. “Ship doesn’t look like it’s powered, though. No distress signal, nothing.”

Now that they were under the rather substantial pull of gravity, Senjen kept himself on the floor. He could still climb even under these circumstances, but his falling body would be about twice as dangerous now if he made a mistake. “We probably wouldn’t be able to detect it if they were rationing power to a safe room. Not from here, anyway. If we’re going in to investigate, we should probably be careful not to crack them open to the vacuum.”

It was up to Light where to land and what other precautions to take. The area around the crash site was all open and flat, while the nearest surface feature was a crater about half a kilometer away. Although they had not detected any yet, they did need to be cautious about other potential scavengers or pirates in the system.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Jess blinked in near-disbelief as she looked over what Light had uncovered. “Yeah, that’s...traces of tritium, deuterium, a bit of helium. That’s a reactor leak, alright.” She had helped him pour through the sensor data, but even she had to admit it had been mostly him. Even though they had the flight path of their target to narrow their search, it had still been a lot of empty space for them to cover. Jess clearly had not expected results nearly this quickly. “Damn, Light, just snatch the needle right out of that haystack, why don’t ya?”

Jess leaned back from the console she was at and just looked out of the window into the void. Without any spectrum filters to show light outside the visible spectrum, the neutron star was hardly even visible at this distance. With no significant sources of light to drown them out, their view of the stars was spectacular. “I think you’re right, and I think we’ve got the story of what happened here. The freighter pilot’s course brought them just a bit too close to the pulsar at just the wrong time. Something hit the star, asteroid maybe. And with a neutron star, an impact on that superdense degenerate matter causes some violent backlash. They pass through a huge burst of high-energy radiation that pulls them out of FTL and overloads some of their systems. Uncontrolled deceleration from FTL can be accompanied by unpredictable spacetime warping that can cause internal and external hull damage, so...probably more than a few, really. At minimum, they get a reactor leak. Might have even been operating purely on backup power, with the amounts I’m seeing here. They headed for that planet, which might suggest their radiation shielding was compromised. I think you’re right; they probably headed for the far side of the planet to shield them from the cosmic rays.”

There was a moment of pause from Jess, accompanied by a look of concern. “Honestly, I expected the freighter to be dead in space. That’s usually what happens when you’re ripped out of a warp bubble. They got lucky to be able to go anywhere after that. Or maybe unlucky depending on your perspective. It would make their deaths take longer. Their only sanctuary here is still a dead rock in space, I...doubt they could have survived this long.”

There was worry in Jess’ voice, but one could not say if she was afraid that the freighter crew might have had long, painful deaths, or if she was actually worried they may be alive.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Jess was certainly not a bad pilot herself. Above average, by any definition, but that just meant she had a better appreciation for what it took to make it look as easy as Light did. She probably could have handled getting a ship into position close to the star herself, but there was a world where she could have made a mistake. With Light, she had a feeling that would never have happened even on his worst day.

Now that the ship was out of FTL and heading steady, Jess unstrapped herself from her seat so she could move around the cockpit. Already, she floated around behind Light so she could get a better look at the sensor readouts. The mechanics of FTL meant that inertia was not too much of a problem while traveling in it, but when moving at sublight speeds, a ship’s crew had to be ready to handle acceleration. When moving at anything other than a steady motion, loose objects had to be contained, and any crew members could not be far from somewhere they could be strapped down if the pilot was planning any maneuvers.

“Okay, we’re looking for any trace of the ship. If it was damaged here, then there’s plenty it could have left behind. Debris, radiation trails, whatever we can find. Also need to keep watch for any other scavengers in the system. I know they frequent this place for the same reason we are, but hopefully the fact that we know our target’s exact flight path means we’ll still get to it first. The star’s radiation beams are pretty and impressive, but also very predictable. I doubt even our freighter’s pilot would have been stupid enough to plot their course through them. No, it probably wandered close enough to get clipped by some other emission, or maybe it’s magnetic field. Neutron stars can put out a lot of energy.” Jess said.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen gave a close look over Light to try and see if he was lying. He may not have been a Tekeri, but QV were rather terrible liars in general. “It’s already unfair that organics aren’t immortal. I had this cute little alien pet once. Mischievous little thing, but she seemed happy. I was able to take good care of her, give her good medical care, but it was only like seventeen years before she died of old age. Just gone in the blink of an eye. You’ve got to tell me you have more than that, or that there’s something we can do…”

When they heard the beep from the cockpit, Jess cut short her workout and was quick to interrupt Senjen. “Look, let’s just keep our eyes on the prize right in front of us. Focus on getting through the next few days. Screw up too bad on this job, and we could all be gone in the blink of an eye. Come on, I’ll help you patch up that wiring for good this time.”

---

The ship came to a relative stop when it exited its FTL envelope at the edge of the target system. To the naked eye, the star at its center was not even a visible point of light. Pulsars, and other neutron stars, were tiny on an astronomical scale, being only about the diameter of a city, and they did not emit much visible light. Or at least, this one did not, as it was not an optical pulsar. Looking into other wavelengths, however, would reveal the two beams of electromagnetic radiation being emitted from its magnetic poles. They were what gave the pulsar its name, as the magnetic poles were not aligned with its rotational axis, so the beams moved with the star’s rotation in a very regular, predictable pattern. The beams of this pulsar had a heavy presence of x-rays and gamma rays, so it would be particularly dangerous to be caught in them. They did need to get much closer if they wanted to trace the likely path of the ship they were looking for, which would require a few microjumps in FTL while avoiding the paths of the more hazardous radiation.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Jess stopped again, taking a few, long breaths after Light tried planting a bit of rubble into her pocket, which she just managed to notice during her exercise. “Well, let’s see. On my homeworld, I think I’m nineteen this year, though most Humans where I’m from give their age in Earth equivalent years, which puts me at twenty-eight.”

While Jess did not seem to be bothered, Senjen had to take a moment to process Light’s answer. Once it dawned on him, his eyes widened and his head raised up. He reached out and grabbed Light in both hands, sounding almost panicked as he spoke. “Wait, what? A few years? What do you mean? I thought the treatment was going to save you! A few years is nothing! I...I mean, come on, there has to be something that can change it! Some way to age...slower, maybe? Some way to fix it? You have to have more time than that, you just have to!” He shook his head and muttered. “It’s Prowler all over again...”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

While Jess was rolling her eyes and starting another set of leg extensions, Senjen let out an exaggerated scoff. “Oh, I see how it is. You’ll wish her luck, but all your years of wisdom tell you I shouldn’t bother finding anyone.”

“Really...did you just watch a movie ‘bout a robot finding love...and decide to copy it?” Jess remarked between reps.

Senjen tilted his head. “Are you trying to offend me?”

“Yes.”

“Fair enough. Anyways, I’ll have you know Utaysi partner up just like many other species. We’re not machines asking existential questions about what love is, or something.” Senjen said.

“No, you just ask stupid questions...tryin’ to prod into an old man’s personal life.”

Senjen raised up his hands. “Alright, alright, I get it.” He said, though as they were talking, another thought had crept into his mind that had been bothering him. “But um, Light...I know we don’t talk about it much...really, but how old...are you, exactly? How much...time do you have left?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Hey, bodyguard I might be, but I can’t always be around. If I really want to keep you safe, then the best way to do that is going to be to make sure you can protect yourself too.” Senjen said. He moved from the ceiling back down to the floor, reorienting himself to match the others. “I might be able to give you some shooting lessons, of course, but I don’t think even I can protect you in every way? I mean, what could I ever do to save you from heartbreak?”

With a chuckle, Senjen started to stare down Light particularly closely. “Could it be that Light here is out seeking a mate? Now that you’ve conquered your disease, is that the next goal on your horizon?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Jess hummed a moment. “Vibrating suit? Really? That’s a...way to do it. I guess.” Light would find that she gave a light chuckle at some part of what he said, though mostly she was just in the middle of catching her breath from her workout, and now was spinning slightly from the bit of torque his tentacle put on her, until she caught herself on the wall.

In quite a strong contrast to Jess, Senjen maneuvered around with ease. He had come floating in quickly and halted himself fluidly by grabbing the ceiling with his feet. “Well it’s not my fault you can’t help but to get yourself into trouble anytime I leave you alone for five minutes.”

Senjen pushed himself lightly off of one wall until he floated up directly above Light and Jess. He stopped himself inverted above them, then gave the top of Light’s body a few light slaps. “Or maybe it is? Maybe I coddle you too much? I half expected you to have a few fires I would have to put out when I left you alone with that saleswoman yesterday. What was her name? Symphony? You seemed pretty eager to meet with her, if I remember.”