Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Negasi sat in the canteen playing Astro Blasters with Aurora. He was losing. The kid was scary good.

She also had the annoying habit of snickering every time she outmaneuvered him. Spending too much time around Jeridan, no doubt.

They had been flying at maximum light speed for two days. There had been no communication from the S'ouzz. Mason hadn't been up to astronavigation since the alien had woken up. No one else had dared to even send a message. MIRI told them that it was working with her on the problem of the Imperium mines. They had not yet found a safe pattern to get them through the barrier.

That might have been because the S'ouzz was using most of MIRI's computing power to fly them at light speed. The only way around that, though, would be to drop out of light speed, and they didn't have time. They just had to hope the two would come up with a solution before they got there.

"Oh, yeah!" Aurora shouted, pumping her fist in the air as she blew up another of Negasi's asteroids. "Wow, you're pretty bad at this."

"Want to try chessboxing instead?"

"You're not allowed to hit me. I'm a girl."

"Then I guess you'd win."

"We could do the chess part."

Negasi raised an eyebrow. "You want me to teach you chess?"

She rolled her eyes. "I already know how to play, dummy. Maybe you can make me better. Maybe."

"You've already made a good opening move by asking me to teach you instead of Jeridan. He's useless at the game."

"Is that why he always knocks you out? So he doesn't lose on the chess part?"

"He doesn't knock me out."

"MIRI, how many times—"

"Don't get obsessed with unimportant details. Here, let's play a game. I'll let you play white."

He switched the screen from Astro Blasters to chess.

They went through some standard opening moves, each trying to dominate the center. Negasi developed his main pieces better than the girl, but she wasn't doing badly. Maybe if she wasn't so distracted by her family drama, she'd be really good.

The game began to grow more complex as their pieces got interlocked in the center and obvious options grew scarce. Negasi got his main pieces developed to the point where he could make a breakthrough on the right side when the game got interrupted by MIRI.

"I've detected a faint radio signal that appears to originate from some point between us and the Imperium station. The signal is most likely made by a sentient source."

Negasi and Aurora looked at each other.

"So what's the signal?" Aurora asked.

"Unknown. It is too faint to make out but it comes at regular three-minute intervals. Once we get closer, I will be able to determine more easily."

"I'm on my way to the bridge," Negasi said.

"Me too. I'll have to kick your ass at chess later."

"In your dreams, kid."

"I'm not a kid!"

"Um, OK."

Aurora followed him down the hall.

"You should refer to me as a young lady," she said, holding her head high.

"OK."

"OK, what?"

"OK, kid."

"Call me a young lady or I'll tell Jeridan that I tased you."

"You better not."

"I will!"

They got to the bridge. Jeridan and Nova sat in their respective seats. Aurora's face broke into a big grin.

"Hey, Jeridan, did you know that when Negasi came onto the Antikythera for the first time—"

"Young lady!" Negasi shouted.

Aurora smiled. "That's better."

Jeridan and Nova stared at them.

"What's the matter with you two?"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"She's mad because I was about to beat her at chess. What's the deal with this signal?"

"It's definitely from a sentient source and it's coming at three-minute intervals on an old Imperium channel. We should have better reception in a minute once we get closer."

Negasi nodded. With the speed this ship could go, even a minute got them a hell of a long way.

Jeridan pointed to a screen.

"I've detected an unmapped planetary system on long-range sensors. It's directly in our path to the Imperium station. MIRI, is the signal coming from there?"

"It is either coming from there or in a line of sight beyond it."

"The Imperium station is directly beyond it but still a ways away," Nova said.

"It is unlikely the signal could reach us from the Imperium station," MIRI said.

"Any signs of life in that system?" Negasi asked.

"We are too far out to tell," MIRI replied.

Negasi bit his lip. It was so frustrating how slow interstellar travel was, even in a ship as fast as the Antikythera. Damn, it must have been nice to fly through a jump gate and pop out ten thousand light years away.

Maybe we'll get to someday.

"I am just able to make out the signal now," MIRI said.

"Put it on audio," Jeridan told the AI.

A crackling female voice distorted by a lot of interference came over the comm system. She spoke Galactic Standard English.

"This is the Imperium Engineering Vessel Brunel, transmitting from the planet New Sahel. The planet's population is in desperate need of food. Please send assistance. There is widespread famine in the cities. Food stores ran out within a month of the jump gates going down. The situation is desperate. Please send assistance. We repeat, this is the Imperium Engineering Vessel Brunel … "

The message repeated three times before cutting off.

Everyone on deck was silent for a moment.

Then the message started up again.

"This is the Imperium Engineering Vessel Brunel, transmitting from the planet New Sahel … "

"A message from the past," Aurora whispered. "Dad told a story once of coming across an old transmission like that but I thought he was joking. It's like the dead are talking."

The girl shuddered.

"MIRI, what can you tell us about that ship and the planet New Sahel."

"Neither are in the public records."

"No mention of New Sahel at all?" Negasi asked.

"Negative. An unknown number of remote planets or those with relatively small populations have been lost to the records due to incomplete data surviving from the Imperium period."

No one said anything. They all knew how so many out-of-the-way planets that couldn't support themselves without regular jump gate trade descended into chaos within weeks or months after the system went offline.

Billions, perhaps trillions, had died.

"I think we should check it out," Jeridan said.

"We need to get to the station," Nova said. "There won't be any survivors by this time."

"I want to check it out too. It's on our way," Negasi said. "We'll scan it from orbit."

"We'll have to drop out of light speed," Nova said.

"It won't take long."

Nova sighed but didn't complain. She was finally learning that she wasn't in charge anymore.

She was right, in a way. They really did need to hurry. But Negasi didn't like the idea of that distress beacon broadcasting to everyone who might be listening. If there was anyone else around that planet, they should find out before they went to the station. You never left enemies at your back, and anyone this far out was a possible enemy.

It was going to take the better part of a day to get there, so Negasi and Aurora went back to their chess match. He beat her easily the first game, not so easily the second. The third was work.

"You're getting the hang of this."

The girl smiled. "I'm a genius, didn't you notice?"

"In that case, you can figure out how to get the jump gates back online."

A shadow passed over her face. "My dad wants to teach me about that stuff but I don't talk to him much. It's creepy."

"It will all be over soon."

Aurora looked at him. "Will it?"

"I sure as hell hope so."

* * *

"There's the planet. I can see what look like cities," Jeridan said the next morning.

They had dropped out of light speed the previous evening and Jeridan had piloted them through the Oort Cloud, an unusually wide Kuiper Belt, and into the inner solar system.

Now they had passed the last of the gas giants and were speeding toward the inner solar system, where there were three terrestrial planets. One was too close to the sun to harbor life, one was too far, and one was within the habitable zone.

Barely. It was on the near edge of the zone, meaning it would be pretty toasty down there.

That hadn't stopped the Imperium from putting settlers here. The planet loomed up on their screen, the resolution fuzzy because of the distance but still good enough to make out a brownish surface, patches of small seas, and the glint of metal and concrete from three small cities.

The distress signal continued its patient call for help that never came.

Negasi sat in his turret now and had switched off the radio link. It was freaking him out. Aurora was right. It did sound like ghosts.

At a Lagrange Point along the orbit of the once-inhabited planet floated a jump gate. They stared at the huge metal circle, its large rectangular control center attached to one side, four times as big as their ship, looking undamaged, its interior transparent rather than a shimmering wall of energy.

"You think that thing will come to life if we get the jump gates back online?" Negasi asked, almost to himself.

"The jump gates were designed to last for centuries," Mason said over the comm link. "The Imperium cleared the orbit of meteorites and space debris and the jump gate's exterior could withstand getting hit by anything short of an asteroid the size of a large building. This one looks entirely intact."

Negasi squirmed. Derren had returned.

Poor Aurora, having to hear her dead father speak through her brother's mouth.

They continued their journey through the solar system.

Once they made it to the planet, Jeridan took them at a slow sweep at high orbit, the sensors scanning in all directions.

No sign of life. Not even a trail of wood smoke rising up from a cluster of huts.

Jeridan performed another orbit, just to be sure. No one said anything. Negasi had that awkward feeling one gets when attending a funeral, where you feel the urge to say the right thing but you can't think of anything that wouldn't come off as woefully inadequate.

At last, Jeridan set them in a geosynchronous orbit above the largest city, which MIRI estimated once held 100,000 people. The signal was coming from a spot just outside the suburbs.

"I'm not surprised this planet isn't on the charts," Jeridan said. "I haven't seen any good charts for this section of space."

"Neither have I. Let's go check it out," Negasi said. "So Nova, you never saw this planet when you came to the station?"

"We came from the other direction. There's an interstellar asteroid field between this system and the station. That faint distress signal would have been broken up. We didn't hear a thing."

Negasi's brow furrowed. Was she handing them a line like so many times before?

"All right, folks," Jeridan said in his I'm An Important Ship's Captain voice, "Let's get in the shuttle and go check it out."

Negasi looked at the ghost world below them and suddenly didn't think this was a good idea.