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To Bell the Belle - Chapter 4
Time: Day 2Location: Andromeda Ascendant - The Rock
"We've arrived at the location listed in the Maru's files, Captain," said Andromeda's core self. "My records indicate that this asteroid was once the site of a Perseid research station. I have detected a thermal anomaly at the site of the research station. It would appear that the station is or recently was occupied. "
"Thank you, Andromeda," said Dylan. "Where you able to you detect the presence of any starships in the area as we arrived?"
"Negative, Captain. I have detected several exhaust trails, but they are all at least a day old. I think we can safely assume that who ever was here has departed the area."
"And I bet you're quite happy about that," said holo Andromeda as she flickered into existence.
Dylan ground his teeth in frustration. His ship's AI incarnations were still at loggerheads with each other. He had had had the promised long and one sided talk with Andromeda's core self. He had dressed her down like a raw recruit, and she seemed honestly repentant about the fact that she had let her personal feeling take precedence over her professional duties. Dylan was willing to let things go at that, but unfortunately Andromeda's holographic self wasn't so forgiving. She had begun dropping hints about requesting to be uploaded to a different ship. To Dylan's recollection such a divorce had happened only twice in the High Guard history and both times the AIs' commanding office had been removed from command. Then there was the problem of where would Andromeda's holographic self go. Somehow he didn't think that she would be interested in becoming the command and control entity of the Maru. Rommie had made it clear that she wasn't happy with her core self's actions either, but didn't seem to be holding the grudge that her holographic sister/self was holding. Dylan wasn't sure what bothered him the most, Andromeda's core self's dislike for the Maru's crew or the fact that he hadn't noticed the friction between Andromeda's incarnations concerning said crew. But in either case it was a problem that was going to have to be solved at a later date. At present they needed to find Beka and the Maru.
"It's never easy," complained Dylan. "We're going to have to investigate the station. Hopefully who ever was there left some sort of clue as to where they were they were planning to go next. Show me the location of the station."
"The station is here in this crater," said Rommie as the image on the view screen changed to a close up of the asteroid. A spot on the image began to blink. "There is a spot here," another point on the image began to blink, "where a pair of slip fighters could land safely. It would be a twenty minute walk to the base from there."
"Nothing like a brisk walk in a micro gee environment," said Dylan. "Andromeda, have your Marias prep a pair of slip fighters and tell Tyr to prepare for some EVA work. We're about to do some breaking and entering."
"Impressive," said Dylan as he scanned the rows of supplies stacked in the main cavern. "I've seen High Guard supply depots that weren't this well stocked." He gaze wandered over a crate marked 'gauss rifles'. "They seem to have everything here but heavy weapons."
"A couple of armed freighters in toad hole positions would remedy that problem," said Tyr as he broke open the box of gauss rifles and began to examine the contents. "They wouldn't be able to use their missiles, but if the missile tubes were externally mounted they could be dismounted and set up elsewhere. He finished his inspection of the weapons. "Obsolescent," he declared with disdain as he closed up the crate.
"I don't think this was ever supposed to be a fortress," said Rommie looking at a stack of crates of military surplus rations. "More of a bomb shelter."
"What ever it's supposed to be," said Dylan. "I hope it has some clue as to the whereabouts of Beka and the others. Lets see what we can find. Tyr, there are two tunnels leading out of here. You take the one on the right while Rommie and I take the one on the left."
Some few minutes later Rommie and Dylan were staring at the hideout's power plant. As they were examining it looking for something that might be a lead to Beka's whereabouts they received a call from Tyr over their sub dermal communicators. "I've found the communications center," he said. "If you want to flatter it by calling it one."
Rommie and Dylan hurried back towards the tunnel Tyr had been tasked to explore. They passed through what must have been the hideout's berthing area and then to the communication center.
"I take back what I said about this site being as well equipped as a High Guard supply depot," said Dylan as he studied the communication system. "A High Guard escape pod would be ashamed to have this stuff installed in it. Rommie can you hack into the system's computer and see if there's anything useful in it?"
"Of course I can," said Rommie. To Dylan's ears it sounded as if she was insulted that he had even felt the need to ask the question. "Thats a Halo Ibis model 148 ship-to-planet communication system. It has a radio link along with manual and voice data entry systems. However unlike the manual system the radio link doesn't have an automatic lockout after an invalid palm print or a certain number of failed password entries. It depends on a 4096 bit encryption key and a shifting frequency carrier wave. That form of security was obsolete even before the Fall. I've contacted my sister / selves aboard me. We should have the security hacked within minutes." A far away look came over her face for a moment. The look was quickly replaced by one of satisfaction, which just as quickly was replaced by one of disappointment. "I'm in, Captain," she said. "But there's nothing there. Any messages that may have been there have been wiped. If there was something there it's gone now."
"Damn," swore Dylan. "I can't believe that Beka didn't leave some sort of clue as to where she's heading. She's stubborn but she's not stupid. I bet she figured that the ship-to-planet communicator would be too obvious a place to leave a message. We're going to have to look around some more. Rommie, you take the berthing area. Tyr, you and I will check out the main cavern."
"You're assuming she wants to be found," said Tyr.
"Like I said," retorted Dylan, "she's stubborn but not stupid. She'll have left something. Let's go."
Dylan and Tyr had just started inspecting, the main cavern and its supplies and Dylan had gone from complementing the Abernathy family for their large stock of stores to cursing them for the same stores when Rommie's voice came over their communicators. "Dylan, I think I've found your clue."
Dylan hurried into the berthing area almost at a run while Tyr followed at a more leisurely pace. The berthing area reminded Dylan of the enlisted persons' berthing compartments on board the Andromeda. There were several rows of bunks, stacked three high, sanitary facilities, a small dining area complete with a galley and dining tables, and in one corner of the compartment, secluded by privacy screens, was a recreation area equipped with a few chairs a pair of small tables and an entertainment console. Rommie was sitting at one of the tables, an open box of rations sitting on the table before her.
"What did you find, Rommie?"asked Dylan when he entered the cavern.
Rommie pointed to the box on the table. "Me," she said. "Or at least my formal name" Seeing the puzzled looks on both Dylan and Tyr's faces she elaborated. "Look at the manufacturer's code on the box."
Dylan looked where Rommie had suggested. There among the other information was a familiar series of letters and numbers 'XMC-10-182.' Below the manufacturer's code were four groups of numbers, each group consisting of what looked like a time measurement followed by another two digit number which was in turn followed by another time measurement
"That's your serial number," agreed Dylan "But what are those other numbers?"
"The first two appear to be right ascension and declination values," said Rommie. "The direction a star is from a planet. These coordinates must be from different planets all pointing towards the same star. I suspect the last set is the rotation period of the planet the directions are taken from. Once I determine which planet they refer to I can do a simple cross fix and locate the star they are all pointing to."
"How long will that take?" asked Dylan.
"My sister selves and I are working on it. We should have the solution soon. We..." Rommie stopped in mid sentence looks of surprise and concern crossed over her face. "Captain, my ship selves have detected a slipstream event, and the drive signatures of two incoming vessels. Taking light speed time lag into account and assuming the vessels continue on their present vector they should be arriving at our location in approximately 11 hours. According to their transponder transmissions one of the vessels is a Bellamy vessel."
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