PART 6: Priorities
Inspection of the Drifting Ship
We all disembarked from the landing craft at once and began to scatter and take action.
I accompany Kasumi part of the way as I head towards the captain’s quarters.
“Captain.”
“Ah, this is terrible.”
There’s blood splattered here and there on the way from the rear hangar to the bridge.
However, there are no corpses to be found anywhere.
“They weren’t attacked from the outside. There were no signs of attack on the exterior, right?”
“I wonder if there was some kind of mutiny inside.”
“Whether it was a mutiny or not is unclear, but something definitely went wild in here. The question is who did what to whom. Well, this is a ship that was sailing in these parts. One thing’s for sure, they weren’t decent folks.”
As we talk, Maria, who arrived at the scene ahead of us, radios in.
[Captain, I’m in the engine room, but it’s no good. We can’t expect any power.]
“Is that you, Maria? What happened?”
[The area around the engine has been thoroughly destroyed. Rather than the engine itself, it’s the control systems and energy transmission components that have been precisely destroyed. Repairs in space seem impossible.]
“I see. If that’s the case, we can’t expect much from the bridge either. Well, it can’t be helped. Maria, now that we know the engine situation, rendezvous with Kasumi. Head to the bridge.”
[Captain, understood.]
“Kasumi, you heard that. Meet up with Maria and try to gather some information on the bridge.”
“Understood.”
I’ve just arrived at the captain’s quarters.
“I’ll search inside. Radio me if anything comes up.”
Saying that, I entered the captain’s quarters with one security officer.
Of course, all power to the ship has been cut off.
With no lighting, we use our own flashlights to search the captain’s quarters.
There’s nothing much of note.
However, I found a terminal in the desk drawer.
This is typically used in civilian ships to record the ship’s log and other information.
It automatically records information via the ship’s internal communications.
Of course, it won’t turn on… no, wait, the internal battery is still alive, and it powers on.
This terminal doubles as a ship’s log and voyage recorder, so there’s no security lock.
I’m not sure if we’re dealing with pirates or smugglers, but I doubt they’ve been keeping records in accordance with the law. Still, even just looking at the voyage recorder might tell us something.
I started operating the terminal to investigate the information.
While ship captains are required to keep a log, this one, as expected, isn’t properly written.
However, there are incomprehensible numbers and what seem to be monetary figures recorded here and there.
It seems the captain of this ship was using the log as a memo pad.
If we could understand what these numbers mean, things might become a bit clearer.
I continued my investigation.
Then I found a voice memo dated yesterday.
Just as I was about to check the voice memo, Maria and Kasumi entered the captain’s quarters.
“Captain, without power, it’s no good. We can’t figure out anything.”
“Kasumi, is it as Maria says?”
“Yes, Captain. None of the equipment on the bridge is functioning at all.”
“It’s no use expecting backup power either. In any case, it’s been efficiently destroyed, so repairs here are impossible. We can’t do any further checks unless we get power from outside. Sister Meyrica probably can’t move around much either without artificial gravity, let alone the air issue.”
I radioed the executive officer.
“XO, I guess the ship’s investigation isn’t progressing well in zero gravity?”
[Yes, it’s quite tough. We haven’t even finished one block yet.]
“Then, let’s change the plan. We’ll borrow minimal power from [Shunmin].”
“Eh? Are we doing that again?”
“Yeah, there’s no other choice. XO, you heard that. Change of plans, we’re going to connect [Shunmin] with wires.”
[Understood.]
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I called Shunmin and had [Shunmin] dock with this ship.
Almost the entire crew worked to connect wires between this drifting ship and [Shunmin], and we ran cables to supply power to this ship from [Shunmin].
With this, we managed to provide minimal artificial gravity, internal air circulation, and power to the bridge.
As for internal lighting, we kept it to an absolute minimum, only activating emergency lights.
We need to conserve power to avoid overloading the supply.
While [Shunmin]’s power generation capacity has some leeway since we’re not in combat, the power we can send is limited due to the single thin cable connection.
Still, with artificial gravity and internal air circulation restored, the ship’s exploration seems to be progressing.
I return to checking the captain’s navigation log, which I had interrupted earlier.
I open and check the voice memo I was about to listen to before.
It seems something close to a mutiny occurred.
This smuggling ship wasn’t connected to the Hishiyama family that the kingdom is desperately searching for, but it wasn’t completely independent either. It appears to be a ship related to the Sicilian Family, a pirate group separate from the Hishiyama family.
Even I know that this Sicilian Family is a pirate organization of considerable size, with territory in both our kingdom and the neighboring Amin Principality.
I took out my own terminal and searched for this Sicilian Family, and some interesting information came up.
Recent news reports that internal conflicts have been actively occurring lately.
The news comments speculate that a power struggle has begun within the Sicilian Family.
We need to investigate more, but it seems this ship was caught up in that turmoil.
As I was searching through the terminal to check the communication logs, I received a radio call.
[Captain, it’s urgent. Can you come here?]
The XO contacted me with an unusually panicked voice.
“XO, I’m coming right away, but where are you?”
The XO, in his panic, had called for me without specifying a location.
[Ah, I’m sorry, Captain. It’s the food storage on the third deck. We found a large number of children in the food storage. They’re severely weakened, and there might be casualties…]
“Is, is that true?”
[Yes…]
Her voice was quite somber.
“There are survivors, right?”
[There are survivors, but they’re in terrible condition…]
“I understand.”
I cut off the XO’s radio and called [Shunmin], ordering all available crew members, no, all but the bare minimum necessary personnel, to head to the food storage on the third deck.
The priority now is to rescue these children as quickly as possible.
We need to be cautious about potential traps, so we can’t immediately take the children to the well-equipped [Shunmin].
I had a care space set up around the food storage area, where we could provide treatment and protection.
While power has been partially restored, we’re still operating at minimum capacity and can’t manage the ship’s internal temperature.
We restored the air conditioning on the third deck only, raising the room temperature to 15 degrees Celsius.
Currently, the ship’s internal temperature is minus 15 degrees Celsius.
If we were closer to a star, the temperature might have been a bit higher, but we’re at the midpoint between the outermost capital star system and the Rhenium star system.
Normally, the children would have long since died, but they were lucky.
The children were confined in the food storage area –
essentially, a sealed refrigerator.
The refrigerator’s internal temperature was set to 10 degrees Celsius.
It seems the ship’s original occupants didn’t intend to use this for food storage but for keeping the children, which fortunately meant we found them in an internal temperature of 3 degrees Celsius.
Moreover, there were nearly fifty children, so they likely huddled together to endure the cold, which helped them survive.
Even so, it’s clear that if we had been half a day late in discovering them, they all would have perished.
The air wasn’t circulating, so they were nearing their limit.
As the children’s rescue seemed to be progressing smoothly, I suddenly started shaking.
I became scared.
If my decision had been delayed, all these children would have died right before my eyes.
I could accept it if I were to die, but I absolutely cannot accept being responsible for the deaths of innocent children.
Our options here are limited.
The dangerous situation would continue if my decisions were delayed.
After all, we’re currently unarmed, and we’ve confirmed that this area has become enemy territory.
We should escape immediately.
I returned to [Shunmin] and set out to rendezvous with Her Highness as soon as possible.
Leaving the care of the children to the education team members, with several non-commissioned officers supervising, the rest of us headed towards Rhenium while keeping watch on our surroundings.
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