Chapter 1: Five pair of fists and a pair of clamps

"File Not Found"

"I promise that is as annoying for me as it is for you."

Dani checks the ship using the software she got from Dotty. All the status information that the ship provides seem to be correct.
But what is bewildering is that all the ship's logs have been wiped clean. The sensor log, weapon's log, captain's log and all of the crew's logs are gone.
Dani can say with certainty that those logs once existed but were deleted.
Whoever used this ship before didn't want to leave any trace on what it was doing.
Only the maintenance log is left but it is in a foreign language that Dani doesn't know. Why was it left? Maybe it wasn't deemed critical information or the previous crew didn't have any time to delete it too.
Another thing that Dani notices is that the communcation's module seems to have two signal emitters, which is strange as there is usually only one.
Maybe the beacon that Eddie mentioned is attached to the communications module?


Dotty already checked room 2a so she investigates the locker room but doesn't find anything of interest.
Room 4a apparently was hit pretty badly. All the furniture is at least singed but mostly melted or burned. She can't find anything of use in here. This room needs quite some reconstruction effort in order to be habitable again.
Dotty also surveys the damage done to the ship. The edges of the hull breaches look like they've been melted so Dotty presumes that an energy weapon caused it. She also finds some more traces of shots on the hull that only did minor damage. This ship was in an intense battle. It probably sustained more than ten hits and the crew was lucky that only three hits did major damage to the ship.
Dotty also surveys the security systems. She changes all the passwords and invalidates all previous access codes to the ship.
You know... standard procedures. Satified she give the ship a nod when she is finished.

Raven doesn't know if the logs are really missing or not, but loves a good language test. She settles down to try and translate.

Raven flips through the maintenance journal. She can read those entries in a surprisingly easy way.
Most of the entries just describe general maintenance work. There are however some that shed at least a bit of light on what happened to the ship

2351-July-27:
New sensor module was installed. Seems to integrate well into the ship's systems.
Waiting for the drone in order to test 3D-scanning capabilities when linked to the sensor module.

...
2351-October-04:
Captain Frizz wanted me to make the drone operational again but it's beyond repair.
Maybe I can use some of the parts and improvise a replacement

...
2351-October-11:
Managed to refit the survey satellite with some parts of the drone.
I tested it and it showed the trace good enough for us to follow it.
Modified the operating software so that it wouldn't contact the original owner
...
2351-November-01:
Had to lock the engine control system into default mode because it would constantly shut off due to the damaged relais at the portside.
The engine works again but I can't overwrite any of the default configurations or the maintenance log.
The hull seems to be in critical condition but I'll do my best to at least seal the doors so that we don't lose our air supply

...
2351-November-17:
Life support at 37%. We're constantly losing oxygen through microfissures in the hull.
I can compensate this a bit with the shields but we are lucky if we reach West V.


The log ends here.

"Ahh. Atmospheric failure. That is quite unfortunate. For everyone who has to breathe." K3VN will search for leaks.

Raven double checks her translation then saves it as a final entry in the maintenance journal.

"Dani, Captain ... well everyone really," she says into the comms unit. "I translated and saved the maintenance log. The last entry is about microfissures in the hull causing life support failures. And there's a note about trying to keep something from contacting its original owners," she pauses as she scrolls through her notes "by modifying its operating software."

"The micro fissures have to be the hull," Dotty says walking back into the bridge, "the port side is a complete mess, someone really worked this bird over. I'm no engineer but there's a weeks worth of work for a while team of welders out there."

It seems that the engineer modified K3vn's operating system, hence the contradictions in his programing. We also need to find that tracker just in case.

He will do a scan of the ship for the tracer.

I am a MiBot not some paltry drone! I am a sophisticated machine specializing in appeasing humans. Do you have any idea how much memory that wastes? A simple drone would fry its circuits trying to understand the inane subtleties of your eternally oscillating moods. The drone spoken of in the log is not me.

Dani's next stop is the package. She doesn't know if the ICE suite is any match for whatever is in the sattellite, but it should at least be interesting to see what happens when she tries it.

K3VN searches the ships for leaks. Not that it cares a lot for oxygen but humans are better at maintaining robots when they are alive.
It doesn't find any but there are many spots on the hull where it apparently was welded. These spots seem to be the microfissures mentioned in the log. As far as K3VN can tell there are no more leaks in the hull.

While K3VN searches the hull for leaks Derek looks for the tracer module. Dani mentioned two signal emitters attached to the communications module. Maybe that's a crucial clue. Derek looks at the bunch of cables that runs from the signal emitter to the communications module but he can't really determine where the tracer could be attached. After a while of trying around and accidentialy turning on some strange Vizaar music Derek decides to give up for the moment. Maybe the tracer is easier to locate if the ship is in flight.

Dani attaches her handheld PC to the satellite. She wants to access the basic status informations which is successful. The interface and status information looks like you'd expect from an ordinary hyperroom relay.
She tries to bypass the security barriers that prevent a deeper look into the system but she fails after some tries.
The satellite opens a lot of warnings about the dangers of trying to intrude its systems so ultimatively Dani decides to break off her attempt at breaking into the operating system of the satellite.

Dorothea takes her bags into her quarters after surveying the ship carefully and begins unpacking. Neatly folding her clothes and placing them into the drawers of the wardrobe in the bulkhead, unpacking her grooming supplies, makeup, and soaps and placing them on the shelves in the washroom and finally unwinding a long string of battery powered lights the hang in a very particular pattern from the ceiling above her bunk. When she's done that she plugs her tablet into the charging receptacle on the desk in her quarters, hangs her dresses, pulls a vacuum sealed white duvet out of a zipped up enclosure and finally stows her suitcases under her bunk.

Reaching around behind her back Dotty pulls the 10mm G6 pistol and holster out of the back of her pants and places them on a shelf in the washroom wall next to her pillow. Lays down and stares at the lights hanging above her bed, the mechanical irises in her eyes open and close adjusting to the different levels of light in the room. She glances over at the vacuum sealed duvet in it's tiny package and sighs getting up, unpacking it and hanging it over the desk chair to let it resume it's normal shape before laying down again.

"Hey Cara."

"Yes Dotty?" The female voice of the digital assistant in her tablet replies.

"Could you please set an alarm for 45 standard minutes, I’d like to take a nap."

"Alarm set for 45 standard minutes."

"Thanks Cara."

"You're welcome Dotty."

Dani knows when she is beaten. Time to tell the people who tell people like her what to do what she found. She tells the Cap'n before figuring out where she will bunk tonight.

Derek feels he has done all he can do and heads up to the bridge to see if there is anything needing to be done.