Chapter 1 – Derelict
“Coming up on the unidentified vessel,” Kaylee said from the co-pilot’s seat. “Time to intercept ten minutes. All communications have remained unanswered, no change in course.”
Shi frowned at the sensor readouts over Hilde’s stout shoulder as their small recon ship, the Pteravilla Stalker, closed in on the unidentified contact that had crossed into restricted military space about two hours ago. “Am I seeing that right? Is it adrift?”
“Looks like it,” said Hilde, tapping quickly at the keys on the console, her thick dwarven fingers showing impressive deftness at the task. “No indications of power from their TK drive or maneuvering thrusters. Trajectory and distance traveled since initial perimeter breach indicate no increase or decrease in velocity, attitude seems to be unsteady.”
“Are you getting anything from their transponder yet?” That was Captain Maerril, from the command chair, his elvish voice leaning more on the high-pitched side, as it usually did when he was nervous; Shi had already noticed the sheen of sweat forming on his forehead a few minutes ago. “What can you tell me about the bogey’s make?”
“Transponder response still negative; looks like it’s offline,” Hilde said. As she tapped at her console, the display Shi watched changed, a schematic of the ship rendering in place of the course projection. “Bogey appears to be a heavy transport or light cruiser…likely…hmmm, that’s odd. Getting some kind of interference on the scans even this close.” She tapped rapidly a bit more, then frowned. “I can’t clear it up, so I can’t get a full read of the ship’s structure even with our enhanced recon suite. Based on the partial render, though, I’d say it’s one of DSM’s designs; certainly looks boring enough for it.”
Shi’s tail twitched as she watched the scanner’s attempt to render the vessel fail again, the generated image stuck as a partial framework with missing patches, generally blocky and long, but with plenty of details missing. The length and shape did seem to resemble one of DSM’s ‘toppled skyscraper’ ship designs, though, as Hilde had indicated. “No indications that we’re being jammed here, right?”
“That’s right,” Hilde said slowly, her head turning slightly in Shi’s direction. “Thinking some kind of stealth baffles or coating?”
“Yep,” Shi said with a low growl. “Getting a bad feeling about this one.”
Maerril scoffed. “You always have bad feelings, commander. Anything in particular this time, or just instinct?”
“Instinct mostly. They’re usually right, though,” Shi said, turning to look at the captain, keeping her face and voice cool. “Maybe it’s just severely damaged and returning some odd readings from the damaged superstructure, but nobody ever comes out this far, not even pirates. Closest they’ll get is a half dozen parsecs from here; none of them want to risk running into one of our scout patrols. This one has either suffered some catastrophic damage, is trying to be very quiet by drifting through here at sublight speeds on minimum power, or…something else. We aren’t trying to be quiet ourselves, so they should have seen us by now, if they’re able to.”
The captain sighed, but nodded, however grudgingly. “Well, it’s our duty to see what’s going on regardless. We’ll see what it looks like when we reach visual range; if we don’t get a response then, we’ll move in for a closer look. Maintain alert status and be ready to fire back if they’re hostile.”
The minutes ticked down rapidly. Hilde continued to try and scan the ship to no greater success even at less distance, and Shi stared out of the viewport, eyes narrowed and tail swishing back and forth slowly behind her. At last a blip showed up on the front viewport’s holographic HUD, indicating the ship had come within visual range. The HUD opened a display window and showed an extremely long-range zoom of the bogey. For a moment Shi saw only black, dotted with stars, then some of those stars winked out in a very definite, boxy shape, however blurry it was at this distance. “That looks like a stealthy paint job to me,” she said.
The captain ignored her comment, looking over to Hilde. “Any more details yet?”
“Still nothing, sir,” Hilde said, sounding a little tense herself. “At this range, it has to be some kind of stealth equipment. Still no change in course or velocity. By now, if they had powered up their main power core or TK-drive, we should be seeing some indication of that, even with stealth.”
Captain Maerill nodded slowly, looking reluctant to get any closer as he wiped at his brow. “Everyone stay alert. Gunners, keep the ship in your sights; Vyrallei, Serra, be ready to go evasive if they make any sudden moves.”
“Yessir!” the pilots said in unison, making a few adjustments on their consoles as they quietly discussed their approach.
The image on the HUD grew clearer as their distance from the unknown ship grew shorter. It was definitely one of DSM’s heavy freighter designs, too bulky to be a cruiser. The hull was painted in a flat, dark color, somewhere between black and midnight blue. Shi could just make out some protrusions that were likely sensors or turrets. The ship rotated slowly and unevenly along its vertical axis, looking almost as if it were some kind of office building tumbling through space.
As the distance ticked down, and Kaylee announced they were only sixty seconds away, Hilde spoke up. “Starting to pick up more details finally…still no transponder signal, but I am picking up very weak power readings through that stealth rigging. Scanners are getting a better look at the ship now too…it’s a modified DSM Dynamic Paradigm-class heavy transport I think…probably a mark two or three. Several non-standard protrusions and additional unidentified structures on the surface. Still no indications of reaction to us.”
The captain tapped the console on his command chair, opening a comm channel. “Unidentified vessel, identify yourself at once. This is S/R-545, Pteravilla Stalker, based out of Zauvis Four. You are in violation of restricted military space. Respond immediately if you are able.” He muted the channel on his side, leaving it open, and turned back to Hilde. “Any signs of response now?”
“Still nothing, sir. Though I’m not registering any obvious damage on the parts of the hull I can scan with any kind of clarity.”
Maerill sighed, then looked at the pilots. “Quick fly-by, then circle back if there’s nothing else from them for an up-close look.” He tried his hail again, and still there was no response.
Shi’s eyes were glued to the front viewport as the HUD’s magnified image disappeared and the ship itself appeared in its place through the actual viewport. It was gone in a flash as the pilots took the Stalker over the bogey’s hull at full sublight speed, but when no response came, it returned to fill the viewport as the scout ship came about. “Gunners remain on standby,” she said into the intercom. “We’re going in close; all hands, be ready for anything.”
Coming back to the boxy vessel, which was far larger than the scout ship, Shi could see the dark hull slowly rotating in front of them. The design was hardly what you’d call exciting; very utilitarian, rather boxy and kind of like an office-building in general shape, with multiple large cargo containers secured to the carrying racks on the outer hull. If you wanted to haul a ton of cargo, then it was a good, if extremely boring, choice. She closed her eyes, took a breath, then opened them again as she called upon her arcane sight.
“Match rotation,” the captain said. The tumbling of the ship ahead of them began to slow.
Parts of the hull began to glow faintly as Shi scanned it through squinted eyes. “I see magical residue, captain. Not active wards, maybe the residue of wards that were triggered. The magic is definitely fading, may have even been something to enhance stealth, even, but whatever it was, the enchantments are broken now.”
“That’s expensive,” Kaylee muttered from the copilot’s seat. As the massive transport loomed and filled the viewport, the Stalker’s forward lights came on, blasting the bogey’s dark hull with white light. “I see the ship’s name…Innovation 21937…sounds like a really original name for DSM.”
“No records of a vessel reported missing with that name before we left port,” Hilde said, typing at her console. “Running its ID through our database now.”
“Any change in the magical signatures, commander?” the captain asked.
Shi shook her head. “Nothing. At least, I don’t see anything else that may be active right now; if there are more spells waiting, they’re cloaked very well.”
“I bet I know what this is…” Kaylee said suddenly, her voice a whisper.
After a moment without further comment, captain Maerril spoke up. “Well? Don’t keep us in suspense, Serra, what is it, then?”
Kaylee turned her muscular frame around in her chair. “I’ve heard stories about these, captain, like stories you hear in bars about ghost ships. This is one of those DSM black ships! You know, they use them as mobile sites for all their illegal research!”
The captain didn’t say anything for a moment, then laughed. “Serra, you’ve been watching too many conspiracy videos on the net. There has never been any confirmed example of such a thing.”
“Well yeah, that’s because they always cover it up if something happens to them!” Kaylee said.
“That’ll be enough of that kind of talk,” the captain said, chuckling and shaking his head.
“You have to admit,” Shi said, letting her arcane vision fade as she looked in the captain’s direction, “it certainly matches the rumors you hear about those black ships perfectly. Any records on that designation, Hilde?”
“Nothing yet. I haven’t been able to establish a link with any of their onboard systems to confirm a serial number, but there’s definitely no missing ships that match on the public record. I sent the request through to the command station to dig deeper, but that’s going to take time.”
“Any signs that anyone onboard is trying to get our attention? Signal lights in the viewports, flares, anything?” asked the captain.
“Nothing, sir,” Hilde said. “No changes, none of the gunners or observers have reported anything. Power readings, what little there are, indicate it’s running on auxiliaries; even with stealth, at this distance, we should pick up its main power core without issue. I’d say they shut everything down, but I couldn’t begin to imagine why. We haven’t been able to spot any open hatches or ports; the engine room area seems to be intact, so they didn’t eject the power plant. No significant radiation readings, so if it’s there, it’s likely intact.”
“Quite the mystery,” the captain mused, rubbing his angular chin thoughtfully, then wiped at his brow again.
Shi’s tail continued to twitch, and her eyes remained glued to the strange ship next to them. They flew along its hull now that they’d matched its rotation, and were looking for any signs of damage. “If you want to solve a mystery like this, there’s only one way to do it, captain,” she said, looking his way.
Maerrill frowned at her, raising his chin. “You can’t be serious.”
“If there are people in distress over there, we can help them. If not, then we can access the bridge and glean what we can from the systems there. I’m not saying it is a DSM black ship, but if it is one, then there could be some very valuable data in that mainframe. And…if not, and it is abandoned, then salvage rights apply, even for us. It’d be one hell of a bonus for the crew.”
The captain shook his head. “You’re crazy, Sukimori. But you’ve also got good points. You really think it’s worth the risk?”
“Absolutely,” Shi replied without hesitation. If that was a DSM black ship, and they could prove that such a thing actually existed, and could pull evidence of illegal activities, it’d be one hell of a scandal. And if other rumors were true, that those ships were a part of Rivalle Volcari’s Arcane Research and Development branch, then there could be some very spicy secrets aboard that would be worth quite a bit to the arcane community, probably to Shi herself.
“Well…” the captain said, looking out the viewport to the dark ship, rubbing his chin again. “That would be a lot of money, wouldn’t it?”
“This class of ship is supposed to have a docking hatch and airlock near the bridge,” Hilde offered. “In fact, it’s a straight shot from the base of the command tower, just a hundred meters. We could get in there, see if anyone’s still alive and in distress, and access their systems within an hour, tops.”
Maerrill still looked doubtful, but nodded after some moments of consideration. “That’s not bad. Okay, commander. Take your Red Team with you, and be careful; it’s untelling what kind of security systems and traps may be over there.”
Shi held a grin in check, but saluted the captain. “Yessir! Kaylee, Hilde, let’s get going. Ready to go at the airlock in fifteen!”
“Yessir!” the two said in unison, quickly unstrapping themselves from their stations as their backups were called over to replace them. The Stalker didn’t have a lot of crew aboard, so there was a fair amount of multitasking for most of them, and the members of Red Team were the best suited for this kind of operation. Shi grabbed her comm from her belt and tapped at the two additional crew members she wanted to bring along. “Murissa, Briar, report to the ventral airlock, ready to go in fifteen minutes, full kit, rescue and boarding operation, hostiles possible. Move it!”
“Y-Yessir!” said Briar through the comm a second later. The medic’s voice sounded a little surprised, maybe even nervous to have been called up for a mission. He was the newest member of Shi’s little recon team, but had handled himself well enough so far; he just needed to build up more confidence through experience.
“About time we had something interesting to do,” came Murissa’s reply a moment later, the ferakatian’s voice a low, rumbling growl. She had been spoiling for some action for weeks now; Shi could sympathize; ever since the border disputes had ended a few months ago, they’d seen a lot less excitement. It was why the lot of them had signed on for a basic patrol mission in the first place, in fact, just to have a chance at something interesting happening.
Shi led the way with Kaylee and Hilde following behind her to the stairwell. “Take anything you think we might need. Something doesn’t feel right about this ship, so I want you to be ready for anything and everything.”
Welcome to the first chapter of my latest story! And welcome back to the UrbanVerse! I had to take a few weeks off from posting due to family vacation and just being super busy with yard work the last few weeks!
It seems such a long time ago, but I actually wrote this story last year, over the course of about a month, which is pretty impressive for me on a 26k word story. I wanted to delve into something a little different, outside my typical kinky wheelhouse in favor of something with more action and more horror. Though, don’t worry, there’s still some kinky elements lurking around…
For the central character, Shi, I wanted to finally bring one of my favorite characters into my sci-fi setting. As some of you may know, kerryns reincarnate throughout the years, and Shi is no different, being the current reincarnation of a couple other kerryns you may have read about in some previously released short stories, Shibari and Shibaru (Shibaru being the reincarnation of Shibari). I also wanted a badass arcane gunslinger, so Shi fits that niche quite well.
Kaylee and Murissa were pulled from a fairly recent online RPG I ran for a friend, each being NPCs in that game. Some of you may recall Murissa from “Stumped for Rivalle“, too; that story takes place approximately ten years after this one. As you’ll see, Murissa is a bit headstrong, which tends to get her into trouble; some bad habits are hard to break. The rest of Red Team, Hilde and Briar, were original creations for this story, but over the course of my writing them, have grown into more fully developed characters. It’s taking me a while, but I’m slowly fleshing out my setting with an ever-expanding roster of characters!
I hope you enjoy this story as I begin releasing it; I feel like it’s one of my personal favorites!
Stay tuned for more next week!
Until then, Urban out!
Hit me over on DeviantArt, or on my Discord server! I’m usually always around, and would love to hear what you have to say!
