The Cargo Transport Vessel

[Authentication of the dock vessel… Failed. Request for opening dock vessel’s door… Failed. Searching for software of the dock vessel… No software found. Injecting command for dock vessel’s door opening, Success.]

(Hm… So, their storage devices were also wiped. It is ironic how the volatile RAM is the only thing that wasn’t wiped. Well, let’s see what happened on this ship.)

Heki entered the cargo vessel through the airlock.

(I should search for a terminal and let Cecil take over ship control.)

All modern ships were equipped with the latest wireless technologies. Unfortunately, there were still some places and cases where interference made this wireless system useless, so even the newest models of ships still had at least one central physical terminal, one for each life-support system and one for each airlock.

(There it is. Via the airlock terminal it should be easy as pie to take over this ship.)

Heki quickly wrote a basic OS that had all the permissions possible and had network capabilities and handed it over to Cecil.

“Hey Cecil, could you get the basic systems of this ship under your control and search for a backup.”

[Sure, it will take some time though.]

“Oh, now you can speak normally.”

[Yes, the full vocabulary database has been restored and I’m currently at 82% restoring all data.]

“Super, keep at it while I explore this ship.”

[Okay.]

(Let’s find some people.)

The cargo vessel was as big as Heki’s ship, but the actual living space was not even a tenth of Heki’s. Most of the ships space was taken up by storage and only a twentieth was actually walkable. Half of the walkable area were hallways. Heki was currently walking down one such hallway, leading her to the ship’s bridge.

She stood in front of the door and took off her helmet.

*Breathe in*

*Breathe out*

Heki wasn’t used to interacting with people, so she had to prepare herself mentally.

She put her hand on the opening holo and… nothing happened. A chill ran down her spine.

(It has only been a few hours since the wipe, so there might still be survivors.)

She calmed herself. After calming down a bit she messed around with the door system and finally got it working.

The door opened with a hiss, probably due to a minor temperature and pressure difference between the hallway and the bridge.

The sight that welcomed Heki made her want to puke. Not just the sight, but the smell as well. She staggered back a bit almost losing her balance. The world was spinning. Everything became blurry for her. Finally, she fell on the floor and passed out.

^{“This one should do well.”}

The voice sounded distant, just like hearing it underwater… almost.

^{“Yes, can we make modifications to it?”}

This voice was also distorted, but sounded oddly familiar.

^{“Yes, but not much. Here is a list of what can be changed.”}

^{“Thank you, we’ll take a look at it.”}

^{“You can use the staff lounge, first door right.”}

^{“Thank you.”}

^{“Well then, you three, let’s start preparing it.”}

^{“Understood.”}

Heki regained consciousness, just to almost loose it again.

(Let’s close the door first.)

Heki quickly got up and shut the door and put on her helmet.

(This is not right. This ship might’ve suffered an accident before the wipeout, which caused them to die. But even then, the state of decay is too fast. Something else is at play here. I should head back and disinfect asap.)

She ran back to the airlock and initiated the disinfection function.

First her suit was disinfected. Next, she stripped down and had both her clothes and body disinfected. She put her clothes and space suit back on and got some sampling equipment from her toolset. After that she returned to the cargo ship.

She opened the door leading to the bridge and holding back the urge to puke, she approached one of the decaying bodies and took a sample.

(Let’s get out of here.)

She left the bridge and closed the door.

She then took out her portable analysing kit, and started analysing the sample.

(There is nothing out of place. Maybe the thing that caused the increased decay rate died or disappeared already. Nothing suspicious in the air either.)

(The decaying bodies look like they’ve been here for decades, maybe even a century, but this kind of ship didn’t exist back then. Maybe they were delivering some kind of organism, which was released due to the wipe and… well. did all of this.)

(Or could’ve been a sabotage by anti-ai or some kind of personal vendetta.)

(It was stupid to approach the bridge, without any caution. I was careless. Too focused on meeting other people. I should also bring a weapon next time. You never know what kind of things are on an eerily quiet ship.)

(There should be a few mining colonies in the area, maybe they’ll have answers. Although most of the programmers are on Origin, there might be some here, for one reason or another.)

(But first, let’s take this sample for further analysing. I don’t think we will find anything else though.)

Heki returned to her ship. Of course, she disinfected once more. She put the sample of the ships analyser and waited for the result… Which was as expected. Nothing.

(The bodies have been dead for 86 years, according to the analysation. There are no traces of any outside interference. Maybe the bodies were tempered with afterwards? Or that organism is just this good at recreating decay.)

(Anyways, it is time to search the sips cargo, maybe I’ll find some kind of clue.)

Heki put on her space suit and got onto the cargo ship once more.