Aporven Soa!

Posted on Sun Sep 10th, 2023 @ 4:47am by Kerilia Dosivi & Teevs Dosivi

Mission: Season 6: Episode 3: Far From Home
Location: Cargo Vessel Spheia
Timeline: MD3 - 13:45
1218 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure

“You said it’s nearby?” Teevs asked, his eyes on the controls in front of him. He had caught wind of a ship graveyard during one of their last trades. Apparently, there were a bunch of ships orbiting a planet in varying states of degradation, but some of the ships still contained their technology. After a stop to resupply their cargo ship, the Spheia, they set off toward this planet.

“Yes,” Kerilia responded. She tucked her chin-length brown hair behind one of her ears as she read what the scanners were saying. “About three million kilometers ahead.” Scanning for goods was something Kerilia enjoyed. It was like a treasure hunt, seeking the valuable items so they could be traded.

Why did some of these ships still contain technology? The technology was almost begging to be salvaged. “I’m going to approach cautiously.” As they approached the planet, Teevs slowed down the cargo ship, and through the window they could see the debris-clouded planet get larger. There were many ships, many large ships, in scattered orbits around the planet, and faint glimmers of light from the planet’s star revealed smaller pieces of debris. “Wow… that’s a lot of scrap.” Glancing over to his copilot, he asked, “tell me more, what do you see?”

“Lots of different alloys,” Kerilia began, her eyes moving as she skimmed the incoming information. “It looks like there’s ships from different species here. The planet itself is habitable, but no signs of life on the surface. It looks like there are just more crashed ships.” The console beeped, and the young Lonia read the new scan. “It looks like someone beat us here. Bearing 060 mark 217.” Glancing up, she squinted before pointing out the window.

In the distance, but obviously near the planet, was a sleek-looking ship. Its design was nothing like Teevs had seen before, namely the less-pointed bow and the two protrusions he assumed were some kind of propulsion system. “Who are they?” he asked, knowing Kerilia wouldn’t have an answer. “Can you identify any of their technology?”

Kerilia frowned at the readings. They were really unfamiliar to her. “No, at least, I don’t think so. The scanners don’t recognize anything about it.”

Unsettled by their company, Teevs glanced over at Kerilia’s console. He looked for signs that they could be Nelorin, breathing a small sigh of relief when he didn’t see any identifiers of that species. “What a strange vessel… if they’re aware of us, they don’t seem to mind our presence. If we show that we do not intend to harm them, maybe they will let us explore the graveyard.” Returning his attention to his own console, the Lonia set a course to explore the ships. Glancing briefly at the tiny ship in the window again, he told the Spheia to slowly approach.

“How do we know they’re friendly?” Kerilia asked. Unlike her father, she wasn’t hiding her anxiety of this ship. Usually, when other ships were salvaging, they were territorial.

“We will know by how they respond to us,” Teevs responded in a hushed tone.

The console beeped after what felt like a long silence, and the young Lonia read the output. “They’ve noticed us, and are scanning!”

“It’s ok, let them.” Now that the ship was closer, they could see that it was significantly larger than Teevs first thought, but it was also damaged. Did they get into a battle? He maintained a slow and steady course, letting the massive ship scan them. “They’re salvaging for repairs, I reckon. Look at the damage to their hull. Whatever they encountered did some serious damage.” Seeing no signs of powering up to attack, Teevs cautiously brought the Spheia to the first ship, which happened to be in a geostationary orbit at a reasonably safe distance from the planet. “Kerilia, dear, scan the ship. Hopefully they will see that we are doing the same thing as them.”

“S-Scanning…” Kerilia kept an eye on the ship as the console worked, hoping it would stay put and not attack them. It was a huge ship, probably the largest vessel she had ever seen. It made her uneasy, but she trusted her father’s intuition. “There’s nothing of value here,” she eventually reported.

“Alright, let’s try another one.” Glancing at the ship as well, Teevs added hesitantly, “see, big ship? We are just liiiiittle creatures going about our day. No need to worry about us…” He navigated the cargo ship toward another abandoned vessel. Something was still not right about this, he could feel it in his gut. “Kerilia, how strong is the planet’s gravity?”

A brief pause as she checked the scans. “It’s twice that of Niea Seven.”

Shit, that was a dense planet. No wonder he couldn’t see any small vessels. “Ok, we will keep our distance. I don’t know if this ship can handle that gravity.” The next vessel put them close to the planet’s gravity well, so Teevs knew to be careful. “Keep an eye on the gravity, Keri. If it exceeds 12 jea, we will need to back off.”

Kerilia nodded, feeling a nervous sweat start to form on her brow. “Scanning the ship…”

Now that they were closer, Teevs looked at the ship-killing planet before them, looming ominously in their field of view. Now that they were closer, heaps of what he assumed was the metal of other ships littered the planet surface, reflecting the star’s weak sunlight to resemble ghostly oceans of death. The scan was taking longer, perhaps because it was a larger vessel, but Teevs tried to be optimistic with the hope that there was just that much to salvage.

Then, the Spheia jolted.

Both Kerilia and Teevs fell out of their chairs as the sound of warning indicators pierced the air. Making sure his daughter was alright, he looked at the readings to see that something had impacted them. The other salvaging ship? No, there was a piece of debris in the side of their own vessel. They must have been sitting in the path of some orbiting debris. Muttering some curses, the Lonia took a seat again and began to navigate the ship away from the planet.

“What’s happening??” Kerilia cried, holding onto the seat as she looked up at her father with nothing short of fear in her eyes.

“We got hit by some debris,” Teevs responded, his eyes on the console. “I’m getting us out of here…” Another warning sound came from the scanning console, and both of them looked to see that they had entered the planet’s gravity well. “No, no, no… the debris is disrupting our propulsion, I can’t move us away!” Glancing down at his fear-stricken daughter, Teevs racked his brain for a solution. 

He couldn’t lose Kerilia.

The other ship. Maybe they could help. Would they understand their distress signal? Would they even be able to help? He had to try. Teevs pressed the communications button, using his free hand to grasp Kerilia’s.

”Tema Spheia Vokasi. Sova jeakaint! Aporven soa! Aporven soa! Lokant hema Spheia! Aporven soa!”