Prologue - A Church Beyond Heaven

Posted on Sat Jul 20th, 2024 @ 11:30am by Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: The Maw, Urktanon class salvage vessel - Deep Space, Ul'kapee Sector.
Timeline: Three days before MD: 1
2958 words - 5.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Captain Tho'mos stared at the vessel drifting ahead, illuminated by several spotlights and exposing its strange and ruined hull. His ship, aptly named The Maw hung over the derelict like a basking shark, waiting with cold indifference.

Tho'mos glanced away from the thick glass, its surface marred with ice and scratches to look back at the rest of the bridge crew, their faces barely visible in the poorly lit space.

"It's been..." He said gruffly before pausing to look at his wrist. "twelve hours, we've waited long enough..."

He turned again, staring at the other ship as he reached for his earpiece. "This is Captain Tho'mos of The Maw, It has been approximately twelve hours since my first transmission in the Ul'kapee Sector, grid coordinates six zero zero five delta two four nine."

His lips hung open for a moment, watching the condensation on the glass evaporate as his eyes refocused on the vessel outside.

"Per salvage laws set out by the Thaih’ea and the Utepek Union I now claim the vessel at these coordinates and all its contents, This will be my fifth and final wideband transmission in accordance with those laws."

He paused again, signalling with his hand to move The Maw in. "Any bodies recovered will be stored in our morgue and all reasonable effort will be made to return them to their people, Captain Tho'mos out."

At once the bridge came to life as the ship awoke from her low power state, with lights, consoles and heavy boots moving about.

The Maw followed suit, her engines burning brightly as the ship slowly meandered forward, consuming the large but still smaller ship.

"I want this thing secure before we start cutting her open... something feels off and I wanna make a couple jumps first." Tho'mos sighed while rubbing the rough stubble on his face, feeling the heat returning to his bridge as the life support kicked into full.

"Sir?" Asked Lieutenant Sa'roh with a curious look on her face.

"That thing's clearly military..." Tho'mos retorted as he watched the sleek form of their bounty vanish into the wide jaws of his ship "And they're just letting us take it? No, I don't buy it... that's why we waited the full twelve hours, I want this done by the book." He said with a raised finger in warning, his face said everything else.

"I'll make sure the boys do their paperwork... no special discounts." She said with a knowing smile before heading out.

He nodded in acknowledgement even if she couldn't see, watching her leave before climbing into his station, its many digital and analogue displays a hybrid mixture of outdated and modern tech hanging above and around him.

He tapped a screen to his left, flicking between fuzzy and grainy camera views of the inside of The Maw, Tho'mos watched the black silhouette of the ruined ship drifting inside, its hull barely reflecting the hundreds of spotlights that lined the gills as the crew called them, massive reinforced rib like sections that ran down the length of The Maw which was in a sense a colossal cargo bay with engines.

It had to be military, he thought... the damn thing only showed up on sensors because it had so many holes in its aft section.

The question was, who shot up the damn thing, and why leave it?

That was the question tunnelling about in the back of his mind, like a parasite eating away at reason, making him doubt everything.

"Is it Galtonian?" He asked with a confused frown, already dismissing the thought as he pulled an old keyboard over, the flexible arm it connected to bouncing ever so slightly as he typed.

Clicking echoed over the radio static in his earpiece as a familiar voice came through. "Captain, we'll secure the cargo in a few minutes... just moving the teeth into position."

"Thank you Will'um," Tho'mos replied as he watched a small screen flicking rapidly through a vast database of hull configurations, his attention drifting back to the internal cameras momentarily. "Keep me up to speed." He added, watching the first of many arms clamping onto the black vessel, magnetically sealing to keep it in place.

He blinked, wondering if he saw something before sitting back to rub his eyes, probably scrap floating in front of the camera, whatever it was he had already forgotten about it.

"We got any coffee left?" He grumbled as he leaned out and around his station, glancing at Ma'son sitting at the helm, his face and flight suit bathed in orange light from his displays.

"You thought about maybe sleeping instead?" He shot back, never letting his eyes off his screens.

Tho'mos shrugged, Ma'son did have a point he silently thought to himself.

"I'll go put a fresh pot on. You want one?" He strained as he climbed out of his station.

"Of course, two sugars..." Ma'son said, once more not taking his eyes off the screens as he held The Maw steady, her engines flickering as impatiently as Tho'mos was acting.

He glanced as Tho'mos walked by, concerned by his old friend's current disposition.

Maybe, he thought while looking back at his controls, that both of them would calm down once they had jumped.

On the flight deck, Will'um watched as another multi-jointed arm rotated into position, gently locking its magnetic teeth with the large black vessel.

"We need more support on the port dorsal section, I don't want this thing splitting in half when we turn the gravity on." He sounded through his comms, his breath fogging up his helmet visor.

"Let's make this quick people." He added as he clunked along the deck, his magnetic boots grinding against the grated catwalk.

Almost at once, the comms flooded with a cacophony of sarcastic voices all saying the same thing.

"Double time, double pay."

He grinned, shaking his head as best he could inside his environmental suit when he noticed Lieutenant Sa'roh heading towards him.

She tapped her helmet before holding two fingers up, signalling him to swap channels.

"There a problem?" He asked after changing his suit comms over to the requested channel.

"Maybe," She shrugged, stopping to turn and look out over the industrial scape that was The Maws innards, her eyes coming to rest on one of the clamping arms and its operator sitting at the control station.

"Captain wants to make a couple of jumps before we start cutting her up, so get the boys inside once she's locked down."

"If he's so worried, why are we bringing it in?" Will'um asked.

"That thing is worth a fortune, so it's worth the risk..." She said, her eyes moving about the rest of the loading bay, everyone always looked so small from up here she thought.

"But Captain wants everything done by the book, so every nut, every bolt... every damn wire tagged and catalogued." Sa'roh added, returning her gaze towards the arm operator, a young kid named Jax whose helmet, plastered with stickers made him stand out like a sore thumb.

"Shit... alright, well..."

He lost his train of thought as he looked at the ship, spotting one of the teeth rotating into another arm.

"What the..." Will'um exclaimed as he changed his comms channel. "What the fuck is going on down there!? whos operating that damn thing!"

Sa'roh blinked in confusion, her heart racing as she stared at the empty control station, its seat swivelling to a stop.

She could've sworn someone had been there just a moment ago, right?

Looking over at Will'um, all she could hear was her heart beating in her ears as he shouted silently over the catwalk balcony, pointing and yelling orders at the rest of the dozen or so crew on the hanger floor.

Then she noticed her hand was gripping her sidearm, it was still in its holster but only just.

The confusion mounted as she pushed it back down and reattached the buckle, unable to shake this feeling of unease.

"I swear, we hired some right clowns at Tandarees station," Will'um said, his sudden voice grabbing Sa'rohs attention.

"Come on, let's get down there and make sure they don't fuck anything else up."

She smiled, but only briefly as Will'um walked by, heading for the lift at the other end of the catwalk, her heart was still pounding and she didn't know why.

"Two sugars, as requested." Captain Tho'mos said as he placed a midnight blue mug beside Ma'son, a drop of coffee dripping down over The Maws logo and crest.

"Thanks..." Ma'son replied as he watched Tho'mos continue through the bridge, stopping to sip before climbing into his station. "Say, Cap, you wouldn't happen to know when we're gonna get hold of some more Deuterium, engine four is still running hotter than I'd like."

Tho'mos didn't immediately answer, getting comfortable in his seat first and noting that the computer still hadn't found a match for what was now in their cargo bay.

"No idea... wait no, that uh, that fucking... whatever they're called..." He said while clicking his fingers. "You know, those religious zealots?"

"What the A'janie?"

"Yeah, those bald bastards... they got one of those city ships a couple sectors from here."

"Ah come on Cap, I know they give stuff away but I don't wanna have to sit through one of their fucking seminars again."

"It's either that or we shut the engine down until we get back to Tandarees, which if we do is gonna take another week, but it's your call."

"Fuck sake..."

Tho'mos laughed midsip, almost spilling his coffee. "You got the coordinates?" he teased, waiting for the inevitable.

"Of course, I've got the fucking coordinates, everyone in this quadrant got the fucking coordinates."

Back in the cargo bay Will'um and Sa'roh marched as best they could towards the rest of the loading bay crew, their boots clunking against the grated floor that exposed the infinite inky void of space beneath.

"Anyone wanna explain what just happened?" Will'um growled as he looked up at the ship they had brought in, examining the teeth clamped onto its hull as they walked underneath.

"No idea, sir..." Pho, the only Abraksian of the crew exclaimed as he hurried over, his blue face hideously contrasted against the bright yellow maintenance suit he had on.

"Nobody knows who was operating that arm, but Simmond thinks it could have been a power surge, as it's been a while since we've had to use all the arms at once."

Will'um frowned, it wasn't like his crew the lie, even the new hires knew not to do that.

"Alright, Pho, well... fuck, just power down the ones we aren't using until we need them."

"Already done that, and Simmond is pulling the guts out of the one that might have malfunctioned, you know what he's like." He said, lazily pointing a metal clipboard towards a pair of legs sticking out of the operation station nearby.

Will'um wanted to rub the annoyance from his eyes, but between the lack of atmosphere in the holding bay and his helmet, he would have to settle for clenching his gloved fists.

Sa'roh glanced at Pho as Will'um hurried towards Simmonds. "Start getting everyone not actively locking this thing down inside, we're gonna make a few jumps."

She watched him nod and turn around, repeating the same order over the open comms, the chatter muffling over the echo of her breathing as she looked about, unsure what she was searching for as her hand rested on her holster.

Back on the bridge, Tho'mos stared at the screen over the rim of his coffee, his lips perched mid-sip as he read the information behind a thick haze of steam caused by the cool recycled air that flowed from the ceiling vents.

The computer had finally found a match for the mystery vessel in his cargo bay, overlaying scans of the ship with a partial blueprint.

"Shit..." Tho'mos muttered softly to himself before finally sipping at his coffee.

Thoughts flickered about as he sat there in quiet reflection, the blueprint still on his screen and the many redacted lines of text that accompanied it concerning him greatly.

then without saying a word, he flicked the file away, returning his screen to the default ship logo before accessing another program.

Sipping at his coffee he pulled the keyboard closer, typing slowly with one hand as a bead of sweat dripped down the side of his neck.

-- -- Priority Alpha Transmission. -- --
-- -- This is Captain Tho'mos of the Urktanon class salvage vessel, The Maw. -- --
-- -- Possible Black Cargo secured, I repeated, Possible Black Cargo secured. -- --
-- -- Union escorts requested. -- --
-- -- Will rendezvous once coordinates are sent via secure channels. -- --

Just as Tho'mos hit send the sound of Will'ums voice echoed in his earpiece. "Captain, we're all secure down here... the crew are heading inside."

"Let me know when you and the Lieutenant are back inside and out of your suits, I need to talk to you both." Tho'mos replied, not explaining anything further before cutting the comms.

Will'um turned stiffly, giving Lieutenant Sa'roh a knowing look.

"You know I'm not one to speculate..." She said as the pair walked towards an airlock.

"But..." Will'um said, pressing the matter with an exaggerated tone.

"But it's probably to do with that fucking thing." She said, throwing a thumb over her shoulder as the rest of the crew sounded off over the comms, reporting they were inside.

Will'um rolled his eyes, slowing his pace slightly to turn and look back around the cargo bay. "Again, if he's so worried... why did we bring it in."

"Guess we'll find out, won't we." She said as she stopped by the airlock, raising her wrist to the biometric lock as it scanned her suit.

"I dunno," Will'um sighed as he looked out of the colossal cargo bay, glancing at the stars and distant nebulae with only a vague notion of interest before turning on the spot to see if he could spot anyone else still outside.

"That man loves to talk but he never really says much." He added as he finally turned back towards the airlock.

Sa'roh chuckled while stepping inside, he did have a point she thought. "Yeah, but he pays well." She said, still chuckling softly to herself as she turned around.

As she stared out of the airlock her smile faded, the joyful expression swiftly replaced by a concerned and confused frown as she asked herself who she had been talking to.

Blinking away from the empty doorway she glanced down, her eyes watering up somewhat as she typed on the comm controls attached to her right wrist.

"Captain? Has everyone else reported in yet?" She asked, her voice croaking slightly as she shook free the water droplets forming over her eyes, watching them splatter into the padded lining and feeling as though she had forgotten something important.

"Yes Lieutenant, you're the last one... are you inside yet?" came the reply, the Captain's voice crackling in her earpiece more than usual.

"Yeah... just making sure," Sa'roh said, feeling more tears pool over her eyes as her furrowed brow, under the weight of her confusion began to ache.

"I'll be up on the bridge shortly." She added before gently bumping the airlock controls with her fist, watching as the door bathed in a red glow from the light above silently slid into position.

It was slow and cumbersome, nothing like the newer refits, but then something caught her eye, a small orb of what appeared to be liquid floating towards her visor.

She watched curiously as it gently impacted the surface of her helmet and froze in place, then without thinking she reached up to touch it, oil perhaps? she thought while smudging the half frozen liquid, recognising it instantly as blood.

Confusion set in again as she rubbed the frozen blood crystals between her gloved finger and thumb.

This blood was fresh she thought, it barely had time to finish boiling before hitting her visor, some of it was still liquid even.

but before she could finish her thoughts the airlock began to repressurise, clouding up her visor as fresh air condensed over the cold glass surface.

Then came gravity, making her legs feel like jelly as they suddenly found themselves supporting weight again.

Atmospheric balance at one hundred per cent. chimed the automated voice notification as a green light blinked above the doors.

She turned, staring at the now-open door to the rest of the ship and with her heart suddenly racing just like it had been on that catwalk, except this time she had unholstered her service pistol and was pointing it at the open door and empty corridor

And when did she take off her helmet? None of this made any sense.

All she knew was that something in the back of her mind was screaming at her to shut that door and stay in the airlock, it was the fact she didn't know why that terrified her so intimately.

"All hands, this is the Captain speaking, prepare for multiple warp jumps."

She heard the Captain over the intercom, his voice doing little to shake her out of how petrified she was.

It was only once the ship started moving, that she, in turn, took an uneasy step forward, edging ever closer to the button by the door.

She barely made it another step before remembering why she was so afraid.