Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (50 page)

She
nodded grimly. “Indeed they did. It was
all
on their orbital factory
stations. Even modern medical treatment was on a station. They had only basic
triage on the planet, enough to get a patient stable to be transported.”

He
closed his eyes for a moment. “That's... insane.”

“On
par for organics,” Sprite said with a sniff.

“I
bet there were AI involved,” Irons said.

She
made an uncomfortable throat clearing sound and then coughed. He smiled a
little at that confirmation. “The system had some corporate sponsors who set up
shop in the belt with several large factory stations of various classes. Some
of the people on the planet worked on the factories during the week and retired
to their rural planet on the weekend.”

“Sort
of the suburbs,” Irons mused. He'd heard of the concept of course. He wouldn't
want to travel a couple of AU back and forth to work every week.

“As
I was saying, The stations were quite large.”

“How
large is large?” Irons asked, wrinkling his nose. He knew he had taken the bait
but didn't care. Let her have her fun.

“Crew
of one hundred thousand. Each was the size of a small city. The largest Prime
was over four hundred kilometers in diameter and could probably house over a
million plus easily. Full hab by the way.”

“Oh,”
his eyes flared. “That large.” The idea of what he could do with something that
big... but no, Sprite had said they were all destroyed.

“Exactly.
As I was saying, several of these stations were placed in the belt of this
system and out beyond in the Oort cloud. The largest stations were in Lagrange
points in the inner system. These stations fed the industry of the surrounding
systems including Briev, Triang, and competed with Pyrax for work in Agnosta.”

“Interesting,”
he said. He wasn't sure where all this was going.

“Everything
on the planet was made by them. No industry allowed. Period tech was limited.
Most of the steamer tech transportation was actually electric dressed to look
the part. They even used holographic projectors for the smoke. That kept
environmental pollution to a minimum. They had blacksmiths for show and that
was it. The stations did the work. But all the stations were destroyed... I
think.”

Irons
sat up as that last two words registered. “You think?” he demanded.

“Well,
there are stories of a ghost station on this heading,” Sprite replied with an
eerie hint in her voice and tone.

He
wrinkled his nose at the thought of such a thing. Spacers had been telling
stories like that since they'd made the jump from wet sailors. Superstitions
and ghost stories died hard. “Really.”

“From
time to time visiting ships reported hearing strange broadcasts. They were weak
and incoherent. Most of them were scrambled,” Sprite said, still trying to
spook him. He felt something race up and down his spine, he knew it was her.

His
eyes narrowed. Let her have her fun he thought. “Echoes of ships that didn't
make it to the system?”

“No.
Some of the signals were in a corporate encryption key. Others were broadcast
in the clear. Then there is the story of the ghost station itself.”

“Oh?”

“The
largest station, station five which was known as Prime, the jewel of the system
disappeared just before the Xeno's arrived in system. It was last seen under
tow by all its tugs before it went dark. There was a large explosion and
everyone assumed it had been destroyed in some sort of accident.”

Irons
grunted at that, rubbing his chin. “Accident?”

“Or
intentionally faking it's death?” Sprite asked.

“Possible,”
he rumbled. He could see some of the reasoning there. “Entirely possible. But
without actual evidence we have only suppositions built on second and third
hand reports.”

Sprite
nodded. “Exactly. Most of the reports are of bar stories. Ghost stories to scar
organics.”

“Really.”

“But...
I think we're going to add to that. Very soon now,” she said, suddenly
grinning.

“Oh?”
he asked, raising an eyebrow. Here it was, what she'd tried to build up to.

“I
think we're going to find out for ourselves admiral. There is an anomalous
object of considerable mass on this heading and there is no time to maneuver
around it. The captain has ordered a crash translation. Fortunately we were
about to translate out anyway but we're dropping out a little early.”

“Okay...”

As
the transit energy dissipated around them their sublight sensors came online.
They were dangerously close to the station, less than a million kilometers. Had
they come out any closer both would have been annihilated. Fortunately
Blackhawk had dropped them out just in time. The man should be congratulated.
Most likely however he was weathering a storm of criticism from Chambers, Irons
thought with a pang.

The
ship was a couple of AU outside the Antigua oort cloud, that was clear enough.
What was interesting was that they were near an abandoned factory station.
Hopefully Chambers would get over the fright and take interest soon.

Sprite
was giving him a feed from both the ship's bridge and the sensors. He ignored
the bridge feed, focusing intently on the apparition outside the ship.

It
was a ball. A ball with a ring around the circumference. The factory station
was massive. A hedgehog shaped sphere, that was over 400 kilometers in
diameter. The topside was a dome; the bottom was a more flattened solid
surface. There was a ring of solar panels along the edges, most looked like
they were hastily installed. From the looks of them they had seen better days,
they were pockmarked with holes.

Along
it's circumference long arms extend outward like rays. Some of these arms were
quite torn up. Irons recognized them for what they were right away, they were
docks. Irons studied the sensory image Sprite provided him until the captain
called him to the bridge.

When
he arrived on the bridge he strode directly to the sensory station. The bridge
was crackling with excitement. He nodded politely to Warner and the chief
engineer. Apparently the captain had called the chief up as well. That was
interesting and a good sign. It showed that the captain was more interested in
the station than in just logging it's position and passing it by.

Could
he be thinking of dropping some of his crew here? Irons thought with a sudden
flash of insight. It was distinctly possible. Even probable if the station
could be brought online. And what a station! This station dwarfed all of the
industry in Pyrax before he had shown up there. Hell, it probably
still
did if even a third of her systems were even remotely functional! Industrial
replicators...  dozens, possibly hundreds of them! Reactors... He practically
salivated at the thought of getting his hands on that equipment. What he could
do with all of that!

“Okay,
that's nice,” Irons commented acidly about the living sections. He hated that
they had to rely on civilian grade sensors. It was even more annoying that he'd
replaced some but not enough to get the data he really wanted right now. They'd
spent hours trying to get the sensors to penetrate the hull. Hours trying to
map the thing. They hadn't learned much, or at least what he really wanted to
know.

Taking
his shuttle out had been a thought, but the little craft didn't have sensors
strong enough to penetrate far enough into the hull of that monster to really
do any good. No, he was stuck with what tools the Kiev had.

They
had finally rotated around the station cautiously, getting a polar orbit around
the thing to get a better look. Irons wasn't happy about the damage. Some of it
was cosmetic of course, but some of it was heart breaking. Obviously time and
meteors had not been kind to the station, nor had someone with a laser. She
looked like Swiss cheese in some places. His finger drifted over the exposed
buildings. He was scowling blackly. Typical civilians to do something that
stupid.

“What
about them?” the sensor tech asked dubiously, confused by the admiral's
disgust. She looked up at him with wide uncertain eyes.

“Look.”
He pointed to the pie slices exposed on the top of the station. Each slice is
bracketed with beams. The beams, more like arches have antenna and blisters on
them. Most of the blisters were torn apart. He zoomed into a pie slice that
just came out of shadow.

“What
the hell?” Quinna O'Mallory asked moving closer to see the buildings. He zoomed
in more. “Is that... is that a skyscraper? In space? Seriously?” she demanded
pointing at the rectangle. She looked at him in shocked disbelief. He nodded
grimly. That explained what happened to a lot of the surviving crew, he
thought.

Captain
Chambers frowned. “What are we looking at?” The captain asked.

The
admiral glanced his way. Chief O'Mallory didn't her eyes were locked on the
glass structure. “You're looking at the reason most of the people on the station
died probably. In the latter century of the Federation it became fashionable to
use force field domes instead of real domes. They could be translucent or
completely transparent. It kept the atmosphere in and looks all pretty and
sparkly. It gave off a nice glow you could see from a couple AU out,” the
admiral explained.

“Um...
Sounds okay.”

“No
it doesn't,” Quinna said shaking her head firmly.

“It
doesn't?” The captain asked, arching an eyebrow. He'd been patiently watching
as the crew gathered information.

“Think
it through. I'm betting it's an energy hog right?” O'Mallory asked, turning to
Irons. Irons nodded. She nodded back. “Sure, and I'm betting you've got a
population that's exposed to vacuum and radiation if something fails. It's a
classic problem in engineering. The weakest link.”

The
admiral's face twisted in a bleak grimace. He could just imagine that failure,
what it had meant to the thousands of people in the buildings at the time.
Hopefully some had managed to get to shelter beforehand. But then it hadn't
done them any good had it? Apparently not, the station was dead after all, or
at least appeared to be. “Which you can see. Oh it was sold as a great thing,
protection and dome all in one. Trapping air inside while shrugging off meteors
and radiation.”

“But...”
the captain said slowly. He felt a little sick as he finally understood what
they had been explaining to him. Irons nodded, eyes sad. “You're telling me
that...”

The
admiral nodded again. “Without power it shuts off. Either stepping down or all
at once. And everything inside is exposed to vacuum. Rapid decompression. Most
of the buildings aren't protected or sealed either. Some of the damage we're
seeing is explosive decompression when the hull integrity failed.” He winced at
their expressions and shudders.

“That's
if the power is interrupted. Lose fuel, or have a glitch, a short, or in this
case some nut job with a death wish coming along with a blaster.”

“Or
a virus,” Warner said softly.

The
admiral glanced at him and nodded. “A virus killed a lot of people in colonies
like that. It was in the news all the times. People started to abandon them or
tack them over. Mostly abandon.”

As
they watched the station drifted, slowly spinning in place. It finally exposed
a pie section that had been covered over with what looked like hastily welded
metal plates. It was patched too.

“We're...
we're getting atmo readings in that.” the sensor tech said looking confused and
amazed. She looked up to the captain and then the admiral in excitement.

“Seriously?”
O'Mallory asked as the captain opened his mouth.

The
tech nodded. “Yes. There are trace elements from the spectrograph. Oxygen,
carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. It's thin though. We're getting some heat
signatures there. The most for the entire station. I think... I think the
stations solar panels on the perimeter are keeping it breathable.”

“Or
it's all poison gas. I wonder though,” Irons mused. He was definitely going
over, that was it, he had to know.

“Oxygen
and nitrogen? Carbon dioxide? Highly doubtful anyone would live this long,”
Sprite said sounding doubtful but knowing what he was planning. He nodded. It
would be next to impossible for anyone to have survived in that cold dark
station for the past seven centuries.... but then there were those weird life
readings... Too nebulous to make out with the dratted civilian piece of crap.

“Could
people still be in there?” The captain asked quietly.

The
admiral stared at the holo image. “Doubtful. But it does bear investigating,”
Irons replied firmly. The captain stared at him.

Irons
turned to face him directly. “We can only learn so much here captain. I'm
volunteering to head over in my shuttle. It has military grade sensors.”

“I'll
go,” Warner said, raising his hand.

“No,
you're needed here. As are you chief,” the captain said before O'Mallory could
finish opening her mouth. She bridled under the order, silently mouthing swear
words. “We need you to continue your program of repairs and upgrades remember?”
The captain said, reminding her.