69. The Derelict

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On the bridge of the Illustria, Nox was asleep in the Captain’s chair. . The ship was on auto-pilot, on a rendezvous course with the derelict ship caught in the asteroid belt. In the past, the ship had been a sanctuary for a malignant shard, but now, it was potentially spare parts for fixing the station.
 
Admiral Fureva-Yung, accompanied by Marius, was reacquainting herself with her ship. They found the armoury. Marius took two laser pistols, and Fureva-Yung grabbed a large blaster. They travelled from top to bottom looking for damage and found none, on the inside. Still, Captain Fureva-Yung was not satisfied.
“Computer. Besides the four crew, are there any life forms on board?”
“Sensors identify three life forms on the aft hull,” The ship's systems replied, bringing up an image of the rear of the ship. Against the black of space, three large crab-like creatures moved across the metal plating, pulling up inch-thick metal sheeting as if it weighed nothing, and picking at the ship’s interior. Their seeming organic parts were rocky in appearance. Their carapaces were piled high with space junk and debris. They looked like giant hermit crabs with spacefaring alloy shells.
 
One of the crabs noticed the camera's movement, and scuttled across on eight claw-like limbs, a crab eye looking down the lens before the image disappeared with a sizzle of static.
 
Grabbing more io from Bellyache, Marius started preparing a new environmental suit for himself as Fureva-Yung strode purposefully to the hatch. Here a personalised spacesuit was waiting for the Captian. She put it on as if it were an old friend.
 
Clanking in magnetised boots across the metal skin of the Illustria, Fureva-Yung and Marius could now see the damage the space crabs had made to the hull. Everywhere there were panels peeled up from a corner, like an open can of fish, and the delicate mechanics below were disrupted. It was clear there were a lot of repairs to be done, but nothing could be achieved while the crabs were still onboard.
 
Ever the diplomat, Fueva-Yung tried talking to them first.
“Greetings, mechanical creatures.”
I don’t think they understand the common tongue, Marius said after the crabs did not respond, Either that or sound doesn’t carry in space, I certainly didn’t hear you.
But I am linked to Nox and Nox can make them part of our network,
Nope, Came Nox over the aforementioned network, I need to touch them at least once.
Fureva-Yung did not give up. Relying on an old spacefarer’s trick, she touched her solid space helmet to the metal hull and tried again. This time it was agreed there were some vibrations, it didn’t look like the creatures understood what she was trying to say.
 
With one last attempt, Fureva-Yung tried sign language, YOU AWAY!
 
I can take them, Marius assured him, clicking on his augments and stepping. The crabs, back off, watching.
See, they’re not so tough, He pushed forward again, making sure the distance between him and the crabs stayed the same.
I wonder what they eat? Nox mused, comfortable on the Bridge, We could find a good tasty bit of…something and send it flying off the ship.
Fureva-Yung checked her pockets, her spacewalk suit always had a few tools. She had a scanner and other diagnostic tools. She picked the nearest crab and threw the scanner (surely the tastiest of the lot). The crabs all responded to the flying item with nervous clicks and claw clicking. Still, as it sailed past, one of the crabs grabbed the scanner. A spark of energy leapt from the scanner to the claw holding it as the energy from its batteries was siphoned off. The crab let the scanner go when the sparks stopped, allowing it to drift away.
Energy. That’s going to be tricky, but we could probably throw out some io for them to chase, Nox suggested.
Marius, always the man of action, decided the direct approach was better and rushed the nearest crab, grabbing it around a claw. Under his grip, he felt the crab vibrate as if in the middle of convulsions and then…
 
…he and the crab were no longer on the ship, but floating five metres away.
 
Not to be outdone by a crustacean, he maneuvered himself around the crab and pushed off its carapace, back toward the ship. With a full complement of engineers tools, Jaden joined Fureva-Yung on the hull. The crab floating in space, glowed and bamfed itself towards Marius. Preparing for the attack, he dodged the pincer and wrapped himself around it again. Back where he started, at least this time he was going in the right direction. Using his energy siphon, he drew energy into his augments. Instantly, the crab stopped glowing.
 
On the ship, the other two crabs were looking on in interest. The first started glowing and suddenly Marius felt his limbs go slow and sluggish. The second one waited with claws extended until he was in range to attack, its pincers snapping. Marius wriggled a hand free and shot the crab he was riding with his laser gun. The attack bounced off its shell. He tried striking it with his heat ray. Not liking the heat ray, the crab pulled itself into its shell, the sudden movement drawing Marius in. Now he was head first and waist deep in crab shell, his failing legs sticking out of where its head should be.
As the shell heated up from Marius’ heat ray, the two other crabs snapped at his flailing legs as they all sailed passed, about to miss the ship. The crab boiled in its shell, with Marius trapped inside.
 
Fureva-Yung ran up, placing herself between Marius and two living crabs. The remaining two moved away keeping one eye on Fureva-Yung and one eye on their companion. Marius soon wriggled out of the shell, sure he could smell cooking crab.
There was no need to get crabby, He grumbled, aware of the ridiculous sight he’d made of himself.
I believe they know their companion is dead, Fureva-Yung announced as the two remaining seemed to realise something and attacked. Fureva-Yung brought up her heavy rifle and brought it down on the shell of one crab as Marius shot at another. Both crabs grabbed for Fureva-Yung. She dodged one, failed to dodge the second and a moment later disappeared…
…to reappear floated past the windows of the Bridge.
Do you need anything, Admiral? Nox asked, relaxing in the commander’s chair.
Fureva-Yung stared in at her held up a thumbs-up sign and started wrapping the crab with her chain.
Okay, let me know if you need any help, Nox replied concerned. She’d seen her big friend deal with worse.
 
On the aft, Marius shot the second crab and finally killed it, its body slowly lifting away from the ship. Finally landing on the deck, he ran as fast as he could for the airlock.
 
The crab with Fureva-Yung snapped at the chain and pulled it in. Fureva-Yung used that momentum and resistance to smash the crab shell with a chained fist. She pulled herself in and holding the crab's shell under its head, she thrust her helmet at it by way of intimidation. She then pointed back to the ship, her message clear: TAKE ME BACK!
 
Out of one eye Fureva-Yung noted a movement from under the ship: a small vessel, one of the two drones from the dock. Inside the drone, Marius, sped towards her. With one hand outstretched, she grabbed the drone as it passed. They let the crab go outside the dock, who scrambled away from the squishy two-leggers. Fureva-Yung gestured in the direction the ship was heading, towards the asteroids and then left hoping her message of peace was understood.
 
Inside the dock, Jaden was busy. She immediately gave up on the crab hunting and started stripping down the damaged fighter. She had the engine out at the moment, pulling out all the tiny slithers of metal that had been pulled into the engines. Not for the first time, Jaden marvelled at the wonders of people outside the small townships and homesteads she’d known all her life. How had they fallen so far?
 
It was another hour before the Ilustria, just before the derelict ship. To Fureva-Yung and the ship's scanners, it looked like an old Ferian military freighter that had once delivered supplies to battleships like the Illustria. Now it seemed like the port and aft were utterly missing with only a tiny portion of the original ship over what would have been engineering still intact.
 
As before Fureva-Yung was first out the door herding the last of the crabs off the ship and at least in the direction of the derelict.
“There is not a lot of ships left. You will all need to do environmental sits.”
“Do I have to get in a suits? I can’t move in one of those things,” Nox complained.
“Yes,” The Admiral said, realising that Nox’s complaint this time wasn’t unfounded. The suits were made to an average with permanent staff often having their own tailors to suit…difficult to fit frames. Nox was tiny and anything but average.
“Stupid meatbag. If I was made of energy…”
“But, maybe you could take one of the drones instead,” Fureva-Yung suggested and Nox's demeanour brighted.
“Really? But won’t it get in the way?”
“In the drone, you can drag us over there, and if we find any helpful scrap we’re going to need it to bring it all back to the Illustria.
Nox ran to the dock and was comfortably enshrouded in a drone cockpit before the other had left the airlock.
 
“Computer. Any life signs on the nearby vessel?” The Admiral thought to ask before the group left.
“There are two life signs, “The computer showed a rough map of the derelict with two strong life signs displayed. One was little more than a blip on the screen, the other seemed to fill most of the space within the ship.
“One is the crab.” Marius pointed out, “But what is the big one?”
"Computer?" Nox asked from the drone, Is the larger life sign electronic or AI in origin?
"No," The computer assured the party, Plant in origin.
"The whole ship is one plant? "Jaden asked in disbelief.
 
The drone floated around the ruins of the transport ship, dragging Jaden, Marius, and Fureva-Yung, who were attached by lifelines. At one time, the boat had seen battle, and all sides had been stripped from the hull, revealing levels of decks, crew quarters, and storage bays. They followed an internal wall along to find an entrance to the ship. The first open cavity revealed a massive tree root snaking through multiple spaces, filling the doorways with hits bulk. A little further on, another destroyed room reveal a door free of ship debris and plant life.
That seems like a good place to start, The door was pointed out, and Nox brought the drone in on the empty platform.
 
We need a minimum of fourteen synth steel, or this would have been all for nothing, Jaden said, dropping her lifeline to check out the door.
Anything loose would have gone a long time ago, Fureva-Yung suggested thoughtfully, We’ll probably need to strip the synth steel from the ship itself, as Jaden connected the drone to the controls for the door.
 
Silently, the doors opened into a dark hallway. No sudden exhalation of stale air showed the hallways’ seals were not intact. The drone's lights lit the interior revealing blue-brown tendrils and vines, roots and threads of plantlife clinging to the walls. The group moved forward. The plant life became thicker.

You know, the way this stuff is spread out I’d suggest that the engine core is probably the warm heart of all this plant activity, Jaden said. Marius poked a plant, and it surprised everyone by recoiling. Nox scanned the plant but learnt little more than Jaden had shared. It was all one giant plant but had none of the signs of energy production like chlorophyll. So, how did the plant live if it didn’t convert sunlight into energy?
I can’t work out how it propigates, Nox said shaking her head, It may grow from a clipping or need to spread spores or seeds…
Well, there's no sexy part here, right? Marius said, Let's see what’s up ahead.
 
Jaden was about to move off when she felt her boot catch something. Thinking she’d nearly tripped on a root she looked down to see a tendril twist itself around her leg and pull. Jaden was thrown off her feet and sent careening down the hallway more profound into the ship. Without hesitation, the others followed.
 
Jaden grabbed her stun baton from her tool pouch, but couldn’t make contact with the root holding her. Marius stopped, pulled out a laser pistol and fire. He hit the root making the plant drop Jaden. Now they were deep among the roots and vines, and all of them were coming alive. A vine lashed out at Marius, but he broke free. She quickly shot another, which flicked the blaster from his hand. It careened into bawkhead and smashed, scattering everywhere. The roots absorbed the energy stored in the blaster. The roots which flash as energy is transferred down the hallway and into an open door. Another root lashes out at Fureva-Yung who dodges to the side, smashing it with the butt of her blaster in response. From inside the drone, Nox concentrated on a spot away from her friends where a group of roots and vines clustered and set off a flash, a psychic blast of raw energy. The plants recoiled in shock from the damage, clearing a path towards the door.
 
Marius and Nox’s blasts soon had the plants shrinking away from the violent intruders and the group followed. Doors were twisted off hinges, and wall panels buckled and folded by the constant pressure of roots and vines. The further the group moved, the thicker the roots and vines became.
We must be close to where that big root from outside broke through, Said Jaden estimating the distance they’d already come. That means the engine core is probably near.
Sure enough, the next door led to a large chamber where much thicker roots wrapped around something glowing through the overlapping stems.
 
Okay, start stripping the plant away, we’ll want to dismantle this, She said, pulling out a sharp tool.
Do we want to make this thing angry? Nox asked. We only want Synth Steel.
Jaden reluctantly agreed. This is the engine. The missing part of this ship is probably bridge and command. Stores should be somewhere nearby.
 
They searched around and found another door behind a curtain of vines. Once more patching the door through to the drone did the trick and the door slid open. They had found the storeroom. Shelves, twisted and collapsed on each other all held aloft by vines twisting around io devices they had once held. The same big root they’d seen from outside trailed through here and up through the ceiling. His scrounging senses on, Marius stepped into the room and was instantly attacked by a wayward vine. He blasted it back with his second laser pistol and the plant quietened down.
 
The haul was good in this room, finding two Kaon dots, which Jaden was very pleased with, and seven synth steel. Nox followed the big root to the energy sources, the engine room full of roots, impassable. Grabbing ahold of the drone, Nox flew the group out and around the ship, looking for another way in. Roots peaked out of every wall, floor and ceiling panel.
 
They found the maintenance bay, cramp quarters for the whole group, but rich picking for Marius who found another four io and three synth steel. Climbing down a twisted metal ladder, Fureva-Yung’s mass was too much and she fell away, the ladder going with her. Roots grabbed the prone Fureva-Yung who quickly dispatched them with her heavy gun. With their salvage complete and threats from the plant only becoming more insistent, the group left, flying back to the Illustria to start repair on the shield generators.