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Cenz brought up a display in Brooks’s vision.
“I have accounted for all two hundred and forty life pods carried by the Maria’s Cog.”
Brooks saw the list. Only ninety-seven were listed as launched.
“That’s all she carried?” Brooks asked.
“Yes, Captain. Since being decommissioned as a generation ship, the vast majority of her pods were removed and she was equipped with surplus pods from the 2920s. As they are capable of carrying ten individuals each, two-hundred and forty are considered more than sufficient for her typical crew of only nine-hundred and fifty-nine. However, my preliminary data suggests that each pod that was launched is occupied by an average of 2.8 people. I may be wrong in this, but it suggests that . . .”
He trailed off.
“Less than a third of the crew escaped,” Brooks finished softly. “Are there any signs of survivors on the ship?”
“We are still investigating that probability,” Cenz said. “I request permission to focus on this in lieu of the cause as our primary operation.”
“Denied,” Brooks said. “If there’s a threat out there, it’s most vital we be aware of it, or everyone in those pods could die, along with us,” Brooks said.
“Aye, Captain.”
“What else have you found?”
“Of the ninety-seven pods that were launched, all but seven are moving towards a rendezvous location at these coordinates. There is debris also moving that way, but if we use this course, we can avoid the majority of it – I commend the Maria Cog‘s AI in picking the best path for its pods to take, as they have made our job more manageable.”
“What of those other seven?” Brooks asked.
“Four, I am afraid to say, were destroyed. I have not ascertained a cause yet,” Cenz said. He brought up a magnified image.
The pod was split open, nearly in two pieces, its inside safe area completely open. Even if the survivors had been in full space suits, it was impossible to think they could have survived the impact.
“Others show damage consistent with the theory that two of the ship’s fusion reactors ruptured, and a plasma ring tore through the vessel.”
Brooks’s stomach sank to think that two reactors had suffered full containment failures.
Fusion reactors were notoriously reliable and safe. Even when breached, it rarely resulted in something as catastrophic as a full containment failure, their multiple safety systems and redundancies were usually capable of spinning down to a significant degree.
He would have thought that at least one of the reactors would be able to spin down, even if badly damaged.
There were many other forms of energy generation that could produce more power – miniature black holes, matter-antimatter colliders, but they were far less stable and more dangerous.
“Have we found any locations for impact sites?” Brooks asked.
“We have scanned several potential sites, but there are few likely candidates. I suspect that both reactors were breached by a single object.”
The data logs, as concise as they were, did state clearly that both reactors had been breached in the same second. It did not prove there was just a single impactor, but it was unlikely she got hit by two shots in less than a second – not without there being an enemy fleet out there.
“Dark, that’s an incredible shot if it was intentional,” Brooks said, his voice hollow.
“We must accept the possibility that we may never know the truth here, Captain,” Cenz said.
He felt a shroud of impotent anger settle upon him. Sometimes there just were not answers.
“Good work, Cenz,” Brooks said. “But what of the last pods that are not on course and not destroyed?”
“One is slightly off-course,” Cenz said. “It will not be difficult to recover. Another that I believe was an empty launch is firing off straight – it is broadcasting as empty and has gone cold inside. It is normal for these actions to occur to help with search and rescue.”
“That leaves one more. Where is it?”
“Here,” Cenz said, highlighting it.
Brooks saw that the course of the pod was opposite of the others. Instead of curving towards the rendezvous point, it was curving away. And accelerating still.
“It appears to be malfunctioning, or perhaps damaged,” Cenz said. “It is moving further away.”
Brooks looked up. “Is it occupied?”
“Yes, Captain,” Cenz told him. “We made contact with it just before I came over. It has at least one survivor aboard.”
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