Extraction Issues 2

Chapter 2

Approaching Restricted Maritime Zone BZE:4200.06

Cycle 6002.639.12.25 W

The captain had suggests they look for the phantom well on the way back. Those onboard were now busy debating whether it was to offer some hope, out of curiosity or simply to delay heading back to the mainland. The area they lived in was a vast ocean with islands and energy wells scattered across it.

As long as anyone had known there had been a dead zone circling the area of ocean that they lived in. On entering the dead zone, man made objects broke down and people themselves passed out. Then the sea would claim them never to be seen again. The odd thing was, inside the huge area circled by the dead zone there was a pattern to the energy wells locations.

Amongst the almost mathematically laid out hex pattern locating the mana wells, there was one blank spot that they had been told not to enter. There was a location that was like a black hole or self regulating well. But they had always been commanded to avoid it. Now the captain had ordered them to head there.

The official was fuming yelling and screaming that he would report this to every agency he had contacts with and threatening mainly the captain, that he could kiss goodbye to livelihood, freedom and family if he went ahead with this. He took a break to use the ships communication room and then returned to continue this onslaught.

Eventually he was asked to leave the bridge several times and given an official warning by the captain. When this didn’t get results, the captain asked one of the meaner looking crew-mates to help him escort the official to the brig. They dragged the official away, with him bellowing threats and intimidation at the top of his lungs.

Overall this left the crew feeling uneasy. They relied on the captain who operated in a delicate political grey area. Now that they had taken this course, their futures were all uncertain.

It only took another half a day, skimming quickly across the surface of the sea, to get in range of the co-ordinates. With the current scans it became clear that their was a reasonable sized island there. Then as they continued their approach they were surprised to find that their was signs of people on the island.

They slowed down now the the long range scopes could peer at the island. Observing a pink globe contained in the middle of the island was also surprising. They stopped and did a full sweep of readings. Indeed there was a energy well there, drawing only a gentle flow. It was fluctuating but didn’t seem to be destroying the area around it, unlike the wells that their country operated.

Initially scans of the island revealed a radius that had been de-vegetated but was happily regrowing. Around the edges of the island the environment was well established. There was no evidence of interference from the well there. The buildings that were detected ranged from simple huts to more elaborate stone buildings.

This was shocking. The curiosity of the civilians onboard quickly overtook their worries about the current situation. They repeated scans several time to confirm it. The islanders were living there without any discharge shelters. Also expansion events here, did not seem to cause lasting environmental impact.

This enough was enough to keep the civilians completely immersed for a day. This gave the crew a chance to do a more thorough tune of the their craft, to suit it’s new nature. In the mean time, the captain spent a lot of time listening to the civilians discussions.

What ever the captains plan was, they never found out. The next day, as soon as the sun rose a ship from their nation appeared in front of it, obscured by the glare. They demanded a full surrender of the crew, for breach maritime boundaries and advised that, their contaminated craft would be confiscated for purging.

Whatever the visiting vessel was, it was big. The captain simply replied back and said he didn’t think that was going to happen. There was a very panicked meeting quickly happening in the bridge, but before a twelfth of a demi had even passed they were fired on. The ship shook and monitors surged or faded, the hair on the back of the captains neck stood up, leading him to believe it was energy weapon fire.

He asked for a report not waiting for those in the ship to calm. One engineer quickly reported that it had been a full strength long-range energy beam attack. He then hesitated to add that there seemed to be minimal damage.

The captain barked back that he wanted that confirmed, as the start of a bad idea worked itself out in his head. Over all channels he ordered a full suit up of those onboard. He quickly turned to Ronnec and asked him to head for the inlet that went toward the enregy well. But he was to do it in a way that made them look like they were struggling.

With eyebrows raised Ronnec followed the command. Those on board either quickly got on with things or were ordered around till they stopped panicking. The engineering team confirmed that the blast had done minimal damage. So the captain made the announcement. They were heading into the energy well.

The craft headed toward the island. Ronnec seemed to have a programme ready, he quickly adapted it to produce a distorted engine flow. They sputtered and shuddered on-wards. The conversations were all over the show and noting ideas or organising any reports that were drafted was futile. Whatever was happening now rested mainly on the captains decision.

Just as they were starting to crunch numbers another energy blast shook the ship. The captain ordered calm. He asked Ronnec to just let it drift along the same course. Security lock down was now in place. He ran, jumped down an awkward flight of steps, navigated another couple of tight turns and got to engineering. Arriving he asked for all radios off.

Everyone quietened and the lights showed radio isolation, so he told them what he hoped to do. He wanted to make it look like they had drifted into the mana wells field and exploded leaving no trace. There was a moment of complete silence greeting this announcement.

The voice that had been referred to as Gerney spoke up first. It came from an old engineer at a station tucked away in the corner. Despite his small stature he seemed to look down his nose and over his glasses at the captain, like he was an interesting child was asking a question. He talked with a body a little small for his head. Despite this, his hands look leathered and he moved without any waste of movement hinting at his capability to maintain the craft despite his age.

Gerney had quickly pointed out that the drifting part of the plan and the final positioning out of sight were very easy to manage. The seeming to explode was the tricky bit. The main thing was that they needed an energy weapon related explosion to survive. If the large vessel seemed to activate shell based weapons, they needed to move, really quickly.

He suggested that reprogramming an earthing surge protector tripod to overload, would be the most obvious way of doing this.

The captain said to start with that plan, unless they came up with something better. Dueleit found him as he made his way out of engineering. He filled her in on the basics as they headed for the brig. A very smug looking official was sitting there waiting for him. He asked the captain if he’d come to find out how screwed he was.

The captain invited him to fill him in on the details. So the official gleefully started. He explained that now that his craft was immobilized, they would start by arresting him for violating maritime boundaries and only reasonable force would be used to subdue him when he got to cheeky on the way to his cell.

Then when they searched the craft and found the body of the Wadgin boy, a proper interrogation would happen. During this his persona as the Simple Man would be de-classified and they would interrogate him until just before he had to be transferred off the ship. Then he could relax in death, well physically anyway.

Not quite finished with his threats he moved onto the crews fates. He let the captain and Dueleit know that those crews that weren’t imprisoned or suffering similarly tragic ends to the captains, would never have peaceful lives again.

Glitches from the public transport system, through to gas lighting with all personality profiling and information sources, would be the tip of the iceberg. The sheer build up of raised suspicion around them, would get regular attention from authorities. Then on top of that any nearby puppets would be fed information to further frame and try to present them as pathetic, unstable, tormented souls.

The captain laughed and the official didn’t seem so cocky any more. He replied lightly that if that was the worst that could happen, that was better odds than half of the days they faced. Over his shoulder on the way out, he let the official know that they were still very mobile. A gasp could be heard as they continued down the corridor.

Summarising with Dueleit it was pretty clear they’ll kill everyone in the crew and the scientist for what they’d seen. The only exception was Neodig, they needed to blame his death on them, presumably to further pressure the admiral. The captain asked Dueleit to head back to the bridge and do people people management as much as possible. Also if she could work out the best plan for to safeguard Neodig and the Wadgin family’s best interests, it would be much appreciated.

He headed back to the engineers, troubled. Their society had been based with one pillar having political fools, that could be protected under personas. But now those in their dressing gowns, must had gotten tired of waving their magic wands.

Unable to wring anymore life out of the planet or the citizens in the dead zone; it looked like now they were set to turn everything inside out. Probably with the hopes that they could drain even more out of an already suffering people and planet.

The captain briefly had a chance to think about his own family and his heart felt heavier. He briefly sent a prayer to whatever spirit was listening, that his kids would survive their twisted surrounding. And though she was a little heartless he even chucked in a prayer for the wife he had never quite got around to divorcing. She was at least smart, so hopefully the heavens could work with her cunning, so she kept making it through the challenges that existing threw up.

He was interrupted. From around the next corner the arguing of the engineers could already be heard. After the initial outcry of shock and fear about Gerney’s suggestion, the other engineers had begrudgingly got on with planning how to best execute the plan. They now had a working plan on one board. Then they had the developing brainstorm on the main screen. There was another outcry as Gerney pointed out they needed to ride a blasts shock-wave to sell the performance.

Some of the engineers went to the bridge with the captains badge, to explain the basics. They had a note outlining that the main task of the bridge was to scan and gather as much information as possible on the ship that had appeared.

Meanwhile in engineering a fierce arguement was brewing. There was those with thinly veiled anger and frustrations in their voices. Then there were others passive aggressively judging ideas presented. Gerney and Hosej were occasionally helped by others as they modified the actual tripod, in the corner near his bench.

The complete lack of time meant that control panels had been duct taped straight onto the tripod and programming was updated with each new confirmed plan on the board. The only reason any occasional good ideas were picked out of the tense discussion, was because a short fat engineer quietly took notes, updating both the board and screen with impressive judgement.

There was an estimated countdown onto the screen. As it got closer to zero the tension rose and less ideas were deemed worthy of updating. With under a sixth of a demi left, it was go time. Gunrey had rushed through making sure each time critical step had been started in order. Now as new ideas died down, he yelled the final frequency and settings to Hosej as he worked.

Slapping closed and taping up the last control panel he waited till Hosej gave the thumbs up. With that he heaved the tripod onto a waiting trolley and gave it a shove to start it moving. There was panicked cries about how it wasn’t even close to ready yet. Gurney yelled they were already pushing their luck for time as he rolled out the door.

Halfway down the corridor the captain caught up with him and he armed the tripod. He said the sub hatch was open. With that confirmed Gurney punched in the command and the swung into the bay. Hooking into the top eye-ring with a manual winch, they smoothly raised the tripod, had it slip along the rail and then releases it as soon as it would clear the opening.

A couple of the other engineers showed up, only to gasp in terror, as they watched the tripod fall out of the bottom of the craft. One of the crew began shutting the doors. And when the horrified engineers recovered and realised that the captain and Gurney had headed back, they too rushed back.

In engineering the mood was tense. They had already switched to making sure things could clearly be monitored. Now the display showed what looked like a destroyer class vessel watching them, an escape pod identified to contain Neodig and crazy energy readings just behind them.

Things went deadly quiet and Gurney turned to Hosej. He asked for the amplitude and main resistance numbers. All eye turned to the skinny square faced youth. Now stammering and uncomfortable under the pressure. He let them know it was 2 and 0.01. There was several curses from around the room. Several people quietly commented it was supposed to be 0.1.

The captain didn’t need to be an expert mathematician to grasp the danger. He muttered to himself that the show must go on. With one last look at the terrifying surge displayed behind them he went to one of the consoles. Almost yelling, he radioed to brace for a jump.

People braced looking confused, then bright light and an explosion leveled everything.

-<>-

Neodig was shattered. One moment he had been securing cargo in the crafts hold, the next he had been grabbed and taken to an escape pod. Someone had grabbed his stuff for him and started chucking it in a expedition pack. Dueleit showed up and gave him an important looking wooden box. She said that he couldn’t come with them and that she wanted him, to get her watch back to her father.

During this brief exchange, his stuff had been secured in the pods storage and then he was as clipped in as well. The door was slammed shut and the pod shot out. The pod flew, seeming happy to glide by itself. Then the momentum dissipated and the pod dropped hitting the sea hard and skimming a couple of times. He was suddenly a long way away from the craft.

He didn’t have much time to take in what had happened or all the radio chatter that he was hearing. One voice stood out, the captain yelled something about jumping, then there was a huge white flash behind the crab craft and an earth shattering explosion.

He must have passed out because when he awoke again, there was yelling all around him. Someone had been close to him and pulled back. Yeah there’s no issues he’s stable and all yours. A face came very close and peered at him. So this is the kid they were baby-sitting. As the face pulled back all he had made out was facial hair.

As he regained the ability to focus, he could see a man with a bushy orange beard, contrasting his bald head. It looked like there was a cheerful smile behind the beard and some warmth to the green eyes. He asked what was going on and some of the crew tensed up looking to their bearded superior for guidance.

He introduced himself as Lieutenant Yatkocha. To reassure the crew he introduced the boy as well. I believe you are Neodig Wadgin. I believe the admiral sent you on that craft to get a better range of life experience. Neodig gave a hazy affirmative, it figured that navy people knew his Dad.

He could at least begin to take in the details now. He must be in the bay of a big ship. It was of standard solid construction. The surfaces were well cared for painted clean white and at the bare minimum even awkward corners looked like they were dusted. The crew of this ship were official sailors, as far as he could tell and their uniforms spotless.

The escape pod had been docked in the bay and there was a bizarrely large gathering around it. If his father had come on, there wouldn’t be as many people here. Walking out of the hanger was a bomb squad, so he took in that they had been on high alert. The medic was packing up and just about on his way. Things should be returning to normal now.

But for some reason there was more tension here, with this crew, than he had felt on any of his visits to ships before. He didn’t have time to worry now, as the Captain smiled and said to find him some quarters. Neodig was helped out of the pod and led to a room.

Once the bay was cleared, the Lieutenant walked down to another console with one of his officers. He asked for his opinion on the situation. This officer said that captain of the craft had most likely they had figure out what was happening from the official on their craft. Sending Neodig in the captains pod had sent a standard and a command encrypted distress signal. This was clearly planned, with the aim of ensuring Neodig had safe passage home.

The lieutenant agreed. While they had been talking he had been examining the box with the watch in. The officers eyebrows raised as a hidden compartment in the base was found and slid open. He read a note inside it. Once finished he passed it to the officer.

Curious the officer read. It seemed to be from officer Dueleit. The note stated that she felt that the captain was going to find the source of the disruptions. He had secretly been working on stabilising phase shift bursts and was looking to jump through the dead zone to the co-ordinates of the last blast. He read the note twice.

When he looked back to the lieutenant, he was again asked for his thoughts. He talked aloud, through any ideas he thought would be useful. He started off that there were two main possibilities. The first is that this was designed to draw attention and speculation to divert resources that might be used against the Wadgin family. The other is that this is a code specific to the Lisetra family.

For overall analysis beginning points, jumping through the dead zone is the most obvious point. We usually use that as propaganda to target tech facilities that are being bothersome. As far as I know there is no current intelligence on dead zone jump projects. To counter this, there have definitely been some unique particles detected and no wreckage from the craft.

He looked at the lieutenant still calmly waiting and continued. He pointed out that unless he knew of anything because of a higher security clearance, there didn’t seem to be anything they could do now. The best use of their time was to forward it all to the council’s investigative branch, as they would most likely take over anyway.

The captain agreed though he seemed to have been hoping for more inspiration. He asked for the watch to be dropped of to the lab and if further scans revealed nothing, it could be returned to Neodig. If they had a spare tag for it, it wouldn’t hurt either.

With that the lieutenant left and quickly disappeared down the corridor.

Wehl 2024

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