The Mordicai Incident

“Two hundred meters.” Kelly reported as the thrusters fired again.

“Everyone look sharp.” Jena said and performed another equipment check to familiarize herself with the locations of the instruments strapped to her body. The first aid kit was in the small of her back, her flashlight tethered to her wrist, and her hand came to rest on the 10mm automatic pistol secured to her leg.

“I’m good to go,” Batty said as she collected the last of the free-floating objects and replaced them in the bag Moralez carried. She fluidly slipped back under her restraint harness and buckled it down. Her aid bag was stuffed with portable bio-scanners and auto-injectors filled with medicines to treat maladies ranging from pain to radiation sickness. “Let’s just get this over with. I’m supposed to be back on regular duty in six hours. I’m going to need some sleep.”

The shuttle lurched as the docking collar mated with the frieghter Mordicai. When the computer that had guided them to contact was satisfied that the two vehicles were locked together, it sent a signal that turned the light over the exit hatch from red to green. Like parachute aircraft flying over ancient Terran battlefields, the green light meant it was time to jump.

Jena lifted her helmet over her head and slowly lowered it, giving it a half-twist to the right when it made contact with the pressure suit, locking it down. The suit went on internal Oxygen automatically with the helmet in place. She turned and saw the rest of her team standing in line behind her, helmets on, gear in hand.

“Constellation, this is boarding team,” Jena said once she’d gotten a thumbs up from all three. The comm-unit in her suit routed her transmissions accordingly. “We’re all set and we have a green light.”

“This is Constellation. You’re a go for entry,” A voice replied instantly. Jena recognized it as Commander Ellison. “We’ve still had no response from the crew. Proceed with caution.”

“Affirmative. Entering now.” Jena said and motioned Kelly forward. He removed a large socket wrench from his tool bag and pushed the large button below the green light. When the hatch slid open, the entrance to the Mordicai was revealed to be sealed tight, a problem they’d accounted for. Kelly used the wrench to bang on the Mordicai’s hatch.

“Man, someone better answer,” Kelly groused as he knocked again. The comm-unit routed his transmission to the team but not to the mother-ship. “If I gotta crank this hatch manually I’m gonna be pissed.”

“Try to look at the bright side,” Jena said as Kelly hammered the wrench down a third time. “The navy promised you an adventure. You can’t accuse them of not delivering.”

She put a hand to Kelly’s shoulder to stop as he was lifting the wrench again and they all paused to listen for a reply of any sort from inside.

“Crack it.” Jena said and moved back.

“This isn’t what I had in mind.” Kelly said and worked his boots into the straps on the deck, then slipped the socket of the wrench over the bolt at the side of the Mordicai hatch- standard equipment on all spacecraft for just such emergencies.

Kelly grunted and put his shoulder against the long handle, moving it forward, then racheting it back to the starting position. After several minutes, Jena could hear the hiss of atmosphere through a crack sized opening that appeared as the thick hatch was slowly rolled back. After another minute the opening was large enough to see through.

“Take a break.” Jena said. She took Kelly’s place as soon as he’d moved out of the way and pressed her faceplate up against the opening. The lights inside the Mordicai were on, showing her that the inside of the frieghter was dirty. Clusters of loose garbage floated in zero gravity.

“Ma’am, what’s it look like in there?” Moralez transmitted.

Jena took in as much as she could, looking for activity, and said, “It looks like the Outworld Alliance doesn’t place a whole lot of emphasis on good housekeeping, Moralez. There’s no welcome wagon, if that’s what you’re wondering.” She pushed away from the hatch. “Open it up.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Kelly said and repositioned himself. He gave a heavy sigh and began wrenching on the hatch again. In ten minutes it was open.

“Everyone stick together,” Jena said as she pushed through into the mess that was the frieghter Mordicai. A maintenance hatch next to the airlock had come open and had discharged a tangle of multi-colored wires. “At least until we find someone who can point us toward the damage control expert onboard. I guess the bridge is as good a place to start as any.”

“How big was the ship’s compliment?” Batty transmitted.

“Thirty,” Jena said and guided along the access corridor toward the larger centerline main which ran the length of the ship. “It’s probably less. These space-dogs are always trying to cut corners. Nobody wants to pay for crew they don’t think they need.”

“What about passengers?” Batty transmitted. “My father used to work on a scow like this. He said that sometimes they used to make more with people than they did moving cargo.”

“Ask the captain when we find him,” Jena said and used her hands to stop her forward momentum when she recognized an intercom on the bulkhead beside her. She pressed the transmit switch. “This is the rescue team from USS Constellation, responding to your mayday. Can anyone hear me?”

“This is too weird,” Kelly transmitted. “Even if there were only ten people on board, we should’ve run into one of them by now.”

“Maybe,” Jena said and let her finger fall of the intercom switch. “Just stay alert. We have to go up three decks to find the bridge.”

The corridor let them over the massive cargo bays. Jena looked down over the railing as she floated above them and noted that they were full of containers, cargo crates she would have to go over for contraband.

“You’re right about all the smleck in the air,” Batty transmitted, giving the bio/chem scanner she held a wack on its plastic casing. “This damn thing is going ape-shit with false positives . I have to reset it after each reading. I’m dropping this off at with the tech weenies when we get back.”

“What do you think are in those boxes?” Moralez transmitted from the last position in the group. Jena gave them another look and pulled on the railing to keep moving.

“Electronics and manufactured goods according to the data they sent to Tau beacon,” Jena said, aiming for the open hatchway directly ahead of them. “Every merchant is required to transmit a flight plan and cargo manifest when they come out of transit.”

“You think maybe they could all be back in engineering trying to get the electrical system unborked?” Kelly transmitted as he looked toward in that direction.

“Maybe they didn’t have time to get to their shelters before they got hit by all that radiation.” Batty offered her own hypothesis to the solution of Mordicai’s missing crew.

“Constellation, we’re coming up on the centerline passage,” Jena said as the team moved up to the hatchway. “Still no sign of the crew. Over.”

“This is Constellation,” Ellison radioed back. “They should be there somewhere. All lifepods are secure and in place. Last contact with the crew was reported thirty hours ago, over.”

“No contacts yet,” Jena said and eased her way into the main passage. She looked toward the nose and to the tail of the ship but saw only empty passageway. “We’re heading for the bridge. We’ll check back then, out.”

The old lights added an eerie sort of of glow to the pads along the surface of the transfer conduits. Fifty meters toward the nose of the ship they encountered another hatch. Just inside it they found the first body, floating in zero gravity, surrounded by globules of urine, vomitus, and blood.

***