"Survey Says" (Part 1)
The small ship, barely enough to be considered a DropShip, was silently floating on its way from one system to the next. A K-1 DropShuttle, small and cramped, but more than adequate for a survey team on a very specific mission. At least, that was the theory when the craft was brought into the arrangement. The truth was, the long weeks between planets left more time for everyone to get on each others’ nerves and the survey work was often done all too soon. At first, everyone had been keeping something similar to normal hours on a planet, but after the first planet had been done and there was far more time spent in the ship than in fresh air the patterns begun to shift. Now, half the team slept for one eight-hour shift and half the team would sleep shortly after waking to compare notes and compile data. It had the added benefit of allowing a few of the team members irritated with each other to avoid each other’s company beyond what was necessary for work.
This shift found a thin, dark-skinned man sitting at a small recording desk, sighing to himself before starting the audio recorder. "Jonathan Renke, Survey Team 991, Senior Analyst. I am reporting about the system located at-" He stopped and consulted his noteputer. "X Coordinate -26.40, Y Coordinate 157.71. Commonly accepted name for this system is Dalkeith."
He paused the recording and glanced over as a shorter man walked into the smaller cabin. There was only a brief glance before realizing what was happening, then a soft breath of air. "You could wait until we're all together again to write the report properly."
"Please, Anthony, I need to get this done before I forget the details."
"You wrote them on the pad. You always write them on the pad." He grabbed one of the drink pods from a cabinet on the wall. "Want one?" At the silent stare, he shrugged. "There is a time for work, and a time for relaxing."
"Give me a few minutes." After Anthony went back down to the cabins, as Jonathan sighed and rewound the recording to the place where he left off. "Initial findings were inconclusive but a further process shows Dalkeith Five to still have viable untapped resources. The analysis suggests additional precautions to be taken for sites numbered four through nine, including radiation shielding for the structures. This does shave points off the C/B analysis score, but sites six, seven, and nine do show a compelling result. It is my professional opinion these sites are well worth being explored."
He turned off the recorder, saving the file and letting out a long breath. His head turned to see someone else entering the room. Just in time, he thought to himself. "Leonard."
"If you're done with your report, I'd like to point some things out." The dark-haired man nodded at the recorder before sitting down. "If you don't mind."
"Anthony can't help meddling."
"I know you, John, and I know you are eager to get your reports written first." He tapped his fingers on his knees, thinking. "You don't understand that your report will influence the people paying us to invest in exploiting the sites we highlight for them."
"I understand, but I don't think the word 'exploit'-"
"It is accurate, and don't make excuses." Leonard pointed two fingers at the other man, frowning. "They won't pay for more than is minimally necessary to protect the workers. What we are responsible for is determining whether that minimum is actually the minimum or whether we can give the workers some extra protection."
"You're talking about altering the data."
"Never alter the data." Leonard touched at his glasses, and sighed. "That's a dirty thing to do. No, you just need to alter your presentation and interpretation to be less strict. They're not going to review it close enough to figure that out."
There was a silence between the two. "What's Belle say?" Jonathan said stiffly. As the silence dragged on, his back straightened. "I see. Well, I'm outvoted on this, so let's come up with the interpretation together." He stood up slowly, brushing at his jumpsuit.
"Don't be that way-"
"What way? You wanted this decision to be made in a committee. Well then, the committee can write the report when we land at the port and get Hyperpulse access. Until then, maybe I will read up on our next stop. What was it again?"
"Sakhalin." Leonard sighed. "We'll be scouting the Sakhalin system, then moving on to Phalan."
Two months later, the tension in the atmosphere onboard had lightened a bit. Sakhalin's report had left nothing contentious needing to be said, and now they were on to the next system in the list. They’d swapped shifts around again, and now were in a low orbit with the scanner operating to pinpoint anything unusual or anomalous to investigate. Anthony and Belle were handling that task as Jonathan was busy making calculations for the outer system analysis trip. He stopped, looking up as something disturbed his awareness. Anthony had suddenly sat straight in his chair, and reached for the comm. "Captain, if you would mind tagging this spot and returning to it on the next pass?"
"What is it?" Jonathan asked, as Belle stood up and paced in the fairly limited open space. "You two found something?"
"There's not supposed to be any military bases on this planet." Anthony said slowly. "And it just has a small base of agriculture and recycling rather than full on ore refinery."
"And you found something."
Belle made a noncommittal gesture, frowning. "There was a signal coming from a spot which was not marked as a claimed area. There's not even a planetary district there, but something is transmitting."
Jonathan shrugged. "Sounds like it's something to tell the militia to check out. Probably some pirates, or bootleggers, or something. Not our problem." He looked to his notes. "We'll likely find a couple other spots like that in the outer system-"
"No we won't." Anthony turned around. "The signal encryption isn't something being used anymore."
"Well pirates would hardly-"
"I said anymore. It's still on file." Anthony said, staring at Jonathan before looking to Belle. "You witnessed it for me."
"Yes." She nodded. "That was an old code dating to the Second Succession War. At the latest. At the earliest, the Star League." She finally pulled one of the fold-out seats to sit on, slowly letting out her breath. "Which is why we have to get another read on it. We only got a fragment of transmission, so if we can maybe catch more on another pass we can know more."
Jonathan folded his arms. "What is there to know? It is probably not anything worth knowing about. Even if there was a communications system surviving that long without service, anything it was attached to will be gone. Either it is gone due to the owners packing up and leaving or it is gone due to time having worn it down over the last century or two." He spread his hands. "Either way, there is a transmitter down there, and that is all we know."
Anthony was about to respond, and turned back to the sensor sweep. "Are you kidding me?" He grabbed his noteputer and typed at it. "Belle, I need you. I'm detecting artificial structures now. Not, again, in a location we were informed about before we started this sweep."
"And again, who is to say-"
"Shut it, John." Belle said, firmly. "Wait until the data is complete before making a conclusion."
"I am not making a conclusion." He said stiffly, standing up. "I am offering conjecture."
"Whatever it is, hold on to it until we're done. Go bother Leonard or something." Belle turned her head and pointed. "This data demands our attention and careful consideration." As Jonathan turned and walked to the access point for the cabins, he heard her muttering. "That's not right, nobody's used that for ages."
Once in the access hall to the cabins, he saw Leonard poke his head out of the cabin he had. "What's going on up there?"
"Anthony is having fantasies of finding a Star League cache."
"Right, because we definitely need to be having flights of fancy on a scientific study." He adjusted his glasses. "But you already told them that, and they told you to leave because you weren't very pleasant?"
"I just think making conclusions ahead of evidence is a bad practice. Which they are in the middle of doing. I also think they should avoid making more of this than they have so far, because if we add this into the survey report then it is likely we would not be believed." He stared at the other man steadily. "And then they would have every excuse not only to withhold payment, but also to make sure we are not hired again."
"We'll discuss it later." Leonard sighed. "I'm going to try to get more naptime before I take over the scanner. You should sleep this off too."
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