Chapter 28: Subterranean

“Attention, results of planetary scans complete,” replied Ship. We looked at the tactical display, which showed a map of the oceans covering most of the planet surface.

“What is that just off the coast of the island?” asked Laine.

“Sensors could not penetrate that area,” replied Ship.

“It looks like we have found the subterranean level that Jem and Koluna are exploring,” I said.

“It looks big,” said Laine.

“About the size of a star cruiser?” I offered.

The elevator doors finally opened. Jem and Koluna stepped out.

“This looks familiar,” said Jem.

They were in a corridor, in what looked like Ship, except it wasn’t Ship. Not all the lights were working. There was debris and cables on the floor. It looked like it had not been maintained for a long time.

“This way,” said Jem. They proceeded along the corridor. Most of the doors were open, and the contents ransacked long ago.

“We need to go down to level three. We can check the status of the power cores and the AI,” said Jem. Koluna followed her. They found the entrance to the stairs was open. Jem turned on the light on her suit and climbed down. Koluna followed her.

Jem got out into a dimly lit corridor, much like the one they were on before. Doors were open, stuff was strewn all over the place.

“This should be where the main power cores are located,” Jem said. Koluna nodded. It was not her area of knowledge, but she could tell there was a lot of equipment missing. Only one control panel had signs of life. It was the emergency power.

“I suspect this one system is all that is keeping the hull from imploding under the water pressure. The pirates stripped it of all else,” said Jem.

“Understood. What next?” asked Koluna.

“This level should also have the computer systems and the AI. Let’s go check on them,” replied Jem.

They left and moved to another room. This room was a mess, no sign of life, The computers had been mostly removed. There were cables and damaged components on the floor.

“They gutted the vessel for anything of use. It is sad to see it this way,” said Jem.

“We should return to the surface. It is time to report in,” said Koluna.

“Agreed. If the rest of this vessel is like this, there is nothing more to see,” replied Jem. They returned to the stairs and made their way back up.

Jem and Koluna returned to the level where the elevator was. The pirates must have built this so they could access the vessel while it was hidden underwater. Jem pressed her palm on the panel and it lit up blue. Shortly, the door opened. They got inside and returned to the surface.

“Attention, audio call from the captain,” said Ship.

“Please put it through Ship,” I replied.

“Commander, we have returned to the surface. You will never guess what we found!” said Jem on the communicator.

“Captain, I would guess you found a Baglogi star cruiser. It is the source of the Baglogi technology that fell into the pirate’s hands,” I replied. Laine smiled.

“How did he do that??” said Koluna’s voice.

“We asked Ship to do a deep scan of the oceans. It showed up on the results,” said Laine.

“Great. It looks like they picked the vessel clean a long time ago. It just has emergency power running to prevent a structural failure,” said Jem.

“Understood captain. Will you be returning soon?” I asked.

“Yes. This planet has lost its appeal. Out,” said Jem.

“She doesn’t sound happy,” said Laine.

“She isn’t. She hoped that the discovery of the Baglogi AI virus and the Baglogi power cores could lead to more Baglogi. This is more like a graveyard for a Baglogi vessel that died long ago,” I said.

“I wonder what happened to the original crew?” said Laine.

“I don’t have to wonder. I know what those pirates do to other beings. I was on a freighter with Koluna and we barely escaped. Everyone else perished. Back on The Trading Post, you nearly died because of Tobis and his gang,” I said.

“Yes, but you saved me,” Laine smiled at me.

“And you saved me when we had to make it to the island,” I said.

“I could only save you because you saved me first,” she grinned.

“Do you mean on The Trading Post or when I got us out of the shuttle?” I asked.

“Both!” said Laine with enthusiasm.

“You know I don’t think ahead that if I do this or that what the result will be. I had no idea what to do when I got to the surface. I just knew we had to escape the shuttle. If you had not woke up we would be dead,” I said.

“It is funny how things work out,” replied Laine. I shrugged.

“Attention, the shuttle has launched from the island and is on its way back,” said Ship.

“Thank you Ship. Anything from the derelict pirate vessels yet?” I asked.

“Negative commander. Several of the memory cores were damaged,” replied Ship.

“Understood,” I said.

“What are we going to do next?” asked Laine.

“I don’t know. If we find Tobis, we could return him to Ori Major and find out how he escaped. If we get some navigation history from the memory cores of the derelict pirate vessels, it might suggest other systems to visit,” I replied.

“What if all the pirates are dead? There would be no more to track down. We would have to find a new mission,” said Laine.

“It is hard to prove there are no more pirates. I will have Ship leave a pirate decoy probe in this system before we leave. Each system we think pirates have visited, we could leave a probe. That way if we missed some, eventually they will turn up in a system where one of our probes will deal with them,” I said.

“Ship, the probes will not attack non-pirates?” asked Laine.

“Confirmed. The probes follow numerous protocols to identify if a vessel is a pirate or not,” replied Ship.

Soon Jem and Koluna returned. It was getting late, so after decontamination we all met up in the main dining lounge for dinner. I helped Laine prepare some Quard food we’d got from our last stop. We sat around a table together to eat and talk.

“This is nice Laine. It reminds me of a dish we have on Ori Major,” said Koluna.

“I think I know the one, we have similar cuisines,” replied Laine. Koluna nodded. Jem looked rather sad.

“What’s the matter captain?” I asked.

“I was born in space, I never had home cooking. When we finally got to visit my home planet, there was nothing there. This food is good, but I can’t compare it to something I had back home,” she said.

“I understand. I grew up on Tian Prime. All the food there is bland. It meets the basic nutritional requirements, but it is nothing to compare with. There are no famous Tian restaurants in the galaxy. The good side, is that everything I try is a new adventure. I got to enjoy some delicious Ori food, and now I love Quard food,” I said. I noticed Laine smile in the corner of my eye.

“So while we were on the planet, how did the examination of the derelict pirate vessels go?” asked Jem.

“It was still in progress last time I checked. Ship, are there any updates?” I said.

“Confirmed. The pirates came here to destroy the submerged Baglogi vessel. Recently they were in the Lagaid system. I have located the corpse of Tobis. DNA scan matches our previous scans of Tobis,” replied Ship.

“Do we have something we can put his corpse in?” I asked.

“In anticipation of your request, I have modified the cryogenic container we got from Laine Alpha Four,” replied Ship.

“Excellent! Please store him in it. His body is so much better than DNA scans to convince others,” I said.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Ship, did you find out why the pirates wanted to destroy the submerged Baglogi vessel?” asked Jem.

“Negative captain,” replied Ship.

“It doesn’t make sense. He brought eleven vessels here? Why was it important to destroy it? All that is left is a hull, with a minimal level of emergency power,” said Jem.

“Pirates don’t always do things that make sense. We could spend a long time thinking about it, and still not find the answer,” I said.

“I was thinking they sold off any Baglogi technology they could strip from it. It is more advanced than most, so it would fetch a good price,” said Koluna.

“None of the vessels we have fought showed any sign of Baglogi technology. So if they sold it, we have not found who purchased it,” I said.

“I suspect that somewhere out there is the Baglogi AI. Someone created that virus, and they needed an AI to develop and test it on,” said Laine.

“So where do we go next?” asked Jem.

“We could go to Lagaid. The pirate vessels came from there,” I said.

“And do what? We don’t know if the government of Lagaid is in league with the pirates,” said Jem.

“We could be treated as an enemy,” said Laine.

“If we returned his body and provided all the evidence, they might be glad we rid them of an embarrassment,” said Koluna.

“Laine, you said before that Quard had dealings with Lagaid. Does Lagaid have an embassy on Quard? We would be relatively safe to go to Quard, and we could talk to the Lagaid ambassador there,” I offered.

“They do. My father could help get us an appointment to see the Lagaid ambassador,” said Laine.