Mayday
Posted on Thu Jun 5th, 2025 @ 10:05pm by Commander Rhupert Tyree
575 words; about a 3 minute read
Mission:
On the Trail
Location: Bridge, SS Adelaide.
Timeline: MD001 (Day eight after leaving Empok Nor)
Rhu stretched out his legs and then put them up into the empty navigator’s seat, slouching into the helmsman’s chair. It had taken some patching and foam inserts, but it was halfway comfortable again and slouching while at the helm of a ship was still a novelty to him.
One had to play the part.
That part was getting a little old though. They’d been busy since leaving Empok Nor, getting to know the Adelaide and shaking out everything required of being a believable freighter crew.
Traveling aboard the Addy would be slower and they’d have time to work on systems, but Rhu also planned to enrich the lives of his crew by installing creature comforts and diversions as best they could. For now, it would be more like a camping trip than anything. They had new refers, cook top and stoves all self contained that he’d gotten installed within the crew lounge.
That had been simple enough by placing orders through the Department of Operational Analysis for industrial replicated, updated appliances that were just plug and play. That had been easy.
Stretching, he chuckled at his appearance. He’d rolled the upper part of his coveralls around his waist and had the arms tied like a belt, work boots and a muscle mapping, climate controlled t shirt rounded things out. Rhu hated to have his arms covered while doing tech work, if it could be avoided. If he wore sleeves, they’d be rolled up.
Right now, he’d been forced to turn his attention to sifting through the mornings news, trying to wake up. Adelaide had been in space for a week while the crew worked her up and settled in. He needed to get up and find food. There wasn’t much in the morning reports.
They were currently two days out of Xepolite space, following the course of the Foragers Set that had last been on Empok Nor. The set, traveling in three ships, had left abruptly and conspicuously before the Ashen Hand attack. That seemed to Rhu like the best place to start.
He pulled up a star chart on the holo projector and spun it a few times, looking at the space around Adelaide before stretching it out some. Fed Intel was monitoring other Forager Sets, but they were elusive and good at becoming invisible. And there was no telling which Sets might be involved with the Hand.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, then moved to stand as an alarm bleated at him. Waving away the display, he tapped the red flashing screen. “Ay. Mayday. Mayday. This is Avan’s Colony. We’ve had a mining incident and desperately need medical help. Mayday. Mayday. Mayday.”
Rhu cancelled the alert mid bleat and frowned. They had a duty older than space flight itself to respond to a distress call. But there had to be better help than them available. He began compiling information, including a systems map around the colony and who might be helping from where. They were a ways out for a better communications signal anyway.”
He worked for a few minutes and filed that down to approximately two days at the freighters maximum warp. Rhu began making adjustments to the Adelaide’s nav, then hit the blower. “All hands, meet up in the lounge in ten minutes.”
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