Derelict

I'm not used to seeing x0x0 rattled. Especially not rattled over something as "simple" as a derelict spacecraft. Of course, when the derelict in question is an Alliance light cruiser, it's easier to understand being rattled. Perhaps more so when one of her company hands turned up missing when they went aboard to check on the ship.

Derelict spacecraft aren't that uncommon, really. But having one slip through the Navtrac net is. A little, anyway. Especially something as big as a Joon Li-Kwan class light cruiser. From what I could tell when I finally got the array steered around that way, the ship had been in one of our few sensor shadows and would would have actually cropped up on the platform's array in a couple orbits when the relative position of some of the rocks shifted.

Subtle reminder that I needed to tune the arrays a bit more. Wouldn't do to have some hostiles creeping in just because we had a blind spot. Better EW, I wouldn't feel so bad about. But holes in the coverage? You'd think I was a Fleet officer or something.

x0'd said the ship appeared abandoned, but not abandoned for long. While she was a bit rattled, apparently by losing one of her employees aboard, I took her word that the ship was unoccupied and the evacuation had been relatively recent. Days? Weeks? Couldn't tell. She hadn't gotten a name from the derelict, and it didn't respond when I tapped it for a transponder echo.

Curious.

With x0 worried about catching flack for being aboard the ship without authorization, I promised to do something to intercede. Not that they'd ever give Blue Sun's Regional Director much flack for anything. She'd show her Ident and the officer of the deck would salute, apologize for the inconvenience, and offer her fresh baked brownies. Better than I'd get if I showed my Colonial Government Ident, though a bit different than if I showed the Military one.

It took a few minutes for Genni to find me the right forms and get them filled out properly, but they were exactly what we'd need. A couple minutes after transmitting them to the proper Cortex node, I opened up a line to the Sun Tzu since they were still the Fleet Asset for the region.

"This is Lieutenant Fries. How can I help you, Madam Mayor?"

The Lieutenant was young and appeared pleasant. Probably part of the job description for handling the Public Communications desk aboard the Sun Tzu. "Hello, Lieutenant. One of our residents has reported a derelict spacecraft, and I have formally filed a Form Ten dash Six One Six. We intend to execute a legal salvage operation on the vessel, and I wanted to make sure the Fleet's Regional Command was aware of our claim."

"Thank you for formally contacting us, ma'am." He continued with that cheerful expression. He probably didn't actually care that we were laying claim to a derelict. Just bureaucratic formalities. But then, he almost certainly hadn't seen the formal filing yet. "What class vessel are you claiming?"

I smiled faintly, keeping my voice deadpan. "It's a Joon Li-Kwan class light cruiser, Lieutenant. We haven't determined the registry yet, though it may be the IAV Charles Sinclair, or the IAV Gordon Conner. Regardless of her registrey, I assure you will will follow all the required procedures in a salvage operation of this nature. Including proper respect for any fallen crew."

The Lieutenant continued to smile a moment, but then his expression changed to a blank stare as what I'd said sunk in. The local government of a frontier colony was claiming salvage rights to a small capital ship.

"Is there a problem, Lieutenant?" I said with a bit more of a smile.

"Well, ma'am. Ah . . . I'm going to have to contact my superiors. You know there are special regulations regarding military salvage operations."

"Oh, I am quite well aware of the regulations, Lieutenant. You will find our paperwork in order and everything quite legal. Just wanted to send the formal notification directly, now that the forms have been filed. Be well."

I smiles and signed off a moment after he acknowledged, not wanting to extend the conversation any longer than needed. They would, of course, object. Fleet always objected. There would be an ocean of red tape for them to wade through before they could do anything officially, which gave us time.

Unfortunately though, there would almost certainly be an unofficial response. Probably a single strike team to go take possession of the derelict, but our formal claim gave us legal standing if we had anyone aboard when they got there. There was also something I could do to delay even that reaction. At least at some levels.

I kicked off an encrypted communication back to Tag.

Tag,

Locals found a derelict Light Cruiser in our space. Very unusual find. Filed formal salvage claims on the Colonial Government level per cover's SOP, but suspect they'll dispatch a recovery team. Need to do at least a cursory to determine why they ship's gone derelict. Will hand off to Special Investigations or Fleet Intel if the situation warrants.

Request you intercede to delay their dispatch. May be nothing. Will update once I've gotten resources aboard.

-S

If Tag was able to pull strings behind the scenes, we'd have at least another 48 hours to look into the derelict. If not, it was closer to 12. Either way, I needed to get a crew aboard that ship to see what'd happened to her and her compliment.

Nothing else came of it, we'd at least get some good legal salvage before Fleet came in to pick up their lost bird.