Chương 75: Salvage
I ran back to the bridge. Mei didn't come with me, she went to her quarters to get some sleep.
"I'm here!" I said, panting. "What is it now?"
"Don't worry, no danger." said Tachibana. "...as far as I can see."
"So, what's the development? Did you contact someone?"
"No." he answered. "But I thought that could be interesting."
He offered me the command chair, and I took it. I put the helmet on and saw what he was talking about. The sensors were showing a derelict Federation warship; or rather, what's left of it. The debris field around it comprised of metal chunks of various sizes; ranging from one thirds of the warship itself, down to the sizes Lodos' sensors could barely even pick up.
"Spaceship Revolution; built by France, fought in the War of Sol, refueled for one last time on Kirnis Base, then never heard of." Tachibana said.
"Wasn't 'Revolution' the one ship we destroyed during-"
"Federation has at least 20 ships of various sizes and classes, named 'Revolution'." said Tachibana. "They kinda like the name."
"Well, there seems to be one less now." said Nuan.
"Don't worry, miss, they will build another in no time." Tachibana replied.
"Do you think the same thing happened to them?" I asked. "Were they ambushed by those swarms?"
"Quite likely." Tachibana said.
"I will have to alter our route." I said. "We will take a closer look at the debris field. It might contain useful information on the enemy. Hell, we could even find a disabled drone!"
"I don't think the winning side would leave anything there that would put them at a disadvantage." Tachibana said.
"What we fought was a hive of dumb drones." I said. "And what do we have to lose anyway?"
"There could be another ambush waiting for us there." Tachibana said. "Or they could've placed mines."
"Right..." I said. "Fair enough. But I still have to say it, we might be throwing away useful information."
"You know what?" said Tachibana.
"What?"
"We have a shuttle. We can just use the shuttle to get close, and if it is safe, we can bring in Lodos." he suggested.
"What about the people in the shuttle?" I said. "If it indeed is a trap, are we just going to sacrifice them to find out?"
"No." he said. "The shuttle can still use traditional stealth techniques. If we keep the ship running as cold as possible, and in the shadows of those metals, we could easily make it look like one of the debris chunks."
"...and it won't trigger any response." I completed.
"Exactly." he said.
"Who is going to fly the shuttle?" I asked.
"I thought you would never ask." said Tachibana. "I'm in."
"Finding ways to get killed again?" I asked him. "Well, I'm in too."
"No, you are not, Mr.-Very-Important-President of The Republic." he said. "It takes one person to fly a shuttle."
"Actually, we had two shuttle pilots aboard the ship." I said. "Mei picked them up while saving us."
"So they did their job, let the guys rest." said Tachibana. "I said I'm flying."
"Fine."
I changed Lodos' trajectory to make an orbital rendezvous with the debris field.
"My rough estimations say it will take at least 10 minutes to get there." I said.
"I will make sure the shuttle is ready by the time we arrive." Tachibana said and left the bridge.
I navigated to the vicinity of the debris field and came to a relative stop about 15km away from the center of the debris cloud. Opening a comms channel, I notified Tachibana.
"Are you ready?"
"The shuttle is in good shape. I am ready to fly." Tachibana reported.
"Well then, pilot, good luck. Opening hangar bay doors..."
Lodos' hangar bay opened, allowing Tachibana's shuttle to undock. The shuttle slowly departed Lodos and smoothly reoriented itself towards the debris cloud.
"Be careful." I said.
"I know what I'm doing." he said.
The shuttle's thrusters gently pushed it forwards. After gaining a suitable speed, Tachibana deactivated the shuttle's systems one by one. With only the minimal life support, battery power distributor, heat management and some sensors running, the shuttle was looking no different than a big tuna can. A slightly radioactive one, perhaps, but nothing strong enough to pay attention to.
The shuttle, without any dangerous collisions, passed through the debris cloud. Tachibana then restored full power to the shuttle's systems and contacted Lodos.
"According to my sensors, there seems to be nothing dangerous." he said. "Lodos may approach."
"Thank you, Tachibana." I said and slowly moved the ship towards the debris cloud. Now, Lodos' superior sensors could look for any leftovers from the enemy vessels.
"Wait." I said. "I'm getting something, but it is not from within the cloud..."
About 40 kilometers away, there were two faint blips on the sensors.
"Tachibana, does your shuttle pick up the blips too?" I asked.
"What blip-" he paused for a moment. "Wait, it does."
"Fly to it and check what they are." I said. "We will continue our search for enemy leftovers."
"Of course." he said, and boosted away from the debris cloud.
"Aha!" I said. "I think I got something."
"What did you get?" asked Mei.
"The e- What are you doing here? I thought you were going to sleep." I said.
"You are turning the ship around so much it is near impossible to fall asleep." she said. "What are you doing?"
I gave her a summary of the situation, and Tachibana's idea.
"There, you see?" I created a hologram of the debris cloud for her to see. "I think those might be destroyed drones. If we can examine, or further, reverse engineer them, we might find better ways to fight against those death traps."
"Makes sense." she said. "Just stop ramming those little fragments."
"I'm trying, but it is impossible for a ship this large to avoid all the debris." I said. "Don't worry, I am not damaging the ship."
"I am not worried about the ship, the noises are annoying." she said. "Okay, so, what do you want to do with that drone?"
"I will try to pull it into the hangar bay for examination." I said. Just when I was about to reorient the ship, Tachibana spoke.
"People, you won't believe what I found here."
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