Friday, May 11, 2007

Chapter part 2 of 3(Part 1 was yesterday)
“Door won’t budge.” Detro’s voice sounded strained.

The group made their way over to him and saw that he was trying to jam a crowbar into the small crack between the two doors. Shinobu shook her head when she saw Biku was about to help, “No need to strain yourself.” She jammed her hand into the crack and tore the door from its track. She looked at Biku and smiled, “What? Did you think I was just a regular human?”
Again, Biku remained silent.
“Mister talkative.” Aria commented.
“Just leave him be.” Shinobu said as she passed though the now open door.

The corridor was as dark as the room, but with some more dust. “Kya!” Shinobu tripped over some large object.
“Captain?” The other man, Marcus, went over to her.
“I found a body,” Shinobu said flatly as her helmet lights lit up the dead man’s face, “and it ain’t a plant.”

Aria came up behind and started to look over the body. His chest had a large, round burn mark; a bit of the rib cage peeked through the charred flesh and clothing. What was left of the uniform looked to be of Union origin, “Not a good sign.” Aria knelt down next to the body and stuck a small needle in to it. An opaque screen appeared in her visor, “Ensign Fariden Tyrh. Joined about two months ago. Time of death was about thirty minutes ago.”
“Looks like I need to ask a few questions.” Shinobu said as she placed her hand on the dead man’s forehead.
Biku watched with interest as Shinobu drew a small glowing ball of light from the man and proceeded to shut off her comm..
Biku looked at Aria, "Is she..."
"Communing with the spirit. Our three captains can, plus three others that I don't know." She answered.
Biku nodded and looked back at Shinobu, who was standing up; the light was gone.
"Things went from interesting to complex," She started out as she stepped over the body and continued down the corridor, "This carrier was supposed to be a cover. All the cargo was to seem very routine and was even being delivered as per an existing schedule. What they were really transporting was barrier solution."
"Barrier solution?" Marcus repeated.
"Tyrh didn't know what it was for, but the payload was enough for about a hundred people."
"The only reason that much would be needed is war preparations." Detro said.
"But who would the Union be starting a war with?" Aria asked.
"Given the Federations current activity along the border," Shinobu stopped at a closed door and tore it open; the corridor was pretty much the same, dark and musty, "I could see a move to strengthen forces, but,"
"Found a plant." Marcus called over the comm, "Burned to ash."
Biku looked down at corpse that lay barely exposed by the light. It had a fairly humanoid shape but there was no sign of a skeletal structure; the outer skin(?) was charred and fell to dust at the slightest touch.
“From the level of residue,” Aria informed as she scanned the body, “I’d say it was a torch type weapon.”
“A flame thrower.” Detro said bluntly.
“As strange as that might sound. There is residue of an unknown compound that was used as a catalyst. I’ll know more when I get this to the lab.” Aria proceeded to scrape some of the skin into a vile and placed it into a pouch on her belt.
“Hey, Fleda?” Shinobu called out
“Yeah.” Fleda’s voice came over the comm.
“I need you to check all registries on torch weapons. Who uses them and where they can be bought now and days.”
“Can do.”
“I also need Omo to try and back hack the signal.”
“Ain’t no good.” Omoikane answered, “The signal is coming from a separate system that runs completely independent from the rest of the ship.”
“Shit.” Shinobu sighed heavily, “Right, grab a tow and get us to a dock so we can get this ship searched properly. And call the Senator, we’ll need her for dealing with the government. I don’t like this battle preparation idea one bit.”

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