Private Tomb Raiders

[Delila Castillon]

Apoptosia | Saegassum | Xin Boa

​

The problems all started around Kinooine.

It wasn't unusual for repairs to be made to the Saegassum on the regular. A stolen vessel, Dells considered the repairs and upkeep to be minimal, can't look a gift ronto in the mouth, right?

Yet their propensity for working in the most outer reaches of the 'verse could make it difficult. Difficult to find a place to land if they needed since they were most often far from civilization.

Made repairs difficult too, but they typically kept a small cache on board of their most frequently broken items. It seemed they burned through hyperdrive parts the most frequent.

Dells didn't know if they were stretching the Saegassum to its limits frequently, the model of hyperdrive was just bad, or their repairs just poor. She highly doubted the last one ; Xin, herself, and Brak were fairly decent mechanics.

She figured they would eventually need to replace the hyperdrive. It was going to be costly, without a doubt, and cause them to miss a number of jobs once they decided to pull that trigger. She hadn't even brought the idea up to Xin yet, knowing it wasn't possible to even consider just yet.

So now they were drifting somewhere near Kinooine, out in the Outer Rim, trying to get back into hyperspace and on with their journey.

Tools clattered in the distance she was certain Brak just cursed at Xin for stepping on his tail. Skreech yelled stupid squidly! before cackling like a witch. Yeah, she'd leave the boys to it today.

Instead, Delila found herself in the pilots chair, scrolling through their navigation system. She was trying to find somewhere relatively close to limp to, to set down if they needed to access the outside of the Saegassum. She did not want to toss on an envirosuit and work just off the spacelanes today.

 

[Xin Boa]

"Well it shouldn't have been there!"

"It's always there. Behind me."

"Well...you shouldn't have turned around and put it behind me too!"

"Xin..."

Brak took that tone. The one that meant it was time to stop.

Somewhere, Skreech remained out of his line of sight and laughed.

"Anyway," Brak said, lifting a small cylinder out of an engine unit. The white polymer shell was scorched black.

"That's not..." Xin started.

"Yeah it is. Xin I can take this apart and rebuild it but we're talking four days. At best. If it's truly burned out we're in real trouble."

-

"Fifty fifty," Xin announced as he reached the cockpit. "Brak gives those odds for getting the hyper drive running again."

He didn't need to say what happened if they couldn't. They would have to hope someone replied to an emergency beacon. Someone that wasn't a pirate. It was the equivalent of being on a boat in the middle of an ocean with no oars or sails.

"Anywhere we can go? Me get out and push?"

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Is this a bad time to tell you I've been meaning to bring up replacing the hyperdrive? I mean...not a new new one. Just one new to us."

It was looking like they wouldn't have much of a choice before too long. Fifty-fifty was about as good of odds as one could get. Well, as good of odds as they could get.

Dells wasn't too worried if they couldn't get started right away. They had plenty of stores ; they were used to being in the middle of nowhere with no way to get supplies quickly.

What worried her were pirates. Sith. Slavers. Those were the types that ran into them time after time.

"Yeah, hop out the airlock and get to work."

Finger tapped the navicomp, bringing up one thing she found.

"Apoptosia. Its a ring around a star. Not sure what for or why, information is fuzzy beyond being abandoned for ages. Every survey on it mentions no sign of activity."

A deep breath.

"Or we limp back to Kinooine. If we do that...might be best to work in shifts, always have someone awake in the cockpit. Don't need to be caught with our pants down."

Beyond the two items she found, there wasn't much out there.

"Your call Captain Boa."

 

[Xin Boa]

"Is this a bad time to tell you I've been meaning to bring up replacing the hyperdrive? I mean...not a new new one. Just one new to us."

"Well..." Xin gave a broad shrug. "Either way we here now. There's always a thing we could have done. We don't get to see the future."

Xin had stopped blaming fate for what went wrong in his life. He had also come to acknowledge that some things were simply beyond control. In this case, they all should have stopped and taken stock of the maintenance.

"I'm the best swimmer so makes sense that I get out and paddle."

"Your call Captain Boa."

Xin hunched over the console. He tapped the buttons to scroll through some information about Apoptosia. Dead technology from a long gone civilization. No weapons systems had reactivated when a survey team had passed through.

"Apoptosia," Xin said. "We can risk one microjump to get us there. Even if we can't find salvage we can leave the beacon in space and hide the ship. That way we can find out if we've got pirates or a rescue ship with us."

 

[Delila Castillon]

Dells gave up the pilots chair for Xin, moving to a co-pilot position. She didn't want to get in the way of the microjmup, she was never one for flying or figuring these things out. Especially when they had to make the calculated risk of a microjump that may or may not work in their favor.

Instead, she assisted Xin from the co-pilots chair as he calculated, rechecking before he pulled the lever and sent them into hyperspace.

It seemed to take no time at all until Apoptosia, or what she assumed was Apopsotsia was in their field of vision. Fine red brows knit in confusion, the astronomical object didn't look as she expected - wasnt any type of space station she had seen before.

"Not what I expected. Looks like a salvage yard or something built by scrappers. Could be in our favor, might find something of use."

By now, Skreech scampered up behind her, sitting on the back of the co-pilots chair to observe. The little monkey-lizard always stole something every time they landed, this time was likely no different.

"Not seeing any signs of life on the scans...looks maintained though. Might be a stash house?"

 

[Xin Boa]

"Give me a moment, running silent."

Xin pulled the plastic cover off of a switch overhead. He flicked it. Everything went eerily quiet. The power to engines and key systems had been cut. The ship no more than a very small lump of durasteel in a very large system.

He hunched over a scope. With the emissions down to a little more than blackbody thermals any scans from outside would show up clearly.

"There's some low level frequencies. The... I dunno what we even call that thing... It's got power. I'm not picking up any comms. Nothing on the bandwidth we can pick up."

Xin hit the main power and started scanning again.

"Particles of atmosphere. Closer look for a landing point? I've got a bad feeling about this place..."

Skreech laughed at him.

"...but we're short on options. Out of options."

 

[Delila Castillon]

Sitting in the dark of a dead ship, Delila got a better chance to look at the ring. It seemed an odd thing, she couldn't tell if it was built to serve a purpose or this was something half-way done and never finished.

Lights came back on and they continued scans as they drew near, flipping through a few. Brow furrowed as she looked at one, pausing. Scans of the asteroid....or asteroid-like object. Scans were indicating there were carved objects on the surface. She obviously couldn't see but signs of a lost civilization? Or a rich kids art project gone horribly wrong?

"Xin, the ring orbits an asteroid...rock...thing...signs of an ancient life, or hell...maybe recent. Something has been playing around on the surface. I'd say lets land there. That ring gives me the creeps. At least on the surface we can wear envirosuits and take off in a hurry."

Dells sighed, not liking their options.

"No signs of traditional weapons but....we've been down that road before. Let's just hope this goes smoothly."

 

[Xin Boa]

Xin nodded slowly. He didn't hurry them down. The micro jump would have blown a few more fuses around the ship. They weren't in good shape to maneuver suddenly if the situation changed.

The hyperdrive was their lifeline. If they were ever ambushed or in danger they could make the jump to safety. He hated not having it there.

The sense of scale was impossible to appreciate in anything but cold, hard mathematical terms. The ring engulfed their ship and took up the entire view screen.

"I've seen big stations but..."

Xin shook his head. For a brief moment he forgot their situation and allowed himself to feel like a miniscule spec in the void.

"Takin' us down to land."

 

[Delila Castillon]

"At least its not the crystal planet."

That had been the worst of their adventures so far, happening just as they started to date. Dells had been certain that they weren't going to survive. Everything else from there on out had been much easier to handle, at least ship breakdown wise.

Ring filled their entire viewscreen and she wished the Saegassum was working so she could have enjoyed the awe-inspiring sight. Rarely did they see such a marvel of construction and engineering.

"While we're down on the surface, I'll replace that coupling too, that one thats been iffy,shorting in and out. We've got a few days so poking around the surface first."

Dells had planned on scouting on the surface despite needing an envirosuit. She wanted more information on what they were dealing with. Signs if anyone had been on the surface or nearby in the recent future.

No need for surprises when the hyperdrive was in such a condition.

 

[Xin Boa]

The crystal planet

He would never forget that. Even the mention still conjured an echo of those feelings. It had been hopeless. Nothing to eat and dwindling supplies. She had been almost ready to pull the trigger and avoid a drawn out starvation.

They had been through some awful scrapes together. They had chosen to restrict their jobs to less dangerous tasks just to avoid the constant heartache and stress.

Sometimes fate intervened anyway.

"Let's go suit up."

---

They had invested in suits with better helmets. When running salvage operations they have proven their worth. Xin felt far more comfortable and aware of his surroundings as they made their way down the ramp.

"There's atmosphere," Xin said. His voice would carry through the air and over the comm to Dells.

"I'm gonna let the bio scanners do their thing before I take mi helmet off," he continued.

The stepped into what seemed like a typical docking bay. Only this one was cavernous. It could have contained half a Star Destroyer.

"Guess we go a bit of a walk," he muttered. He kept his rifle over his shoulder and a scanner in his hands.

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Yeah, I'm not taking anything off until I am confident things are stable."

Delila mirrored his posture, blaster rifle slung over her shoulder and a slow walk through the massive docking bay. Head craned up, looking above for any signs this space used to be industrial - mining, salvage, refinement, construction. She had seen things in the past similar in the past but always for a company or government.

Yet there was nothing to indicate the space was once used for industry. Maybe they never got the chance.

She would keep her head on the swivel for things such as supplies or parts or anything they could scrape together for the ship. So far nothing, but they had a vast array of ground to cover it seems.

"Think it was built by a corporation? I don't see any logos plastered anywhere....although maybe they didnt get to that point. Or maybe a secretive government project. I can see that for sure."

 

[Xin Boa]

"I dun remember anywhere, ever seeing something like this being built. Death Star was a few hundred kilometers across. This thing is..."

Xin checked his readings from the flight.

"Over one hundred million."

Xin shook his head. The cold mathematical difference was easy to say, impossible to comprehend.

"No planets in the system, no asteroids. Which I guess means someone used every molecule of this system except the star to build this thing."

Xin stopped still.

"Kark."

He shook his head, struggling to mentally wrangle with that they were standing on.

 

[Delila Castillon]

Delila wished she was as philosophical as Xin sometimes. He had the propensity to wax poetic about these things, to stop and appreciate the sheer scale and ponder the how or what behind certain situations. The Nautolan currently shaking his head and looking around the station was the perfect example.

While she just charged headlong without a thought, he was busy trying to figure out the scale of such a project.

"Has to be older. I feel it would be difficult to hide such a project from the hyperlanes these days. Or at least harder to hide if freshly constructed."

As she walked lights started to flicker on, as if sensing their presence. Creepy but a station like this no doubt had motion sensors and a power supply that could easily last a millennia.

"Wonder if there's like a supply area on this place...or a map... Feels like something here has to be good to salvage. Also, it's awful clean here but I have yet to see a droid..."

 

[Xin Boa]

"Wonder if there's like a supply area on this place...or a map... Feels like something here has to be good to salvage. Also, it's awful clean here but I have yet to see a droid..."

"Yeah what does a map even look like for this place?" he laughed.

His laugh was a touch nervous.

As they walked, there was no sign of a map and no sign of a droid. There was power and systems were doing something.

"There was nothing that responded to any comms," Xin said. "But you're right. How would this place stay working? It's soaking up the power of an entire star but needs to be maintained."

"We could cut through a wall or floor and see if there is any tech or materials we can salvage?"

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Big?"

Semi-sarcastic reply with a bit of a laugh. It would take ages to explore such a place ; months on end to explore every nook and cranny.

There hadn't been much information on the structure and she wondered how old it was. Old enough to be forgotten by many in the space lanes it seemed. Or old and secret enough that those who knew of its construction were long dead.

"Yeah, cutting through things would be ideal. But where? I mean this place is massive. Could just be an empty room. I was hoping we'd run across something that was smaller, like a storage room or supply area or cargo distro."

"Not sure I've even seen a corridor yet."

 

[Xin Boa]

"Guess if nothin' else there's heat and air if we have to wait even longer. The beacon might still bring us help."

Scars of the past were still there, he realised. That clawing fear of being left to die alone in the void. He needed there to be hope. They had power and could possibly find a way to draw more from the station, but they had perhaps a month of food.

Xin stopped and grabbed the robust datapad that had been hanging from his belt.

"If we can't navigate the place...maybe we look for power."

The display started to map a hazy web.

"There are a few places where power seems to come together. Try that?"

Unfortunately picking up the moving energy didn't give him any clue as to how the corridors and floors might map out.

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Might not be the kind of help we really want. We should probably sleep in shifts. Give ourselves a heads up if something goes sideways."

Delila wasn't concerned yet. They had a decent supply of food. The station had power ; it meant that there were possibly parts or wires or supplies they could harvest for use.

"I guess we're playing hide-and-seek with the power? Can you use the datapad to hone in? Like the hot-and-cold game?"

They reached the end of their long walk of the massive hangar, automatic doors opening to a long, faceless hallway. As far as the eye could see, lights powered on and came to life as far as the eye could see.

"Reminds me of a horror holo we've watched. Not very reassuring."

 

[Xin Boa]

What was revealed by the lights further matched her description. Xin swore under his breath.

If a pirate picked up their beacon it would take them a long time to find their ship on the impossibly large structure. Xin had thought it a clever plan.

In the face of what he saw, he thought he'd rather fight a pirate ship for their hyperdrive than continue on.

"Is this...a tomb?"

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Where are the name plaques? Numbers? Or if this is a tomb, maybe it's one of those weird religions where people aren't identified....or maybe this the a potters field."

A pause as she drew close to one of the deceased encased inside some type of glass. She studied it with a puzzled expression.

"This place cost a fortune though, seems like it wouldn't be a paupers grave situation."

Delila continued to study the body, or what was left of it, face to face.

"Never seen decomposition like this. Have you? Seems very weird to me. Maybe it's some type of odd fluid or process."

Brows furrowed.

"I'm starting to think religious cult."

 

[Xin Boa]

"I mean...its old," Xin said.

"If it had marks from damage on the outside could probably age it, but whoever built this swallowed up every planet and rock in the system to build it. Nothin' left to hit the structure."

"I don't think anyone has the money or tech to build this."

He turned and placed a hand on her shoulder briefly.

"Wish we'd found some place less creepy to look for parts!" he said, trying to lighten the situation just a little.