Here, they found the first indicators of life. Broken chairs, upended tools, broken screens-
-and bones.
Tanin took off his helmet first to let him look around better, but he was followed by the others. The life support here was still working well, and, despite the dust and bones, the air was still fresh. This place had been abandoned but not left to stagnate.
The bones were littered all over the large command room. The stained rot of decay blacked the floor under them, but the skeletons were still mostly intact, telling Vytln that nothing had been able to scavenge them. They were so old, the scent of decay was long gone, but they told a story of chaos and death he couldn’t read.
“Oh, my…” Grace covered her mouth with her hands, looking around in horror. Sway put his arm around her as the Tanin walked forward.
“What happened here?” Trove asked, stepping over the bones. They seemed to be clustered at the exits, except for a few at the consoles. Like they had been trying to get out but had been trapped. Which was odd since all the doors were so easily opened.
“Alred,” Tanin said simply.
Vytln followed his gaze and immediately spotted what the captain had.
One of the consoles, surrounded by a few of the bodies, had been ripped open violently. Inside was what was clearly a bed meant for a pod like his.
“Alred was here,” Goldie whispered, stroking his core. “Can he…”
“No,” Tanin shook his head. “Those wires are all ripped away. We can’t put him here. Although, I think I know where we are now.”
Vytln did too. He let go of Haven and limped his way to one of the consoles. Though it was dark and covered in dust, it came to life at the touch of his fingers. Like it had just been waiting for someone to come along.
Before he was their ship AI, Alred had been on Rik-Vane along with the rest of them. How he got there, Vytln didn't know. He just knew that Alred hadn’t wanted to be at Rik-Vane, and he had worked with Tanin to get them all off.
What he did know, however, was that before Alred came to Rik-Vane, he had been the AI of a massive starship recycling facility. It was the approved job that had allowed him to legally leave his home planet.
Vytln found the power systems to the compound, almost all of them still intact. As he brought them to life, restoring the facility’s systems, the windows in front of him came to life. Lights all turned on in the massive room just beyond. A huge warehouse, stretching on seemingly into the horizon.Completely filled with stored, old, broken starships. All of them in various states of disrepair and deconstruction.
Recycling.
“This was where Alred came from,” Vytln said, looking back at his captain. “Before Rik-Vane. It looks like nearly all of the systems are still intact. What happened here?”
Tanin crossed his arms, looking out over the sea of ships. All hidden in the darkness, lost for an untold number of years. “From what Alred told me, he was installed here to run this facility, but he turned against the crew and killed them all when they began making choices he didn't agree with.”
“That explains these,” Trove chuckled, kicking at the bones.
“Stop that,” Garnet frowned at him. “That’s disrespectful of the dead.”
“What?” Trove looked baffled at the concept of disrespecting dead people.
A confusion Vytln shared, but he had other things to worry about now. He continued speaking to the captain as Garnet and Grace glowered at Trove.
“Is this place safe?”
“Alred wouldn’t have led us here if it wasn’t.” Tanin looked down as the ship graveyard. “He told me that he helped conspire to get himself out of here. He lured pirates here and let them scavenge a few things, including himself, to make his escape. Only after he had killed everyone else. He doesn’t know exactly how he ended up at Rik-Vane after letting the pirates steal him, but I imagine he was sold there.”
“If he let scavengers in here, he didn't let them take much,” Vytln said, touching the console again, looking through the various systems. “Everything seems to be functioning relatively well. Nothing is happening without an AI, but it looks like all the basic systems to keep this place from collapsing were set to run automatically.”
Tanin nodded before looking at the others. They had managed to move around the room. The females were avoiding the bodies, Haven was poking at one of the consoles, the twins were whispering together in the corner, while Rok had collapsed against the wall, his eyes unfocused.
“Is there a medbay?” Tanin asked.
Vytln searched through the systems and grunted. “Yes. And it appears intact.”
“Good. The crew quarters?”
“All intact. As is the mess hall.”
