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The Wendigo · InkandNeon | Speculative Fiction Stories

• 0:03
  Transponder beacon isn't responding. How copy?
• 0:07
  Bring us the main drift line, Ace. Open type
• 0:10
  beam local hailing. Local array open, Captain.
• 0:14
  Signals running wide. Unidentified vessel. This
• 0:18
  is Captain Isaiah Cole of the Wendigo. We're
• 0:22
  holding station two kilometers outside your safe
• 0:24
  proximity envelope. Systems show zero altitude
• 0:28
  burn and cold thruster blocks. State your status.
• 0:32
  Are you in distress? Unmarked vessel. My engineers
• 0:36
  are tracking multiple system drops across your
• 0:38
  auxiliary spine. If your environmental scrubbers
• 0:41
  have stalled, we have medical bay clearance.
• 0:44
  Do you require aid? Captain, handshake protocols
• 0:50
  are going straight through. Radio's working fine.
• 0:53
  I just don't think anyone's left over there to
• 0:57
  answer the board. Brody call, son. Always give
• 1:01
  him a chance. This is Captain Isaiah Cole of
• 1:05
  the Wendigo. We are holding station two kilometers
• 1:08
  outside your safe proximity envelope. Sensors
• 1:11
  show zero altitude burn and cold thruster blocks.
• 1:15
  State your status. Are you in distress? With
• 1:21
  respect, Captain, I recommend we burn thrusters,
• 1:24
  clear the vector. An unmanifested courier, totally
• 1:28
  cold on the shipping shoulder. Could be an ambush.
• 1:31
  Could be a pirate lure. If that's an ambush,
• 1:34
  Hayes, it's the most expensive graveyard I've
• 1:36
  ever seen. This is a highway shoulder. Out here,
• 1:39
  you don't drive past a blowout. Call it on the
• 1:41
  staging bay. Tell Miller, suit up. Strap the
• 1:44
  awaiting. They're going across to see what killed
• 1:46
  the power. When the goat breathes, this is Miller.
• 1:51
  Aerox stealing blood. Stepping into the puncher's
• 1:55
  big deck now. Copy, Miller. A's has your biometric
• 2:01
  feeds on the primary board. What's the deck look
• 2:03
  like? Cold, sir. Real cold. Brons is climbing
• 2:08
  up the bulkhead. Emergency power is quickly through
• 2:11
  the foreplate. The atmosphere scrubbers in. Thermal
• 2:16
  readings are barely above freezing. If the crew
• 2:19
  punched out, life support was still running when
• 2:22
  they left. Sir? Keep moving Miller. Check the
• 2:26
  galley and then check the cockpit. Oh god no,
• 2:32
  you've got to be kidding me. Miller, talk to
• 2:36
  me. What is it? This is the Ramek Composite.
• 2:40
  It exists. It's limited edition. Nowhere to run
• 2:42
  coffee mugs. I think I've got the magentire's
• 2:46
  bottom. Of course, a dredger gets excited over
• 2:49
  a cup. Come now Hayes. Leave it. It's alright,
• 2:53
  maybe it's just that I'm fed up with him as bin
• 2:55
  slayers who keep running, guarding the latrines
• 2:58
  just going up up and down. What? No, you were
• 3:02
  counting the discard pile man. Save it for the
• 3:06
  bugs you two. Miller? Just that no one would
• 3:10
  be mad at him, something dis -valuable behind.
• 3:14
  By the way, I'm cleaning myself. Where is everyone?
• 3:19
  Is there any sign of a firefight? Where's the
• 3:33
  bridge, Miller? Let's see if the black box could
• 3:35
  tell us anything. What is it, Miller? The ship's
• 3:57
  like, at that point where you knew. Fuck, the
• 4:01
  barb is burning. How? Some kind of fire? Nah.
• 4:07
  Dan is picking up traces of radiation. Looks
• 4:09
  like it was cooked from the inside. Some kind
• 4:11
  of radioactive leak somewhere in here. Strap
• 4:15
  on the black box. Let's see if we can't fix it
• 4:17
  up when it's over here. Holy fuck. Miller, you
• 4:20
  alright? Already on it sir. Haze is running the
• 4:26
  scan now Miller, what was it? Haze? Sir, it's
• 4:41
  clean. I'm gonna run it again just in case. Miller,
• 4:45
  you're free to come back to the ship. Yes, sir.
• 4:54
  It's empty. Nothing on here. He says everything's
• 4:57
  clear, Miller. Are you sure? Alright, Miller.
• 5:10
  Where to next? Alright Miller, head on down.
• 5:42
  What does it look like Miller then? No worries,
• 5:49
  Miller. All right. Concerning, but keep moving.
• 5:53
  Turning on docking day. Right. One. Oh, that's
• 6:03
  a lot. What is it? There's a lot in here, sir.
• 6:09
  I can account for probably about a little over
• 6:11
  a thousand parts. Most of them that I can see,
• 6:16
  tired of it, sir. What do we do? What are the
• 6:23
  radiation levels there, Miller? My sense to say
• 6:34
  nothing too, sir. We bring aboard all the courier
• 6:36
  mail, grab everything, and put it in our cargo
• 6:39
  hold. Get engineering, get them to rig the heavy
• 6:42
  magnetic tow umbilicals, get them to plug them
• 6:44
  into the punter's nose, and we'll take the ship
• 6:47
  with us. Sir, Tommy Deadmass will burn 12 % extra
• 6:51
  fuel on the satellite burn. Then we burn the
• 6:54
  fuel haze. The crew didn't make it, but their
• 6:56
  route does. Get the lines locked. We can strip
• 7:00
  the ship for parts, take its remaining fuel,
• 7:02
  and we'll all walk out with a little bit more
• 7:04
  than what we came into this with. Sounds like
• 7:07
  a good idea. Copy that, sir. Engineering has
• 7:10
  been engaged. Miller, stay with the away team.
• 7:13
  Copy that, sir. I'll be in a few. Captain's log.
• 7:25
  The Wendigo. Log 4562. Stored to private partition.
• 7:32
  The punter is secured to our stern on heavy magnetic
• 7:35
  tow lines. Boarding team just finished up wrapping
• 7:38
  the transportation of the parcels from the punter.
• 7:42
  The strange parcel sat in the centre, welded
• 7:46
  down in place. At first we attempted to move
• 7:49
  it, but it was a large box, 2 .4 metres made
• 7:52
  out of solid granite and lead. Deep scans show
• 7:55
  no trace of radiation or any kind of organic
• 7:58
  matter. That being said, the crew and I decided
• 8:01
  we weren't going to take the chance. There was
• 8:05
  radiation. Blitz off it. Bought that punter.
• 8:09
  But we weren't going to take the chance. We've
• 8:11
  left the crate on the ship. It was destined for
• 8:14
  the same place as the others. Epsilon. We're
• 8:16
  going to figure out what to do with it. Hopefully
• 8:18
  before we get there. What's? More worrying, Miller
• 8:22
  had said he caught something on the corner of
• 8:24
  his eye while he was visiting the ship's bridge.
• 8:27
  He said he saw a shape, something, with limbs
• 8:30
  crawling across the exterior of the hull. Hayes
• 8:36
  ran the optical sweep and found nothing. I'm
• 8:39
  gonna chalk it up to optical fatigue. Miller
• 8:43
  scored on the top 3 % of cognitive processing.
• 8:46
  He survived from the trenches and got here. In
• 8:50
  all the layers, I don't think there'd be a more
• 8:51
  capable man to know what he saw. I didn't tell
• 8:55
  Hayes or any of the other crew. I don't want
• 8:57
  anyone thinking Miller is losing his nerve. My
• 9:00
  worry is that he's right. This is Captain Isaiah
• 9:04
  Cole of the Wendigo. We are… 49 hours from Tardis.
• 9:10
  Signing off.