A lifetime ago, the OSC Inquisitor might have been classified as a deep sea trawler, not an exploration vessel. And if you looked at it just right, you could still see some of the utilitarian functionality in the way the wheelhouse was placed on the main deck and the large mast that rode atop it. The stack was just atop a second structure that had vents and hatches visible, and both Lorleii and Karen could both hear the intake fans for the main turbine softly whining as the boat was being loaded for it's upcoming deployment.
However, with the modifications that had been made, it no longer looked the part of a fishing boat. Many of the surface sensor antennas appeared to have been welded onto the mast where ever it was convenient, and a pair of elector-magnetic sensor suite receivers stood guard against the stack port and starboard. The most noticeable addition was the variable depth towed sonar array with it's over-sized winch and other associated control equipment on the fantail.
As the two women approached, one of the scientist waved to them, walked down the gangplank and met them on the main pontoon. “Good morning ladies we've been expecting you.”, he said as he gave them a nod, “I'm Doctor Artur Helferich, Head of Oceanography and Aquatic Anomaly Research here on Curacao.”
“I'm Karen Banks, OS&C Public Relations, and this is Lorleii Darksaint. It's her mother's missing fighter that we're hoping that you've found.”
“Well as I told you when we spoke earlier, we've found something that seems to be the right size not too far off the coast of Diogo.” The Doctor pointed to the two others that were still busy on deck bringing small containers from the brow to the wheelhouse, “Anyways, that's my Dive Master Terry Mac Mahnas, and our Sonar Technician, Rachel Reicks. Once we have our equipment stowed the Captain says will be ready to cast off once you stow your gear.”
“Thank you for your help, Doctor.” Lorleii said earnestly, “If we can find out where my mother's ship went down and why, perhaps it will lend more light to her disappearance.” She turned and headed up the gangplank, stopping half way up, “Oh, almost forgot, permission to come aboard...”
It had already been a busy morning, the Inquisitor had cruised over the anomaly area twice, first dropping a number of high frequency side beam sono-bouys then on the subsequent pass had deployed it's variable depth towed array. After reviewing the holo-projections of the newly gathered data, the science team had confirmed that it was indeed a fighter that was on the ocean floor.
Now Karen sat and listened quietly as Rachel, Lorleii, Terry and Dr. Helferich conferred next to the three-dimensional image of the wrecked fighter and the surrounding ocean floor was being displayed.
“Rachel, bring up the gain from the side-beam transducers a little.” The doctor looked at the image with a look of concern, “It appears that some sort of camouflage netting has been placed over the craft, more than likely just after the recovery of the pilot. I would say that as the cockpit is still closed, this was a voluntary touchdown, not the result of an accident or combat damage.”
“Well, we know that my mother made it back to the island... I've seen the CCTV footage showing her at the resort five days ago.” Lorleii leaned in to give the image a closer look, “Can we go down to get a better look?”
“M 'fraid na, Miss.”, Terry pointed at the depth reading on the display, 'See her, forty meters? Witout being s'perienced, I canna take ya down that deep. We'd af to raise it, f'ya wanna closer look.”
Lorleii turned to the Dive Master, “How long would that take?”
“We af da recovery 'bots on board, think enough to do da job.” Terry's brogue got deeper as he explained further, “Depends on ow much buoyancy is left in da ship. 'Ard part is r'movin da netting, witout gett'n tangled. E'f we cun do tat, were gold'n.”
Karen spoke up, “You think your mother left something behind, Lor?”
“I think so, K. If she thought there was going to be trouble, I'd eventually come looking if I didn't hear from her.” Lorleii thought for a moment, “Might not be anything too obvious either, but we won't know for sure until we get a look inside the ship. So what do you think, can we raise it?”
“I'll probably catch hell from accounting when I submit my expense report for this.” Karen said as she grinned mischievously, “Maybe even Pines as well, but he did say to concentrate solely on this. Besides, it will give the bean counters something to worry about...” She stood, looked at the members of the OS&C science team and her new friend, “Bring it up.”
The next few hours were spent by the Inquisitor's crew preparing the aquatic recovery bots and deploying them overboard. After their decent, there were still a few tense moments while the still unexplained camouflage netting was removed, and the air bladders were attached to the wreck, but now all was ready to raise the fighter from the ocean floor.
The Dive Master looked up from the console where he was coordination the tasks from the ocean floor via video feed, “K , alls ready ta go, Doc.”
“Right, bring the ship up easy, Terry.”, Doctor Helferich replied softly.
“Aye...” The minutes slowly ticked by as the fighter made it's slow, controlled ascent then broke to the surface a short distance from the Inquisitor. The Marauder was in very good shape, considering that it had spend the better part of a fortnight at the bottom of the ocean.
As the ship maneuvered closer to the fighter riding the swells nearby, Lorleii wondered if it was indeed her mother's craft and what she and Karen would find any clues once they searched the cockpit. Her thoughts were disturbed by the gentle bump of the two craft easing next to each other, side by side.
“Looks promising.” Karen said quietly as she walked up and stood next to Lorleii. “Shall we go over and take a look?” Lorleii nodded her assent, then followed as they went over to where a rope ladder had been dropped from the research ship to the fighter's port wing.
The two women climbed down the ladder working their way across the fuselage, each ending up on either side of the cockpit. After finding and activating the exterior canopy release, they both peered in looking for anything that obviously did not belong.
Lorleii sighed, “Well, I can't see anything from up here, I'm going to slide into the seat to get a different view.”, she said as she began to worm her way into the pilot's seat.
“Alright, but don't think of taking off anywhere, I'm not buckled in.”, Karen said with a grin then added, “So... you see anything amiss?”
“Not yet, give me a minute... hmm... what's this?” Lorleii said as she fished around under the console. Here...” she said as she handed Karen a small flattened cylinder inscribed with a sun and orbiting planet logo. On the end was what appeared to be a connection so it could be plugged into a comm tablet. “Looks like some sort of data drive, it was jammed up on top of the control yoke. Let's get back aboard the Inquisitor, get it plugged in and see what we've got here.”
After securing the canopy and climbing back aboard the research vessel, Lorleii went to where her kit had been stowed, took her datapad out and powered it up, then plugged in the data drive. After a few minutes her mother's face appeared on the screen.
“Lor my dear, if you are viewing this, things have gone terribly wrong.” she began.”My associates from the Confederation of Unaligned Worlds have located me, and have promised to do terrible things to you and destroy your new shipping business if I don't cooperate with their demands.“
She took a deep breath, “I'm on my way to meet with Steven Jones on Diogo... your half-brother Danny arranged this meeting so we could discuss my going to ground and to keep you safe.” Her image looked out at Lorleii, a tear running down her cheek.”I wish I could have told you about him prior to the incident in Pennsylvania, you two would have made an unstoppable team... I'm... I'm sorry.”
“If something goes wrong, the plan is that I meet you in the cargo hanger in a few days after things cool off a bit...” Moleigh looked off screen as if watching someone close by, “Gotta run... with any luck I'll see you again.”
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