Another day, another planet. It was strange. So much about the circumstance was the same. A drop pod. A drone body. On the other hand….

  They were far less prepared. The maintenance drones didn’t have built-in guns until a couple of hours before. The drone he was riding? Was spare parts and a bunch of cut-up armor plates welded on.

  And their destination?

  Gravity was insignificant. Less than 0.15G. He could leap hundreds of meters back in his old, unaugmented body. The rocks had a strange, grey-green color. There wasn’t much atmosphere; but there was some, giving a greenish cloud cover to events instead of letting him see the stars.

  And…. the cave had some very visible scrape-marks. Something massive had been dragged into it, after landing just outside.

  He focused a moment. “This is Bjorn, at the cave entrance. Clear marks of artificial presence. Something big, too.” He checked the weapon. A classic Republic assault rifle with an underslung 50mm grenade launcher. He raised it, aiming forward, as he moved in…

  Two of the flying drones flew in first. He could see the map as they laid it out. The drag marks kept going… and…

  There was a wire on the floor. A broken one. There may have been an antenna on the outside, at some point. But right now? He could hear the rhythmic three-beat pattern of the distress call loud and clear.

  And see…. Three escape pods.Old, classic ones. Pressed right up against each other, likely bolted or welded, with the wire running from one of them, and what looked like part of another ship attached to the lot.

  The whole thing looked weird. But… surprisingly sturdy. In fact, it looked as if it had continued to be moved after being put together… by the engine mounted to that other ship part, judging by the ancient pattern of melted rock.

  As Thor drew closer, the maintenance drones arrived at the strange amalgamation, and started scanning… showing dozens of power sources lighting up his screen.

  And one of them was moving.

  When he reached the pods, he studied them, the way they were hooked up… they weren’t designed to be used as a base. They had to have attached the opening on two of them to each other. But how did they get a seal on the third one?

  He was concerned that, if someone were alive inside, trying to get in might kill them.

  He considered it a bit longer… before picking up the wire, and activating his own comms, this time on an open band.

  “This is Thor, of the Independent Starship Sapper. Is anyone listening in there? Can you hear me? Rescue has arrived, but we aren’t sure how to safely get in there.”

  The moving energy source stopped… and abruptly moved to the other end of the weird structure, slamming into something loud enough he could hear it though the drone’s feet.

  ~Good lord, is it amazing to hear your voice! Sergeant Peter Tomas, Alliance marines. My cryo pod started defrosting me a day or two ago when we first heard comm signals, but I was afraid nobody was coming and was about to start getting ready for the deep freeze again. Have the monsters been cleared from the system? Is it safe to leave?~

  Thor stared at the wire in the drone’s hands. Fuck. Not just signs of survivors. But… An actual, living, Alliance soldier. How old was this wreck? How hostile would he be? Should they help him?

  “Negative, but we’re safe for the moment, and should be able to retrieve everyone if we can figure out logistics. I came down here in a drop pod, and am currently piloting a drone we could leave behind if we needed to.”

  He shook his head. “That means we can get three out right now. I can call in a shuttle, or a bigger ship, but we want to minimize exposure to possible attack. What’s our count for survivors?”

  There was a few moments on the other end before the reply came.

  ~Twenty-nine, including myself. All but me frozen. The pods held ten each, but one of them died when he got thawed.~

  Thor blinked. Well, that sucked. Cryogenics was dangerous for unaugmented people, but the Chinese had baked surviving it into the very first augment centuries ago, so it wasn’t as big a deal now. “Do we want to retrieve the body of the fallen one as well?”

  ~No need. I’d prefer not to get into the why, but can explain if we have to. If space is a concern, I should probably thaw the remaining officers and crew before pickup, I don’t give good odds all of them can be revived after this much time.~

  “They got implants, at least?”

  ~...Implants? Like interface? A couple of the slaves have implants to let them sync up to devices, but none of the crew.~

  “...As-in, preserve consciousness, digital implants?”

  ~...We’re officers, crew, and chattel in here. Nobody with enough cash for that would be on a colony expedition.~

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  Chattel. Lovely. Of course the Alliance would bring slaves on a colony expedition, and one of their marines would act like they were just animals. “Understood. I’ll talk to my captain and figure out how to handle this.”

  Well. That was… all sorts of problems.

  ***

  Less than a light-second away in orbit, the emitter by Thor’s prone body lit up. “Uhhh… we’ve got Alliance officers and crew, as well as slaves. Mostly frozen. Not a one with an implant.”

  They stopped, staring at each other. Time was of the essence. Any moment now, the light from their arrival would reach the closest among the monsters scattered across the system, and one would start heading their way.

  They weren’t 100% about how fast they could move. But, worst-case-scenario? Even if there were none on this planet, if there was one in the asteroid belt where the dragons were hiding out, it could spot them in seven minutes, and maybe be there in another twenty-one after that.

  They wanted to be gone in twenty minutes, if possible.

  Kyle leaned forward. “How many?”

  “Twenty-nine and one corpse, between three escape pods, all deep inside the cave. Only one ambulatory, the rest frozen.”

  “.... So long as we keep them all frozen, we can postpone deciding how to deal with them for now. I think we should land the ship. Have the maintenance bots load everything up… and then get out. We can decide what to do with the lot of them in Darkspace on the way home.”

  The group looked at each other. None of them seemed too comfortable about the topic, or really wanting to bring it up… Sherry spoke first.

  “We should rescue the slaves, yes. But leave the actual soldiers on the ground. If the Alliance wants its people, it can rescue them itself.”

  Elise sighed. “I don’t think the one marine on the ground will let us do that without a fight. And maybe they started as a bunch of pirates and religious whackos, but their marines have never been pushovers. Plus… we don’t know who are really good guys and bad. Some slaves are secretly Alliance operatives. Some of their crew are secretly Slave Union agents. Really… we need to get all of them, and figure out the truth before we decide. Or even better, let the dubs figure out the truth and decide.”

  Sherry focused on her, gripping the handles of her seat and shaking her head. “No way do we want one of their marines on board. Not alive. He might try to abduct the lot of us and sell us as slaves, and damage the ship in the process of getting killed.”

  Kyle rapped one knuckle on the desk. “Probably not an issue. As old as those escape pods are? The Alliance wasn’t that big back then. My grandfather probably trained him. All I need to do is introduce myself and we can keep him quiet til we get back. Thor can use my name, even, and he should go along. Though….”

  He looked around at the crew. “...We need to make sure he doesn’t get a call out, for now. Maybe the dubs can give him an implant and some NDA software? Or, hell. The Empire agreed to pay for it, they would, too. But… we don’t know what that picture looks like.”

  He shook his head. “Poisseux. Land us, cargo bay door facing that cave, as fast as you can. I’m gonna have all the maintenance bots gather there, and we’ll drag the whole thing aboard.”

  Kyle sighed. “Everyone else… Thor, let the marine know we’re coming. Elise, Sherry, Barry… man the guns and be ready. If one of those Krakens arrives and we’re too close to the planet, we’re only gonna have moments before it hits to get out of the way.”

  Barry nodded… before glancing at the two women, then back to Kyle. “...Mind if I ask why? I mean… these people have been stranded here, frozen, for years. Why not just alert the dubs to get them later?”

  “We just painted a target on that cave. Now that we’ve been there, and in orbit of it, too…. One of these beasties is probably going to investigate. Maybe you’re fine with the marine getting killed, but are you equally calm about all the slaves dying when a dragon eats the ship they’re frozen in?”

  “...Well. No. Not really.”

  ***

  “Alright, Sergeant Tomas. I’m currently remotely piloting a drone just outside your door. We should keep everyone frozen until we get them back to civilization, but Captain Huxley has asked me to get you people ready for retrieval. We want to keep everyone frozen until we get to civilization, and would prefer you not ending up dead. You got a good suit and air?”

  The response sounded excited.

  ~Captain Huxley? Seriously? Thats amazing! Okay, ahh… yes. I’ve got a suit, and all the cryo-pods are sealed but mine. I’ve only got about two days worth of air, though, so I’d prefer not to spend too much more in here, since I’m not getting re-frozen.~

  Thor looked at the two spider-like maintenance bots, each a couple of meters long… and wondered if, in the reduced gravity, they could actually move the pods. They looked enormous… but would only have like a tenth of the usual weight here.

  He directed the two that came with him… and they took up positions. Four of their thick magnet-ended limbs on the ground, the others burrowing beneath the structure which had been there for decades…

  And smoothly lifting it off the ground with an eerie silence.

  ~Holy shit, I just felt the pods move. Is your ship already here? This thing hasn’t moved since… uhh… however many years ago I first went into the freeze.~

  “I’ve got a couple of maintenance bots, dragging it to the cave entrance now. Just buckle up. We’re gonna make this as fast as possible so we don’t get nabbed by a Kraken.”

  There was silence for a moment. The wire was dragging behind the mass of pods, and Thor picked it up, following it towards the cave entrance.

  ~A Kraken? I guess that works. Giant black space monster, breathes plasma? I’d have called it a dragon, myself.~

  “Oh, no. There’s two kinds we’ve seen so far. One that can spit plasma, and one that turns invisible.”

  ~Holy fuck. One that spits plasma, one that can move FTL without darkmass, and one that can turn invisible? That’s crazy. Can you imagine how terrifying one that could do all three would be?~

  Thor stopped… as the two drones kept hauling the cargo container away. “I…I’m sorry, what? FTL?”

  ~Oh, yeah. It kept its distance, but while the dragons were chasing us, there was this tiny, tentacle-covered beastie watching us… only when the dragons tried to catch it, it moved so fast we thought it teleported. After the first few times we realized it was actually moving FTL between spots, though it took some time between hops. It didn’t attack us or anything, but weirded us the hell out.~

  Thor thought for a moment, about the images. About the positions of the creatures. “....Well, hell.”

  He looked at the mission timer. The light from their arrival at this world was hitting the asteroid belt now, and would be hitting the other worlds soon. Given how incredibly sensitive these creatures were to the appearance of large metal objects and heat sources, and that the stealth panels of the Sapper were pointed at the planet itself, not out into the system?

  This could be a problem.