Cold Call - [Sibby-verse 1]

6

Lito looks at me as I look at him to see Caddy staring at us and I shrug. I haven't the slightest idea what's gotten into Eds. The navboard goes leery with their nerves amping up in a "what's going on here?" vibe. Wonder of wonders is that Dells, Zee and Cat seem nonchalant about it all. I direct the navboard to work on our course outta here and back on track for Endeavors, which is now five starhours away from this position. I also have them run all scans on this region, just in case. Again.

Questions? That initial clip said it was a distress signal from both Five and Six. Merchie's Nap is Unit Five's ship so, where's the Trader's Delight? It's another dropship like Merchie's Nap. Where did they get hit and who fired on them? Was it the Resolute? If so, why are they wanting us to go near New Gaia for the cold call if they're out here skulking our off-chart routes shooting at folks? Not logging and filing courses is turning out to be a bad idea...it's a bad idea overall but even amplified more so now. I really want to be there for Eds and Addie-Lit's talk. Maybe she can talk some sense into him if everyone else is running?

Long and short-range scans clear, still – Trippy
Good work – me
Hmph – Trippy
Navboard agreement
Can it! – me

To keep the navboard occupied while they're getting justifiably disgruntled, I have them run Merchie's Nap trajectories as I coax the Merchie's Nap nav-comm to link to ours so we can gather info and maybe get some extra insight on things. I decide to enlist Caddy and Dells since they're Cyface system peeps. I also have the navboard plot out escape routes just in case. I scan deeplink mili' chatter, which Lito confirms there's no mention of any action taken against anyone anywhere.... not surprising.

I'm also currently resisting the urge to disobey orders to go assist Twink and Ra-Ra. We're Unit Two's physicians. Rescue med work as an ETS (emergency-trauma-surgery) physician is among my multiple licenses and what I love to do most. I'd love to be down there assessing injuries, stabilizing patients, fixing injuries so people can get some semblance of their lives back. But alas! I'm stuck on the bridge.

As the XO and privy to all reports, I immediately demand them of the Capitalist so I can have information correlated for Eds. Fortunately, the Capitalist has the latest comp-sys suite out there and is handily absorbing Merchie's Nap's data streams, indexing the data and forming reports with preliminary highlights already that Caddy and Dells send over to me.

A quick overview shows that they took five different and direct hits from the SES Resolute just outside the Front's Edge, that's over eighty some lightyears away from our current position, in a duck-hit-run engagement. The last hit took out their Core with hull breeches. They limped their way here to the Sol's Edge on their unSOLgins and were stranded once the unSOLgins went offline, until we picked them up. There's no mention why the Resolute, a Colony-class ship that's ten times bigger than a dropship fired on the Merchie's Nap.

Were they answering their own cold call?

Not bad outrunning a colony-classer, although they took damage with casualties. The SES Resolute could've easily blown them into smithereens with one shot. Dropships, with a max peep hold of twenty are highly maneuverable and typically run screen for the colony-classers, armed.

*** You realize you're Unit Two's new CO if some-else happ's to Eds, right? *** Lito, mood rebellious.
*** Whadda'ya implying? *** me, mood narrow-eye.
*** Just pointing out, is all. We might need to mutiny we can't get 'em to change his mind on this. ***
*** Hmph. ***
*** I'm surprised you're still following orders myself. *** Lito, mood eyebrow up.
*** I DO follow orders...most of the time. Need to cover our cans first, Lieutenant. ***
*** Of course sir! ***
*** You wanna bend rules round here, what's on Eds boards you've peeked at? ***
*** mood clear throat *** Lito.