Keeping up with the Kardashevs

Part 17

The next day I opened my eyes with Vicky yelling at me in my head to get up. Her and the triplets were in my room waiting for me. I moved bodies and got to my office. "We detected a new signal and I think I recognized one of them," Vicky said. A jumped in "we picked up what looked like a battle on the edge of our sensor range". I looked at him "how bad of a battle". "I caught 27 shots fired, I'm assuming there were more though. It's 45 AU from earth so it's just a quick jump". I smiled "Vickey is there anybody in transit to earth".
"No sir" I smiled "let's do it, shields up,weapons up, cloak engaged and jump as soon as you can".

I went to the bridge and as soon as I sat we jumped to less than 1000 km away. There were pieces of the ships everywhere. "Vicky go after the computer and get what you can" she nodded. The largest ship was a cylinder with one big engine on the back, It had no windows. "What can you tell me?". A looked at me "I'm showing no life signs anywhere sir, the large ship has decompressed and looks abandoned".

"How many ships were here". B stepping in "I'm estimating there are 3 ships here sir but no idea who was attacking who".
"Send a drone to scan," he nodded. Vicky turned to me "sir I have the computer and this is a slave transport vessel. It seems we happened across a beef between clans. This was the equivalent of a drive by shooting".

"Make sure we leave no evidence of us being here". Just as I finished, the video from the drone popped up. It was built like a mobile prison, there were cages and chains everywhere. It looked disgusting and I was glad I wasn't there to smell it.

"Do we have all the navigation information". She nodded "I downloaded it all so we can sort through it later". I nodded at that and looked through the eyes of the drone. I took control and went around the ship. The breach was in the nose leaving the ship whole for the most part. I looked in quarters and they didn't reveal much until I came across the captain's.

It had a galley and it was nasty with chunks of flesh frozen to the counter. I opened the drawers and saw weird looking utensils and what I would assume was a plate. I saw what looked like a cooler so I opened it and there it was.

A human foot in a glass case "Vicky grab that and get it back here". She nodded "C scan for any other remains" another nod then he looked away for a second. "I'm picking up 12 different species, none of them human".

"There is nothing here but death" I said and the others nodded. "Recall everything and make sure there is no trace of us here. We aren't ready yet for them to come snooping. Finish your scans and let's go home". We did just that.
The foot showed up on the bridge "what can you tell me Vickie".

"Male, 32 years old and he had nanobots, But they are nothing like ours. He has been dead for at least a year. I'm not sure I want to know why there are bite marks and gnawing on the bone. I'm checking their files on the foot and he was classed as a great warrior that was barely defeated in hand to hand combat in an area. This is a trophy, to ingest the enemy you gain his power. That's nasty".

"I agree but humans did it too so we can't judge. Can you get a clear DNA profile, we might be able to give some family some closure".
"Running it now" she retorted. "His name is James Hollower and he disappeared 15 years ago from a state park".
"This is a mystery for another day, put this in stasis". She giggled "I will put it in with your body".

"You kept it?" I looked at her. She shrugged "what else was I going to do with it so I used it to calibrate the medsbeds and stuck it in the freezer". I shook my head. "Are we done for now getting nodds I went to the shower and let the jets beat away the stress of the morning. Lisa met me at the door with a lick that melted the rest of them.

We got to the kits home to discover the kids had discovered jello and were having a ball. I sat and enjoyed the show with Lisa in my lap.

I checked in with Sandy and got pulled into a debate with a military guy over the safety of my equipment and I could be helping in other places. I told him it takes time and staffing and I'm working on both as we speak. Sandy informed me that she would be done in about 20 hours, that made me smile. Another 3 candidates were poached from the locals for me to meet, which made me happy as well.
"I'm going to leave it up to you when you want to start branching out". She nodded in agreement as she ate. "I will let you eat in peace" and I dropped the line.