26/02/2015 – Tracking Down Mika (5)
Pursuing the Kidnappers
They head back for the teleport probe and Tarrant has them transported back on board.
Dirk quickly plugs in the data wafer and interprets the data. It the transponder code, sensor shadow and last known course and speed of the medical ship that came to pick up William Kennedy, as well as details of a mining ship that docked with it after the pickup.
Using Liberators enhanced sensors and some help from Orac, Cyrus is able to do a system wide scan for the two ships. Drent gets the hang of the controls of the Liberator and pushes the ship to maximum on a vector to catch up with the two possible blips.
The Medical Ship
The nearest one is the medical ship, which seems to be on a course for a gas giant, but will take 18 more hours to reach there. At high speed, Liberator should be able to catch up with the ship and they set off, although limiting their speed in order to avoid using too much power.
It takes six hours to catch up with the medical ship and they use ion cannons to disable the medical ship, which is called the Nightingale III.
Dirk and Grant vacc suit up and take a shuttle to dock with the Nightingale III. Dirk does a good job docking and they enter via the airlock.
The ship has been locked on a collision with the gas giant and is empty. They take the black box, head back to the shuttle and dock with Liberator.
Tracking the Mining Ship
Grant contacts Governor Pellen and gives him the stats of the mining ship that docked with the medical ship. He offers to trace it. Grant also gives him the location of the Medical Ship.
Meanwhile, with Orac’s help, Cyrus and Dirk are able to get a more current position on the mining ship. However, with Liberator on low power, they are forced to proceed slowly towards the location. It appears to be heading towards the outer system. After a few hours it appears to slow down and then disappears – it has either jumped, or gone inside something.
Derelict Spaceship
With Liberator relatively low on power and them not wanting to draw the reserves any further, it takes a further ten hours before they arrive in the vicinity of where the mining ship vanished.
Sensors have already detected the powerless hulk of an old, derelict battleship in the location where the mining ship vanished. It is a Kinnear class ship, over 500 years old. There is no power signature, but sensors cannot penetrate the inner part of the ship, as it seems to be insulated. There are though two small probes in orbit that have active scans running.
Mika Hunt suddenly appears on video link. He has William Kennedy sat restrained and gagged in front of him. He is on the flight deck of a ship and has a gun in his hand.
Mika talks to Grant, asking him how they became enemies when they should be working together. He wants the Liberator. He spent 1.5billion credits on making that ship. It belongs to him. He will give Grant 500million credits in return for the Liberator and return his father to him. Alternatively, he will have his father killed.