Transport 1
slowed as it approached the ice cloud.
The pilot looked over the field and muttered to himself “where is
she?” He had a track on the locator
beacon and had heard the distress call but couldn’t get a lock. The ice cloud was not just a problem for
visibility it interfered with all of the other sensors and with radio
communications as well.
“Captain
Stewart, this is transport 1. Do you
copy?”
The craft
drifted into the ice cloud slowly. The
pilot was looking for any sign of life ahead while he directed the ship toward
the locator beacon.
Transport 3
headed into the cloud a few hundred kilometers from transport 1 in the
direction the cloud was heading. The
pilot was a little less cautious but was heading toward where the computer
models predicted the larger fragments of the broken ship would be located. The ice started accumulating on the hull and
obstructing the view ports severely limiting visibility. “Look sharp people.” The pilot announced to his passengers “And
keep an eye on that locator beacon, we are getting close.”
Transport 4
continued at full velocity toward the leading edge of the cloud which would
give them the ability to just let the debris float to them. This 3 pronged approach would give many options
for locating their distressed captain somewhere in the opaque cloud floating
slowly away from the asteroid.
Transport 2
gently landed on the asteroid less than a kilometer from the crater caused by
the impact of transport 6. They quickly
set about preparing the survey team as the pilot shut down the engines and
secured an anchor to keep the craft from drifting away. The pilot extended a camera above the craft
to get a higher perspective on the crater.
“Albatross
Station, this is transport 2.” The pilot announced.
“Go ahead
transport 2.” The reply echoed through the transport.
“We are on
station a few hundred meters from the crater.” The pilot checked the condition
of the survey team. “The survey team should be heading out shortly. I’m sending our precise location now.”
“Very well
transport 2. We’ll send the required
survey pattern as soon as it is ready.”
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