"Oh great. There's little of that left now. What wasn't stripped and used to build the colonies was torched by the Labs!"
"Still, could be worth a hop over there to make sure."
Admittedly a long shot, the data storage used on the ship may have survived. It had been designed to last over a hundred years in some of the most extreme conditions imaginable after all.
"Better bring some shovels..."

We load the shuttle with some crew, a few guards and Duke's tools plus some helpers of his (that aren't pregnant.). Looking into a ships nursery..

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 48):

So is Duke...he is creating the need!

Bill Gates would be the man of choice, and perhaps Illiam driving? Or Kat?

The trip to the site is straightforward. It has been well worked over with plasma weaponry. Small gravesites are marked around.

Or the much overlooked, exceptional ex-spetnaz and pilot, Ivan.

Da... but screw up and see how overlooked you are.

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 51):

All options...

In reply to Fate (msg # 52):

As noted, the site is starting to be overgrown. The remains of the original starship had been used to create the main colonial buildings. They had been hit hard in the Labrysian government forces.

However, you have heard that mercenaries sent to assist the colony visited the Labrysian government ship and obtained considerable resources to return the favour. They found some were still alive, a situation they quickly rectified with three losses.

"Good," Meir stated with great satisfaction when he'd heard more of the Lab scum had been killed.
"The drives might be over in that area," he suggested, pointing at a large pile of burnt rubble which used to be a building.
"If you've got any high tech toys, now, before we start digging, would be the time to use them."

In reply to Meir Galinski (msg # 54):

"We have scanners, but what are we looking for? What can the stripped out drives give us?"

"Information."
"We talked about this before. The Tel Aviv passed by a number of systems we're looking to survey. While we did so we did a little more than star gazing. What else were we to do in the months, or in some cases years we were in range of some stars?"
The data was a few decades old, and probably wasn't as good as the Dastavka could do, but it was still more than they already had. A day or three's work here on Acquitaine could save weeks later, provided they could find the drives and they hadn't been too badly damaged by the Lab attack.

In reply to Meir Galinski (msg # 56):

"On all ships I know, all that sort of data was kept in the main computers and backup computers, which were kept as far as possible from the drives due to the high power and associated surge associated with the main drives. Was there some small computer or unusual or secret stash there I should now about?"

OK, Lets send one team to inspect the hulk and see if the can find the drives or other computers.

The other team can comb through the remains of this building. Both teams need to exercise great care, as both structures are damaged and not strong.

Meir flashed confusion for a moment.
"No, I meant the computer storage drives, not the ships propulsion drives."

In reply to Meir Galinski (msg # 59):

"Oh, of course. I took the liberty of getting the design from the historical archives, so I can scan through for that, but I am guessing the Government pricks would have targeted that. Lets see..."

He pulls out his scanner and laptop. On his laptop are the design plans for the ship, and he scans through them using the scanner.

"Yep, found most of the systems. Since the colonists were using them ads their main computer, it looks like they were smashed. However, there does seem to be a small system that was not obviously smashed since it was not used except as a backup. They seem to have kept it in a safe under what used to be the mates quarters. We can dig out the safe, but opening it might be more challenging."

"Opening it won't be a problem unless the mechanism is damaged."
Almost everyone on the planet was a member of the ships crew, and had spent their turn out of the freezers as part of the active maintenance and flight teams. Finding somebody with the code was simply a matter of asking around.

In reply to Meir Galinski (msg # 61):

"Why is that? Most of engineering would have been right here, right? Besides, asking everyone  about a secret data cache on the generation ship might not enhance trust of each other."

I doubt that cache was secret at all... some other stuff may be, but Meir had access then, so shouldn't have any issues now.

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 63):

"Guess so. Should I try to pick it or will you try to find someone living who know"s the code?

Perhaps you should try the old code you knew... it may not have changed....

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 65):

"If Meir ever knew it. It was the 2IC's room after all..."

Cyril grins... He was a security guy and a scout...

"Communications and Expeditionary," he corrected with more emphasis on the later than the former.
"Security on a colony ship of this size wasn't all that important. In fact, we had nobody specifically assigned to that role and only the small team of Expeditionaries had anything more than basic weapons training."
"The safe wasn't about security from theft but protecting the survey data from damage in case there was an accident. It wasn't designed to withstand total destruction of the ship, but could handle exposure to fire, explosive decompression, micro meteor impact, and a few other possible scenarios."
"It wasn't supposed to handle this level of destruction," he waved at the ashes and rubble, "But I'm hoping the building it was in shielded it from the worst of the damage."
Having the code wasn't necessarily going to do them much good either as it may have been changed in the years since he last accessed the safe. Also, the safe itself may have suffered damage to it's locks or hinges while still protecting it's contents. Nothing short of industrial cutting equipment would get it open then at the risk of destroying what was inside.
"Once found, I think it's best to take it back to the main colony and see if anyone there can open it. It's still Aquatainian property after all."

In reply to Meir Galinski (msg # 68):

"Or we could drill a hole and fill it with Blast foam, then use a fusion torch in the shuttle workshop to cut off the hinges..."

No Duke, we take it back to the owners...if we find it.

"Keep an eye out for anything else that can be salvaged too. Even scrap metal is useful."
"Could be some bodies too. The few survivors and I couldn't find everyone before we had to leave Landfall."
Meir still had flashbacks of that week in hell and trouble sleeping. Being back amongst the carnage wasn't helping his mental health much.