Blaiseport
And they're back!
Heather and Horace look up some quick information.
The salvage company is one of many that operate on the fringes of Human space, often searching for battlefield debris. This is a lucrative but erratic job, as one can go years without finding anything, and then make an important discovery. Alien warship components are the most important thing, and hard to come by. The Carinan vessels destroy themselves to avoid capture. No crew, all machine, so it's probably an easy decision for them. The Navy pays the salvagers for their finds, as these components have intelligence value to the military. This enables dozens of salvagers to scour space without spreading out valuable Navy assets.
Maybe it's bad timing for this salvage company: they apparently have two ships, but both are unavailable due to required maintenance work. They must be thinking something valuable is out there and won't wait, because they want to hire your ship to carry their stuff.
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The businesswoman merely wants documents transported. This is effectively no cargo area, and you would be fairly paid for it, but there are two conditions: the ship must leave immediately and the documents must be delivered in person to her regional office at Kuripan. Of course, you could take other passengers and cargo, assuming they were also going direct to Kuripan.
The scientific expedition is going off to Kayon to do research on the strange "ecosentient" forest developing there. It would be passengers and cargo for a fairly long trip.
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Alwin meets with Armande Kotaki in person, because the ICS spokesman wants it that way. No interceptable communications. Everything human to human. What he has to say seems to tie in to the salvage company's desperation to find a ship, maybe they are after the same thing. Armande quickly explains that time is of the essence, word of this is spreading. Very likely, the Navy will want to handle this themselves, they've already sent for ships but are keeping it secret. Or maybe they, too, will want to hire the Albatross.
But what IS it?
Carinan ships are machines. Robotic. They carry out their instructions precisely, and they commit machine suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured. Almost always. But there have been rumors that one of their scout ships, a type of vessel the Navy calls a "Junkyard B" has become erratic. It's behavior broke from Carinan norms so much that it actually fought off another Carinan vessel, during the confusing battle that left a Commonwealth frigate crippled- you passed it on the way in, it recently returned and repairs have just begun.
The damaged frigate's crew made a mistake when they returned: they sent a message that was uncoded in parts, and picked up by a few others... including the ICS. It contained facts the Navy hasn't officially discussed yet.
The Junkyard B types are the Carinans own version of a salvage ship, and also do intelligence gathering and surveillance. Just as the Commonwealth tries to collect Carinan technology, the Carinans do it back to humanity.
This particular Junkyard B, displaying the afore mentioned erratic behavior, was badly damaged in the fight, and alone. Normally a ship like that would have simply destroyed itself. This one apparently aimed itself at a nearby planet, and made an approach that would certainly leave nothing but an impact crater. But before doing so, a component detached, and the detached component was tracked making a clearly controlled descent. This has never been seen before.
The ICS suspects this is a "true" Carinan intelligence, not a mere machine like all the others. It clearly was trying to preserve its existence. Like any other thinking creature it did not want to die.
The ICS wants to find it, and try to communicate with it. It would be the breakthrough all of humanity has been hoping for. Naturally this is a dream for the ICS. They would become the most prestigious scientific organization in the Hundred Worlds! Think of the Grant Money that would pour in!
