“Gunnery, bring the shields up to full, condition yellow.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am”
The bridge lighting turns to amber, a general alert goes out to on duty crew and the Captain is sent a wake up alert.
“Lieutenant, what’s the concern?”
“Captain, we have a scan return of 400 tons, unverified composition at present speed we should intercept in 19 minutes.”
“I’m on my way, this area has been thoroughly mapped so there shouldn’t be anything new. Begin slowing the ship, and bring us alongside.”
“Aye, aye”
Ten minutes later the Captain stepped onto the bridge and began looking over shoulders as he tried to make sense of the radar and sensor readings while sipping on a mug of coffee.
“These make no sense whatsoever. Gunnery, can we get visual on it yet?”
“I can get us some light but might be a couple more minutes before we actually see it.”
“Make it so.”
The ship’s main lights came on and through the screen they lit up a swirling cloud of pink, gold, and white. Then in the midst of the mist they saw it, a 16th century fluyt. Though the ship looked very out of place it also was very much intact having all of its rigging and sails set. They slowly approached running only docking thrusters knowing their own ship is massive in comparison, and not wanting to accidentally strike the extremely out of place ship and destroy it. As they came up on its aft end they could read its name across the stern in gleaming brass letters “Dutchman.”
“Sir, have we just found…The Flying Dutchman?”
“It appears so Lieutenant, and being here it certainly is living up to its name.”
“Sir, doesn’t the sighting of The Dutchman usually mean evil portents?”
“Sadly, yes Gunnery and I feel things are going to be wyrd from here out.”
As the bridge crew watched the screen they witnessed a lantern glowing red be hoisted up the mizzen mast followed by a second as her sails all started to furl. The Dutchman came to a full halt and a crewman began waving flags in deliberate patterns at them.
“Sir, I believe they are attempting to signal us.”
“That they are Gunnery, but what are they saying?”
“Sir, the lanterns indicate there is no one in command, and I believe the flag waving is semaphore, but the ship's computer has no information to translate it.”
“Well Lieutenant, I presume they have no other way to hail us, but is this an invitation, or a warning? Seeing as it has no guns it obviously can’t shoot at us. Anyone feel we should board her?”
“Sir, pardon? Are you crazy?”
“Helm, what is that supposed to mean? We know it is solid, therefore it is not a trick of the sensors. We can clearly see it is crewed. The next logical step would be to board her as we would any other derelict ship, and offer aid as needed.”
“But Sir, we all know the stories of the Dutchman, and it seems quite the risk to try and board her.”
“All the same, they have indicated they are without command, and signalling us.”
“For all we know though that signal could be ‘get lost and leave us alone.”
“Point taken. Set up a gravitational lock on the Dutchman, pull her in close, prepare a boarding party.”
“Aye, aye, but I want it on record that I feel this is a bad decision.”
“Noted.”
The Dutchman is locked in a gravity field and eased closer as the boarding party assembled in airlock bay portside. The boarding party was suited up for walking into the void of space and as the two ships' hulls came together the party stepped through the magnetic field separating them from the void.
The deck of the Dutchman felt solid. The party felt their dread lessen a slight bit as they walked the deck.
“Captain, this is security officer Jones. The deck over here is covered in space dust several centimeters deep and there are no footprints beyond our own here. It kind of feels like walking on the surface of Luna.”
“But we clearly saw a man waving flags at us.”
“Yes Captain, but you should be able to see my feed and there are no footprints here.”
“S O, the Captain’s quarters are empty yet nothing seems missing. There is a hyper acurite start chart laying across the table, dividers, compass, sextant, chronometer, all are sitting there like the Captain just left. Clothes in the wardrobe, kids toys, across the floor, dinner set on the other end of the table…this is really weird.”
“You hearing all of this, Captain?”
“Yes and watching the helmet feeds as well.”
“Sir, the scans are getting weaker. I think the boarding party needs to abandon the Dutchman stat.”
“Jones, you hear that? Get your crew back here stat!”
“Aye, aye Sir.”
As the party steps off the Dutchman its sails unfurl, and it sublimes into a green mist and off the sensors.
“Captain, S O Jones didn’t come back.”
“Are we absolutely sure about that?”
“Yes sir, Security Officer David Jones was still on the Dutchman when it left.”
“And he isn’t just off the port side floating in space?”
“No sir.”
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