“Communications, give her a step-by-step way to send over the ship logs. We need more information.”


    “On it, ma’am.”


    She was somewhat surprised she wasn’t more panicked. Maybe it was because she really couldn’t internalize how out of her depth she was, but she had expected to be a gibbering mess on the floor by now.


    Or maybe that was the command training kicking in for once.


    “Navigation, I want you to route all jumps well away from that area. I don’t want anything remotely close to that ship until we can get it powered down.”


    Maybe, just maybe, they could get through this without mass casualties. The ship was far enough out from the station that it wasn’t a threat to regular traffic and it was big enough they didn’t need to worry about miners or haulers from the various belts running near it. The larger the ship the farther they tended to stay away from possible collision fields.


    “Ma’am, initial logs are transmitting. We should know something in a moment.”


    Initial logs? She had never heard that term used, it had always just been ‘logs’.


    “Explain, what are initial logs?”


    “Yes, Ma’am. They are normally just called logs and are all that are requested in normal circumstances. For something like this, we will probably need extended or full logs, which should have the full ship history. Normally too much to bother with, takes a lot of time.”


    Ah, that explains why she had never heard of them. Time was resources and no one wanted to wait around for a data transfer just so they could unload their cargo. The stations administrators could handle paperwork like that while the ships were exchanging cargo and supplies. The only thing she cared about was not letting the station get attacked. A quick credentials check was more than enough for that.


    In most cases at least.


    “I don’t much care for their history Communications, I just want those weapons powered down. Get only what you need for that and let the data-junkies handle the rest.”


    “Yes, ma’am.


    “Transmitted logs indicate that the ship is a deep space explorer. Human make. The name didn’t make it, it was jumbled. The transmission wasn’t fully stable.”


    That explained the size and weapons. The only ones foolish enough to personally venture into deep space for years on end were humans. Everyone else just used probes and jump gates. They were very inefficient, but much much safer. Even most pirates avoided going beyond the edge systems. For the most part, deep space explorers were considered suicide ships, as they didn’t make it back more often than not. The humans always insisted that the big weapons increased the odds.


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    They also insisted a fraction of a percent was an increase, so she didn’t believe a word of it.


    She had a perfect example right in front of her as well.


    “I don’t care one bit about a name, deep space vessels are a nightmare regardless of what they are called. Find out what happened and get me an operations manual for that ship. We need to make it safe.”


    “Ma’am. The logs are indicating a quarantine was called on the ship!”


    She was in a nightmare, she had to be. Not only did she have to deal with a deep space vessel, she had to deal with the maniacs that flew it. And now she was being told they had found something that had forced those maniacs to call a quarantine?! They tossed themselves into deep space, what could possibly be bad enough to call something like a quarantine!


    ‘No calm down. There are obviously people alive over there, they are talking to us. It might be nothing. Some big discovery they are bringing back but are being cautious. Nothing to worry about, just get them the fuel and supplies in a disposable jumper and send them on their way.’


    “Communications, make sure their intent. We can get them whatever they need if they have the credits, but they aren’t getting any closer with that quarantine up.”


    “Yes, ma’am.”


    Alright, this probably wasn’t as bad as she thought. Of course the human ship had weapons on standby, that was just humans. Of course the ship was nearly half the size of the station, it was a deep space vessel. The quarantine was a bit strange, but again, deep space vessel. Strange was standard for them. The lack of communications was probably just….. just…


    She started to feel the tension rise again. She couldn’t come up with a good reason for that.


    “Ma’am, I think you should handle this. I am not sure I am qualified.”


    Oh, there it was. What was the human saying, the other shoe?


    “What do you mean your not qualified!? Patch it through.


    “Unidentified ship, please state your intentions and the reason for quarantine.”


    She waited, the tension in her legs rising as the static crackled back to life.


    “Um, I don’t know anything about a quarantine. Uh, intentions? Um, food maybe?”


    Food maybe? What kind of intentions were ‘food maybe’. Not to mention glossing over a quarantine. Whole planets got shut down for a quarantine. It’s not something to just ‘not know’!


    “Uh, Ma’am? I have been going though some of the logs. It seems like the quarantine was contained by the automated system and a distress signal was turned off. They might not be original owners.”


    Oh good. Someone crazier than humans had claimed salvage on a quarantined deep space vessel.


    She didn’t think that level of insane existed. She might get a scientific achievement for this.


    “Am I right in assuming the quarantine is contained then?”


    “Sort of ma’am. Not so much contained as ‘purged with extreme measures’. But it has been dealt with.”


    That sounded ominous.


    “Is there any more detail?”


    “Yes ma’am. The logs we can read are mostly thorough. Suffice to say they did pretty much everything short of irradiating the entire ship. I am actually curious how anything is supposed to survive something like this.”


    The implication being that they didn’t. Hence the distress call.


    “Protocol still says we need to personally inspect and certify the ship is clean before it can interact with any galactic citizen. We can’t just take the word of an automated system. Unfortunately, that means getting close. Do we still have nothing we can do about those weapons?”


    “No, ma’am. No change there.”


    She sighed.


    “Unidentified ship. Your logs indicate a quarantine. Your ship needs to be inspected before any further interaction. Please power down your weaponry so we can approach or indicate your preferred jump window.”


    She could always hope they just left, right?


    “Um, I don’t know what you need to inspect, since it’s all metal. The water, I guess? Um, I don’t know anything about the weapons, can you show me how?”


    Why did she even get out of bed today?