"Lodos IV, this is passenger liner Tau Rubycon. Undocking sequence complete. We are stowing the docking system. You are cleared for departure."
"Copy all."
With a small push from the thrusters, I separated my spacecraft from the passenger ship. The repairs were complete, and with a fully functioning shuttle, I was free. But I could not leave the side of the passenger ship yet, not only because Mei was still being treated in there, but also because we had an emergency of unfathomable scale in our hands. Fort Unity, a celestial... A wonderous space habitat which provided living conditions for a nominal population of 150 000 people, was apparently "on fire".
Normally, such a thing should've been impossible. Although the living spaces inside celestials resembled Earth cities, their monitoring and emergency response systems should have detected any fires or similar situations the moment they came into existence, putting an end to any threats within no longer than ten minutes.
In disbelief, I was preparing to activate the shuttle's sensor suite to have a look at the situation myself, again. I waited for a moment to get away from the passenger liner to clear out the interference from their systems.
But it was true. Thousands and thousands of kilometers ahead, a giant artificial object which could only be the size of a celestial was visible on my sensors display, not in the region of space it was supposed to be.
"Lodos IV, this is Tau Rubycon again. We are about to engage our main engines to continue our journey towards Fort Unity. If you wish to remain close to us, we suggest you do the same."
"Will do. Copy that, Tau Rubycon."
The passenger liner started its main engines, and so I started the shuttle's engines to match their acceleration. The maneuver lasted for about ten minutes before the engines were shut down again, and both ships resumed travelling by inertia. We were getting closer to Fort Unity, together. As time passed and the distance to our destination became shorter, the image on my sensors display started revealing more details.
"Tau Rubycon, Lodos IV here. It kinda looks like Fort Unity is... leaking... something."
"Tau Rubycon copies." said the pilot in command of the passenger liner. "Our sensor image isn't too clear yet. Is that what the blob on the side of the celestial is about?"
"I don't know what kind of blob you are seeing on your own sensors, but I clearly see a cloud of gas being released from the side." I said. "Assuming the gas is being released from the same single hole every second, I can also judge that the rotational speed of the celestial is a bit higher than what it is supposed to be. Perhaps the leak is coming out as a jet that generates some thrust, which the celestial command certainly wouldn't want to have. It might also be the explanation for their drifting off-course."
"Could be. If that is the case, it also explains why the system atlases don't register the celestial - it is not in the expected region of space."
"Did you get any further transmissions from Unity command crew since I docked?" I asked.
"Nothing at all." said Tau Rubycon's copilot. "I did try contacting them a couple of times, no response. It is likely that they have a bit too much going on to reply to every emergency response vehicle."
"I see. Then, did you hear anything from any other emergency response vehicles in the vicinity?"
"Just a lot of jibberish as they try to do their job in some sort of chaos." the copilot replied. "I'm thinking that those vehicles were all already on Fort Unity when the situation got out of control. We are probably the first outside help to Fort Unity."
The rest of the flight towards Fort Unity was relatively silent. I had left the cockpit, leaving the communication output of the shuttle on speakers so that I could hear any incoming transmissions from anywhere in the shuttle.
The next time I was back in the cockpit, we were closing up on Fort Unity, and it was time to decelerate.
"Lodos IV, this is Tau Rubycon speaking. We have shared our approach plan with your ship. We are now rotating into the correct orientation and we will engage our main engines to decelerate in about 10 minutes."
"Thank you, Tau Rubycon. Can I just call you guys Tau from now on? It's really a mouthful, your ship's full name."
"Acknowledged, Lodos. You may also call me Ismael, and my copilot is Leonardo."
"And mine is Kagan. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"We share the same feelings." said Ismael, the pilot in command. "I wish we met at a more convenient time."
"Here comes the auto-sequencer!" said Leonardo, indicating the flight computer was about to start the deceleration maneuver to come to a stop about a dozen kilometers away from Fort Unity.
The main engines were activated, and I was lightly pushed against the back of my seat. Since Tau Rubycon was a ship that had passenger comfort as a design consideration, it's maximum acceleration was easily matched by little effort by Lodos IV's engines.
"I have visual on Fort Unity via the rear navigation camera." I said. "It's glowing bright at certain points and leaking gas from somewhere."
"We have visual as well." said Ismael. "If the damage is visible even from the outside, I don't want to imagine the inside of Unity."
"We are getting a transmission." Leonardo interrupted the conversation. "Somebody on Fort Unity has detected our approach. Patching through to our common channel now."
Another voice joined the conversation.
"Incoming ships, I am Clara Jiang, the internal logistics officer, a member of Fort Unity command crew. Our air traffic control center is wrecked, and the command buildings are engulfed in flames. I'm the last one here, and I don't have much time to leave. Therefore, you are on your own, but please try to save as many of us as you can."
"Was there an explosion?" I asked. My question was ignored.
"When I leave the building, the command of Fort Unity will effectively be abandoned. For whatever it's worth, I'm handing over the command of Fort Unity to the commanding officer of the larger of the two incoming vessels. I'm asking for a lot, but you must coordinate the evacuation efforts. We have hundreds of thousands of people in here and... Bloody hell, that was loud! I think the building's-"
That was the last voice transmission Lodos IV and Tau Rubycon has received. Additionally, Tau Rubycon had received a transmitter tag which belonged to the Fort Unity command crew, indicating it was a trusted authority, which would help Ismael coordinate the efforts of any other incoming ships later on.