Quoted By:
“Confirming claim on salvage designated <span class="mu-i">Caribbean Courier</span>,” drawls Aalto. In the background, you can hear cheering. “Y’know something, Razor?”
Hoo boy. “Yes?”
“I feel kinda bad. You and Gully are working hard to pull all this stuff up, but I’m sitting on my ass in this air-conditioned room spitting into a radio.”
How surprisingly candid. “Well, Sybil, if you do feel guilty, you could always put on a diving suit and come on down-”
“Hard pass,” she flatly answers.
“…or split your share with me-”
“Hell no.”
…yeah, that does sound about right.
The radio squawks, and Holt’s voice comes in. “Hey, Unami! Find us anything yet?”
“How about a crate full of tires?” you answer back.
The chief breaks protocol by transmitting a hearty laugh, one that you hear echoed in the voices of the PUEXMech crew. “Smartass. How’s the <span class="mu-i">Magellan</span>?”
You do a quick check of your screens and gauges, reporting back: “All systems are green across the board. I’m an hour in with six more worth of oxygen in the tank. Gonna tag a few more ships in the graveyard before I head to the <span class="mu-i">Olympia</span>.”
“Don’t take too long,” Aalto cuts in, “Captain’s orders. Priority’s the spaceship, and we want to get both parts scooped and scouted by the end of the day.”
“Understood. I see a couple more ships, shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes to tag and claim.”
“Just leave some for the <span class="mu-i">Mackerel</span> and the froggy boys, m’kay? All of y’all and Gully are sharing the lion’s share of the spoils anyway, so there’s no need for any sort of pissing contest.”
…pissing contest?
>>Forty minutes later…
The cargo component of the <span class="mu-i">Olympia</span> has come to rest at an odd angle. Its bow is half submerged in the sand, with the shorn half of it sticking up a few dozen meters into the air. Nothing out of reach for the thrusters of your PUEXO, but one that’s gonna take a fair bit of fancy maneuvering to get in.
“All channels, this is Razor,” you report, “I’ve got eyes on my part of the <span class="mu-i">Olympia</span>.”
You take the silence that ensues as the chaos of surface not knowing who answers first. Which leaves the channel open for Gully to radio from however many kilos away.
“How does yours look?” she queries. “The command structure seems relatively intact.”
“…define relatively.”
“Not crumpled, laying on its bottom. The superstructure of the bridge isn’t crushed. There’s a few holes, but other than the split…relatively intact.”
You can’t say the same. HOPI’s already ahead of you, bringing all cameras and viewfinders to highlight against the worst damage affecting the structure. And confirms what you suspect to be Geary’s hunch about the reason for the <span class="mu-i">Olypmia’s</span> descent into the ocean.
“Commander Geary?” you say quietly into the radio.
He answers quickly, but with a somber voice. “Yes, Unami?”
(cont.)
