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“She’s got one hell of a tilt on her.” Lyn reported.

“Get it stabilised.” The Captain ordered.

“Aye, sending out thrust drones to stabilise the hulk.”

The giant thrusters at the front of the salvage ship were lit up providing a constant deceleration. In space, the vessel looked like a long dark grey box with dozens of running lights. The drone launch tubes at the front fired out four black boxes each one lighting a bright blue flame once it was a short distance from the salvage ships hull.

Meanwhile, Dexter was sat in medical strapped into a grav harness. His HUD indicating that the ship would be alongside the hulk in fifty-six minutes and he tracked the activity on the bridge while he set about double-checking the systems, they had thus far been unable to interface with the Hawk’s computer systems but electromagnetic and thermal imaging indicated that the reactor was still running meaning a boarding to assess the situation was in order.

After an hour the ships were next to each other, relative velocity 0m/s actual velocity 201,000 m/s, acceleration +- 0m/s. The whole crew was gathered in the mess.

“Alright, we’re along side the Hawk everyone has had ample time to review the feeds from the drones we sent ahead and given I haven’t had anyone pounding on my door I expect this looks pretty standard. So I’d like each division to give the team a rundown.” The Captain looked at salvage and boarding head.

“The ship appears to be in reasonable form for a derelict, she’s suffered some kind of a catastrophic breach in the aft section, we had a drone go in there and poke around, based on the structural survey I’d recommend we send in a couple of repair rigs and shore it up before we attempt a boarding.” He looked up at everyone in the room, nobody flinched and they were all laser-focused.

“Once we’ve shored it up the safest entry point is the mid cargo hatch, we’ll be able to hook it up to a x-22 standard docking corridor and move our heavy equipment.”

“I’ll chip in here” Ren the head of the ships AI and computer engineers stood up. “We’ve managed to engage the Hawk’s emergency systems but we’re not able to interface with the backup or primary computers. We don’t know why. However the emergency systems have indicated that the mid cargo hatch airlock is functioning and the doors will respond. Also there’s no fire or other hazards that should risk a hazard suited team member.” She indicated back to the Salvage head.

“Thanks Ren, as you can see we’ve double checked with each division to revise the plan. Once on board the engineering and salvage teams will move to the reactor, computer techs will head for the computer core. We wont be able to get a real grip on the reactor without the backup or main systems online, so as much as I don’t like letting anyone on before we’ve made the ship safe we’ll need a small team.”

“Again, I’ve helped Jack put together a team of volunteers, so we’ll be working with a mixed team of computer and salvage specialists.”

“That’s the only change to the standard teams?” Asked Len a ships engineer.

“Yep. And even this adaptation is pretty standard and we’ve all drilled for it.”

Len nodded.