GPO Ship 115 clears the debris field and slides into open space. Stars stretch thin across the canopy as Sion locks a course back to the GPO station.
He switches on autopilot, then drops into a deep internal scan. The ship hums, steady for one precious moment.
The diagnostics peel through bulkheads and conduits. Most systems read clean. Then the cargo hold frame spits out encrypted packets, clustered and repeating.
Inside their cells, Jorvik and Abby Stone watch the pilot console with sharp, measuring focus. Neither of them speaks.
A second warning blossoms across Sion’s display. The packets are not random, they are nested in the ship’s structure like a hidden signal path.
Sion
The cargo frame is carrying data, and it is still active.
The autopilot holds the course toward the GPO station, but the unknown entity now has a trail inside the ship itself.
“Scan the ship to search for anomalies.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled -2)
Sion’s scan finishes its pass, and the ship answers back in layers. Most of the hull is clean, but one path lights up in amber, a narrow diagnostic thread buried in the cargo-support spine.
Sion
It is not in the hold anymore. It is in the frame.
The trace resolves into a compact splice module, hidden behind a warped service panel near the aft bulkhead. It is still broadcasting, and it is talking through the ship’s own structure.
Jorvik
There. That is the nest. Cut the line before it writes deeper.
Abby Stone
It is small, but it is enough to contaminate the core if you leave it alone.
A sharp chirp snaps from the nav core, and a status band flashes red as the splice module spikes once, hot and hungry. The ship takes the hit, but Sion gets the location.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stabilize the ship's navigation and security systems
“Sion continues to use his computer to analyze the situation and determine what he must do. Meanwhile, Abby is in her cell with her hands locked into a metallic box box attached to the wall, unable to speak. She wears a metal gag and metal blind. Jorvik remains inside a metallic box box with a glass window.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +2)
Sion pulls the splice module into a cleaner read. The hidden packets are not random clutter, they are a self-checking payload, designed to rewrite the ship's own diagnostic map if it gets enough time.
Sion
It is a persistence load, not a simple beacon.
The console resolves a second layer, a hard-coded failover chain tucked into the module's header. If the first route is cut, the payload can still ride the maintenance mesh and mark new systems for takeover.
Jorvik
Then you do not just cut it. You quarantine the mesh, isolate the header, and scrub the cache.
A fresh warning chimes from the nav core, but the readout now pairs with the cargo spine trace. The threat has a shape, and the shape is spreading through ship hardware, not open space.
Abby Stone
That module is built to survive casual removal. If you want the ship clean, you have to burn out the hidden branch before it locks in.
Sion has the answer now. The system is not merely infected, it is actively trying to embed itself in the core hardware, and the next move has to be surgical.
“Sion attempts to shut down and reboot the system to stabilize security and navigation.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Sion kills the power at the console, then brings the ship back up on a hard reboot. The nav core stutters, goes dark, and returns with a cleaner, steadier pulse.
The red warning drops out of its frantic cycle. On the next diagnostic sweep, the maintenance-mesh failover chain is gone, stripped from the live map.
A new status line resolves across the display, clean system paths and locked security checks passing in sequence.
Jorvik
Good. That means it is not riding the core anymore.
Abby Stone
Huh. So the ship survives after all.
The corridor vibration thins to a faint hum. For the first time since the warning, the warped panel beside the service access stops rattling against its frame.
The final readout holds steady, then flashes one last confirmation: navigation and security are stable.
Quest Complete
Stabilize the ship's navigation and security systems
New Gift: System Override Specialist