The Cete
The Cete is a derelict Bulk Cruiser megaship orbiting body A 3 of the Col 173 Sector LJ-F c12-0 system. It was operated by the Melville Expedition led by Professor Melville, a xenobiologist who embarked on a search for the origin system of the Guardians in early 3303.
History
The discovery of ruins belonging to the long-extinct Guardian civilisation on October 27, 3302 spurred a flurry of scientific interest in a large region of space adjacent to the human Core Systems where is was believed the Guardians had established their primary territory. Around this time, Professor Melville, a noted authority on xenobiology, disappeared.
The first sign of the professor's fate emerged on February 10, 3303, when a record of the clandestine Melville Expedition surfaced. It contained logs from one of the expedition's members, who revealed that Melville had assembled the expedition aboard the megaship The Cete to find the heart of Guardian civilisation. As the expedition ventured further into the unknown, Melville's hypothesis that the concentration of Guardian ruin sites would increase nearer to the civilisation's centre appeared to be confirmed as they passed through Synuefe XR-H D11-102 on February 2, which Melville asserted marked the "last colony" before they would enter the heart of Guardian space, as the clusters of ruin sites in subsequent systems increased significantly. Although this was a major discovery by itself, Professor Melville demanded that The Cete continue on. Melville's obsession and unilateral rivalry with fellow Guardian researcher Ram Tah disturbed the crew, and their fears were confirmed on February 8 when Melville disabled The Cete's communication systems and seized control of the vessel. The author of logs transmitted then them in the hopes that pilots in the Core Systems would receive them and come The Cete's assistance.[1]
Over the following days, the situation aboard The Cete continued to deteriorate. On February 15, the crew decided that their only hope was to uncouple The Cete's two sections, the lab ship designed for experiments where Melville was ensconced, and the smaller drive ship which was intended to periodically return to inhabited space on resupply runs; Melville was to be trapped and stranded on the lab ship while the crew returned to the Core Systems on the drive ship. Unfortunately, Melville got wind of his crew's scheme a few days later. Enraged, he welded the airlock to the drive ship shut, and shot a research assistant to intimidate the others. What happened next was not recorded, but The Cete's atmospheric processors were deactivated, and the ship's oxygen supply was depleted in a matter of hours, presumably killing everyone onboard.[2]
After months of searching by independent pilots, The Cete was finally located by CMDR Synjorai in Col 173 Sector LJ-F c12-0 on June 23, 3303. The recovered logs contained the same entries as the February 10 transmission, plus three additional entries relating the events aboard the vessel from February 15 until the loss of the air supply.[2]
Timeline
10 FEB 3303
- A curious record has surfaced, detailing an apparently clandestine expedition to find relics from the lost civilisation known as the Guardians. The record, which takes the form of a series of personal logs, indicates that the expedition was led by one Professor Melville, an authority on xeno-biology who disappeared a few months ago. The record has attracted a considerable amount of attention, and is reprinted in full below.
13th January 3303
"I'm not just going to sit here while that jumped-up mechanic Ram Tah spoon-feeds us information." That's what Professor Melville said. He wanted to know more about the Guardians – maybe even figure out where they came from. So off we went, with little to go on beyond the professor's belief that there were more ruins out there. He claims to have information that will help us find more sites, but he's keeping it close to his chest. Only he and the pilot know where we're going. It's like he's afraid someone will take credit for his discovery. We've been scanning lifeless planetoids for days, eyeballing the ground for locations. He keeps reciting the same little speech: "Xeno-archaeology has moved on. The days of exploring the outer reaches, only occasionally finding something of value, are behind us. I have found the key." But I'm not an archaeologist. Professor Melville is just a means to an end. I signed up for the money.
24th January 3303
We received an update today – apparently Ram Tah has found some new sites. Melville scoffed when he heard the news. "Scraps from an amateur," he said. "We'll find the real secrets. Trust me." Trust. That's an interesting thing. Why should we trust someone who doesn't trust us? Well, maybe he has reason not to: I took a look at his records while he was talking to the pilot. I don't like being kept in the dark. Melville thinks there could be hundreds of sites out there. His hypothesis is that the Guardians occupied an area of space similar in size to that currently inhabited by humans, but that for some reason they were forced to migrate. He believes he can find that region of space and the Guardians' point of origin. The Guardians could well have had a huge civilisation, with hundreds of sites – maybe thousands – in this part of space. The similarities across different sites are comparable to the way we reuse certain structures. After all, how many Coriolis stations are there in the galaxy?
2nd February 3303
Melville thinks the Synuefe XR-H d11-102 system represents some kind of end point or 'last colony'. Beyond that, the sites appear in clusters, with the number of sites in each cluster getting increasingly larger. We discovered a cluster of sites only a few days ago before finding a location with an entirely unique layout. So far we've found three sites in each of the following systems: Synuefe LY-I b42-2, Synuefe NL-N c23-4 and Synuefe TP-F b44-0. There are basically three different types of site, most of which have a different codex layout. Melville thinks that each type of site fulfilled a different function. He also thinks the Guardians were the dominant species in this region of space. But he's not content with this discovery. He wants to keep going. Are we ever going back to turn back?
8th February 3303
This isn't a research vessel anymore – it's a prison. All means of communicating with the rest of the galaxy have been disabled. Melville has taken control of ship. His obsession has doomed us all. I'm transmitting these records in the hope that someone finds them and comes to our rescue. But the chances of that are slim.[1]