"Wash," Kane called out into the handset, "I need you to get a recording of that morse code message so we can work on getting better decode. Also, bring Odyssey in. Once get here, you and Sanka need to recover the mule and recall the shuttle. Meet me near the open hatch of this ship."

Turning to Jade, he asked,"What's the story, Jade. Is he gonna live? Can he be moved?"

XXXXXX

Wash blinked and slammed the recall button for the shuttle. While it was comin' in, he would look for the recording.

"Sure thing, Cap'n. Lucky us, the message is still there. It seems to be on a loop. I'll direct it to our terminal and put it on a recording."

Wash flipped three switches above his head. As he did that, a tapping sound came through the console, and he smiled. It was being recorded.

The shuttle had arrived, and he locked it into the hold, then started up the ship, saying over the intercom, "Sanka, we're goin' to pick up the Captain and his wife. Stand by."

He heard the intercom on Sanka's end go on. Reggae music blasted from the PA, and Sanka laughed. "Sure, mon. Kiss the lucky egg!" With that, the music stopped, signifying that the intercom had been turned off. Wash laughed quietly to himself, then took off.

XXXXXX

Jade had just finished working on the injured man. She was used to emergency cases such as this, but he had lost so much blood. Fortunately, she had been able to stabilize him, and she was hoping he would make it long enough to be moved to Odyssey.

She turned to her husband. "Kane, he's stabilized at the moment, but it was a very near miss. I gave him all the methsulzin I had in my bag, but we need to get him to the ship as soon as possible."

Jade clicked the handset and said, "Wash, you and Sanka need to get here as quickly as you can. We have a patient who needs immediate assistance, and we can't move him on our own." Clicking the handset again, she looked at the battered man and waited for the pilot to respond.

XXXXXX

Wash had just set down the ship near the crash site when Jade called in. He clicked the handset.

"I got it, Jade. I'll be right there. Sanka can stay with the ship; he needs to keep the engines warm."

Wash threw down the controls and set it to park, and rushed down the steps to help the captain and his wife.

XXXXXX

Kane met Wash at the entrance to Aces & Eights and gave him a quick run down on this situation. They moved to the bridge and found Jade just as she was gathering her gear. Kane and Wash carefully picked up the man and moved him out of the ship and across the clearing to Odyssey. Once they had him settled in the infirmary, Kane called Sanka on the PA and had him meet at the forward airlock. Jade continued to work on the wounded man.

Kane quickly went over the plan with Sanka and Wash. The first thing Kane wanted was for Wash to turn off the repeating distress signal while he and Sanka did a complete end to end sweep of the ship. Following that, the idea was to go through Aces & Eights and grab anything that could be easily moved, had value and would help the crew of Odyssey. Following that, he wanted Sanka and Wash to gather up any personal possessions they could find and place them in the vault. While they did that, Kane would look through the cargo hold and see what is there. If there is cargo of value, they will move it to Odyssey's hold. Next, they will locate all weapons and spike them to prevent them from being used by others. Finally, Kane wanted Sanka to do what he could to disable the vessel to prevent it from being used or moved.

Kane then moved off to look at the rest of the ship. He walked into the Game Room. There were three dead people, shot to death. Checking their nametags, he saw the names: Rawhide, Jack Leland, and Hwa Ling. These are the missing crew members mentioned in the ship's log.

“Jade,” Kane called into his transmitter, “if you have our patient settled, I need you back over here to the game room.”

Next, Kane put in a call to Sanka and Wash, “Sanka, Wash, here is the deal: we need to remove everything from this ship that will be any benefit to us. The owner of this vessel is departed the ‘verse which mean once the Alliance is aware of that fact it will be open season. Since it is sitting here a hulk it means the next person to come across it will likely strip it right down to the beams. If we can sell it, if we can use it, if it is consumable, take it. Jade is going to be with me, so I want one of you to clear their infirmary out of everything. Even if you find stuff that won’t work on our ship, if it has any value, get it.

“Also, there is a crate in the cargo bay. It will be easy to find because it is the only one there and is marked with Blue Sun logo. After you get everything else over to Odyssey, move that crate. However, once you get it there, do not leave it unattended. I want you to scan it and stay with it till I get back.”

“By the way, keep this in mind: we still don’t know everything that happened here or what brought this boat down. I have found some of the crew, but Joe Henderson and Ramona Cortez or unaccounted for. May mean nothing, but you never know.

“Finally, make sure we get the manifest and logs from this last trip of theirs. I’d like to know everything I can about where they’ve been as well as whom and what they were carrying.

“That’s all for now. In two hours we lift off, so get busy.”

With that, Kane turned his attention back to the scene in the room.

“Mystery in a mystery,” he said to himself.

He studied the bodies and the room trying to figure out what brought it to this. Although he was not an investigator, he had seen enough in his combat experience to know if this was a stand up fight or a massacre. After a bit of studying, he could tell that the people that were shot did not know that they were going to be dead. In other words, it wasn't a fight, and they were shot without warning. He thought to himself.

XXXXXX

Wash was in the infirmary, and he quickly noticed that it was suited for short-term care only. He sifted through the paraphanalia and, after deciding that he couldn't decide what to take, just dumped it all into a box and gave it to Sanka, who was helping him.

"Take that to our own infirmary and let Jade sort through it. I don't have the expertise to know what's good and what's not. And when you're done with that, make sure to go to the engine room and salvage anything." Wash informed his friend.

Sanka nodded. "Yeah, mon."

Wash (waving to Kane as he did so), went into the Game Room to pick up the liquor in the cabinets there. Nothing like having cooking materials... Wash thought to himself. We could also sell some of 'em for a nice price.

The kitchen was packed-full of foodstuffs. Wash cleared out all the protien, and even a few fresh foods that he found in the cabinets. He was a bit miffed when he found turpentine beneath the sink, but he took that as well.

After that, Wash headed down to the cargo hold to check out the Blue Sun crate that Kane had mentioned. Walking into the reletively small cargo bay, he instantly saw the crate against the wall. Walking over to it, he looked it up and down and tested the weight. It was very light, so he was able to take it to Odyssey.

Wash brought the crate up to the cockpit and started a scan on it. Wash blinked as his vision started to go fuzzy, and he looked at the box. Was there something in it...? The scanner started to wail an alarm. Wash quickly read out the results as best he could, and his eyebrows furrowed. The box was giving off some sort of...dust?

Wash blinked and scrambled for the handset. "Captain...the box is giving off...dust. Do you want me to see what's inside so I can give some of it to Jade for diagnostic testing?"

While he waited for Kane's answer, Wash stuck the crate in another box. Instantly, his vision got better. It was coming from the box then, Wash thought.

He started typing up on his keyboard again, accessing Aces & Eights ship's log to see if anything was missed.

XXXXXX

Back in the infirmary, Jade secures her patient. He is unconscious but stabilized, and she felt she could leave him for a little while. She glanced back at him before leaving the infirmary and joining Kane back on the other ship. She wanted to see if she could decipher anything else about what had happened to leave just one survivor, and she knew Kane would want her back as soon as possible.

"Kane, I'm heading back. Watch for me," she said softly into her transmitter.

Kane replied to Wash,"Take the crate and lock it up in the vault for now. It'll be secure in there and the vault is air tight. We'll have a look at it later. Once it's secure make sure there's nothing left over here. If it can be moved, move it; if it can't be moved, get a pry bar and torch."

Kane was half kidding with the last comment, but in truth he didn't want to leave anything on Aces & Eights he didn't have to. To him, weapons, food, blankets, toilet paper, even loose change were fair game. With the owner gone, the ship down in a remote spot and no immediate threat of interruption he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity.

Right about the moment he finished talking to Wash, Jade walked through the hatch and into the Game Room. Kane had no idea what, if anything, she would be able to read, but he had to know everything he could possibly glean before leaving. Besides, he didn't know if there even was a limit to what Jade could tell. He just knew she could tell the truth of a situation and read things no one else could see. Maybe she could tell them who did this, where they went or even why.

Kane stepped out of the hatch to give Jade room to work. Some things could not be rushed. He watched her move gracefully about the room looking through what some one wanted them to see and into the truth.