It took more than a day to restore power supply to the cargo ship. Making sure the truck is capable of completing the flight on its own. The crew of the rescue tug headed for the previous patrol route.

Tang plotted a course for the nearest station to resupply water. Mei was about to start the spatial generator, when suddenly a target detection signal sounded in the control room.

“Attention! An artificial source of neutron radiation has been discovered.” A female voice of the public address system sounded.

“Tan, you didn't turn off the scanner!” Tai expressed his displeasure to his brother.

“What's there?” May turned to her husband.

“It's a plasma trail, an object out of line of sight.” Tan answered.

“Tai, do you think the truck noticed it too?” May got excited. “ I don’t want to share the find at all.”

“Hardly. Their scanners are not designed for such a range.” Tai confidently answered.

Three hours later they flew in a parallel course with a radiation source.

“It looks like the remains of a ship with a damaged reactor.” Tan said excitedly rubbing his hands.

“May, head for the wreckage. Tan prepare the drones to stabilize the wreckage. Let's see what's there.“ Tai ordered. “ It seems to me that this is just the source of these fragments, which are scattered throughout the sector, the speed and vector are the same.”

They managed to hook the remains of the ship and slow down. Through the porthole, at a distance of five hundred meters, the hull of a cargo ship, barely lit by distant stars, could be seen. The light of the searchlights turned on pulled the dusty and battered hull of the ship out of the darkness. Tai and Tan decided to inspect the ship. Tai quickly climbed into the suit, and Tang fumbled for a long time, but could not put it on. Tai accused Mei of feeding her brother too much pastry and he got fat. After a short showdown, Mei, violating the instructions that the pilot should not leave the ship, put on a spacesuit instead of her husband. A minute later they were already flying to the remains of a cargo ship.

“Silence, the ship does not answer. ARS is disabled. The cargo compartment is half destroyed, the engine is missing. According to the scanner, the reactor is damaged, gas under pressure periodically escapes from the loading tray. In a residential block there is a pressure of half the atmosphere. Lots of organic matter, most likely mold. One corpse. The bridge and the captain's cabin are intact, there is no atmosphere. I sent robots but they can't open the door to the living quarters, they need a gp-key.” Tan reported while sitting in the wheelhouse of the rescue tug.

“The remains of the ship look like a mainline carrier” identified May.

“Those are the rings of the docking arm, which means there's another damaged ship somewhere. The entire body is covered with small potholes with melted edges, it looks like an explosion of hmt gas. Perhaps they were smugglers. May, search the bridge and the captain's quarters, load whatever you find onto our ship. And I'll help the robots open the living quarters.” Tai said quickly as he flew up to the open docking airlock.

Helmet-lamps illuminated the interior darkness of the corridors. Fire-damaged paneling hung from the walls in tatters. Such a picture was in all rooms of the ship. Upon reaching the central corridor, Tai and May split up.

Tai went to the living quarters. The first thing he noticed was that the door was locked from the outside. The robot drilled a hole in the door and let the rest of the atmosphere escape. Tai launched a worm-like repair and reconnaissance robot with many small mechanical legs into the hole. The robot, having examined the living compartment and not finding anything dangerous, returned. Tai did not like the fact that the door was blocked, and he decided to call May to insure him just in case.

May, hearing the captain's voice on the communicator, reported that she had sent the items found and the logbook in tow. Then she flew closer to the arch of the control panel, on which a plate with an identification number and the name of the ship was usually installed.

“Tan, write it down. Medium cargo ship type C 812 tail number LS00505V Sauter”

“Now I'll look at the insurance base.” Tan replied.

Tai asked May to go down to the living quarters. On the way, May expressed her opinion about the found ship: “Apparently, the ship was built in the forties of the new era, the cabin was altered several times, the old navigation equipment was supplemented with more modern ones, the last alteration was about seventy years ago. It seems to me that this ship has been drifting for sixty years, maybe fifty-five”

“It fell apart while trying to start the spatial generator.” Tang suggested.

When May reached the living quarters, Tai unlocked the door. A gap formed in the sash from which gray dust flew out. Tai pulled the lever and opened the door. He stepped into the living quarters and looked around.

“Is there anything in the living quarters?” May asked as she followed him.

“Nothing is visible, everything is overgrown with thread mold.” Tai answered and went further into the living compartment.

It was a typical two-level autonomous living compartment, designed for six people. Unlike the rest of the ship's rooms, this compartment was intact except for open technical hatches, which apparently came off when hit by loose objects that flew chaotically in weightlessness. The lower level was overgrown with a web of thread mold, and Ty climbed up to the upper level by flying along the stairs. The second level was the company's quarters and dining area. On the moldy floor, Ty saw the remains of a man, a common sight for a shipwreck. May, who entered next, was surprised to see how the compartment was overgrown with mold. Tai suggested that this could be due to the presence of the atmosphere and the depressurization of the refrigerator with food.

“Tai, I have some kind of interference on the scanner, as if something is moving in your direction.” Tan's surprised voice came from the communicator.

“Oh, yes, you saw a corpse from my camera and decided to scare us.” Tai said angrily. ”There is nothing interesting here, we are returning.”

Tai turned around and began to descend, when suddenly something large and black with many long tentacles jumped out of the black hole of the technical hatch.

“What is it!” May exclaimed in fear.

“May, close the door!”  Shouted Tai when he saw that the creature rushed at him.

May rushed to the exit, one of the monster's tentacles wrapped around her leg. Mei froze for a moment, but the running engine on the satchel released her from the grip. Once in the corridor, she closed the door and leaned against the door window trying to see what was happening behind the door.

“Tai, can you hear me! Tai, wake up!”

Mei tried several times to call Tai, but he did not answer, he did not move. Meanwhile, the monster tried in every possible way to get under his armored suit.

Tai stirred, grabbed the gas torch strapped to the suit's right thigh, and extended his arm towards the monster. From the cutting torch, gas burst out in different directions, and the monster pounced on him, greedily enveloping his hand. A bright flash lit up the room. The monster shuddered, a fiery wave ran through its body, burning out the insides. A thick gray smoke escaped from the mouth, quickly spreading through the compartment.

“Tan, scan the compartment again for sources of electric field distortion. Also scan everything that drones and robots delivered, send an EM scanner here, we need to find out what it was.” Tai said quickly.

May almost had a tantrum, Tang tried to calm her down, he once again scanned the entire hull of the wrecked ship and did not find anything like this monster. Tai was shaking from stress. May opened the door.

“Tai, I saw you pass out! Are you all right!” She asked.

“Everything is fine!” Tai replied taking a breath. “ I do not know what is this! But it can affect consciousness. This thing was trying to figure out how my suit opens. The suit's security system saved me. When I came to my senses, I remembered about the gas cutter, I let this creature inhale the mixture, and then turned on the ignition.”

“When this creature grabbed my leg, I felt a strong vibration and almost fainted.” May shared.

“I felt like the door was blocked for a reason.”  Tai said with annoyance.

“If you felt something, why did you climb there?”

“Stop being clever Tang!” Aangry Tai “You overlooked this monster!”

Tai and May were pretty scared, but continued to work. Ty scanned every corner of Sauther but found nothing. Meanwhile, the Tang had the items found on the wrecked ship laid out in the cargo hold. It was a modest booty, now all of this, by law, belonged to the rescue team.

“Let's summarize.” Began Tai “Tang, what is known about Sauther?”

“The database of insurers is empty, but this ship is present in the search database.” Tan took a break.

“Don't pull! Tell me.” May said wearily.

“Fifty thousand Tal!” He replied.

May clutched her head, Tai cursed. This is a large amount, you could quit your job and live carefree until old age. This thought was obvious to all three.

“The search is being conducted by two customers, this is the Nodian imperial prosecutor's office and the Arako company.” Tan added.

“What happened to the crew?” Tai asked.

“There is nothing about the crew in the logbook, only the commander of the ship Prax, who is also the owner of the ship. He had open insurance, so he could recruit the team at his discretion and insure for the duration of the flight. The ship was transporting Amix concentrate in briquettes for the production of fertilizers, under certain conditions it is explosive. Actually the result on the face. Where he followed and where he loaded, there are no records, all information about the route has been erased from the log. It's entirely possible that the transfer of the concentrate is just a smuggling cover. And now the most interesting.”

Tang leaned over to the captain's storage container for the crew's personal belongings. He took out a sealed transparent bag, inside of which was a small oval medallion made of precious metal, adorned with white crystals. On the tag of the package were the data of the owner of the locket, So Yuuki. Tai opened the package and took out the locket and opened it. Inside the medallion was an image of a beautiful thirty year old woman.

“What's so interesting,” May asked after examining the locket. “ It's probably her.”

“Somehow, Yuuki was listed as found last year. Remember the story about Gion Express.” Tan answered mysteriously.

“Is this where five people were found who hibernated for 49 years?” Tai recalled.

“Found a grandmother smuggler.” May smiled.

“I see, but what about the scan results of the monster's remains?” Tai asked.

“In the analysis, I was guided by typical markers and I am at a loss. The fact is that the DNA scan of the monster and the contents of this container here,”  Tang pointed to an oblong sealed container. “The same.”

“What's in this container?” May asked.

“Nine capsules, one of them broken. They contain the remains of an organic mass.”

“Why are you confused?” - asked Tai, squatting down and examining the container.

“Two markers have been identified, the first being the presence of human DNA. The second synthetic group is D6.” Tan answered excitedly.

“Orgatox.” Tai stumbled back from the container and looked at his brother carefully. “So that's why such a big reward.”

“Come on, the Pilgrims got rid of that thing. This monster couldn't survive the DNA anomaly would have killed it, right?” May asked nervously.

“Most likely, this container is from the laboratory, which preserved samples after the outbreak of death from DNA anomalies in 65.” Tai suggested.

“What are we going to do brother?” Tan asked.

“The container and the ship must be destroyed.” Tai suggested. “ I hope you agree with me.”

“Maybe leave the ship here and call the pilgrims,” May objected.

“No!” Tai snapped. ” In two weeks, the sector will be combed in search of a swarm of fragments, without fail to stumble upon the remains of the ship”

“How will we report the find?” Tan asked.

“Let's do this.” Tai reasoned. “ We will have to make changes to the logbook, we will delete all the recordings from the cameras, this is a risk, no doubt. The commission on accidents will have a lot of questions, but we have a charter for the rescue service, paragraph two, point one, minimizing damage from high-risk facilities. They may well order an investigation. Let's leave only a scan of the sample from the test tube, the D6 marker will scare anyone away from further proceedings. It's just in case anyone finds out we've found this ship.”

Tang and Mei agreed. Everything they found on the ship was returned, except for the medallion. It took two hours to prepare to blow up Sauter. They had to sacrifice one of the drones to deliver a fuel cell to the damaged reactor. Moving away from Sauter at a safe distance, they blew up the ship. For a second, the stars were eclipsed by a bright flash, where Sauter was, a hot ball appeared, which became larger and larger, May involuntarily hid behind her husband's shoulder. The ball turned red and disappeared into the blackness of space.

“So fifty thousand talas were burned.” May sighed and sat in the pilot's seat.