To Europa or Bust Pt.2

April 12th, 2042:
"The Belt"
A Newswire Special Blog
Archivist Log: Arose2010
I've been spending a lot more time on the bridge. I know it's not necessary for me to be there (in fact, it is sometimes quite noisy), but I'm beginning to take comfort in it. 
It's a good thing I was there today.
We haven't had any real major incidents on board since our departure. A few dust ups between the miners and the teraformers, and one of the maintenance staff got caught with a still in his quarters. All members involved were given talkings-to by the Captain, but no official punishments. 
I think the Captain understands that we're all in this together, and is doing her best to make sure everyone else understands that. We're going to be all alone on Europa, and if we can't all get along, the mission is going to go downhill pretty quickly. 
All in all, it's actually been rather boring. Well, boring for being some of the furthest humans from Earth. I think there are a few mining stations in the outer asteroid belts on the other side of the rotation who may be further, but I guess it's all relative. 
Or so we thought. 
The first hint that something was wrong was a warmth spike registered by one of the bridge officers, Ensign Blake. The Captain and XO came over to investigate, and after some discussion, came upon the decision that a ship was stranded not too far off our path. They weren't broadcasting a SOS (or anything, for that matter). We weren't close enough for a visual on the ship yet, but I should have known. 
When we got close enough and were able to get a "visual" on the small transport ship (or so Ensign Peters called it) it was quickly identified as being from the Voltaire Crater Prison. They were escapees from the prison. After scans showed us that the ship wasn't going to be able to fly under its own power anytime soon, the Captain decided to bring it on board. She, Security Chief Monroe, and several others from the crew all went down to the landing bay to "greet" our new guests.
--
I didn't get to see them till later. From what I understand the six on the ship were in pretty bad shape, and had been taken straight to the medical bay. There have been a lot of information requests from the crew about the prison as everyone tries to figure out who these people are. The problem is, many of the prisoners held on Deimos were members of the Long Dragon Syndicate which makes them basically enigmas. We've got visual records, but none of them were ever willing to talk or even give their names. All we have are their code names. So, it's impossible to tell if we're got six low ranking members of the group or a bunch of their generals. It's fortunate that one of them admitted under questioning that they were even members of the Syndicate, or we may never have known who they really were. It's not like they have tattoos identifying them. That's such a 20th century movie thing. 
One of the real advantages of doing this data monitoring and transmitting is that I get to learn a lot about whatever the crew is requesting. That means I am now basically an expert on the Long Dragon Syndicate... what's left of them. The Consortium did a really nice job taking them apart after the death of Bishop Two. 
Still. Why were they heading away from Mars and not toward Earth? There's nothing out there except a few mining station, and most of them are automated. There isn't really any equipment that would help them get... wherever they are going. 
It was in the middle of this research, and answering an information request on the actual Bishop Two incident, when the Captain asked me to come down to the medical facility. 
Side Point: There's a LOT written about Bishop Two! I had to dig through like forty articles to find what the Captain ultimately wanted. 
--
When I got to the med bay the Captain asked for my help identifying the prisoners. All six were held in restraints, and all but one was unconscious, and badly wounded, with burns and lacerations over most of their bodies. The awake one, an Asian woman, was staring at me with the most penetrating eyes I've ever seen.
I knew immediately who she was. I'd been over a hundred records in the last few hours, searching and indexing the various people who'd been held at the prison. While none had ever named her, she'd always been in a place of deference. The others stood away from her, their heads even slightly bowed.
When I identified her as the leader of the Long Dragon Syndicate, she just smiled.
Crap.
END LOG #3
May 17th, 2042:
"Instep Mei, Formerly of the Long Dragon Syndicate"
A Newswire Special Blog
Archivist Log: Arose2010
I've been having daily meetings with Mei. That's the only name she's given me and it doesn't agree with the prison records (which name her Park Sung Hyo). She admitted to me that it was the name of a school friend and that she isn't Korean.
Who really knows? This woman is lies upon lies, all given with a sly smile. 
She openly admitted to being the leader of the Long Dragon Syndicate for the past four years. She's told me a little bit about their structure, their members, and their history... all of it fairly redundant now that the organization is dead. Though I imagine INTERPOL would have killed for this chance about a decade ago.
At the same time I have no idea if she's telling me the truth. I've done what I can to corroborate what she's saying and it does tend to match up with dates and records of people arrested. Bombings. Robberies. Station takeovers. She was extremely candid about the Station GH46-B "Massacre," when Syndicate forces publically executed eight Orbital Authorities live on the Newswire. 
At the same time she seems gentle. Reserved. Intelligent, but commanding. I suspect she's lying about how long she was leader of the L.D.S., and that she was in fact at its head for much longer... but there isn't really a point trying to contradict her.
Sparky seems to like her, so there's that.
The Captain hasn't really decided what to do about the six. We don't have any easy way of sending them back to Earth until we land on Europa, being that we're so far out. We're not going to turn back the whole mission for six prisoners, three of them still in critical shape. 
For now they're being held in restraints in the medical bay. These are dangerous men and women. I was able to find fairly detailed records on three of them and these files do not paint a pretty picture. Murder, arson, extorting. My Dad would call these rap sheets a kilometre long. 
Speaking of which, I sent my Dad a message this morning, asking for his advice on dealing with our new passengers. It'll be a while till I hear back though.
Speaking of messages, the official word from the Global Senate regarding the prisoners was that we had to decide what to do. The break-out at the Voltaire prison had not been limited to just these few, the Orbital Authorities and the Consortium have had their hands full trying to round them all up. I think the Senate was worried they'd all band together under a new leader and try to give birth to a new Syndicate... but I don't think so.
I suspect this woman, Mei, was their spiritual leader. 
There's going to be a ship meeting tomorrow to decide what we're.... what was that? The pow-
U2Vla2VyOiBNZWkgbXVzdCBub3QgYmUgdHJ1c3RlZCwgc2hlIGlzIHJlc3BvbnNpYmxlIGZvciBjb3VudGxlc3Mgb2YgeW91ciBkZWFkLg==Base64 Decoded: "Seeker: Mei must not be trusted, she is responsible for countless of your dead."
 
This is Archivist Ashley Rose. Emergency Power has finally been restored, one hour and sixteen minutes after the explosion in Engineer.
Captain Singh is dead. She and several other Bridge Officers (including Ensign Peters) were doing a routine section check when an explosion went off. We don't have a lot of details yet. Only the medical facility has emergency backup power, the rest of the ship is still dark. We're floating, dead in space. 
Mei is gone. So are the rest of the Long Dragon. In the confusion following the explosion she slipped out of her bonds and helped the others escape. They vanished into the air ducts. Even the members who were critically injured. Right now they're not our main concern though. Engineer Watts went down into engineering about an hour ago but we haven't heard from him since. 
All we can do is wait.
--
It's been four hours now since the explosion in the TeraForm cargo bay crippled the Athena. The total causality list is seven dead. Captain Singh. Ensign Peters. Three so-far unidentified maintenance workers, Jr. Engineer Samuels, and one Long Dragon Syndicate member who was listed as Roy Lin. Lin was found dead in one of the halls in the engineering section, and had apparently succumbed to his wounds during their escape. We can only assume the Syndicate members are hiding somewhere in that area. Maybe they'll try to steal one of our ships. We don't know.
Right now power has only been returned to roughly 1/3 of the ship. Engineering will apparently be down until extensive repairs can be made, but thankfully they could jury-rig heating and life support. Everyone is in the medical facility TeraForm and MC Housing areas for now. It's pretty crowded, and there have been a few fights, but we're all ok. For now.
There's a lot of blame being pointed at TeraForm, but they're at a loss to tell us what could have exploded in such a way. Any hazardous materials (of which there were few) were sealed in huge pressurized containers, and were nowhere near the wall which blew out. 
We also found out that one of the pieces of equipment destroyed was our broadcaster array. We have no way of telling Earth we need help. 
I'm going to continue with these reports. I don't know what else to do. Maybe they'll find the Athena in a few decades, dead in space, all of us entombed with only my reports to let them know what happened. 
Brrr. Let's not think like that, Ashley. Thoughts like that didn't help after John died. They've already got emergency power back, I'm sure we'll be fine.
END LOG #4
==References==
Category:Europa
Category:Athena
Category:TeraForm, Inc.
Category:Milton and Crane Housing
Category:Long Dragon Syndicate
Category:Mei
Category:Bishop Two
Category:May 17, 2042