Heritage

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Heritage is a short story from The Inclination to Destiny, volume IV of the Course Books. It focuses around the Saratoga as well as the fate of her sister-ship, the C.B.S. Glorious Heritage.

Synopsis

While traversing the Danielle System, the Saratoga's crew picks up thousands of distress signals. This leads to a brief somber conversation about the battle fought in the region centuries earlier. The distress signals, it is revealed, are coming from thousands of derelict ships. However, Cloud explains that he has detected one signal that clearly belongs to the C.B.S. Glorious Heritage(A sister ship to the Saratoga, lost with all hands. However, it was lost thousands of light years away and several decades more recently).

Hunter decides that solving this mystery bears effort, and has the Saratoga send a message to command indicating they have "gone silent" to pursue a renegade Kamian vessel, then begin a search of the system. Despite the original signal having been nothing more than a ruse, the crew is surprised to encounter an actual Kamian ship, and is heavily damaged in combat. (The presence of Kamians in the system is not all together outlandish, Danielle has become something of a no-fly zone, as it is off the beaten path and serves as a several light year's wide graveyard. To the Kamians, it is an ideal place to hide).

The Kamian ship is doing tests of a stolen prototype Cloaking device, of which the Saratoga has the only other known example. Initially Hunter and his team are determined to either retrieve the prototype or destroy it. However, out-gunned and out-maneuvered, the ship is forced to make an emergency landing on a desolate, sandy planet, and fight a ground-battle against Kamians desperate to get their hands on a second cloaking device.