75 The Engineer nodded. "The tapes are ashes," he
announced, "the only chance we've got is that there's something in the
memory but there's not much chance of that."
76 He produced a readout board from a cabinet and some connecting
wires. In a few moments something began to print out on the board. It
was the same message repeated over and over again, parts of each repeat
were missing. But by piecing the different sections together, they were
able to read the entire message.
77 "This is Freedom's Hope," it read, "we hit something. Engines
exploded. Radiation filling the ship. We're finished. Children in
suspension in the pod, all four hundred. Pod stayed clean. Got it away,
it is heading for a nearby system." The message then gave the
coordinances of the system. "Come get them. Our only surviving
maintenance droid will take care of them 'til you get here. Good luck.
Live in freedom." That was the complete message.
78 "What do you make of that?" Morn asked. "I've never heard of a ship
with a name like that! I'd better go contact the computer and see if it
has an identification!"
79 "Don't do that, sir!" warned the Doctor. "Are these things working?"
The Doctor asked, tapping his battle com under his space suit.
80 "Not a prayer," assured the Engineer. "They might be receiving some
very poor video from our suit sensors, but nothing beyond that."
81 The Doctor nodded, and turned back to Morn. "Freedom's Hope," he
explained , "was an old Nova Class battleship, once the pride of The
Fleet. She was taken over by the Rebels in The Second Western
Rebellion. She and nine other ships escaped the blockade just before
the systems fell. No trace of her was ever found, only one of the other
ships was ever located. It was found abandoned in orbit in a system
near here, stripped of anything valuable."