We made our move as soon as the Bhaalgorn warped away today.
We moved in for a close inspection of the wreck, close enough that we are uncloaked. The only part that may still have any archaeological remains of any value was a steel plated sphere, at least hundred meter in diameter, and nestled in the front part of the wreck. I assumed it would have housed essential systems and perhaps historical records, as it was built to be sturdy, a hard nut buried inside the hull of the colony ship.
It has a hatch, and we were able to dock with it. It was surprisingly easy to latch on and dock with. In retrospect that should have been a first red flag.
The hatch led to an airlock, manually operated. I entered the airlock, together with my cloak technician (and avid weapons collector) Idesbald, who was armed with a plasma rifle and EMP grenades. After we closed the outer door, the airlock quickly pressurized with a breathable atmosphere, so we could take off our suit helmets. The inner door unlocked.
Inside was nothing I could have imagined.
The sphere has been stripped of whatever used to be inside of it, and refurbished with modern technology. The airlock opened to a ledge leading to a platform, suspended in the very center of the sphere. As one moves along the ledge closer to the center, the sides of the sphere recede, and the further along, the deeper the fall to the curved floor.
The sphere's walls are lined with what appears to be vials of blood, some are the size of a test tube, others the size of a wine bottle. They have worn labels. There must be millions here, each in their own cubbyhole. The temperature is cool, and the air has the moisture of a cave.
On the platform, there is a creature with the upper body of a man, mounted on some sort of base with five mechanical insect legs. It swiveled around and scurried towards us, greeting me in particular: "Welcome collector, to the blood cellar."
