Stealth Tracking Gizmo

Current Holder: Attached to the The Albatross — gone with the ship

Origin: Built by Shackleton Magellan in flight, from a Gizmo

Overview

A covert tracker Shackleton Magellan built from a Gizmo during the three-hour flight back to MacMillian Station IV and fitted to the The Albatross’s transponder relay. It does not announce itself: rather than broadcasting a ping that anyone sweeping for it would find, it stays silent until interrogated on Shackleton’s own private frequency, and answers only that.

Its one weakness was understood at the time it was built — the answer has to travel. The further the ship goes, the longer the round trip, and past the edge of the system there is no useful response at all.

Which is exactly what happened. Shackleton pinged it after the ship was quarantined at Docking Bay 36 under Julija Borja’s order, and got nothing back. The hull, the Alien Navigation Device, the vortex engines, and the hold of alien technology had already left the Thides System.

The gizmo did its job perfectly. The answer it returned was silence, and silence was the answer.

Properties

• Mounting: transponder relay of the The Albatross.
• Signalling: passive; responds only to interrogation on Shackleton’s private frequency.
• Range limit: round-trip signal delay scales with distance; no useful return from outside the system.
• Cost: one Gizmo slot.

Appearances

• Session 4 (Session 04 - The Case of the Missing Courtesan) — Built and fitted during the return flight; later pinged and returned nothing, establishing that the quarantined ship had left the Thides System entirely.