(While Thorne and Miranda are just coming back from Illium, Shepard and Jacob are talking)
Jacob: Sorry, Commander. I'm a little unfocused. Personal matter
Shepard: Is something on your mind, Jacob?
Jacob: I don't want to waste our time if this turns out to be a goose chase, but... I got pinged by a ghost the other night. Family
Shepard: I'm listening
Jacob: My private log got an update about the Hugo Gernsback, the ship my father served on. It sent an SOS last week, reporting a crash and requesting a rescue. That ship went missing ten years ago. I hadn't talked to my father for three years before that. I've buried everything but a body. I'm not convinced that it isn't just some automated distress signal ticking over. It's been too long
Shepard: So you want us to go take a look at the wreck? See if it's legit?
Jacob: If the coordinates aren't too far out of our way, I could at least verify the wreck. Who knows? Maybe there is actually someone out there. I also want to mention that I don't make a habit of looking for random SOS signals. This was passed to my personal log through cerberus filters
Shepard: I think we can spare the time. Pass the coordinates to Joker
Jacob: I appreciate that, Commander. I don't expect more than dusty old bones, but it'll be good to close the record
(Shepard, Thorne, and Jacob off on a planet called 2175 Aeia. They touch down on the planet's surface in the shuttle and step out)
EDI: I have run a scan of the ship. I detect no life signs, but there may be useful technology to salvage, or information still stored inside
(Shepard, Thorne, Galahad, and Jacob all walk down a dirt path for a little bit until they find a giant alliance ship wreck of the Hugo Gernsback)
Shepard: There it is
Thorne: And it's mostly intact
Jacob: They could have survived the impact... but it's been years
(The four men look through the ship's wreckage. They do find some salvage, and they find find an activated beacon VI, but they don't find any survivors)
Shepard: From the look of it, this beacon's been here a while. Why would they wait years to signal?
VI: Beacon resumed. Pause time 8 years, 237 days, and 7 hours. Pause is recorded as RECORD DELETED by acting Captain Ronald Taylor. Toxicology alert. Danger of rapid neural decay. Local flora chemically incompatible with human physiology
Jacob: That's not right. My father was first officer
VI: Ronald Taylor was promoted under emergency command protocols. Other flagged issues include unsafe deceleration, local food and neural decay, and beacon activation protocols
Galahad: According to a survivor's log, Taylor got field promoted to Captain after his CO's death in the crash. The data on these computers says the flora causes a chemical imbalance in the brain when consumed leading to trauma and decay
Shepard: Come on. Lets get going
Jacob: My father had this beacon for almost nine years. Maybe that neural decay affected him
Galahad: Avoiding it for a decade does seem unlikely
(Shepard, Thorne, Galahad, and Jacob start wandering down the dirt path to look for any signs of life)
