Chapter 68: Draco Dormiens Nunquam Excitare

“How is it going, Laine?” I asked.

“It won’t be long before we can access their computer,” she replied.

“Just enough to gain access,” I said.

“Understood, Commander,” said Laine.

A few lights winked on around us. It looked like a positive sign.

I floated around, looking at the nearby consoles and equipment.

“I’ve got it!” said Laine. “Power flow is stable. Now to check on their computer.”

Laine moved to a console and pressed buttons. The display came to life, showing lines of computer text.

“Do you understand that language?” I asked.

“No. I am hoping to bypass the console and download its data. I just needed power to the computer to do that,” replied Laine.

She plugged in a cable from her personal device into a port on the side of the console.

I waited while she fiddled with her device and the console. I didn’t know how long she’d take.

She turned to me, and I saw her smile inside the visor of her suit.

“The download has begun. Ship upgraded my device with much larger storage capacity. This may take a while,” said Laine.

“I’ll look around this level. You stay here until you complete the download, then shut everything down,” I said.

Laine was busily working on her device and didn’t reply.

I pushed off and floated along towards the side wall. There weren’t any lights on, except where Laine was working.

Without gravity, I floated roughly waist height off the floor. I didn’t see it until I was right above it.

“Woah!” I said. I grabbed a nearby consoled to stop my momentum.

“What is it?” asked Laine over our suit communications.

“I found the remains of one of the former inhabitants,” I said.

Beneath me on the floor was a jump suit, and a few bones. In the darkness, I could have easily missed it.

“Do you need my help?” asked Laine. She was looking my way from her position. The lights from her suit were shining in my face.

“No, you keep working on the download,” I said. She turned back to the console.

Since there wasn’t much left of the remains, I resumed my exploring. Without power, the consoles and devices were inert and meaningless to me. I figured I’d found all there was, so I returned to Laine.

“Hello again. How goes the download?” I asked.

Laine was carefully studying her device. “I don’t know how much data it has, so I can’t say how much is remaining,” she replied.

This was something I couldn’t help her with. I had to wait in this dreary place until she finished the download. It was grim and rather boring.

I looked around in the darkness, except it didn’t seem as dark now.

“Excuse me, Laine. You have two displays working now?” I asked.

“Huh? No, just this one,” replied Laine. She looked up from her device to the display in front of her.

“What about that display?” I asked, pointing at a display to her right. There was text steadily scrolling up the screen.

“Uh-oh!” said Laine.

“Laine, what is going on??” I asked.

“I can’t be sure, but it might be a boot-up sequence,” she replied.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“The computer is trying to wake up,” she replied.

“Can you stop it?” I asked.

Laine started pressing buttons. She soon pushed more urgently.

She turned to me. “Commander, something’s happened. I’m locked out of the console.”

“Fine, pull the plug. Cut the power to the computer,” I said.

She disconnected her power pack, but the displays didn’t go dark as expected.

“It’s gone beyond the point where it needed the extra power,” she said. Her face looked worried.

“Unplug everything and move your gear away from the console,” I ordered.

Laine removed the cable and moved back, and I pulled out my stun gun. I wished I had something stronger with me.

I set it to the highest power and fired at the console. After a few satisfying sparks, the display went blank.

Text continued scrolling up on the right console.

“I don’t think shooting the displays will stop the process,” said Laine.

“Do you have a better idea?” I asked.

“No,” she replied.

I shot the second display. It also fizzled and turned blank.

“Now we have no clue what is happening,” she said.

Lights gradually came on in the ceiling.

“I know exactly what is happening. It isn’t good,” I said.

I needed to tell Jem what was happening, but this station blocked our communications. So I tried another route. Jem and I had a kind of connection, although we hadn’t explored it much. I closed my eyes and focused on Jem. I tried to think of the clearest message. Something simple. It was just one word.

“Danger!”

“Ship, please move us further back from the station. Consider it as potentially hostile,” said Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

As they moved away, more lights were visible on the exterior of the orbital station.

“Isn’t that just Brian and Laine?” asked Mina.

“Call it a hunch, but I’m erring on the side of caution. Turning the lights on wasn’t part of the plan,” replied Jem.

“I wish we could communicate with them. We don’t know what is happening inside,” said Mina.

“Agreed. Ship, cloak us and set up a dreadnought probe. Send it back towards the orbital station,” ordered Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Try hailing the orbital station, via the dreadnought probe,” said Jem.

“Confirmed ... No response, Commodore,” replied Ship.

“Sorry, Commander! I thought I could turn it off again,” cried Laine.

“I approved your actions, so we are both at fault. But it has gone beyond blaming,” I replied.

“Beyond?” asked Laine.

“Yes. Since we can’t shut it down, we have a new goal. We have to get out of here before the computer decides we are intruders,” I replied.

I started looking around, searching for ideas. If only there was a big power shutoff lever. I was good with levers.

It was then I noticed a whirring noise.

“Can you here that?” asked Laine. She was floating near the ceiling.

“Yes. It means the station is pressurizing. You can’t hear sounds in a vacuum. Don’t open your visor, it might be toxic to us,” I said.

Then it came to me.

“Laine, get down now!” I yelled.

I reached for her and tried to pull her towards the floor, but I couldn’t reach her. The artificial gravity came on abruptly.

I tried to move my legs so my feet were pointing towards the floor.

We both dropped to the floor with a thud. I fared better because I was closer to the floor. I ended up on my hands and knees.

“OWW!” cried out Laine. She’d landed hard.

I held on for a console and pulled myself into a standing position. After floating for hours, the gravity was a challenge.

“Laine, we must get out of here. Things are proceeding fast. Can you stand?” I asked.

She rolled over and reached for the hand I offered.

“My ankle hurts,” said Laine.

“Lean on me,” I said.

She pulled and struggled, but stood up with her weight on her good leg.

We hobbled towards the elevator shaft.

“Laine, we have to get back up to the level where we docked our shuttle,” I said.

“But we can’t float up there!” said Laine.

“I know. Let’s take a look,” I said.

The double doors to the elevator shaft were still open. I propped Laine against the wall and leaned in and peered inside the shaft.

“I can’t see the elevator. There is a ladder inside the shaft. We need to climb up,” I said.

“What if the elevator comes?” asked Laine.

“We had better hurry then,” I replied.

“I’ll do my best,” replied Laine.

“This isn’t the first space station we had to escape from, Laine. Let me carry some of your gear,” I said.

I figured the extra equipment she had attached caused her injury when she fell. I took the larger items from her and clipped them onto my suit.

“You go first. The ladder is on your left. Be careful,” I said.

She worked her way through the doorway and reached for the ladder. As soon as she moved up, I got in and followed behind her.

We moved a few steps up the ladder when there was a loud klaxon sound.

“I think the station has detected our presence!” said Laine.

“Keep climbing!” I said.

“Attention,” said Ship.

“Go ahead,” replied Jem.

“The shuttle has undocked from the orbital station,” said Ship.

“Finally! Ship, put me through to the Commander,” said Jem.

“Negative, Commodore. There is no one aboard the shuttle,” replied Ship.

On the tactical display, they saw the shuttle drifting away from the orbital station. It looked tiny compared to the station.

“Ship, how did it undock then?” asked Jem.

“I speculate that the station ejected the shuttle from the docking port,” replied Ship.

“Where are Brian and Laine??” asked Mina.

“Logic dictates that they are still aboard the station,” replied Ship. “However, sensors cannot confirm this.”

Suddenly there was a bright flash. The shuttle wasn’t there anymore.

“What was that?” exclaimed Jem.

Ship replayed the event in slow motion on the tactical display.

“The orbital station fired an energy-based weapon and destroyed the shuttle,” replied Ship.

“Crap! They are in danger,” said Jem.

“How do we rescue them?” asked Mina.

“We can’t. If we take a shuttle over there, the station has proven they can destroy us with a single shot,” replied Jem.

“We need to think of something. We can’t just leave them there!” said Mina.

“I know. But a shuttle won’t work. We need another way to rescue them,” said Jem.

“Attention,” said Ship.