Failure……. That is what I am most familiar with. I have lost all… Everything I have cared about. My command, my squad, my….. my friends.

John H. Glenn, a tall and brawny man with graying streaks in his black hair, and a Commander in the United Space Coalition, could only stare in blatant disbelief at what he was looking at. A derelict space station belonging to the old Sol Empire way beyond disrepair and in the dark space between solar systems. Strange. Especially since all nearby habitable planets even close to this sector were obliterated in the Great Civil War hundreds of years ago.

With the mission to explore the space beyond the territory of the U.S.C. and look for suitable planets to inhabit they stumbled upon a signal leading them to this very station. With his many decorated years in the military, his immediate thoughts were of a possible ambush and sent his crew to battle stations.

“Lieutenant Shawkwa, get me a scan on that station. I want every detail you can scrounge up.”

“Already on it, sir.” Her response wasn't a bluff as five of the twelve available drones were already en route to the station. Her slick black hair tied in a ponytail so as to not distract her control of the little machines. Back on Sakina she had many suitors trying to bypass security and board the U.S.C.S. Marathon just so they can be stuck out in space with her.

“Sergeant Sterling, get your men equipped for zero-gee combat. Just because we have no visuals of a ship outside, doesn't mean there are no hostiles inside the facility.”

“Aye aye, sir.” A husky voice replied to the orders.

Shortly after the orders a single transport ship was launched and headed to the still silent station.

“Sergeant, drones show no hostiles throughout the facility, but are receiving strange reading from within the detention block on the lower sections of the station. Scout out the location and see what it is, we will be providing a drone to go inside and show the way. On the way to the source see if you can find any information on this station from within.”

“Roger that, sir. We are linking suit cameras to displays now.”

At Sterling’s word Commander Glenn’s view of the station switched to multiple views of the inside of the transport ship from a four man squad. The command crew had full visual and audio of the soldiers that were going onto the station.

“Commander’s orders are to follow the drone from the LZ and find whatever is sending out the signal the drones outside are picking up. Once we locate it we will either bring it back with us or prepare it for a towing crew. En route to the signal source, we are to look for any information that might shine some light on this story.” Sergeant Sterling had picked his most experienced men for this Op so he wouldn't have to worry about losing any of his men and be able to get out of the boundlessness of space as quick as possible

After Sterling was giving his warning order to his squad, Lt. Shawkwa said while smiling in her seat, “Don’t worry boys, I’ll make sure you don’t get lost.” Seeming to brighten the Corporals day.

After the squad of men dismounted from their ship they were surprised to find that they were bouncing instead of the free fall that is zero-gee space. The station still had gravity despite it being below standard for a station this size. Commander Glenn and the entire command crew were also surprised, especially when the drones had shown no power fluxes since their arrival. The station had no power to generate this gravity and sent the crew into high alert.

“Sir, drones are still showing that the station has no power. Maybe whatever is sending out that signal is somehow generating the gravity inside the station.”

“Sound reasoning because I doubt all twelve of our drones are malfunctioning at the same time.” said Commander Glenn, still watching his soldiers aboard this ever increasing abnormal space station.

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After four hours of searching through the station for any information, Sterling and his men made it to the detention block of the station and were finally closing in on the strange signal when the

Corporal went from bounding to face planting against the deck at the unexpected increase in gravity. Which sent Lt. Shawkwa into a giggling fit.

“Sir, gravity is getting higher now that we are at the detention block. My hypothesis is that the LT was right on the signal being the source.”

“Proceed carefully and keep an eye on your suits integrity, we have no idea the maximum gravity output the source is releasing.”

“Sir, the drone is showing the signal at its strongest two hatches from the squad. My bet is the source is behind that door.”

Feeling slight vibrations in the deck, Sterling brought his squad closer to said room. Reaching for the door release, the team get ready for a breach maneuver just in case. Hitting the release the squad files in through the door in an experienced fashion covering all corners of the room.

What was inside the room was a curious cylindrical pod that slowly pulsated to a rhythmic beat.

Slowly Commander Glenn opened his mouth, “Sterling, bring all information found and video recorded to the science lab. Maybe, with any luck, we just might find out what is in that pod.”

After he received confirmation of his orders he turns to his right, “Ensign Rogers, I want you to set up communications with any available top brass in the U.S.C., they are going to want a report and I want to know what the hell they want me to do with this pod and the rest of the floating piece of space shit.”

“Would they want that in writing or on a holo-call, sir?” The quick quip came from the youngest man on the command team. The young man with short brown hair and deep blue eyes could easily be

thought of as a handsome man.

While changing the display to the earlier image of the strange pod, Commander Glenn said, “Quit it with the wise ass routine, this could be the greatest discovery to put humanity back on its high pedestal it had before that galactic Civil War. And someone get that tow team ready, they might want to be a part of it.”

Walking into the science lab, Commander Glenn could see several scientists and drones doing multiple scans upon the strange pod lead by the ships lead scientist, Dr. Karen Cineal. Funny when you think about it considering she had the height of child just entering her teens.

Her eyes were almost blinding how brightly they shined, ”Commander, I believe this pod is some kind of ancient cyro-stasis pod! Truly fascinating that the ancients could make one that could last this long. I’m completely ecstatic on the prospect of what they could have used such an advanced stasis pod for.”

“Is it ready be opened, Doctor?”

“Commander, this thing is hardly stable and if history then was as accurate as it is now, whatever is inside has been in stasis for over 500 years. So to answer your question, no it’s not ready.”

Owning doctorates in astrobiology, cryobiology, biochemistry, bio-engineering and molecular biology, she was clearly more qualified than the Commander to ‘diagnose’ the patient they was inside the curious metal tube.

“Dr. Cineal, I love your Sol-Irish charm, but a simple yes or no could have sufficed.”

“I’m sorry sir, but this cryo-stasis pod is of unfamiliar design and many of the fail safes we have today are not implemented in the model here almost like the never inten…”

“You know what our mission entails,” Commander Glenn’s face was one of a stone wall and would not budge on the issue “I want that pod open as soon as possible with whatever inhabitant either in the detention or medical bay depending if the poor bastard is still alive or not.”

With a sigh Dr. Cineal could only agree, “Aye sir.”