Leon sat in the secondary observation room with a large portion of the crew. Missing was Aden, Chad, Samuel, Chris and Sabine. Chris and Sabine were in the main engineering room monitoring the ships overall condition and working to maintain the radio link to the others. Aden, Chad and Samuel had been chosen as the small exploratory force that would attempt to gain access to the wrecked station they had discovered. They knew the potential dangers and had all volunteered, Leon would not have forced anyone to take the kind of risk he was asking.
Leon was watching a feed from Aden’s helmet camera as the three of them finished suiting up in one of the Leif Erikson’s airlocks. They were wearing the armoured EVA suits and had, among other things, thruster packs and magnetic boots to enable them to explore the station as comfortably as possible.
As he watched them make their final checks he heard Samuel over the comms.
“Check-check, this is Samuel, you reading me base?” Samuel asked over the comms.
Leon leaned forwards towards the microphone attached to the main console in front of him and replied “Copy Samuel, this is Command-One reading you loud and clear. Everything looking good for EVA Aden?”
“It's all checked out. Green across the board. Should be smooth sailing all the way to the welcome mat.” Aden replied.
Leon smiled, the welcome mat was what they had designated a nearby breached airlock. It seemed like the perfect location to enter the station as it was centrally located and seemed to lead directly into the heart of the station.
He spoke to the team “Alrighty. Things look good on our end, life support readings are active, you are go for the mission Aden. Samuel, Chad, good luck!” He finished.
As he watched through the feed, the three men moved through the ship’s outer airlock and into the deep void of space. He could see Aden ahead of Chad’s feed as the man used the suits maneuvering jets to stay on course. The integrated heads-up display guided the trio across the gap and to the structure. As the three got closer Leon was able to make out just how degraded the outer shell of the station was.
“Look at this.” Chad said as he reached a suited hand out to the corroded surface. It was completely covered in tiny craters as if it had been sandblasted for eons, which is likely exactly what had happened.
Leon heard Aden answer “Whatever this place was, it must be incredibly ancient. To have accumulated this much wear… I can't even fathom its age.” He said with a small amount of awe.
Leon looked at the expanse of the structure from the helmet feed. It seemed to stretch off into infinity from how close the men were, the broken and withered spars of ancient pillars stuck out at odd angles from the surface of the platform. Their purpose long lost to the wear and tear of time.
“Move to the airlock boys, we can look at the surface later. The mission is to see if there remains anything useful onboard.” Joice said over the comms from her seat next to him.
Chad looked away from the surface, his feed now showing the yawning dark abyss of the damaged airlock they had identified as the safest point of entry. The sides were smooth as volcanic glass with a strange sheen. It was clear that they had been hit by a high speed kinetic object, but whether it had been a deliberate sabotage or just an accidental asteroid collision was as of yet unknown. Either way, it was their best shot at getting onto the station quickly and without heavy equipment.
Leon watched as they switched on their suit lights and entered into the belly of the structure. The doors of the airlock looked to have been almost two feet thick, at the time they had been intact they must have weighed many tons each, in his mind Leon wondered what its ancient builders could have needed so much protection against.
The feed got confusing for a moment as the three men crowded through the relatively narrow entry wound and into the station itself. After a moment of orienting themselves, they planted their magnetized boots on the decking and stood. The sight that greeted their eyes was like something out of a horror movie.
Leon observed the feed, the hall was wide, at least a full ten meters across and almost as tall. They must have been in some sort of loading area, or it was possible the race that had built the station was proportionally much larger than Humans. This idea was dashed as the three came across an opening that looked to be a doorway soon after entering. The opening was only slightly smaller than one he would have seen in any Human made station or facility back home.
Aden spoke from over the link “We found what looks like a chamber off the main corridor. Moving to investigate.” Leon held his breath instinctively as the feed moved closer to the wall of darkness. What waited in the shadows, could there be something on the ship still after all this time? Somehow still horribly alive in the total vacuum of space. Before they had discovered the Glimmer Drorns he would have thought life in the void impossible, but he knew better now.
The six spots of light from the three men’s helmets became two as they moved into single file to enter the small opening. Aden entered first, his gaze revealing a small space with nothing but a few square shapes along the far wall. The floor was bare metal plates and looked worn, but not in the same way the outer hull had been worn. This had the look of heavy use, scrapes and small dings apparent in the bright lights of Aden’s helmet.
Chad entered next and swept his gaze around the room. The walls were a dull greenish gray. Leon wasn't sure if the metal itself was slightly colored or if it was a trick of the light. On the near wall a panel of some sort lurked and Chad moved over to it as Samuel entered the room last. The pilot looked first at the far wall where Aden was approaching and then to the ceiling. The ceiling was white and seemed to be coated in a layer of enamel paint of some sort. As it held little interest, Samuel moved in the same direction as Aden.
Leon watched, fascinated by the whole experience. Here were the remains of some long-lost civilization, who knew what their culture and experience had been like? ‘Would they find anything to shed light on its ancient builders?’ He wondered to himself silently.
“I found something.” Aden said as he neared the box shapes. They were the same greenish gray color as the rest of the room and only about chest high. Aden’s feed showed his arms reaching out to touch their surface, the boxes didn't respond or otherwise do anything upon contact. Their surfaces were slightly corrugated and Leon wondered if they might be some form of storage containers. His silent theory was validated as Samuel walked around the far end of one to find a pair of hinged doors.
Samuel reached out to one saying “I seem to have found an opening. Attempting entry.” His gloved and armoured hands reached for a small lever and attempted to twist. Nothing happened. He tried again, a small grunt of effort escaping into the feed. “It’s no use. The hinges are probably cold welded shut. We are going to have to cut it open to get inside.”
Leon looked around the command station to some of the others and then said “I'm not sure that would be the best use of their limited time.”
Joice nodded in agreement and Terry said “They could always make a second trip if they needed to?”
Leon nodded and turned to the microphone and instructed “Leave it for now Samuel. We can send a second recovery expedition if things go well.”
Samuel’s feed seemed to bob as the man nodded inside his suit and stood. He and Aden moved away from the corrugated boxes and towards where Chad was standing. In the intervening time, Chad had managed to jimmy the panel open to reveal some sort of electrical box. It looked rather similar to any number of power boxes one might expect to see back on Earth, except for the different arrangement of colors and strange alien text.
“Wow, are you seeing that?” Taylor said as he looked at the strange and angular characters. It looked almost like ancient cuneiform except the symbols were single parts.
The mess of wires and symbols likely had a more significant meaning, but to Leon they looked like so much nonsense. “Get a few pictures of that for future study, but then we need to keep moving.” He said over the link. Chad used the inbuilt recorder in his helmet to capture a few images and then turned away from it. As he did Leon thought he saw a shadow detach from the wall near the door and dart into the hall, or at least it looked as if something had as he jerked back from the screen.
Natalia looked him over and asked “Are you okay?”
Leon glanced back towards the screen and noticed that nobody else seemed to have seen the apparition. “Just got a cramp in my arm. Sitting in one position for too long.” He lied, feeling a bit bad for not being honest with her. She just smiled and nodded before giving his shoulder a gentle pat.
Leon watched the feed for any sign of the shape as the three men entered the ship's hall once again. But he saw nothing, no evidence of life of any type. Shuddering ever so slightly to himself, Leon forced himself to put thoughts of shadowy figures out of his mind. This wasn't the time to start hallucinating or seeing things that couldn't be there.
Aden’s camera feed was once more front and center on the screen. The hall was dark and decrepit looking, but without any atmosphere the only sounds were the soft thuds of the man’s feet hitting the deck and his breathing. They continued down the hall, the walls faded or bare metal in most places. There were however occasional spots of faded color that looked to be some sort of partial symbols similar to the ones they had observed earlier.
The sound of rhythmic breathing as Aden and the other two men clunked slowly down the hall was a little unsettling. The cameras could only pick up the nearby surroundings when they were looking at them, otherwise the walls dissolved into darkness with the absence of light. No starlight penetrated this far into the station, everything was pitch black, no light and no sound. It was as if the men were inside a massive sensory deprivation chamber.
Their lights danced across the walls of the tunnel until Aden stopped and turned back the way he had just been looking. As he did so, the lights from his suit helmet revealed another doorway similar in dimension to the first one.
“Looks like we have something here.” Aden said over the open comms, his voice crackling slightly from interference.
Chad moved up to his side, his light joining with that from Aden’s helmet to light the door and part of the room beyond. Nothing could be seen directly except the same worn looking flooring, the slight green hue of the metal causing the bright lights of their suits to take on an almost eerie quality, scuffs and scrapes indicative of heavy use were on the floor and door frame.
“Well, I guess we pop on in and see what we got huh?” Chad said cheerfully as he started towards the door.
Sabine, who was watching from the other side of Joice, leaned forwards and said “Be careful though. The station could have unstable portions, you could fall through the floor.”
Chad waved a hand in front of his helmet and made a noise of acknowledgement as he entered the room. The room was large, much larger than the one they had entered previously. Their attention was immediately drawn to the rows of blocky constructs near the center of the room, Leon scrutinized them and the small protrusions in front of them. They looked almost like chairs, if chairs were slightly misshapen and had no backs. Maybe a bit like a cross between a bucket seat and a stool, whatever they were they seemed to line up perfectly with the separate constructs.
Chad walked slowly over to one, his magnetized boots keeping him firmly attached to the floor. As he neared one he let out a small surprised noise. “Wha? These are computer consoles!” He stated with supreme confidence.
Aden shuffled over, his camera feed focusing first on the apparent computers and then on the armoured void suit of Chad. The large armoured EVA suits were bulky and made the wearers look grossly blown out of proportion, arms and legs heavy with survival systems and servo muscles to move the weight of their armoured outer plates. They were however capable of withstanding a large amount of damage without harming the wearer, useful to have in hostile or unknown environments.
Aside from the interesting perspective of Chad’s suit, Leon looked closely at the supposed computer consoles on the screen. From what he could see they looked like solid hunks of metal, nothing like the button and light covered panels of the Leif Erikson’s many computer stations.
Chad leaned in close to one of the consoles and pulled out a small multitool, prying at the sides of one of the constructs, he managed to free an almost invisible panel. Underneath was a mess of wires and connections, but nothing that looked distinctly like a computer to Leon’s eyes. Next Chad moved to the top and with a little bit of effort, managed to pry a large section of the external paneling up. It swiveled up and into a vertical position revealing a dark screen and series of symbol covered buttons on the lower portion.
“Well. What do ya know.” Chad said, obviously proud of himself.
Aden snorted and Samuel looked around the room. The pilot seemed to think for a moment before he asked “If these are all computers and in rows, do you suppose they had them set up in a command pattern with a master console somewhere?”
Chad stood and looked around as well “It’s possible. What do you think Command?” Worth a shot looking around?” The excitable engineer asked expectantly.
Leon looked at Joice who shrugged, he nodded to himself and spoke over the comms “Yes. But don't take too long, you only have ten hours of oxygen in your tanks, and you will need enough to make your way back to the ship.” He warned them. He felt like the warning needed to be said.
The trio split up and started to rove around the large room. Aden and Samuel moved more to the sides while Chad walked slowly along the row of consoles towards the far side of the room. Leon watched as Chad reached the end of the row, there seemed to be a gap that led in the direction the consoles were oriented. Following this new path through rows of the nondescript grey computers, he soon came upon a raised portion of the decking with a ramp.
“Aden, Samuel, I think I found something.” Chad said, his feed showed him looking out to the lights that were further to the reaches of the large room.
Aden replied instantly “Alright, moving towards you now.” Samuel said nothing but started towards the other man as well, his feed showing him walking along one of the far walls. The walls were covered in large screens that had the look of extreme age, their screens damaged and some broken or missing entirely.
The other two men continued to walk towards Chad’s position as the engineer turned and walked up the short ramp. His lights swept over an interesting scene, a much larger version of the console’s sat atop the raised platform. Unlike its smaller counterparts it was curved into a half moon shape and had a total of four strange seats in front of it suggesting that it must be a considerably more powerful unit. Chad walked to it and immediately began tinkering with the device, his multitool making quick work of various panels and sections.
Aden reached the platform first and his helmet feed showed Chad’s bulky form hunched on one knee as he fiddled with one of the computer’s various closed panels. “So Chad, what's the plan?” The older man asked curiously.
Chad muttered something to himself as a particularly stubborn panel resisted his attempts. “Well, given that these panels look like they were likely locked down with electromagnets instead of screws, and judging by the look of the station itself. I would hazard a guess that these computers have been unpowered for many thousands of years, but I got to thinking. If these guys used hard data storage mediums as backups like we do, I might be able to salvage something useful from it. That's a big if though.” He finished, a shrug implied in his voice even though his heavy EVA suit could not mimic the gesture.
Aden seemed satisfied by the man’s explanation and said over the comms “I guess we are going to be holding here for a bit then Command. I think I’m going to set up a relay beacon out in the hall. I'm getting some interference readings on my connection monitor.” Leon noticed that indeed the man’s voice was a bit choppy and the video feeds were laced with some static.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“That would be advised Aden, we are reading some interference from here. Nothing dangerous, likely just the structure itself.” Leon spoke to him over the link.
Aden began to move down the ramp just as Samuel arrived, the two nodded as they passed and Samuel made his way to Chad before asking “Is there any way I can help?”
Chad’s feed panned up to the other man, Samuel’s form blotted out by his bright suit lights. “Sure why not? See if you can get these panels off. We are looking for anything that might constitute an alien hard drive, whatever that means.” He finished with a small mumble to himself. The mic picked it up however and Samuel chuckled before pulling out his own multi tool to assist.
Leon switched his attention to Aden as the biologist moved towards their point of entry. The feed seemed to fizz and stutter less and less until by the time Aden reached the hall, it had almost completely stabilized. Aden started to unload the small yet powerful signal booster from the pack on his side when he froze in place. The man’s breathing quickened and his health monitor registered a spike in heart rate.
Joice leaned forwards and asked over the link “Aden, what's wrong? Aden, please respond immediately!”
Leon watched as the man seemed to shudder, his feed shivering slightly. “I thought I saw… something move. It's nothing, I'm just on edge.” He said. Leon felt a small spike of fear. Had Aden seen the same thing, a shadow that moved? He decided it was likely not the best to ask the man over open comms as that would lead to hard to answer questions.
He swallowed his growing uneasiness and asked “Are you able to place the signal booster? We could use a clearer look at what the other two are doing.”
Aden replied in a slightly shaky voice “Yes, yes I will do it now.” And with his declaration he turned and planted the device on the door frame behind him, activating it with a series of button presses. Almost immediately the two feeds from Chad and Samuel stabilized.
“Thank you, Aden, that is much better.” Joice said to the man who didn't reply. Aden just turned quickly and marched back towards the others.
Joice turned to him and gave him a questioning look. It was all Leon could do to look clueless and shrug, his face would likely have given him away if the woman hadn't been so focused on the mission. Leon sighed internally as she turned her attention back to the screens, now was not the time to start asking odd questions.
Chad gave a shout of triumph and beckoned Samuel to his position. Leon watched as the feed showed a small compartment under the edge of the console's upper opening up. He watched as one of Chad’s armoured hands reached up towards the open hatch and extracted a cylindrical device about the size of a clenched fist. Chad removed it gingerly, treating it as if it was fragile as an egg.
Chad spoke up “I think I’ve got it! Look at this thing, it’s like some sort of helical data storage medium, I wonder if it's laser etched…”. He trailed off, the object still clutched in his gloved hands. After another moment of silent reflection, he twisted and placed it gingerly in his sample collection pouch. It would be perfectly safe in there.
Leon didn't have much hope that they would be able to extract anything remotely valuable from the device, it was ancient. Even if they managed to figure it out, they would still be hampered by a totally alien language they had never before encountered. It was possible they could use Henry to crack the alien symbols, the algorithmic learning computer’s main function being pattern acquisition after all.
Aden met back up with the other two men just as the they started down the ramp. “You got what you were looking for?” Aden asked Chad a little quickly.
Chad, who didn't seem to notice the other man’s uneasiness, simply answered “Yeah. We should keep looking, there could be more.” Again, Samuel remained silent and followed along as the trio made their way out of the dark room filled with dead computers.
As they entered the wide hall, Aden turned to look the way they had come and asked “How do you think they disappeared, do you think they were fighting something?”
Leon glanced around but nobody spoke in answer to the man’s question. He hesitated a moment before he replied “I'm sure they all left of their own free will Aden. The inside of the station does not appear to have suffered damage, only the exterior. Maybe the station was simply abandoned as the star grew nearer to the end of its life.”
His answer didn't seem to help the mood of the situation, but Aden turned back to look where the hall continued and said “I guess we continue on then.”
The walls of the hall moved past slowly as the group walked down the passage, their lights illuminating the occasional darkened doorway. Every time they went to explore an entrance they discovered the rooms were small and devoid of interest though and so Leon told them to try and see where the hall itself ended up.
The trio walked down the darkened hall for a while longer, at least twenty minutes passed in tense silence without any change. But then Aden spoke out “I see something ahead, it looks like a wall… and a large opening.”
The feed showed what Aden was seeing, the hall ending abruptly and a large opening. The opening was much larger than the doorways they had been seeing on the sides of the hall making Leon think of industrial loading bays.
Chad seemed to agree with his silent thoughts as the engineer reached the opening and peered inside. “It looks like an elevator shaft. Hang on a minute.” The man trailed off a bit and seemed to look around at the surroundings. Leon glanced at Joice and she shrugged. Natalia seemed to be just as riveted by the broadcast as he himself was and he went back to watching.
Chad seemed to come to a realization as he said “Oh shit! Of course, why didn't I see it immediately!”
Aden turned to Chad and asked “What happened? What did you miss?”
Leon felt a bit worried at the man’s tone but hesitated, he didn't want to say anything and disrupt the man’s train of thought. Not when he was so clearly on a new line of thinking.
Chad threw out an arm and made a wide gesture to the dark hall they had traversed to get there. “Look, the hall is straight. All the rooms are set on the bottom of it and are flat. And here in front of us is what looks like an elevator shaft going up! Don't you see?” Chad asked with excitement.
Samuel seemed to shake his head slightly and reply “I'm not sure. I see the hallway, what is your point?”
Chad tutted and made another grand gesture as he explained “The station is huge. And from what we have seen its built using levels that are likely connected by more elevator shafts like this one.” The other two remained silent as Chad kept talking. “Well. It got me thinking, the station is clearly not designed to rotate at high speeds, it's not shaped in any way that would make this useful for generating centrifugal force.”
Samuel jerked as if struck and muttered “Huh? Wait…”
Leon cocked his head, not quite following the train of thought. He thought it over again and felt the small pang of realisation in the corners of his mind, just beyond reach. Before he could finish his line of thought however, a voice nearby shouted “They had artificial gravity!”
Leon turned to see Sabine practically vibrating with excitement at her realisation. It was easy to understand why, artificial gravity was the stuff of science fiction. As of yet there had been no realistic hypothesis for such a device or even the proof it was possible. But here in front of them might be the very missing link they needed.
Samuel seemed to have come to the same conclusion on the station that they had on the ship as he asked “Are you implying they had a way to generate a gravity field without the need for rotation?”
Chad seemed to shrug as best he could in the heavy suit and said “I'm not saying anything for certainty, not yet at least. But it is a remarkable coincidence that it all seems to line up that way. I mean, we have no idea how advanced these guys were. They obviously were advanced enough to build this station, so who knows?”
Aden remained silent but stepped into the vertical shaft. As he crossed the threshold, he stepped onto the ‘wall’ below himself and then stood sideways in the microgravity. With the magnetic boots they were wearing they had no real up or down.
Leon blinked as his brain suddenly had to reorient down as backwards and vice-versa as Aden turned around. “It seems stable enough. We can use this lift to access other parts of the station.” The biologist stated. Chad and Samuel looked at the man, skepticism written on their faces through the thick glass of their helmets.
The view from Chad did the same disorienting flip as he stepped into the shaft followed quickly by Samuel. Leon looked at a picture of the station they had captured on approach. It was vaguely cross shaped now that he looked at it and he noticed that it had a distinct top and bottom. With the internal information he was now aware of, he could see that the shaft they were in led up and down the main body of the station from the extended arm they had entered from. Now that they were further into the core of the station they could take the elevator shaft all the way up to the top of the station where there seemed to be a large dome like structure. It was damaged heavily but unlike the ‘bottom’ of the station it was mostly intact.
With the UNSS Leif Erikson oriented sideways to the station, he had to twist his head to get a better appreciation for the construction of the structure. As he did so his brain picked up on the obvious patterns of floors and levels by the dark windows and bay doors. The builders of the station had gone to great lengths to make the structure oriented that way so they must have had a reason to do so.
As Leon had been pondering the station’s construction, the trio had begun to move up the shaft. Joice looked at him and whispered “I told them to head towards the dome.”
“Ah good. I was thinking the same thing, got a little side tracked.” He admitted. Joice flashed a smile and nodded before turning back to watch their progress. Leon smiled slightly, Joice was as good a second as she was a cook, he knew she would always have his back.
Aden was once more in the lead with Samuel pulling up the rear. Their gait was slow and methodical, each footstep proceeded by them weakening the magnets in their soles and then stepping forwards. They would then re-magnetize the forward boot before repeating the process, it was a rather counterintuitive way of moving and required both focus and patience. But they had all received extensive magsole training on Earth before they left and so the three moved faster than one might have expected.
It took many minutes of slow plodding before they encountered their first obstacle, as Aden stepped on a section of the wall it groaned and sheared off, damaged by ages of wear to the point it had been hanging on by friction alone. Aden gave a startled holler before realising that he was barely moving, his step only enough to dislodge the piece, not send it flying. Aden demagnetised both boots before kicking off the hazard slowly. This caused him to drift to the far side of the shaft where he grabbed onto the wall, the multitude of cables and wires providing ample handholds.
“Whoa, you okay Aden?” Leon heard Chad ask over the feed.
Aden responded, his breathing a bit harsh from adrenaline “Not what I was expecting, but I am perfectly fine. A little shocked but not injured.”
Leon decided to speak as he asked “Aden this is Command-One. We would like you to run a quick suit diagnostic just in case.” Joice nodded at the idea and he turned off the microphone again. Aden complied with a quick check showing his suit was in good condition, no leaks or tears. Aden waited for the others to move around the gap before they once more began moving along.
Leon sat and watched as the three men climbed, as he did so he felt Natalia lean her head on his shoulder. He smiled and wrapped an arm around her as he kept his focus on the feed. He knew that she was likely here more for his benefit than her own and he appreciated her sitting through the rather tedious ordeal to keep him company. As the ship’s psychologist, there wasn't anything the three were doing that really required her expertise.
As far as the progress of the trio, they had been walking up the elevator shaft for the last twenty minutes and were nearing its end. Aden’s camera showed the metallic walls of the tunnel, cables and conduits of various sizes and materials snaking along the walls. The elevator itself had yet to be seen, but it could have been anywhere above or below them somewhere. They would know when they reached the end of the shaft.
As if the thoughts of his head manifested it, the feed showed a transition from a simple shaft to a more open area. While the landing that would likely have accompanied the elevator itself was missing, the lack of gravity and the men’s magnetic boots made it a simple task to clamber onto the new level.
Samuel was the first of them to speak as he looked about the cavernous room. “Whoa. This is a bit different.” The man said with a hint of awe in his voice, and Leon could see why.
The room was huge, easily a hundred meters across, possibly more. It was lit as well indicating either a breach or some other manner for the starlight to get in. In the center of the chamber sat a huge and complex looking device. It was long and cylindrical in spots, covered in the remains of ancient machinery and worn down by time. Its purpose seemed readily apparent however, it looked like an observatory. A massive mechanical eye pointed straight at the stars themselves.
Chad and Aden walked further into the room, Samuel following the pair just a stride behind. Aden’s camera showed extensive damage to the room, more than they had seen on the large command deck and seemingly caused by some sort of high energy impact. The floor was cratered and buckled in places and the curved walls showed signs of damage from the inside and outside. As the three neared the large machine at the center, their geiger counters started to crackle to angry life.
Leon immediately checked their readings on the underscreen to make sure they were still okay. It seemed like they would be fine for a short while, but there was a high energy radiation source in the room and would force them to leave much earlier than they had likely intended.
Chad spoke to Aden over their comms “Aden, we are getting some rad readings, the area's hot it seems.”
The older man took a second to reply as he looked around before walking to the far forward of the telescope array. He grunted a little as the uneven and damaged deck plates caused him to have to concentrate on his footing a great deal. As he rounded the far corner of the device his feed was suddenly lit with a hellish red light as he looked up at the ceiling. Or at least where the ceiling should have been.
Aden’s geiger counter went berserk as he was exposed to the full unbridled fury of the red giant, its baleful bloated shine causing the man’s helmet to darken out entirely. Blinded and on unstable ground he panicked and yelled out in shock, his arms waving and his legs pushing him back.
Leon stood to his feet so fast his chair was knocked over behind him, his mouth open in shock and horror at the sight of Aden’s feed blacking out. He activated the comms and commanded “Samuel! Get Aden out of there now!”
Samuel had been following Aden towards the corner and had stopped just as the other man had stepped into hell. Without a word or thought for the consequences, the pilot lept into action as fast as he could. Keeping his gaze low so as to avoid being blinded, he stepped into the blazing light and grabbed Aden’s harness from the back. This seemed to panic the other man and Samuel grunted in effort as he pulled the other man bodily back into the relative safety of the dark.
Aden was flailing about, his boots no longer in contact with the deck of the ship as Samuel began to speak “Aden. Aden it's me Samuel, calm down man. I've got you.”
After another few steps around the corner of the machine and back into the relative safety of the dark, Aden seemed to calm down a little before relaxing. By this point Chad had made his way to them and helped Samuel get Aden’s feet under him once more. Leon watched as the feed showed the completely blackened visor start to slowly lighten. The opacity of it lowered as it was no longer blocking the intense radiation of a dying star.
Aden’s feed was still blacked out, the fierce radiation it had experienced had damaged its optical sensors beyond repair. Aden himself seemed to be alright, his face visible to the others through his helmet. He seemed a bit shocked, but otherwise unhurt. Leon checked the man’s suit readout, it seemed to be clear. The radiation spike had been intense but not life threatening, he turned to Joice and asked “Should we recall them? Aden’s feed is down and there is still a lot of ground to cover on the station.”
Joice gave him a glance and then looked back to the console in front of them. “I think it would be for the best. We know what to look out for at this point, I'm sure we can make another expedition later if we need to.”
Leon gave a nod and turned to the mic before speaking over the comms “Aden, Chad, Samuel. We are recalling you all back to the ship. Before you say anything, yes we will be sending another expedition to the ship.”
Chad’s camera bobbed a bit as the man nodded his head and then he held up something in front of the helmet’s camera. It was another of the computer cores, similar to the first ones gathered from the first room. “Alright. I did manage to pull this out of the computer connected to the machine though. Wasn't that hard now that I know what to look for.”
Aden walked to the engineer and patted him on the shoulder saying “Good job. Let's get out of here.”
Samuel’s face could be seen on Chad’s feed as the older man walked towards the exit. Samuel looked a little concerned but nodded to Chad as the two turned to follow the other man. The descent down the elevator shaft was even less eventful than it had been the first time.
The walls of the station were that same slightly greenish metal. Corroded and worn over the eons, they made no sound as the men walked down the hall to the airlock they had entered from. Leon sat in the silence of the secondary monitoring station and brooded. They had almost lost Aden today. If Samuel hadn't been there to rescue the man, he likely would have been heavily irradiated, as it stood, they would still need to decontaminate the suits as they had been exposed to raw solar radiation.
Thoughts of a future expedition swirled in Leon’s head as he leaned back into his chair, they couldn't pass up on such an opportunity. But they needed to take more precautions. On the next expedition he would send out four people, they would form two pairs that would stay together at all times. No one was to be alone on that ship, it was far too dangerous.
A slight tap on his shoulder brought him out of his brooding and he turned to see Natalia smiling at him a bit tiredly. “They are back.” She said.
Leon frowned and looked at the screens in front of him which were now blank. How had he lost track of time, and at such an important time. He cursed inwardly at his lapse in attention and stood to his feet with a groan. He had been sitting in nearly the same position for many hours and his muscles had gotten stiff.
“Auurrrgg. I need to loosen up a bit.” He grumbled under his breath.
Natalia wrapped an arm around him and leaned her head on his shoulder as she said “Aww, is the brave exploration monitor tired?”
“Ahh ha. Very humorous Nat. Yes I'm tired, but I'm hungry too. Who’s cooking dinner tonight?” He asked her as she guided him towards the exit. Joice, it seemed, had already left as well as the others.
Natalia gave a small chuckle as she replied “I'm pretty sure it's Dr. Kimathi and Chris tonight.”
Leon perked up a bit and smiled as he said “Oh? Chris probably made something hearty and good. Probably a stew, he likes to make those. I could go for a hot bowl of stew about now.” He said. As if in response to his comment his stomach gurgled angrily and he chuckled.
Natalia gave his gut a playful punch and said “Quiet down there, I'm trying to have a conversation here.”
Smiling and feeling hungry, he put an arm around her as they walked out into the curving hallway together, thoughts of food and friends overpowering the darker thoughts in the corners of his mind.