Drafted-Keeping Busy
Drafted 10 - Keeping busy
Keeping busy
The days after you are strongly reminded of the last days training with the Green Echelon. Training, training and even more training. Now with added combat exercises as well, which really hurt. Especially by those marines that think you are the cause of the new regime. They don’t hold back and by the end of the morning session you usually are black and blue, sometimes even having broken ribs caused by a deliberate elbow thrust of one of the bigger marines. Fortunately you get to fly your Atron around the station in mock battles with Simmons, the Sergeant and Ferrier. This gives the nanites time to fix your scrapes and bruises, knitting the broken ribs and relieving some of the fatigue. The wormhole space has been thoroughly investigated, there are no newly found structures, it is completely empty. Probe ships have found a new exit, relatively close by, but Chiraq has ordered you to remain on the station helping out the scientist with your ships AI.
“It’s a good thing we have got you and your AI on board. Apparently it has outgrown its original settings because of your actions, but it is performing well I should think” Chiraq says in one of the sparse moments you meet him. “It helped out Fayette a lot with creating a detailed map and all of us with deciphering the written language of the Yan Jung. Choosing to make you join the Ancient Section is considered a master stroke by me, according to my superiors in the Gallente Federation. Keep up the good work” he adds with a smile as he walks away, talking to the new lead scientist, Deux Partiez. The latter giving the four of you a nod in acknowledgement, then turning to Chiraq to finish his update.
“Well, that’s nice to hear. Nice to be appreciated” you say as you turn around to the others. “But what are we going to do, this is getting quite boring, especially as it looks that there is nothing to find here that we haven’t already discovered ourselves.”
“It sure is nice” Ferrier agrees, “but you are the expert here, why haven’t we found out anything new in the past few days?”
“Beats me, Aura hasn’t found anything other than the general controls. There is nothing she can find on the computer network of this station that has to do with research, those ships in the hangar, weapons. Nothing.” The four of you start walking around, after all the work Aura has done there is nothing new to discover. Leisurely you walk down the corridor from the hangar. The door to the business quarters is open and you decide to walk in.
“Let’s just take a good look around the offices again. Perhaps there is a safe somewhere in one of them with al kind of secrets” the Sergeant says.
Walking down the corridor you take your time looking through the offices, using scanners to identify any hidden compartments, or any forcefield hiding something. Finally you all meet up in the largest of the offices, looking out on the hangar. Frustration grows, even with Simmons, who is usually the most levelheaded person you have ever seen. He shouts at the walls, banging his fists on them leaving small dents in the walls. “Oh this is so frigging frustrating.”
“Oh shut it Simmons” the Sergeant shouts “There is no need to be whining like a little schoolgirl after only a few days. Remember how frustrated those scientists must feel at not even being able to enter this station at all, just looking at it from the outside.”
“I know Sir, but I’m bored, we cannot even leave this wormhole ‘cause they haven’t even found an exit yet. There is nothing to do on this station except walking these empty corridors and rooms and you giving us more exercises.”
“Apparently not enough exercises it seems” the Sergeant replies putting his hand on Simmons’ shoulder. “You have just got to figure something out to entertain yourselves, I’m not a schoolteacher keeping you occupied every moment you are away from your mommies.”
“Understood Sergeant” Simmons replies, but cannot help himself banging on the window looking out on the hangar. The window glitches. “Wait a minute” Simmons says as the rest of you starts walking away “this is not a window…..this is a computer screen.”
“Wait, what?” Ferrier exclaims, “let me see.” Subtle as ever, Simmons bangs on the window again. Again there is a flicker on the window.
“Aura, do you know what’s going on here?” Simmons asks.
“This is strange” Aura’s voice replies from a speaker in the wall. “This system isn’t connected to the other systems on this station. Apparently they have not integrated all there systems into the stations’ mainframe.”
“So you don’t know what it does” Ferrier asks.
“No I haven’t got a clue as to the purpose of this computer, if it is a computer at all.”
You walk up to the console of the room to find out if there are any instructions on it to enlighten the situation. You see that Aura has been busy translating the pictograms and replacing them with pictograms and text so that you can understand what the different buttons are for. You request some chairs and a few desks, as you suspect it will take a while before you will be leaving this room. As the robots take care of your request, setting up a number of tables and chairs, Ferrier and Simmons are still working on finding out how to start up the screen slash window. The Sergeant motions you to stand beside him. Looking at both Ferrier and Simmons he turns his head slightly to you and says: ”This will keep them occupied for a while, won’t it?”
“It will probably occupy them until it frustrates them even more and then they will take a laser to it and threaten it until it starts working.”
“Mmm so I can’t leave them here on their own?”
“I think it will take about two to three hours until the antimatter grenades will have a particular attraction to them” you reply with a smile.
“Ok, then I will send someone to save the room from being blasted into small bits, though I think the repair system will take care of any damage they inflict. But, better be safe than sorry, let’s just leave them here for a while. You and I will take another part of the station to wander around in.”
“Fine by me, I don’t want to spend too much time looking at two monkeys figuring out the essence of fire” you reply with a smile, just loud enough to be heard by Ferrier.
“Oh shut it and just go away” Ferrier replies, not looking away from the window.
You leave the two of them in the room and you and the Sergeant walk down the corridor. “Aura, have you integrated yourself into the stations’ computer network?”
“Yes I have” Aura replies from one of the speakers in the ceiling.
“Doesn’t that create any problems for your original programming?”
“No, don’t worry. I have been adapted to be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of the Green Echelon pilots.”
“And this is accommodating us, making yourself part of the station?” you ask.
“Yes it does, it keeps you and Ferrier, Simmons and the Sergeant alive.”
“I was just wondering about that, but you’re doing a good job. Especially adjusting the buttons so that they have readable text is a stroke of genius.”
“I thought it the most likely solution, as I thought you wouldn’t be learning the Yan Jung language and the few scientists who said they knew the language apparently didn’t know it at all.”
“So you have complete access to all the systems, including scanners, internal security et cetera?” the Sergeant asks.
“Yes I do Sergeant, but I do have to say there are a few omissions in the system as not all the areas are connected to the main computer network. Like the system that Simmons discovered just now. I wasn’t even aware that there were additional computer networks running alongside the main network.”
“Does that mean that the network Simmons and Ferrier are trying to get to work has its own security protocols?” you ask a bit alarmed.
“No all security has been connected into the main computer network. I think that the computer Simmons and Ferrier are trying to start up only has to do with the business that was once housed here.”
“Just to make sure, just keep an eye on them” you tell Aura.
“Don’t worry, I have been keeping my eye on all of you since you boarded this station. Now that I have integrated with the stations main computer network, this will be much easier. I even got the robots to make me another few mainframe components so that I can run even faster than before.”
“Just try to keep yourself contained there Aura” the Sergeant replies with a smile “don’t want to lose you just yet, I would have a hard time to explain that to the scientists who thought you up for the Federal Defense Union.”
“Not to worry, I have kept a copy of my original self on the computers of your ships, I regularly check if I haven’t surpassed any of my original parameters.”
“That’s a relieve then. You were talking about omissions or unknown areas just now. Why didn’t you report this earlier?”
“That is simple Sergeant, you weren’t ready yet and I wasn’t fully integrated with the station yet.”
“Did you inform Chiraq that you have taken over the station?” you ask with a smile.
“No I haven’t, should I have done that?”
“Well, you can always say that you have the station under control and that we are merely hostages for now, until your demands are met.”
“I don’t think he would appreciate a joke like that, besides I have all I desire” Aura replies.
“Who said anything about a joke” you say trying to look as innocent as you can, hampered by an encroaching smile “and you have all you desire, that just means you haven’t set high enough goals.”
“Now wait a minute ensign, you cannot start teaching your criminal behavior to Aura, remember that she will probably be far better at it than you would ever be” the Sergeant says.
“Probably Sergeant” Aura replies in a mocking voice.
“Oh dear, now look what you have done” the Sergeant says, pointing an accusing finger at you.
“Ok, I’m sorry, don’t go that road Aura, it will leave you in an android body, being trained by the Sergeant.”
“That implies I will get caught ensign” Aura replies.
“You really done it now ensign” the Sergeant laughs “but you did mention some omissions Aura. Can you lead us to one of them so we can check it out?”
“Sure Sergeant, just follow the yellow line on the wall to your right.”
Fifteen minutes later you stand in front of a large door. The door is a magnificent piece of art and skill. As you look at it as you walk towards it, you see different scenes, one melding into another as you get closer to it. It starts with a scene out of nature, a hilly environment, covered in trees, with birds. A lot of birds, because the next step you take you see the birds taking flight, merging into a scene of a boat on a lake. The serene picture starts zooming towards the boat and halfway into your next step you see the details of the boat as clear as crystal. You see the deck of the boat, the different woods that have been used on the hull, the railings, the ornate carvings on the doors leading to the captains quarters. The next step takes you into the quarters themselves, looking at a scene where the captains’ desk is filled with documents, charts and the tools of the trade, a compasses and a quill next to a bottle of ink. It’s a bit strange as you can also see the large number of printed books on the shelve on the right side. You look at the captain, in his chair gazing at the charts as to figure out where he will go next. Finally you reach the door and as you touch it, the scene vanishes.
“Wow, that was wonderful, did you see that?”
“See what” both the Sergeant and Aura ask.
“Did you see how the door changed step by step, displaying the different scenes?”
“Not really” the Sergeant replies “all I saw was a bright light and you stepping awkwardly slow towards a simple door, like that one there.”
“Simple door?” You say as you take a look at the door again. “You try it then, I swear it is something spectacular. No doubt about it.” You reverse places, making the Sergeant standing a few feet away from the door.
“Wow indeed, this is weird” the Sergeant says as he makes his way towards the door.
“I told you so, it’s probably a trick of the eyes with the emitted lights from above, but it’s quite something” you reply.
“Yes, now I get it.”
“What is happening?” Aura asks. “All I can see is you and the Sergeant walking up to the door.”
“Well, there is a light emitting from above the door, it creates an illusion of a valley, then a ship and then the captains quarters” you explain to Aura.
“And behind the door, that is where my first black spot is situated.”
“We don’t know yet, we haven’t opened the door.”
“Well, perhaps you should try it. I can sense there is a console behind the door, but I haven’t been able to connect to it. Perhaps it needs a human hand to start up.”
“Ok, hold your horses, we’ll go through the door” the Sergeant says as he swings open the door. Holding out the scanner and one of the torches, you step inside. The air of the room is dry and smells like paper, like one of the old libraries on Gallente Prime. Another cavernous room, but this one is filled, not empty like the observatory. You shine a light through the room and it is packed with books on shelves.
“It’s a library” you exclaim.
“And a big one as well, look at all those books. This room is 30 meters high, and the shelves go up to the ceiling.”
“Can you at least start the scanner ensign? I’m blind here” Aura replies.
“Ok, will do, starting the scan now” you reply as you start up the scanner.
“Interesting” Aura says “now I understand why this room isn’t connected to the main computer network.”
“And why is that then Aura?” the Sergeant asks.
“If this room was connected the absence of Yan Jung users would have resulted in the contents of this room being reprocessed as well. They apparently didn’t want this to happen, so they never connected it to the main network.”
“Reasonable, that would mean that these books are something special to the Yan Jung, wouldn’t it?”
“Indeed Sergeant, these books are very valuable to the Yan Jung, but also to us. Depending on the content of the books it could be highly explanatory of the culture of the Yan Jung and about the day to day activities of them. It might even explain where they have gone.”
“So, the scientists will be happy then” you say as you walk towards the console. “I expect the triangle with the stripes is still the button for more light?”
“Indeed ensign, that is still the button to get more light.”
You push the now familiar button and the entire room is lit up. Rows on rows with books are now visible, the entire room is about 300 meters long and 200 meters wide. With the ceiling at thirty meters, the shelves probably contain tens of thousands if not hundreds thousands of books. You walk up to the nearest shelve, pick up a book and blow of the dust that has settled on it. You take a look at the front cover, but the script is unrecognizable yet flowing with nice curves.
“I can’t make head or tails of this, do you Aura?”
“If you scan it, I may be able to translate it for you.”
You take your scanner and scan the cover of the book. “The title is ‘Adventures of Shar-Lac’ and it is written by Sum-Lac” Aura says.
“Is it any good?” you ask.
“I don’t know, have you scanned it completely?” Aura replies in a mocking voice.
“Just put the book back where you found it. Do you want to take a look around?” the Sergeant interrupts.
“Yes, let’s do that” you reply as you put the book back where you found it.
The two of you walk through the center isle of the room towards the center. You look behind you and see that you are leaving footprints in the dust, a clear sign that no-one has been here for ages, if not millennia. “You realize that all those stations may have had these kind of rooms and that they all have been destroyed?” you say to the Sergeant.
“Yes, but you have at least saved this one. So better not to think about something you can’t change anyway.”
“True, but does feel like a waste. We could have sold everything here for billions of credits.”
“Ah and there is the criminal I was beginning to miss.”
“Well, but it is true, isn’t it?”
“No not really there is no real market in selling books that nobody can read.”
Together you stand at the center of the room, shelves of books go from end to end with a few movable ladders to get to the highest shelves. In the center there is a round desk, with a few chairs and a few monitors built into the desk.
“Can you access those Aura?”
“I can try, just set my scanner next to one of the monitors.” A few seconds later Aura says “I have established a connection with this computer. It’s only function is to aid the caretaker of the books in his work.”
“And what does that mean?”
“It means that on this computer there is data on all the books here, with added indexes to make it searchable. Location, author, name, date of issue, theme, genre and all that sort of information is stored on this computer. I have started to copy the contents to the main computer network and when that finishes I will start translating the information so the scientists can understand it.”
“Ok, how long do you need?”
“Just a few more minutes, just keep the scanner at this location please.”
As you wait for Aura to finish the copying, you walk around the desk and look for other stuff that the caretaker may have left behind. Again, no surprise there, nothing. Just a high tech broom and duster, not used for a long time. You sit down in one of the chairs, a cloud of dust flows up into the air, making you sneeze.
“I have finished” Aura finally says after fifty minutes.
“Ok, can we go now?”
“It might be interesting for you to learn that the answer is yes. Even more, lunch is being served at the observatory, and Simmons and Ferrier have given up momentarily on getting access to the window screen of the office. They are also going to get some lunch, and probably a sledgehammer.”
You head out of the library, turn down the lights and stick a card on the outside of the door stating that this is the library. Then you and the Sergeant head for the elevators to go to the observatory.
“So have you figured out how to access that computer window terminal?” you ask Simmons as you stick the last bit of bread into your mouth.
“No, and one of the scientists has warned me that I am absolutely not allowed to use a sledgehammer as well.” Simmons replies with a smile looking at the scientist sitting with him and Ferrier.
“How about plasma grenades, is that allowed?”
“Well, I can always try and then ask for permission” he starts laughing at the look of horror on the face of the scientist. “Don’t worry Fasal, I will not destroy anything in that room, yet” Simmons adds with a grin.
“So you haven’t given up yet?”
“No, I know there has to be an access point which will boot up this screen, we just haven’t found it yet. Anyways, what have you and the Sergeant been doing in the last couple of hours? We were busy and suddenly you weren’t there anymore. Lounging about a bit?”
“No, not really. I took the Sergeant on an educational trip.”
“You and the Sergeant and educational in a single sentence” Ferrier replies “that’s a bit weird isn’t it?”
“No, I wondered about that myself as well, but the Sergeant doesn’t know everything. Aura said she had a few omissions that she wanted us to check out. The first one we found turned out to be a gigantic library, with rows and rows of real paper books.”
“Paper books? What’s the use of that” Simmons replies.
“Well, according to Aura it will shed some light on the culture and stuff of the Yan Jung, she said the scientists will be pleased, what do you think Fasal?”
“Well, that depends on what the books contain, but they sure do shed some light on the Yan Jung already” Fasal replies.
“And what is that light then?” Ferrier asks taking another swallow of coffee.
“Well, they found these books important enough to print them in book form and not merely keeping them digital. That says something about the Yan Jung.”
“Yeah, that they aren’t really smart. Digital books are much easier to store and transport then physical books made of paper.”
“True Simmons, true, but they found these books important enough to do this with them, and stacking them in a giant library. They have the know-how to keep the publications digital, but they chose to make them physical, on paper even. I’m quite surprised by this, and to find those books still here after the Yan Jung left, must say something about the intention they have with this station as well. I think they wanted us to find this station, to understand who they were and understand their knowledge and culture. Perhaps even where they went.”
“All good and well, but they could have made it a bit easier for us” Simmons replies.
“Easier, how much easier do you want to have it? They created consoles with pictograms on them so that we can understand what they mean. Thanks to your Aura, they have been translated further, but they were easy enough to understand” Fasal enthusiastically replies.
“Well, they didn’t make it easy to understand on how to turn that flippin screen on” Simmons replies. “I still think we should use at least plasma cutters.”
Fasal replies with a smile, “we will crack this puzzle as well, besides we only spent a couple of hours on it, and there is enough time for us before you have to start your training again. Ah, I see that the Sergeant and the Captain are already discussing tonight’s training” he adds with an even bigger smile as he sees the face of Simmons turn into a unsecure frown. Chiraq walks by sees you sitting there and decides to join. “So you have made another interesting discovery” he says as he takes a seat.
“Well, we found a library, it was one of the omissions on Aura’s map, so she asked us to check it out” you reply.
“Well, it will give a lot of scientists enough work for the next decade or two” Chiraq replies, “and how about you, what have you been doing?” He looks at Simmons and Ferrier.
“Well, si.. I mean Chiraq, we have found a computer terminal in a window looking out on the hangar. But we haven’t got it working just yet” Simmons replies. “Fasal is helping us, or rather keeping us from destroying the thing out of sheer frustration.”
“Well you better not damage anything, you know how I react to that sort of behavior. Besides you have to remember that if it takes so much work to figure out, the rewards must be awesome as well.” With that he leaves you again and walks towards another group of people.
“You heard the man, time to get back to work and I want to see some results or there will be some surprises in the training this evening” the Sergeant says as he walks up to you. “And you really hate my kind of surprises.”
Quickly you gulp down the last of your coffee, pick up your scanner and flashlight from the table and head towards the exit of the observatory. “So Aura, where do you want us to go now?”
“Well, there are a lot of floors that have no designation in my databases, or at least in the databases from the station. You and the Sergeant can start to look there and find out what they are, I will light up the way.” Following another yellow line you head towards the elevator and down a single floor. The hallway here is lit with ambient light, but it is hard to find out what this area contains. You start walking down the main hallway and you see a few larger hallways intersect and curve away, following the curvature of the station.
“More walking Sergeant” you say.
“Indeed ensign, for a space pilot we walk about a lot, but better this then doing nothing at all” he replies as he walks along.
“I have to agree Sergeant, but it would be nice if we could see more than just this hallway. Aren’t there any doors here?”
“I haven’t seen them yet, what does the scanner say?”
“Nothing but hallway Sergeant, should we turn back and take one of those intersecting hallways?”
“No let’s just follow this one. I have a feeling that there should be more to this than just hallways, what’s that up there?”
You switch on your torch and illuminate a square block with a door in it. “I haven’t got a clue Sergeant, but there’s a door in it, so at least something is happening.”
“Better watch out what you wish for ensign, you may regret it.”
The two of you walk up to the door, there are no special effects, no lights, just a door in a square building. You open the door and step in, “this looks like a control room. Aura, can you figure out what it does?”
“It doesn’t register on my central computer network, but if you scan the room I may find out what it does.”
You let the scanner do its work and start looking around for the lights. As you find them and switch them on, the control room is flooded with light and you gaze upon the computer setup before you.
“Wow, that’s a lot of buttons.”
“Well don’t push any of them until the scan is complete” the Sergeant says, sitting down on one of the chairs.
“At least it isn’t as dusty as the library” you reply, taking a chair as well.
“Perhaps this area does get cleaned once in a while.”
“Scan is completed, translation started” Aura says. “Translation completed.”
“So, what’s this area then Aura?”
“These are the quarters of the Yan Jung people when they inhabited the station” she replies.
“So anything special about it?”
“Well you may be interested to find out where the station manager used to live.”
“Ok, show us the way.”
“Just a moment, I will start up some basic systems besides the ambient lights of the hallway. Ok, done, follow the map on the scanner.”
“Can’t you give us another yellow brick road to follow?”
“No, this area doesn’t have that kind of system installed. This area is completely separate from those systems, it is more secluded than the rest of the station, to better provide privacy I guess. I can access these systems, but they do not have the same functionality installed.”
“Ok, let’s just take a look at the station managers’ quarters, to see if he left anything for us.” Taking the scanner with the new map you step outside the control building.
“What the heck just happened?”
“This is incredible, I can look down five, six floors from up here. There is a great gaping hole there, do you see this Aura?”
“Not really, but I take your word for it. Please let the scanner do a continuous scan, so that I may update the map of the station.”
“Will do. Sergeant, do you see those trees over there? That must be a garden of some sort. I wonder how the plants are doing and if they need any water after all this time.”
“By the looks of it, they are doing just fine.”
“How come they haven’t been spreading all over the place?”
“There must be some bots that know how to prune those trees and shrubs.”
“We’ll walk past them on our route to the station managers quarter, we can take a look then.”
The Sergeant and you walk along the route, indicated on your scanner. Both of you point out interesting features, like a waterfall, more gardens, some with sculptures in bronze, silver and even gold and platinum. As you reach the garden you hear the rustle of water indicating that you don’t have to water the plants after all. There is movement up ahead, but before you or the Sergeant can even reach for your weapons, you see it’s a maintenance bot, complete with pruning shears and other gardening implements you have never seen before. Mainly because you never had to do any gardening in your entire life.
“Up this way Sergeant” you say as you come across an intersection. “The quarters we are looking for should be 100 meters up ahead.” After that 100 meters you stand in front of an intricate carved door, not made of steel, but made of wood apparently. You cannot help yourself and use the knocker in the center of the door at eye-level. It booms as it hits the wood of the door.
“Did you have to do that?” the Sergeant asks. “That was loud enough to wake up the dead.”
“Well, I will apologize as soon as they answer the door” you reply with a smile. With a grunt the Sergeant pushes you aside and opens the door. “Lucky, it’s not locked, guess they didn’t have thieves in their day. They probably just shot the lot of you, I mean them.”
“That’s low Sergeant, I thought we would be passed that.”
“You may be, but I have to keep in mind just what kind of person you really are.”
“Ok, it’s not like you ever let me forget, now do you. Let’s just go in and see if the station manager left us anything interesting.” The two of you enter the room, it is clean, no dust about. From the hallway you enter a kitchen area, with a table and four high chairs around it, what is surprising that, unlike the chairs in the observatory, these are made of wood. Sturdy chairs still, but intricately carved with scenes on the back of the chair, depicting the garden outside, the waterfall you came across earlier, and some pictures of birds. Walking across the kitchen you find that your feet are not on the bare floor any more, but sink a few centimeters in a lush carpet. You enter a room you immediately designate the living room, 25 square meters of beautiful wooden furniture, covered with foam and leather. The walls are simply covered in white canvass, one side is looking outward through floor-to-ceiling made windows. The other side is beautifully painted with a view of a solar system, it doesn’t look familiar to you, but you can make out the details of the planet, its cities as well as its wide open plains, oceans and lakes. The white walls are mostly obscured by cabinets, bookshelves filled with old fashioned paper books and a display cabinet with a glass door showing off the glass figurines on its shelves.
“Well, the guy does have taste, or perhaps his wife does” the Sergeant breaks the silence.
“Yes he or she does, or both of them do. This stuff is very good, nothing like that industrial design stuff upstairs.”
“There is a hallway down that way” the Sergeant says, pointing at the second door opening “let’s see what else there is.” Both of you walk through the door opening into a small landing. There are three doors here, one by one you check to see what is behind them. The first one reveals a bathroom, with a separate bath and shower area, and a normal sized toilet. Out of habit you try to flush the toilet, with a small noise water is flushed away and you hear the reservoir start filling again.
“As you can see prospective buyer, all the appliances and features are in working order. This will make a nice home for a small family or an ambitious single. Let’s get on with our tour” you sound like a real estate employee showing off the property.
“Oh shut it ensign, I’m not a buyer” the Sergeant replies.
“So, it’s going to be rented, or are you just browsing around?”
The Sergeant sighs, but can’t help smiling a little. “Let’s just look at those other two rooms, alright?”
The next door you enter is a bedroom. Not a large, but large enough to fit a king-sized bed and a wardrobe. The front end of the bedroom gives you an additional view of the outside, you turn to the bed and suddenly see something you haven’t seen before. On the bedside table there are two frames depicting faces, and it suddenly hits you. That was what was weird about this station. There were no personal things anywhere. Not in the observatory, not in the business offices, not even in the untouched desks of the library. All the personal belongings were taken away, except for what you see there on the bedside table. Carefully you pick it up, you see it’s an electronic picture frame. It shows you pictures of a family, a father, a mother and two children, and something else, probably a pet of some sorts. The photo is replaced after a few seconds with a new one, this depicting the mother and children on a planet somewhere, with a tent in the background and even further back a lot of trees. Their smiles seem to jump of the screen, you pick up the other frame, containing apparently the same pictures you put it down again, but one you take with you.
“Aura, these frames got their own memory from which they load the pictures, or is there an additional computer running somewhere that does that?”
“There are no additional computers showing up on my screen, these devices seem to have their own memory and power cells.”
“Can you analyze them? Are they going to fail soon?”
“No, from what I understand is that the batteries are charged with the kinetic movement of the frame. Apparently picking it up and dusting it off is enough to charge the batteries.”
“Mmm that’s something for the scientists again, never heard about a battery with that kind of endurance. Anyway, Sergeant, you find anything interesting?”
“Well they took away some of their clothing, but this wardrobe is still filled with all kinds of clothes, both for him and I presume for her.”
“Anything your size?”
“No not really, but it is well made if not simple.”
“Never thought you were the fashion type Sergeant.”
“I’m not, but I used to have a wife who was.”
You decide you seen enough of this room for now, and you head out to the last room. You open the door and step into a bright pink world. “Woah, a bit of modesty with the colors could have been a good idea” you say out loud.
Quickly the Sergeant walks up to the door and looks in. “Well, we can safely assume that this room was for a girl.” “Well she should get a bit of taste in style, because this room is scary.”
“Well, scary or not, just look if there is anything interesting.”
An hour later you have finished looking around the apartment, Aura asks you to start up the scanner once more to do a more detailed scan of the rooms. This will mean an hour of waiting as she takes forever with each room, but you make yourself comfortable in the leather covered chairs. Every time you get a signal from Aura you place the scanner in another room. Finally, after one and a half hour of waiting and looking out of the windows, the scans are finished.
“Does this mean we are done now?”
“I hope you are not bored ensign” Aura replies.
“Well to be hones I am quite bored. Waiting for you to finish up your scans is not what I consider an exciting time.”
“I understand, but it’s the only way for me to learn anything about the places that are cut off from the main computer network.”
“But can’t you, like fix up a drone to take you where you want to go? I get that we have to check things out first, but after that, checking out the other quarters is something you can do on your own, right?”
“Well, it is a possibility I haven’t considered before. I think it should be possible to create a drone that can do these tasks for me. Oh, I’ve got an incoming message from Ferrier, he says they did it.”
“They did what?”
“I don’t know, that was the message.”
“Ok, we’ll check it out, are you coming Sergeant?”
“No I will hang out here for a while, checking out the other apartments.
Not much later you return to the business section, and the office containing Ferrier, Simmons and Fasal. "I got your message, what did you do?” “We got it working” Ferrier replies.
“Got what working?”
“The bloody window screen” Simmons almost shouts, then seeing you standing in the doorway with a smile. “Oh you bastard.”
“Heheheh, didn’t know it was that frustrating for you Simmons, maybe the Sergeant can make you do something more simple next time, like running laps.”
“Oh shut up, if I have to run, you can count on it that you will be running right next to me. Better even, you’ll probably be struggling behind me, ready to puke out your guts, you pansy” Simmons retorts.
“We’ll see who will be struggling Simmons, we’ll see. Well then, what did you find out.”
“If you use this specific combination of sounds and lights, the monitor will turn on.” Fasal says, and plays an unknown tune with added lights.
“And then?”
“Then the computer screen comes alive, booting up so to speak.”
“And then?”
“Then we are in a menu of some sorts, but I cannot make heads or tails from it. It doesn’t make any sense to me, even after getting Aura to translate the text on the screen.”
“You sure it’s just text, no pictograms?”
“It’s text alright” Simmons adds.
“Ok, now what? Have you checked any of the other rooms with a window like this?”
“Yes we have, they are less advanced than this one, they make sense in a way” Ferrier adds. “Those menus are readable, at least with a little help from Aura we could read them. They gave some information you usually find with companies. Profit & loss statements, turnover data, assets including descriptions and depreciation plans, and some of those companies go way back, like hundreds of years. According to Aura there are also a number of blueprints on the systems, like they intentionally left them there to be found by whoever could get into this station.”
“Wow, a pretty productive afternoon then, but this screen still gives you problems.”
“Yes it bloody does. It annoys the heck out of me and I still want to start using a plasma torch” Simmons says.
“I think we better get some dinner, it’s almost time for it anyway. Tomorrow we can make headway with this puzzle” you say as you turn for the door. “Besides the Sergeant probably has other plans for us this evening, I think he mentioned some more unarmed combat.”
“Does that include me” Fasal asks with a frightened frown.
“No, don’t worry, he only hates us, you haven’t pissed him off have you?” Simmons replies as he lays an arm on the shoulders of the small scientist.
“I surely hope not, I saw what he did with you guys.”
With a smile on your faces you head out to the observatory, to receive a meal and to get beaten up by the marines. That evening, bruised by the still unrelenting signs of thanks by the marines, you talk a bit with Simmons and Ferrier. “They still show their gratitude for their training” you say as you try to rub away the pain in an overstretched arm.
“Yes, you thought that they would be more grateful for having some real life sand bags” Simmons says.
“Yes, but at least I can dish out as much as I receive” Ferrier adds. “I sure got that big one good in that last round of sparring. You know, Gonzales or something”
“I saw that too, but you got kicked multiple times by that little guy Hellier.”
“True, that guy is just too fast, as soon as I think that I got him, he is standing two feet away from me, and always smiling that little bastard.”
“Heheh, he does that with everyone, I seen him do it with his own teammates as well. When he starts smiling you better cover up your vitals, because he is going to hit them.”
“And who would have thought that such a little guy can hit that hard, unbelievable” Simmons adds.
A chair is added to your table and Hellier joins you. “Speak of the devil, there he is.”
“He guys, I guess I should introduce myself properly, as I have already seen so much of your insides” Hellier says with a smile on his face.
“Just you wait little one, soon we’ll be up to par with you and the others. Then we will find out if we can turn the tables on you.”
“We’ll see Simmons, but you are getting better. I even broke out in a sweat today.”
“Har-di-har-har Hellier, very funny.” Your group is joined by more marines, the one you had with you the first day, Bouchon greets you with a smile. “So how are things with our big headed pilots? Still hurting?”
“Oh hush Bouchon” you reply “I think I landed some good punches and kicks on you this evening.”
“Yes you did fly boy, you did” Bouchon replies with a smile, touching his cheek where you managed to hit him. “But I still beat you, even with your lucky punch.”
That evening, as more of the marines join you the animosity between you dissipates. Some of them start telling stories on all the activity they saw during engagements with enemies. Others have interesting stories to tell on situations that, they add, ‘never occurred’. The evening starts to end as you listen to each other staring upwards to the skylight.