Eden

Chapter 3 (Revelations)

Current research suggests that Eden, the probable location of the development of our species, was located past Anark space. Eden was destroyed shortly after the invention of nuclear power, by natural disasters, most likely resulting from a misunderstanding of Earthquakes, and attempts to correct them by use of explosive devices. Report on Eden, Union Historical Council.
         She finally reached the docking bay. It was guarded by two big, burly men, in the uniform of the Astra corps. They saluted her as she entered. She nodded her head in return. She spoke to the control officer: he was extremely busy, and told her he couldn't take her out, but she could have use of a movepod if she was in a hurry. She took him up on his offer. She stepped into it, closed the airlock, and strapped herself into the command seat. She aimed the pod at the Endevour and gave a short burst from the thrusters. She was surprised by the flurry of activity in the docking bay. A small patrol cruiser almost ran into her to avoid hitting a dreadnought. It was if every ship was being sent elsewhere. Actually, they probably were all being sent elsewhere. Arkies was on the far edge of Union space, where the three empires met, and it wasn't too far from Anark space. This
would be a logical meeting place for an inter-steller group of ships. The Endevour was sitting on the far edge of the bay, along with two other ships: an older battlecruiser, and a new-looking ship that Maddie couldn't identify. Its hull looked almost like a Party ship, but its engines were definitely Union. and those weapons, those looked like Fist partcle dispersers. She aimed the pod at this new ship, and was about to give the thrusters a push, when her radio crackled. "Captain Roberts, please proceed directly towards  the Endevour. We need to do a debris sweep."
"Roger that," Maddie replied.
         She aimed back towards the Endevour and gave another burst of thrusters, speeding up her transit. She docked with the ship and began to pressurize the airlock. She felt a strange shudder. She quickly looked at the airlock seal. The seal was breaking off. All of a sudden, she was forced against the airlock: the pod had been propelled away from the ship. An alarm started going off.
She pushed herself off of the floor. She grabbed the weight bar and pulled herself over to the command chair. She sat down and took the controls. The pod was in a very fast, unstable, spin. She nulled it out with a few bursts from the thrusters. She finally had time to check the sensor panel.
It showed massive levels of atomic radiation. A bomb? She ran a diagnostic on the ship.
         The computer spat out an unintelligible combination of letters and numbers. She opened up the diagnostic panel. The wiring was all fried. She pushed a button, and brought the emergency systems online. The computer began to speak intelligibly again. She suddenly wished she hadn't.
"Main power bus error. Engines offline. Thrusters at 50%. All airlock seals have failed. Force fields holding. Subspace communications are offline. RF communications are online. Main computer offline. Emergency circuits are working at 27% efficiency. Fire systems offline. Fire detected in main processing core. Alert! Alert! Main power bus error .... " Maddie switched over to the command terminal.
         From here, she could direct all of the systems on the ship. She attempted to determine where she was. The computer couldn't give her an answer, so she switched to visual mode. She could see the docking bay. It was a flurry of activity. She could see the Endeavor. It seemed to not have been
damaged by the explosion. The unknown Ship to its right, however, was missing its port engine nacelle , and the ship that had been to the Endeavor's left was nowhere to be seen. Janie swept the view around the bay. The blast, whatever it had been, must have come in from outside, as there was a large hole in the docking bay door, and a path had been cut through the ships exiting the docking bay. Entire ships had giant holes through them. Maddie began to hear a whine. She realized it was coming from her emergency warning beacon. She opened the box that held the device. On the screen was scrolling the text "Return to the nearest docking station immediately. Return to the ... "
Maddie stood up from the command chair, and moved to the back of the pod, where the circuits for the engines were located. There was a small fire in one of the control boxes. Maddie quickly put it out. She opened up the repair terminal on the main computer:

/QUERY: ENGINE STATUS
REPULSORS: ONLINE
THRUSTERS: ONLINE
ENGINE COMMAND CIRCUITS: DAMAGED
END
/QUERY: ENGINE COMMAND CIRCUITS
ENGINE COMMAND CIRCUITS, OFFLINE
DETAILED ANALYSYS? Y/N
/Y
MAIN CIRCUITS: DAMAGED IN BOX 1.57
EMERGENCY CIRCUITS: OPERATIONAL
AUTOMATIC ROUTING CIRCUITS: OFFLINE
/DETAIL: ENGINE COMMAND CIRCUITS: AUTOMATIC ROUTING
         The computer brought up a detailed schematic of the required switches she would have to activate in order to restore control of the engines. She opened up the panel, and began the operation. It took her a few minutes to finish the operation. When she had finished, she moved over to the control seat. She gunned the engines, and aimed the pod at the airlock that she had come in. She opened the airlock, and got out. The room was full of frantic activity. Immediately, one of the burly guards she had seen earlier grabbed her arm. "Mamn, please come with me." He manhandled her out of the control room, and into the hallway. Only here did she get an idea of the damage done by the explosion. To her left was hallway, but to her right was nothing. Normally, there would've been a bulkhead here, separating them from space. Instead, there was merely a forcefield, staring out into space. Outside, she could see floating debris of all sorts.
         The guard escorted her down the hallway, until they reached the turbotram room. Inside, she found a group of corpsmen surrounding some bewildered-looking officers and crewmen. "This one just came in, sir. Apparently had engine trouble in the bay," her escort said. "That's alright. The train hasn't left yet. Bring her over here, soldier," said an older uniformed man. After Maddie had been handed over to the older man, she was asked sit down in the area where the other officers were sitting. "Sorry for the inconvenience, mamn," the older man said, "We've been given orders to take everyone in that bay into custody." A small alarm sounded in the room. The computer tried to speak "T .. t ... t .. t ... tr ... tr ... " but failed. The computer began spitting out garbage, and one of the guards stood up to turn off the speaker. The tram came into the bay, making very little noise.
         Maddie was asked to step onto the train. She did, and, after all of the "suspects" were loaded into the train, they began to move.