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 Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 9:24 pm
The armory would have to wait. The AI had no interest in leading them anywhere but the Medical Podbay for the time being. The podbay was a familiar thing to Melody by now. An enormous room, with large, cylindrical ‘pods’ standing upright and filling long rows throughout the room, the podbays were where all of the living organisms on board New Genesis were kept in cold storage as the ship made its long trek through space. Each of her team had woken up, next to each other, and stepped out of their own pod several hours ago. It was her first clear memory.
Each of the pods had above it a small screen that indicated the status of the pod. Melody remembered that hers, as she had looked up from the cold mist that followed her out of the pod, had read *OFFLINE*, indicating that she was conscious and no longer hooked up to the system. Ones she had passed that still had people in them had read simply *ONLINE*, and ones that were in the process of waking up had had an indicator, showing how long the ‘downloading’ process was taking.
Everything in the Security podbay had been ordered and simple. Everyone had woken up, gotten dressed, and prepared for their new lives.
Delta Squad stepped into the Medical Podbay to the sight of chaos.
“Holy sh-!”
Melody had to agree with Trevor’s crack analysis. Some pods were completely clouded over, others seem to have just fallen open, depositing bodies on the ground, limbs splayed everywhere. Melody ran up to the first pod she could find. It was filled with mist, and she couldn’t see inside. She looked up at the display.
It read:
*ERROR*
*Upload Aborted*
*Deceased*
“All right, spread out, see if any of the pods are still online! Move!” Melody shouted at her team as she continued down the first row of pods.
*Deceased* *Deceased* *Deceased*
Damn it! Every pod – every person down this line was dead! Melody slapped a hand at one of the panels. The display changed over to more information.
……error in memory download protocol in Pod 834…….attempting correction…..correction failure….correction patch applied to line 1……correction patch failed…….attempting download rewrite……..rewrite failed……testing Pod 1…..rewrite failed……Pod 1 deceased.
“It looks like one of the pods had an error waking up, and when the system tried to correct it, it corrupted the whole wakeup system.” Therese responded to the rest of the team. Melody agreed with her assessment, if not her cool, measured attitude.
“I’ve got a live one here!” Alezandir called out and Melody ran down her row to join him. He was in front of one of the pods that had fallen open, frantically trying to resuscitate a small asian woman. Melody came to a halt in front of him and slapped the display.
……..Pod 822…..Unitname: Harmony San Epsilon…….complete download failure……Ejecting unit for emergency procedures……..
“The system is ejecting the ones that are surviving the error, but it looks like there’s no data downloaded,” Melody gritted her teeth. “Stop resuscitating, Alec. She’s braindead.”
Alezandir gave her two more breaths and then leaned back on his knees, his weight shifted away from the small, naked body.
“Hail Mary, mother of Grace…”
“I’m sorry, Alec. We don’t have time to pray for all of these people. We have to shut down the wakeup program before the error spreads. Gen! Ship AI! Where are you?!”
The visage of the ship’s AI shimmered into place in front of Melody with a smile completely inappropriate to the situation.
“How can I assist?”
“Abort the waking up of the medical wing! Do it now!”
“I’m sorry, you don’t have the authority to halt essential ship functions.”
“Damn it! Commander Usher! This is Officer Melody! I need you to authorize shutting down the wakeup of medical personnel! QUICKLY!”
She didn’t have time to explain over the comm why it was so essential he act fast. All she could hope for was that this man, who’d never met her before as far as she could remember, trusted her enough to essentially cripple the ship by robbing it of it’s medical personnel.
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Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 9:33 pm
*Officer Melody's report came over the com and Usher grimaced. She wouldn't ask him to take such a drastic measure unless there was a profound emergency. If this was a mistake, there would be hell to pay.*
AI, abort the Awakening of the medical staff now. Authorization Usher Eight Theta, Chief of Security. You better have a good reason for this, Officer!
*The communications officer had left but the Commander and the child were staring at him. He rolled his eyes. Was he the only one that always expected the worst in every situation? Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. A motto to live by...but where had he heard it?*
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Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 9:40 pm
Steven couldn't do much about the mess at the moment, but he had another plan. He headed over the controls of the room and after some digging around he headed back to the bridge.
"Commander things do not look good down there. I think we need to assign some of the crew to start organizing what supplies we have left. Also I hope I'm not overstepping, but I also think I have a plan for when we do resupply.
All of the food now is prepackaged and there isn't much we can do with. Even with the new planet who knows what we will find there or how long it will last. With some simple modifications we can turn some of empty cargo bays to a sort of greenhouse. We can use produce we find and start our own crops. Maybe we will only have to use as a backup, but it will still be nice to have."
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Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 9:45 pm
There was a hum in the background that Melody and her team hadn’t even noticed before, but the sound of it slowing down and stopping made them all acutely aware of it. Each of the pods had stopped attempting to wake up. The podbay was silent except for the sound of her team shuffling around in the cold mist and bodies that had spilled out of about half of the pods. Melody let out a breath in a hiss that she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding in.
“Gen. How many deceased in this room?”
“Mortality rate in Medical Podbay 1 is 99%. Mortality rate in Medical Podbays 2-6 is 0%.”
So, they had turned it off in time to save everyone who wasn’t in this podbay. Wait…
“99%? Not 100%?”
Before the AI could answer, Trevor ducked down into the mist and shouted up at the rest of his team.
“Hey! I’ve got a live one here!”
Melody and the rest of her team joined up beside Trevor as he turned over the solitary survivor of the awakening. It was a man, white with blonde hair, sprawled out on the ground outside of his pod. He was breathing normally, but was unconscious. Melody looked up at his pod and pressed her hand on the display panel. It only said one thing.
*ERROR* *ERROR* *ERROR* *ERROR* ERROR*
“He’s stable, but out cold. Alec, Therese. There’s med-evac supplies in each of the podbays. Let’s get a gurney set up. Trevor. Let’s get him turned over and see if he’s revivable.”
Melody’s team moved into gear and Melody realized that her commanding officer was waiting for a report from her about this entire incident. She opened her commlink and began to explain the situation.
“Thank you for your fast action, Lt. Commander. Doing so has saved podbays 2 through 6 down here. Some massive internal error has destroyed nearly all of the life in Medical podbay one. We have one survivor, and we’re prepping him to go to the Medical center now. I can give my report to the captain once we’ve secured the survivor, sir.”
Therese and Alec arrived with the gurney, and the team hoisted the survivor up onto it. He wasn’t responsive, but his vitals all seemed stable. Melody sighed and opened her comlink again.
“I’m afraid we’re going to need cleanup in this podbay, sir. There are bodies…there are bodies everywhere.”
The ‘great adventure’ she had been so excited for now felt like an enormous weight on her shoulders. Melody led her team, rolling the gurney down the hallway to the medical center. She had opened her eyes and been ready for life; now they had faced down tremendous, unstoppable death. A tragedy. A failure. She looked down at the survivor. One doctor alive out of a hundred. No information about him at all. No idea if he would even wake up.
Suddenly, the man’s eyes fluttered open. He reached up, gripping air, and made a wordless, babbling shout. Therese pressed his arms down on the gurney while Alec kept his legs from struggling.
“You’re okay!” Melody tried to assure him, keeping her team moving down the hallway. “There’s been an accident. But you’re all right. It’s going to be all right.”
The man turned his head jerkily towards her, blinked twice and opened his mouth.
“Oh. All righty then.”
He stopped struggling and flopped back down on the gurney, unconscious once again. Therese looked up and raised an eyebrow at Melody. Melody barely shrugged and kept the team moving. They arrived at the Medical center and deposited the man onto a bed. Alec was familiar enough with medical procedures to turn the bed on, so that it monitored his vital signs. The four team members assembled a few steps away from the bed and awaited the arrival of their commanding officer to make their report. Trevor crossed his arms and tried to grin in the face of tragedy.
“Well, maybe Doctor Error there can help explain what the hell just happened once he wakes up.”
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Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 9:51 pm
Ran looked over at Steven and then back to the commander.
" I do agree creating a kind of greenhouse would be beneficial and reccomended. We still have limited supplies of water. While water can be created in a lab by simply adding two hydrogen atoms with one oxygen, even the amount we would be able to create is limited. The plants would need water as well as we do. Dehydration would kill us far faster then starvation. I still reccomend that we stop at the planet if nothing else for water and to help us regain our senses. The computer is showing that most of the ship's staff has not awakened and thus we are running on limited man power."
Ran went back to her computer.
" Commander if you would like to create a greenhouse I am showing several different types of seeds in cold storage. They should still be good and ready to plant. There are also sun lamps availiable for your usage."
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Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 9:57 pm
The Commander got up form her chair, with a scowl on her face. She looked Usher up and down, he certainly looked the part of the Chief of security. Lets see what his attitude is like.
"Lieutenant Commander Usher Eight Theta, Lets have a chat in my office!"
She shows him the inside of the terminal that he just steps out of and escorts him back inside. Then she remembers that protocol states when she leaves the bridge she can't leave it with out a commanding officer.
Turning back she states loudly so all can hear her.
"Steven five Mu, you took initiate and I'm impressed. Make your plan happen! Have Ran help you. I'll be back soon, until then you're in change until I get back. Party because I trust you, the true second in command isn't awake, and partly because you the only one who hasn't pissed me off yet!"
She walked back into the tube, shutting the doors behind her, going down a few levels, before abruptly bringing it to a stop.
"Mr. Usher. What is your report?" She asked crossing her arm over her chest. And it better be good!
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Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 10:23 pm
Ran looked at the computer and ploted in some coordinates. She then asked for the ships AI.
"Gen, Notify me should the ship change position or we encounter any further turbulance. Keep the ship on it's current course."
" Authorizing... Ran Four Omega , Navigator.. Going to auto pilot"
" Good"
Ran then stands up leaving her stuffed animal in her chair in her place. She turns to Steven.
" Shall we get started?"
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 6:29 pm
*Usher ignored the demand for a report.*
Did you just leave an ENSIGN in charge of the bridge, Commander? An ensign in COMMUNICATIONS? Do you even have a passing knowledge of regulations? I lost count of how many have been ignored or broken since I Woke.
*This was the last straw. Usher decided he go into the personnel records after dealing with the medical emergency and find someone with more command experience to take charge. He decided he might as well tell her what happened in the Med Podbay.*
There has been a system failure in the medical personnel pods. I shut down the systems that Awaken the medical staff. We lost just about every member of medical in Podbay One.
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 2:53 pm
Steven stood there in shock. He had herad Ran speak, but couldn't bring himself to respond. He wondered if he had heard the commander correctly. Second in command? He didn't know anything about filling that position, but if that's what she wanted it would have to do for now. He decided he would d his best untill the proper man for the role awoke.
He turned to Ran ready to give the order to start, but all that game out was a nervous sounding "Yeah..."
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 3:09 pm
Ran looked at Steven. He was nervous.. but why? Adults are weird. She walked carefully around the ship headed for the seed storage area which was near the lab. Ran then opened up the fridge and looked at the seeds.
" Hmm.. Tomatoes, Oranges, Spinach, Apples,...alot more"
She then looked over at Steven.
" So where in the ship do you think we should set up this garden?"
She wondered if something the commander said had gotten to Steven. No matter, they still had a job to do.
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 3:18 pm
Seven Followed Ran to seed storage and began to look around.
"When I was checking out the food situation there were several empty cargo bays. I'm sure any of the will do. I don't think I caught your name though. I'm Steven 5 mu."
He felt a bit odd introducing himself since all he really knew was his name.
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 4:03 pm
" I am called Ran four Omega or just Ran for short"
Ran knew her name but she had no idea about where she came from, who her parents were, or why she was on this ship.
" Well we have enough seeds here... now for some soil."
Ran looked around and found some bags of soil. Some heavy bags of soil... she tried to lift one but couldn't.
" Sometimes it sucks being a kid."
She draged the bag out ofthe fridge.
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 5:02 pm
"Here let me get that for you" He took the bag of soil from her and grabbed one more.
He looked at her a bit funny. He had noticed she was young before but this was the first time he had really thought of it.
"Yeah about you being a kid. Any idea how you got a the position as the head navigator? Like you said, you're really young."
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 5:14 pm
" Um... I don't know.. I don't really remember anything. I mean I know how to work all the controls and it seems really simple."
Ran felt a little uneasy. She knew that she was far younger then everyone else but tried not to think about it to often. Flying the ship, the controls, everything came so easily to her. Like second nature, some part of her knew that a twelve year old shouldn't know how these types of things work. But she did. She had to be some type of child prodigy but she didn't want to just say it out loud.
"Maybe if we look up the files on the crew members we can find out something. Possibly something to regain our memories as well. But I think this is more important right now.."
Brings the seeds into an empty cargo bay.
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