Mercer and Douklan approached the first inner room, its door sliding open with a soft mechanical hiss. He stepped inside cautiously, his helmet light cutting across the darkness. The room was pristine—immaculate, even—
an office untouched by the chaos gripping bay 01. A desk sat neatly in the oposite wall, its surface bare except for a few terminals. There were also some standard-issue storage containers stacked under one of the consoles.
They also
noticed a simple light control on the wall. A quick press, and the room lit up with a soft, white glow, confirming its emptiness. He scanned the space briefly but found nothing out of place or unusual. Satisfied, he turned and exited to check the second room.
The second door opened with a faint grind, revealing a
maintenance shop. This room was a stark contrast to the pristine office—disordered and industrial, its walls lined with tools, welding rigs, and diagnostic equipment. Spare parts were scattered across workbenches, some neatly organized while others looked abandoned mid-task.
The overhead lights were shattered, leaving the room cloaked in deep shadow, but their flashlights illuminated the details as they moved further in.
The space felt chaotic. Tools, wiring kits, and spools of raw materials lay in piles, and diagnostic rigs stood ready for use. A few machines showed signs of recent activity—open panels, half-disassembled parts, and abandoned tools suggesting someone had been working in a hurry.
Mercer’s light swept across an open maintenance panel on the far wall, wires spilling out in tangled disarray. He paused, briefly examining the setup.
Corbin moved to
the row of consoles situated between the two massive maneuver thrusters. He tapped a few keys, bringing the systems online. Data scrolled rapidly across the screens, and he began sifting through it with practiced ease.
The first thing he noted was the status of the maneuver drives:
fully operational. A quick diagnostic confirmed that the
thrusters were in excellent condition and ready for use at a moment's notice. The interface offered him control over the station’s rotation, and with just a few inputs, he could stop the station’s spin entirely if necessary. Another option caught his eye—a toggle for the
grav plates. With a couple of keystrokes, Corbin verified that he could restore artificial gravity to a standard 1G level throughout the station.
The functionality was reassuring, but the data logs left him wanting more. The system only retained operational logs for the past 48 hours, with all prior records forwarded to central servers located elsewhere in the station. What little he found was uneventful: the drives had not been activated or adjusted during the recorded timeframe. It was as though
the station had been left to drift in its routine.
He frowned, leaning closer to the console as if it might yield more information if he dug a little deeper, but there was nothing else to uncover. Whatever had happened here, the answers weren’t in this system.
