In the Name of Earth

Chapter 16: Space is Cold

Once the SOS was identified, the Exile charged for Gaia Station at full steam, engines roaring, propelling the lonely space freighter to the aid of a silent space station.

All the haste in the galaxy would not have sufficed, though. They were far too late to do anything for the hundreds of inhabitants of Gaia Station. The base was deserted. Its crew gone. All their souls claimed by the unforgiving void.

“What happened here?” Marvin asked as Lud, Jade and him explored the ghastly halls of of what they had all once called home.

Since their entrance through diplomatic airlock 27, the party had encountered three dead bodies fallen through the corridors. There were no visible wounds, nor signs of violence to be seen on the corpses or their surroundings. It was as if they had simply dropped dead. None of the bodies belonged to any acquaintances of the three humans, but the fact they were there was disturbing enough.

“I have a theory,” Lud said through clenched teeth. “But I’ll need to get to the engineering deck.”

“I’ll check on my father’s office,” Marvin said. “His personal computer must have something we can go on over.”

“I’m not sure splitting up’s a good idea,” Jade spoke. “We have no idea what happened here! The Station might not be safe!”

“If a hundred people couldn’t fight it, the three of us won’t do much better,” Marvin said, and he did have a point. “The faster we cover ground, the faster we leave here.”

“Fine, but you’re taking this,” Jade pushed one of her plasma pistols into Marvin’s hands. “I’ll stick with Lud. And remember, anything goes wrong, call us.”

***

Ludwig and Jade had found another dozen bodies after entering the engineering deck. Once more, there were no visible signs of combat or violence. They were simply dead.

“There’s a lot more dead folks down here,” Jade whispered, fearing she might disturb the eternal slumber. “In fact, upstairs was oddly empty.”

“Whatever happened, I think it went down during the night shift,” Lud matched her tone. “Most people would be on their quarters.”

“With their guard down.”

“Ja. But this would be a shift change,” Lud pointed the twelfth body they had found in engineering. “During the night, only six engineers would be down here at once. Playing cards and waiting for something to happen. Usually nothing did.”

“But there are twelve,” Jade concluded. “One crew was coming, the other was going. But why?”

“Could be a coincidence… Or someone wanted to get the engineers unprepared.”

“You think it was sabotage?” the armored woman said, pointing her weapon around a corner. It was clear.

“We’ll know after we get through those doors,” Ludwig walked to a grand door by the end of that deck, but it did not open. The engineer tried again, then resorted to a direct override using one of the dead engineer’s infopads. Nothing worked. “Lockdown. Someone wanted to keep us out of here… We’ll need a magna-crowbar.”

“A what?” Jade squinted.

“Magna-crowbar. It’ll let me handle the lock mechanism through magnetism. No need for software access and no unnecessary damage to the hardware.”

“It’s sweet that you’re concerned for a door’s integrity when all your colleagues are dead,” Jade shook her helmeted head and started searching. “What does this thing even look like?”

“A really big pepper grinder.”

As the pair searched for the really big pepper grinder, Marvin’s voice echoed from their comms: “Lud, you there?”

“Here!”

“I’m at the main elevator, but it’s not working. Can you do something down there?”

Ludwig could do that, yes, if he could get past the locked door.

“Little complicated right now, but I think I may have another solution.”

***

Marvin was waiting inside the elevator that would lead him to his father’s office when his feet left the ground, as did the four bodies on the lobby outside and all unbolted items in that room. An entire space station crew dead, now floating weightlessly. Not disturbing at all.

“Marv, do you copy?” Lud asked, and Marvin confirmed. “I shut down your local gravity. There should be a maintenance hatch on the elevator ceiling. Open it and you should be free to float the rest of the way.”

Marvin complied, skillfully pushing himself off the ground. He gently opened the indicated hatch and pulled himself outside, floating up the elevator shaft unassisted. The fluidity of his maneuver showed stark contrast to the clumsy flopping of his first day onboard, all thanks to a few 0-G drills and a couple scheduled maintenance shutdowns.

He fluttered down the hall to his father’s office and pushed into the mahogany doors feet-first. The office was empty, the glorious glass window even more breathtaking now that nothing held Marvin to the red carpet. He felt like he could just fly out into the void until he reached Earth.

Grabbing hold of the desk, Marvin flipped over his head and stopped before the Chief-Ambassador’s computer terminal. That was what he had come for, but now that he stared at the holographic interface he realized the fatal flaw on his plan. He would be unable to access the terminal without his father’s biometrics.

Too much for genetics!

But… maybe?

Marvin rested his hand over the holograms, and a recreating of his handprint appeared on screen.

***

“We’re in!” Lud cheered as he slid the last lock out of place using the magna-crowbar. With that, the door blocking their path slid silently into the ceiling, granting them passage.

Jade had to admit that was a handy tool. One she would be keeping.

Gravity remained active in the engineering deck, thankfully. The last thing they needed were loose bolts and screwdrivers floating into their eyes. Still, Jade was as good as blind in the dark mechanical cave, lit by faint emergency lights and the blue hue of the technological artifacts all around them. Even though she could see things, she had no idea what any of that meant. He only knew that room was scalding hot compared to all the others.

“There!” Ludwig ran across the room to a ring of ten massive red pylons. He connected his stolen infopad to a holographic terminal near the device and scanned the data being transferred to him. “I knew it! Mutterficker!”

“What is it?” Jade approached, peeking over his shoulder at the technobabble on the screen.

“These are thermal regulators. They keep the station warm. Very important. Can never stop working! Sometimes, though, they need to reset. Take heat instead of give. Still from station,” Ludwig pointed the pylons red with contained heat. “That’s why we have ten. Ten never reset together, but they did! Yesterday, 10 PM.”

“The shift change?”

Ludwig nodded.

“Space is cold. They’d have a few minutes to act before everyone froze to death. Not nearly enough time to get past that door or up the elevator to the command centers, both of which were locked down. And get this… This specific machine is a Warm Fuzzies Model X, Generation 7. Serial code: 991870. Produced by… Globian Industries.”

“Sons of a bitches!” Jade tightened the grip on her pistol. “But hey, this is good! We can prove they’re behind all this, this would screw their petition to review humanity’s Sentience level!”

“Not exactly,” Lud shook his head. “They produced the machine, and they could make a program to screw it up, but they couldn’t tamper with it remotely. I’m pretty sure no Globian was around here recently.”

“So, what you’re saying is… It was an inside job?”

“Had to be,” a shiver ran down Lud’s spine.

“But who’d want to doom their own planet? Their own species?”

“Nobody. Then again… not everyone here was human.”

***

The holograms continued shining under Marvin’s palm, and he continued floating between the Chief-Ambassador’s desk and the magnificent view of the solar system.

As the last point of his biometric scan was matched to his profile, a scroll of red letters spawned before his eyes.

EMERGENCY STATE OMEGA.

ACTIVE PERSONNEL CASUALTY RATE: ~99%

VERIFYING CHAIN OF COMMAND…

> Chief-Ambassador Marvin S. Grant: Unavailable.

> Deputy-Chief-Ambassador George K. Watson: Deceased.

> Senior Ambassador Aisha Fahad: Deceased.

> Senior Ambassador Ming Chen: Deceased.

…

> Supreme General Augusto C. Silva: Deceased.

> Colonel Alfred G. Bullock: Deceased.

And the list went on. It went on listing deceased after deceased. There were no exceptions until only one name in the diplomatic corps remained.

> Junior Diplomat Marvin S. Grant Junior: Available.

WELCOME, ACTING-CHIEF-AMBASSADOR GRANT.