Project - Prometheus Ch. 02

"What do you suppose these guys were up to?" Taal'ani wondered as they walked by the frozen robots.

"Probably fixing the hull breaches and jettisoning the boarding pods, though not necessarily in that order," Pree guessed.

"Would make the most logical sense, since the air quality hasn't dipped any," Korsa said, as she had brought up her scanning holo again, checking the atmosphere for any irregularities. As they continued, the clash sites became more apparent and frequent, the closer they moved towards Engineering.

"Interesting," Inari commented off-handedly.

"What? What's so interesting?" Taal'ani asked as she kept probing the dark with her lights, fearful of any hidden surprises it might conceal.

"From what I've seen of these battle points, these Xuul'khan were attempting to cripple the Perseus, rather than outright destroy it," Starwitch murmured thoughtfully.

"What makes you say that?" Nats asked from behind her sled.

"Most of the points where they engaged the bots were of tactical value. Capture and hold these points along the various gantries and hard points, you can control the flow of the fight," the captain finished, gesturing to the cluster of bones lying by what looked to be a security station.

Made up of several podium consoles, there were large reflective plates that ringed the consoles. They appeared to be half buried in the floor as though they had come from a concealed hiding place from beneath.

"Hold up," Korsa said as she bent down to examine the bones on the ground.

"These weren't Xuul'khani," she mumbled faintly. "They were human." Kneeling in front of the remains, the Khontar woman was as gentle as she could manage. She fished a silvery piece of metal out of the bone meal. The metal was tarnished, and the stamping was worn, but she could still read it.
"Lieutenant Marcus Ramsey. Born zero-eight, zero-three, twenty-one forty-four."

Standing from the remnants of bone, power armor and defunct weapons, Korsa clutched the tag in her fist, eyes closed in prayer. Taking the cue from their ship-mate, the rest of the women took a moment of silence, for the fallen.

"Rest easy soldier. Your watch is done," Korsa intoned respectfully. Taking a deep breath, she stood, tucked the tag into one of her holding packs and rejoined her crew. They progressed onwards, wary of where they stepped.

"So, you're theorizing that the Xuul'khan tried to overtake the Perseus, rather than destroy him?" Priya questioned.

"That is my theory, yes. You note that many of these pods weren't damaged or scratched and the only real damage done is where they met resistance," Inari surmised, while she kept her focus on what the dark may be hiding.

Just ahead of them, through the sea of cryo pods, there was another doorway. It was like the one they left back in the hospital area, only the way before them lay closed. The amount of clutter that lay in front of the doors, suggested that a massive firefight had ensued here. Firearms, hand to hand weapons, armor plates and bones of both human and Xuul'khani littered the ground.

After scanning the area and finding no life forms, the crew finally relaxed, having made it to the Engineering section, encountering no hostiles.

"Looks like these marines made their last stand here," Korsa noted, stepping gingerly around any remains she could identify as human. As reverently as she could, she cleared a path for Natalya to push her grav sled through. Once the way was clear, both Taal'ani and Nats moved to the door, eager to get through.

"There's power here, but thankfully not much. I should be able to get through this one in short order," Talon said, as she set up her deck to work the door console.

As promised, they didn't have to wait long; the console chiming with an accept prompt. Tapping a few more commands into her deck, the door slid open effortlessly. The interior of the engineering deck was dark, like the rest of the ship, save for a couple of panels flickering here and there.

With some trepidation, the crew of the Darkstrider moved forward, intent on their mission. They scanned the large room for any possible threats but saw none. Slowly, they inched into the decrepit area, eyeing the discarded equipment. The lights from their suits and weapons played along the bones and uniforms of the fallen.

"No Xuul'khani in here," Korsa observed. "Whatever their play was, they didn't pull it off," Inari agreed as they further braved the murky darkness. Multiple consoles and workstations dotted the area, all of them abandoned. The crew did their level best to avoid all the remains that littered the area.

"Wait," Natalya called out, stopping her sled. "Pree, mind giving me a hand please?" the young woman asked her crew mate. Eyeing the two crates that her friend was hunched over, the Indian woman walked forward, to help.

"I'm getting at least fifty feet clear before you power these things up," Priya declared before stooping to help with the first crate.

As they carried the first crate over to the left side of the doorway they came in, Korsa hefted the second crate, stationing it opposite to the first. As they set it down, Nats stripped down the exterior casing, exposing the inner skeletal structure. Once the casing was apart, she quickly reassembled it to form a defensive bulwark. The titanium armor plating would protect the base and the power source from enemy fire.

Korsa had mimicked Natalya's movements, having her crate stripped and reassembled mere seconds after Nats had finished hers.

"Powering up. You should have ample time to step away, if you want Pree," the dark-skinned woman joked, as her machines slowly expanded to their full size.

The small tri-pod of legs plonked down into the blocky, treaded base, the magnetic grips activating instantly. The large cylindrical post lifted the blocky turret on well-oiled hydraulics, to where the barrel just cleared the metallic bulwark in front. Three large metallic arms raised up out of the post and shot out, attaching themselves to the bulwark in front them. The power source, set into the base of the post, thrummed to life.

As promised, Pree was at least fifty feet away from the turrets before they were fully extended. Natalya had produced a small tablet from her sled and set about to linking it with the turrets.

"Syncing.... and we're live!" she cried out when the signal went green, indicating that she had full control.

"Is it safe to come out now?" Priya asked, hiding behind Inari, while peeking out dubiously.

"It's perfectly all right now. The targeting algorithm was written by Talon here, so there won't be any mistakes on the IFF system," Nats said proudly. Treading forward cautiously, the rest of the crew approached the turrets with some trepidation. "Here, try it out yourself," Natalya said, while holding out the pad to whoever wished to take it.

Inari stepped out and took the proffered electronics, looking over the system as she tested the weapons movement on their swivel mounts. Showing the system to her lover, the cameras mounted on the turrets, allowed them to see what exactly was being tracked. A green X highlighted each one of the ladies present, the captain checking that no mistakes had been made.

Huffing in annoyance, Taal'ani holstered her SMGs, crossed her arms and slouched, "Really, captain?" she said as the turrets cycled between each one. "You really think I'd make such a careless mistake?"

"Better to be safe, than sorry," Starwitch cautioned as she continued her testing. Pree grunted in agreement as they finished up. Rolling her eyes, Taal'ani stood straight and drew her weapons, training them on the dark ahead. Inari handed the tablet back to Nats, satisfied that all was well.

"Glad you finally asked for help in making these work," the captain disclosed gratefully.

"I figured it would be handy to have something keeping our rears safe," Natalya conveyed, as she set the turrets to track and fire on any movement that wasn't them. Pree snorted at the double entendre, bearing the scar from Nats last attempt to make the automated turrets work.

"There's a light just ahead," Korsa said, gesturing with her massive sword. Snapping their attention to the light source, the rest of the women looked.

"What is that?" Priya asked, as they approached the door which the light was hiding behind.

"Let's find out!" Natalya chirped exuberantly.

She took position by the right side of the door with Taal'ani as Korsa went to the left. Gripping the door by the central crack from which the soft light poured out, they heaved. At first, the door jumped open in brief increments. Then, it moved slowly, the sound of metal grinding filling the air, as they forced their way through. They walked into the reactor core at the ground level, awe gripping the crew at what they saw.

In front of them, lay a large spherical chamber, taking up several deck levels in its immensity. A large, clear, crystalline shield sealed the chamber, with various readouts, podiums and consoles surrounding it. Lining the crystal, were large metallic beams, dotted with what seemed to be, large sensors. In the chamber's center, was an intricate metal cradle, supported by various struts and beams. Power arced between the cradle and its mirror image just above it.

In the center of the cradles, was what seemed to be a ball of pure orange fire, about the size of a large boulder. The ball flared and flexed in the air as though it was alive. Some minor flares would shoot out of the ball, racing to the edge of the cradles, seeking a way out. But the arcing energy kept it from proceeding any further, killing the flare before it went any further. Natalya's eyes were wide as saucers, as she stared at something she believed to be a hallucination but knew it wasn't.

"Nats, what is it? Nats? Nats?!?" Inari asked, waving her hand in front of their engineer.

Starting, Natalya blurted out, "Sorry captain! I didn't expect to find this!"

Grunting in exasperation, the dark-haired woman asked again, "What is it exactly?"

"I think it's a Solaris reactor!" the chocolate-skinned woman murmured. Taal'ani was the first to respond.

"Are you talking about what I think you're talking about?!?", the cat-girl blurted out. Nodding mutely while stepping forward, Nats moved as though she was in a drunken haze.

"A Solaris reactor?" the captain queried.

Excitement coursed through Natalya as the shock of this new discovery wore off. Chattering excitedly, she explained, "A Solaris reactor is a theoretical device which can create and maintain a form of nuclear fusion, equivalent to that of standard G-type main sequence star."

"So, like a miniature sun?" Priya asked tentatively.

"Exactly!" Nats squeaked as she advanced towards the consoles and dusted them off.

"Wait, you said this was a theoretical device?" Inari asked as she stepped closer to the crystal dome, eyeing the fiery sphere.

Nats' head snapped up as she finished her dusting, "Yes, I did. The way it was described how it should be built and what we would need, differs slightly from what I'm seeing here. But essentially, this is what it appears to be."

Shaking her head in disbelief, Inari turned to regard the ship's engineer as she worked on the consoles.

"Do you know what you're doing?" she asked worriedly.

"Some of it. I'm trying to figure out how to jack up the power levels," the chocolate-skinned woman replied as she worked. Her hands flew over the holographic displays in hesitation unsure of exactly she needed to be doing.

"Anything we can do to help?" Korsa asked, sheathing her Thuun'tara blade. As Nats worked, she encountered prompts for her to enter her authorization code.

"Talon, mind helping me get past these security blocks?" Cracking her knuckles, Taal'ani stepped next to her friend and set up her hacking deck. Within seconds, she was locked in and plowing through another Skorean code cipher, determined to punch through this as she did the last few.

"Hold on for just a few more seconds....... got it! You should have unrestricted access for the moment, but I don't know for how long. I'll keep working to give you as much time as I can," the cat-girl chirped as she continued working at her adjacent console. Sure enough, the security prompts faded and Natalya could delve in and look for the information she needed.

"Anything yet?" Inari questioned as she paced behind the busy women.

"Stand by," Nats answered as she continued her search through the engineering logs. "Nothing.... nothing.... nothing...... wait! Here we are! According to this," she gestured to the readout in front of her, "the hydrogen needed to continue this reaction was limited. They have burned most of it up as fuel to sustain the ship."

"So, this thing is exactly what has been keeping all those people out there alive?" Starwitch asked, still slightly overwhelmed by these facts.

"Yup! Though from I can decipher here, this sun is nearing the end of its life span and will have to be jettisoned soon," the young engineer supplied.

"Why is that?" Pree asked in curiosity.

"When the hydrogen of this 'mini sun' burns out, the nuclear fusion aspect that powers the ship will have 'dried up', so to speak. The fusion of all the elements that make up this little guy," Nats gestured to the shining ball, "will have stopped. Shortly after that, the core of the sun will collapse, because it won't be generating as much energy as it was before."

"From there, the instability will cause it to bloat, sending into its Red Giant phase," Taal'ani finished for her friend.

"Exactly. Even something this small will expand to a considerable size and will have to be jettisoned before it grows that much," Natalya went on.

"How big are we talking?" Korsa asked. Nats did mental calculations, doing odd little ticks with fingers as she went through the mathematics.

"About six to seven times the size of this ship and that's being optimistic," the chocolate-skinned engineer confirmed.

Following a collective gasp, Priya then piped up, "How long do we have before we should jettison it?"

"Two, maybe three weeks, if we're lucky," Nats said, her voice confirming their current predicament.

"Isn't there any way to slow it down? Give it more fuel to burn?" Inari asked.

Sighing, Natalya continued to deliver bad news, "It would be like throwing a glass of water into an empty swimming pool and even then, it wouldn't work. It would just make the reactor burn that much faster and we'd lose time as opposed to stretching it. Which brings me to the worse news."

"Which is what exactly?" Inari worried.

"The power estimates we saw out in cryo storage were off," Natalya said, dread lacing her voice. "The reactor has already started cooling, which is why the power has been sporadic since we boarded. We don't have days before the power is out. We have maybe a few hours."

A somber mood descended on the crew as they realized what it would mean. All those people would die in their cryo pods, one by one. With no power, there seemed to be little hope.

"Hold up," Taal'ani interjected. "A ship this size would have more than one reactor, wouldn't it?"

Smacking herself on the helmet, Nats cried out, "I must be having a brain fart! A ship this big would! Maybe one of them is offline?" Diving back into the console, Natalya blazed through torrents of holographic information until, she found what she was looking for.

"There are at least two more reactors of similar size of this ship and a fourth that is classified as an emergency reactor that can be activated if needed!" the young woman said happily.

"Can you find it?" the captain asked, a trace of hope lining her voice.

"I can do one better," Nats went on cheerily. Entering what seemed to be several commands, before a progress bar appeared in the interface, rapidly filling out.

Natalya then entered several commands to her arm console, which linked to her in-suit interface. A small pinging alert then sounded on every crew members HUD in their vacc suits. Before anyone could ask what it was, the young woman answered, "It's the map of the whole engineering section, with the directions to the other reactors!"

Hearing this, each woman opened the file that was sent to each of them. Sure enough, it displayed a map showing their current location along with directions on how to get to the next reactor in each HUD.

"I also found a brief about the Solaris reactors!" Natalya jabbered.

"A brief?" Taal'ani questioned.

"A basic rundown of how the reactors work and the theory on how they can be activated. Hopefully, it's enough to turn one on!" Natalya jabbered.

"We can only hope," Inari muttered to herself. Nats all but ran back to her grav sled and pushed it towards the nearest doorway, which was slightly ajar. Talon quickly packed up her hacking deck, stuffing it back into its case and slinging it over her shoulder.

Wasting no time, each woman stepped back into formation, eager to get the ship back online. Korsa went to the door, using her considerable strength to pry it open further, so the crew of the Darkstrider could walk though. The door gave with minimal effort, this one apparently more well-oiled than the previous ones they had forced their way through.

The crew of women walked into another large and open section of Engineering, tools and implements scattered across the floor. Dust motes flew away from them in their wake as they progressed deeper into the ship. "About five hundred meters through that door and we should come to the secondary reactor," Inari announced, gesturing towards the door on the far side of the room.

When they came to the sealed door, everyone stopped. Except for Natalya, who walked with her sled right into the door, nearly clipping Korsa. Slamming into the sled knocked the wind right out of her as she nearly went right over the push bar and onto her gear.

Korsa went up to Nats and cuffed her upside her helmet, "Watch where you're going, young lady!"

"Sorry Mama!" the young woman wheezed. "Just studying up on the reactors so I at least know how to start them up."

Crossing her arms, Korsa responded, "Fair enough but watch yourself. You almost hit me." Feeling abashed, Nats backed up the sled and let Korsa do her work to pry it open. They opened the door in short order, leading to a wide and long corridor.

"Nats, get on the sled. You need to study up on what you found," Inari commanded. "Korsa, you push the sled; Pree, take rear guard; Talon, with me on point. Let's hustle ladies!" The whole crew jumped to obey, everyone taking up their new positions.

The crew double timed it through, coming up to another door, which was slightly open. The reactor room was on the other side according to their HUDs, but no light was coming from the room beyond. "Think it might be dormant?" Natalya tittered as she waited for the door to be opened.

"We'll find out in a few seconds," Korsa said through gritted teeth as she pushed the doors open.

Their suit lights bounced off of the various consoles and beams that made up the command center of the secondary reactor. It was a mirror image of the primary reactor, though the main difference was that where the Solaris reactor should have been, there was nothing. Both halves of the cradle that kept the primary reactor stable, as well as the various support struts were gone.

"What do you think happened here?" Pree queried, as their lights passed through the space where the reactor should have been.

"No idea, but we should head to the Tertiary reactor and pray that it's still there," Inari replied as she turned everyone about to head back the way that they came.

With the doors stuck in the open position, the all-female crew had little trouble making it back to the primary reactor room. Before Korsa could step up to pry the doors open, Taal'ani's arm shot out, stopping the Khontar woman in her tracks. Gesturing to the terminal next to the door, alight with trace amounts of power, the cat-girl unslung her case and pulled out her hacking deck.