Emergence: Chapter 21

The Stinger's three feet descended as it touched down, locking onto grey rock. Slipping into her spacesuit, and clamping one over the prone Strom, she opened the cockpit. Even through the heated spacesuit, she could feel the chill, which set her shivering. Dust on the ground rose up as her feet connected with it, and floated in the air like a small cloud, obscuring her vision. She hated the helmet she had to wear; it restricted vision from her peripherals. To Ilisa, this was blinding and, even though she was almost certain that there would be no-one else on Viran, it set her on high alert.

The station on Viran was simple in terms of design; a cube, with four spiralling towers surrounding it. The spiralling towers actually fed solar energy into the power station below the surface; Ilisa wondered if it still functioned fully. A circular hatch was in place of a door, and Ilisa climbed through as the hatch screeched closed. In front of her, another hatch awaited, but this one was translucent; presumably it was once transparent, but the dust got in and marred it permanently.

The other hatch opened and Ilisa climbed through. It closed with a hiss; airtight. While this should have meant that the station had an artificial atmosphere, Ilisa didn't trust it; it had been abandoned for far too long. And yet, it didn't look abandoned at all. Bright strip-lights illuminated the corridors, and Ilisa could see her reflection in the polished metal counters.

The only two sounds in the station were Ilisa's boots and the whirring of various machines. Endless corridors led to an almost-infinite amount of small side-rooms, containing either computers or weapons of a lost era. She stumbled around the station for what seemed like an age, never really knowing what was around the corner. Her heart was pounding, but her mind was surprisingly clear; she was focused on only one goal.

The corridor opened into a vast chamber; the shipyard. The walls were bland, but covered in burns thanks to the old fusion engines. Over time, an alcove in the wall had fallen in, throwing shards of metal over the concrete floor. She assumed that the wires had once sparked, but they just hung limp. She slowly entered the chamber, noting how differently her footfalls sounded in this chamber.

The ships were, as the man had said, ancient. Ilisa could see that as soon as they were in sight. The ancient vessels were covered in pock-marks and scratches from old battles, and many were actually broken; just heaps of metal arranged in a cuboid, compared to modern vessels. Despite that, she couldn't help but admire them, like one admires an antique. These were obviously from around the dawn of the Adjeti Empire, hundreds, maybe thousands, of years ago; the first vehicles used for interplanetary travel.

The way the ship's hatch opened felt exactly the same as the larger modern ships, and the layout inside was near enough the same, if not more cramped. This was a four-man vessel, she saw, but three would have been a squeeze. The controls felt familiar, somehow, despite them being in an entirely different layout. She gripped the lever, pressing the “signal” button, which sent a signal to open the shipyard roof. It slid open, revealing the star-filled void above her. The fusion engine roared, and the ship yearned for the sky.

Ilisa exited the ship, allowing the engines to boot up. Working her way back through the station, she knew her path now; get Strom, put him in the ship, and fly to New Orbus as fast as possible.

She couldn't afford any delays, and she broke into a desperate run.