Space Odyssey: Spectre
Chapter 147 - 147: Station

Jace cracked his neck as he sat in the pilot's seat. They had been flying for three days. Jace was right to have prepared extra stuff ahead of time. Along with other things to help them pass their time.

Charlie walked up next to him, using the magnetic locks on her boot to stay on the ground. Steadying herself against the wall because of the infrequent jostling. "For today's menu we have crackers and another liquified protein pack. For the man that cannot leave his seat to hang out with the rest of us." She handed him a sleeve of crackers and a reflective pouch with a straw sticking out of it.

Jace just shrugged, "I am just grateful that Nina can take over for a few hours each day so I can get some sleep. How is the attitude back there?" He asked as he glanced at the chart and realized they were less than half a day's distance from the station where they believed Hoodwink went. It had decreased from the last time he checked.

"Good," Charlie nodded as she sighed while looking out at the endless horizon of stars that were slightly warped by the gravity anomalies. "We have cards, dice, and other games we can play. How did you know this would happen?" Charlie asked as she leaned up against the wall.

Jace crunched a cracker and glanced at her for a moment before chewing his food thoroughly and swallowing. "Because I went through the academy with Taylor. When she is exhausted she tends to make critical mistakes or errors. I knew something would go wrong. Which is why I double checked all of her work before we left."

"So what did she miss this time?" Charlie asked while turning her attention to Jace. Deciding that there was nothing in space that she could watch.

"Actually, that is exactly what she missed." Jace chuckled and glanced at her confused expression before explaining. "She neglected to account for gravity's effect on time in all of her equations. Or rather our perception of time with this system's gravity's increasing and varying effects."

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "So high level physics stuff that I will never understand?"

Jace shrugged and flicked a cracker up into the air. It floated up to his mouth and he grabbed it with his teeth. Charlie sighed and then floated to the back with the others. Turning off the magnetic locking mechanism on her boots.

Jace realized that something else was wrong as he glanced at the map again. They were closer than they should have been. "Hey get everything wrapped up back there."

"How far are we?" Tako asked.

"No clue." Jace answered honestly as he hurriedly began scarfing down his food. The gravity of the station was causing its own time-gravity anomaly. Even he had failed to account for it. But that might be because he failed to comprehend how strong the gravity generator aboard the station was.

As he was putting away his trash in a bin next to him is when it all started to happen. They flew through a forcefield, he could feel the electricity as it happened. The change was immediate as floating bits of cracker fell to the ground while his helmet which he just left floating next to him fell to the ground.

He quickly reached out and grabbed the helmet before it hit the ground. Then he began pulling it on as he looked over the Station. Studying the structure as he did so. He clicked a few buttons on the terminal in front of him and those in the back could see the station as well through a monitor that was back there.

The station is a gray and brown spire. It had small protrusions coming off of it. While around the edges of the shield floated several asteroids and rocks. As he flew forward he scanned the station. Finding there were several closed hangars with only one at the bottom of the structure was open. It was the largest hangar, or one of the largest. The other one was at the top of the station. But that one was closed.

He directed the ship to the bottom of the structure. Flying past asteroids and other large objects. One thing he even scanned as being an ancient Vexical exploration vessel. But now it was a crushed hunk of metal.

The ship swayed as he neared the open hangar. The station's version of the atmospheric barrier was up but the inside of the hangar was dark. The lights were switched off, so all he could make out were rough shapes in the dark.

Jace double checked to make sure his suit was completely on and airtight. "Are you guys ready back there?" He put it on hastily earlier so he wanted to confirm his armor was secure before he went out into a possibly toxic environment.

"Ready to land, disembark, or… something else?" He heard Tako ask sarcastically.

"Land and disembark. I found a hangar we can land in. But just a heads up. There is a good chance that this is a trap." Jace informed them.

"Combat it is. Understood." Tako said as there were a few chuckles from the back. "Nina has your rifle and pistol set up back here with magazines. We are all ready."

Jace nodded to himself and pushed the Osprey forward, flying through the atmosphere barrier and into the dark hangar. He only got a partial glimpse at the dark room as he spun the Osprey around and landed it facing the exit. Just in case they needed a quick exit.

He removed his seat harness and stood up. Stretching his limbs as he moved to the back of Osprey. Jace pulled a pistol out of the case it placed inside of and put it on his holster on his leg. Then he grabbed the carbine rifle from the wall cavity where it was placed. Then stuffed the magazines for the guns in spots on his armor that were set up for it.

The carbine assault rifle felt strange in his hands since he was used to the heavier version. Then he double checked his guns and all his gear again. When he looked up the others were standing at attention, ready and waiting.

Jace opened the rear ramp of the Osprey and walked down with his gun raised. It was still pitch black so he switched his helmet to night vision mode. He then walked forward and noticed that there were several pushed over boxes and other objects. They were still slightly glowing from the heat of the engines.

He walked past them and observed what looked like spare materials. Just spread out throughout the room. As he was looking he noticed a wall panel in the distance. "Close up the Osprey." Jace told them as he moved further into the dark.

He could hear the Osprey ramp close as he got close to the wall panel. He tapped on it and flinched as the light blinded him for a moment. He switched off the nightvision on his helmet and let his eyes adjust to the bright screen for a few seconds.

It was not in the common language of the Vexical Empire. Nor was it any in human dialect or version. It was in the Requiem language. So he could only roughly read it from the words he had translated.

"Let's see… map, schedule, settings, power distribution. Yeah that seems like it." Jace clicked that button and it went to another screen. "Hangar shields, gravity control, fire control, holo projectors, and… lights."

Jace clicked the on for the lights and the room lit up. It was blinding for a moment before his eyes adjusted. He then began looking through the panel. As his comrades looked around the room. "Did you find anything?" He asked them as he pulled up the more in-depth portion of the facilities systems and began looking at recently triggered systems.

It seems that the most recent power distribution occurred in the large hangar near the top of the spire. The last thing that happened was that the hangar was closed and sealed.

"Just a bunch of rocks, metals, and some other stuff. Nothing groundbreaking." Charlie reported her findings.

"I have a bit of the same over here." Tako reported.

"Well then these glowing rocks might be the most interesting thing here then." Ulin reported from a container where rocks were indeed glowing. They were not glowing before the lights turned on but considering he had seen the same rocks before in the Echo System they might be a stone that the Requiem liked using for lighting up rooms.

"I have a dead body." Nina's generic robotic voice told them over the communication channel. All four of them turned in her direction where she was staring down at something. It was on the other side of the hangar from their ship.

Jace walked over and looked down at the shriveled up corpse. Or rather a hollow corpse. It had an exoskeleton and its appearance matched the markings and drawings he had seen in the Requiem Ritual Marriage temple. It was an unnatural shade of white. Jace doubted it was the color white before it died.

"What the hell is it?" Ulin asked toward Jace, confident he would know.

"This is a Requiem. The race that mostly inhabited this galaxy before humans ever came here." Jace then walked over to the wall panel again. Curious about something he saw on the wall panel.

This time he opened up the schedule and blinked in surprise at what he saw. Quickly making a record of it, to note for later. But he did not get a moment to comprehend it as the lights in the room went red.

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