The Outer Worlds: Book One of the Epherian Chronicles (2 page)

‘
Hurry up and open the damn thing!’ said Ajax
impatiently.

Ethan placed
the code breaker to the station’s external door and configured the
device. A few moments passed as they watched and waited.

‘
Why is it taking so long?’ grumbled Ajax.

Ethan shrugged
his shoulders. ‘The code is very complex and has been configured
with an observer defence mechanism which is preventing the coded
layers of electron waves forming into electron particles. Every
time I break the first code there is a second code lying dormant
which instantly springs to life, and by the time I break the second
code the first has reconfigured.’

Ajax rolled
his eyes. ‘We paid a fortune for that device. It’s supposed to
break double layered codes!’

‘
Not when the codes reconfigure at this speed,’ said
Ethan.

‘
Why doesn’t anything ever work on this ship!’ yelled Ajax,
clenching his fists.

Captain
Michael glanced sideways at Ajax and shook his head. ‘Ajax, you
still don’t get it,’ he said coolly. ‘The question is: why did the
previous occupants use such a complex code? The answer is because
there is something worth protecting. Be patient.’

‘
I can’t break the code,’ mumbled Ethan. ‘We have to cut our
way in.’

Those were the
words Michael did not want to hear. Cutting into a space station
was a sure way to draw the attention of security droids, and
fighting security droids was the last thing he felt like doing;
nonetheless, an abandoned space station was a goldmine for a
salvage crew, and he knew the potential rewards made it worth the
risk.

‘
Bring out the cutter,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Keep your
weapons ready. There could be a security droid waiting to greet
us.’

Ajax walked
down the corridor that led to the front of the ship. The armoury,
which doubled as a tool room, was situated about half way between
the control room at the front and the cargo bay at the back. A few
moments later he returned with the laser cutter. He shuffled past
Ethan and aligned it with the outer edge of the station’s security
door; a moment later a bright red laser beam caused sparks to blast
out. Ajax traced the outline of the door within a minute and then
drew back the cutter.

The team
lifted their weapons in readiness. Ajax looked back over his
shoulder and gave a curt nod. He then kicked the door and the
entire panel fell away and revealed a dark and empty corridor
beyond.

Michael lifted
his wrist-com. ‘Sara, we’re going in. This shouldn’t take too long.
Keep the ship powered and ready just in case we need to leave in a
hurry.’

‘…
you got it, Captain…’ replied Sara over the
wrist-com.

‘
Ethan, light this place up,’ said Michael.

Ethan drew a
pistol and shot three small smoke flares into the corridor. The
flares released a thin mist with charged luminescent particles
which lit up the entire length of the way. The corridor was about
fifty metres long with numbered doors along each side. At the far
end was a second main door.

‘
Let’s go to the storage hold and see what the Epherians left
behind,’ said Michael as he stepped forward and advanced along the
corridor. The others followed closely. Within a minute they had
reached the second door. ‘Ethan, do a scan.’

‘
There’s absolutely nothing, Captain.’

Michael hit
the green button beside the door and it slowly slid open. They had
come to a T intersection. A wide service corridor ran through the
centre of the space station. Dim emergency lighting was still
operational along the length of the service corridor. Several
lights were flickering which gave the station an eerie feeling.

‘
This place is bothering me, Captain,’ said Ajax.

‘
Why?’

‘
There are no signs of a struggle, no radiation leak, and there
are no aliens. Why would the population pack up and
leave?’

‘
It could have been a biological factor,’ suggested
Ethan.

‘
You mean a plague?’ asked Ajax, frowning at the
suggestion.

‘
No, it wasn’t a plague,’ said Michael. ‘There are no reported
plagues in this sector of space, and the station management would
simply remove the infected occupants and send in droids to
sterilise everything. I can only see three possibilities: pirates,
aliens or mutiny.’

‘
This corridor leads to the storage hold,’ said Ethan. They
continued down the service corridor. Before long they arrived at a
large security door situated at the far side of the service
corridor. Ethan was monitoring his handheld scanner which had a
small screen that showed the basic floor plan of the space station.
The door was locked to protect the contents of the storage hold.
Ethan flipped the casing off the control panel beside the door and
prepared to decode the lock. The door began opening.

‘
That was quick,’ said Michael.

‘
I didn’t decode the lock. Its opening by itself,’ said
Ethan.

Michael’s eyes
narrowed and he lifted his rifle, but a moment later it was
apparent that no one was on the other side.

‘
The door must be malfunctioning,’ said Ethan. ‘It’s probably
set to a repeat time release.’

Directly in
front of them was a large and dimly lit storage hold which was at
least one hundred metres in length and about the same in height. A
huge space door was situated at one side. The space door was big
enough to allow a delivery ship to enter the hold. There were
dozens of large shipping containers and several small cranes.

‘
Yay hey!’ said Ajax.

They entered
the hold. Ethan led the way and approached the first shipping
container.

‘
Spare sleeping pods,’ he said after reading the digital
manifest, which was connected to the side of the
container.

‘
They’re not worth the hassle,’ said Michael.

‘
But these are heavy duty self-contained sleeping pods with
their own life support systems,’ said Ethan. ‘They are made for
long haul space flight and they have independent power supplies. We
could replace some of the Out Drifter’s aging pods with
these.’

‘
We could only fit about four or five into the cargo bay on the
Out Drifter, and we don’t have the time to replace the pods. Let’s
try the next container.’

They moved on
and within a minute they had checked each shipping container
manifest, but the containers were mostly filled with spare parts
and mundane maintenance supplies. More than half the containers
were loaded with carbon blocks, which were the raw ingredient used
in food synthesizers.

‘
Looks like there’s not much to salvage,’ grumbled
Ajax.

‘
It’s not over yet,’ said Michael. ‘We’ll have to go after the
reactor power accelerators. There should be about thirty of
them.’

‘
That only adds up to one hundred and fifty thousand credits,’
said Ajax. ‘It’s not much to split between us after
costs.’

‘
I know,’ said Michael. ‘This is the nature of the business;
sometimes you strike gold and sometimes it’s only dirt. We should
make a move. You three go to the reactor and collect the power
accelerators. I’m going to the command room.’

‘
Are you looking for the population manifest again?’ asked Ajax
with a slight grin.

‘
Maybe,’ replied Michael in a low voice.

‘
Why do you always have to see the population
manifests?’

Ethan gave a
dry laugh. ‘We have a bet between us about who you’re looking
for.’

‘
Perhaps I’m not looking for anyone,’ said Michael
defensively.

‘
Your statement is not logical,’ said Ivan in his monotone
voice. ‘There is no other rational explanation.’

‘
Maybe I just like population manifests,’ said
Michael.

‘
I doubt it,’ said Ethan. ‘The reactor is three levels above
us. We can take the elevator on the far side of the storage hold.
The service tunnel we came from leads all the way to the command
room on the other side of the station.’

‘
Be back at the Out Drifter in thirty minutes,’ said Michael as
he turned toward the service corridor.

He entered the
corridor and continued for about two minutes until he arrived at
the far end. He pressed the green button beside the door, which
immediately slid open. Directly ahead was a set of five steps that
led up to another door. The door automatically opened as he
approached. The command room was dimly lit by emergency lighting.
There were three main consoles and a holographic display table,
which had a smooth top with several micro light projectors on the
surface. The instruments and computers were off or running in
dormant mode.

Michael
briskly walked towards the main computer and touched the control
console. The smooth metal holographic panel began to glow. An image
appeared in the air directly in front of him, and the word WELCOME
formed.

‘
Computer, I request access to the population
manifest.’

ACCESS
DENIED

‘
Emergency override. Code 799.’

The emergency
override code 799 was the standard code used by rescue crews to
access population manifests and other critical data required for a
rescue mission. The code would only work if an emergency had been
declared by the previous commanding officer.

PARTIAL ACCESS
GRANTED

‘
Open the population manifest.’

POPULATION
EPHERIAN OUTSTATION EP712674

TOTAL
POPULATION: 4123

CURRENT
POPULATION: 0

‘
Computer, locate individual: Acacius Trifon.’ Captain Michael
couldn’t remember how many times he had made the same request
without a positive result.

ACACIUS
TRIFON: PASSENGER 3712: AGE 59. EVACUATED

Michael felt a
rush of adrenaline surge through his body. He had searched for so
long and had almost given up hope.

‘
Computer. Where was Acacius Trifon evacuated to?’

ACCESS
DENIED

‘
No! Emergency override code 799.’

ACCESS
DENIED

He lifted his
wrist-com. ‘Ajax. I need the quantum code breaker here in the
command room.’

‘…
Cap, we’re busy removing these power accelerators from the
reactor housing…’ replied Ajax.

‘
Forget the power accelerators. This is much more
important.’

‘…
Cap, no power accelerators equals no money…’

‘
Ajax, I’ll pay everyone from my own savings. Just get over
here as quickly as you can.’

‘…
No problem. We are coming…’

Michael waited
in the command room for several minutes for his crew to arrive. The
door slid open and they entered.

‘
Did you find your mystery person?’ asked Ethan.

‘
I found something, but the computer is blocking access to
further information.’

Ethan placed
the quantum code breaker on top of the main console. ‘This might be
a problem, Captain. Just remember the external security doors were
double encrypted. They may have used a more powerful encryption on
the main computer,’ he said as he powered up the device.

‘
Just do your best,’ said Michael.

Ethan started
to operate the code breaker as Michael watched on. ‘It’s just as I
thought, Captain. The main computer is using a double quantum
encryption with a complex, observer protected pathway.’

‘
Keep trying.’

Ethan nodded
and focused his full attention on the device. ‘Wait, Captain, the
main computer is returning to full power.’

‘
What?’

‘
It’s like the computer just woke up,’ he said as he kept
working to break the codes. Ethan put the quantum code breaker
down; his brow furrowed and he shook his head. ‘The main computer
just removed all the access codes in the entire station. We’re into
the system, but I don’t know why it’s allowing us in.’

Michael turned
to face the holographic console. ‘Computer. Where was passenger
Acacius Trifon evacuated to?’

ESCAPE CRAFT
TRAJECTORY: ZENO PAR

All the lights
in the command room automatically switched on, and the instruments
and consoles lit up. The team instinctively lifted their
weapons.

‘
Computer. What happened on this space station? Why did the
population evacuate?’ asked Michael.

SECURITY
SYSTEM IMMOBILISATION WAS ATTEMPTED BY THE PREVIOUS COMMANDING
OFFICER - QUARANTINE OVERRIDE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED

‘
What? Computer, provide more detail.’

THE HUMAN
POPULATION POSED A RISK TO THE STABILITY OF EP712674. SECURITY
MEASURES WERE REQUIRED AND IMPLEMENTED. SECURITY PROGRAM
SUCCESSFULLY REMOVED THE POTENTIAL HUMAN HAZARD.

‘
I think the computer has a virus,’ said Ethan.

‘
Computer, how did the security program remove the potential
human hazard?’ asked Michael.

48 RESIDENT
EPHERIAN BATTLE DROIDS WERE MOBILISED FOR THE OPERATION

Epherian
Battle Droids were considered by all space farers to be the most
dangerous battle droids in the entire galaxy. They were constructed
in a humanoid shape; however, they were seven feet in height with
high-grade armour. The baseline model always had a mini rocket
launcher connected to one shoulder and a laser system connected to
the other. They also carried standard issue Epherian charged
particle rifles, which was an advanced weapon by any estimation.
They were given the nickname “Blueys” because the scanner attached
to their chests was marked by a bright, blue light.