Chapter 10

Ignition

Wilson clutched the passenger vans dash to keep himself braced over the bumpy dirt road entering Hayden’s bone yard. The driver was young as was all his other swat officers under his command and they were fairly spirited in everything they did. Hell that’s one of the reasons he choose young officers they had energy could be made to do tasks older officers wouldn’t and if you added a little spice of fever it was a win, win. Wilson wasn’t young any more but he wasn’t old either his fortieth birthday only added impressively to how much he had accomplished on the force and how young he truly was a major feat. In his career he had come from the slums of Hayden to the head of all swat operations in the northern hemisphere. He only answered to the judges and they all wanted the same thing. Less Martians, and having grown up as a poor Terran he liked to separate himself from they’re kind as much as possible. This job did this in full force. He was cleaning up the streets and getting rid of the slums, and Hayden could be a pretty city if it wasn’t held back by them. As they entered the compound he got out to meet up with the owner who had just shown up. “She headed up to the Kyoto, I noticed one of our tractors was taken can you please not harm the tractor they are expensive.” Wilson looked up towards where the owner had said and motioned the other swat teams to head up and retrieve the Martian girl. As the vans headed out the owner came back out of the office on the side of the hangar with two coffee cups. “You want something to drink officer?” “Why yes thank you we’ve been busy busy lately lots of action going on in the slums.””Ya I try to keep my workers from mixing so there’s no funny business.””Good policy” Wilsons radio crackled we are now using the cutter out here to get inside the ship. Wilson and the owner watched the Kyoto from a distance down at the hangar. He could see his men waiting and prepping to get inside.  The radio crackled again,” Door opened on its own going into ship for retrieval”. Wilson radioed back “good work guys go get the suspect!”. Wilson and the owner did some more casual chat before the ground shook. Wilsons coffee fell off the window sill outside the office. His radio crackled” She started the ship the engines are on! The engines are on everyone off the ship. Out side Wilson watched as his men came pouring out of the Kyoto as it rose. Horrified the ground shook even harder around him as a cloud built up around the ship. The shaking continued for a moment longer before the ship tilted up a little and the engines turned bright blue with flame.  The last thing he saw was the massive ship shoot up in the sky as a blast from the engines ripped him off his feet a crater expanded around him and before the fire engulfed his body he watched the force rip the hangar off its foundation.

Chapter 9

New World

The conversation led to an enlightenment Emily had never knew. Pictures fit together in a way that allowed her skills to come up to the front of her mind. The A.I. Had given a gift of friendship, and in her time of need it was fully reciprocated. The secrets even the highest Terrans knew was bypassed by her new thoughts. This was the Tantalus X, it was fully capable of flight, and she might be able to not only save her best friend but her entire nation. Emily’s mind wondered through these thoughts as Lars came into the computer room. Back from engineering even as a simple repair bot he had a temper, and was very blunt in his communication. “Why the hell did you mess around with the car down in the hanger?” Emily on to bigger and better ideas, contorted forgetting what she had discovered on level one. “Sorry” she answered back not interested in the four foot tall robot. Lola broke into the introductions. “Mrs Phoenix if we are to continue and get out of this bone yard your going to need to go to the bridge. I cannot control the helm, systems are damaged. I’ve just unlocked the bridge, and there is also a captains room with a shower Lars would prefer if you didn’t mukky up the rest of the ship. Lars will go fetch you a new uniform with boots.” Emily couldn’t help but get excited she would now fly a space vessel, but also get something other than overalls to wear. Lars looked annoyed at his new job, but showed peace in the idea the dirty human would be clean not tracking red sand everywhere. Emily bolted out the rear hatch and took the lift to level seven. The white hallway echoed as she ran to the bridge. She jumped into the captains chair and looked around her. The bridge was like a large dome, circular in shape. In front of her was a large window blacked out by the sand on the other side. It wasn’t high, about waist high and wrapped around the front of the bridge. In front of the chair was two stations, like desks helm control, and weapons systems. Behind her was a captains room to the left of the main bridge door and one more station, possibly scanning and communication. The room had the same white walls of steel but the floor was covered in lush blue carpet. Lars could be heard coming down the passage way Emily headed for the captains room. Em had never had a hot shower before and the small metal shower also had fine soaps. The luxury of the captains cabin was more than she had ever seen growing up in Hayden. The captains room was circular like the bridge with a dome ceiling, the queen sized bed in the middle of the room had a blacked out port window above it. The blue carpet matched the blue bed, Lars really did take care of this ship. It looked brand new, like it was just waiting for the colonial army to come back any day. By the time she left the shower Lars had already dropped off some new clothes. There was a vacuum-packed package of pants shirt and jacket, next to the plastic pack stood two brand new boots also in a vacuum pack. Emily tore open the first pack and slid into the black uniform, then slowly sat down and laced up the boots. Across from the bed was a full-length mirror on the back of the shower door. She didn’t even recognize herself, and she didn’t feel the same. Standing in front of her reflection she looked like a clean cut Colonial Martian captain. The full black uniform with colonial badges on each shoulder and one on her left breast. Lola split into her amazement over the speakers in her new room. “Mrs Phoenix, there are people outside trying to cut their way in to the entrance you came in.” Emily now felt different and she answered cold and calculated to Lola. “Can we take off right now?”. “Yes the ship is ready once you hit the helm power button we can take off right away.” Emily walked onto the bridge, ”Good lock the bridge door, open the airlock outer, and inner door so they don’t harm the ship.” Emily sat down at the helm as the large blast doors shut to the hallway. “Lola let them on but close and lock all doors on level seven.” Lola did what she was asked obviously Mrs pheonix had a plan but her systems didnt calculate the benefit of having enemys on board. Emily turned on the console to the controls, and grabbed the helm wheel. Outside the bulkhead door swat teams came into the ship in full force , pushing past the secondary airlock and into the long hallway. As they split up into two groups to go down each side of the hallway the floor started rumbling. Lars sat next to the captains chair watching over Em as she powered the ship, and started to manage hovering controls to lift the ship off the ground. After years of imitating captains and learning all about the bridges on ships she had gained a decent understanding of helm controls. Lars was impressed at what he was watching, so was Lola they both could tell she had never flown before but she seemed to be working the controls right. The Kyoto shuddered as the engines cleared the ground around the ship. A small red sand storm engulfed the swat trucks surrounding the vessel. Swat police started piling out of the airlock exiting the ship in chaotic matter. Not realizing the ship was already hovering up higher and higher they were falling out and sliding down the hull emerging from the ground. Lola locked the outer doors when the last clumsy swat member fell out the airlock. “All locked up ready to fly on your command.” Emily had never been told something so beautiful. Em grabbed the main engine throttles as the dirt and sand fell off the wrap around window in front of her bring bright light into the bridge and letting her see the Martian sky once more. Before Lola could explain the speed this scout had Emily had already pulled to full throttle. She aimed at the sky and felt her back and neck ripped violently into the helm seat. In front of her, Em watched as the sky clouds and atmosphere passed by into a gorgeous black space. She couldn’t help but tear up it was so perfect she had never felt this good before and powerful. Helplessness was replaced by the unlimited possibilities.

Chapter 8

Hopeless

Jack was swirling with loss, and fear as he stepped off the train car. His passage from Hayden police station to the Ice covered mountains of Venitia was horrid. They were paraded in front of Terrans in chains by swat to the train station then piled into box cars. In the train car he sat next to kids even younger than himself that wouldn’t stop crying the whole trip. After seventy hours in the car the doors opened and they could finally see the prison camp that was so horrible it didn’t even have a name. The hot weather had given way to freezing temperatures, and his overalls weren’t keeping out the cold. The massive complex was surrounded by gun towers but not walls, obviously there was no where to go, and if you felt like there was they could just shoot you. The whole group was put in an orderly line and commanded  into the first concrete building it was small and people were coming out the opposite side shaved and re clothed. Jack finally made it inside the warm building. The officers stripped him down took his clothes and belongings and through them in a large fire pit in the center of the room. He hadn’t shed a tear yet but when they took his picture of him and Emily he broke down. That was all he had left, while they shaved his head he watched it burn in the fire. Jack put on his new jump suite and boots as more men stripped down. He was dazed and in disbelief of the situation as he stepped out of the little building and into a cold frozen purgatory. He just prayed to himself that Em was safe that would be enough for him from now on.

Chapter 7

Kyoto Sunrise

Emily woke up inside of the  shuttle, a little disoriented at first but made it out into the large hanger again. She had no way of knowing what time it was but music was still playing over the loud speakers. Em walked over to the monitor and turned off the music, the list showed she had been asleep for at least five hours. Hunger was creeping up at her so she sat down on the floor with her back against the cold steel wall. Emily started formulating a plan for the day. She was going to get to the generator room to find out how much power was left, then work on getting on the bridge. Emily figured stopping in the cafeteria wouldn’t hurt either especially if they still had emergency rations those could last upwards of five hundred years. The empty ship was starting to creep her out a little, she would just focus on these tasks to keep her mind off the surroundings. The ship schematics showed another elevator at the end of the hanger and it would pass by the main computer, and engineering. The computer room looked huge on the schematics it was five decks high, and took up considerable room on the plans. It was an unusual amount of room to dedicate to just computers, but it was an old design maybe it just took that much room to fit old computers aboard. Em wouldn’t need to take the lift to get to engineering just straight back to the rear of the ship. The engine, and generators were all in the same room and took up the entire rear of the Kyoto. But she could take the lift to level six, and work her way to the front of the ship through the computer room to get to the cafeteria see if this place had any food left. Emily felt she had a good plan and started off towards the rear lift. She passed the other wrapped up items in the hanger on her way, no time to look need to find food. She passed through the large garage like door on the back wall and came into a room with the freight elevator and entry way to engineering. She stepped in the large lift and pushed the level six button on the right of the door. With a woosh the elevator opened it was lightning fast she was now in a room between engineering and the computer room. The circular room spread out from the lift all around. She walked straight up to the computer door, massive and white like most of the Kyoto. With a bleep of a key pad the circular door disappeared into the frame. Cold air punched her in the face as she walked in. Wow even refrigeration was still working to keep this room from over heating. The platform Emily stood on connected the door with the middle of the room. Over the side she could see all the way down five stories, other pathways lower down connected the same way but they all met in the middle to a large column that ran the entire height of the room. She had never seen a computer like that before, but she could see on the opposite side of the room was another door towards the front of the ship along the pathway. She held onto the hip high rails as she made her way to the middle column. The shaft was a beautiful glowing blue. In the white room it reflected off the walls and gave a blue tint to the whole place. Emily leaned on the rail and tried to touch the column. “Dont touch that!” Emily jumped out of her skin. She wildly looked around her, no one was around. “Who said that?” Emily barked out now pissed. “ I did”. Emily now realizing for sure she wasnt alone said “ were are you?”.” Im right here!, now dont touch that or you’ll get electrocuted!”. Emily peered over the railing, “I dont see anyone.” “Im not a human, Im Lamia onboard limited artificial, but you can call me L.O.L.A. “Wait your the computer!” Emily couldnt believe it. “No, im the artificial intelligence on board, like my name says. “Your A.I.!” Em was now completely blown away by this ship. Now she remembered the menu’s on the monitor in the hanger bay. L.O.L.A. Systems that makes sense but she had never heard of a ship having A.I. on board especially one this old. Lola broke into her thoughts as she sat there with a blank look on her face. “Why are you here, we havent had anybody onboard in eighty four years, at least not sense I was parked here.” “Im hiding from the police, and this was the best place I could find.” “ I was wondering what you were up to I’ve been watching you since you came on board, and talking to Lars we just couldn’t figure out why you were sleeping in the hanger. Also lars isn’t gonna be very happy that you unwrapped the car down there he’s been keeping those safe since we parked here.” “Lars? there is someone on board with you.” “Dont look so agitated he’s my repair bot been keeping this ship in awesome shape for years. His name is actually Lamia Artificial Repair Service but he prefers Lars. He spends most of his time in engineering. So what is your name?” “Emily Phoenix”. “Well Mrs Phoenix its nice to see a colonial on board its been along time since we’ve been blessed with the presence of our own kind.” Emily was now confused “aren’t you a terran ship, I mean you are the Kyoto”. “No way built here at home in the Martian ship yards, we were just in service of the Terrans as you call them after the war ended.” “Wait, how old is this ship?” “This ship was commissioned in 2135 AD and left dry dock in 2150 AD.” “You mean this ship is one hundred and fifty one years old! You fought in the war?”. Lola was surprised how much she liked to talk to a human.” Yes we fought, in many battles this is a Lamia attack scout vessel. The ship was renamed by our new government in 2215 AD after we lost.”  “What was the ship called by the Colonial army?” “Tantalus X, named by no other than our first captain Richard Hull.” Emily choked she had heard of this ship before, in a bed time story her father used to tell her when she was young. It was legendary ship that swept in and won the battles at Neon port, and Onyx ditch. She always wanted to be the great Captain Hull that commanded the Tantalus X, and now she was standing in the very ship that was supposedly disappeared after the war. She couldn’t help but think this amazing historic warrior had been her lunch area. Lola pipped back in. “after the war we were stripped of our weapons and used as a transport vessel. Earth changed our name to the Kyoto and United Nations engineers took over on our decks. “So how did you become a ghost ship, what happened to the crew?”. “On a routine trip from earth to mars transporting some top officials, one of the younger engineers was trying to disable my connection on the ship, they had been working on me for a while, and got impatient. Instead of disabling me they destroyed my limitations hardware, and destroyed the life support cpu’s. Before all this had happened they had mothballed Lars, they didn’t trust our Martian computer systems. Before I could get Lars reactivated completely to do the repairs the whole crew died. I tried my best but I couldn’t save them. They weren’t going to deal with us anymore and towed us the rest of the way to mars into this bone yard.” Emily was blown away by all this cool history. “So what have you guys been doing for all this time?” “I have been free to look through all of our data banks, made sure Lars kept the ship operational in case someone tried to strip us for parts. The only big problem we’ve had was that our exterior sensors have been covered by sand over the years. We cant see the outside world, or keep contact with the AI from Spartan V. “”What is the Spartan V?” “Its our sister ship the, fifth one in production, her Lola, and Lars systems still work and were still contacting us until the sand covered our sensors.” “You mean the other ship is still flying out there? That would be amazing” “No, Spartan V was shot down over Pluto during the battle over neon port. That ship crashed on that dwarf planet and has been there since, but us computers don’t have to breathe, and we were built by the best! The AI on that ship is limited, but keeps logs on ammo and equipment that we don’t have anymore. When we leave the Bone yard that’s were we are heading.” “I’m hiding but the Terran police force is going to be here and are going to try to get in. My friend Jack was taken by them I need your help in return I’ll do anything!””Mrs Pheonix can you manage a helm?” Emily nearly jumped “yes I can fly a ship!” “Well the bridge controls couldn’t be patched enough to give me full control I was gonna have Lars fly but I don’t think he could manage it very well. If you fly us to Pluto so we can rearm, then we can come back and get jack.” “Really!” Em couldn’t believe the change of luck she had. She had lost everything, and now was going to fly a ship! “Wait how are we going to bypass the Challenger?” “what’s the challenger?” “Its the orbital defense base for Mars, earth has one too! They are massive. If we get on their radar we will be shot down”. “We never saw that before it must be newer, but I have no doubt we can get past it. We are the Tantalus X. We are the fastest ship in the galaxy well at least eighty years ago!”

Chapter 6

Radar Love

The United Nations capital ship Challenger quietly orbited Mars. The massive ship was a menacing craft but stood as a naval base, and training grounds for UN Marines. Day to day duties included search and rescue, arresting black market merchants, immigration and scanning Mars constantly for illegal activity, hidden under the guise of updating maps on the large red planet. Designed and built in space the Challenger was like a large space station. Earth had one also only two were made but they came in handy to keep the peace. The UN’s armada was the largest in history and these two capital ships could have won the old war on their own. They held a solid crew of 20,000, about 10,000 civilians, and could house or be docked by any ship in existence. Both of these behemoths carried enough weaponry to obliterate every planet in the solar system and made Earths government sleep good at night that they had no rival. The long heavily armored Challenger had the shape of an ancient sea going vessel, and at the top sat its bridge that now was picking up an old power signature. A young officer, sitting at a string of monitors wearing headphones, turned to his higher up. “Hey Mackenzie sir I am picking up strange readings near Hayden.” Mackenzie rolled his eyes every new recruit always annoyed him with fouled up readings near Hayden. “Private every person in your position has alerted me to this since I took command twenty three years ago, nothings down there just a large bone yard with lots of old equipment, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had ships from our global war with the Martians. If you alert me about Hayden again I will have you cleaning bathrooms for a week get back to work.” The young officer embarrassed at what had taken on in front of the entire bridge crew quickly turned back to his monitors.

Chapter 5

Heaven’s Tools

Gabriel cupped his coffee in his hands, the warm cup helped keep him alert after the tiny amount of sleep he had the night before. Stake outs screwed your normal schedule and Micheal and himself weren’t getting any younger, this work took its toll. Now they would be stuck questioning all the detainees before they were shipped out to the mountains. This was another vulgar part of their jobs. The Hayden police station was made of solid red brick, and overladen with a thick coat of concrete, no frills but rugged. Micheal was incumbent at his desk, The sturdiness making his thoughts seem pointless. Everything was so immobile its hard to change a world that has decided to establish injustice in order to service justice. As he weighed his hope against the solid walls Gabriel came in to their quaint office. They nodded at each other, and Gabriel positioned his chair facing Micheal and planted his coffee to his right. “Hey Micheal how many we interviewing today?”. Micheal shook his head, “About forty colonials, and two sympathizers they had another sting last night across town around the same time we were doing ours”. Gabriel tried to hide his contempt for his employers. “This is crap they are all kids! How is this even right!”. Micheal butted in “Woh keep those thoughts quiet, we are in the precinct!”.  Well lets get this over with, “ I like that we have to be the bad guys, I didn’t sign up for this”. With out a word they both picked themselves up and left their office for the interrogation room. Gabriel brought his folders with the each of the detainees information. The room wasn’t more than a couple of rooms down from their office with the same depressing concrete except with steel desk instead of wood. Micheal summoned the guard outside to start bringing one in at a time. The interrogation room was empty except for one table and three chairs all made from stainless steel. The Angels sat behind the same side facing the door. After a short wait the first detainee was brought in. Micheal grabbed the first folder, and looked at the pink teen sitting down. Yep the picture matched the person. Micheal read the name back to himself before he spoke to not add any more insult to this teens life. “So Tony Johnson, we need you to explain where, and why you were picked up last night.” The frightened colonial straightened himself with some left over pride, and quietly answered.” Sir you and I both know what’s going on here is unjust. We did nothing more than meet to support each other. I’m no extremist, I just don’t believe in letting things stay the way they are.” Micheal wanted to turn in his badge and walk away he was a battlefield inside, but years of conditioning kicked in and he found the words the terran government wanted him to say. “Mr Johnson that’s not what I asked why do you think going to a small group is going to change Mars? I don’t want to be here Mr Johnson  why do you kids keep coming here and throwing away your futures.” Tony glared at Micheal with hate, “What future are you talking about! I cant make any decent money, own a business, vote on any legislation, and am treated like dirt by any non- colonial. I’m going to share some info with you cops. Everyone in my position has nothing to loose, you will be here everyday interviewing us until we are all gone. You see this color my skin is! This is my fucking planet! Your families didn’t terraform mars mine did its my birth rite.” Gabriel shouted at the guard,” get him out of here!” Gabriel could see his partners face, and didn’t like that kid making Micheal’s job any harder. The rest of the day didn’t go any better young kid after another being tossed into a furnace by them filled both of them with so much guilt it was unbearable. By midday they were bringing in their last detainee, the tall strong Martian sat down with a scowl. “Jackson Dwight, you work at the Bone yard far outside of town is this correct?” Gabriel asked in an exhausted tone. “Yes sir been there for four years.” “Why were you at the group last night?”, Micheal recognized this kid, he was the one riding the white bike! “I founded the group, and I’m the leader you should let the other guys go they were just there to hear what I had to say.” Jack didn’t want any more people to get shipped out to the camps. “Gabriel closed the last folder. Jack could see these guys didn’t want to do this. “Detectives, why do you do this job, only the corrupt can’t see the injustice here.” Micheal called the guard in to grab the detainee but the look the Martian gave him as he left sent chills down his spine. Something had to change and the Angels were done being demons.

Chapter 4

The Kyoto

            Emily stood in front of the five foot tall airlock and looked for a handle to open it.  She pulled off her scarf and rubbed the dirt covered area around the seal-maybe there would be a latch on the outside.  The red dirt had coated the old door, but the more she rubbed the more the design peaked through the sand.  It was circular though it had looked oval shaped when she first saw it.  A rectangular panel was starting to show and as it was only a couple inches from the door, Em started to get excited. Unfortunately, the feeling was short lived-panel was rusted shut.

            “Damn.” 

            Emily pulled a crowbar from the tractor.  After a couple of hits the panel had just enough room in between the hinges to pry on it.  The panel opened with the pop of a carbonated beverage, and inside she saw a pull lever.  She yanked hard on the lever.  An eerie wheezing sound came from the door, and a gust of stale air stirred the red dust violently.   Em couldn’t believe it this thing still held pressure. Hopefully there would be enough air inside to last a week, she thought, though she could always cut some holes if she needed to.  Emily grabbed her gear and climbed into the cramped airlock room just inside the ship. 

            She could stand up inside, barely, and look through the small port window locked into the door in front of her.   It was heavy duty bulkhead door.  She couldn’t see anything but darkness through the  tiny glass circle.  Silently, she gulped down the fear that lodged in her throat-she was determined to get into this ship. She shined her flashlight at the door, the handle was huge and in the green position-it was keeping air pressure in the ship.  Emily put the flashlight in her mouth, and braced her self against the wall to push the handle over to the red position opposite the green.  It effortlessly moved and Em clumsily toppled over in the direction the handle was moving.  Picking herself up, she finished unlocking the handle.

            Emily almost jumped out of her skin as an alarm sounded loudly and the outer door slammed behind her with heavy thud.

            “Holy hell,” Em grabbed her chest.  “There must be some juice still left in these circuits…at least enough to make me crap my pants.  Shit-the plasma cutters out side.” Emily grabbed her flashlight off the ground where she had dropped it and pulled the air lock door open.  She walked into the dark hall way and reached into her bag to pull out the lantern.  A loud sound echoed from far down the hallway and she froze.

            The snapping echoed all through the chamber her and she looked frantically around to find it’s source.  Far away something white moved, heading toward her at breakneck speed, the sounds getting louder as it came closer.   Emily scrambled to get back in the airlock room but as she turned to dive in the door slammed shut in her face.   The door knocked her on her ass in the process of swinging closed, and she now laid across the path of what ever was coming.  With no where to run, she rolled up into a ball and closed her eyes.  The sound traveled over head in a wave and continued through the hallway. Cautiously Emily opened her eyes, still covering her face with her hands.  Above her there was bright white light, undoubtedly switched on by the electronic snapping noise, and she laughed nervously as she let her eyes adjust. 

            Emily took a couple more moments to rest.  Looking around, she saw that she was out of place in the stringently clean compartment.  It all looked surreal, everything was perfect mirror finish white and the hallway was tube shaped with rows of white ribs running the entire length. Her boots had left a trail of red dirt on the brilliant white floors and she leaned against the wall in stark contrast to the interior of the antiseptic ship. She had never been inside a ship like this before, most were rusty or junked wrecks, but this was immaculate.  The main power source was still working, no flickering back up power just a fully operational generator, though there hadn’t been anyone occupying the ship for who knew how long.   Emily was relieved-she could hide in here for awhile if some of the systems were running.  How old was this thing, she thought to herself.  

            As Emily looked around she noticed a large red number seven with a smaller blue L in front of it on the wall above her head.   Level 7-and there had to be at least two more levels above her.  The corridors on both sides extended out of eyesight and she realized that the Kyoto was much bigger than she had thought.

            Emily picked herself up off the ground. She had to find the bridge so she could lock herself in that highly secured compartment.  It didn’t hurt that was also home to the Captain’s Chair.  She loved sitting in those and feeling like she had command.  She tried to sit in the Captain’s Chair of every ship she broke down, though not every ship still had one. 

            The hallway was tall and wide not as claustrophobic as she had expected.  Em went left from the L7 sign, hoping somewhere up ahead she would find a map on the wall. Doors were lined with numbers on the right side all of them starting with seven then two numbers after, many doors on the right and fewer on the left, all numbered in the same pattern. She walked nervously down the corridor.  She still didn’t trust the power and kept her lamp close to her side. After only a couple minutes of walking she could make out a large door with large blue inscription on the center-BRIDGE.  She got in close to the button panel to the right of the door.  She noticed the lit up key panel and realized the bridge was locked with password protection.  It would keep her safe when, if, she could get inside but at the moment she had no clue how to bypass it. 

            Emily turned to the right the closest door to the bridge entrance was a turbo lift.  The button pad had a listing of floors and corresponding one word descriptions for each level’s purpose.  Em thought to herself for a minute.  Maybe she could find a way to get onto the bridge through the lift, with the right  tools.  She scrolled her eyes down the level list, finding the hanger and storage facility on level one-if the right tools were on the ship, they would be in the hanger.  Next to the lift was an access hatch which had a ladder running the length of the lift.   Not about to trust the power long enough to run the lift down six floors, Em emptied her duffel bag of everything except her flashlight and flung it across her back.

            The passage seemed well lit-she could see down all six levels-so Em put her heels out and trusted her gloves to take the heat from sliding. The level markings on the side of the passage flew passed her as she descended and when she neared the first floor and bottom of the shaft Em slowed down, using her feet on the ladder.   Em turned the popped the clips off of the access panel and climbed through into a tiny room. 

            The turbo lift door was beside her and another door with HANGER printed in blue was in front of her.  She was pushed the big button on the large door and with relief watched as it separated into two pieces disappearing into the walls. The hanger was pitch black for a moment, but almost immediately she heard the snap of lights high over head, flipping on in succession down towards the back of the hanger. This was a massive room, it had to be at least four stories tall and almost spanned the entire length of the Kyoto. To her surprise the hanger was definitely not empty. They must have parked right after the tragedy, all the equipment was still here but I guess no one was alive to claim it. From were she was standing was a path between equipment, forklifts, at least four military shuttles, and whole but load of vehicles of some kind covered in protective packaging. They must have been transporting rich Terrans for a new life on Mars. The amazing sight made her completely forget why she had even come down. Em wanted to look at everything it was like an amazing museum were you could touch everything! She made a B line for the shuttle closest to her. Its large oval shape matched to Kyoto’s silhouette, a large sliding door was on each side like a helicopter, and the front was heavily armored with a tiny slit for the flight crew to look through. It was a brilliant white which heavily contrasted with the hangers used and scrapped up floors and walls. The hanger was very utilitarian and had one solid color of silver gun metallic. She opened the shuttle and climbed in through the middle to sit in the cockpit wow this still was in awesome shape, well used but clean. Emily’s excitement made her climb back out and run down the middle of the hanger looking for more to explore. Half way down ohhing and awhhing she noticed a computer terminal built into the wall glowing. I wonder if it has a map of the place on the data banks? Emily dropped her bag on the ground and hurried over. The terminal was built into the wall, with a fold out key board and nineteen inch monitor flush with the frame of the hanger. Emily swung down the keyboard and a menu screen popped up on the display. The screen looked as follows in a blue glow.

—LAMIA X—

—Ship Systems Menu—

Main Systems

Sub Systems

Nav Systems

Ship Schematics

Main Memory

L.O.L.A Systems

Supply Invoices

System Overrides

She typed in Ship Schematics, “maybe this will show what I need to know”. Emily was blown away, by the side view of the ship on the screen this thing is massive! Nine levels two turbo lifts, and enough rooms on board to shelter two hundred people! She tried to look at the other menus but they all needed passwords. Except for the main memory, she clicked on her only other choice than schematics. That selection brought up another list of password protected information she clicked all the links to see if any would allow her to see more.

—MAIN MEMORY—

—Systems Menu—

Back To Systems

Ships Engineering Log

Nav Log

Captains Log

Backup

L.O.L.A Systems Log

Historic Data Bank

Audio Bank

Emily, entered Audio Bank…..

It was just a bunch of files of music, she clicked on a random file, Steve Miller Band/ Keep Rocking Me Baby. The hanger was full of music, and it was loud. Emily was impressed she had never heard this before, must have been older earth music. She headed away from the terminal to explore the rest of the hanger, The next song to burst onto the speakers made her sing along, The Ting Tings/ That’s Not My Name. Emily shook he butt to the on going old hits blasting through the speakers as she toured the un intended museum. There was so much to see, and she loved old equipment, that’s why she enjoyed her job so much. After the line of shuttles, and another grouping of old forklifts she ran into a long row of wrapped and sealed vehicles these must have been someone’s collection they were bringing over. These had to be cars but she didn’t recognize the shapes they made in their covers. Emily couldn’t resist she could count at least twenty in a neat row. She grabbed the cover on the first one and started unwrapping it. It was a difficult chore the car was entombed in at least five layers of self sticking plastic. The shape was becoming more apparent but it still took a total of thirty minutes to unwrap the whole car. By the time she had unwrapped it she had to sit on the ground from the hard work, she was sweating like crazy, and pulled her overalls down and wrapped them around her waist. Emily stood up after a short breather and took along look at her mystery car. She had never seen anything quiet like it. It was a beautiful super bright yellow with two black stripes running over the top of it. It was diffidently old she was no expert but she could see that plainly.  It had a long hood and short back end, it was muscular it looked mean just sitting there. In the windows she could see a lever in the middle with a white ball handle. Emily walked around the back and noticed the insignia. Z-2-8 that’s a funny name. She was exhausted from her inspection and had ignored her tiredness due to all the amazing sights she had seen. Em started to look around for a place she might be able to take a nap. The shuttle had a flat floor and a decent hiding place for now. She moved her way down the row to a shuttle in the middle of the group. Inside she started to remember why she was here. All the questions in her mind, where was Jack, was he ok, and was her family going to be ok, made her feel sick to her stomach again and she cried her self to sleep in the hanger….

Concept for a story I am thinking of a lot lately

The wall grew in size, and scope. With each closer step its massive size truly impressed an unpassable route to the observer. It was only with prior knowledge of this door way that Rick continued. For most this was a barrier, a cage, and the end of their journey before they turned around. Many beaten, lost, and forgotten. Behind Rick was Limit a city of sorts. Like a camp for newcomers. Souls new to infinity couldn’t or wouldn’t fathom the dimensions beyond this one spot. Eons named the city behind him. Most had seen the wall, some stayed against it, most had turned around. The key to entry wasn’t physical it was an acceptance of change. Life was a mystery to those still trapped in their early experiences. Rick was as old as the rest spiritually, but others perceived him as older. Time was a lie they all had to understand, to be of service to Rick. He made constant rounds checking on everyone then headed back through to infinity. Rules were limited but the wall and his rounds were by design to build a thriving society of timelessness. To live forever, to have no limits comes with the loss of growth. Time was a construct of his people to bridge passion and merge it with the infinite. What was the point of the unlimited horizon without a direction to enrich it. Life could be more and his world depended on the most vital traits imagination, motivation, and most importantly empathy.  If one of these was not there or supported by another  darker characteristic, the result was devastation, and disaster. Just imagine having unrestricted trauma passing into the infinite. Heaven could truly turn to hell. Imagination with no empathy, motivation with zero imagination. Luckily empathy being the highest form of intelligence could negate a ton of faults. Empathy is the cornerstone of a strong society. But if empathy was the cake, imagination, and motivation was the frosting and design. This wasn’t a future based off settling, it was a conglomeration of all stars. People in tune could build the most robust beautiful thriving society in a timeless state.