projectiles closing in from the rear. She had never prayed in her entire life , but she considered it now. If the warhead was guided, then any course correction she made would be useless because it would just chase her tail. Maybe she could outrun it? There was no way to know what she was up against until she saw it for herself, and by then it might be too late.
Then the computer suddenly said, "I have spotted a nuclear device approaching at twice our speed."
She gasped and told the computer to show it on the monitor.
But when she saw it she breathed a sigh of relief. It was way off target now that she'd altered their course.
Her sense of relief didn't last long. The projectile noiselessly exploded and a few minutes later the shockwave rocked the ship.
Luckily , the impact wasn't so drastic that the sirens went off or the colonists got revived. But it meant she had to make additional course corrections just to get the ship to head nose first again. She was doubly thankful that the electromagnetic pulse wasn’t strong enough to affect the ship’s electrical components.
She called ground control and told them what had happened. Then she gave her bearings. Moments later they came back with a new heading based on her current position. They set her up with a new secure channel , but it would be useless soon because she’d be out of communications range before long.
It was nerve racking , but it was over now.
She leaned back in her chair and took in a deep lungful of air.
She deleted the files the saboteur Greg had sent her, but she regretted it immediately. What if the files were legit? Emma's was spot on and so was Jack's. That could mean that the files on Jane and Michael were authentic too. If the files were real, then a stone cold killer was in their midst. But could she trust files that came from a man who’d tried to destroy their ship?
Maybe.
The addition of Michael to the crew could mean only one thing: the testers had been desperate.
She checked the clock, saw that she still had half an hour before she could safely go back into stasis, said, “Who cares,” and got back in her pod anyway.
She was exhausted and she dearly missed the sweet bliss of nothingness that stasis provided. She attached the IV’s and waited for the cold to steal the passage of time from her.
Michael
Her heart was hammering a hole out of her chest. She had to consciously slow it down with deep breaths. She pulled the IV’s loose and sat up. She looked at the large clock above the command controls. When she read off how much time had expired she was perplexed. It had been just a hundred and twelve years since she’d gone to sleep.
She crawled out of the pod and mumbled, “Why do I keep getting woken up ahead of schedule?”
The tinny but masculine voice of the computer issued over the loud speaker : “There was a problem with your vitals. I will monitor your signs while you wait to go back into stasis.”
She shivered as she thawed. “How can you read vital signs while I’m in stasis? Everything stops during the freeze.”
“I ran a scan on you when I noticed you were going back in ahead of schedule. There’s nothing to be concerned about, but if I’d left you in stasis for the entire four thousand years you would have died upon revival.”
“ Okay. Thank you, I guess. Next time I’m about to do something dumb, like go into stasis too soon, just warn me not to do it. Let me know when the three hours are up so I can get back in.”
“You’ll need to remain active for six hours to undo the damage already done.”
“God dammit! Fine.”
“I was forced to wake Mr. Stevens as well. His pod had a hydraulic malfunction that needed to be fixed.”
“Shit. Where is Michael Stevens right now?”
“He’s repairing his stasis pod below deck.”
She put her clothes on in a hurry. The exploding nuclear warhead was quickly becoming a distant memory. That was because there was an imminent threat here and now:
Then the computer suddenly said, "I have spotted a nuclear device approaching at twice our speed."
She gasped and told the computer to show it on the monitor.
But when she saw it she breathed a sigh of relief. It was way off target now that she'd altered their course.
Her sense of relief didn't last long. The projectile noiselessly exploded and a few minutes later the shockwave rocked the ship.
Luckily , the impact wasn't so drastic that the sirens went off or the colonists got revived. But it meant she had to make additional course corrections just to get the ship to head nose first again. She was doubly thankful that the electromagnetic pulse wasn’t strong enough to affect the ship’s electrical components.
She called ground control and told them what had happened. Then she gave her bearings. Moments later they came back with a new heading based on her current position. They set her up with a new secure channel , but it would be useless soon because she’d be out of communications range before long.
It was nerve racking , but it was over now.
She leaned back in her chair and took in a deep lungful of air.
She deleted the files the saboteur Greg had sent her, but she regretted it immediately. What if the files were legit? Emma's was spot on and so was Jack's. That could mean that the files on Jane and Michael were authentic too. If the files were real, then a stone cold killer was in their midst. But could she trust files that came from a man who’d tried to destroy their ship?
Maybe.
The addition of Michael to the crew could mean only one thing: the testers had been desperate.
She checked the clock, saw that she still had half an hour before she could safely go back into stasis, said, “Who cares,” and got back in her pod anyway.
She was exhausted and she dearly missed the sweet bliss of nothingness that stasis provided. She attached the IV’s and waited for the cold to steal the passage of time from her.
Michael
Her heart was hammering a hole out of her chest. She had to consciously slow it down with deep breaths. She pulled the IV’s loose and sat up. She looked at the large clock above the command controls. When she read off how much time had expired she was perplexed. It had been just a hundred and twelve years since she’d gone to sleep.
She crawled out of the pod and mumbled, “Why do I keep getting woken up ahead of schedule?”
The tinny but masculine voice of the computer issued over the loud speaker : “There was a problem with your vitals. I will monitor your signs while you wait to go back into stasis.”
She shivered as she thawed. “How can you read vital signs while I’m in stasis? Everything stops during the freeze.”
“I ran a scan on you when I noticed you were going back in ahead of schedule. There’s nothing to be concerned about, but if I’d left you in stasis for the entire four thousand years you would have died upon revival.”
“ Okay. Thank you, I guess. Next time I’m about to do something dumb, like go into stasis too soon, just warn me not to do it. Let me know when the three hours are up so I can get back in.”
“You’ll need to remain active for six hours to undo the damage already done.”
“God dammit! Fine.”
“I was forced to wake Mr. Stevens as well. His pod had a hydraulic malfunction that needed to be fixed.”
“Shit. Where is Michael Stevens right now?”
“He’s repairing his stasis pod below deck.”
She put her clothes on in a hurry. The exploding nuclear warhead was quickly becoming a distant memory. That was because there was an imminent threat here and now:
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