Chapter One: Deep Space Music

[Kunanaki]

Thorchan noticed the quick looks Alan and Kyle gave the blonde scientist. As soon as they had unbuckled their seat belts he grab them by the jacket sleeve and said "Come on Romeos. We got work to do." With that he brought them with him as he followed Alice. The last thing he needed right now, or ever, was a couple of guys fighting over a girl. Especially when they are so pressed for time.

[Akirapryde]

The tech was as cool as a cucumber as he checked to make sure no one was ease dropping on the conversation. His eyes narrowed as he turned to face Eric, “yeah” he said softly and keeping his voice level and low. “Have you noticed that the activities have increased in light of a coming comet?”

Eric didn’t have much experience with deep space research facilities like this one. However based on what was overheard from Professor Angsoft, this coming comet was a really big deal and that the Jumpship had to jump to safety. The way the scientists made it sound, if the Jumpship didn’t jump out of system than it could become crippled. Professor Angsoft also made it sound as if the station was going to be secured during the arrival of the comet.

The man looked around again, “I lot of activity for a facility that is supposed to be getting ready to shut down.” He turned to face Eric once more, “wouldn’t you agree.”

Deep in the station, Alice walked in to her room. Already she had made this tight eight by eight her home away from home. Alice walked over to a work table filled with computer parts and circuit boards. Alice started going through her things and gathered up the cards as she placed them in to a satchel. As Thorchan looked around the small room, he took noticed of a picture of Alice and another man next to her bed. The small silver framed picture was facing the bed. The man in the image was a fair looking man in a tweed coat and a broad smile. In the image, Alice also had a happy smile. The couple were holding up a pair of Champaign glasses as if toasting the person taking the picture.

Alice noticed Thorchan looking at the picture. She moved over to the where Thorchan was standing. She ran her hand over the image, “That is Michael, my fiancée. That picture was taken at our engagement party.”

[vampiremessiah51]

Alan cleared his throat as Thorchan took his attention from the scientist who'd caught his gaze. He quickly slapped a grin on his face as he unbuckled from his flight seat and pulled himself to his feet. "If I'm Romeo I can only assume you're Bottom then?" He chuckles as he stepped down the ramp and into the bustling bay. It occurred to him he'd never yet been inside the station, after all it had been under construction and he had to be near the Dropship mechbay in case anything happened.

It then occurred to him he wasn't actually sure why he was on the station. Presumably to help Alice but he wasn't even sure where she'd gone or why she'd need a full lance of mechwarriors to assist her. Unsure of what else to do until Alice got back, he decided to talk to the scientist who'd caught his eye. Perhaps she'd know more about what was going on, and it never hurt to get a pretty girls name in either case. He walked up behind her and cleared his throat. "Excuse me ma'am, I'm one of the Mechwarriors. I was wondering what I could do to be of help until Captain Thorchan remembers why he brought me here."

[CarcerKango]

Jake breathes in, then out slowly, blowing his unruly hair out of his eyes. He unstraps himself from the pilot's seat finally and climbs out of the shuttle, his helmet tucked under one arm. He's not sure what to do now, so he contents himself with taking a look around the exterior of the shuttle, making sure everything's still in order.

[RogueBonnie]

Unstrapping herself, Lyona gets up out of her seat and walks to the back of the shuttle. Readjusting her tool belt to be more comfortable around her waist she heads down the ramp to look around bay. The only thing on her mind right now is the sounds on the tape that Alice gave her. She has heard that sound so many times in the past. So many friends lost. The tone rings in her head as she leans up against the landing strut.

"What am I missing," she mutters to herself.

[Akirapryde]

Work continued throughout the massive landing bay as Jake walked around the Mark VII. On the far side of the bay, a group of deck hands were securing several shipping containers. Scientists continued their work as if under pressure to get their tasks completed. There was something in the air, something that caused a degree of tension between the scientists and the facility workers.

As Lyona walked around with her noteputer gripped tightly in her hands. A cord stretched up to her headphones. Her fingers worked through the controls of her noteputer filtering the sounds being pumped in to her ears. Her eyes crossed over the bay as she flipped through the different filters.

As Jake walked around the Mark VII, there was something strange on the starboard wing. As Lyona walked past him, Jake observed a strange patch of rust under the wing. It was if this section of the wing was a poorly repaired patch with substandard material. But Jake knew that this section of the wing was never damaged and because of that, never repaired. The rust appeared to only on the surface of the craft, but it would clearly have to be examined much deeper once their mission was over.

Lyona walked up behind Jake as she flipped through the filters. Her eyes might have been wondering the scene of the landing bay, her ears were filled with sounds. Strange distorted sounds……’music?’ she thought as her fingers flipped between a few filters. …..sounds of song…..she could almost hear the guitar. Then there was a female voice. It wasn’t English. That much Lyona was sure of. “Quand les feuilles tombent, Dans les rues sombres” the soft female voice sang. Lyona’s fingers moved quickly through the filters till she zeroed in on more of the woman’s words, “Tout tourne court, Et tout s'teint”

She came to a stop and closed her eyes as she flipped between filters trying to zero in on the sounds. It was if they were trapped in a wave or something. Something was interfering with the recording or the data within the recording. She couldn’t explain it, but then there was a moment when the sound was clear. Her eyes shot open as she could even hear the clapping to the beat from the backup vocals.

“De mensonges et de torts, c'est en somme,
cause, cause de l'automne,”

Before she had a chance to think clearly over what she heard, the entire station shook as if a child had swatted it. Large stacked containers fell from where they were store. Deck hands almost lost their balance. Lyona stumbled but was caught by the timely response from Jake. Across the station, everyone felt the shuttering. It was enough to trigger alarms and sounds of panic by both the scientists and the crew of the station.

For Lyona, the shutter that the station felt was in prefect unison when the music clear up. Once the shuttering ended, the music became nearly impossible to distinguish once more.

The party’s communications came alive. The stretchy voice on the other end was of Julian Rothbauer. In the back ground was the abandon ship siren of the Schicksal. “Captain, we ruptured a fuel cell. I have crews working on it. Because of the danger, I have ordered us to disconnect from the Jumpship. We will maintain a safe distance from the Jumpship till we can secure the fuel leak.”

[aipsylon]

Eric did not agree, but he kept that to himself. The man has said a lot but basically nothing. Still he could ignore the useless data later the man had singled him out for some reason. This meant his cover could be compromised. That at least was useful information. "Things are shutting down people are trying to finish their tasks before it does. Simplest solution and all. Look you have any idea what they are doing here that is time sensitive?"

His conversation with the jump ship went ahead he looked to the others in the bay busy, securing things for some reason. Then the whole ship shook he tried to brace himself but found a grunt escaping him as he was tossed into the creates. The alarm was blaring.

Eric quickly glanced around the room looking for one person to another. The scientists were working with more fervent intent now than ever. That had not been his experience in the past. He scanned the room again taking note of where people stood.

Then his microbead came alive. Listening to the message he looked across the faces of the scientists as he made his way toward his captain.

[Kunanaki]

As Thorchan continued to look at the picture and said "Cute couple. So when are yall ..." Before he could finish the sentence the room shock back and forth. Alice fell in his arms and he took that moment to grab her with one arm and her bag with the other and said “Opps, times up little girl.” He ran out the door and down the hallway heading back to the shuttle. He heard the transmission and shouted out “Roger that.” Afterwards he realized that he had said that to the air since he doesn’t have a free arm to respond to the mic.

[Akirapryde]

As Eric and the deckhand continued to speak softly, it was clear to Eric that the man picked up on Eric’s skepticism. The noted this about the conversation nodded, “I can’t figure out why these guys are rushing around with their heads cut off. It’s like they got something big going on. Something really big. Most of them only know bits and pieces of the big picture. My partner,” he said motioning to the hot blond in the white lab coat that had caught the party’s attention earlier, “and I learned that much. Those that know the whole picture, the inner circle, aren’t talking about it openly.”

His eyes narrowed as he was still a bit unsure if Eric was buying what he was saying. “I know one thing. It has nothing to do with Fleet X” he whispered with a smile. “Got your attention now, do I? Aye, we know about that too. The good professor promised the fleet to us as well” he said then paused to look around to make sure that no one was within ear shot.

His eyes returned to Eric’s “I have to admit all the professor’s evidence was quite convincing. So much so that our own military demanded that the good professor be supported regardless of the cost.” Before he had a chance to continue, the entire bay shook as if an earthquake just occurred. “Bloody hell!” he mumbled attempting to hold on to something. “The worse one yet.”

Down in the crew quarter section of the massive station, Captain Thorchan pulled Alice behind him while the other two members of the crew followed. “Wait!” Alice cried out. “It’s just a gravity quake” she added. Before she had a chance to finish an older woman dressed in a white lab coat rushed around the corner calling out Alice’s name.

“Good, I found you.” The older woman said. In her hand was a tablet with a bunch of information on it. From what Captain Thorchan could tell, they were some kind of astronomical equations. However, it was some pretty advance equations. This was clearly not your normal hyperspace jump equations. What else Captain Thorchan could see was a clock that was counting down to something. Before Captain Thorchan could get a good look at it, the woman slid her hand over the screen and it turned black.

The woman’s name tag read Professor Paternoster. She tried to paint a smile on her face as she attempted to cover up the concern on her face. There was clearly something urgent going on. “Alice, you need to get back to the ark and complete your work.”

Alice seemed confused at the focus on the Ark, “Professor Paternoster. That was the largest gravity quake I have felt. Are you sure it’s safe?”

Professor Paternoster rested a hand on Alice’s shoulder, “its wonderful Alice. Its Phoenix, Phoenix is rising.”

Alice appeared even more confused, “what do you mean Phoenix is rising?” It was clear that Alice had no idea what was being talked about.

“Professor Angsoft hasn’t spoken to you yet?” Professor Paternoster stated with surprise in her voice. She noted the building unspoken questions from the three mercs. “There isn’t time” she directed her statement towards Alice, then stepped back and faced Captain Thorchan, “Captain, it would appear that your unit’s experience will be required. Long range sensors have picked up an unidentified ship approaching our position. We have not been able to establish communications with this ship” she briefed.

As she spoke gone was the hint of surprise. Her voice now was level and measured as she issued her information to Captain Thorchan, “we need you and your unit to escort Professor Underwood back to the ark. Make sure that she gets there. Once she has been delivered safely, go ahead and get ready for combat. We need to make sure you and your unit are ready, just in case we need your unit to defend the ark from this raiding ship.”

[aipsylon]

Eric listened a bit more as the man confirmed that he was here on a covert mission certainly, and with a partner no less it seemed the two of them had done a fair bit of work here, at the periphery of the project. As the station shook Eric nodded. "Thank you."

Seeing the scientists working harder. He glanced at what they were doing trying to gather where their focus was based on the tasks they were doing. The captain must not be in to much of a hurry because he had not yet called for the evacuation.