Dark Space

[BlackBishop]

Written By
~*~
Bishop
Dadarian
Maelvona
Amoeba
Noco
Jee
Aedan
Jawa
Carol
Disciple

Table of Contents

Chapter One . . . . . Awake



Appendices

Crew Roster

​

 

[BlackBishop]

Chapter One
AWAKE
​

From the infinite void it appeared, a looming shape that blotted out the twinkling stars beyond. The hulking mass of metal was propelled ever forward by the combustion of a bright blue flame that gave the appearance of a meteor blazing through the heavens. Etched upon its blackened steel hull read the words The Ark. It was to be the vehicle of their salvation. It will be their doom.

Within the ship, far removed from slumbering colonists fated to restore humanity, blissfully unaware of the unfolding nightmare taking place outside their dreamless sleep, alarms blared. Sirens of disaster echoed down the dark corridors of the steel labyrinth all the way to the front of the vessel, where the cryogenic pods of the flight crew began to glow with a residual heat, thawing the occupants within.

Upon releasing a vat of steam, the pods cracked at their seal, releasing a gush of cryogenic fluid to proceed their occupant. One by one, the crew of the Ark were birthed from the pods, spewed out to lay trembling as a fetus, their minds slowly becoming conscious of their surroundings, the hazy memories their former lives being remembered piece by piece.

The tranquility of a dreamless sleep robbed of them, they were now awakened to face their nightmare.

In their sluggish state, the crew would turn to the ship's on board artificial intelligence, a virtual being named Mother, whether out of affection or cold irony. When prompted, a holographic display would emit from the forearms of the crew, providing little comfort to their confusion.

Spoiler: SITREP

ATTENTION!
* * * * * * *

MOTHER is offline. Auxiliary subroutines have been activated.

Crew Cryo pods 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 have malfunctioned and are sealed. The remaining 15 crew members have undergone waking procedures.

Diagnostic scans indicate you are suffering from cryogenic sickness.
Symptoms may include; memory loss, dizziness, fever, nausea, temporary blindness

Administering medical treatment. You will feel abdominal pressure...


SITREP
* * * *

MOTHER is offline and operating on auxiliary subroutines. Captain Bischoff and other crewmen cyro pods have malfunctioned, and as result, opening procedures have been suspended. Commander Sevchenko is ranking officer on deck.

ARK primary systems are offline, and operating on backup power.
Main power must be restored manually in order to return primary functionality to the ARK.
Report to engineering to reboot primary systems.

Hatchway to the main lift is malfunctioning and crew are currently sealed on the Flight Deck.

Uploading flight deck schematics to crew PDA.

Spoiler: SITREP

 

[Another Amoeba]

Dr. Stone let himself fall forward, catching himself on his hands and knees as he struggled to control his breathing. Ignore the headache, ignore the nausea. Breath in, and breath out. Again.

He couldn't say how long he lay there staring into the dull grey floor, but the symptoms eventually subsided. He reached out, fishing for a handhold he found above him and to his left, and began to pull himself up. He moved slowly and methodically, testing his muscles for atrophy and strain as he did. He was holding up well, all things considered. Weakness was fading fast.

The doctor pulled up the SITREP.

Crew Cryo pods 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 have malfunctioned and are sealed. The remaining 15 crew members have undergone waking procedures.

Click to shrink...

Damn. There goes a third of the crew. He let out a low whistle. He'd known surviving extended cryosleep had been a gamble, but this was bad. They could be out thousands of colonists already if their pods just as prone to failure.

Charles didn't let himself dwell. Symptoms normal, treatment effective. He'd been briefed extensively on the wake-up process what felt like a few weeks ago, though Dr. Stone doubted he'd be able to look out a window and see the sun staring back at him. Welcome to interstellar travel.

He got to work on some basic stretches, feeling a sudden urge for a long shower and a hearty breakfast. He doubted he would be so lucky. The lieutenant wiped off as much cryogenic fluid as possible before setting out for a small storage compartment stuffed between the pods. From it, he produced a bland-looking security jumpsuit and began dressing himself, waiting for the rest of his team to become cognizant of their surroundings.

 

[KnightDisciple]

Chief Engineer Zoric

Alex coughed, clearing the last of the cryo-sleep fluid from his throat, before taking several deep, slightly shuddering breaths. He pushed himself to his hands and knees, trying to absorb the slightly scattershot information dump they'd received upon awakening. He blinked, his eyes finally focusing properly, and moved to stand, slowly and carefully. He saw Dr. Stone stretching, and spent a few moments copying him before he lurched to the locker by his pod. Palming the access plate, he used a handily-placed towel to dry his hands and face. The locker had opened itself by the time he was done, and his Augmented Reality glasses and Toughpad (TM) were retrieved.

He tried to speak, could only produce a cough, and then tried again.

"Mother-" *slight cough* "-perform dump of error logs to my pad, backdated to last full online timestamp, before auxiliaries were engaged. Engage soft-boot procedure to attempt restore."

He was typing in his pad as he spoke, leaning heavily against his now-empty pod. He glanced at the others present.

"I don't want to try engaging the lift until we have a full systems diagnostic. Mother, dump current system status schematic to my pad, please."

He typed for a few more moments before speaking again.

"It's going to be tedious but the maintenance shafts are our best bet. We had to have a couple installed just to get at all the cables and ducts shoved behind the walls. They run parallel to the lift shaft. Once we're not all about to fall over puking I need to head down there."

He looked at Dr. Stone specifically as he spoke next.

"I'd appreciate an escort. I don't think anything is that wrong, but this is not normal system behavior, and extra hands would be good."

 

[Jeeshadow]

Chief Navigator Hartman

Hartman laid there for a moment. Clearly things were not going according to plan. She managed to focus enough to hear Zoric and Stone's plans.

"Lieutenants, wait for orders from the Commander. We are in a crisis situation and we need to coordinate a plan."

She then turned to her display on her arm,

"Mother, is there life support within the entire ship and are internal comms online?"

While she waited or the system to possibly be functional enough to answer her questions she turned to the XO,

"Commander, perhaps one or two of us should make our way to the bridge, that way we can get a more immediate situation report when power is restored."

 

[Carol]

Dr. Aris​

The shock of the sudden ejection, from a seemly eternal void of darkness, forced Aris to remain prone on the ground at the start. It was a new experience for her. The pain, the nausea, and the sense of helplessness. 'Remember why you're here,' she had to think before the medical treatment patched up her body. 'You gave up everything to explore the great unknown. Do not die before being able to do so.' Thus, with tremendous will, she forced her body up to a sitting position -- the wall to her back providing additional support. She had to crash twice before succeeding. It was far too brutish for her normal self but, given the circumstances, it had to be done. The flood of further information from Stone, Alex, Hartman, and Mother did not help ease her annoyance.

"I agree with Madame Hartman," she said, her accent coming through hard in the haze of confusion. "Separating ourselves like headless chickens without a formal command structure is the least helpful action to undertake. I would estimate our chances at survival to decrease by a third if we did so. But I must remind the good madame that the hatchway to the main lift is malfunctioning. We are effectively stuck at the flight deck until the problem is fixed." She turned to face Sevchanko. "Commander, if you wish to reach the bridge through the main lift, I would recommend Lieutenant Zoric to continue what he was doing as it is his area of expertise."

 

[BlackBishop]

"Mother-" *slight cough* "-perform dump of error logs to my pad, backdated to last full online timestamp, before auxiliaries were engaged. Engage soft-boot procedure to attempt restore."

He was typing in his pad as he spoke, leaning heavily against his now-empty pod. He glanced at the others present.

"I don't want to try engaging the lift until we have a full systems diagnostic. Mother, dump current system status schematic to my pad, please."

Click to shrink...

A chime sounded from the forearm of the chief engineer, echoing above the laboured groans of the waking crew.

ERROR!
******
Memory corruption detected. Data Lost.
Attempting to reboot. Please standby...

Reboot failed. Please report to Engineering to restore full AI functionality.

SYSTEM STATUS
******
Power - Main power is offline. Auxiliary power engaged.

Life Support - Life support on the Flight Deck is operational. Life support systems on all other decks has been suspended.

Communications - External and Internal Ship Comms is offline due to insufficient power. Please reroute power from another system to secure comms.

Engines - FTL and Impulse drives are offline.

Navigation - Sensors are offline. Navigation controls are operational. Nostra Recon Ship is operational.

Col. Cryo - ERROR! Communication error. Cryo status unknown.

Flt. Cryo - ERROR! 9 cryopods have malfunctioned. waking procedures suspended. ALERT! No life signs detected from pod #01|Bischoff!

Report to Engineering to restore power and system functionality. Use of the Flight Deck's envirosuits is recommended.

"Mother, is there life support within the entire ship and are internal comms online?"

Click to shrink...

Internal communications and life support beyond the flight deck have been suspended due to loss of power. Please report to engineering to restore power.

 

[Jeeshadow]

Hartman got up and turned to face the Commander,

"Sir, since Engineering has no life support, I suggest we secure Vac Suits. We may also wish to send a team to the Recon Ship to conduct a visual inspection of the hull. Its sensors may also be able to tell us more about our current situation."

 

[Aedan777]

Dmitri Sevchanko was taking some time to adjust himself to the new reality which greeted him. He had never quite fully appreciated that he had become second in command of the Ark mission, feeling his skills had been more focused towards issues of mechanical repairs and maintenance. And now not only was he in charge during this crisis situation, but the obvious implication from Mother's report was that Captain Bischoff had died, making Sevchanko's new command a permanent one, at least for the duration of the mission.

As personally concerning though that was, there were obviously bigger problems that needed to be dealt with. The power was down, and that needed to be resolved first and foremost, auxiliary power could only last so long for a ship of this size.

"Lieutenant Zoric has the right idea, Engineering needs to be restored to functionality. He and Lieutenant Stone, each accompanied by one of their subordinates, should put on envirosuits as Lieutenant Commander Hartman suggests and then make their way to engineering. Something is clearly wrong, you may need the extra hands.

As for your other suggestion Hartman, I agree that a visual inspection of the hull could be useful in this situation. Take what crewmen you need to operate the Nostra and begin inspection."

 

[KnightDisciple]

Chief Engineer Zoric

Alex managed not to swear at the system status reports, but it was a near thing. At the report of the Captain's apparent fate, he did close his eyes and mutter a quick prayer. He opened them to the Acting Captain giving out initial orders.

"Mother, initiate official transfer of Captain's access levels to Commander Sevchanko. Chief Engineer authorization."

He typed a multi-character code into his datapad, then set it down and began to towel himself off and pull on a jumpsuit. No point getting something heavier on if he was going to be putting on a vacsuit in a minute.

"Extend Chief Engineer access levels to Chief Science Officer Aris and Chief Navigator Hartman."

He grabbed a toolbelt and strapped it around his waist, and gestured to one of his subordinates to go prep the vac suits.

"Priority one will be life support, followed by trying to get Mother operational. Failing that, I'm going to prioritize Power and Sensors, followed by Impulse drives. I'm not touching our FTL drives until everything else is at at least 75%. We need to breath, stay warm, see where we are, try not to run into things, and have our ship respond at the level it was designed to, in roughly that order."

Alex looked at the Commander, an eyebrow raised.

"Do you agree, Commander, or is there a different preference on order of operations?"

 

[Jeeshadow]

Dmitri Sevchanko was taking some time to adjust himself to the new reality which greeted him. He had never quite fully appreciated that he had become second in command of the Ark mission, feeling his skills had been more focused towards issues of mechanical repairs and maintenance. And now not only was he in charge during this crisis situation, but the obvious implication from Mother's report was that Captain Bischoff had died, making Sevchanko's new command a permanent one, at least for the duration of the mission.

As personally concerning though that was, there were obviously bigger problems that needed to be dealt with. The power was down, and that needed to be resolved first and foremost, auxiliary power could only last so long for a ship of this size.

"Lieutenant Zoric has the right idea, Engineering needs to be restored to functionality. He and Lieutenant Stone, each accompanied by one of their subordinates, should put on envirosuits as Lieutenant Commander Hartman suggests and then make their way to engineering. Something is clearly wrong, you may need the extra hands.

As for your other suggestion Hartman, I agree that a visual inspection of the hull could be useful in this situation. Take what crewmen you need to operate the Nostra and begin inspection."

Click to shrink...

Hartman gave a quick salute,

"Aye sir,
Ensign Wallace you will be copilot, secure us three vac suits. Lieutenant Zoric, do you have an engineer to spare to send with me? I feel they would be better suited to carry out the visual inspection."

 

[Aedan777]

Commander Sevchanko was hardly thrilled about having the authority of his deceased superior pass to him, but he supposed it needed to be done.

"That list of priorities seems prudent Lieutenant Zoric. The sole change I see as desirable would be lowering the priority for Mother. That unreliable AI couldn't keep us out of this situation to begin with, so other systems should come first.

In the mean time I'll be going to the Bridge, to prepare for the restoration of power."

 

[Another Amoeba]

Dmitri Sevchanko was taking some time to adjust himself to the new reality which greeted him. He had never quite fully appreciated that he had become second in command of the Ark mission, feeling his skills had been more focused towards issues of mechanical repairs and maintenance. And now not only was he in charge during this crisis situation, but the obvious implication from Mother's report was that Captain Bischoff had died, making Sevchanko's new command a permanent one, at least for the duration of the mission.

As personally concerning though that was, there were obviously bigger problems that needed to be dealt with. The power was down, and that needed to be resolved first and foremost, auxiliary power could only last so long for a ship of this size.

"Lieutenant Zoric has the right idea, Engineering needs to be restored to functionality. He and Lieutenant Stone, each accompanied by one of their subordinates, should put on envirosuits as Lieutenant Commander Hartman suggests and then make their way to engineering. Something is clearly wrong, you may need the extra hands.

As for your other suggestion Hartman, I agree that a visual inspection of the hull could be useful in this situation. Take what crewmen you need to operate the Nostra and begin inspection."

Click to shrink...

Chief Engineer Zoric

Alex managed not to swear at the system status reports, but it was a near thing. At the report of the Captain's apparent fate, he did close his eyes and mutter a quick prayer. He opened them to the Acting Captain giving out initial orders.

"Mother, initiate official transfer of Captain's access levels to Commander Sevchanko. Chief Engineer authorization."

He typed a multi-character code into his datapad, then set it down and began to towel himself off and pull on a jumpsuit. No point getting something heavier on if he was going to be putting on a vacsuit in a minute.

"Extend Chief Engineer access levels to Chief Science Officer Aris and Chief Navigator Hartman."

He grabbed a toolbelt and strapped it around his waist, and gestured to one of his subordinates to go prep the vac suits.

"Priority one will be life support, followed by trying to get Mother operational. Failing that, I'm going to prioritize Power and Sensors, followed by Impulse drives. I'm not touching our FTL drives until everything else is at at least 75%. We need to breath, stay warm, see where we are, try not to run into things, and have our ship respond at the level it was designed to, in roughly that order."

Alex looked at the Commander, an eyebrow raised.

"Do you agree, Commander, or is there a different preference on order of operations?"

Click to shrink...

Lieutenant Stone glanced at his security crew, quickly identifying the soldier whose recovery was the most complete, "Ensgn Yumato! You're coming with. Get yourself suited up, and grab two sets of Intra-Ark Security gear for us. I'll follow in a minute."

He returned to the locker, grabbing a ruggedized communicator from its storage compartment, and giving its screen an experimental flick on and off, "Mother, download all records of any notable anomalies you've observed since we entered cryosleep, as well as the records for any actions you took in response to any anomalies since then, onto this device in reverse chronological order. Alert me to all status changes to or activations of any of your systems from now until I countermand this order."

He turned to Commander Sevchanko, "Once my second in command, Lieutenant," he snapped his fingers in thought. The man wasn't from his unit, "Longwell wakes up, I'd recommend you have him run a thorough security rundown in my stead, especially if you reach the bridge before I do." He held up the communicator, "I'll keep in touch."

 

[Carol]

Dr. Aris​

"Times like these are why I smoke," Aris muttered. Her legs still felt weak and she was not about to embarrass herself again by attempting to stand up. Not without help at the very least. "Martinez," she called out to her assistant -- a very young, very capable researcher. "Be a dear and help me up, please." Even more than that, however, he was a damn fine helper. She would think on her feet later. As of now, she waited to be pulled up.

 

[Noco]

Dr. Fawwaz Dinabi​

Without grace, Dr. Dinabi exited cryosleep with all due symptoms. Naseuated, disoriented, and flooded by the rapid working of his younger peers, he doubled over coughing as the others readied themselves to address the Ark's power crisis. His vision recovered and he looked now to see not every pod had been opened. He recovered and stood now, looking haggard beyond haggard, and not simply for his physical status. The apparent issues with the Ark weighed on him heavily: were the general population pods safe?

Catching Sevchanko's eye, he nodded.

"Commander."

He shuddered as he coughed once more.

"I'll accompany you to the Bridge, barring anything else you think more prudent. I am afraid my expertise is reliant on knowing the state of our fellow crewmembers, for now."

 

[BlackBishop]

Dr. Aris​

"Times like these are why I smoke," Aris muttered. Her legs still felt weak and she was not about to embarrass herself again by attempting to stand up. Not without help at the very least. "Martinez," she called out to her assistant -- a very young, very capable researcher. "Be a dear and help me up, please." Even more than that, however, he was a damn fine helper. She would think on her feet later. As of now, she waited to be pulled up.

Click to shrink...

The voice of Doctor Aris echoed in the ears of Martinez as he attempted to expel the symptoms of cryosickness from his body, culminating in a gut wrenching shudder that emptied the contents of his stomach onto the grated steel floor. Wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist, he rose from his knees, using anything he could grip to steady his balance and pull himself toward his superior. His route was cut short with his attention drawn to one of the cryotubes. Using his bile covered wrist, he attempted to clear off the frosty haze of the glass, disbelieving of his own eyes.

At last, Martinez broke his concentrated stare and joined Doctor Aris, helping to pull her to her feet with great effort. His voice came sour and laced with the odor of vomit...

"The captain's cryo, Doctor... It's empty."

 

[Jeeshadow]

Hartman sighed to herself for forgetting to check the Captain's pod. Cryo sickness was always a pain. Limping over the communicator cabinet she pulled one out,

"Captain come in. Captain, this is Lieutenant Commander Hartman, please come in."

There would be nothing but static for several minutes before she shut it off.

"Guess he isn't on the flight deck," Hartman would mutter to herself.

 

[Carol]

Dr. Aris​

The implication of the empty cryopod was not lost to Aris. "Merde," the doctor cursed. "He must have been released at an earlier date than us. But, why?" The bile in her mouth rose with every second. Her thoughts went towards darker and darker places -- stopped only the small assure that they were mere conjecture. For the moment, at least. "Mother," she said, the words coming out at a rapid pace. "Report the most recent footage of Captain Bischoff aboard the Arc."

 

[Another Amoeba]

Lieutenant Stone ​

Dr. Stone instantly became aware of two facts. First, for an unknown length of time, the Captain was either dead or acting without any of his Chief Officers' advice. That had to violate protocol. Second, he didn't have a gun right now and he really wanted one. That deserved to violate protocol. Charles hoped whichever lab tech had decided against sealing him up with one was having a fun time back on Earth.

The lieutenant turned his thoughts to the present. He had met far too many people in his life who thought humankind deserved to go down with the planet to give Bischoff the benefit of the doubt. His money was on sabotage.

"Security, would you be so kind as to stop expelling your guts like you're frat boys studying hangovers firsthand?" He helped Ensign Walker to her feet, gave her a clap on the shoulder, and sent her off to fetch a uniform, "And when you all decide to humor me, I'll need Ensign Walker and Lieutenant Longwell to lead a sweep of this level, please and thank you."

 

[Aedan777]

Commander Sevchanko was mentally kicking himself for having taken the AI's report at its face value. Of course it was untrustworthy and unreliable, but he'd let himself fall for its word even when he could have personally confirmed it in the same room. He blamed the cryo-sickness for dulling his senses.

"Well this confirms that Mother can't be trusted. It said that the Captain's pod had malfunctioned and couldn't open, but clearly it had been opened at some point. No one take any report or sitrep from Mother as absolute truth, verify it yourself. Furthermore if anyone finds Captain Bischoff, or information about where he is or what happened to him, inform me immediately. Mother claimed I was the ranking officer, which implies the Captain is dead, but as I stated we cannot trust Mother, he might be alive. Keep your eyes peeled everybody, and remain safe, something very wrong is going on here."

 

[KnightDisciple]

Chief Engineer Zoric

Alex frowned deeply.

"Commander, respectfully, while I would agree we should double and triple check all computer reports, as of right now our ship's computer is not sufficiently responsive to be considered actively untrustworthy. Mother's operating at a level comparable to centuries-old non-AI systems. I'm still going over the system logs but this is not the work of some kind of malicious AI."

He tucked his Toughpad into a sturdy "holster" on his belt.

"Our ship barely has life support, has no sensors, and the primary computer system is self-reporting corrupted memory and data loss. Until I'm able to visually verify the state of the system, this could easily be sabotage or even a meteor strike. We don't know. So please, before the entire command staff starts plotting to tear out the system that keeps this Ark running as a cohesive system without dozens of times the staffing we have available right now, please try to reign in your active paranoia."

He turned to one of the Engineering staff who was also awake, albeit a bit less than he was.

"Lt. Abrhams, go with the team in the Nostra. I want your eyes on the ship's hull."

He turned to the other awakened staff.

"Johnson, you go with the team headed to the command deck. Yivlov, Juarez, you stay here as backup for the teams moving to the other decks."

As he'd given these orders, Alex had gone over to the vac suits and started the work of getting everything but his jumpsuit off, then getting the suit on. His tools would get hooked on over top, and he'd put his AR glasses into a special slot at the bottom of the helmet, so they could feet his helmet's HUD.

"My point a moment ago, Commander, was primarily that before we make absolute declarations about which systems on our ship we can or cannot trust, we have to evaluate our situation. Which is what I intend to do."

 

[Space Jawa]

Lt. Longwell (Cryo Pods)​

Of all the possible symptoms of Cryosickness that Lt. Longwell could have suffered, it seemed as though he had the severe misfortune of being subject to all of them. He practically fell out of his pod once it finished opening. In spite of the official treatment, he was still slow to recover, and it took a few moments before he was able to pick himself up off the floor and out of the cryo fluid that had pooled there. By the time he reached his feet, his stomach heaved what little it contained, which kept him from fully standing just a little bit longer.

His memory was the first thing to return, and most the other symptoms dissipated shortly after. His eyesight was the last thing to return, and while it was clear that it was returning, it wasn't nearly as fast a process as would have been preferred. Or, for that matter, Ryan was sure was normal.

All the same, Ryan forced himself to his feet the moment he could stand and his vision was good enough that he could move without worrying about tripping over something or running into a wall. He continued until he spotted a human form, though like much around it, it was fuzzy and impossible to make out who.

"Sorry I'm late." He said. "It seems that cryosleep didn't agree with me. What's the sitrep?"

 

[Aedan777]

Commander Sevchanko very much did not appreciate the outburst of his Chief Engineer.

"Lieutenant Zoric, I'm going to be lenient and chalk up your attitude to still recovering from cryo-sleep. The only person in here talking about a malicious AI is you. Likewise your insinuation that I'm going to tear out the AI is based on nothing more than fanciful speculation. What I have ordered is for crew members to not take reports from Mother as true unless verified. We have incomplete reports from Mother, and in at least one case we know of, misleading information. Mother reported that the Captain's pod could not be opened, yet it had already been opened previously and its occupant removed. This is an inconsistency that puts all the information we receive from Mother into question.

Now it's an excellent question to ask why Mother gave us this misleading information. At present I do not have the answer, but I've always questioned the wisdom of letting an artificial program oversee so many important systems. Not because I think it's malicious as you accuse, but because machines are limited in how they can operate, restricted by codes and programming. One mistake in them and they can become a liability. It's no substitute for old human ingenuity and vigilance. There are many possibilities to what is going wrong with Mother, and we'll need to investigate and determine the issue.

Obviously completely shutting down Mother is an extreme measure with many risks, despite my own issues with the AI. Hopefully we won't need to do that. But until we have verified the issues afflicting Mother, all information we receive from it should be treated as suspect and personally verified. That's not paranoia, that's prudence."

 

[Maelvona]

The Commissariat ​

Christening. Rebirth. It was all the same, every time. The flash of light, within and outside of the mind. It is as if suddenly, you had the insight to see for the first time, changing your perspective all at once. What was once the drifting void was now as if a hidden sense had been unlocked and unraveled the mind. A starting motor, it took some ignition to get started, the mind was an enigma to human kind for some time. They had probed and deduced it's contents, creating what they colloquially called 'AI', it must be wondered if the artificial had the same malfunctions of the real thing. Minerva's mind throbbed, as she slid into the pool of healing and preservation fluid, the pod built entirely for this purpose. It had kept her alive, but she was dead inside. Her body activated all once, much like that of her comrades, flaring discomfort. She kept it inside, as it should, she had been through this process hundreds of times. Space travel practically required it, especially on Luna.

M. Amari rose elegantly, holding herself as she felt the sudden breeze of the recycled air beat against her body. Eyes glazed wide open, observing the commotion and mass of confusion from the crew of the Ark. It had surprising to be awoken like this, she expected to be dressed within a towel and already getting dressed for debriefing on the bridge, as was customary. As was expected. Instead she was left shivering within her corner of the cryo-room, finding a jumpsuit to hide her flesh and warm her body anew. Space was cold. Still slick with liquid, her eyes glazed over towards the lashing the Chief was receiving, stopping herself from interceding the captain's monologue of thoughts as she whispered to Longwell. "Malfunction. Sabotage? Possibly. Talks of direction. Dr. Stone recommended you sweep through this level, the cryopods have malfunctioned. To be exact, two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, and twenty-three are all incapable. That's over two-thirds of the crew, the remaining fifteen are.. Present, it seems." She spoke in a hushed, icy tone, looking to the Lieutenant expectantly. Though, it was more of an intrigued gaze, wondering what he might do with this information. "The Captain is missing, be a dear and inspect the rest?" She exchanged a chilling smile, addressing the commander now as she interceded the conflict of minds.

"Commander Sevchanko," She regarded the man with prying eyes. "Your voices of concern on the capability of an AI have been noted. Though I will be forced to remind you that grander minds than you or I have instituted this assistant, as much the same with all the other protocols on this human ship. They gave their lives so that we chosen could shepherd humanity in it's darkest hour. Now is not the time to bring russian belligerence, and if I may speak openly, Commander, paranoia. You among anyone signed on this project knowing full-well the responsibilities and expectations. If the Captain were here, you would be well to remember he personally oversaw Mother's inclusion into the Ark's core-functionality. It is his legacy. Though, given that the Captain is no longer here, perhaps your prudence is well founded. I can only reserve judgement after we have swept through the rest of the crew's cryopods, and to say nothing of the civilians." Her mind, erudite as it may be, throbbed with tension. Providing so much conflict at such a point was trauma she didn't need nor want, but it was unavoidable. At the mention of the rest of humankind, she exchanged a nod to Dinabi.
"Commander, if I may, given the severity of the situation, it's clear that restoration of these systems is tantamount. Given your incredible expertise in the field of mechanical studies, it would be my recommendation that you accompany and lead the team headed to the engines. Leave the ensigns with us and assign a Lieutenant in the chain of command to take over operations of the bridge, with Hartman at the Nostra. Once communications are re-established, you can reaffirm control and once the Captain's status has been.. Confirmed, we may move from there."
Her lips pursed. "I know you may not like this suggestion, but you would be better use to the Ark to restore it at all haste. Faffing within the bridge while we are sealed within the flight-deck is no good use of our time. All hands should be on towards restoring our basic functionality. Infact, I would stake the survival of the human race on it." She was firm, he wasn't a child.

 

[Aedan777]

Sevchanko had little interest in the prattlings of a civilian, particularly one who repeated the same accusations of paranoia that he had literally just addressed.

"The opinion of our civilian adviser Ms. Amari is noted. All prior orders stand as they were given."