The Extinction Trials(19)

“Ideas?” Maya asked.

“You’ve heard my idea,” Alister retorted.

“The boxes,” Will said quietly. “Maybe there’s something inside that could help.”

Maya lit up. “Yes, good idea.” To Alister, she said, “You want something to do? There’s a tool closet near the outer airlock. You have lots of tools and three boxes we need to open. Let’s see if you can fix that.”





The boxes, as it turned out, were quite hard to open. And to Maya’s surprise, Alister relished the challenge. It seemed to her that he simply wanted something to work on and wasn’t terribly particular about what that was. He enjoyed the process, and despite a near-constant barrage of curse words, he managed to open the boxes in short order.

The first box contained a portable GPS system and two medkits.

The second box contained six large envelopes slightly larger than a paperback book. Each had a name on it: Maya Young

Owen Watts

Cara Allen

Will Carraway

Blair Aldridge

Roman Morris

“Very interesting,” Maya whispered. “There’s an envelope for each of us.” She looked up at Alister. “Except for you, Alister. Unless your name is really Roman Morris.”

“My name is not Roman,” Alister said, not bothering to look at the envelopes.

“Yes,” Will said. “Very curious indeed. I think we can safely assume that the older gentlemen Cara is currently performing an autopsy on was named Roman Morris.”

“Then why isn’t there an envelope for Alister?” Maya asked.

The older man huffed. “How should I know? Maybe it’s in the other boxes. Or maybe it got lost in the mail. Or maybe our cruel robot captors didn’t see fit to give me a prize. Frankly, I don’t care.”

Maya studied him a moment. Something about his reaction was off. But she saw no point in pressing the issue at the moment.

“Let’s see what’s in the envelopes,” Maya said. She ripped her own open and peered inside. There were two objects there. One was a personal item that, to her surprise, sparked a painful memory. Try as she might, she couldn’t quite see how it connected to The Extinction Trials. The other item was a complete mystery to her—and it seemed to have even less to do with what was happening here.

One by one, Maya, Will, and Blair showed the contents of their envelopes.

“They seem to be personal effects,” Will said. “Except for my item. And it doesn’t appear to be much use here.”

“It’s probably some psych experiment,” Alister said. “The Extinction Trials proctors are probably watching you all and laughing right now.”

“I don’t think that’s the case,” Will said quietly. He motioned to the envelopes for Cara and Owen. “Should we—”

“Open them?” Maya said, completing his sentence. “No. I don’t feel right about it. If our items somehow fit together to build something—something we needed—then maybe I could see the urgency. But the contents seem like personal items, and I can’t justify violating their privacy.”

“I agree,” Will said.

“Well, I can justify opening the other boxes,” Alister said. “If you all are ready.”

Maya nodded and watched as he took the top off the third box. At first, she thought it was empty, but as she looked closer, she realized it held a single item: a key. It was an old-fashioned metal key with jagged teeth.

Alister scoffed. “Clearly, ARC Technologies is not aware that locksmiths exist.”

Maya also found the object curious. She hadn’t used a key like that since she was a child. Nevertheless, she thought maybe it could be important. She slipped the item into her pocket.

The fourth and final box held a small tablet with the letters ARC engraved on the back.

Will smiled. “It’s an ARC terminal. Like the one I use at work.”

“Use for what?” Maya asked.

“Mostly at data centers. We would use these to interface a server farm or even maintain some of our mesh devices.”

“Why do you think it’s in here?”

“My guess is it’s a backup. In case the main system goes down, we can use this to access the embedded systems and control the station. I think we just found exactly what we need to get answers. And help.”





Chapter Sixteen





When Owen and Cara returned from the airlock, he expected to find Maya and the others in the command center, with the computer active and in complete control of the station.

He found none of those things.

The group was again in the observation room and none of the computers were running. Blair was lying on the heap of blankets, while the others were either pacing or sitting in the folding chairs. While facial expressions and body language were a mystery to Owen, he could tell things weren’t going that great for the group.

Maya stood as the door closed behind Owen and Cara. “What did you find out?”

Owen and Cara shared a glance, and he said, “It’s… not great news. Why don’t you guys go first?”

“We’ve hit a bit of a dead-end here,” Maya replied.

Quickly, she showed Owen and Cara the contents of the boxes, saving their envelopes for last.