The Extinction Trials(21)

“Well, it makes sense once you think about it,” Alister said. He seemed a little annoyed that he hadn’t figured it out. “The joke’s on us. How does a company founded to store paper records secure access to its archives? A key.”

“It’s also practical,” Maya said. “In the event that someone who didn’t have a login in the ARC network ever needed access to the terminal, they have a universal key.” She glanced at Owen. “Assuming you’re clever enough to figure it out.”

Will was scanning the screen, reading the lines of text at seemingly superhuman speed.

“Okay,” he said slowly, still reading. “I have good news. Great news. Possible non-news. And super, extremely, very, very bad, terrible news.”

“What’s the non-news?” Maya asked. Some part of her feared that might be the worst.

“There’s a very well-hidden file on the terminal named Escape Hatch.”

“What’s in it?”

“That’s the thing,” Will said. “I don’t know. It has data, but there’s no application associated with it. When I try to open it, nothing happens.”

“Interesting,” Maya said.

“What’s the good news?” Owen asked. “I think we could use some of that.”

“I have full control of the station. No restrictions.”

“Great news?” Maya asked.

“The station net—the local area network—is not connected to any wide area network. It’s isolated from the internet, cryptonet, and cloudnet. And has been for a long time. The station has been in what it calls dark mode. So, the network hasn’t sent out any data. No one knows we’re awake. It’s possible no one even knows that we’re here.”

“That leaves the bad news,” Owen said.

Will looked up. “We’re running on emergency power. It’s a backup geothermal power plant that uses piping hot water to power a turbine. Bryce was right: it’s failing.”

“What about the main system?” Alister asked.

“Long gone. The emergency system isn’t far behind. It keeps shutting down and coming back online. It can’t even keep the station’s battery array charged.”

“Can we reduce the load on the system?” Maya asked.

“No. Bryce put us in Observation Two for a reason—it’s the smallest room in the station. The command center would draw about twenty percent more power to environmentally condition.”

“So, how long do we have?” Owen asked.

“Zero,” Will said. “We have zero time. Less than that. The system is way past its critical warning levels. Even the logs are intermittent. It can’t even supply enough power to keep the computer online to track its failures. It could go off at any time and stay off.”

“Which means that it would stop filtering the air,” Maya said. She focused on Owen and Cara. “How big of a problem is that?”

“A deadly one,” Cara said. “We obviously couldn’t perform anything near a full autopsy out there, but it’s clear to me that the man died of something he encountered out there—likely a chemical or pathogen in the air.”

“How do you know?” Maya asked.

“Frankly, I had hoped that his expiration was due to some sort of pre-existing condition. That perhaps his heart was compromised in some way or that an established neurological condition would explain his demise. We found evidence of neither.”

“What did you find?” Maya asked.

“Lungs that look as though they had been shredded by something. The damage persisted throughout the torso, including the heart—”

Alister held up a hand. “What does this mean—for the simpletons like me? Use little-people words.”

Cara exhaled. “It means that he likely inhaled whatever killed him. And if we inhale it, we’ll suffer the same fate.”





Chapter Eighteen





In the observation room, for a moment, no one said anything.

Maya broke the silence. “The way I see it, we have two options: use the terminal to call for help and wait. Or go out there and try to find help—or an area we can survive in. I would also add that these two options are not mutually exclusive. We could call for help on the terminal and venture out to look for help.”

“Let’s consider what we know,” Owen said. “Bryce warned us about going outside. Our deceased team member who rests beyond the air lock ignored those warnings and they proved true. At the same time, that man warned us that staying here was dangerous. So, there is some chance that he was telling the truth—and that calling whoever is connected to the ARCnet could be dangerous.”

“I agree with that,” Alister said.

“That leaves going out there,” Maya said.

“I’ll do it,” Owen said.

Maya stood. “I’ll come with you.”

“No, you won’t. When I’m out there, that leaves four suits. If the environmental systems do go offline, you’ll have to get everyone into the suits so they can survive for as long as possible. I’m used to moving around in a suit and I’ve been out there already. I’m the logical choice. And I don’t have any… really critical skills. I can’t fix anything—human or machine—or hack the ARCnet or anything otherwise useful. I’m going.”