Page 180 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

“That looks similar to the display of that child’s Toy. I wonder…”Trok said and touched the display. A
sequence of lit squares and tones were issued. Trok responded with the same sequence and a
buzzer sound emitted from a speaker near to the door frame. The display reset and the sequence
repeated.

“Try that code sequence from the Cylinder” Michael suggested. He did and a chime sounded and the
doors opened. Lights came on as they entered the airlock chamber behind the doors which then
closed automatically behind them. Systems throughout the ship appeared to be firing up, synthetic
voice alerts signifying which systems required attention could be heard. A display of changing
characters appeared on a panel on the inner doors; a countdown and as two certain digits were
reached a sequence of descending tones accompanied the rest of the countdown. When the last
tone sounded the inner doors opened. They were confronted with a corridor that appeared to run
the central circumference of the sphere with doors placed periodically around the inner walls.
Glyphs in Cartouches appeared beside each door. Michael ran a scan of the atmosphere using the
suit’s sensors. They reported back that there was an oxygen/nitrogen mix to the atmosphere but the
pressure was low.

“I’ll see if I can find engineering and get the environment systems up and running” he said and
signalled two Mechanoids to follow him.

“The rest of you check out all of the doors on this part of the corridor” Trok ordered three more of
the Mechanoids “Make note of what you find and relay it to the rest of us. I’m taking these last two
with me and we’ll see if we can find a Bridge for this ship. There could be ships logs that may give us
a clue as to what happened” He added and set off. Michael headed in what he hoped was the right
direction for the middle part of the ship and the remote drive chamber section with his two
Mechanoids in tow. He’d already turned on his suit’s relay transmitter so the Veklaar should be
getting a visual of his progress; unless, that is, the sphere was shielded against radiation, and then
the signal would be blocked. Flashing beacons above a set of heavy looking doors were a warning
that the corridor behind posed a danger or risk. He and one of the Mechanoids used brute force to
pry the doors open. After an initial resist the sprung open and the scene down the corridor told most
of the story.

Devoid of any biological life forms the space looked eerie. Trusses and supports were bent,
broken or twisted and scattered along the corridors length. Obvious scarring and burn marks
showed the path of an explosion centring on the rear compartment of the ship. The outer hull had
been blown to pieces but one gantry way still hung in place leading to what looked like a shielded
chamber. “Control room or Generator room?” Michael mused. He signalled one of the Mechanoids
to use one of the portable force field generators to try and screen off the rest of the Engine room
from open space and retain any atmosphere should they get the life support working. He and the
other Mechanoid proceeded to the enclosed chamber. There was no gravity in the ship so moving
across the large gaps was easy enough. The problems would come later when the ships systems
were restored. Upon entry it became apparent that this was both a control room and the adjacent
and lower compartments were back-up Emergency generator rooms. One of these had not cut in
when the disaster befell the crew.

Trok and his two cohorts had found the
entrance to the ship’s Bridge; located in the “Nose
Cone” attached to the Spherical section. The Bridge
occupied the uppermost deck of three and seemed to
be running on an emergency supply. “Have you had
any luck getting main power systems sorted Michael?”
Trok asked over his coms.