Starbound By Psion All Rights Reserved Lights flickered in the alloy hallway as the battered shuttle hurtled through the endless night. Huddled refugees took shelter where they could, sobbing for friends and family that didn’t make it or jumping every time the ship lurched. Was that last shudder from the overtaxed engines or had their pursuers missed their target? Sitting in a corner, a young brown-haired man stared blankly into empty space. Bright hazelnut eyes took in the contents of the main passenger area with a sweeping glance. The weathered couches were empty, children hid with their parents under metal tables welded to the floor. The lone stranger had to snort seeing this, if the hull was breached the furniture wouldn’t do a thing to protect any of them from hard vacuum. Then again, perhaps he shouldn’t blame them. After all, everyone in this room was a dirtsider, even him. The only people on this ship who had any spacer experience were presently screaming orders and working furiously to keep the vessel one step ahead of their pursuers. Not to mention the expanding cloud of planetary debris…. Debris, was that all that remained of home? Dust and vacuum-scoured rock? Blaring klaxons jarred the man out of his thoughts, sending the passengers into a panic. The captain’s voice over the intercom only served to further incite the bubbling chaos. “Attention passengers and crew, please immediately report to the escape pods. I repeat, we are abandoning ship; all passengers and crew report to the escape pods.” The young man was on his feet and running for the exit just as the primary lighting gave up, casting the ship interior in a red glow. A violent clang rang through the very bones of the ship while the refugees fled. The lack of the telltale boom of explosive decompression suggested only one thing… their refuge had been boarded. “Security to D-Deck, intruders on board!” The captain’s voice crackled over the intercom. From somewhere out of view, the sound of screams and weapons fire reverberated through the ship. Pulse rifles barked a staccato roar, the invaders countered with a guttural howl unlike anything the fleeing civilians heard before. Weapon reports echoed on for a few moments before a terrifying silence fell on the ship. But by then the survivors were gone, fleeing the doomed transport in escape pods. Dozens of small capsules hurtled away like tiny meteors. Some would find habitable planets to safely hide and wait for rescue; others would be trapped in stasis, prisoners of a hostile environment or the cold depths of space. Yet one pod, the one carrying the young brown-haired man, would suffer a far more curious twist of fate… Proximity Activation Sequence Begun… Detecting artificial object on approach vector… Object ID verified: Civilian Escape Pod Accessing Civilian Data Records… Warning File Corruption Detected! Compiling uncorrupted data… Passenger Name: Robert Mason Gender: Male Species: Human… further data unavailable.
At first there was nothing but the world inside his mind, Robert slept fitfully in cryostasis as his escape pod hurtled blindly through the astral sea. Memories flashed before his unopened eyes; ghosts of the past that mocked him with their appearance. Friends he made, old flames, family... all of it gone. The thought turned his heart as cold as the rest of his frozen body, everyone he knew was gone but there was no way he could be the last human alive. Male, female... both of sides of his race's coin could be like cockroaches when they wanted to be. The young man knew about as much about his attackers as he knew whether or not his last refuge would arrive at a habitable planet. One thing was certain though... no... survival first, vengence later. His body almost completely frozen to minimize life support functions, Mason was unable to feel the sudden lurch of his pod getting caught by a tractor beam. As the vessel sensed habitable conditions the internal computer gradually began the thawing process. A warm jolt ran through the passenger's spine before spreading out towards his extremities. His core temperature slowly rose while stiff muscles were slowly coaxed back to life. His stomach was one of the last parts to defrost, leaving the survivor feeling ill for several seconds as his shelter vibrated violently. The process soon completed, leaving the brown-haired man with a feeling not unlike a bad hangover as the pod opened into a desolate hanger. Stale air flooded in to greet him as he stumbled out and stumbled, landing face first onto the duralloy floor. For a moment he just laid there, the urge to vomit giving him a case of dry heaves before subsiding. Lights flickered as the artificial haven struggled to come to life. Gradually the nasuea passed and his headache began to fade. Sighing, Robert pushed himself back to his feet and looked around. The largely empty hanger surrounded him like an expansive metallic cavern. At first he thought he had arrived in a planetary base but above one bulkhead, emblazened in foot long yellow letters, were the words "DANGER! AIR LOCK!" Robert stared at the signage for several seconds while working his sore vocal cords. "Okay, let's not go through that door." The man remarked while looking for another way out of the room. An electronic voice chimed over the intercom. "Attention traveler! Please board the central lift to be taken to the bridge for identification." As a bright light flickered over the elevator, Mason laughed and shook his head. "So the lights are broken but the computer apparently still works... well at least life support hasn't fallen apart yet." He was still chuckling while boarding and activating the lift. With a threatening whine, the machine sprung to life and whisked him up past living quarters, laboratory space, and something that resembled an engineering factory. What... what have I stumbled upon? The man wondered, his laughter gone in a flash. Up in the bridge, command consoles for life support and power automatically came to life as the command AI turned an electronic eye towards the slightly groggy human. "Greetings traveler, welcome to Ark Station Zeta. Unfortunately your vessel corrupted your personal file, most of your information is unavailable. Please, take a seat and assist in profile reconstruction." The station replied with a chirpy disposition as a free standing chair rose up from the floor. Robert blinked for a moment as his brain struggled to process this information. "Ark Station... I found my way onto an Ark Station?" "Affirmitive, please be seated and assist in profile reconstruction." The computer repeated. Nodding his head, the wiry man sat down and obliged, there will be time to think later. "Okay, my name is Robert Mason. I'm a Fabricator First Class, graduated from the Polytechnic School of Technology in Neo-Tokyo with honors. I am twenty-three years old and at present I appear to be the last human alive...."
Yeah... I originally wrote the first post in Word and when I went to post it became black on gray... don't know what inspired me to make it all green though. Fixed that. Heh, not all that familiar with the Cool story bro meme, is it a compliment or a polite way of saying "don't quit your day job"? Edit: Seriously, I don't know.
