Chapter 52 Station!

The space station was just ahead of them, and they were both quiet in their nervousness. There hadn't been any contact from the station, or movement, to show that they even noticed their presence.

"Why aren't they trying to shoot us down?" asked Olivia, as they got close enough to see one of the docking ports open and waiting.

"Maybe they hope to breed us, and are merely waiting to capture us again," Dustin spat angrily.

"Look, I know you feel that dream was a real memory, but I've already told you, I was sterilized when I became an alien advisor."

"Are you sure?" he asked, no longer asking because of a desire for children, but instead wondering if it had something to do with the memory. "If they can regrow half my body, one or two organs should be nothing."

She was quiet, because she knew that was true. They both had memories of technology their people had that could save people almost past saving. How much farther must the Josagn be, if all of the technology they had thought was theirs had actually come from them?

Steering the shuttle into the bay, he initiated the locking clamps. If any Josagn was watching their monitors, they would know without a shadow of a doubt, that they were there.

Yet, as the doors opened with a whoosh, the halls of the station were dark and empty.

"Why does this scare me more than if they were standing there with guns?" asked Olivia, standing closer to him then she probably needed to.

"This doesn't make any sense. Why would the station be empty?" he asked, stepping inside carefully. It was cold, but not unbearably so.

"It's almost like they turned everything off, before leaving. You know, like how you're supposed to turn the lights off before leaving the house?" said Olivia, following him down the hall.

They tried to open doors, as they walked, but the activation plates beside the automatic doors wouldn't work. There really was no power here. Looking at each other, with grim looks on their faces, they picked up their pace. This place was huge and it wouldn't take it long to cool down to an unbearable temperature if the Josagn really had just left.

Stopping at an intersection to catch his breath, Dustin looked first one way, then another. The halls all looked the same. He couldn't tell which way led to the bridge or the engine room. There were no signs on any of the walls telling what was behind the doors, and they hadn't seen anyone, or anything, to show that there should be anyone here.

"Maybe we could use our PED to help us out?" Olivia wondered, fear in her eyes.

"Well, I could turn into a monster that might be able to rip a door open, but I'm not sure that would help. I couldn't open all of the doors before the temperature got too cold."

"This is ridiculous!" she shouted, angrily. He couldn't help but agree.

"Use that brain of yours and rewire them. Use the PED to power the doors. It recharges if you go through an evolution."

Nodding, he started taking the plate off of the nearest door with his multitool. The wires were very simple, taking him only a few moments to get it where his PED could open the door. He kept a close eye on the power meter, but it never changed. Apparently, opening a door is nothing compared to the energy required to go through an evolution.

As the door opened, an empty room met their eyes. It may have been a storage room, or a bedroom. There was no furniture. It was actually boring.

"Well, that was anticlimactic." Olivia shook her head, but Dustin moved to the next door. It took him half the time to open it, and again they were left with an empty room.

"How could they have emptied everything so quickly?" she asked in confusion.

"This place is huge, maybe they just don't use this area?" Dustin knew it was a long shot, but he had to hope something.

"Hey, look over there!" Olivia pointed down the hall, where the faintest red light could be seen blinking.

They both took off running, hoping to find something in this forsaken ship. The light was blinking over another door, completely unremarkable and exactly the same as every other door they had passed. But it had a light, and that meant it was getting opened.

As the door slid to the side, it revealed what was once a communications room. They both recognized the equipment used in sending and receiving messages over long distances of space. There was a blinking light over one of the monitors, showing that this room at least, had power.

"Think there's anything of interest?" asked Olivia, moving to one of the two seats in the room.

"Only one way to find out," said Dustin, sitting down and turning the monitor on with a swipe of his hand across the sensor.

"Warning! The president has declared a state of emergency! Everyone receiving this broadcast is ordered to return home as soon as possible. I repeat! The president has declared a state of emergency! Everyone is to return home now!"

The message repeated several times, before it ended, and the blinking light stopped.

"Can you find any other messages? That was kind of vague," complained Olivia.

"You would think they would at least tell us what was wrong," agreed Dustin.

He typed some more on the keypad, until he found where there were more messages.

"It looks like they were fighting a way with some alien race back home, but it's pretty vague on who. It doesn't look good, either way. Wait, this is odd, the date can't be right."

"What is it?" she asked, moving closer to see what was wrong.

"The date states this message was sent almost two hundred years ago."

"That's impossible." She shook her head in disbelief.

"Well, if no one's been here in two hundred years, I guess we don't have to worry about the temperature dropping. There must be some minimal power keeping things going."

"Do you think that's why the Josagn weren't waiting to shoot us, or take us prisoner? This isn't the right station, but actually a human station instead?"

Dustin nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe we can find something they left when they evacuated back to earth. There may even be a ship we could use! That way we don't have to deal with the Josagn at all!"

"Oh! That would be great! Let's go!"

As they wandered, opening every third door or so, they were starting to find rooms that did have things left in them. Some had been offices, with desks left behind, and others had been bedrooms, with beds still made, waiting for the owners to return for a rest.

After hours of boring halls, they decided that the reason they couldn't find any signs or directions, were because everything had been electronic. There were built in displays in the walls that would display what the rooms were, so that if they needed to change the room, it didn't need a new sign. They discovered the mess hall, but there wasn't even a spoon left. Everything had been taken from here.

The engine room was an exciting find. Dustin ran straight to the monitor, and Olivia followed, rolling her eyes.

"Don't do anything that might notify the Josagn we're here. If they see this old station fire up, they'll definitely know something was up."

Dustin paused in mid type, and looked at her a little sheepishly. He had been right in the middle of starting the main engines up, and felt a little foolish that she had to point out the folly in that. With a sigh, he canceled out the order, and managed to pull up a schematic of the station.

"Wow, look! There seems to be a section still powered over here. Maybe there's someone there we could talk to, a person in charge of upkeep or something?" Olivia looked excited at the idea of there being someone else to talk to, and Dustin frowned. He wasn't sure why the thought of her talking to another man bothered him, but it did. Probably some more of that damn Josagn programming.

Maybe it would be a woman! The thought cheered him up some, and he was able to figure out what route they needed to take, to get there. There was a security station and the main bridge in that area they could check out too.

As they turned to leave, two glowing eyes opened from a corner, behind some of the equipment, and followed their forms as they left. When the door didn't shut behind them, it moved to follow.