Story 7

The door opens up. Aurelius walks in. A holographic A.I. projects next to the window overseeing the database. Aurelius grabbed the data pad on the counter. "Several Alteran ships have entered the system." The A.I. says as Aurelius is heading towards the database's index. "Do everything you can to keep them at bay." He says as the door closes.

Aurelius sprints down the corridors. He makes sharp turns down the maze-like halls. He stops to catch his breath and hits the button with his fist. Inside was the archive of the Alterans. Every bit of knowledge that they achieved was stored in here. From culture to blueprints on concepts. Aurelius takes out a data crystal and plugs it into the mainframe. He starts to make a copy of the archive.

[_][][][][][][][][][]: 12%

Aurelius smacks his data pad. The flickers for only a moment and the percentage goes up by one. The A.I. once again takes form next to him. "The Alteran ships have docked." Aurelius slams his fist on the wall. "########!!"(Translation of this dialect is unavailable...) He checks his data pad again. The percentage is now seventy. He takes out the crystal and makes a run towards one of the hangars. "Where is the nearest gateship bay?" He yells. The A.I. does not show itself but replies. "Down to your left, make a right and two lefts. The first door on your right."

Aurelius presses the door button. Several combat and normal gateships lined the walls. He ran to the one that had a small dent on the outer hull. As he entered the cockpit a voice came up on the communications. "Auerel-*bzzzt* surrender now or prepare to- *bzzt*" The voice cut out. Aurelius activated the ship's cloaking device. He opened all the hangar doors to confuse the Alterans chasing him.

He turned to look at the cargo hold. He pressed several panels in a sequence. A small hyperdrive core came out from the floor. He flew the ship out of the hangar and towards the Alteran ships. A small hyperspace window appeared in front of the Alteran ship. He flew straight through the window.

Aelius had been traveling through hyperspace for a couple of hours now. He occasionally walked around the modified prototype ship. It was unlike any of the previous shuttles that belonged to the Alterans. "Alright, let's see what we got here." He walked up to a terminal that had been set up next to the lab equipment.

Aelius grabs the data crystal from his pocket and plugged it into the terminal. Several files from the archive pop up. The first one was titled [ATLANTIS]. Was it a ship? A new city? Maybe a new galaxy that the Destiny passed through. Many other files had caught his eyes. [GATESHIP] and [GENE ACTIVATOR].

Although Aelius had many questions, he restrained himself. He searched the other files that had been taken. A few others had caught his interest but he turned off the terminal. He sighed and walked to the flight deck. Aelius ran a diagnostic check on the prototype hyperdrive. He walked to the cabin. It was small, of course being a small ship. He laid his head down on the pillow. His eyes getting heavier, he fell asleep.

Aelius woke up to the sound of an alarm going off. He got up and ran for the flight deck. Down below was a large blue planet, similar to Terra. He had wondered if the alarm was due to drifting off course towards the planet. But something else had caught his attention. A small satellite object was orbiting the planet. It was not of Alteran design. He reached for the communications panel. There weren't any transmissions coming from the satellite. Aelius flew the ship towards it. Then all of a sudden, several blips approached on the long-range scanner.

The blips moved closer and closer. Aelius had no other choice but to fly towards the satellite. As he approached, the ship's controls went automatic and landed in a hangar bay. Confused as to why the ship went into auto-pilot, a holographic screen popped up over the console. A fuel gauge was shown in the corner, it was nearly empty.

Aelius panicked, he didn't know what fuel source the ship required. He ran for the terminal in the research lab. He opened up a file that had caught his attention a couple of hours earlier. It had schematics of three different classes. [SHUTTLE] [COMBAT] [RESEARCH]. He pulled up the schematics for each class.

[SHUTTLE]: A small ship that could carry up to eight passengers. Features include: two drive pods and two weapon pods; bulkhead door and ramp door;

[COMBAT]: A longer version of a SHUTTLE class gateship. Features include: sixteen passengers; four drive pods and two larger weapon pods; bulk head door between cargo and cockpit; ramp door on sides.

[RESEARCH]: A compromise between COMBAT and SHUTTLE for size. Features include: 5 passengers; research lab; living cabin; cargo hold; ramp on side; bulkhead between cabin and lab located in cargo.

[NOTES]: Internal power source requires a neutronium ion battery. Make sure that auto-pilot is active when entering gate.

Aelius gasps in shock. It fascinated him that these types of ships were meant to go through the Astria Porta. He reads through the document a little more. As he gets to an interesting part, the blips appear on the sensors again. Aelius runs towards the ramp door in the cargo bay. He opens the ramp door. As he walks around the hangar of the satellite, he runs for a door. He looks around and notices something strange. Several of the same prototype ship that he arrived in were lined against the walls. Aelius was confused. Then, someone opened the door and shot Aelius.

The sound of his head throbbing was all he could hear. Aelius couldn't remember what had happened to him. All he could recall was finding the satellite object. He looked around. The cell he was contained in looked strange. It was a simple design, similar to the ones he read in history books about the Alterans home galaxy.

He walked to the door of the cell. His hand reached for the cell bars, only to be shocked in return. Now he was even more confused. The Alterans had only started working on shielding technology for a hundred years and this was just way to advanced. He wondered if there were highly intelligent lifeforms out there.

Suddenly the door to the room opened up. Two guards escorting a woman entered the room. They stood right in front of the cell door. Their clothing seemed, strange. It was white cloth with what looked to be leather patched onto it. Aelius stared in confusion.

"Who are you? And how did you obtain one of our ships?" The lady asked. She had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes, features so strange to Aelius. With a calm manner he took a deep breath.

"I go by Aelius, I am an Alteran scientist." He spoke with a calm and calculated tone. He needed to know if this woman was trustworthy.

But something strange had caught his attention. The woman seemed, terrified. Both of the guards also acted strange.

"If you believe that your lies can fool us you are mistaken. The race you speak of does not exist anymore." The woman replied with an agitated tone.

Aelius wondered what this woman was talking about. He escaped from Alteran ships just a day ago when he broke into the archive. He pondered in his cell after the woman and the two guards left. If what she said was true then...

The cell's shield went down and the door opened. Two different guards entered the room and escorted Aelius out. They walked down the long corridor. At the intersection Aelius's face grew dark. He practically sprinted to the sign on the wall. The letters on the sign were Alteran. Now he knew something was off.

If the woman was correct and the Alterans were gone, why are they using his people's alphabet. The guards grabbed Aelius and stunned him. Aelius let out a squeal of agony but held onto his conscious. They dragged him through the halls. All he could do was wiggle his fingers and move his eyes.

They arrived at a door. One of the guards waved their hand over a panel on the wall. Inside the room, several people sat at a round table. Aelius was tossed onto the ground by the guards. The old man who sat in the middle stood up.