Chapter 2: Solar Flare

In the exam room, there was only a handful of people sitting. These were the few that completed their assignments on time and got decent grades. Most of the students have already found a job or has been working one since young. The robotic teacher handed out an electronic device to each person and told them to start.

"Attention. Attention. Solar flare incoming. Please evacuate or seek shelter."

This message was played three times over before sirens started throughout the entire station. John wanted to get back to his room in hopes that his brother had not left for work. They have gone through these drills quite a few times, but they always had a ten minute warning before hand. There was no warning this time, so John could only assume that it was real. One of the other students tried to leave via the door they walked in but found it was already closed. The room they were currently in was already considered a safe area and would only open from the outside if someone was trying to get in.

With no other option the handful of students secured themselves in the room and waited for the flare to hit.

. . .

Sam wished John good luck on his exam before getting ready for work. Half way into his walk. He heard the announcement go off, saying there was a solar flare in coming. Given that he was already too far from his room, he found the nearest safe room and secured himself inside. There was already a few people in the room and they all shared a similar expression of nervousness. Everyone knew they would get a ten minute warning before the drill, so they could only assume that it was real.

. . .

A few days later, John woke up in a medical bed. His entire body was hurting so he was not able to move around much.

"Hello. Hello! Anyone there," he shouted without turning his head. He could only see the ceiling and any movement was painful.

"Oh my god!" shouted one of the nurses as she came into the room. "Go get a doctor and security, quickly!"

John was puzzled why they would also need security. Before anyone could talk to him he passed out again from how much pain his body was in.

. . .

Waking up a couple of hours later, he noticed that he body did not hurt as bad. He still couldn't move, but he was able to stay awake now.

"Do you know who you are?" asked a doctor, while shinning a light in his eye. Before John could respond the doctor turned the light off and asked him again. Taking a deep breath he gathered his thoughts.

"My name is John Pek," he said in a slightly hoarse voice.

The doctor wrote it down on a clip board and handed it to the nurse. John was able to follow the nurse out of the room with his eyes and managed to see a security guard standing next to the door. Some of the supply crewmen would dress differently, and Sam would tell him that they were responsible for guarding the supplies. This guard was wearing a similar outfit. Before John could have a next thought, the doctor started talking to him.

"Well John, it doesn't look like you are in good shape. The space station that you were on was destroyed and there was only a few survives that we managed to find," the doctor said without any emotion.

"Do you know who the survivors are?" John asked, not processing everything the doctor said. Looking a little confused, he looked up at the security guard before talking to John. The security guard gave a nod saying that he should just stick to what that were suppose to say and not reveal any additional information. Without answering his question, the doctor continued.

"We will allow you to recover here for the time being, but afterwards we are either going to send you back to another space station or place you in a job. Since we have no record of you having taking the basic education exam, we will just assume that you did not take it or failed." The doctor then started to walk out of the room before allowing John to say anything back.

"Hey. Hey! Wait a minute. Where am I? Where is my brother? What do you mean the space station is destroyed?" shouted John, while the doctor left the room.

. . .

"He definitely should've died out there," said the doctor to the security guard.

"All of the prison stations where destroyed in the solar flare, and with the number of people living on them, there were bound to be survivors," the guard said impassively. Even though he was wearing a guards uniform, he was actually sent by the upper society to investigate on what happened. Learning that a solar flare wiped out all of the prison space stations that were monitoring Earth, he felt that it was sufficient information to return back to Mars. Hearing that there was a heavily injured survivor that was pulled from space, his interest peaked a little, but finding out that it was a normal person, he could not care anymore.

"But you don't understand. The recovery team pulled him from space and he wasn't wearing a space suit. You can only survive for about 15 seconds before serious damage is done, but he was definitely out there for a couple of minutes."

"Do you think he is a Powered?" the investigator asked in an annoyed tone. He knew the odds of someone being a Powered, and they were even lower where they currently were.

"No. I am just saying that it is a little unusual for this sort of thing to happen," the doctor replied sheepishly.

"Good. Then just report it as a weird accident and forget about it. Let someone know when he is recovered and we will tell you where to send him. In the meantime, where do you have the rest of the survivors?" the investigator asked in a demanding tone.

"They are in lock up. We found a few dozen of them scattered in safe rooms around the wreckage, and none of them were severely injured." said the doctor.

"Ok. Keep them there until further notice. Just feed them enough that they don't get sick. They are either criminals or the offspring of criminals, so it would not be a good idea to let them wander around the medical bays. I am heading back to Mars with my report. I've been in this disgusting place long enough and it probably has seeped into my skin." The investigator was clearly annoyed by this point and just wanted to leave.

After boarding a ship to take him away from the medical space station, the doctor heaved a sigh of relief and returned to work. He told a nurse to keep watch on the patient in room 451 and to have a guard stationed nearby. Not knowing who John really was, the doctor was not going to take any chances.

. . .

After another week of recovery, John was feeling much better. Every time the doctor came in to check on him, he was surprised. The severity of John's injuries should have kept him in the medical bay for a couple of months, but within a week he was able to stand up again. Still not answering any of his questions, the doctor visits turned into awkward moments of silence.

Once the doctor reported that John could walk on his own, the investigator told him that he should send them to the nearest space station for work. The doctor told the security guard to secure John's hands and take the others that are in lock up to cargo shit 7341. John had gotten use to no one answering his questions so he just went along with whatever they were doing.

"Still not going to say anything. You've been watching me for an entire week. I feel like we are friends now." John said to the security guard as he was escorted to the other survivors. Usually keeping to himself, John would get a smart mouth whenever he would get annoyed, and having no one talk to him for an entire week, he was pretty annoyed.

Once he met up with the other survivors, he was surprised to see that their hands were also bound. The guard led the couple dozen of them to the hanger bay before making a short speech.

"Okay everyone." He said loud enough to grab everyone's attention. "Now that we know what to do with you guys, I am here to relay some information before you guys go off to work. I will not be answering any questions, so don't expect any answers." The guard clearly did not want to do this, but he was ordered to from the higher ups.

"You guys come from a prisoner space station. These space stations were the first to be built after the destruction of Earth, but now they hold prisoners like yourselves. Most of you are probably the offspring of criminals and have no idea what I am talking about. Anyway, none of the other prisoner stations survived so we are told to send you to the nearest cargo ship so that you may be useful. You all will be treated like criminals until proven otherwise."

Looking around, the guard could see the expressionless faces on all of the survivors after learning about where they grew up.

"Since there are no questions, I will now hand you off to the cargo ship's security crew, where they will find you a job." The guard gave a slight chuckle at his own joke before leaving them in the hands of more security.