PROLOGUE
John Stevenson woke
up...
Strange...He didn't
remember going to sleep...Why was he now waking up? It was a disturbing
thought, but he mentally shrugged. It was certainly one of those days where his
"early-morning" amnesia lasted longer than usual.
But something was
wrong...
His whole body hurt,
he opened his eyes and discovered he was laying on something hard...it was the
floor of someone's quarters.
What am I doing
here? He asked himself.
He sat up and rubbed
the remnants of sleep from his eyes, it was dark, he said: "Computer, lights
please." But there was no response from the computer.
The air felt a bit
heavy, but he recognized the smell and the taste of it...He was still aboard
the Valiant. He stood up and dusted his uniform. Why was he sleeping on
the floor? And why didn't he remember anything? This was very strange...
The main lighting
was off but the auxiliary lights were on and he managed to find his way through
the room--which wasn't his--and to the exit door. He came into the corridor and
was disturbed by the silence. There wasn't the usual humming sound of the
engines, nor the sound of people on board...It was almost as if the ship was
dead.
The engineer
frowned, this was really weird...
He decided to go to
the bridge; perhaps someone would be there to tell him what the hell was going
on. He certainly hoped someone would be...
In the darkness, he
had difficulty to find his way, but he managed to get to a turbolift. The doors
opened and...
"Whoa!!!"
The doors had opened
but the turbolift wasn't there...He had almost fallen down the turbo-shaft to
the bottom of the bottom deck of the ship.
Stevenson stared
down the shaft and let out a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, now, since the
turbolift didn't seem to work, he needed to use the ladders on the side of the
shaft to climb up to the main deck...An ascension which was long and probably
very tiring...But he had little choice.
So, he entered
carefully into the shaft and grabbed onto the ladder. Then he began to climb…
About fifteen
minutes later, he arrived at the door to the bridge. Luckily, it was also still
activated and it opened as he approached it. He savored his victory as he
placed his two feet onto the floor of the bridge, but his victorious smile
disappeared when he discovered that the bridge of the Valiant was as
empty as the rest of the ship.
He checked the main
stations of the bridge; they were all working on auxiliary power. He went to
the tactical station and tried to re-activate the main computer.
Red blinking letters
appeared on the console: Code 7-C required to reinstate main computer
functions.
Code 7-C was a code
that only the senior officers of Team One knew, used in cases of extreme
urgency…Which wasn't comforting to think about...
He punched in the
alphanumeric code and the main computer was reactivated.
"Hey, computer,"
Stevenson said happily. "What's up?"
"Please
restate request."
Stevenson sighed:
"Right..."
He thought for a
moment about what he was going to ask the computer, and then he found what he
was going to ask: "Computer, how many people are presently on board
ship?"
"Two,"
The computer said.
"And who are
these two people?"
"The two
people include Lieutenant John Stevenson."
"And
the other person?" He asked.
"The
life-form cannot be identified." The computer said.
"Great...Just
great..." Stevenson said.
He was alone, on
board the half-working USS-Valiant, with another 'unidentified' life-form.
This couldn't be good.
"Computer...You
wouldn't happen to known how to make a real good coffee, would you?"
"Please
restate request..."