Saturate✔️

CHAPTER 03: Power

The exit to Sector One led them to a junction area that seemed to connect them to more Sectors of Tempest Station.

The first thing they made sure to do was clear the area, which Greg did with a sweep of his gaze and his pistol. Once it was obvious there was nothing in the large, square room with them, they turned their attention to the single interesting thing in the room with them: a working terminal. Right before they'd left, Greg had suddenly remembered that he hadn't actually checked out the control center for the detention block, so he'd led them back there and Eric had looked through it. But the computer system there was a mess and they hadn't been able to pull any useful or relevant data out of it, so they'd moved on.

"Eric, see what you can do," Greg said.

He nodded and, after making sure Drake was okay on his own, (he needed to lean against a wall), he moved over to the terminal and booted it up. While he did, Greg checked out what else there was around them. Honestly, there wasn't much. The transition junction itself was empty, and there were only two other large doors, copies of the one they'd just passed through. One led to Sector Two, the other to Sector Five.

"Well, this sucks," Eric muttered after a moment. "I don't know what the hell happened here, but it seems to have had widespread effects on the system as a whole. A lot of the internal network is scrambled and I can't really pull much information from what's left."

"What can you tell us?" Greg replied, glancing at Drake. The man really looked like shit, but he was holding it together pretty well.

"Only that most of the station is on lockdown, honestly," he replied.

"Well, what about these two Sectors? What are they?"

"Um...okay, Sector Five is power, maintenance, storage, and utilities. Sector Two is the living quarters and medical facilities. And-" He cut off abruptly as another power surge tore through the area. The lights flickered madly as the entire area shook and raged. For a second, Greg was genuinely worried that the station was going to come apart. Then, slowly, the tremors subsided and the lights returned to their normal levels. "Okay, hold on, let's see what the hell that's about," Eric muttered, going over the controls again.

Another moment passed. "Aw shit," he muttered. "Well, bad news. Before we can do anything else, we need to deal with this. Those power surges are a result of the reactor going into overload. We've got an hour before this whole station blows the fuck up."

"Can you fix it if we can get there?" Greg asked, a fresh wave of anxiety rolling swiftly through him. If it wasn't one thing, it was another.

"...yes," Eric said after another moment of studying the screen.

"Then let's go," Drake said, pushing himself up off the wall.

Greg almost asked if he was going to be all right, but stopped himself. They didn't really have a choice at the moment, not being all right wasn't an option, for any of them. Eric stood close to Drake, who was managing to walk on his own now. The trio moved over to the entrance to Sector Five. Greg stood before the great double doors, staring up at them. They towered over the three of them, nine foot silver slabs, intimidating and monolithic. Preparing himself for the task ahead as he'd done a thousand times before, Greg hit the access button.

The doors slid opened, disappearing into their recessed niches.

A long corridor was revealed, broad and tall, the kind of corridor that would see a lot of cargo traffic. Unfortunately, he could tell right away that they were going to have trouble. About thirty feet away, an enormous bulkhead sealed off the entire passageway. At least there weren't any freaking Mutants around.