Dynamic Patrol: Gel-Squad (Remastering!)

Chapter 53: Vermin

The command center was a large open room positioned on the very first level of the station. It was packed with numerous consoles and displays pertaining to the station's operations. The consoles were flushed in pristine white to match the rest of the station. Directly ahead was a brilliantly placed, massive viewing window that was so clear it looked as if one could simply walk out onto the station's hull with little effort. "Okay. What do you want us to do?" Tommy asked as Kori showed them to the command center. He was excited to start, clearly, as evidenced by his determined smile.

Kori nodded at Tommy's willingness to help. He got quite lucky with him and his team docking. Now he had an actual DP hero to do work for him. He foresaw Tommy's presence not only in a security capacity but also in a morale capacity. But that would come later. "There's a reason why I thought you were pirates when your ship first docked. We've been having... trouble. Call it a... rat, if you will. When the DP abandoned the station, they left behind several valuable items, computer processors, O2 scrubbers, etcetera... and I've been saving them for use in future emergencies... suffice to say, someone has been stealing supplies from the public and has been hoarding the materials for themselves. We don't have enough power to the internal sensors to locate them."

"Why didn't you call the Patrol for help?" Kipp piped up as the command center flickered to life.

"They marked Omeocoon as a level ten bio-hazard– no visitors in or out of our system. We're like a disease to them. They won't help us, so we have to help ourselves. They were supposed to send evacuation ships, but they never arrived– I had to save what was left of our people, remember?" Kori added, his voice seasoned with hoarseness and pain, "There were over nine million people that died in that city." He paused briefly to remember them before continuing. "Until you arrived, we didn't know if anyone was alive on the surface, but we did suspect that the outermost islands might have survivors, but we haven't been able to make contact from here; they don't seem to have long-range communications, either they're offline, or they're ignoring us." Kori approached a collection of switches and buttons lined on a horseshoe-shaped console in the center of the room, and as he pressed several of them, the lights dimmed, and a large bulkhead came down over the massive viewing window positioned ahead– the lovely surface of Omeocoon vanished under it. The large bulkhead clicked on to become a massive view-screen displaying the station's current operating status.

"Oh, that's neat!" Kipp rushed over to see what Kori was doing; he liked the brightness of the screen. The display was basic in color, with blue text seated on an off-white background. But still, it attracted Kipp like a moth to a flame. The rest of the team joined him, but they weren't as fast and as eager as Kipp.

"So when you say you're having issues generating enough power, what do you mean by that?" Russell asked, scratching his head. The diagram didn't come as easily for him as it did for someone like Kipp. So, he needed a little extra help.

Kori manipulated the display with a control orb to demonstrate what he meant. He moved to a power allocation tab that showed just what the station was doing, "Well, normally, the station doesn't generate enough power to run every system on board continuously. The orbital stations were designed to work in tandem with a continuous energy supply from the ground. Without it, we rely on solar. So, as you can imagine, when the station is on the planet's dark side. We operate cautiously. But in the afternoon— When the station's rotation reaches the southern hemisphere, the solar panels are hit with enough excess energy to power 'luxuries.' Fabricators, additional lighting, lavatories... if you use a lavatory. And—"

"Sensors!" Tommy's ability to read the diagram was almost instant.

"Precisely," Kori said with a nod. "We haven't been interested in scanning for the terrorists. What would we do once we found them? Put them in jail?"