The Protogen Generation

A secret plan

KYLE'S P.O.V, at the Carlin space agency main hanger building.

After the disappearance of the EX-5, most work at the agency has been halted. The production of the EX-6 spacecraft had also been stopped.

Meanwhile, most of the workers, including myself, have been left with nothing to do. This is a good thing for me, as this leaves me with time to execute my plan.

The plan itself you may be asking is rather simple. I will be “Borrowing” the adastra. Then, I will be using the spacecraft to recreate what happened with the EX-5.

There are some problems that I have addressed first. First off, the adastra was spacecraft built for testing. It was used to see how viable warp technology was. Second, it hasn't flown in over 15 years.

The next issue is that the adastra isn't powerful enough to recreate what happened. In order to do that, I would have to yet again “borrow”  the hyperspace cell meant for the EX-6 and put it into the adastra. This would, in theory, give it more than enough power.

Then, I would also have to do all of this without anyone knowing. It's definitely not an easy thing to accomplish, but my bets are that it's possible.

I head down to the hanger corridor where the adastra is located.

I unlock the door heavy metal doors to the hanger and quietly slip inside.

It's dark in the hanger, and the only source of light streams in through cracks in the outer hanger door. Fumbling with the wall beside me, I find the switch and flip it.

‘Click click click’ the lights power on and illuminate the hanger.

In the middle of the hanger lies the adastra covered in a large dusty tarp.

I walk over to the adastra and grab the tarp with both hands.

With as much strength as I could muster, I slowly pull the tarp back off the craft. I cover my mouth as a cloud of dust rises out from the tarp.

Free from the covering, the adastra shines in the hanger lights.

While it wasn't modern or had all the new technology that the EX-5 had, buy the adastra would have to do.

The craft was very similar in shape to the EX-5. The only major difference was it was a quarter smaller and meant to be flown by a small group of engineers.

I walk over to a small cart in the hanger that had a couple of flashlights and other items. I grabbed a flashlight and went back to the adastra's entry hatch. I grabbed the small handle on the netry hatch and twisted; the hatch popped outwards and out of the way.

A small ladder was mechanically released downwards. Due to my short height, I had some trouble getting onto the ladder. After pulling myself up the ladder, I made my way inside the adastra.

Inside the craft, it was pitch black. Once I turned on the flashlight, it became much easier to see. A thin layer of dust coated every surface. Looking around, I found a couple of log books and manuals, I'll definitely be needing these.

Instead of extra seats and room for cargo, there are large computers used for processing data. This could prove itself to be great for learning about the gravitational phenomenon.

Going past the computers, I move forward to the front of the cockpit and look up to the overhead panel. I turn on both breakers for the onboard batteries… Nothing happens.

The batteries must be shot, but it shouldn't be that hard to pluck some batteries off the EX-6's production line.

I go back to the ladder and climb down. Because the batteries are dead, I can use ground power to check the systems on the Adastra.