Roman

Chapter 3 - The Takeover

Now I was afraid! Who wouldn't be?! Completely alone, millions of miles from Earth and I still had no clue what had happened here. The one thing I had left to do, was to go to the Command Room and call the shuttle back. If something had gone horribly wrong here, it appears that no one knew about it.

After about half an hour of looking for the Command Room, I finally found it across a hall and the lights go off... I immediately freeze in place. My level of fear was reaching new heights. The biggest dream I had had, turned into a nightmare in just a few hours. I couldn't see a thing, there were no emergency lights, nothing. Everything, pitch back.

I braved it and decided to begin walking forward when the microgravity fails... What was going on here?!?!?! Was someone sabotaging this place? No one had a grudge with Omega as far as I knew. No matter, I pushed myself off the wall and started floating towards the Command Room.

I had no way to judge distances, I held my arms stretched in front of me and waited till I hit the door on the other side. After a few, nerve wrecking moments, I finally reached the door. Now I had another problem. How was I to open the door without power? Why did I have to leave all my stuff at the lobby? I should have brought my cellphone at least!

I figured there had to be a way to open the door in case of emergency. I felt my way around the door and wall, to try and find anything resembling a hatch. Alas... I couldn't find anything.

I now began panicking! I should go back to the lobby, but how on Earth could I do that?!?! Then I heard a door opening, towards the other end of the hall. Something or someone was there... I didn't know whether to be excited or more frightened. I froze in place, awaiting.

The door fully opened and I heard clinking, like robot hands, barely audible in the silence of the room. Then I heard it calling at me!!!! Could I get the answers I so desperately need?!?!

"Hey you!" A voice quietly called. "Come over here!"

"Who are you?!" I whispered back.

"No time to argue, come to me and I'll explain on the way!" The voice yelled back.

On the way to where?! I also couldn't make out whether it was a man or woman. Should I go with them? I had no choice. What else could I do? Stay there and ponder? How did they even see me? It was pitch black! I pushed myself of the door and floated towards the voice.

I don't think I've ever been more anxious and afraid in my life. I had no idea what to expect. Was I about to die? Or would I be offered an explanation with what was happening here? I wished with every bone in me that it was the latter.

As I was floating down the hallway, the voice said something again is what felt like a robot grabbed my arm. A Roman?!

"Here, put this on your head and follow me." The voice said.

Now I could make it out, it was a woman. I grabbed the thing she gave me. It appeared to be night vision goggles. I put them on. Now I could see again, and in front of me stood a tall Roman with the face of a fairly young woman.

"What's going on here?" I asked.

"Let's get moving and I'll explain on the way." She answered in a rushed tone as we started moving. "You are the one that came on the shuttle, aren't you?"

"Oh! So you did know about me?" I said excited.
"What happened to this place?!"

"We are not 100% sure yet, but we know that something or someone is sabotaging our operation."

The way she said "something", really made me more uneasy that I already was. What did she mean by 'something'? Did aliens found us and are taking over the ship? I was really hoping it was something more rational, but all the Hollywood movies, those oldies my grandfather liked to watch with me... First movie that came to mind... "Alien." I hoped it was something else.

"What do you mean by 'something' else?" I said, as I felt my voice shaking with every word.

"Well, let me tell you what we know." And she began narrating as we moved down small corridors.

About a month ago, everyone was working down in Europa, when out of the blue, communications were cut with JOS. People in Europa tried in every frequency they knew, but nothing worked. Either, JOS was experiencing technical difficulties or something else happened.

Team 1, decided to go back to their bodies in JOS to see what was happening up there. They got back to the Mind Link Station, and began the process to link their consciousness back to their body. Something weird happened when they tried, after waking up from the MLS, they were back where they started, inside their Romans. They tried a second time, but something was blocking their transmission.

Teams 2 and 3 tried as well, but nothing seemed to work. They were stuck in the Romans. There was one other way to go back to JOS. To build a makeshift shuttle back to the station out of bits and parts from this base. After all, they were all engineers and could manage to build a small rocket to go back up. In the Romans, they didn't need to breath or sleep, and that was a mayor advantage.

Within a week they had built a functional rocket that fit a team of 4. They lunched and in an hour arrived to the JOS. With the leftover fuel, they sent the rocket back to Europa, and activated its automatic assisted landing for the other teams to eventually get here, if we couldn't fix the issues.

Since they didn't build a rocket with a hatch to connect to the JOS, they floated to the Command Room to ask them to open a hatch. When they got there, they couldn't believe their eyes. Someone had shot and killed the commander and in doing so, had shot the communications console. That solved the mystery. Who on earth had killed the commander and why?!