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Chapter 31

Chapter 31

January 22nd, 2158

The engineer was rushed back to the station, with Logan and the rest of the team in tow.  Despite Logan's protests the stations doctors insisted that he spend the night in the med bay to be observed.  This is how Logan found himself alone and unable to sleep at two am station time.

His lungs hurt, but beyond that he had no reason why he shouldn't be able to sleep.  He changed positions several times over, but nothing helped.  A short time later he grew frustrated with his lack of sleep and got out of his bed.

The lights lit the room in a soft glow that wasn't harsh.  He didn't have a goal in mind so he slowly looked over and in everything that was in his room.  Most all of the shelves were locked.  Many others were empty; he did find extra linens and a change of hospital garb.

The bathroom was also minimal.  It was only a meter squared, on one side was a sink, the other a toilet.  In the center of the floor was a drain, and above a showerhead.  There was nothing here that would help pass his time.

He stepped back into the room and realized that he had nothing to keep him here.  He walked over to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked.  Trying a second and third time gave the same results.  He would have tried a fourth time but a voice cut in over the speaker.

"Is there something I can get you sir?"

Of course it made sense that he was being observed.  They had told him as much when they checked him into the room.  He was to be observed over night.  He had just assumed that the patches with electrodes attached in strategic spots on his body were all that were being monitored.

"Uh, no. Sorry I just can't sleep."

"Would you like a sedative to help you sleep?"

Logan thought for a moment then decided against it.  "No, no thanks."

Logan waited and listened but the disembodied voice didn't respond.  He returned to his bed and lay back down to try again to fall asleep.  The lights dimmed giving off a soft light.

Forty-five minutes later, Logan sat back up in his bed.  The lights came back up.  Instead of getting out of bed he just sat there.  He wasn't going to sleep tonight, and he just wondered if he could find something to help the time pass.

He activated his DNAC and scrolled through his available books and movies.  Nothing stood out to him, so he pulled up the information on Clotho Three and began going through all of the information that the probes and the rover had collected on it so far.

The surface of the exoplanet was about sixty percent water.  The average temperature that the rover had collected was thirty-two degrees Celsius during the day and thirteen degrees Celsius at night.  That would make for a very warm day and fairly cool night.

At night the moisture in the air condensed into a very thick fog.  A day on Clotho Three was thirty-two hours.  Roughly three hours after sunrise the fog would burn off leaving the rest of the day hot and dry.

Clotho Three had two moons; one was rather large and had a fairly small orbit.  It orbited the planet once every four Clotho Three days and was blue and green colored.  The second moon was small, and had a large orbit compared to the first moon.  It orbited at an incredible speed and completed its full orbit in a day and a half.  This second moon was a light grey, much like the color of Earth's moon.

There was much more in the file about Clotho Three, but Logan found he was bored and wanted to read something else.  Logan closed the files and began looking for something else when he opened his messages.

He had forgotten about Jake's spike message, and was pleasantly surprised when seeing the message didn't cause any emotional pain.  He had begun to watch the videos, but had only scratched the surface of the information that was sent to him.

He had left off on a message with the date, March 20th, 2157.  A few seconds of that video had been played but Logan decided to play it from the beginning.  Not wanting the Med Tech to overhear private conversations recorded from his brother meant for his mother he placed some ear buds in his ear and started the message.

"Hey, mom," Jake's face was flushed red with excitement.  "We found something, something in one of the asteroids!"  Logan sat up straight in his bed, he double-checked the time stamp to verify that this had been recorded just days before his shuttle accident that had taken his life.

"We found a large cube, It's about a meter and a half on all sides and black.  We don't know where it came from or who made it.  But our best guess indicated that i was not man made."

Some thing tickled the back of Logan's mind.  He paused the video to focus on that feeling trying to figure it out.  Then it struck him, the description that he just received from Jake matched an object that he had seen several weeks back.  The prototype quantum-tunneling device.  Did Jake and his mining team find the tunneling device?  Or was this a coincidence.

Logan played the rest of the message.  "This could be the first actual proof of alien life that we have ever found!  And your son was among those who found it!  There seams to be some sort of writing on the cube, but he have no idea what it is or... well anything about it really."

There was a pause as Jake visibly tried to calm himself down.  "I will record more onto this message once we know anything else."

The video ended and Logan was dumbfounded.  He knew he was only speculating, but Jake found the tunneling device.  He contemplated this for a brief moment before he had a thought that made him feel very uncomfortable.  Only a few days after this video was made, Jake and the entire mining crew died.  What if it wasn't an accident?

The thought made him want to throw up.  He was suddenly thankful that he had used the ear buds.  If that hadn't been accident then his possession of this information made him a dangerous liability.  He lay back on the bed and tried to calm down and convince himself that he was just being paranoid.

Once he had relaxed a bit he started watching each of the rest of the videos.  Most of them were short, so it didn't take too long.  With each video he became more and more convinced that Jake was indeed talking about the prototype quantum-tunneling device that he saw back in the engineering department.

The more he became sure that it was the same cube, the harder it became for Logan not to be paranoid.  After he had finished watching the video's be started to look though all of the static images that had been uploaded.

The images started out innocent and mundane.  These included pictures of Jake's coworkers, living quarters, and workstation.  Then Logan opened saved images from the mining station's cameras.  These contained images of the asteroid that contained the cube.  Some, of the miners cutting the rock away from the cube.   More of two miner's examining the cube.  Then more of the cube passing through the air lock and into the cargo bay.

Logan had no doubt now that it was in fact the same cube.  His mind tried to use this as proof that Jake had been murdered.  But somehow he was able to contain that thought.  There was nothing in any of the files that showed any act of hostility or sabotage.  He only had speculation.

Logan didn't have long to speculate on that thought, because his concentration was cut short when the door to his room opened.  A station doctor walked into the room followed by Mike.  Mike waited by the door as the doctor started to remove the little adhesive tags that were monitoring Logan's vitals.  Micro transmitters made it possible to receive these readings while not having to be physically connected to a computer.

The doctor unhooked the last of the adhesives and turned to look at Mike.  "He is all yours."  He said before he exited the room.

Mike stepped forward and handed Logan a bundle of clothing, his clothing.

"Thanks," Logan said taking the clothes.

"How are you feeling?"

"I didn't sleep last night, but I'm fine beyond that."

"Are you up for a workout this morning?"

Logan thought about it for a moment.  "No, I don't think so."

"Alright," Mike said.  "Well, get dressed, let's go get something to eat."