Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

17. Fifteen Minutes on Orbital Station Three

Station security officer Becker was about to end his night shift and return to his quarters, when a woman's voice came on over the station's com systems. A fleeting glance at his screen, just as he was about to sign over his duties to the next person in the shift rotation, told him that it was an unannounced, unscheduled global broadcast. Everybody in the city down on the planet's surface would be roused from their sleep because of it.

"Attention, all residents of Aenara. This is not a drill. There has been a security breach. Life support systems have been compromised in the central city. There has been a contamination with a hostile off-world organism that is spreading through the systems. City-wide decontamination is imminent and will be distributed via central ventilation systems. Civilians and all ground personnel, proceed to the nearest emergency cabinet and equip yourself with an oxygen mask. Assist children and the elderly. Make your way to the nearest emergency evacuation shuttle pads and evacuate to orbital stations two, three and six. Station personnel, prepare to receive emergency evacuation shuttles. Oxygen levels will fall below critical threshold in fifteen minutes. Decontamination is imminent. I repeat..."

"What the fuck," Officer Conner voiced what they were all thinking. "What is this, a prank? I don't see anything about a security breach..."

With a furrow on his brow, Becker returned to his station to do a system sweep, but he couldn't come up with anything out of the ordinary. But what was odd was the source of that broadcast. He could not triangulate it back to any of the satellites in orbit. In fact, he could not seem to detect where it was coming from at all.

Around him, chaos broke loose while everyone frantically tried to understand just what the hell was going on. Meanwhile, the broadcast continued to run in a loop that would be received by everyone and anyone in the city. On the planet's surface below, they could soon see the engines of the first shuttles light up, as they accelerated toward orbit.

"This is a catastrophe, we don't even have enough space to accommodate so many people!"

"Where is that broadcast coming from? Which station is sending it?" Commanding Officer Lear yelled.

"This... this is no emergency broadcast," Becker noted, finally making sense of his readings. "The emission pattern doesn't match our signatures. This is not an internal message, Sir."

"Then what the hell is it?" he yelled. "A fucking hailing signal?"

Becker scowled, but his superior's comment gave him an idea. He opened a general comm channel. It was like shouting into a dark forest - he had no idea who he was talking to or where they were, but he just hoped they would answer.

"This is Orbital Station Three, who is sending this broadcast? Identify yourself!"

There was a moment of silence, and they realized that the broadcast had stopped entirely. Then, the voice of the woman resounded through the station again.

"This is Captain Amy Larsson of the Blackstar."

"Who?" somebody asked.

"Larsson? Like the raider?" Conner asked.

"You mean the hacker?" somebody asked.

"Is that the same person?"

"I thought Larsson was a guy," somebody else said.

"I heard she somehow smuggled fifteen tons of aryllian crystal cores out of the Loran belt with nothing but a class AV transit shuttle!"

"I heard she can hack into any computer and break out of any prison with just a bobby pin and a rubber band!"