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-
- Station Escape
- An ACK-3D Demonstration
-
-
- Slowly, ever so slowly, your eyes begin to focus as you awaken from the cold
- sleep of cryogenic freeze. Every muscle in you body is screaming at you to stay
- right where you are, but you know you need to move around to get the circulation
- started. You shiver as your body temperature rises above freezing back into the
- normal range for the living. Your head still hasn't cleared but it seems that
- something is amiss. Nobody is here, at least in the field of vision you care
- to try and see. Rubbing your neck you begin looking around the cryogenic lab.
- Nothing, nobody, nowhere. Odd, the entire thawing process must have been
- done by the central computer, but why? And then you hear it. The station's
- alarm klaxon sounding the evacuation tone. Still groggy, you remember the
- briefing before you went into freeze, "Should the station require evacuation,
- the computer will automatically bring everyone out of frozen sleep."
-
- Great, now you knew why you were awake and why nobody else was around. But
- what the hell was going on! Why was the station being evacuated and why didn't
- somebody at least stay to make sure the thawing process was okay?
- AND WHY DOESN'T SOMEBODY SHUT OFF THAT ALARM! Your head was now throbbing to
- every pulse from the klaxon, contributing to the overall feeling of someone
- placing your head into a vise. Then, just as you felt like screaming, the
- alarm silenced.
-
- With renewed energy you begin making your way to the main shuttle bay, the
- only means of escape from the orbiting space station. The corridors are empty
- as you trudge along, still not fully recovered. Walking up to a computer
- terminal, you stare at the writing scrolling off the screen.
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- EVACTUATE.....EVACUATE.....EVACUATE
-
- All hands are ordered to evacuate the
- station immediately. Orbital decay is
- emminent. Shuttle Two is standing by
- for boarding.....
-
- EVACTUATE.....EVACUATE.....EVACUATE
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- What! Orbital decay? What in blue blazes is going on! The next screen stops
- you cold and sends a shiver down your spine......
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Shuttle Two away. All shuttles
- launched. Beginning station shutdown
- according to evactuation protocol.
- Shuttle Five non-operational and
- left in shuttle bay.
-
- Station will enter upper layer
- of atmosphere in
-
- 2 Hrs, 0 Min, 23 Sec
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- And then, while you read and reread the screen, the computer shuts the
- terminal down and leaves you staring at nothing but static. ALL SHUTTLES
- LAUNCHED replays itself in your mind over and over as your gaze falls from
- the meaningless static of the screen down to the cold metal floor at your feet.
- All shuttles, except for a non-operational number Five.
-
- Slowly you look up and realize that you had to get to that shuttle, and you
- had only two hours to do it or you might as well crawl back into your cold tube
- and drift off into endless sleep.
-
- A noise brings you out of your dreamy stupor. What was it? Are you really
- alone here on the station? Now that you thought about it, didn't you notice
- there were still people in the cryo-tubes? Should you wake them up or go on
- alone? Why weren't they awakened as part of the evacuation proceedure? What
- made the station go out of orbit? What if the parts needed for the shuttle
- were not available?
-
- Turning around, you begin to scan the cold metal walls of the station....
-
-
-
- ===============================================================================
-
-
- Station Escape pits you against the clock in a race to try and repair the
- one remaining shuttle before it's too late. Parts for the shuttle are available
- if you can find them and get them to the shuttle bay to make repairs. You later
- find that general mayhem occurred during the evacuation and certain systems are
- not functioning quite like they should. In fact they seem to be trying to keep
- you from your goal of escaping. Is there more going on than meets the eye?
-
-
- Lary Myers
- 76004,1574 (CIS account)
-
-