Wayward Guardian

Solar Array Storage Bay

‘James, last load here for you, where do you want it?’ asked a crewman with a levitating cargo pallet.

‘Just in that corner,’ James said, pointing to the spot he wanted it. He was bending over a piece of equipment on the floor, sorting out parts.

Two security guards stood by the doors to the bay, looking rather uncomfortable at the unexpected change in plans, but keeping it to themselves after having been told to let this pass.

James didn’t know what the captain told them, but he knew what he’d been told and knew that his task was a vital one.

He heard the crewman drop the pallet to the ground and leave. A few minutes later, the communication panel by his workstation chimed.

James stood up and walked towards it. His body ached at the standing, still recovering from the incident that claimed Samuel Jennings life.

James sat down in his chair and turned on the communication system, ‘Hello. James Bennet here.’

‘James, it’s Mark, we’re ready to separate your bay from the command links. Do you need anything else?’

‘The last of the supplies were brought in a few minutes ago. I’m ready to go. Are we still on schedule?’

‘Separation in T-minus 30 minutes. You’ll hear a klaxon sound before we cut you loose from the ship.’

‘Alright, go ahead and sever the links, I’ll run through the check of the bay’s systems and get one of my aides to report back.’

‘Roger that James, bridge out.’

James stood up and turned to the people gathered in the bay, ‘Listen up ladies and gentlemen! We will be switching to our own systems now, the bridge is separating us from the ship’s systems.’

The lights went off and then came back on again as the bay’s own generators took over.

‘There will be a momentary lapse in your quality of living, so please bear with us.’ He said to a few chuckles.

‘That said, we still have plenty of work to do. We’ve got to get ourselves ready to leave the nest.’

Bridge

‘Commander Jona!’ called out a bridge officer from her station,

‘What is it, Lieutenant?’ Mark said as he walked over.

‘Something odd. Just as we were disconnecting the Solar Array Storage Bay from the power grid, a power surge came up the line towards it. It was literally three seconds after we severed the link.’

‘How bad was it?’

‘Melted the junction to the bay. Fried the automated systems that severed the link. If it had still been linked, it would have ended badly for us.’

Mark put a hand to his head and massaged his forehead, ‘Thank you. Let’s hope we get landed before the ship falls apart. Keep me posted.’

‘Aye, sir.’

Sabotage attempt failed.

Power surge generation took too long.

Links to bay offline.

External interaction no longer possible.

Solution: use internal interaction.

Deploy Ayla into the bay.

A plan will be needed for sabotage.

Generating a plan to incapacitate James Bennet using Ayla as an agent.

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Plan generated.

Execute plan.