Arrogate 5 Adalyn, gasping for breath, dropped her bag on the floor of her new room. She moved to the bunk and lay down on the bottom bed. "So worth it."Samantha sat on the bridge looking at the projection of the ship's location relative to the star system. The view showed the ship close to the marked point beneath the orbital plane. Luke stood behind her as he turned to address the sensor officer. "Query the beacon." The sensor officer worked at his screen before presenting a response. "The beacon reports that the point is safe to open. We will be at the projected event horizon in thirty-four minutes and thirty seconds. The tunnel is expected t
Arrogate 4 Adalyn lightly knocked on the open door to Luke's office. "Commander, can I talk to you?" Luke looked up from the screen resting on his desk and waved her in. "What's on your mind?" As Adalyn approached the desk, Luke pointed toward the immediate left of the door. Adalyn stopped and followed the gesture to its target, a small metal chair. She walked over to it and sat down, then looked back to Luke who was waving her toward himself. Adalyn got up and walked back toward the desk as Luke sighed. "You can bring the chair over here, Miss Madaas." Adalyn emitted a soft "ohhhh" and dragged the chair close to the desk. She sat down in
Arrogate 3 "Miss Madaas?" Adalyn, wearing a one-piece grey jump suit bearing a blue logo of a ringed planet, sat on the floor reading a book, what little there was of her dark red hair pinned away from her face. At the question she looked up from her book to see a tall man in a uniform addressing her. "Yes, that's me. Who are you?" Adalyn clambered to her feet. "I'm Luke Zari, first officer of the Megaptera. I'm going to be riding up with you in your pod." He gestured towards the tunnel next to where Adalyn had been sitting. Adalyn suddenly felt very nervous, and quickly flipped to an earlier part of her book. Finding what s
Arrogate 2 "So what kind of technical experience do you have, Miss..." The recruiter looked up from his form, his eyebrow raised, expecting Erin to finish the sentence. "Sirge," Erin replied, then expounded "S-I-R-G-E. I'm sorta good at computers. I can turn them on and type a document.""Do you have any mechanical skills?" Erin thought for a moment. "I changed some car parts with my dad a couple times. Mostly air filters and stuff.""Good enough. When can you come in for a psychological evaluation?""Any time; the sooner the better. Wait, that's enough experience? I was concerned you'd send me away telling me to get a degree in space
Arrogate 1 Erin, gasping for breath, leaned against the wall of the sewer. She panted for a few seconds, and then heard a crackling noise echoing through the tunnels. Her vision darted around, trying to find the source of the noise. Several meters back in the direction she had run from she could see the pitch-black corridors starting to light up, revealing thin walkways parallel to a recessed flow of sludge and an arching concrete ceiling. Erin felt her way along the wall, away from the light, until about a meter down she found an intersection. She continued down the perpendicular path, but she could hear the footsteps growing louder. Hoping to find som
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