Taking SPACE

ANCIENT

Stephanie rubbed her freezing, goosebumps-riddled arms. "Poor man."

Daniel shifted uncomfortably as he stared down at the floor. "He... he looked so broken."

"He witnessed the greatest war crime of his history. Still to this day, it has one the highest estimated death tolls. The universe of his time had never even imagined such a tragedy was possible." Catherine said solemnly.

Steven interjected. "Wait I thought the first destroyed planet was two hundred years earlier."

"It was, but it kept its rotation as it drifted out of orbit. It took the planet over a month to slowly freeze over and die, so most of the civilians were evacuated. The graviton weapon that was used here caused a gravitational pull equal to that of a class five star. It lasted only for a minute, perhaps even a fraction of a second, but during that time it ripped the two nearby planets out of their orbits so violently, it disrupted their spin. Countless died in the first hour, and the co-orbiting planets smashed into each other just four hours later at such speeds that their remains were scattered all over the sector. Out of the billions of people that lived on the planets, only a hundred and eighty thousand eyewitnesses survived."

As Catherine finished speaking, the room felt five times colder.

"And that is why I don't study history!" Daniel exclaimed, shaking himself. "Steven, I feel like every single part of me is frost bitten. While a part of me does feel it's justified when hearing about such a dark time in history, I would like very much to be warm again!"

Steven clenched his hands, trying to keep the blood moving in them. "Aye give me a sec."

Steven looked at the console for a few more seconds, then put one drone arm under it, cutting a small hole. He then used the other arm to insert a pin-sized antenna. "I think it's best if I can establish a direct control from here."

Two screens popped up; they were filled with walls of codes.

"Ah wow man I have hacked governments that had protections only one-tenth this good."

"Can you do it?" Daniel asked.

"I think but only because the ship thinks I'm the dead guy. If he had logged out and the anti-security droids weren't hiding my presence not a chance." Steven said.

He went to work.

Five minutes later, Daniel's teeth began to chatter.

"Ssh I need to think!" Steven scolded.

"Ssoosory... just ssoo ccold"

"Sssh!"

Catherine waved him over, and they hugged, trying to keep warm as she quietly whispered in his ear. "You guys sure like to go from one extreme to the next, don't you? One minute it's so hot I could burn myself touching a wall, now it's so cold that in a few minutes I will have hypothermia."

Daniel smiled, and jokingly whispered back. "Well, if you're going to do something, then do it with all your heart and might."

Catherine let out a soft giggle.

"Grr I have it connected but it won't let me power down the guns because our earlier actions have put it in high alert state. My only option is to turn the whole ship on from the get go." Steven said.

"Can you do it?"

"Yeah but none of us is authorized on the ship... Oh there's an Idea. Never mind give me a few more minutes." Steven went back to work.