I eventually woke up to the sound of the station's Emergency Broadcast System, its piercing tone spiking a terrible headache, like nails being driven into my temples. I was disoriented, so much so that I could barely pull myself up into a sitting position. It felt like the floor was moving... wait, no, the floor was moving. Shaking and vibrating from a rumble that I could feel through the metal panels. The red emergency lighting was on, and this time it was here to stay. The tone from the EBS finally stopped, and a synthesized voice came over the station's PA system. It was the same gentle voice that woke me up with my alarm, this time delivering much more troubling news than 'it's time for work'.
"Attention Hamilton Station personnel. General evacuation orders are underway. Please proceed to your department's designated muster station and await further instructions from your department head."
The tone resumed, and I knew it would be going on a loop for a while. I also knew that if I didn't make it to the muster station then Bhatia would take over the evacuation proceedings for HabEn. If not him, then the person immediately under him, and so on. Thank God for the chain-of-command. Still, I needed to get up. Responsibility or not, I was still sitting on an apparently doomed station. What the hell had happened? It took a moment for me to get my bearings, to see the blown-out equipment, to see the... the bodies. Oh God.
The researchers that had been in R&D with me were scattered in a circle around the stone. Or, more accurately, where the stone had been. The docking clamps holding it in place had been released and the big oblong space rock was just... gone. There was no way that someone just came in here and took it without tending to the scientists, or me for that matter. Right? I used the railing to steady myself and stumbled over to check on the person closest to me. Their protective suit was fried, smoldering and fused to them in places. This couldn't have been because of an electrical discharge. These suits were designed to withstand high voltage, as well as radiation and chemical hazards. Whatever it had been, it looked like it killed the poor bastards outright. All of them were in similar conditions. There wasn't anything I could do for them.
It had been a while since I had seen a dead body up close. It wasn't something that I had expected to see again, nor was it something that I had wanted to see ever. My stomach was doing flip-flops. These people had been alive and talking before I... passed out? What had happened? The more I tried to think of it, the more my head hurt, and the stupid EBS tone wasn't helping. If I focused really hard I could see those dancing colors in the corners of my vision, like fingers creeping around to wrap over my eyes. It hurt too much to linger on it. For all I knew I was suffered some radiation sickness for being too close to that rock without the right protection. The tone reminded me what I should be doing, and the groaning of stressed metal that resonated throughout the pod helped me motivate.
I could still walk, even if I was feeling a little queasy, and I knew exactly where HabEn's muster station was located. Cynthia always took the evacuation drills seriously, something that I was never more thankful for than right at this moment. R&D was located on the opposite side of the station, but it wouldn't take me too long to get there, even at my reduced speed. I stumbled out of the pod, and past the abandoned security checkpoint. It looked like Jeremy didn't want to stick around.
I couldn't blame him.
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