Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean or Characters, they are owned by Tri-Ace and SquareEnix... Likewise, Armored Core is the property of Agetec.
A/N: Let me say this right now and get it out of the way, I will remove this story if it is requested. That said, on with the story...
Silence...How long have I been here?
Does it really matter?
Do I really deserve to live after what I've done?
What have I become?
The mind set itself back into hibernation...
"Ma'am?" A junior officer stared at the panel aboard the Diplo.
"What is it, Silas?" Maria said tiredly. Sure, I disbanded Quark, but somebody has to see this ship back for it's final refit, right? But days turned into months, months into two years. Trading might not be as exciting, but it's a surefire profit after what happened.
Ever since our battle with the creator, everyone's been so distant. Mirage and Cliff went back to Klaus. They write every once and a while, but I miss that lovable oaf, and the woman who tried to raise me.
The Elicoorians decided to return home, Adray and Roger. Albel and Nel. I hear that those two are finally close to hitting it off on the right foot. Good for them, about time, but good for them. Peppita returned to her life in the circus, much to Roger's disappointment. Poor kid.
Adray's still trying to give Clair away, much to her disappointment. Poor Clair, if Adray were my father, I'd knock him one. Wonder if she has...
Sophia and Fayt returned to their families, but Fayt wasn't isn't the same. After that fight, he emerged changed, a shell of himself. He's not as chipper, not as vibrant as he used to be, and Sophia thought that it would be best for him to see his mother. I haven't heard from them since. It's not that I haven't written them, they just don't answer. I don't know why I even try.
Maybe I've changed a little as well, I don't remember doing that for anyone before. The new crew faces are sending me for a spin, but that can't be helped. I've learned to take little things as they come, ask for help when the big things come up. Although, I finally did get rid of Lieber, thank the maker. He finally found himself a girlfriend, can't remember her name though...
"I'm picking up on an object low starboard," Silas answered, interrupting her train of thought again.
"So what's so special about it?" Maria asked. Why can't Marietta be here? She always knew that I needed a little more information than that, even what type of object it is would be nice.
"It's a ship," Silas responded quickly, and furiously began typing, "I think."
"You think?" Maria asked blankly, returning to her thoughts. I don't have much to smile about.
"Well, it's emitting a distress call, but on a frequency that hasn't been used in over a few thousand years. It's frame matches the time period of the frequency. It looks like it's been beat to hell, but there are a few active systems." Silas explained.
"You mentioned a distress call?" Maria asked, stroking her chin thoughtfully. Her interest piqued. A few thousand years? It still works?
"Yes ma'am, I'll play it back." Silas hit a few keys and the view screen changed to show a sparking bridge.
It was evident that the ship had been in a battle, most of the bridge crew appeared to be dead, save a lone person. He was a little over six feet with sand colored hair that got darker as it reached the end. His slate eyes stared into what was presumably a camera, he was bleeding from a gash in his head, making his face white as a sheet. The screen flickered a little and the man spoke through the static.
"Tran...rft...Khalam Sonai...have been hit...eteor show...ost drives and life support...are ... of us...we...pl...selve...in...ion...sources...ny...ear...his...elp us." Slias took the call off the screen.
"That's it ma'am, it just keep repeating."
"How far are we out from transport range?" Maria asked. Those poor people, what were they trying to do?
"20 minutes, Ma'am." Silas responded. Lancar, who was silent with the rest of the bridge crew, spoke up,
"Oh, no, don't tell me..." He trailed off.
"Get us within transporter range and beam me and a small detachment in." Maria ordered, grateful for anything that would serve to break up the monotonous life of a trading vessel. The bridge became a hive of activity. Maria quietly slipped out towards the equipment lockers. Who was that man? His eyes, they seemed stretched, broken.
"We've reached beaming range," the intercom panel spoke in the equipment room. Maria punched the reply button.
"Thank you, have Lancar and two others meet me in the transporter room." Maria picked out a light and a rescue bag and left for the transporter room. I can already hear Lancar's speech about how...
"This is a bad idea," Lancar warned.
"They're probably all dead anyway, loosen up, Lancar," the transporter chief joked.
"That's not what I meant," Lancar sulked, sighing in defeat. In truth he was just as bored as Maria was with the quiet lifestyle they were going through.
"Alright, send us over," Maria spoke, the group stepped into the transporter. A swirl of blue light encircled the group and they were gone...
Aboard the Khalam Sonai, a small sensor pinged at the approaching vessel.
It's subroutines began to try to reawaken the ship from it's sleep, but failed. There was not enough energy available for that.
Over the centuries some of the suspension tubes had failed, killing their occupants until only two remained. One had willingly shut down her suspension tube and implanted her consciousness in the ship's computer.
Is this what it's like to die?
The ship began to summon its meager reserves to recycle what air it could before the main computer shut down for a final time...
A swirling column of light materialized on the bridge of the Khalam Sonai. They turned on their lights to reveal exposed wires, inches of dust, and a slightly metallic smell. Maria looked around the bridge. My word, it is as if time has ceased to pass here. Okay, focus on the message. They were trying to do something.
"Silas, according to records, was there any way to preserve a ship's crew for extended periods of time?" Maria spoke into her headset.
"One moment," typing could be heard through the headset. Silas spoke after a moment, "It appears that the crew on a ship of this size would have some form of cryogenic stasis, it's crude, but it might still be operational."
"Can you try to find us a way there?" She asked. Making contact with any survivors is a time critical objective, and I'm not sure that any of the crew could have survived this long.
"Alright," More typing came through as Silas rescanned the interior of the ship, "There's a problem, we'll have to beam you there directly. Whatever happened to the ship did a real number inside and out the access corridors to the stasis chambers have been breached. Sensors do report that the room itself is fine. Transporting in five."
The group was teleported into vast room that was surprisingly clean. The walls were at a diagonal with tubes lining them as far as the eye could see. Very few of the tubes looked serviceable, many were still open. Maria looked at the far end of the room, the tubes on that side were closed.
"Look down there," Maria said. One of the tubes still had a working display, but the letters were garbled after years of function. After all these years, incredible. Who were you? What was your story?
The small group spread around the closed tubes.
"This one's gone, and this one, and this one too," Lancar went down a row of tubes that contained bleached bones lying on an incline in tattered rags. Maria took the tube that had the readout display, but stopped after several minutes of trying to decipher what was gibberish in any case.
She peered into the tube beyond the readout into the tube and gasped. The man from the recording. Is he still alive, after all this time? Who the hell built a ship that could survive 5000 years? More importantly, why?
"Silas, could you put Dr. Sheshina on this channel?" Maria was speaking into her headset just as the rest of the team had finished searching the other tubes.
"The rest of the tubes are gone, they look like they failed a long time ago." Lancar called from the other end of the tubes.
"Yes, Maria, you needed to talk to me?" Dr. Sheshina was speaking through the headset.
"Are you familiar with stasis equipment? How it works medically?" Maria asked, tapping her foot on the floor.
"It's rather backwards in today's knowledge, but it works. Why?" Sheshia asked.
"We've found a someone in a stasis tube. I need to know, can we transport him from the tube directly or if we need to try to reaninmate him here?" Maria asked. We might have come all this way for nothing if we need to do it here, this ship looks like it's ready to fall apart.
"Hold one while I pull up the information," Sheshina said. Again with the clacking of keys.
"Who is he?" Lancar had appeared behind Maria, staring into the tube with an inquisitive gaze.
"I don't know, but it looks like he is the only survivor of a several thousand year old crew," Maria said, her foot stopped, "I think he's the one from the distress call."
"I think that we can just transport him if his vitals are stable, could you check them please?" Sheshina came back on the line. Thank you for the small favors, assuming that these things were safe.
Maria put her hand to her head and sighed in relief.
"Alright, beam us out," Maria said. Wait, we need to find the computer banks, find out what happened. Ah, let Lancar do it. "Scratch that, four to beam out. Lancar, take one other person and find the computer banks. Find out what happened here." The rest of them beamed out, leaving a rather befuddled Lancar with a confused crewman looking at the empty tube blankly.
"Alright, you heard her," Lancar sighed, and then under his breath, "It's going to be a long day."