Chapter 2: Alone on the bridge

Eli had gone over the decking inch by inch and hadn't spotted a trapdoor. He had gone to the floor below and hadn't spotted an access panel in the ceiling. But he knew there was a section of stasis pods there because Destiny said so. There was a hub on the blueprint.

It would make sense to keep the stasis pods of key personnel shielded and hidden. Those in stasis were vulnerable. The ship might be boarded by unfriendlies, after all.

Frustrated, he went back to the bridge and sat down in the command chair. He pulled the command console forward. He'd have to ask for Destiny's help.

Asking for help was tricky. Destiny's computer, though well advanced of those on Earth, was basic by Ancient standards. It wasn't interactive, like he'd heard the hologram on Atlantis is. You had to know exactly what to ask and how to phrase your question. In fact, it was a bit like using Unix when you'd got used to Mac OS X. And it was even more difficult because he wasn't fluent in Ancient.

He brought up the updated blueprints and clicked on the hidden hub under the bridge. He managed to ask for detailed information. A load of information filled the screen and some of it was contradictory. For example, ten pods were attached to this hub, with only a two-pod redundancy. He started running the diagnostic program on those pods, to see if they were fully operational. But he still didn't know how to access them.

Since a complete analysis would take fifteen minutes, Eli decided to see if he could access the stasis pods in the clinic and gate room.

The gate room, two floors down, was closer. He went immediately to the console that functioned as a DHD and started looking from there. The DHD console was on a landing with flights of stairs on either side opposite the gate. The area below each set of stairs was enclosed and from the blueprint this seemed to be where the hub was located. That would make sense. All space on a ship has to be utilized, after all. If he'd thought about it at all, he'd assumed it was storage. Maybe it was an armory.

But, again, there was no obvious door, or someone would have opened it.

Eli realized he was thinking like a modern human, not an Ancient. He went back to the DHD console and typed in his search query again. As an afterthought, he added the command code.

And apparently that was the key. Like the Ancient version of a right click.

This time when he clicked on the hub in the blueprint and asked for detailed information, a new item appeared: intrare histacia kamara. Apparently Ancient for "enter stasis chamber." The chamber held six stasis pods.

Eli clicked on it.

Three soft chimes sounded behind him, then he heard a whisk. A panel of the wall had opened to an elevator. As soon as he got on, the doors closed and immediately opened again to the hidden room. There were six stasis pods there, sure enough, but that wasn't all. There were also six EVA suits, a console, which wasn't booted, and what appeared to be a large container of Ancient survival supplies. And hand weapons; it was an armory after all. There was another large piece of equipment there, too, but Eli couldn't even guess what it was for.

He decided to start a diagnostic on the pods, though they wouldn't hold everyone from his group, then check out the clinic. When he looked at the elevator, it wasn't there. It seemed to have reverted to a wall. He tamped down his panic and looked closer, holding the glow stick high. There were eight buttons, little more than raised bumps, subtly placed inside a piece of art shaped like a large single paisley figure.

He touched one and heard a soft chime. It didn't sound like one of the notes he'd heard upstairs, either.

Gak.

The elevator, the only exit, was sealed with a musical combination lock, and Eli was no musician.