Ch. 2: Trust and faith

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

Sorry it took so long for me to update. I did manage to get a copy of the original Dead Space in the meantime.

Anyway,

I hope everyone is at least finding some entertainment in my story so far. I apologize for the lack of action in this chapter. I am getting to the action. Please be patient.

Read and review if you want

To say that the warm welcome of the Ishimura was unnerving was an understatement. Having survived not one but two previous visits to the seemingly cursed mining ship, I should have become accustomed to or at least expected for something like that to happen. Glancing around the now silent room, Ellie commented, "That was…odd."

While I did agree with her statement, I did not want to add to the already uneasy atmosphere of the ghost ship. The still-present decontamination tarps and equipment covered the truth from people like Ellie. However, even in its partially cleaned-up state, the Ishimura still retained the creepy atmosphere that I had become so intimate with during those hellish hours above Aegis VII. With my voice muffled by my suit's helmet, I replied, "Just a ship...come on, we need to get to the bridge."

With my makeshift Plasma Cutter at the ready, I moved forward towards the door to the Maintenance Area. As I passed the pair of opposite-facing white tarp-covered benches in the center of the flight lounge, Ellie asked, "Isn't the tram that way?"

Without looking back at my partner, I explained, "She is running on Reserve Power and the majority of the Tram System is damaged. There is another way to get to the bridge through the Maintenance Area." Without verbally acknowledging me, Ellie began to follow me. As if my body was running on autopilot, I found myself eying the two overhead ventilation shafts. It was unlikely that any Necromorphs were onboard. However, there were some habits that would never fade with time or become dormant. After all, what felt to me like only hours earlier, though in reality it had been years, my ordeal had started in this very room and through those very vents.

Inside my mind, I heard a loud crash. Then Chen and Johnston screaming in agony as they were brutally cut down by a nightmarish creature that appeared to be a horribly mutated man. Hammond fired his Pulse Rifle at the unknown assailant as Kendra struggled to get the door open. I could only watch helplessly from the terminal as this nightmare unfolded. Finally, my team was able to retreat through the door that Kendra had managed to get unlocked. Hearing another crash, I looked to my right. There, I saw another one of the horrifying creatures that looked undeniably like a former crew member as it crawled out of the ventilation shaft along the far wall. Kendra screamed at me to run but I was already sprinting down the only available avenue of escape. I did not know where I was going but anywhere was better than there with those creatures.

I shook my head to clear the memories of my arrival from my mind. Forcing myself to continue forward, I quickly reached the door to the Maintenance Area. Luckily, the door was still receiving power and was also still unlocked. As I opened the door with my RIG, Ellie asked with her British-accented voice slightly muffled by her EVA Suit's helmet, "You said that you were here when everyone was killed. What happened?"

Flashes of memory appeared before my mind's eye like a movie as I was forced to relive the events above Aegis VII in an instant. Wanting to keep the past buried as deep as I could get it inside my memories, I replied, "Ellie…I…"

However, she interrupted me by saying, "How are we going to be able to trust each other if you won't even answer my questions about your past? You could at least tell me why you were here when it happened. Did you work here?"

We had moved through the door and now stood at the beginning of the short L-shaped path that was once visible from the waiting room because of the series of clear glass panels that formed a dividing wall between the Waiting Room and the path to the Maintenance Area. However, the tarps now covered all but a small section of broken glass in the first segment of the dividing wall. I mentally sighed. Ellie was right. How could she trust me if I continued to hide things from her?

I turned around and then looked at the battered young woman with whom I had spent the last few hours defying death many times over. She returned it in complete silence as her EVA Suit's glowing blue "eye" bored into me. I explained, "No, I did not work here. Contact was lost with the Ishimura while she was in orbit above Aegis VII. Then, CEC detected the Ishimura's distress signal. CEC asked for volunteers for a repair mission. I signed up as the team's ship systems engineer."

Ellie looked down to the right as she shook her helmeted head for a moment. Then, she looked at me once again as she asked with disbelief in her charmingly accented voice, "Why? Aegis VII was restricted space. You don't strike me as the kind of person who enjoys dangerous assignments."

I replied, "I had a personal reason. There was someone on Ishimura that I was close to."

Nicole's beautiful smiling face flashed before my mind's eye. I prayed that Ellie would not ask who it was that I had gone to Ishimura for. While I had just made peace with her death and my own guilt about her demise, I was not ready to tell my partner about her. I breathed a silent sigh of relief when Ellie was satisfied by my explanation.

As I walked towards the uncomfortably familiar terminal at the other end of the path with the boots of my sleek Advanced Suit making a slightly different sound than the metal thud from my nightmares with every step, I continued, "Ship was dark when we found her. She still had power but it was clear that she was in a bad way. Her engines were offline, her orbit was decaying, and most of her running lights were offline. However, it did not appear that there was any danger and that we could still quickly repair her and then be on our way. We hailed her, but only got a garbled response. We knew to expect that her communication array needed repairs so that did not strike us as odd. Tried to dock inside the Flight Deck but we got hit by a piece of the debris field surrounding the ship as a result of the planet crack. We crashed instead."

By then, I had reached the terminal. The large orange tube on the ground that ran from the white tarp and red tape-covered wall to my left to the other end of the path on my right was crushed beneath my right foot as I stood before the dark diagnostic report terminal. Placing my gloved left hand on the edge of the upper left corner of the dark flat pad, I said out loud, "Come on Ishimura…talk to me, sweetie. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

Ellie commented, "You tell me that it is just a ship but then talk to it…you are a strange man Isaac."

Continuing to hold the corner of the terminal, I replied, "Engineering thing. It helps to talk to the machine."

Somewhat teasingly, she asked, "Does it?"

As if in response to my partner's inquiry, the terminally suddenly flickered to life. I removed my hand as the bright blue projection with "Diagnostic Report" at the top, the CEC logo in the center, and "Scan" at the bottom appeared. As I activated the scan program, I remarked, "These power fluctuations are a good sign at least. She must not be brain dead if she can still reroute the Reserve Power as it is needed."

While the terminal compiled the report, Ellie asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

I explained, "There are bio-scanners on each deck. Ishimura's automated systems must have detected us on this deck and she has been rerouting power to the deck with 'crew members' on it since our arrival."

Seconds later, the automated female voice announced as the terminal changed to show a small model of the ship with various points where damage was detected with notes attached to describe the issue, "Gravity and Life Support on Reserve Power. Primary Systems offline. Tram System offline. Hull breach detected in Main Hanger Bay."

Before I could decide how to best proceed, a sudden loud crash from the Waiting Room shattered the silence. With my makeshift Plasma Cutter at the ready, I quickly turned to aim down the path towards the familiar vent on the far wall. My exhausted body suddenly felt lightweight and energetic as adrenaline flooded my system in anticipation of the coming Necromorph horde. The three blue aiming beams of the surgical tissue cutter pierced the darkness as I waited for them to crawl out of the vent.

Meanwhile, Ellie had her own Plasma Cutter, a genuine 211-V model, aimed towards the vent as well. We waited silently as our ears strained to detect even the softest noise. After nearly a minute, there was nothing. Necromorphs could be tricky and even coordinate ambushes but they had never attempted to be stealthy. They relied upon brutal action and had never, in my experience, deviated from full frontal assault and swarming tactics. Surely if what we had heard had been one of the creatures, it would have found a way to get to us by now.

Confident that the danger had passed, I lowered my weapon back down to my side. Ellie did the same as she said, "Must have been one of pieces of decontamination equipment." I nearly placed my left palm against the three V-shaped eyes of my Advanced Suit's helmet as I remembered the unidentified sounds that had plagued Ishimura during my original visit. These mysterious sounds had usually taken the forms of a distant tool hitting the floor and the aging ship itself giving off a loud groan. However, sometimes, they were more disturbing as they took the forms of people talking, Nicole calling out my name, and a man that either growled or muttered something in a hushed tone.

While I had been driven to believe that these noises were actually the telltale signs of my Marker-induced dementia, now I realized that perhaps the old mining vessel had been the source. After all, she was sixty years old. It was understandable that the workhorse was showing signs of her age through these noises. Regardless, as long as the noises were not caused by Necromorphs, I did not care. I had destroyed the Marker that I had created but I was not going to take any chances. We would have to stay on our guard.

Ellie turned and looked at me. When I met her gaze, she asked, "So, what happens now? With Life Support on Reserve Power and with EarthGov's soldiers coming to find us, I guess this is it then?"

I reassured her, "Hey, we are still alive aren't we? All we have to do is restore the ship's Primary Power. If we do that, the Primary Systems will be restarted and Life Support will be restored."

She asked, "How do we do that?"

Walking towards the nearby door that allowed access to the all too familiar hallway that led to the cargo elevator, I explained, "The engines are offline. If we can get them restarted, the ship's generators will restart and begin supplying the ship."

Following behind me, Ellie asked, "What makes you think there is fuel in the tank?"

I sighed and then replied, "Come on, Ellie. You know that it is standard practice to routinely allow an engine to run if only for a short period of time so that it can turn over."

She said in response, "Right…"

Opening the door, I said, "Let's get to Engineering before the Reserve Power runs out." The door opened to reveal the dimly lit hallway that was almost entirely covered by white tarps and red tape. The ladder and generators were still where they had been the last time that I had proceeded down the hallway. The bright light that had been left by the decontamination crew on the right side of the hallway just before the blind left turn was still flickering. However, the large dual work light at the end of the hallway that had been illuminating the wall, which had been in the process of being steamed, now failed to produce any light.

Sighing, I powered on my makeshift weapon's flashlight as I aimed my Plasma Cutter down the hallway. With my own source of light illuminating the hallway, I started to make my way to the left turn. In order to keep my own nerves in check as miscellaneous noises continued to haunt the otherwise eerily silent ghost ship, I continued, "We soon discovered that the Ishimura had been seemingly abandoned by her crew. However, with our ship's port booster destroyed, we continued with the mission to repair the ship. We entered the Flight Lounge and I ran the diagnostic on the ship."

By then, we had reached the turn. Turning to the left, I saw the slight descent to the next level of the hallway as it disappeared beyond another blind turn, this one to the right, at the bottom of the ramp. Beyond the ramp, I saw the large blood stain at the base of the wall-mounted vent that had been covered by a white tarp. A thick round tube ran down the ramp and connect to the steam generator that was on the floor just to the right of the blood stain.

Since the work lights were no longer functioning, I continued to use my weapon's flashlight to illuminate the path. Walking down the ramp, I continued, "After I ran the diagnostic, we found that the ship was in even worse shape than she is now. However, before we could leave the Flight Lounge, the ship's automated quarantine system activated. Then, some kind of creature entered through the vents. Before we knew what was happening, two of us were killed. That just left our Senior Security Officer, Hammond, our Computer Specialist, Kendra, and me. Hammond and Kendra escaped through the door in the Flight Lounge that led to the Tram Station. I escaped down this hallway as a Necromorph chased me."

Turning right, I led the way past the open storage room and to the nearby second right turn. As I moved towards the door at the end of the hallway, I continued, "After we reestablished contact with each other, we decided to continue the repair mission despite the creatures. I repaired the Tram System so that Kendra and Hammond could get to the bridge. However, when I went back to our ship, I was attacked by the Necromorphs. They destroyed our ship and means of escape. For the next few hours, we repaired the Ishimura back to being functional though the Necromorphs and a crazed Unitologist tried to stop us."

Opening the door, I found the cargo elevator that had been my salvation during that initial welcome to Ishimura. It was nestled between a large white tarp that took up the entirety of the surrounding platform save for the upper left and right corner where multiple steam, electrical, and water tubes had been placed to run down to the lower level to feed the equipment down there. To the right along the wall just before the elevator, there was a large, partially cleaned-up blood stain along a portion of the wall that had not been covered by a tarp.

I moved towards the elevator with my flashlight still being the only source of illumination other than the faint light being projected from my helmet's visor. Upon reaching the two sliding doors of the cargo elevator, I found that the lift was offline. I was momentarily discouraged until, seconds later, the holographic indicator turned blue as Ishimura's systems rerouted power to the elevator. I opened the doors and entered the bare skeletal steel elevator. Once Ellie had joined me, I pressed the "down" button on the interface with my RIG. The elevator's door slammed shut and the lift began to descend.

As we traveled down through the darkness, I continued, "Eventually, I found out that the CEC Mining Facility had uncovered an artifact on Aegis VII known as the Red Marker. Unitologists believed that it was proof of their beliefs and had secretly worked with the Ishimura's captain, a devout follower, in assuring that the ship's crew was largely comprised of followers and sent the ship out to retrieve the artifact as covert mission in addition to the ship's mission to harvest the precious mineral-rich planet of Aegis VII."

The elevator arrived at the lower level. The doors opened to reveal the dark, eerie maintenance room. The largely untouched room only had a few tarps and, looking towards the far left corner, I saw that the old work table where I had found my Plasma Cutter and the sign above it that had the bloody message of "Cut off their limbs" were still in place.

Leading the way towards the door directly across from the elevator, I continued, "I was informed that the Marker was in the ship's cargo hold and that if we returned it to the pedestal on the planet, the Necromorphs would be contained. I repaired an executive shuttle, though it cost the life of Hammond, and located the Marker inside the hold. I loaded it into the shuttle and then went to take the Marker to the planet. It was then that Kendra betrayed me and revealed herself to be a government agent sent to retrieve the Marker."

After opening the door and proceeding with my flashlight illuminating the dark, tarp-covered hallway, I continued, "Kendra abandoned me here after explaining that the Marker found on Aegis VII was, in fact, man-made and had been reverse engineered from a true alien artifact discovered on Earth hundreds of years ago known as the Black Marker. The experiment on the planet had gone horribly wrong and the system was quarantined. Later, CEC found it by accident while surveying the planet because of its rich deposits of precious minerals. Unitologists set the whole thing nightmare into motion…first on the colony and then finally in the Ishimura because they believed that the Marker was divine. EarthGov wanted the Marker for themselves and sent Kendra to retrieve it for them."

Making my way through the winding path, I explained, "I used the shuttle's remote recall in the control room in the Main Hanger Bay to bring the shuttle back. Kendra escaped to the planet through the escape pod. I piloted the shuttle down to the colony and returned the Marker to its pedestal. For a moment, it seemed to contain the infection. Then Kendra showed up and revealed that I had been tricked by the Marker itself to return it to its pedestal on the planet so that it could begin a Convergence Event. The Marker's Convergence Event had damaged the gravity tethers holding the tectonic load above the planet in place. Kendra left me to die as she took the Marker to the shuttle. I caught up to her just in time to see her get killed by the Hive Mind that was controlling the Necromorphs. Killed the Hive Mind and escaped the planet in the shuttle just in time."

By then, we had reached the door that allowed access to the Tram Control Room. Once again, it took a moment before the ship's systems were able to reroute the available power to the door. Opening it, I found the now completely powerless control room that had the control panels for the offline Tram System. Through the cracked windows, I could see the Tram Station where Kendra and Hammond had once stood. I walked over to the nearest window. Then, looking through its cracked surface where I could see the reflection of my Advanced Suit's unique visor, I finished, "Tiedmann's agents found me in the shuttle not far from the space around Aegis VII. Next thing I knew, I was being awakened by a man inside my cell on Titan Station just before he was killed and turned into a Necromorph. Escaped from the facility, made my way to someone that helped me escape, was then betrayed by said person who was really a Unitologist that wanted me to make Markers for them, escaped when an EarthGov gunship attacked us, wandered for about an hour trying to make my way to the Government Sector, eventually walked one giant circle, and that's when I found you."

I could see the bright light of the visor of Ellie's EVA Suit behind me in the reflection in the window as she said, "And now your back here where it all started."

After sighing, I replied, "Yeah…one big fucking circle."

She said softly, "You think you're the only one?"

I assured her, "No, of course not. That's not what I meant."

She assured me in turn, "I know…and I'm sorry that happened to you…but, just remember that you aren't the only one."

I turned and looked at her before I replied, "I know, Ellie."

After nodding her head for a moment, she asked with a soft tone, "Did you find the person that you came here for?"

Isaac, it's me. I wish I could talk to you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything. I wish I could talk to someone...it's all falling apart here; I just cannot believe what's happening. It's strange…such a little thing. In the end, it all comes down to just one little thing...

I didn't want it to end like this. I really wanted to see you again...just once. I love you. I always loved you.

Shaking my head, I replied with a flat tone, "No." Then, I started walking towards the door at the other end of the control room. Sharing my story with Ellie, however vague the details had been, at least for the time being had lifted a weight off my shoulders. As far as I knew, I was the only survivor of the Aegis VII Incident and now one of only two survivors of the Titan Station Incident. Perhaps, there was a reason why I had survived when countless others had not. Perhaps not. Either way, it would have been in vain if I could not get the Primary Power restored in time.

As I opened the door to reveal the tarp-covered walls of the short path to a second door that had not been there during my original visit, I asked, "So…what about you?"

Following behind me, Ellie explained with her British accented voice, "Well, not much to tell really. Decent family…good friends…teenage heartbreak and joy…found a passion for operating big machines…got certified...hired by CEC soon afterwards…eventually wound up on Titan Station. I know that you found those logs left by my crew so there isn't much point in telling you about them."

Opening the door with my RIG, I was met by the nearly unrecognizable hallway that had the offline automatic cargo track running down the center of the floor. Revealed by the flashlight of my makeshift weapon, nearly the entire passageway had been covered by tarps, decontamination equipment, and work lights. Moving towards the ramp on the right, I said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Ellie."

Confused, she asked, "About what?"

Descending the ramp, I explained, "I thought I had destroyed the Red Marker and ended it, but because I survived, all I did was spread the nightmare to the rest of the Universe. What happened on Titan Station was because of me. From what I learned in Government Sector, it seems that EarthGov has other Markers in facilities in the entire Universe."

I heard Ellie's footsteps fall silent and turned around. I saw her a few steps behind me. She was looking at me in complete silence. I lowered my Plasma Cutter so that only her booted feet were visible as I waited for her to say something. Finally, she asked, "So, what happened on Titan will happen again?"

I sighed and then replied, "Yes. EarthGov thinks that they can control the Markers and use them as sources of limitless energy…eliminate the need for ships like Ishimura…save humanity from itself…but they are wrong, Ellie. Don't believe anything that they say. They don't know what they are dealing with. The Markers are not what they appear."

I saw her cock her head to the right for a moment as she asked, "What do you mean? I am getting the impression that these Markers aren't just fancy rocks that glow and make monsters."

Turning to look back down the ramp, I replied, "I'll explain later. Let's get the engines started so that we have power. After that, we can assess the systems to see what needs fixing."

From behind me, I heard her say, "Right behind you."

After a short walk through the eerily silent Tram System tunnel, part of which had been filled by a plastic-walled tunnel by the clean-up crew, we reached the base of the Engineering Deck Station. I audibly cursed when I saw the powerless lift that I had hacked in my previous trip to get to the station above us. Realizing what I had to do to get the lift working again, I walked over to the access panel that I had hacked earlier. After tearing off the tissue laser of my Plasma Cutter, I wired the flashlight into the lift's power supply. It would drain the flashlight completely but the cell would power the lift long enough for us to use it to get to the station.

Leaving the useless flashlight in the exposed access panel, I joined Ellie on the descended lift's platform. Ellie was using the built-in flashlight of her 211-V Plasma Cutter to illuminate the platform for me. As I stood next to her, she commented, "You are really good with machines." I shrugged as I used my RIG to activate the lift.

As it ascended, I informed her, "I get it from my father."

My partner was silent for a moment before she asked, "Wait a second…Tiedmann called you Clarke…your father wouldn't happened to be Poul Clarke the renowned ship builder…would he?"

The lift arrived at the station. Stepping out onto the familiar steel platform with the glass-enclosed waiting area dominating the right side and the entrance to the deck on the left, I replied, "I only know my father by name. Never saw him growing up except when I was four and I don't remember most of that. He disappeared…a long time ago. I don't even know if he is still alive. EarthGov has denied my requests for information about him and I haven't spoken to my mother in years."

Walking beside me to illuminate the dark station for me, Ellie asked, "Why not?"

Standing before the powerless door that allowed access to the deck itself while I waited for Ishimura to reroute the power, I explained, "My mother gave all of my father's assets to the Unitologists so that she could become a high-ranking member. I didn't get any of it. I didn't even have enough to attend the prestigious University that had invited me due to my test scores. I had to attend a lesser institution to become a Ship Systems Engineer. The only reason I got anywhere was because I was so gifted with machines and devising original solutions to complicated problems that people took notice and stuck their necks out for me. Otherwise, the only good my schooling would have been would be to wipe my ass with it."

Electrical humming filled the air as a holographic blue circle appeared in the center of the door. I opened it and began to make me way through the tight path to the Control Room for the deck. As we walked beside each other, Ellie said sympathetically, "Maybe you should go a little easy on your mother. I mean, losing a husband is hard to cope with. I don't think she did it to spite you."

I replied with a bitter tone, "She didn't think about her own son's future…only thought about herself."

We had reached the control room with the large circular area in the center had had the control panels for the various systems and a holographic projector that had once indicated the ship's orbit around Aegis VII. To the left was the elevator that went down to the Gravity Centrifuge. To the right was the store and beyond it was the tarp-covered door that allowed access to the dark section of the deck that had the fuel pump stations. To the left of the circular area was the door that led to the ship's Engine Room and the airtight entrance to Fuel Storage.

After we had been standing in the center of the Control Room for a moment, the lights flickered to life as well as the control panels and holographic projector. Pushing aside the forest of work lights in the center of the circular area, I sat down the in the bloody left seat in front of the control panels. Raising my hands up to the control panels, I began to check the status of the various systems. However, as I went through the reports, my worst fears were confirmed.

I remarked, "Shit…that's what I was afraid of."

Moving to stand directly behind me, Ellie asked, "What? No fuel?"

Ignoring the irritating feeling of having someone looking over my right shoulder, I replied, "No. The tank is a quarter full...fucking of course it is, which is enough to fuel the ship for nearly a month. The problem is that the ship's Reserve Power is only at one percent capacity. The clean-up crew must have been running the ship off of the power from Titan Station so Ishimura never got the chance to refill her own battery banks. I drained most of what the ship had when I used the Gravity Tethers."

Ellie asked with a worried tone, "So, the ship doesn't have enough power to turn over its engines?"

I sighed before I replied, "Well, she does…but…"

Ellie questioned, "But what?"

I explained, "We have to divert all the power left in Ishimura's Reserve Power to allow one chance for the engines to turn over. If they don't fire, then the ship will be completely out of power and we will suffocate before we can make it back to the gunship."

My partner remarked, "Even if the engines fire, it will take a moment for the generators to get the Life Support turned back on."

I assured her, "Yes, but it should be in about a minute. The power lines are likely damaged and it will take the ship's automated systems a few seconds to bypass the damaged sections, but it should still be only about a minute before Life Support is back on. The Computer Core has its own backup so it will not go offline in the minute it will take for the Primary Power to be restored."

Ellie remarked with a worried tone, "That's…a pretty big risk…entrusting our lives to this sixty year old ship and its engines."

She was right, of course. The engines and systems had been in remarkable condition considering their age when I had fixed them three years ago. However, since miraculously surviving the Aegis VII Incident, she had been adrift in space for an unknown amount of time before being discovered and taken to Titan Station. The control panels indicated that the massive engines were in operational condition and the fuel sensors indicated that the pumps were in working order. However, we would only get one shot at starting the engines.

If they misfired or if the generators were not in operational condition, then we would certainly die inside the dead ship. If we tried to use the gunship to escape, we would die. It was certain death versus possible death. I had faith in Ishimura. Despite her age, she had been built to last much longer. After all, the human race had been nearly extinct from lack of resources when they built her. We had put everything into this one mighty ship so that she could be our salvation. When she succeeded in her first planet crack and brought back metric tons of resources, the entire human race welcomed her into their hearts with open arms as they proclaimed her "The Savior of Humanity".

Now, she had come full circle. Once again, she was needed to save humanity. EarthGov would doom the human race to extinction playing with the Markers unless we could stop them. To that end, perhaps there was indeed a reason why I had lucky enough to survive when others had not. However, before all of that, the first step was to get the engines started. I looked away from the control panels and examined Ellie's EVA Suit. The flimsy suit with its loose-fitting skin was hardly suited to the hazardous conditions of the Engineering Deck.

Noticing that I was examining her, Ellie asked, "Do you like what you see?"

Undaunted, I replied, "No. That suit isn't meant to be in anything other than a Level One Environment. You need a suit that is at least able to withstand a Level Two…" I trailed off as I noticed that the Store was not projecting the image of Titan Station. Instead, it was projecting a flickering image of Ishimura.

Acting somewhat put off by my comment, Ellie asked with an annoyed tone, "What now?"

I glanced down at the suit that I was wearing. The Advanced Suit was indeed flashy and futuristic compared to what I was accustomed to wearing. Moreover, despite its advanced construction, I had found that it had not proven itself to be a replacement for another suit that I had become attached to during my time on Ishimura. With the connection to Titan Station gone, the ship's store must have defaulted to the ship's inventory. That meant that it would have what I was looking for and would also likely have a real Schofield Tools 211-V Plasma Cutter.

I looked back at my partner and then remarked, "You can have my suit."

Ellie replied, "What about you?"

I explained, "Don't worry, I've got that covered." Then, I informed her, "Now, this suit is skintight so you are going to have to take off everything except your underwear." Despite her EVA Suit's helmet preventing me from seeing her face, I could feel the dagger that her eye gave me. I sighed before I said, "Come on, Ellie. This is not the time to act like a child. There is no one else here except me and we are both adults. We do not have much time so just undress so we can get this over with."

Reaching up to remove her suit's helmet, Ellie remarked, "Fine…" As she removed her EVA Suit and civilian clothing, I removed my Advanced Suit and RIG. However, to my shock, when I removed my suit, I found that I was not wearing any underwear. It took me a moment to remember that I had been in a straightjacket and part of the safety protocols for the program was that we were not issued underwear of any kind due to the fear that we would asphyxiate ourselves or others using the elastic bands. It was overkill due to the fact that we were restrained in straightjackets and also in drug-induced dazes but Tiedmann was not going to leave anything to chance.

"Oh God, Isaac, what happened to your neck?" I glanced up to see Ellie looking at me with a concerned expression on her dirtied but still attractive face.

I reached up to my neck with my bare right hand and felt the impressions of where my Patient Suit's Intravenous Lines had been driven into my body in multiple places in the shape of a large circle. Lowering my hand, I explained with a flat tone, "It's nothing…just where they had the lines to inject drugs into us." I placed my RIG back on my bare frame and, after collecting the Advanced Suit from the ground, I stood and walked over to my partner.

Despite my desire to look at her wounded but still beautiful, toned, and tanned frame that admittedly possessed more physical strength and femininity than what Nicole had, I handed her the suit before walking over to the Store. The feeling of air on my bare skin was uncomfortably foreign to me as I had become accustomed to the reassuring feeling of being in a self-contained pressured suit. Moreover, the odor of cleaning agents and sterile air was almost enough to make me nauseous as it instantly reminded me of the facility that I had been locked up like an animal in for the last three years.

Upon arriving at the Store, I logged in using my RIG. The automated female voice announced, "Welcome back to the USG Ishimura, CEC Engineer Isaac Clarke. Last log in date: 2508. Error: Unable to download current status. Current RIG incompatible with on-board Store. Item…Advanced Suit…not identified and no schematics detected in RIG inventory. Altering RIG to last known loadout." The Store's shutters opened for me to enter and receive the last loadout that I had logged out with nearly three years prior when I had visited the Store on the Flight Deck just before departing for the colony. I entered the Store's interior and turned around. I got a quick sight of the attractive rear contours of Ellie's partially Advanced Suit-clad body as she had her back to me before my limbs were restrained and the shutters closed.

A bright light overwhelmed my eyes and I was forced to close them. Seconds later when I was able to open them, I saw the indescribably satisfying sight of my body being clad in the heavily armored Advanced Engineering Suit through the four reinforced viewing slits of the heavy copper one-piece helmet.

More like a suit of combat armor, the Advanced Engineering Suit was the pinnacle of protection and the very best that any Engineer could wear. Its signature ribbed copper armor covered both legs and both arms as well as the entirety of the back and front of the wearer's torso. The wearer's knuckles were also protected by a copper knuckle guard. The thick copper helmet that surrounded the wearer's head was complete with the complex design of the visor, which comprised of four slits, though a noticeable vertical beam of light was formed down the center of the visor and functioned as the "fifth" line that indicated that it was a Level 5 Suit.

Compared to the Advanced Suit that now completely covered Ellie's frame in a very revealing skintight manner, the Advanced Engineering Suit was a robust low-tech brute. The only modern aspect of this suit as the underlying black skin that was self-sealing in case something pierced the copper armor. Being pressurized, it also carried a built-in oxygen supply for EVA assignments or in case of extremely toxic environments.

As I stepped out of the Store, the dull heavy thud of my heavy gravity boots filled the air. Though I had never used them, my gravity boots also had built-in thrusters just like the Advanced Suit. During my original visit three years prior, I had not used my suit's thrusters due to the confined space and fear of drifting too far away from the relative sanctuary of the mining ship. Feeling the familiar object in my right hand, I looked down and smiled beneath my copper façade at the 211-V Plasma Cutter in my grasp. I had lost the one that I had found on the bloody workbench during my escape from the colony so Ishimura had given me a stock replacement.

Hearing the Advanced Suit's helmet assembling itself like a jigsaw puzzle, I looked over at Ellie. The skintight suit now accentuated her every feature, giving the uniform a very feminine appearance. As she cupped her breasts and then traced the contours of her flat stomach with her gloved hands, Ellie commented, "This feels…odd." Then, looking at me through her suit's three intimidating V-shaped bright blue eyes, she asked, "You are going to choose that dinosaur over this?"

Before I could reply, Ishimura alerted us through the automated female that sounded strangely like Nicole, "Warning! Reserve Power approaching critical levels! Restart engines to restore Primary Power!"

Moving towards the heavy circular airtight entrance to the path that lead to the Engine Room, I said, "Come on, we don't have much time!" When I reached the thick circular door that allowed access to Fuel Storage and the Engine Room, I waited for Ishimura to reroute the power. When the blue holographic circle appeared in the center of the airtight door, I used my RIG to open it and then entered the small airlock chamber beyond. We did not have much time. EarthGov was closing in on our location and we only had precious minutes left before the ship was completely out of power. Getting the engines started was our only chance to survive this new nightmare.