“Got it!” sounded the young man and the beam of the one of the flashlights went sliding further down the narrow corridor, going to the left of the airlock.
“Give me some light here,” the captain pointed Jane towards a small control panel at the entrance to the next compartment.
“It’s broken,” said the girl sadly.
“We’ll short-circuit it,” decided Paul.
After a couple of simple moves, the portal door slid open. Behind the door it was completely in darkness as well; the attention attracted only by a tiny flickering green light in the corner.
“Captain,” Oleg’s voice could be heard from the earphones. “The preliminary diagnostics have been performed; the ship supplies only the life-support systems of the biological object. I wouldn’t risk providing it with energy from our shuttle, it’s too dangerous.”
“Confirmed, I agree with you. It’s pitch-black in here…”
“I think he’s there,” Jane started, slowly moving towards the signal.
“How’s the air test?”
“There’s no biological danger, but the ship was a long time in the open space so there are traces of radiation everywhere…”
“How long could it have been flying?”
With the help of the flashlights they could see lifeless electronic panels on the walls and the central control panel, as well as two large horizontal capsules standing parallel to each other.
Jane approached one of them and, bending down, called the captain with her hand. She wiped the shining dust off the surface with her glove.
“Can you see what we see?” Paul’s words resounded a bit louder than was expected in the absolute silence.
Under the thick clouded glass there was a man, though his image was obscured by the glare of the flashlights.
“So… we see a man…” answered Chris.
“Is he alive?” Lora’s voice trembled with excitement.
“There are weak signs of life. This used to be his data display, it seems,” Jane touched a small screen above the man’s head. “It’s not working… There’s nothing we can do to help him, he needs to be hospitalized.”
“What about the other object?” asked the captain, nodding in the direction of the other capsule behind Jane.
She turned away, scanned the capsule and shook her head.
“I see. Oleg, is it possible to take this capsule out of the ark and transport it to Titanium in the quarantine compartment? We’ll tow the empty ark.”
“Yes, I’ll be right there.”
After six hours of tireless work, the team finally connected the capsule to the mobile energy source and took it on board their shuttle with the help of the mini transporter operating on electromagnetic pillows.
Lora restlessly waited at the glass wall separating the snow-white quarantine compartment from the deck.
“Can I watch?”
“Of course you can. Just let Jane finish with the anti-radiation treatment. Oh, and put on the protective coveralls.” The young man could not help smiling at her impatience. “There’s nothing unusual there, just a man-sleeping, so to say.”
“Do you think he’s from Earth?”
“This was Dr Blake’s preliminary assessment. Chris is now analysing the data from the onboard computer. We’re going to find out soon…”
“If only it was that easy!” Chris joined their chat.
“What do you mean?”
“Almost all the data is a total mess… It’s as if their computer went crazy… But…” he paused knowingly and smiled.
“But…what?!.” Lora was listening to that small report holding her breath.
“But I can say for sure that the mother ship that carried this ark was launched from Earth… Around two hundred years ago!”
