Elpis #4

She dropped the tablet back onto the shelf and grabbed her electric pistol and holster, belting the weapon on before picking the computer up again. “Where are we?”

“Current location is approximately…”

“No, never mind. How long until we arrive at Elpis?”

“Orbit expected to occur in seventeen hours, twenty-three minutes, with a seven percent margin of error.”

“Fine.” Seventeen hours. That’s not long to figure out what’s going on. She tapped her foot against the floor, boot ringing on metal. Okay. Calm. By the book.

“What caused the deaths?”

“Cryogenic pods initiated wake-up procedures without draining stasis fluid or altering external environment. As a consequence, all subjects involved were unable to escape the pod, and, due to their heightened metabolic rates, asphyxiated within minutes.”

Irina rubbed her forehead with her free hand. “Holy hell. They drowned?”

“Yes.”

The only thing that could have done that is the computer itself. Someone must have screwed with the computer, told it what to do…but how?

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment.

“Give me the list of the primary colonization wave.”

The tablet complied, displaying the colonists who were to be awakened first to initiate the colonization effort. In addition to the command crew, there were one-hundred specialists in various fields—technicians, scientists, economists, mechanics, engineers—that would be responsible for setting up the new colony infrastructure before rousing the rest.

All right. Need to know basis. We’ve got seventeen hours before we get there.

“Initiate awakening procedures for the primary colonization wave. Authorization code Bravo Delta.”