In the Ergosphere base.
Seven people with agitated expression stood in front of a broken ship.
After a short pause, the first to come through is the man in the lead.
"Wake up! Go back inside, now!" commanded Jack.
Everyone else broke from their stupor and immediately followed Jack.
Getting back in the extremely long hallway, the feelings of the entire crew were shaking. When they first entered, they were looking at the end as if the glory of mankind were sheathed in a stone for their pulling.
Now, it felt like a dark tunnel leading to an even darker hell.
"I understand how you feel. But this isn't the time to be hoping to survive with our lives intact. We shall let our legacy live on."
"Nina, once you get back to your console, compile everything and give it to Carmen."
"Carmen, once we get back immediately send the data back to the headquarters. Make sure to put a watermark on it."
"Annie and Connor, make sure the watermark contains a virus that if tampered, will auto-destruct."
"The rest of you, we'll keep the system as stable for as long as we can.
When Jack finished giving his commands, they arrived at the double door. Entering the console room, everyone immediately did as they were told.
Once everyone is doing their jobs, Jack began to look up the installed facilities inside the station.
[Base: Black Mirror - 1]
[Facilities connected: Cabin, Lobby, Engines Room, Warp Room, Core Room, Console Room…+23]
Looking at the long list of operating rooms, Jack heaved a sigh of relief. "Seems like this base is more than meets the eye," he thought.
Ships and buildings are made with similar top-grade materials. If the ship equipped with shield broke, there stood no reason for the entire building to remain intact.
Something is amiss. Jack decided to read on the maintenance notes of the base.
Since the project was built on the ergosphere of a black hole, the time difference is a big problem for the scientists and government. So the inventors created a device that can sync time from one point, the source, to another, the carrier. This was why there is an entire console dedicated for the Time Warm Hyperdrive.
For a set time, the device takes exponential energy as the difference in time increases. One device could last for at least 100 years, 110 years max as it began to require energy far more than an entire solar system's energy production for over 300 years.
This is said to be one of the riskiest ventures that humanity has ever done, but it was also the most lucrative. The return in such investment makes the cost of the entire project much cheaper than peanuts.
Oh, also, this will usher humanity into a new era, but who cares about that.
The original plan was, for the crew to stay in the base for a thousand years. Every hundred years, a mailing ship will land to deliver a new Time Syncing device. The government has prepaid ten of these, thus a millennium.
Since the time on the plans were only relative to the ergosphere. It wouldn't take a day outside. At the end of the millennia, the project will be paused as they begin to optimize the project.
This also means that in just a day's worth of work, over 1,000 years worth of black hole energy is absorbed. Even with the entire operational cost of the project is counted, the gains go as high as a million percent in pure profits.
Absorbing the energy of over 20,000 stars for a span of 1,000 years in a single day is no joke. While only theoretical, the actual numbers aren't something to be looked down upon.
Jack couldn't help but imagine the faces of the investors. One second, the crew went down, the next, the entire black mirror project explodes. How distorted would their faces be?
It took all of his willpower to not chuckle at such a time.
Every room has its own page, in the page is its description, functions, and logs.
One by one, he began to read the pages of the rooms. One by one, he scrutinized each page, after finding no error, he immediately flipped to the next room.
After reading the description of the engine room, Nina shouted.
"Captain, the data is compiled, including the current base reports. Carmen, I'm transferring them over."
"Roger," Carmen answered.
Jack nodded as he went back to his reading. In the logs of the engine room, besides the time when Miko installed an energy crystal, it was empty. His forehead began to wrinkle.
Something is wrong!
The base is needed to be constructed, due to the weirdness of the ergosphere, manpower was needed. Thus even if construction were only done by machines everywhere else, inside the black hole, manpower is required.
That means people had been here before them. The first batch of engineers and workers should've logged in. Even though the entire bases were empty most likely due to the time displacement A.K.A, everyone is dead. The logs should've remained. Especially since during their diagnosis, no problems popped up.
Data corruption did not occur. The entire system was hibernating for as long as it was built and was maintained at the highest of standards.
At this moment, Jack had no doubts. The project was sabotaged long ago.
That also made him feel relieved. Looking at his crew, if the sabotage happened long ago, then everyone should be innocent. Everyone might be captured criminals, but their participation in this project tells him one thing, no one here wants to die and is yearning for a second chance.
Continuing is reading, he reached the warp page. At this point, everyone's job is done. But seeing Jack's seriousness, the crew didn't bother him. They were also competent people, and as such, began to look for clues by themselves.
No one else had doubts when they started their own search for clues as everyone arrived at the same conclusion that Jack did. But unlike Jack, some information was hidden to them.
To the higher-ups, Jack is a cunning and conniving space pirate, but he had a weakness. His family. Once the enforcers of various solar systems began to pressure him using his family, he let himself be captured.
With such a strong guarantor, the high-ups believed Jack to be loyal; thus, the entire information of the project was given to him.
Of course, the governments did not plan to let Jack live after a thousand years. But Jack didn't really plan on being their dog for an entire millennium either.
Yet before any of those plans happen, an accident occurred.
Due to the lack of time and information, no one really gathered a clue, including Jack. Yet Carmen spoke up.
"Everyone! Shout your physical levels!"
At this point, no one bothered to hide anything. Besides, the entire crew already gave up long ago to the authorities, and such information is available to anyone who has eyes.
"Stage 3 - Level 2!" Shouted Annie and Nina.
"Stage 4!" Shouted Jack.
"Stage 3 - Level 2!" Shouted Miko.
"Stage 3 - Level 4!" Shouted Li Xuan and Connor."
"Perfect! I, myself, is a Stage 3 - Level 3." Carmen spoke excitedly.
Seeing Carmen's excited expression, the entire crew felt a little hopeful. As long as they live, anything is possible.
Everyone acted the same, except for Jack. In his screen is the page for Time Warp Hyperdrive room.