*BOOM*
Smoke began to fill the control room as the mainframe failed to stabilize itself and overloaded. After producing 48 blocks of energy crystals, the 49th that was just about to be completed was unable to form and released a strong magnetic wave that fucked up the entire system.
It was similar to the effects of a solar flare and electronics.
Fortunately, the 48 blocks had been moved to the storage beside the warp conduit.
Rapid footsteps vibrated throughout the metallic flooring of the base. Jack, Annie, Nina, Carmen, Li Xuan, Miko, and Connor ran their fastest while trying to maintain their spacesuits.
"The warp room is close, it's over that corner!" shouted Connor as he pointed towards the direction.
Even though he shouted, no one heard it. The base's air had long been sucked away into the vacuum. Still, everyone understood his finger, and everyone immediately followed.
With their top-most speed, the crew arrived in front of a metallic door.
Due to the base-wide malfunction, the automatic sliding doors failed to work. Covering his hands with blue energy, Jack pierced the metal door with his five fingers and pulled the door open.
Inside the room is a big metallic construct. In a 5m x 5m platform, three concentric circles are tilted in three different angles, making it look like an asterisk. On the sides are two pillars supporting the top disk-like reactor with weak blue glow exuding from its railings.
In front is a small control panel that facilitates the entire construct.
Due to the lack of air and the fried ancient technology, there's no way for the crew to communicate orally. Unfortunately for them before this mission, almost everyone is a stranger.
Without a way to communicate, Jack removed the captain's badge on his suit and dropped in on the ground.
Not only is he relieving himself of the captain position, but he also means for everyone to regain their autonomy.
Seeing this, everyone went to work.
Jack began to glow blue as he manipulates his own energy to cover and activate the control panel, effectively shielding it from the extreme magnetic waves.
Carmen, the warp engineer, immediately went in front of the control panel to begin diagnostics.
Nina, Annie, Connor, and Miko went to check the storage if there were problems with the transfer.
Li Xuan went to check the construct for damages.
Carmen, whose currently idle and waiting for Jack to give him the go signal, noticed something on top of the construct.
Unable to shout, Carmen could only wait until the control panel became operable.
Jack, who's currently injecting his own energy towards the control panel, began to glow weaker. Like how led lights with low battery works, it was a sign of his energy close to depletion.
Still, he did not stop.
On the back, Connor and Miko carried one whole block of energy crystal from the storage. Once they saw Jack's glow weakening, they immediately moved the energy crystal close to Jack.
Like a flashbang, Jack's blue glow magnified and blinded everyone.
Jack expected there would be a surge of energy from the block, he just wasn't aware of the scope.
Almost overloaded, Jack quickly weakened his energy injection towards the control panel.
At this moment, everyone recovered their vision.
Annie and Nina came back with a confused expression. That is until they saw Jack's glow and the crystal.
Having a glimpse of understanding, the two women resumed carrying the energy crystal blocks.
Li Xuan, behind Jack, found nothing and gave a thumbs-up gesture.
Carmen was surprised. He tried to look at the same spot again only to not see it.
It was as if it vanished in to thin air.
Carmen held back his doubts. He still wasn't sure what exactly that he saw and might be hallucinating. Still, how can someone like him who's already at the third stage hallucinate?
After a very short contemplation, Carmen looked towards Jack and gave the nod.
Jack increased his energy output, and the blue glow began to envelop the entire construct.
It was really fortunate that the construct was turned off during the massive wave, which avoided it from braking.
While the materials used are only at the level of the second millennia, the actual technology used in the warp construct is just above the current era.
Jack began to form cables out of energy that connected the energy block and the control panel.
An LED light that was previously black began to glow red, then yellow, then green.
Immediately, Carmen began working on the control panel.
Annie and Nina, who just got back from carrying the fourth energy block, was called by Jack.
Pointing at the block and at the door, the ladies understood his intentions.
Carrying the block near Jack, Jack began to glow blue, which created a door-like barrier that can be passed through by anything but air.
Then, he did the same to every nook and cranny of the room, effectively sealing it from the vacuum.
Lastly, he converted his blue energy to create air.
Since they were all in a spacesuit, it did not matter which kind of air molecules he produced, so he made the cheapest and lightest of them all, Hydrogen.
The thing with space is that it's not a complete vacuum. There are bits and clouds of dust of various kinds of air spread throughout space but are just way too sparse out to the point of it being virtually nonexistent.
For sound to travel, it was a matter of pressure.
It is known that the birth planet of humans known as Earth has a natural satellite called the Moon.
It is also found out that the Moon definitely has air but not only was it extremely sparse, but it was also made up if weird elements such as sodium.
The Moon couldn't support sound travel, but the planet Mars could. With only 1% of atmospheric volume compared to Earth, Mars was completely capable of carrying loud sounds proven by the recordings of the early Mars rover showing the beastly howls of a martian windstorm.
It didn't take long for the crew to start hearing things once again.
At first, low humming of the construct's engine went on and off as the bits of air that carried the vibration of sound circulated. Then the room began to fill, and the air began to distribute themselves all across the room. Low and weak sounds of engine humming were heard.
This sound actually calmed Carmen, Li Xuan, Connor, and Nina. For engineers, when they hear their babies humming, they feel the same ecstasy as a mother seeing their child for the first time.
Gradually, the sounds kept increasing until a certain point. Once the humming of the engine stopped getting louder, Jack stopped producing air.
Still, the introduction of pressure made the entire crew a bit disoriented.
Jack: "Can everyone hear me?"
"Yes."
"Positive."
"Clear."
One by one, the crew answered positively.
Jack: "How's the machine?"
Carmen: "So far, everything is on green. The diagnostic will still take a few minutes to finish."
Jack: "Good. Everyone, carry all the blocks inside. Once everything is greenlit, we can start."
"Roger."
And with that, everyone resumed their posts. Unaware of the flickering spot on top of the construct.