Chapter 9: Expert Survivors
Ethan looked carefully, but he didn’t recognize that young firefighter, and he didn’t know why, during the chaos, he had come to this base looking for him. As soon as he entered the room and confirmed who he was, he fell into complete silence with his eyes staring aimlessly. No one dared to say a word as they swallowed hard, looking at his axe that was still dripping blood. After a few more seconds, his gaze turned to me again, and he finally broke the silence:
"My name is Rick, your brother sent me here, he said you were a Space Engineer, and that you could help us..."
I froze for a moment. What could I do? Some kind of large-scale EMP completely bypassed the defenses of our entire race and fried everything that had any trace of technology... I had no idea where to start to fix something on this scale... But I kept my thoughts to myself and answered.
"Nice to meet you, Rick, thanks for helping us! If my brother is with you, then I’m willing to help you in any way I can, but how are we going to get out of the base? It’s surrounded..."
"First of all, give me your prototype bracelet..."
"Hmm? Take it, you can keep it, but it’s not working like the rest—"
Just as Ethan was about to explain that his bracelet wasn’t working either, it disappeared in a flash of silver light as it touched Rick’s hand, interrupting his speech. Ethan’s eyes widened when he saw something familiar on the firefighter’s arm. There was a silver bracelet with black details, something that should only belong to colonizing astronauts...
"Rick, how did you get this? Did you happen to find the stolen colonization ship?"
"Hm? Stolen colonization ship? What are you talking about?"