Project Kepler Control Room
Research Labs, September 17th



"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."-HP Lovecraft


The control room had gotten darker. "Fuck." Alvin Miller grunted with his teeth clenched. The Board was constantly up his ass for updates on the project. They always expected results, and those results had cost him an entire team of physicists last week. It took a lot of alcohol to forget their faces. Now he was staring at a holo-screen that read: WARNING. INSUFFICENT POWER FOR TEST.

"When's the next resupply?" He asked one of the men obfuscated by a console.

"Two weeks sir."

Two weeks wasn't good enough. Not long enough to hold the board at bay, not long enough to keep them off his ass. His predecessor had run the labs for six years. Six whole years of research and development and testing...and Gaius fucking Mochus had used him for target practice when he marched up asking why they hadn't "cracked the code yet." Alvin was approaching his fifth year with only minor gains. And with the loss of life mounting with each test, the pressure got worse.

"What about re-routing power? Can't we connect to the main station grid? Just a five-minute window won't do too much damage. Maybe some brownouts and..." he was quickly interrupted by the newly christened safety inspector. The previous one had gouged his eyes out last week.

"Sir, we run on our own generators for a reason. The closed circuit keeps us from making any drastic issues with the main sta-"

"I fucking know the protocols!" Alvin roared, throwing a metal clipboard over the inspector's head. "In six hours, the heads of the companies are coming in for an inspection! If you want to fucking keep your heads up, we need results! Five fucking minutes!"

The room was filled with a terrified sense of quiet. The 5 CEOs NEVER traveled together. If they were all coming to inspect the Kepler Device, it only meant one thing: Twenty Years had taken too long, and they were deciding to pull the plug. Essential personnel would probably be shuffled around to other stations, but they'd leave the majority out on this rock at the solar system's edge. They may cancel any supply ships and leave them all to starve slowly, or they could scuttle the entire station with the people in it. Bodies could be easily cleaned, after all. This was normal in the world; they were all just a few mistakes away from hell.

Technicians began working, and a call was sent to the Underside, informing them of the work. After a few tests, it seemed they had their power situation under control. "Alright, we're lowering the spectrum of the system by fifteen percent. If anything starts to come through..." he grimaced. "Hold until the probe is back. We've lost seven probes...and we need results. Just keep on standby." The others looked grim as he gave his instructions.

"Begin in three...two...one..."

***


Throughout the Sprawl, lights began to flicker. Several hydroponics pumps shut down. Air scrubbers began to grind to a halt. Warning systems began popping up everywhere about a power outage. Even in the underside, engineers and technicians began to scramble. Whatever had drained the power was continually doing it. There would have to be some kind of manual shut off, or the entire station would go dark, and with it, life support. Twenty thousand people could be dead within a few hours. Suddenly, the world itself began to groan.

***


"KEEP IT FUCKING OPEN!" Miller was fighting with a hazmat suit. The probe had gone through, but now there were issues in the testing room. He HAD to fix this. If he didn't...well. Better to die doing this than to be a fucking trophy for a rich asshole, right? Miller sealed the control room behind him as he approached the aperture, the probe making its way back...slowly.

It was coming back far too slowly.

Miller grabbed the emergency line and began to pull. At first, there was resistance, as if something was pulling back. But it slowly came towards him with each tug. "Come on...you...mother...fucker!" The metal of the probe was peaking through the portal; however, it was covered in some substance. [color=yellow]"WHEN IT'S THROUGH,"[color] he bellowed through the intercom, "CLOSE IT!"

But there was no answer from the control room. When he looked at the glass, he couldn't even see inside. It was as if something was covering the observation glass. "CLOSE THE-" As Miller turned around, he screamed.