"Pull!" The door's suction gave way, sliding back on magnetic locks long decayed in the chill of space. Cole'th Hirskirt stepped through time, the first to set foot on the Per Pacem for thousands of years. She tested the floor beneath her boots, adjusting her personal gravity field so she didn't put a foot through the aged metal. Her calibrations seemed spot on for the breathing mask strapped to her face; not even a surge of dizziness transiting to the interior space. Flicking her fingers against the halo globe hovering beside her, she smiled at the muffled curses behind her. Her companion had not done his calculations correctly, spinning a foot in the air while clutching his head.

"Really, Daisu, you have no head for figures." She stopped his orbit, her long fingers recalibrating his personal gravity until he floated to the ground. "For the love of the Veil!" She snapped, noticing his blue tinged lips. Snagging his air tank, she quickly upped the oxygen content before he passed out.

Fogging up his mask with deep breaths, Daisuke braced himself against a wall. "I still think you should have let me go first." He gasped at her. "Don't roll your eyes at me, it could have been dangerous."

"You can't even see my face right now." She was rolling her eyes. "Besides, if you went first, you'd be dead." She poked his shoulder, before heading down the entry hall to explore the ship, the halo globe bobbing along beside her. Daisuke stumbled after her, unwilling to wait for his mask to finish defogging in the dark. He drew his weapon, a long blade Cole thought ridiculous. When she argued about the silly thing, he countered the sword was more reliable in this space than her ion torch. He held the sword before him, his eyes scanning the edges of the light.

"What do you thinking is going to jump out at us. No one has set foot on this vessel for eons."

He let out a low whistle. "How is this clunker even in one piece?"

"Quite amazing isn't it? They used this coating that strengthened the molecular structure of the metal and arrested decay." Cole approached a sealed door. Unlike the outside, exposed to unknown elements from the ship's time in space, this operating mechanism looked potentially operational. "Oooo."

"What? What?" Daisu whipped around, sword at the ready.

"The magnetic lock on this door is intact. Such a simple device, but so effective, it provided a perfect seal for the interior of the ship if the hull failed." Her fingers caressed the operating pad. One button, one, none of the jumbled complication so many modern vessels possessed. "I bet this will function with little repair, once we power this vessel up."

"You really think you can get this derelict moving?"

"I might with this extra power cell from the Era'na," Cole grinned under her mask. "Of course, I have to calibrate the power output so it doesn't blow the ship's circuitry, and adapt the wiring itself to take Mana, but I think if I reinforce-"

"Cole, I love it when you talk mechanical to me, but how do we open the door? I'm freezing." Daisu braced himself on his sword, visibly shivering.

"I forgot your human blood makes you susceptible to low temperatures even in the thermal suits." Cole turned him, her fingers dancing over the input pad. "Better?"

He still shivered, but nodded. Cole turned back to the door. At last with a forlorn sigh, she took out her ion torch. "Nothing for it, without power I don't think I can preserve every door we come to." She began cutting a hole, trying to keep it smooth and small as possible for them to fit through. Daisu observed her, shaking his head.

"Your priorities are so skewed."

"It's a historical artifact! Stop whining or I'll turn your temperature controls down again." She didn't look away from her cutting, though she could guess he stuck his tongue out at her. That was usually how he ended an argument. Finishing the circle, she popped it out, using a clamp to seal the diskl to the wall so it didn't float into anything else. She ducked through, bringing forth the halo globe.

The sight stunned her. Daisu crawled in after her.

"Vostro's rings." He exhaled, gazing at the vast honeycomb structure of the Per Pacem, the floors centered around a circular opening straight to the bottom of the ship.

"I've never seen such an intact Ark before. Look at this, it's a straight free fall down. What did they put down there that required so much empty space?" Cole grasped the handrail, marveling how the metal was so strong after all this time, coating or not. Something bobbed out of the corner of her vision.

Daisu yelped, slashing down. She barely stopped him in time, pulling his arms to the side as the body floated by.

"Great essences!" Cole grabbed it before it floated over the rail. "Look at the level of preservation!" It was a human male, his body desiccated but whole. "I think I can get useable tissue samples." Cole fiddled one hand in a pouch near her hip. "Daisu, can you hold him for a moment, I need my extraction kit."

"If I vomit in this mask, I will never forgive you." He muttered as he took the corpse with his fingertips.

"You face down raging Barlok mercenaries, and bust illegal flesh shops but an ancient corpse gives you the urge to regurgitate. You're a terrible soldier."

"It's eerie! How this vessel's remained untouched for so long, so...intact. It's just plain unnatural."

"I find it fascinating. Do you see how his arms are crossed, legs curled up. I think he died before the ship lost power."

Daisu looked intrigued despite himself. "You're right. Gravity would have to be active to achieve a pose like this."

"Power loss not too long after he died, he froze this way, the temperature must have cut out before the gravity drive."

"Cole." Daisu's voice was faint, uneasy. She looked up. The halo globe hit just the right angle on the walls to illuminate several floors. Bodies floated everywhere, most in the same huddled pose, others with arms outstretched, legs twisted, as if they were crawling when they died.

"I see what you mean by eerie." A desiccated woman floated past, cradling a small body to her chest. Cole blinked her pale green eyes at the sight, feeling the echo of ancient disaster in the dead air. "What happened to these people?"

"The Per Pacem is listed among the vessels which never made it to New Earth 4."

"Tech sickness did this? No. Whatever this was, it killed these people much faster than any tech virus I've seen." Cole leaned over her specimen, quickly extracting samples. She took out her ion torch, using it to access the dehydrated internal organs, and shoving them in jars of viscous suspension gel for molecular reconstruction. "Stop moaning, you've watched me do live surgery, on you I might add."

"Did you just remove his brain?" Daisu paled.

"Of course, most viruses leave their signature in the brain tissue." She packed up her samples, gently putting the man's husk back into motion. "Let's find the operations deck, this place gives me a bad feeling."

"Now, I'm terrified." Daisu muttered.

They traversed the decks, cutting and climbing their way to the heart of the Ark. Bodies floated everywhere, the sheer number shocking to behold. They passed a mess hall overflowing with the dead, the constant battering of bodies against one another reducing many to dust.

"What was the passenger manifest of the Per Pacem?" Cole asked.

"Over 300,000, and this was one of the smaller Arks."

"Such a loss of life." Cole ran her fingers along the frozen metal, wondering how many ghosts were trapped in this lifeless husk of a ship. "Did humans believe in essence, Daisu?"

"Some believed in a kind of energy they called 'souls'. Humans had thousands of belief structures throughout their history, explaining what happened to their soul when the body died." Daisu stopped, grabbing her arm. "Here, the operations deck."

"I'm going to need the use of that sword," Cole said, eyeing the door.

"My Hachiman?" Daisu clutched the blade to his chest.

"I don't want to cut through this one, this seal needs to remain to stabilize internal environment."

He handed it over, grumbling.

"I promise I won't break your toy."

"Toy? That is an heirloom from my human lineage. It took six cycles to temper it for combat in all environmental conditions. That toy has tasted blood in dozens of battles."

"It also makes an excellent lever." Cole pried the cabin open, pleased how smoothly the mechanism slid on it's tracks. The operations crew occupied the room, several still strapped to their chairs, slumped over their stations. She handed back the sword, pulling several tools from various pouches along her suit. Daisu followed her in, sliding the door back in place.

She made her way to an unoccupied station, batting the floaters aside. Delicately torching her way into it, she studied the antiquated wiring, muttering to herself. This was her element. She ripped out a section of cables, stripping their protective coating to plant them in a cube of conducting gel.

"This should do it," she announced, connecting the mana cell to the gel. The ship hummed around them, power flowing through a system three times her age. The lights flickered on.

"They look worse." said Daisu, backing away from a nearby body. She ignored him, examining the lights.

"Pure fluorescents, that tech hasn't been used since they colonized New Earth 5." She stripped and plugged in a few more wires, the operations panel humming to life. She scanned the words on the screen, entering a few commands. The humming rose to a high pitched whine before leveling out. Bodies hit the ground around them as the gravity drive came online.

"When did you learn ancient human script?" Daisu sounded impressed.

"The depths of my knowledge would astound you, halfling." She eyed the figures on the screen, waiting for the room to stabilize before unlatching her helmet. "Oxygen saturation is safe even for you, though I wouldn't leave this room for a hour or two. Give the rest of the ship a chance to catch up."

Daisu pried off his own mask. "Show off."

She stuck her tongue out at him. Cole rubbed her hands together, her pale eyes aglow. "Let's see what the Per Pacem will tell us."