As advanced as technology had become, Sarah still had to flip a lever up to the ON position to restore the station's power supply. After that, she moved over to a display screen on the primary electrical box and adjusted the output for each sector to normal, using her forefinger to drag an arrow up to the mid-mark on the power bar. When the station went into shutdown mode, the computer system controlling the fusion reactor lowered all levels to minimal to reduce stress on the core, producing only enough electricity for auxiliary power. The question was, who had powered off the master switch?

Sarah knew the answer.

Trunk lines extended from the central hub and ran through each spoke, connecting to the four sectors at the first level of the station, really the third floor based on how centrifugal forces worked in space. The first system to come online was gravity. Thrusters positioned around the perimeter of the station fired, and the wheel began rotating, creating a push toward the outer wheel. The gravitational force was strongest around the outer rim, simulating Earth-like conditions, but in the control room, zero gravity reigned.

Sarah's boots clattered against the square plated floor and shoved off toward the spoke tunnel leading back to the wheel.

"Anyone up for some gravity?" she said, sailing into the passage, leaving the hub behind.

Sarah didn't have to look to see she was being followed. She held the answers to their questions. "Be prepared. The further we go, we'll start experiencing—"

Halfway through the spoke, Sarah's body dropped several inches, then a few feet, in a sudden draw toward the tunnel floor. Her knees and elbows slammed into the metal plates beneath her. She braced herself and kept her helmet from hitting the floor. The gravity was working fine, but according to her wrist display, climate control, which included heat and oxygen, had yet to reach survivable levels.

"Try to get closer to the floor before you pass the center point of the spoke," Sarah said through the comm system.

"Thanks for showing us what can happen," Luna replied.

"I thought I was ready for it. Guess I'm a little rusty."

Phoenix said in the middle of a clamoring grunt, "Nice. Real Gs for a change."

Sarah checked the status of everyone behind her. They started out slithering along the floor like snakes, and then began crawling, and before long, all of them were walking, hunched over. By the time they neared the exit, the gravity grew weird again. The first rung of the descent ladder appeared a few feet from the end of the tunnel. Sarah's hands rose from the floor, and she had the sensation of falling. To keep from shooting out the end of the tube, she latched onto the side rails.

"Things will feel normal soon. We'll have to drop to the floor, so get ready to swivel around. You'll need to reorient yourself, so you'll come out feet first." Sarah pivoted her body on a central axis and dropped through the hole to where she landed in a standing position. She bent her knees to absorb the touchdown, felt the tug of gravity, and then straightened out.

Next came Luna Skye, then Ensign Tenzing, Kailani, Dr. Fairhaven, and finally Commander Drake, each of them landing the same as Sarah had. The group took a few moments to get used to the pull of gravity and then moved on further into the station.

"There are three corridors on each floor," Sarah said.

"Wait." Phoenix caught up to her. "There's more than one floor to this thing?"

"There are three floors. The main, or first floor, and a second and third." Sarah eyed Phoenix, and then Callisto, who was on her other side. "Listen close, I won't repeat myself. There are four sectors, A through D, running clockwise. We entered the station near the end of Sector D. We're in A now. Sector B is where we go next."

As they walked, overhead lights switched on, flooding the corridor and illuminating the floor's cracks and crevices. Sarah checked her wrist display. Temperature: minus seventeen degrees Fahrenheit. Air levels: seventy-six percent optimal. Each second that ticked by the numbers rose closer to habitable conditions.

Up ahead, the letter B appeared, stenciled on the wall to their left. Also, to their left, a side passage. Sarah and her five crew members turned down the hallway, passing stairs leading down to the next level, and continued on.

"Where does this lead?" Nova asked.

"To the other two corridors on this floor. The stairwells we passed lead down to the second and first floors. It's a little disorienting because of where we came out of the spoke, but we're on the third floor. The outer rim marks the first level. Anyway, there are side passages at the beginning of each sector. Once you get oriented and have the station mapped out in your head, it's easy to navigate."

"This is quite a set-up," Ariel said. "This station has been around for how long?"

"Well, since we woke from cryo sleep, according to my wrist display, it's the year 2080. Like I said, it's been almost thirty years since I left under, well, let's just say, under dire circumstances."

The middle corridor came into view. Beyond the hall, three elevators lined a wall. Further down, Sarah saw the outer corridor, lit up like the station hadn't missed a beat over the years. She half expected someone to round the corner, like they were on their way to a lab or an office. She remembered how alive the place used to be before it happened...

Sarah took a right turn down the middle corridor and counted the doors. One. Two. Three. Four.

Five. "Here we are," she said.

"Where's that?" Callisto asked.

"You'll see."

The auto-door opened, and after everyone entered, it closed behind them.

They were in a lab. Specifically, one with memory stations. Seven, to be exact. The memory stalls occupied the far wall, each having a chair and a helmetlike device attached to a flexible arm. Off to the side of the chairs, a fifteen-inch eBoard tablet stood, mounted to an adjustable floor pole. At the middle station, Sarah flipped a handle on the side of the pole, raised the screen to chest level, and tightened it again.

She checked her wrist display before proceeding, and with her back turned to the rest of the group, twisted her helmet, removed it and took a slow, deep breath.

Without giving an order, everyone followed her lead, and by the time she turned around, all helmets were off.

The chill in the air flushed against Sarah's cheeks.

"It's forty-nine degrees in here, and the oxygen levels are at one hundred percent," she said, taking off her gloves. "It'll warm up soon enough."

Sarah kneeled, unlocked her boots, slid them off one at a time, and then detached her suit at the waist and slipped out of the pants first, then the top half. Everyone did the same.

They stacked their pressure suits on the center table.

"Now the explanations you're all seeking." Sarah glanced at Phoenix and Nova. "You wondered how you magically knew how to fly the Titan X spacecraft? Simple. Memory downloads. Directly into your brains, once you were in cryogenic hibernation, of course."

Sarah removed a band from her pocket and bound her hair into a ponytail. Then she stepped toward Phoenix, who was staring at her with wide eyes. She touched the back of her neck, near the hairline, and allowed him to see. "Download port. An implant in my skull, connected to my brain."

Immediately, Phoenix's hand flew up to the back of his head. The other crew members copied his response. Murmurs echoed around the room.

"Relax. None of you required a brain implant." Sarah felt the hint of a smile trying to crease her lips, but it didn't quite surface. "We have wireless capabilities, too. The implant works better for repetitive downloads over short periods, which is what I required for this mission. It's a wire port so you can connect to the computer. Higher volume content. For what you need, we can zap the memory into your brain through pulse wave technology. The helmets at each station tap into your brain's electrical impulses."

Faces looking back at Sarah were as blank as a new hard drive on an eBoard tablet.

Luna's expression hardened into a skeptical stare.

"It's fascinating, I know," Sarah said. "Each of you will receive the download for the next phase of the mission. In case you're wondering, it's more effective to do the memory drop than to just tell you. We've discovered the brain keeps more information at the subconscious level. The information we download becomes ingrained where it becomes second nature. You simply know what to do and how to do it when the time comes, like docking the ship." Sarah peered at Phoenix.

"No one is zapping me with anything," Luna said, brows narrowed, jaw cocked tight.

"You will do as mission command has instructed us." Sarah countered her icy eyes with an equally subzero glare.

"You'll have to make me."

Sarah expected as much from Luna. Her resistance to the mission continued to dig an irritable hole in the back of her resolve. "That can be arranged."

"Whoa." Phoenix stepped between them. "There's no need for a physical altercation. I'm the Commander here, and Dr. Lawson is over the mission according to the admiral. We're going to keep things civil and follow her lead."

Luna sighed and crossed her arms. "Fine."

"Good," Sarah replied. "But in case anyone gets testy, as I told you before, one benefit of the serum is increased strength. None of you can rival me at the moment. I've been in this game for far too long. So, you'd be wise to do as I say."