//------------------------------// // Prelude // Story: Dead Space: Friendship is Decayed // by Edmar Fecler //------------------------------// Systems Engineer Isaac Clarke had always loved space, be it in his living room, his life or the cold void separating the elements right outside his thick plexiglas window. Even though his living quarters on Titan Station was temporary, he would often enjoy the gigantic view it offered of Saturn and its moons, pondering on all sorts of matters while passively witnessing the movement of the celestial bodies. Nicole had always teased him about her finding Isaac staring out the panoramic window for almost half an hour, playfully complaining that he would probably stay there for the rest of his life if she didn't coax him out of there. Speaking of Nicole... Isaac set his coffee mug on the table and sat down in the leather chair with a thud, rubbing his haggard face and blinking tiredly for having stared at the holoscreen for too long in his darkened apartment. He gazed at the screen, at the video that his beloved Nicole had sent him before he lost all ability to contact her, before pressing the play button again. "Isaac, it's me... I wish I could talk to you..." She had sounded so sad, so tired on that recording. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry for everything... I wish I could just talk to someone-" He stopped the video again and sighed. No matter how many times he had watched her apologize, he could never bring himself to see through the entire recording. Isaac silently cursed himself for being so weak. Why? Why was it so hard to listen to her? Before he could decide to ponder on the matter further, the bottom left of his screen flashed green, indicating someone wanted to call him. The visage of Isaac's friend Zach Hammond sprung up. "Issac! I have some good news for you." Isaac frowned slightly; hearing what Hammond had to say was a bit hard for all the background noise. Was he at the docks? "The CEC finally pulled the thumb out of their ass and decided to send us to investigate the Ishimura, departure tomorrow morning." Isaac's heart was suddenly filled with hope and relief. Maybe he could finally see Nicole again. "Where and when?" "At ten o'clock," Hammond responded. "We'll be taking the USG Kellion for this trip, dock 5, hangar bay 3. Kendra will be coming with us too." Isaac took a swig of his coffee before cracking a playful grin. "Heh. We'll see how long it will take before you two start getting at each other like a married couple." Hammond shot the engineer an annoyed glare before smirking. "Well, we'll be traveling for about a week, so we shall see who will get the most annoyed at the end." Isaac made a mock sigh before raising an eyebrow. "Wait, did you say a week of Shockpoint travel time? I didn't know the Ishimura was that far away..." "Truth be told, I don't know much either," Hammond shrugged. "All info the CEC higher-ups sent me was on a strict need-to-know basis. All I know is that we will be going to Aegis 7." "That's practically on the edges of unexplored space..." Hammond shrugged again. "As I said, I don't know that much. We'll probably be briefed more in-depth on the way, I hope." He gave Isaac a sympathetic smile. "Get some rest, Isaac, and don't worry. I'm sure Nicole will be fine." Suddenly reminded of his fatigue, Isaac rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, you're probably right... G'night, Zach." "Good night, Isaac." And with those parting words, the feed stopped. Yawning audibly, Isaac stretched himself before finishing his coffee and powering down the holoscreen. As he crawled into bed, allowing sleep to overtake him, he could still not remove Nicole from his thoughts. I hope you're right Hammond... I hope you're right. - - - Night had fallen upon the idyllic town of Ponyville, it's inhabitants soundly asleep in their homes. Well, almost everypony. Twilight Sparkle was sitting comfortably in her couch by the fireplace, engrossed in an ancient magic book written by none other than Star Swirl the bearded. A book on the multiverse and a cup of hot tea rested on the small table beside the couch. Her eyes darted across the book resting on the couch before her muzzle, literally soaking up information from it. After a few minutes of reading, she closed the book and submersed herself in her thoughts. It had been a fascinating lecture, detailing many aspects about parallel universes, time travel and long-range teleportation. Much of Star Swirl's notes talked about fantastic worlds with strange creatures and foreign technology and magics. Twilight felt as giddy as a school filly. Imagine what she could learn from the civilizations, study their artifacts and societies, perhaps even bring them along to Equestria! The librarian opened her book again at one chapter dedicated to some extraequestrians called "humans". She could easily understand how excited Lyra had been when the green unicorn had borrowed the book; a race completely devoid of magic, and yet had achieved marvelous technological advances, such as sending manned vehicles to the moon, or harnessing the very power of fission. Star Swirl had written in his observations that provided these humans could set aside their differences, they could conquer their solar system. Those notes were scribbled down 500 years ago, the purple unicorn pondered. Imagine how advanced they could be now! Twilight slowly set the book aside again and climbed up to her bedroom as quietly as possible. She opened the door ever so slightly and peeked inside towards Spike's bed, happy to see that her dragon assistant was soundly asleep. Content, she closed the door carefully again and returned to her place by the fire. Levitating the cup over gingerly, she took a sip of tea and returned the cup to its spot. She set it precariously close to the edge of the small table, but her mind was too enthralled in her own thoughts to notice. Something in the back of her mind urged her to actually visit an alternate universe just now, to discover new places where no pony had gone before. She quickly set aside that thought, but the temptation eventually grew too strong. She sighed. Well, I guess a quick peek wouldn't do too much damage... The librarian decided that while it would not be wise to directly jump into whatever dimension these humans existed in, she could always do a "sneak peek" spell, meaning she would be able to at least passively observe what was on the other side for a short time, much like a magnifying glass. It would probably be harmless anyway, so she elected not to pack anything for the moment. Twilight mentally prepared herself. The spell in question required her full concentration and large amounts of magic, so she would probably be exhausted by the time she successfully completed it. Another problem would be the location; while Twilight already knew she wanted to visit the humans, directly controlling where she would end up was impossible at the time since she had never actually been there yet. The unicorn hoped that it would be some place of interest at least, so that she could have some sort of point of reference in the future event that she would ever want to travel completely to their universe. Frowning in concentration, Twilight gathered energy for the spell, her horn glowing brighter by the second. Finally, the purple light illuminated the entire room. The amount of raw magic she was gathering began emitting small waves of energy, shaking the floor and surrounding area. Struggling to accumulate enough energy, Twilight gritted her teeth. Almost... There... Unfortunately, the vibrations reached the tea cup sitting precariously on the table, causing it to fall off and shatter on the floor. The unexpected clatter caused her focus wavered and she lost control, the magical energy flowing wildly across the room as it was engulfed in light. She barely had time to scream until the maelstrom of power hit her, and she vanished. Upstairs, Spike rolled over and snorted at the disturbance, unaware of what had transpired in the room below. - - - Isaac walked down the walkway of dock five, his class 3 engineering suit already donned and a duffel bag slung over his shoulder, towards the hangar bay where Hammond and Kendra awaited him. The two were discussing something when the latter noticed Isaac and waved him over. "Isaac! Over here!" "Hey Hammond, Kendra," he nodded curtly. "We'll be leaving soon," Hammond interjected. "As soon as Chen and Johnston finish with the maintenance procedures, we'll be good to go." Isaac nodded again before motioning for his bag. "Mind if I take it inside? I'm just gonna pack up my things." "Sure," Kendra replied. "You're sharing your cot with Hammond. You boys have room number two, down one level." Isaac groaned. "We'll be sleeping close to the engines?" Hammond chuckled. "Don't worry. I brought some earplugs for you." Isaac offered a small thanks before heading inside, noticing the other two security officers already at their seats. They waved towards each other before he climbed down the ladder towards his and Hammond's room, a feat not so easily made because of his suit. It was a cramped place with a hastily arranged bunk bed and a fridge, with a few of Hammond's possessions arranged across the room. The engineer noticed his friend's pulse rifle was hanging in an alcove above a small door leading to a storage compartment. Isaac was just about to open it when Kendra called him from above. Shrugging, he simply removed his helmet and tossed it alongside the duffel bag onto the floor before climbing up the ladder again. Isaac made his way to the cockpit, where the final preparations for leaving were made. After confirming that they were cleared to leave the bay by Titan Station control, the Kellion shook slightly from the docking clamps being released before the ship left the dock. Isaac sat down, making himself comfortable for the FTL transition. "Spinning up the Schockpoint drive," Chen announced. With a lurch, the very fabric of time and space tore apart in front of the Kellion, letting the ship through the wormhole before closing up again. "And we're through." Isaac sighed before standing up again and headed for his room. "I'm going to pack up my things." He made his way down again, picking up his bag and started unpacking his belongings. Several packaged, tasteless, standard issue CEC foodstuffs were set aside to be put later on into the fridge. He then skimmed through his clothing (Isaac had heard that the Ishimura had some decent restaurants aboard, so he had brought along a nice suit when he would take out Nicole next week) and withdrew his holocommunication device before slotting it into his engineering suit. He made a quick checkup and was satisfied that it worked. He then proceeded to repack what wasn't needed right now and closed the bag before opening the storage compartment. He wasn't exactly prepared for what he found inside. "What the hell?" - - - Twilight awoke from her slumber, her brain pounding against her inner head cavities like a hammer. The spell had taken quite the toll on her and she had fallen unconscious as soon as she had made the trip through the universes. Oh Celestia, I really bucked up this time... She had only just woken up when the ground shook for some unknown reason. Shaking her head, Twilight took a good look around her surroundings. Her heart sank when she discovered she was apparently trapped in some sort of cramped, dark room along with several bags, with the sound of machinery echoing behind her. Fear made it's way through her stomach. Had she been captured and imprisoned? Twilight momentarily lost her footing when her cell shook again, sending her falling onto the bags. What kind of prison even does that, anyway? She heard something climb down to her level and froze. Whatever it was, she could only hear it shuffling around she guessed was packages. A door opened with a peculiar sound before closing again, and the rustling sounds returned. It stopped suddenly, and Twilight realized in fear that the sound of footsteps were approaching her. One of the walls opened, letting through some light and dazzling Twilight. "What the hell?" After her eyes got used to the harsh lightning, the unicorn raised her head. Standing twice as tall as her was a creature that matched the description of a human. It stood on two legs, with two arms on which sat a pair of hands with five digits each. Staring down at her in a state of utter confusion was a rather beige face, with a very short black mane on top and blueish green eyes. The human wore a strange suit made of some unknown fabric, with several metal paddings covering his torso and right arm. His boots were also made of the same material, along with something running down the middle of his back that glowed a pale, bluish-green. Is it... Glowing? How do they do that without magic? Since the human had yet to attack her, she assumed that it wasn't hostile. She overcame her initial fear, cleared her throat and spoke up. "Uh... Hello?" The human seemed to make a double take, his eyes widening in surprise. "Holy shit…" It muttered to itself in a male voice. "You can talk?" Twilight sighed mentally in relief. At least he understood her. "Uh, yes, I can talk. My name is Twilight Sparkle, I'm a unicorn and... it's a pleasure to meet you!" She extended her hoof, an awkward smile upon her face. The human stared at her hoof for a few seconds before tentatively extending his own hand and shaking it. Twilight winced. He had quite the grip... - - - Isaac was dumbfounded. He had never expected to find a talking unicorn in the closet. If he hadn't shook hands with it for real, he could have sworn Hammond had slipped something into his morning coffee... The next thing he knew he was being assaulted with a variety of questions. "So, not to bother you or anything, but do you mind telling me where we are? What's your name? What is that thing you're wearing? Do all humans dress like this? Is it the latest fashion? All our recorded knowledge of humans was written five hundred years ago anyway, so much must have happened since then. How does it glow without any magic? Did you really send people to the moon? Did you build more spaceships? Are we on a spaceship right now? Building spaceships must present enormous challenges. I sure hope to find some book that can tell me how to build one. I am rambling right now aren't I?" Recovering from his literal verbal assault, Isaac noticed the unicorn was putting up a rather innocent smile. He blinked once before turning his head towards the door, though he made sure not to take his eyes off the unicorn. "Hammond? Kendra?" "Yeah?" "...I think we have a complication here."