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for a half a mile. On
the surface of the ocean large bubbles erupted as a Coast Guard cutter passed
over the base. The ship capsized as the water frothed around them. Anyone
looking into the phenomenon would have just said it was volcanic activity.
    Brad sealed the docking ring and
brought the main reactor to full power as Mike reduced the pressure in the area
to normal. A high-pitched whine filled the air as the hologram shifted to a
surface view. What it showed made everyone gasp.
    “How many?” Jonathan asked.
    “Twenty-plus,” Atlanta said.
    “My god,” Terri said. “We have to
help them.”
    “I’m rushing an assault shuttle
through diagnostics now in bay two,” Atlanta said.
    “Brad, you stay here and monitor
the situation. Terri, Mike, Andie, and I will go. Andie, I need you to get a
medical kit and meet us in docking bay two. Atlanta, upload what Terri needs to
know to fly one of the shuttles,” Jonathan said.
    He was already heading towards
the door, people in tow.
    “Uploading now, Commander,”
Atlanta said.
    Jonathan ran down the corridor as
he shook his head. He didn’t know if he liked this. Every time something went
right, another thing went wrong. He hoped this wasn’t a sign for the future.

Chapter 3
New People
    T
    erri swung the shuttle around, so the back of it was towards the
lifeboats just before it broke the surface. Water cascaded down the wings as it
surfaced. The people at the oars on the lifeboats began rowing away as fast as
they could to put distance between them and the strange vessel. Some of them
leveled M-16 rifles at the strange ship, preparing for the worst.
    Terri was sitting in the pilot’s
seat as Jonathan stood up from the copilot's seat. Mike was sitting at the
Tactical Station monitoring the situation.
    “I count twenty life signs,” Mike
said. “They’re all armed, and I would guess they’re all panicked.”
    “Panicked?” Jonathan asked.
    “Yeah. The way they’re rowing
trying to get away, has panic all over it. Jonathan, be careful, some of them
have weapons leveled at the shuttle,” Mike said.
    “I guess I would, too,” Jonathan
said. “Some strange vessel surfacing right next to me would scare the hell out
of me.”
    “No shit,” Terri said.
    “I’m going down to talk to the
survivors,” Jonathan said.
    “Be careful,” Terri said after she
rotated her seat to talk. The shuttle was now on autopilot and set to hold
position. Jonathan winked at Terri as he nodded.
    “Yeah, all we need is our
Commander getting his ass shot off, the second day on the job,” Mike grinned.
    Jonathan rolled his eyes, “What,
and leave you, my second, in command? Never. The whole place would go to rot.
I’ve seen your room at home. I mean, who would pick up after you?”
    Terri laughed and said, “He has
you there.”
    “Yeah, yeah. Live it up. Go on,
get out of here,” Mike said, smiling.
    Jonathan smiled and winked at
Terri. She just giggled again, as she swung back around to monitor the shuttle.
He stepped onto an oval at the back of the room and floated down past the
mid-level armory and the day cabins, to the departure bay. It was like the
lifts on the base. You had to think about where you wanted to go, the nanites
then told the computer and it moved you there.
    Several people could move through
the tubes at the same time. Atlanta had told him the tube's magnetism affected
the nanites in each individual in the tube because an
individual’s nanites coding is unique. Though
magnetism did not affect nanites, they generated a
field when someone used a lift. The computer locked on to this and used this to
move the person through the tube. Of course. There were still ladders on the walls and in the tubes, and
there were conventional lifts, too. These were just faster. The farther you had
to go, the faster magnetism transported you.
    The one thing that bothered
Jonathan when he understood how the system worked was if there was a loss of
power. However, he soon