Featured Science Fiction Tale: Drake Orion’s Adventure
Scene 1: Standoff at the Oksana-4 Server Farm
Location: Abandoned colonial server farm on Oksana-4
The colony of Oksana-4 is a skeletal husk of rusted steel and howling wind. Drake Orion steps over a fractured ventilation grate, his boots crunching on glass. Deep in the shadows of a server farm, a glowing blue optical sensor flickers to life.
Zoya: “I have calculated the probability of your survival at four percent, scavenger.”
Drake Orion (thinks): This rust-bucket thinks I am just here for scrap.
Drake Orion: “I am not looking for parts, Zoya. I am looking for the encrypted drive from the central hub.”
Zoya: “My husband is still in stasis within the cryo-ward. If you touch the network, his life support will terminate.”
Drake Orion (thinks): The Guild is already burning through the atmosphere, and that drive holds the map to my retirement.
Zoya: “Choose, pirate. Do you claim your map, or do you leave us to our silence?”
The heavy steel door behind Zoya groans as a plasma cutter begins to slice through the metal, signaling the arrival of the Guild search party. Zoya raises a jagged, makeshift pulse-cannon, her hand trembling with an unnatural, simulated panic.
