The Story

A notation about the story: All quotations in bold denote actual quotes in the game.

7:30 AM Earth Time -- August 23, 2052

"Rebecca!" a voice called. "Rebecca, get up!"

Slowly fifteen-year-old cadet astronaut Rebecca DeLorean began to rise from her bed. She looked around to see who -- or what -- was calling her, only to learn that it was only her robot, Robbie, that she'd brought here from the States.

"Here's your sword," Robbie said, handing her a long, thin lightsaber.

"Thank you," Rebecca replied. "Nice of you to get it for me."

Drowsily Rebecca walked over to her computer, to attempt to log on to the NASA website. After a few beeps, the computer called out to her, "Access denied!"

Rebecca couldn't believe it. So she tried again, punching in her password as she always did. And again, the computer croaked, "Access denied!"

"Stupid machine!" Rebecca shouted to herself. Angrily she walked to her chest of drawers in search of a manual to fix the problem, and then to her bookcase. She found nothing except a bunch of old magazines.

Rebecca was part of an international young astronauts program which sent them to the planet Zircalon, which had been discovered by astronomers in Arizona two years earlier. The program allowed young people from different parts of the world to live on a space station for several months. Her younger brother Rickey, almost twelve, tagged along with her. Two other astronauts were with them: Donovan Leach, from the United Kingdom, who was almost seventeen, and Aleksandra (Alex) Ivanova from Russia, who was sixteen.

Perplexed, Rebecca walked to the main computer room, where she found Rickey. "Rickey, could you do me a favor and check the machine?" she asked, and Rickey, being the good little brother he was, did as he was told.

"Access denied!"

Rebecca shook her head in disgust. "Something fishy is going on here," she said, unsure if anyone was listening. "Why would all the computers be malfunctioning?"

The next place Rebecca went was Alex's room. To her surprise, she found that Alex wasn't there, but there was a handwritten note left on her computer. "If you want your precious Alex back, you're going to have to earn her." There was no signature.

Rebecca turned to Donovan Leach, the handsome sixteen-year-old Brit who had been standing in Alex's room. "Donovan, we've got a problem."

Nonchalantly Donovan replied, "Yeh, someone broke in here last night."

How the heck was I supposed to know the station had been broken into? Rebecca thought to herself.

"That explains the computers being down."

Rebecca, though, was nearly in a state of panic. "More importantly, Alex is missing. We've got to find her -- and fast." Leaning her head back and sighing, Rebecca said, "Donovan, someone knows we're here, and that makes me very nervous."