Back to Work

After about an hour of idle chatter, Linwood seemingly came back. He acquired a sense of duty, or something. Shara wasn't entirely certain. Either way, Shara deemed him fit for service.

At least as much as anyone else was on this damn rock.

"Alright Linwood. We don't exactly have a way out of here yet. I'm not going to lie, I don't exactly know where we are. What I do know is that your empire or whatever group you were a part of is gone. Our best bet to stay alive is to find a way to get back to space. From there, we can reevaluate our situation."

"Yes, Miss Brekinridge."

"Our first task is to bring a couple of more people back that are relevant to that task. Here's a list of the people we need to bring out. Can you do that for me, Linwood? Our continued survival counts on it."

"Ma'am, I am a professional. I'll get it done, count on it."

"Good. Don't let me down. I'm going to go examine some other systems of this facility. It shouldn't take me that long."

"I understand. I'll get to work."

Shara departed the cryogenics bay soon after. In reality, while she did have some things she wanted to accomplish elsewhere, like finding what supplies were around and in order, she really just wanted to call up the system!

Quickly finding another room, seemingly a meeting room, she sat down into a somewhat comfortable chair. The cushion wasn't quite the greatest, but at least it was better than the floor!

"System, main menu."

[Main menu]

[Congratulations upon acquiring your first subordinate! Points awarded- 250.]

[While doing everything yourself may seem like a great way to get things done, eventually you will need to delegate some responsibilities to your trusted subordinates. Regardless of your abilities, eventually you will have more tasks than time. It is in these situations that subordinates have their uses.]

[Prize assigned - 1 copper lottery ticket. Please use responsibly.]

"Maybe later. Show me the shop."

[Store page]

"Show me miscellaneous supplies and bundles."

[ Miscellaneous ]

Shara quickly scrolled and found a bundle with enough food for 20 people for a month. It was a somewhat over the top package with better than average supplies. She hoped it could keep up the spirits of the people she had Linwood thawing out right now.

It ended up costing her about 250 points in total, but hopefully it would sustain everyone's morale.

While she was here, Shara contemplated opening up that lottery ticket she had received for completing that hidden task. She eventually decided against it.

Shara returned to wandering the base, following the map the base AI had sent over. She eventually came to the hydroponics room, which was completely barren. All of the water had dried up, and the plants turned to dust as if they were mummies when touched. A monitor nearby had a flashing red screen.

Walking over to it, she saw that the text ad been translated to her common language. The system for this hydroponics set up gave off several errors due to malfunctioning equipment.

Shara cracked her knuckles and stretched, sighing. "Let's get to work."

Several hours later, Shara sweatily stopped working on the hydroponics. After she redeemed a batch of cryogenically sustained seeds from the system, as well as some spare parts for a negligible point cost of less than one point, the hydroponics bay began running smoothly again. She put the tools she had used back into the storage cabinet in the hydroponics area, and set off to go find the newly unfrozen.

Shara quickly found the small group of people. Jumpsuits clung to their bodies wetly, and many of them had wrapped foil-like survival blankets around themselves for warmth. Shara saw the looks on the faces of these newcomers. While they looked confused, they did not seem to be heading towards despair yet. Many of them looked hopeful, but Shara could also sense that they were unsteady. Having just woken up after a long slumber, they were probably unsure about their place right now and looking for structure.

"Linwood, is this everyone?"

"Yes. This is everyone you asked for. They are all stable from the after effects of cryostasis."

"Thank you, Linwood."

Running her gaze back over the group in front of her, she sighed inwardly.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Shara Brekinridge. Let me just lead off with this. The Makoni are no more. Your empire has fallen."

The crowd began to murmur at this, but for many of them it was expected. After all, they had no idea how long they had been out for.

"However, we need to figure out how to move forward. I recently crashed down on this planet. Needing help, I opened you guys up. I expect all of us to help get us offworld. If any of you are unwilling to help, I'll have Linwood put you back to sleep. As for the rest of you! This barren planet is not conducive to our continued lives here. We have enough food and drink to last us about a month. I have already reset hydroponics to an operating state so we shouldn't run out of oxygen in the long run. We have a ship in dock that needs repair, and right now that's our ticket out to space."

Seeing the newly unthawed nodding along with her, she stopped speaking and asked if everyone agreed with her. After a short chatter between the newbies, they came to a consensus and agreed to help her.

Shara quickly brought up a medium sized box of new jumpsuits for people to wear. The new base personnel quickly changed over into new, dry suits and then formed into a couple of small teams based on previous relationships and job requirements. She finally did a headcount, and found out that she in total woke up 25 people. They were all higher level individuals who knew what they were doing within their respective fields.

"Alright. We have five tasks that need urgently done. First, we need to secure ourselves a water supply. It needs to be drinkable and it needs a corresponding waste management system. Who volunteers?"

Five people walked forward.

"That's enough."

They rushed off to get started, knowing how crucial their job was. While Shara could just create water and food using the system, it would quickly burn through her small cache of points. Besides, the base had a water system in place beforehand. It shouldn't be that hard to get started again, and they would need it to refill the tanks for the hydroponics bays now that Shara had used them.

"Next up, we need a pair of people to manage the hydroponics bay. I believe we have two people already for that position, so please, return to work."

A burly looking man and a brunette woman both separated from the crowd and quickly walked back towards hydroponics. Shara had specifically asked for them when she gave Linwood the list earlier.

"Next, we need to reseal the hangar so we can pressurize it. We need another group of five."

A few technically inclined folk walked forwards. Shara nodded to them. "Be safe."

"Don't worry ma'am. We'll get it done."

"Keep me informed."

"Yes ma'am."

Shara divided the remaining group in half, and took Linwood aside as the remainder. Half she sent to manage the base's power grid, and the other half to scavenge what they could.

Ah, the joys of upper management.

"Linwood, you're my second in command."

"I…I.."

"Don't think about it. I'm relying on you right now because I know you the most. Besides, you need to be free so you can pull more people out. It's nothing personal."

"Oh."