THOR

The cryo-chamber woke Colonel Anthony Webb two days early as programmed. Nobody really liked cryo-sleep but Webb hated it passionately. He always woke early on a mission so that he could clear his head and get his ducks in a row.

He rubbed his temple in response to the throbbing headache that he always got in the cryo-chamber and slowly sat up. As he came back to life he dropped his feet over the edge and touched the cold floor of the deck. The shock of the cold made him jump.

As usual his mouth tasted like he had been chewing on old sweat socks. He put his feet on the floor and stood up slowly, holding the edge of the freezer to maintain his balance. Once he was acclimated to standing up right, he shuffled over to the sink. He splashed some water over his face and took a drink from a paper cup.

From there he walked over to the local computer console. "Computer: recognize Colonel Anthony Webb, Mission Commander, Colonial Marines."

"Voice print confirmed."

"Computer: power up my quarters, the flight deck and the common areas."

"Acknowledged."

Webb looked outside the door of the compartment that housed the Officer's Cryo-tubes and saw the lights coming on. He took on last look at his officers who were still sleeping, left the room and headed to his quarters. He took a shower, shaved and put on a fresh uniform.

He stopped by the galley and got a cup of coffee and headed up to the flight deck. As he walked through everything looked fine. The ship was performing well.

Webb was proud of his new ship. Twice as large as the old Conestoga class, the Inchon was better in every way: faster, tougher and much more capable. He had four combat platoons, a dozen pilots, 24 support specialists and a flight crew under his command. He was confident in his commands ability to cope with any mission that command could throw at them.

Once on the flight deck, Webb made his way to the Master Computer room. He swiped his key card and entered the room as the lights were coming up.

He sat down at the master terminal and logged in.

"Computer: mission brief."

Background: In 2355 a consortium of universities and major corporations established the Rho Andromeda research facility for high energy physics known as CENTER or Cooperative ENergy TEchnology Research. CENTER's primary mission is to develop advanced power systems.

Twenty-two days [40 days corrected] ago CENTER activated a research reactor code named THOR (Twin Hadron Reactor) and went off the grid.

Your mission is to appraise the situation at CENTER, rescue any survivors and retrieve research data from the facility mainframe.

Webb sat back in his chair.

He said, "Computer: describe the THOR reactor."

THOR is an experimental high yield reactor that creates power by streaming plasma onto a forced singularity.

"Oh sweet Jesus! They are sending us to a black hole!?" Webb instinctively backed away from the console.

That code was not understood.