The Pioneer was in storage of the Earth Museum. I failed to see how a revolution that destroyed records of Earth could allow a museum of Earth itself. Mayor Zyre told me that it was because the majority of the information of Earth was about technology, the evolution of humans, and so forth. It actually gave no history of human action. I was disgusted.

    The storage room was incredibly large. It was to be expected, considering it housed a ship larger than a cruise ship of Earth. The Pioneer looked a little aged, with a dirty hull and a few fraying pieces of exterior, but I hardly cared. The door stood open as we walked in. I plugged the drive into Mayor Spencer's tablet and pulled up the blueprint.

    "Do the elevators work?"

    "I highly doubt it," replied Mayor Zyre.

    The storage room where the electron batteries resided wasn't too far of a climb. An hour later and I stood before the door. The Pioneer was much less sleek than the Patriot. It was built for comfort – not speed and power. The two Mayors had followed me as I went along. Officer Peterson was looking around curiously.

    "Here it—" Dizziness hit my senses. My voice died as I stumbled sideways, gut twisting and ears ringing. I felt faint as I leaned against the wall, trying to hear past the ringing in my ears. What's happening to me? Come on, Veve, get up. Get up.

    I had a brief moment of panic. What if the computer had failed in waking my systems up properly? We had been asleep too long to assume there would be no side effects. Hearing thoughts was one already. What if something else major had happened? We had no way to tell.

    "First Officer? Are you alright?"

    I wedged open my eyes. The room slowly spun to a stop. I was leaning heavily on the wall. Officer Peterson had caught my arm to keep me from falling. The ringing gradually faded until I was able to hear properly.

    "She looks bad. Did Mayor Spencer not let her rest?"

    "What's wrong?"

    I found my voice. "I'm f-fine." I straightened from the wall, relieved to see that I was able to see straight. The spell had been temporary. Officer Peterson frowned. "Are you sure?"

    "It's my own body, Officer, I'm pretty sure," I snapped. He retreated hastily. I sighed. "Sorry. I'm stressed." My voice lowered for only his ears.

    "I understand," he said quietly. "This isn't your job, being the commanding officer. It must be rough, and you're not even commanding a whole crew."

    It's my job to take charge when the Captain can't. I didn't reply, dusting off invisible dust and walking up to the door. Mayor Spencer frowned. "I don't think she's actually okay." Mayor Zyre just smiled wryly. "Just like a soldier. She'll work herself to nothing. I probably need to warn Kal. He's so caught up in the fact that these two have arrived that he's not paying enough attention."

    I pressed my finger to the scanner. It lit up green. "Welcome, First Officer Autumn. Three other life forms detected."

    "Well, if Nahla had any remaining doubt, she doesn't now."

    "I'll be damned. That actually worked."

    With each word, my headache worsened. I closed my eyes for a second. It lessened slightly. I reopened them. "Technical Officer Quinn Peterson, and Mayor Kal Spencer of Settlement Mirah and Mayor Nahla Zyre of Settlement Edam."

    "Accepted." The doors slid open with a hiss. I didn't waste time in stepping inside to the large storage room. "Computer, guide me to section thirty-five-point-four."

    "Yes, First Officer Autumn." A faint line lit up on the floor. Mayor Zyre made an impressed sound. Mayor Spencer grinned to himself. I followed the line. Part of my training had been on the Pioneer, as well. As the secondary Captain, I had to know how to assist the Pioneer and the Patriot. That included knowing the computer well enough to navigate it.

    At last, I found the shelf. There was a case of black material with a fingerprint lock. With my touch, it popped open. The faint glowing color escaped as I lifted it further. I exhaled in relief. The electron battery was safe. The case was large, and the battery itself was made of a silver metal and about the size of a football. It wasn't very heavy either. The reading on the case told me the battery was half-charged.

    "They're here, but they're only half-charged. How many would it take to wake the whole crew?"

    Officer Peterson did the math in his head. "For all thirty-eight, it would take roughly a hundred."

    "A hundred?" I rounded on him, alarmed. "I thought a battery could wake up two apiece."

    "That's with a full charge and with the person only being asleep for two hundred years. We've been asleep twice that and it requires more energy. Unless we want to wake everyone up manually, the computer won't do it. It has a limit of how much energy it needs. It would take a hundred batteries before the computer would wake them up."

    And I refuse to wake them manually. I turned to look at the batteries, remembering how many the Pioneer had stored. "There's only fifteen here. How many crew members can we wake up?"

    He did the math. "The Bridge crew, and barely. The computer would shut other attempts down after that."

    It was so hard to keep myself from pacing at that moment. With both Mayors watching me and their thoughts worried, I forced myself to remain still. "There's no way to charge these without being in deep space. The only ships capable of this are the Patriot and the Pioneer, and neither are in flying condition." There was no way to recharge the batteries. I already knew from listening to the two Mayors that no modern ship was built for the batteries. They had never heard of electron batteries before.

    I felt backed into corner. We only had the power to wake up the Bridge crew, but even that wasn't safe. I had to wake up my crew and my Captain. We didn't have enough batteries to do it. I didn't know where else we could get any.

     The eyes of the three onlookers bored into my neck. I felt the pressure of making a choice. I had never wanted to be the commanding officer, but I was stuck with the decision. I ran through my options. "Officer Peterson, what will happen if I wake the entire Bridge crew?"

 He borrowed the tablet from me to use a complicated calculator. "With fifteen half-filled batteries... The computer needs enough leeway to wake the crew. If we tried to wake up the Bridge crew, it would wake up all of them except for one. It would balk because of how low the power left is."

    I had no way of knowing what would actually happen without getting into the Patriot computer. I clenched my jaw. "We're getting these batteries to the Patriot. The computer will know more about what it can do than us. I also need to figure out where I can find some more batteries." I turned to the Mayors. "Is there a way to get these batteries there quickly?"

    "Consider it done," said Mayor Zyre with a nod.