
                            Station Escape
                       An ACK-3D Demonstration


    Slowly, ever so slowly, your eyes begin to focus as you awaken
from the cold sleep of cryogenic freeze. Every muscle in you body is
screaming at you to stay right where you are, but you know you need
to move around to get the circulation started. You shiver as your body
temperature rises above freezing back into the normal range for the
living. Your head still hasn't cleared but it seems that something is
amiss. Nobody is here, at least in the field of vision you care to try
and see. Rubbing your neck you begin looking around the cryogenic lab.
Nothing, nobody, nowhere. Odd, the entire thawing process must have
been done by the central computer, but why? And then you hear it. The
station's alarm klaxon sounding the evacuation tone. Still groggy, you
remember the briefing before you went into freeze, "Should the station
require evacuation, the computer will automatically bring everyone out
of frozen sleep."

    Great, now you knew why you were awake and why nobody else was
around. But what the hell was going on! Why was the station being
evacuated and why didn't somebody at least stay to make sure the
thawing process was okay? AND WHY DOESN'T SOMEBODY SHUT
OFF THAT ALARM! Your head was now throbbing to every pulse from
the klaxon, contributing to the overall feeling of someone placing your
head into a vise. Then, just as you felt like screaming, the alarm
silenced.

    With renewed energy you begin making your way to the main shuttle
bay, the only means of escape from the orbiting space station. The
corridors are empty as you trudge along, still not fully recovered.
Walking up to a computer terminal, you stare at the writing scrolling
off the screen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
      EVACTUATE.....EVACUATE.....EVACUATE

      All hands are ordered to evacuate the
      station immediately. Orbital decay is
      emminent. Shuttle Two is standing by
      for boarding.....

      EVACTUATE.....EVACUATE.....EVACUATE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


    What! Orbital decay? What in blue blazes is going on!
The next screen stops you cold and sends a shiver down
your spine......

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Shuttle Two away. All shuttles
        launched. Beginning station shutdown
        according to evactuation protocol.
        Shuttle Five non-operational and
        left in shuttle bay.

        Station will enter upper layer
        of atmosphere in

        1 Hrs, 58 Min, 23 Sec
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

    And then, while you read and reread the screen, the
computer shuts the terminal down and leaves you staring at
nothing but static. ALL SHUTTLES LAUNCHED replays itself
in your mind over and over as your gaze falls from the
meaningless static of the screen down to the cold metal floor
at your feet. All shuttles, except for a non-operational number
Five.

    Slowly you look up and realize that you had to get to that
shuttle, and you had only two hours to do it or you might as
well crawl back into your cold tube and drift off into endless
sleep.

    A noise brings you out of your dreamy stupor. What was
it? Are you really alone here on the station? Now that you
thought about it, didn't you notice there were still people in the
cryo-tubes? Should you wake them up or go on alone? Why
weren't they awakened as part of the evacuation proceedure?
What made the station go out of orbit? What if the parts needed
for the shuttle were not available?

    Turning around, you begin to scan the cold metal walls
of the station....



=============================================


    Station Escape pits you against the clock in a race to try and
repair the one remaining shuttle before it's too late. Parts for the
shuttle are available if you can find them and get them to the
shuttle bay to make repairs. You later find that general mayhem
occurred during the evacuation and certain systems are not
functioning quite like they should. In fact they seem to be trying
to keep you from your goal of escaping. Is there more going on
than meets the eye?

