“Sergeant,” she whispered as she stopped. “Put two up on each side,” she instructed, pointing to either side of the bay. “Tell them to open fire if our guests start shooting. You stay with me.” The sergeant turned to deploy their remaining forces, sending the two that had fought with them earlier to the starboard side, while the other two that had just joined them were sent to the port side.
Jessica took up a position crouched on one knee behind a crate out in the middle of the bay, the sergeant joining her. About one meter high and three meters long, it would provide good cover for their confrontation.
“As good a spot as any,” she whispered. “They’ll have to come through that smaller personnel hatch built into the bay door,” she explained, pointing at the large bay doors at the opposite end of the bay. She had been through this entire section only an hour ago, on her way to board the Jung patrol ship back in the Oort cloud. “There’s no decent cover between them and us, so they’ll have no chance. As long as those guys on the cats can shoot straight,” she added.
“Bridge,” she whispered over her comm-set. “We’ve established a defensive position in the hangar bay. No one’s getting through here without some serious fire power.”
“Don’t shoot first and ask questions later,” Nathan warned over the comm-set.
“I know, Sir. We could use some intel.”
“Exactly. But don’t take any unnecessary chances, either. We’re running out of crew.”
Just then, the hatch lock turned and the hatch swung open. She watched across her gun sights, waiting for someone to step through the hatch. It was at least ten seconds before a helmet leaned in and peeked through briefly before disappearing again.
They’re not stupid, she thought. She tightened her grip on her weapon, her entire body tensing up in preparation to fire as the first visitor stepped cautiously through the hatch. It appeared to be a man, dressed in a pressure suit similar to their own. He was still wearing his helmet, the interior of which was lit, but from this distance she couldn’t make out any facial features. He was however, carrying a weapon that looked exactly like the ones carried by the enemy boarding party they had just defeated. And to her, that wasn’t a good sign.
“You notice that weapon, Ma’am?” the sergeant whispered in barely audible fashion.
“Yeah,” she whispered back. “Just hold, let’s wait for a few more to step through.”
They watched as the first one took a few steps into the bay, after which he stopped and twisted his body about, scanning the dimly lit interior. He turned back toward the hatch as three more stepped through, two men and a woman. As they began to move forward, Jessica and the sergeant popped up from behind their cover, weapons held high in firing position. “That’s far enough!” she shouted.
Two of the male visitors immediately raised their own weapons in preparation to defend themselves.
“DON’T DO IT!” Jessica insisted, leaning slightly forward to not only prepare herself for her weapon’s recoil, but also to emphasis her point, the sergeant imitating her posture.
The man at the center of the group of visitors raised his hands up slowly, stopping about chest high. He turned his body right and left, leaning back slightly to see the four others, two on each side, their weapons also trained on them. Realizing Jessica and her team had the tactical advantage, he motioned for his men to lower their weapons.
“That’s it!” Jessica instructed, as she watched them stand down. “Put them on the deck!” she continued, sweeping her weapon in a downward fashion to indicate her meaning. The two armed men slowly placed their weapons on the deck, before standing upright again, hands held out and up to communicate their cooperation.
The leader of the group slowly removed his helmet. He was a rugged looking fellow, perhaps in his late forties to early fifties, with light brown hair and dark eyes that looked both sympathetic and fiercely determined at the same time. He looked at her for a moment, as well as at the others under her command, after which he said something unintelligible to Jessica, something in another language. He repeated himself one more time before realizing that she did not understand him. It was apparent by his expression that her lack of comprehension was a bit surprising to him.
The other two men removed their helmets next. Both were considerably younger than their leader, one with black hair and eyes, and the other with similar features but of considerably darker complexion. Neither of them smiled, however, only glancing upwards out of the corner of their eyes to assess the guns trained on them from above.
The fourth one to remove her helmet was, as Jessica had observed, a woman, young enough to be the daughter of the leader, but not possessing any similar features. She was of similar complexion, with long straight black hair, and green eyes that held the same determination as their leader’s.
“Bridge, Engineering,” Vladimir’s voice came across the internal comm system. Nathan was instantly encouraged by the improved clarity in the hard-wired comms.
“Go ahead.”
“Main internal communications are fully operational again,” he announced proudly. “We are working on getting full power restored to command decks.”
“Great…”
“…Bridge, Nash,” Jessica’s voice interrupted over the wireless.
“Hold on, Vlad,” Nathan told him, switching back to Jessica. “Go ahead.”
“We’ve got four, uh, visitors in custody down here.”
“Who are they?”
“No clue, they’re not speaking English.”
“What are they speaking?”
“No clue there, either, Sir. What do you want us to do with them?”
Nathan thought for a moment. Somehow, he needed to speak with these people, to find out who they were and what had just happened out there. More importantly, he needed to learn their intentions.
“Bring them to me, I guess,” he said, not really knowing what else to do.
“To the bridge? I wouldn’t advise that, Sir,” she warned. “Too risky.”
He could tell she was trying to hide that last statement from their guests, even if they didn’t appear to speak the same language. But he didn’t see what harm it could do, especially considering their current inoperable state. But he also knew that being a graduate from the spec-ops school meant that Jessica probably knew better about such matters.
“You’re right,” he admitted. “Bring them to the main briefing room on deck C. I’ll meet you there.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Vlad?” Nathan asked after he switched back.
“Yes.”
“How are you for crew down there?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “There are six of us, including myself. We have found four dead, two of them we cannot identify, and three more are missing.”
“What about Chief Patel?” Nathan asked. At some point in time, he was going to have to figure out who should actually be in command. Surely, somewhere on the ship there was a higher ranking officer who was still alive and could relieve him.
“He is still missing,” Vladimir answered, a touch of sadness in his voice.
After a respectful pause, Nathan made his first battle-field promotion. “I guess that makes you chief engineer, Vlad.”
“Yes,” he answered soberly. “Then I guess I should be getting back to work,” he added before clicking the line off. Nathan knew that Chief Patel had been important to Vladimir, as he had talked about him often and had been looking forward to learning from the chief. So he had to figure that the loss was difficult for his friend.
Nathan stood straight and straightened his uniform. “I’m going to the briefing room to meet our visitors,” he announced as he turned to exit. “You have the bridge, Cam,” he added.
“Me?” It caught her slightly off guard. “Why me?”
Nathan looked around the bridge. Other than Doctor Sorenson and Ensign Yosef, Cameron was the only other person in the room. “Why not?” It wasn't much of an answer, it was just the first thing that came out of his mouth.