“Four of the emergency shuttles were filled with Aucharian soldiers. They began firing on us right away and caught Ramirez and most of his team by surprise. I decided we should retreat. I would have told you but our comms were jammed.”
“We need to regroup in the command section. Can your people get to the bridge?” Captain Valance walked over to the secondary holographic display where an exterior view of the ship was being shown, it was as tall as he was. He looked at it carefully, turning the image with his hand so he was looking at the command section of the ship.
“We can if we go from the outside.”
“Fantastic, make your way almost to the observation room. Just beneath it you'll find an emergency airlock. We'll let you in there.”
“Excellent, we'll see you in a minute sir.”
Liam opened a compartment under the engineering station and found a tool kit. “I'm glad whoever had this ship before didn't pillage all the supplies,” he commented as he walked to the front of the bridge and knelt down.
“What are you doing?” Captain Valance asked quietly.
“I'm looking for the latch that'll open this hidden access panel. There's an entire flight control room beneath us according to the schematics in the computer, the access point to external power generation is there. If we're going to reroute power I'd best get to it sooner rather than later.”
“We'll wait for Price and the rest of the security team. I'd rather be safe than sorry.”
“Well, then we may as well open things up for them,” Liam insisted calmly as he opened the hidden panel and pressed a few buttons. Meter wide sections of the floor turned transparent in a radial pattern underfoot and lights came on below. There was what looked like an entirely different kind of bridge just beneath their feet. Ramps lowered on either side of the bridge for people to move back and forth between.
The holographic projectors and stations turned on, each showing different tactical grids of the area. Stations were set up with high stools, all made to command groups of starfighters, gunships and larger vessels.
“This is a carrier Captain, and as soon as we get things running right I'm sure you'll do something incredible with her. That's why I want to help you get her back in shape,” Liam said with a smile. “That is, after you've taken it back.”
The Fastest Indirect Route
“Soldiers, bloody everywhere we turn more soldiers,” Grace grumbled as she peeked around a corner to find the last hallway between her and the bridge guarded. “This is the only way to the bridge now that they managed to lock down the primary express cars.”
“Unless we go outside,” Gary, one of the volunteer nurses commented. He had triage training, which was better than most, and had arrived on the starliner.
“Well, two of us are in vacsuits.” Fiona whispered with a shrug. “If we can find one for you we could actually go around.”
Gary looked to her wide eyed. “You're serious?”
“Yup, why not? Probably almost as fast.”
“She's right. It's not like we're armed or trained for a direct firefight. Going around makes sense,” Grace agreed. She walked quietly back down the hallway to a meter wide space between doors. “Show me the emergency escape equipment and facilities in this hallway.” She whispered to the computer. She didn't know for certain if it would work, but since she was able to ask for directions effectively before, who knew what else the ship could do?
A meter wide section of the wall behind her became transparent and revealed four flimsy looking white vacsuits and a hatch leading into a tiny escape shuttle. “Does anyone know how to fly that?” Grace asked.
“I flunked my leisure pilot's test four times, but I could.” Fiona said with a shrug.
“I've got my certification for mid and small sized interplanetary craft. Don't like those vacsuits though, they look more like a bunch of bags glued together.”
“Well, hurry up and get in one,” Grace whispered harshly. “We're going for a very short ride.” She opened the hatch and passed him a vacsuit. “Captain,” she addressed through her communicator. “We have a problem but I've found a solution. We're going to take an emergency shuttle to go around the guards between us and the bridge. How is Stephanie doing?”
“Not so well, she might have another hour,” The Captain replied quietly. She could tell he was trying to keep his response from the rest of the crew.
“We'll try to be there quickly. There might be something in the emergency shuttle we can use to stabilize her. Put her in a deeper state of stasis. I can't see us getting her back to medical unless we use brute force.”
“Understood. Hurry but be careful.”
“Aye sir.” Grace followed Gary and Fiona into the escape shuttle and closed the small hatch behind her. The little ship was made for four, and was hidden behind two thick layers of hull plating.
Gary took a moment to look at the controls and the series of manual buttons and switches. Everything was fairly well labelled, but Grace knew she was probably the worst pilot out of all three of them, so she let him get his bearings and concentrated on keeping a watch on the hatch behind them instead of trying to assist, making sure the guards didn't hear something and decide to investigate.
“Everything okay?” Fiona asked.
“I'm fine,” Gary replied hastily. “I just don't think there's a way to get this thing going without making a lot of noise.”
“I don't think we're worried about that.”
“What about fighters? If there are any out there they can just pick us off.”
“I don't think we're worried about that either,” Fiona said, shaking her head impatiently.
“Did the Captain say if there were fighters or anything out there?” Gary asked Grace.
“He would have told us.”
“Ask him anyway? Just to be sure?”
Grace sighed; “Sure, just get us ready. Captain, are there any fighters or hostiles out there?”
“No, nothing offensive on tactical.”
“Thank you sir.” Grace cut the channel and nodded at Gary. “Okay, let's get this thing going.”
“He's sure? It didn't sound like he took time to check.”
Grace smacked him in the back of the head with a flick of her wrist. “Get us flying or I'll give it a try!”
Gary turned to the controls and pressed the launch initiation button. “It's going to be loud.”
The first section of armoured hull in front of the shuttle split in the middle and drew to the side while the outer layer flipped outward, opening and clanging against the outer hull above it. The four meter thick hardened metal plate's impact made the whole section of the ship vibrate. After three seconds the rear shuttle thrusters fired and they were shot out of its storage compartment. The power came on as Gary started decelerating.
The sound of the forward thrusters firing was deafening as Gary struggled to slow the ship down so they could turn around and head to the command section of the Triton.
Fiona looked to Grace, grinning from ear to ear. “We'll have to do this some time when it isn't an emergency!”
Grace didn't agree, the slow rotation of the shuttle was making everything outside spin and she could feel the last emergency ration she ate threaten to make a reappearance. “You know, after being out in space for a while you'd think you wouldn't want to sick up so often.”
Fiona's grin lessened a little. “I didn't realize how small this shuttle was until just now.”
“Don't throw up back there, it'll get everywhere in zero gravity.” Gary said over his shoulder. A moment later he flipped the shuttle end over end to face the Triton.
The stars, the wreckage around them and the distant planet moved past the window with blurring speed. To her relief, Grace caught sight of a sick bag just in time and snatched it from the dispenser. Well, she hoped it was a sick bag. Fiona cringed at the sight and sound of her throwing up.
Grace finished before long and dug into her side pocket for a mini injector. She pressed it to her neck and sighed. “Okay, no more of that now. I should have medicated before getting into the shuttle.”