by T S Paul
My hands started to itch. I really wanted to examine that little thing. I subvocalized to Wilson. “If you get a chance, scan that thing and get the spec’s on it. I want to build one of those!”
“Did you say something Lieutenant Lee?” Sergeant Yannos was looking in my direction.
“Sorry sergeant. I was mumbling to myself I do that sometimes.” Quickly, I changed the subject. “What does your little ‘toy’ say about the door?”
“This?” He held the gizmo up, then quickly put it away. “ That is something that was made for special forces, it isn’t that important. The door is fine. Oxygen levels on the other side are a little low and there are large amounts of phosphorus pentoxide in the air. I would suggest we keep our space suits on just in case.
“Phosphorus pentoxide,” I thought for a moment. “You only get high concentrations of that when you use phosphorus munitions like smoke grenades. Who would use something like that on a spaceship? The effects would be horrific.”
The whole team was looking at me with surprise visible on their faces. “Oh, very good Lieutenant. I didn’t know that you knew combat engineering, too.”
I laughed at the special operations team. “You look at me and all you see is a short, but cute, blond playing dress up. Don’t you? You forget that I had 15 years to do lots of reading and studying on a variety of topics out in my little ‘retreat’ in Diablo sector. I am smarter than you think I am Mr. Yannos.” I had moved close to him and was poking him in the chest to make my point crystal clear. “Any more comments any of you would like to make?” I looked around the room at the others. “Good. Let’s go find some people shall we?” Reaching over I pressed the open button.
The airtight door opened with a whoosh. Lying on the deck, directly in front of the door, were the remains of five or six pirates. From the amount of dried blood and gore it appeared that several had been shot, the rest cut into pieces during some sort of fight. There was a blood trail leading off to starboard. Someone had crawled away from this.
Yannos motioned to two of his squad to go check it out. We didn’t touch the bodies, except to move them out of the way of the door. The two men returned, they found one dead pirate about twenty feet away in a pool of blood. Staying together, we headed toward the bow of the ship. We knew that someone was alive on the bridge. Ahead of us was another airtight door, this led to the main corridor running the length of the ship. Once again Yannos used his scanning device to check for danger.
In my head I heard Wilson. “Athena that little thing he has is pretty cool. It has more computing power than three of your engineering tablets. I got a good scan off of it. I think I can tweak the system a little and build you a better one if you like.” I nodded my head, you bet I wanted one of those things.
Yannos motioned me over to him. “Lieutenant the main corridor is highly contaminated with phosphorus pentoxide. Can we go around?”
I pulled out my tablet and brought up the schematics for the ship. If my map was correct, the only way to get to the bridge was through the main corridor There were a few air ducts that might work but we would not fit inside in the spacesuits we had on. I explained all of this to Yannos to get his opinion.
Carefully, I opened the door to the main corridor. Using an override code I slowed the door. Wisps of white smoke and flakes of ash rolled through the doorway. The fire had gone out with the lack of oxygen to fuel it. Battle damage was evident in both directions. Since we knew for a fact that people were alive on the bridge, we went there first. As we approached the bow we found more dead pirates. The effect of the phosphorus pentoxide at full concentration in a sealed corridor, caused many of these people to choke and die on their own vomit, the bodies were surrounded by dried pools of it on the deck.
We skirted past the dead, trying not to look too closely. The battle damage to the walls was worse here. This is what had killed the pirates. My skilled eyes could trace where the explosion occurred. From my reading, I knew what a grenade blast in an armored corridor was supposed to look like. Only a fool would use a grenade on a ship! Especially a phosphorous one. The remains here were only the charred outlines of people. Their bodies incinerated completely, something that you would find in an ancient city. Not a spaceship in the modern age. Hot burning metal had struck containers of ammunition causing secondary explosions that had scarred the corridor in both directions. Only the absence of oxygen had stopped this disaster from getting much worse.
The doors to the bridge were closed and locked. The flashing lights above the door proclaimed it to be combat sealed. Impenetrable to most attack weapons. It could only be opened from the inside.
Staring at the door I had an idea. “Wilson, is it possible to hack the door using that gizmo of Yannos’? Tell me if I get it wrong. That tool he has can scan through a solid object and detect minute traces of whatever is on the other side. Plus, I bet it can scan for signal waves and other forms of communication. If it can scan, it should be able to sent too. Do I have the tools and equipment on me to change it from a receiver to a controller?”
“Yes, you do Athena. You will have to dismantle one of the backup communicators and laser pistol power supply. Once you have the parts, access the Special Operations scan unit. If you cross connect the acoustic sine wave generator with the..” Wilson has a tendency to drone on a bit.
I looked at Yannos and motioned to him. We touched helmets to make communication easier. “Lieutenant, we have explosives, we can blow the door. But, it will most likely kill everyone inside from the shock wave.” I shook my head.
“No, Sergeant Yannos. I have a better way. I can hack my way in. But, I will need that Special operations toy that you have in your pocket. I will have to rewire it and add a few parts. I can fix it for you later, it won’t be permanent.”
He was silent for a moment. “How do you know that my device can do what you need?” He was giving me the ‘eye’ now.
“I am an Engineer. Show me something, even for a minute and I can figure it out. There really is only a couple of ways that thing could work the way that it does.”
“This is the only one that we have left. All the others were either destroyed in the war or when they discharged us. As far as we can tell, it is unique. Can you promise me that you can repair it?”
I heard Wilson mutter in my ear “we can make you faster, stronger, ….” He was off in la la land again. Such a weirdo.
“Yes, Yannos I can repair it. I promise. If I break it, I will make you another one.” I held out my hand.
He almost hesitantly handed it to me.
“I am going to need one of the backup communicators and a laser pistol power-pack. Those, you will not get back.”
I brushed the equipment and debris off of one of the supply carts that sat in the corridor. Taking the power-pack apart I set its components off to one side. The communicator I dismantled to get at the broadcast circuit board. Gingerly, I took the special operations machine and removed its inspection plate. The circuitry was of an older design, but one I was still familiar with. Using parts I had removed I added to the ‘gizmo’. The added power-pack should boost the broadcast capability and allow me to hack the door controls. Muttering to myself, I had Wilson run a diagnostic to make sure that my connections were solid. Using riggers or duct tape. I secured the power pack to the new broadcaster circuit.
My reconfiguration burned another 30 minutes of our precious time. Time wise we were down to less than two hours before impact.
Using the device, I scanned the door. The machine beeped and I typed out the number sequence to override the door lock. With a grinding noise the armored door started to open. The entire airlock inside was covered in blood. The green door to the bridge looked like it was bleeding. The bodies of two crewmen in mismatched gear lay dead on the deck. I handed the device back to the sergeant to use to scan the bridge before I opened the inner door.
Yannos looked at the device in his hand for a moment like it was fairy gold. How in the hell had she do
ne that? This ‘toy’ was the product of 10 years of research and several million credits. She had cracked it open and reconfigured it sight unseen. Stepping over the bodies on the deck, he typed using familiar buttons to scan the room behind the green door. The scanner showed five life signs and the air was not contaminated.
I punched in the control override numbers except for the last one taking a step back. Assaulting a room was for the real soldiers.
Sergeant Yannos entered the last number and raised his weapon. These may be pirates.
___
The sound of the outer armored door opening is what woke the Marines up. With nothing constructive to do, they had stayed up way too late last night playing cards. When you are going on a raid to attack and kill pirates, who takes a deck of cards with you? Marines do.
That door was supposed to be impenetrable to outside forces! How in the hell was it opening? His men started to scramble around looking for firing positions. Kinno told the two volunteer navy crewmen to hide behind something solid and to stay put. The small windows set in the airtight door showed space-suited figures moving around. Had the enemy gotten reinforced by more pirates off those ships his men has seen?
If he and his men were going to die, at least they would die facing the enemy.
____
The airtight door opened with a whoosh. Yannos and two of his men entered the room with their guns at the ready. He heard a voice yelling at them. He turned up his exterior microphones so he could hear better.
“..I repeat, if you take one more step we will fire on you. Who are you?”
Yannos raised his arms and motioned to his men to lower their weapons. He broadcast his voice. “We are members of the Hong Kong planetary Militia. We were sent here on a rescue and repair mission.”
The tall man behind what was left of the navigation station lowered his weapons. Motioning to his men they lowered theirs too. “I am Lieutenant Kinno Mutai, detachment commander of the Empire’s marines. Did the Fleet send you to deal with the pirates?”
“To answer that question and others I have brought along a Navy officer. Lieutenant if you would?”
In my own defense, I heard the sergeant calling me but seeing all of the shattered equipment I was distracted. I was head down, inside of one of the consoles, when a special operations guy got my attention. Looking up, I found everyone staring at me. “Sorry about that.”
Seeing the Marines I walked over. “Hello, my name is Lieutenant Athena Lee, acting chief engineer of Legation Station. It’s nice to find some of you in one piece. Are there any more of you alive? I ask this because judging by the navigation controls we have a very serious problem in about, an hour and a half.”
The Marines continued to stare at me. “Hello, is anyone in there?” I waved my hands in front of me.
Snapping out of whatever that was, Kinno spoke up. “Sorry lieutenant. We had not expected to be rescued. With the destruction of all the controls up here we figured we were dead. We saw the ships outside and thought more pirates had boarded us.”
“It’s OK, Lieutenant Mutai. How exactly did this damage happen anyway?”
“When we attacked, they fought back, unbelievably, with rocket launchers and lasers pistols. We barely won. The pirates in the corridor, were firing though the open doorway. One of our volunteers, John over there, managed to get the door to closed. How did you open that door anyway? They are supposed to be impossible to open from the outside.”
“Trade secret I am afraid, Engineering magic. Something that you don’t know about. When the bridge controls were destroyed, this ship was still in jump. When the jump ended you were dumped out into our system. Without functional controls the ship started to go on its own, anywhere it wanted to. At the moment, it is headed straight at the 5th moon in our system. In just under one hour and twenty minutes it will hit the moon. If we are still on it we all will be killed. We are your ride out of here Marine! Now, is there any other survivors? Can you take us to them?”
___
Chapter 9
The largest problem with evacuating the Marines was the poisonous fumes and vapors inside the main corridor. There was a system to vent that sort of thing but the controls for it had been destroyed along with the bridge. CIC had duplicate controls in place, but could still be in pirate hands. We were running out of time. The hangar bay doors were still open and life support seemed to still function. I decided that the most expedient plan was to open an airlock door allowing the vacuum of space to fix all of our main problems. How to get the Marines past the poison gas?
Timing was everything. That and NOT getting sucked out the door! Rushing back to the airlock, I had Wilson override the safeties on the door. I used my space suits magnetic system to lock me to the bulkhead wall. Checking to see if my team did the same, I then pressed the door open button.
What a rush! This is what being trapped by a black hole must feel like. I could almost feel the ‘wind’ whistling past me as the ship’s atmosphere was sucked out into space. Everything not nailed down was starting to come through the door including bodies and debris. I reached out and hit the button to close the door. Nothing happened! “Wilson, what did you do? We have to close the damn door!”
He too was frantic, “Sorry Athena someone just overrode my commands. Let me try it again, it should work this time!”
I pressed the button and the airtight door slammed shut. “What the hell was that? Who overrode the controls?”
“The commands came from engineering. It seems there really is someone alive down there. I keep trying to access that part of the ship and someone keeps blocking ME. I love a challenge. Go save your squishies, I have someone to ‘play’ with now.”
I hurried back to the bridge finding it easier this time with less bodies to walk around. Lieutenant Mutai was already off the bridge and waiting for me. “I’m glad that worked Athena.”
“Someone overrode the controls, I almost could not close the door.”
“Captain Pigot had a computer tech trying to regain control when we last saw him. It may have been her.”
Time was of the essence. We practically raced down the mostly empty main corridor. Following along behind us, Sergeant Yannos and his team began opening the sealed rooms looking for survivors or pirates.
____
When the door opened, Seth barely registered that someone was here to save them. Clint had run out of ‘chaw tobaccy’ and had pulled out something a bit stronger. He called them ‘buds’, Seth now called them awesome. The colors that covered the walls were so pretty. Trying to shake the haze from his eyes he finally recognized that there were people standing there that had guns pointed at him. “Howdy! Come on in and set a spell!” The other five pirates all busted out into laughter at what he had just said.
Yannos and his team just stared at them. What do you do with obviously drugged out pirates? They were giggling and laughing at the shadows on the wall. Their eyes all had a sort of glazed look to them. While various recreational drugs were legal on his home planet, Yannos had never used them. He assigned second squad to the group and moved on looking for more survivors.
___
Computer tech Deedee Kovak at was not having fun at all. She was almost literally pounding on her keyboards cursing up a storm. A programming hole had opened up in the pirates defense earlier. She had been able to override some of the pirates control. Now someone was trying to hack her! She had been blocking the intrusion with anything and everything she could think of. There was no way this was the same hacker as before. She yelled for Chief Tad to come help her.
“What is the problem Dee?”
She explained what had happened and how this seemed to be a ‘new’ hacker.
“What opening did you take advantage of?” Chief Tad was interested now.
“The airlock system was activated and the door controls were being overridden. I jumped in and blocked the commands. I was working my way back into the bridge controls when this assault began against me.”<
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Thinking about what she said he replied. “Could you see which doors were being affected when you blocked it?”
“Yes, the hangar bay doors are currently locked in the open position. I froze the commands so the doors would not close again. This hacker overrode ME, then attacked.”
“Deedee, stop trying to keep them out. I think this is a rescue!”
“What! Are you crazy or something?” She realized what she had just said and to whom. “Sorry, Sir. I forgot myself. Shutting down my defense right now.” She typed in a command and her computer shut down.
Her computers stuttered a little then went dark.
___
“Athena, I stopped the intrusion from engineering.”