by Dietmar Wehr
“You’ll have to use the repair bot to maneuver you through the hatch. It will be difficult, but the unit has enough thrust to counter-act the pressure of the escaping air.”
That’s easy for you to say, he thought. “Okay, I’ll get ready while you search for their ship.”
By the time Ronson was ready and standing by, the probe happened to find the Trior ship in the first tunnel it scanned.
“Their ship is approximately 2.1 kilometers into the interior of the access tunnel, Troy. I can remotely pilot you to the tunnel entrance, but once inside, you’ll have to take control.”
“Understood. I’m ready and entering the airlock now.”
Minutes later, he was floating through space towards the yawning black hole of the tunnel entrance, which was rapidly becoming larger. Val Ky Ree maneuvered him over to the tunnel edge so that there was less chance of the Trior seeing him if they were checking the tunnel entrance. The probe had backed out and was now holding station slightly off to one side. When Ronson came up beside it and stopped, he heard Val Ky Ree’s voice.
“You should assume control of the maneuvering unit now, Troy. The tunnel wall will interfere with my remote control once you’re inside.”
“Right. I’m assuming control now. Okay, here I go. Wish me luck.”
“Good luck, Troy.”
Once inside the tunnel, the reflected starlight soon faded to a deep black that felt oppressive. Ronson switched on his suit’s infrared opticals and took a careful look at what was ahead. There was definitely something there that was giving off more heat energy than the surrounding tunnel walls. The roughly circular shape of what had to be the Trior ship seemed to be getting larger. But it’s not getting warmer, because then the image would be getting brighter instead of larger. With a gasp, he suddenly realized what was happening; The Trior ship seemed to be getting larger because it was getting closer!
“SHIT!” yelled Ronson as he spun himself around until he was facing the entrance. He gunned the maneuvering unit with full thrust.
“Val Ky Ree! Val Ky Ree! The Trior ship is coming back out! Can you hear me!”
“I hear you now, Troy, but you have to repeat your message. I missed the first part.” Val Ky Ree’s calm voice was a jarring contrast to his own adrenaline-pumped shouts.
“That ship is coming out fast! I’m trying to get out of this tunnel before it runs me down!”
“Stay near the tunnel wall, Troy. The tunnel is far wider than that ship, and its pilot will very likely want to stay in the center of the tunnel to avoid hitting the tunnel wall. Once you’re out, stay clear of my ship until the situation is resolved. I may have to maneuver suddenly and would not want to hit you by mistake.”
“Okay! I’m clear of the tunnel entrance and I’m going off to one si—THERE IT IS!” Via the small rearward looking periscope built into his helmet, he saw the Trior ship emerge from the tunnel with what appeared to be considerable velocity. God, I hope they don’t shoot at me!
“I see it, Troy. Powering up weapons…turrets are tracking target…firing in three…two…one…now. Target is destroyed. I’ll bring the ship to you, Troy.”
Ronson looked around until he saw a thin, black shape slowly moving across his field of vision and gradually getting bigger. He turned on his suit’s strobe light to let Val Ky Ree know where he was and maneuvered himself back across the tunnel opening. His infrared opticals now showed a uniform level of heat emissions from within the tunnel, although there seemed to be a shimmer to one side. It reminded him of how rising hot air will make the horizon in the desert seem to shimmer. He wondered if it was due to a second ship still being inside the tunnel.
“Val Ky Ree, I’m seeing some strange optical motion from inside the tunnel. Something is definitely moving in there. Could it be another Trior ship?”
“Possible, but unlikely. I’m now directly in front of the tunnel. I’m scanning with radar. Nothing metallic is moving in there, Troy, but my opticals are detecting visual distortions caused by moving air. The Trior obviously cut into a hatch and didn’t bother to close it again when they left the station. The hatch is still open, and the station is gradually losing its atmosphere. I can also detect a very faint amount of light that has to be coming from inside the open hatch. By the time the light hits the opposite tunnel wall, it’s so diffuse that it can only be detected by electronic devices. Your human eyes aren’t sensitive enough to notice it from this distance. If there’s power inside the station, we should investigate it. It may be that the Trior were able to hook up some portable power sources to the station’s computer network. If so, then we may be able to download the technical data for the incubators now without having to mount a full scale mission later. There is also another possibility. Not all of the Trior may have made it back to their ship before it tried to leave. It would be prudent for us to make sure the station is completely empty before we head back to Vesta, Troy.”
Ronson sighed. The close call of nearly being run down by a Trior ship had shaken him badly. He really would have preferred to reboard Val Ky Ree’s ship. The prospect of encountering one or more Trior inside the station wasn’t helping either.
“Okay, I’ll see if I can get inside and take a look around. It would help calm my nerves if you could throw some light into this tunnel for me. Even with the infrared goggles, I still feel like I’m falling into a bottomless hole.”
“How’s this, Troy?” asked Val Ky Ree.
Ronson noticed that the blackness was now a lighter grey. He looked to his left and nodded. He could see the far side of the tunnel entrance, and as a result, he had a new appreciation for how big this tunnel really was. Unfortunately, when he looked back down the tunnel, the light from Val Ky Ree’s ship rapidly faded away. He still couldn’t make out the far end of tunnel as anything other than a black area.
“That helps a little, thanks. I’m heading down the tunnel now. Stand by.”
It took him a good five minutes to get to the open hatch. Now that he was closer, he could tell that light was spilling out from inside the station. As soon as he was in front of the hatch, he felt the escaping air pushing against his spacesuit, but the maneuvering unit was able to compensate. Once he got through the open hatch, he quickly realized that the escaping air was coming from only one side of the corridor because the other side was blocked off by a closed internal hatch. The light was coming from a portable lighting unit that was magnetically attached to the opposite wall.
As he looked the other way down the corridor, he saw that air was rushing out of what looked like an air vent. Further down was another closed hatch. If he managed to open either of the closed hatches, the amount of air rushing out would increase tremendously, and that would make it harder to penetrate deeper into the station. But if he could close the outer hatch and somehow stop the loss of air altogether, then moving around the station should in theory become easier. A quick check showed that the outer hatch door slid back into the interior of the outer wall, but it did stick out enough that Ronson could grab it. He braced himself as best he could and pulled on the door. It moved, but with a lot of resistance.
“Val Ky Ree, can you still hear me?” he asked.
“I can, but there’s quite a bit of static now.”
“I’m inside, and I’m going to try to close this outer hatch in order to stop the loss of air. I’m hoping that will make it easier to move around the station. Communications may be cut off as a result. I’ll attempt to be back in a hour at the most.”
“I understand, Troy. Please be careful. If something happens to you inside the station, I won’t be able to help.”
“Gotcha. Okay, here I go.”
Ronson pulled on the door until it slid into the opposite side of the hatch frame. He could tell that the pressure of the escaping air dropped a lot, but it wasn’t gone completely. Even with the door closed, there was still a hole in it, and some air was escaping that way. He guessed that the hole was where the Trior had cut out the door’s locking
mechanism. If he could put something over it, the air pressure would stabilize. He checked his suit’s pockets, but found nothing. Then his gaze fell on the magnetic light. It looked as though it would be just big enough to cover the hole, and the magnets would hold it in place. He managed to get the light free and in position over the hole. The environmental instruments in his spacesuit showed him that air pressure in the corridor was now going up. The composition of the air was roughly the same as inside his spacesuit. He briefly was tempted to open his helmet’s faceplate but remembered that Val Ky Ree had speculated about the air being toxic after all this time. He decided to keep his helmet sealed.
“Can you still hear me, Val Ky Ree?” he asked. There was no reply. He wasn’t surprised considering how thick the sliding door was.
After briefly recalling what he had learned about the layout of the station interior, he turned to the corridor on his right and floated over to the closed hatch. He touched the button that had the Aesir symbol for open and was surprised to see the door slide back, although it seemed to slow down at the end. Up ahead was a long corridor with several intersections where new corridors went off to the right. He saw two more of the magnetic lights at intervals leading up to the first intersection. When he reached it, he looked down the side corridor and, sure enough, there were more magnetic lights. Before moving forward, he turned up the gain on his helmet’s external microphones and listened carefully. If Trior were moving around, they might make enough noise to be heard, but there was no sound at all. The absolute silence was eerie.
As he followed the trail of ‘bread crumb’ lights down corridors and around corners, he soon came to a large room that had lots of very sophisticated-looking equipment in it. There was only one light source in the room, and it was attached to the ceiling over a console that seemed to be active. When Ronson maneuvered over to it, he saw why. One of the Aesir generators that had been traded was hooked up in an obviously ad hoc way to the console. The console itself had several small screens with Aesir writing on them. Ronson thought he understood enough of the alien language that he could operate the console with a little trial and error. The console seemed to be primarily focused on the station’s power network. When he had identified the station’s main power units, he tried to restart, but without success. After more poking around, he was satisfied that he had located the primary backup power units. They too did not respond to commands to restart operating. After more searching, he discovered what human engineers would have called emergency backup power units, and they DID respond.
As power levels began to rise, the system asked him how to allocate the newly available power to other systems that were still shut down. As soon as he saw the communication system, he allocated all surplus power to it. A quick check of his chronometer made him curse out loud. He only had nine minutes left of his hour. If he could contact Val Ky Ree, he could tell her that he needed more time. And while he could go back out into the tunnel to tell her in person before returning, his human-engineered spacesuit had a limited supply of oxygen, and he wanted to get the most out of what he had left. He spent almost four minutes discovering that the station wasn’t capable of broadcasting an EM transmission into the tunnels. Any ship docked with the station would have a direct comlink anyway. That meant that he had to go back out, tell Val Ky Ree to dock her ship, and then he could communicate with her from inside the station. The question was how best to get back out there.
“There has to be an airlock in this fracking station,” he muttered to himself. Two minutes later he found one not far away and headed for it. To his relief, when he got there, the airlock controls responded, and he managed to float out into the tunnel with about thirty-four seconds to spare.
“Troy to Val Ky Ree.”
“I hear you, Troy. That was, as you humans say, cutting it close. I see you found an airlock. Can I assume that the news is good?”
“Yes, I think you can say that.” He went on to describe what he had found and done. When Val Ky Ree responded, she sounded very impressed.
“Excellent, Troy! We should be able to download the data we need within a few more hours. The Emergency Committee will be very pleased with this development. I’m bringing the ship in further to the first available docking boom. You can return to the Engineering Control Station. By the time you get there, I’ll be in direct hookup with the station’s com system.”
“Fine. I’m heading back.”
Val Ky Ree was indeed hooked into the com system by the time Ronson got back to the control room. He was relieved to see that the console was exactly as he had left it. He was now pretty sure that he was the only humanoid in the station, but if the console displays had been different on his return, he’d be wondering if someone had fiddled with it while he was gone. As he reached for the controls to activate the com system, he heard Val Ky Ree’s voice over his helmet headphones.
“No need to do anything, Troy. I’ve established a link from this end. I’m rerouting engineering control from your console to me. Your presence there is strictly as a backup in case the system rejects my attempt to take control. Stand by, Troy. I’m powering up the station’s data network. This could take a few minutes.” It didn’t take long forVal Ky Ree’s voice to return. “This system is much more sophisticated than the one I’m familiar with, Troy. I’m worried that it will have security features that I know nothing about.” That was followed by another few seconds of silence. “I’ve gained access to the technical data section. Searching for the replication data on incubators…ah, there it is. I have it now, Troy. While I have access, I may as well download other files that will prove useful sooner or later. Stand by.” This time the silence lasted almost two full minutes. “I’m halting the download process now because my onboard data storage capacity is nearing its limit. There’s just one more task I want to perform. The Fleet was surely rebuilt after the battle that damaged me. This station should have data showing where each Aesir warship was when the Ascension happened. If we know where to look, we may be able to salvage—TROY! I’VE TRIGGERED A SECURITY PROTOCOL! THERE’S ANOTHER WARSHIP IN THIS TUNNEL AND IT’S ACTIVATING! I CAN’T UNDOCK! POWERING UP WEAPONS NOW— I’M HIT, TROY! MASSIVE DAMAGE! POWER LEVELS DROPPING. NO BACKUP POWER THIS TIME! QUICK, INSERT THE DATA DEVICE I GAVE YOU INTO THE CONSOLE SLOT. I’LL DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS WHILE I STILL CAN! YOU’LL HAVE TO PULL ME FROM MY SHIP AND INSERT MY BRAIN CASE INTO THE OTHER SHIP. DO IT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! MY BRAIN CAN REMAIN VIABLE FOR A FEW MINUTES WITHOUT POWER BUT IT’LL BE CLOSE. HURRY!”
Ronson fumbled getting the small device out of his spacesuit pocket and inserted it into the only slot he could see in the console. His hands were shaking badly. If Val Ky Ree ‘died’, he’d be stranded on this station and would soon follow her into oblivion when his suit’s oxygen gave out. The device popped out almost immediately, and Ronson was afraid that the download hadn’t worked, but when he held it in front of his suit’s visor, he saw Val Ky Ree’s instructions in English. Thank God.
Getting to Val Ky Ree’s docking boom was a little tricky because there were no bread crumb lights to follow, but he found it. The docking boom had an access port that Aesir engineers could use to board a docked ship if needed. He used it to enter the ship and immediately realized how badly damaged the ship was. There was no power, which meant no artificial gravity, and the direct route to the Bridge was closed off. He had to take a detour. At least Val Ky Ree had been able to open the hatches that led to the Bridge before she shut down.
When he floated into the pitch black Bridge, he swept the room with his suit helmet light. The panel where Val Ky Ree’s brain case was normally hidden was open, and the bracket holding her brain case had slid out. After a quick check of the instructions, he started to disconnect the brain case from the ship. When the brain case was free, he carefully clipped it to his maneuvering unit harness. It was too big to hold securely with just one hand, and he needed the other hand to control the maneuvering unit.
Now came the hard part.
He had to find his way through dark corridors to the location where the other warship was docked. Because it had been much further down the tunnel and initially behind massive doors, which was why Val Ky Ree’s radar scans hadn’t detected it, the route to get to its docking boom was long and twisted. His data device showed a diagram, but the small size of the device and the complex layout of the route made it look to Ronson like a maze. He had to move down corridors and turn at the correct intersections quickly but carefully. One wrong turn and he could end up hopelessly lost. At least some of the corridors were long, which enabled him to accelerate to a relatively high speed.
It was with a profound sense of relief and gratitude that he realized he had arrived at the right location. Gaining access to the second ship was surprisingly easy, and Val Ky Ree had laid out the fastest route to the Bridge. By the time he got there, he was panting, even though his feet hadn’t touched the floor. He chalked up his panting to tension. He had no idea how much time had elapsed and didn’t want to check his chronometer for fear of what it might show. There was one final challenge to overcome. This Bridge was considerably bigger than the one he was used to. Val Ky Ree had anticipated that problem too. The data device showed him which panel he needed to open and how to do it. When the panel opened and the bracket slide out, he was relieved to see that it was empty. Not having to remove a dead synthetic intelligence would save some time. His shaking hands made unclipping Val Ky Ree’s brain case and hooking it up to the ship more difficult, but he accomplished it and waited for some kind of reaction. Nothing appeared to be happening, and his first impulse was to assume the worst, but then the bracket slid back in and the panel closed by itself. The overhead lights came on and some of the equipment activated. He called out Val Ky Ree’s name once, twice and then a third time with no response. It was then that he realized he had a splitting headache and his vision was starting to blur. He checked his oxygen supply and moaned. The indicator read empty. His vision faded to black.