“What is it?” Aaron asked quickly.
“It seems that some of the crew had too good a time on Karbarsh. So far seven crewmen have been treated for sexually transmitted diseases, but currently there aren’t any patients in Medical.”
“That’s it?” Aaron asked, rather surprised. He had thought there would be a bit more activity on a ship this big.
“Yes, the only other thing was a crewman crushed his foot unloading crates from the supply shuttles, but they sent him down to a hospital on Karbarsh before we left orbit.”
“If my memory serves,” Aaron said slowly, “there are two full-time doctors and five nurses stationed aboard. Is that right?” Jessica nodded and he continued, “How many will be in sickbay over the next several hours?”
“Probably not many,” Jessica said as she began typing again. “When things are quiet, most of the staff disappear.” She finished typing and leaned back away from the terminal. “Only one person is on duty. He’s a nurse and his name is,” she began but Aaron cut her off.
“When does the shift change?” he asked.
“Just over three hours from now,” Jessica answered after consulting the terminal.
“And will there only be one person on duty on the next shift?” Aaron asked.
Jessica typed a bit more and answered, “Well, yes. There’s only one person who is on duty in the sickbay. There are others on duty, but they’re just not required to wait in sickbay.”
“Alright,” Aaron said after a moment, “you and I will go to sickbay half an hour before the ship needs to return to normal space.”
“Will that be enough time for the virus?” Susan asked.
“Good question,” Aaron replied and motioned Jessica to move. He knelt down in front of the terminal and began typing. He sent a quick message to Kyle: How long does your computer program need after we upload it? They didn’t have long to wait before the answer appeared on the screen:
Less than a minute.
“Alright then,” Aaron said standing again. “Jessica and I will go in half an hour early, upload the virus, and then make for the prison levels.”
“And me?” Susan asked.
“I want you waiting in Kyle’s cell. When the virus hits, you get him out of the cell and then free a bunch of the other prisoners.” Aaron paused and considered how best to say this next bit. “Make sure the prisoners know they have to obey you. If anyone steps out of line, shoot them, and don’t hesitate.”
Susan only nodded.
“Jessica and I should be there in time to take the guards out, but be careful in case we’re delayed.”
Russell reappeared an hour later looking mightily displeased. He had watched the unaltered security feed until the guard had started his rounds and then made his way aboard the elevator.
“Everything alright?” Aaron asked. Judging by the scowl on Russell’s face the answer was obviously no.
“Just great,” Russell replied, not even bothering to hide his grumpiness.
“What’s the matter?” Susan asked. Concern showed on her face. “Is there a problem with the spacewalk? Is he asking the impossible?”
Russell sighed and shook his head. “I don’t think so. The problem is that I won’t be able to come back into the ship in time to get on the shuttle. I’m going to have to cross over in my suit.”
“Will you have enough air for that?” Aaron asked.
“I think so. I had nearly a whole air canister and I want to try and combine all the others. I’ll know more shortly.”
With Aaron’s help, Russell quickly pulled his spacesuit out from where they had hidden it in one of the lockers. They then took all the air canisters and began combining them. Fairly soon they had one full canister and another that was just shy of being full.
Some of the tension drained away from Russell and he breathed deeply. “I was a little worried about just how much air was left.”
“When do you plan on going outside?” Jessica asked.
Russell looked up and grinned. “About an hour before the ship drops back into normal space.”
“An hour?” Aaron repeated surprised. “That’s cutting things awful close.”
Russell shrugged. “Can’t be helped. The computer has to be installed before the virus hits and I need to be in place to cut the first coolant line.”
“Is there anything else you need to do?” Jessica asked. “Are you completely prepared?”
Russell’s eyebrows drew down in concentration and then he shook his head. “No, that’s everything. I don’t have anything else to do.”
Jessica grinned and then reached down and pulled Russell to his feet. She promptly laid a kiss on him that nearly made Aaron blush. She took him by the hand and, without a word, led him from the room.
Aaron stood there wide-eyed for several moments and then he looked at Susan. She was grinning at him. “You knew?” Aaron asked.
“Of course. It would be pretty difficult to keep something like that from a telepath,” she answered.
“But I thought–” Aaron began.
“What? You thought that Jessica and Adam were together.” She shook her head, “You told me that once before and I said then that you weren’t as smart as you thought.”
“How long have they been together?” Aaron asked. He felt sort of numb. He had completely missed Russell and Jessica’s relationship, and surely there had been plenty of signs.
“Almost since we landed on Beta Leporis.”
Aaron shook his head. They had been together for more than a month and he hadn’t spotted the first clue. Worse, he had thought that Jessica was with Adam. “How did I miss the signs?”
Susan smiled. “Don’t worry about it. You’re a man. You’re supposed to be completely ignorant when it comes to these types of things.”
Unable to stop himself, Aaron grinned back at Susan. “Thanks a bunch,” he said simply.
Russell and Jessica reappeared a couple hours later and they both looked tired and disheveled.
“You two have enough energy for what we got to do?” Aaron asked rather pointedly.
Jessica blushed and dropped her eyes, but Russell smiled. “Of course, I feel great,” he said.
“Good, because time is getting short,” Aaron replied. Silently, he thought that if they died in this foolhardy attempt, then Russell and Jessica might die the happiest of all of them.
Russell glanced at the terminal. “The ship should drop back to normal space in about an hour and a half,” he said, “that means I should be entering the airlock in about thirty minutes. Guess it’s time to start getting ready.”
“Come on,” Aaron said. “I’ll give you a hand.”
Both men pretended they couldn’t see Jessica’s suddenly over-bright eyes.
All too soon they had Russell suited up and they, for what seemed like the hundredth time, checked to make sure he had the appropriate gear.
They all walked him to the airlock and Aaron quickly grasped his hand and wished him luck. Aaron then moved aside and was replaced by Susan. She smiled up at him and gave him a quick hug. Then the two of them returned to the locker room leaving Jessica and Russell alone.
Russell grinned down at her. “You be careful, okay?”
She smiled and made a half-laugh, half-sob kind of noise. “Me? I’m staying in here where it’s nice and safe.” The smile slipped away and she just studied him for a moment. “You be careful out there.” Her eyes got misty again and she wiped a tear away with the back of her left hand.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll see you on the other ship.”
Jessica nodded and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him one last time.
Chapter 25
While waiting for the airlock to cycle, Russell felt the same old fear that he always felt—he was always afraid that he had his suit on incorrectly and he would die a horrible death in vacuum. It was crazy, of course. He had been on nearly a hundred spacewalks and he hadn’t died yet. Another fear settled in, and this one was more real
. He wasn’t sure if the two tanks of air would be enough to get his work done and get him to the other ship.
He was still lost in thought when the red light went out and a green one came on. He looked up and read the meters; the air was gone, he was in a vacuum, and he was still alive.
Moving with the slowness required by the spacesuit, Russell walked to the exterior doors and pushed the release button. The doors slid slowly and silently open, revealing a deep gloomy blackness beyond.
Russell emerged from the airlock and looked upwards. No stars were visible, but he hadn’t expected to see any as they were still in the wormhole and outside of normal space.
Reluctantly, he pulled his eyes back to the ship’s hull. It was a bleak landscape and it only added to his melancholy. Despite the smiles and reassurances he had given to Jessica, he feared that he might die out here all alone.
His mood threatening to sink even farther, Russell began his slow and labored walk to his first stop. He walked slowly, both because walking with magnetic boots was difficult, but also to try and conserve his air. He also focused on breathing slowly. He didn’t know if it would do any good or not, but it was something to do to keep his mind off his situation.
Luckily, the airlock they used was close to the rear of the ship, and as it happened, close to both the coolant lines and the sensor box. The sensor box was his first destination and it was directly in the center of the ship, just in front of the engines.
He had to walk a zigzag path across the ship’s hull. While the hull was basically level, there were numerous instruments, scanners, and even a few weapons emplacements scattered around. Russell carefully picked his way through and reached the sensor box in just under fifteen minutes. He immediately began working to remove the cover of the box, since he still had to get in position to be ready to cut the first coolant line.
The cover came off and Russell let it float away. Inside the small box, four electrical circuits connected to a small computer, one line running from each coolant line. Two circuits ran away from the computer; one headed to the bridge and the second going to engineering.
Opening the small pouch on his right leg, Russell removed the small computer that Kyle had given him and settled down to work. It was very important that the new computer be wired in while the old one was still in place. Once he disconnected the old computer, alarm lights would be lit both on the bridge and in engineering.
“Most likely no one’s even monitoring them since the computer will sound an alarm if there’s a problem with the coolant. These circuits are only used when the other safety measures are offline,” Kyle had said. “Still, though, I recommend you disconnect the original computer and then immediately power on the new one.”
With any luck no one would even notice the alarm light, and if they did notice the light, well, it would only be on for a moment. They would most likely think it was a glitch in the system.
Jessica and Aaron slowly walked the corridor just outside sickbay. They were a few minutes later than they had planned, but it wasn’t a major concern. Thirty minutes should be plenty of time to upload the virus and make their way back to the prisoner levels.
Once again they wore their enlisted uniforms. Jessica had suggested her wearing her medical uniform, but as the nurse on duty would undoubtedly know all the medical staff—Aaron had refused that idea.
Aaron cradled his left arm to his chest like it was injured. His arm was fine, but they were going into the sickbay and their story was that he had slipped, landed funny, and heard a loud popping sound coming from his arm. He didn’t really expect to use the story, though. If, as they expected, there was just the one nurse on duty, they wouldn’t waste time with the story, but instead just kill the nurse and hide his body in a closet.
They each carried a plasmic pistol. Aaron had one in the sleeve of his ‘injured’ left arm, as well as another one strapped to his right ankle. Jessica’s was in a small pouch strapped around her waist.
A couple of crewmen emerged from a door on the right side of the hall and Aaron and Jessica slowed their pace up a bit to give the crewmen time to exit the corridor. The last thing they wanted was an audience. One of the two men carried a small tablet and he was talking quickly to the other man. They didn’t even look up as they passed by.
For the briefest of moments, Aaron had the paranoid feeling that these men knew something was about to happen. It was purely the fear talking and he ignored it. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could know they were here or what they were about to do. If the command staff had the first inkling of what was about to happen, the hallways would be lined with security guards.
Reaching the entrance to the sickbay, Aaron paused and looked around. The corridor was now completely empty. There wasn’t anyone to watch them or see what they were about to do.
“Ready?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” Jessica answered, speaking nearly as silently as he had.
He nodded, took one more look around the still empty corridor, and then turned to his left and pushed the button to open the door.
The door slid open silently, and Aaron and Jessica stepped inside—they immediately pulled up short. Clustered around a small bed were three men. One of them was the on-duty nurse, but the other two were security guards.
Russell leaned back away from the small jumble of tablet and wires and breathed out. The new computer was wired in, but it was still in standby mode. The time had come to cut the old one away and bring the new one online. Knowing this would most likely cause an alarm, he pushed on anyway. There wasn’t time to do anything else, and Kyle had seemed to think that the alarm would stop as soon as the new computer was online. Russell dearly hoped the computer programmer knew what he was talking about.
Russell reached two wire cutters, one in each hand, into the mess of cables. He carefully lined up the cutters with the knot of cables connected to the old computer, and then he paused and took a deep calming breath. Squeezing the wire cutters simultaneously, he immediately let go of the cutters and yanked the old computer free. As soon as the computer was free of the housing, it began to float away, but Russell was no longer paying attention to it. He was now focused on the new computer. He reached in the cramped space to slide the small lever that would bring it online. Nothing happened, but in all honesty he wasn’t sure he had flipped the lever or not. He couldn’t feel it with his thick gloves on and he most certainly could not see it. He tried again but once again nothing happened.
Feeling the first real pangs of panic, Russell stared at the small computer and wondered how in the hell he was going to bring it online.
On the bridge, Ensign Youngstrom sat at the engineering station fighting hard to stay awake. The bridge wasn’t deserted, but it might as well have been. The only sound was the beeping of several computers. No one spoke and, all-in-all, it was a rather boring job. He wasn’t actually complaining though, it could be a lot worse. He probably would have been a nervous wreck if he had been on one of the other two watch shifts. His duty shift was led by Commander Griffith, who had turned out to be a decent enough officer. Youngstrom couldn’t imagine being on a watch shift that included the Captain or XO.
Youngstrom was snapped out of his wandering thoughts by a red light coming on at the far end of his terminal. Confused, he slid his chair down to take a closer look. Honestly he hadn’t paid this end of his station that much attention before. As far as he knew, these circuits and terminals were never used. His mouth went a little dry as he read the small label above the light: Reactor Coolant.
He pushed his chair back and stood up. Looking around the rather large bridge, he spotted Commander Griffith on the far side of the deck. The Commander was sitting down at an unused terminal and appeared to be filling out reports on a tablet.
Taking a deep breath, Ensign Youngstrom marched across the bridge. He was less than pleased to have to interrupt a superior officer.
The three men turned and looked as Jessica and Aaron entered sickbay. They looke
d interested, but not suspicious.
Once again that paranoid feeling tried to rise up within Aaron. It whispered that they had been betrayed, or at the very least discovered. The guards had to be proof of that, didn’t they?
“Yes?” the nurse asked.
“Uh,” Jessica began.
“It’s my arm,” Aaron said quickly. “I fell and I think I broke it.”
The nurse sighed. “So much for a nice quiet shift.” He glanced over at Aaron, “Can you wait a few minutes, or should I call in someone to help?”
Aaron shook his head. “I can wait. It hurts, but not too bad.”
“Support it and don’t move it. I’ll be with you shortly.” He then turned back to the small bed.
Aaron moved a little to his right and finally was able to see that one of the guards was actually sitting on the bed with his shirt pulled up. A rather nasty looking burn covered most of his stomach. He was sweaty and pale. Aaron almost laughed out loud when he realized that the guards weren’t stationed here, but instead one of the guards was getting treatment. They hadn’t been here for them, it was just coincidence that they were here at the same time. Then another thought occurred to him. If he and Jessica had been on time, then the nurse might have already been dead and these two guards could have walked in on them. He swallowed hard and felt a cold sweat break out across his face.
Aaron took several more steps to his right and motioned for Jessica to go to the left. She nodded but didn’t look too happy about it. She never did much like killing.
Several more steps got Aaron behind the standing guard. Jessica was now in position behind the nurse, and with a feeling of elation, Aaron realized the guard on the bed had his eyes closed.
Aaron extended three fingers on his left hand. As his left arm was against his chest, the fingers didn’t look too out of place. Jessica noticed them and gave a slight nod. He folded one finger down, and then the second, and finally he bent the last finger. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, and without waiting to see if Jessica was already moving, Aaron pulled the plasmic from the sleeve of his left arm. He took two quick steps toward the standing guard, who still had his back to Aaron, pointed the pistol pointblank at the guard’s back, and squeezed the trigger.
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