Chapter Five

“Captain. This is Team Two, we’ve made it to the Engine Room. It’s completely dead, there seems to be no foul play as of yet.”

You scoff and mumble under your breath, “No foul play? My ass.”

“Nel? What do you have?” Helena crouches next to you, her shoulder brushing against yours. Your eyes meet, your tones taking on a serious note, which you usually hold reserved for moments when it’s needed. Like now for example.

“Well, for one, an Engine Room this silent? For such a large ship? Not even a sound, nowhere, no hum, no vibrations. Utterly dead. No, not possible. Also, this is all wrong…” You wave your hand at the Ion Batteries in front of you with an irritated flourish. “I mean wrong, as in someone rigged these Ion Batteries to detonate if the Engine came back on.”

“Shit!” Helena’s anger hissing between clenched teeth. Did someone deliberately sabotage the ship or was this done by whoever or whatever the cause for the disruption in our communications. “Sorn, tell the Captain we’ve got company.”

“Ok, but company?” Helena immediately moved to the Engine Room door and peaked out. Her rifle at the ready as she lowers herself down to a crouch, making herself a small target. We all held our breath as we quietly stacked up on, Helena.

“Hel?” You try to peer over her shoulder, but she quickly moves an arm out, pushing you back along the wall. “ Shhh.” Helena out her finger against her smooth, pink lips. You listened intently and that’s when you heard the heavy footsteps.

Shouldering your rifle, your aim set on the door. The comms break the deafening silence in the stagnant air with broken static. “Team Two, Come in! We’re under heavy fire! It’s a goddamn trap! Rodriguez is down, I repeat, Rodriguez is---Corporal watch ou----<static>” The radio abruptly died, engulfing the group in total silence, left with the confirmation that you aren’t alone on this ship.

“It’s a trap! Get back to the Ferrin on the double, NOW! A nest of Sandarians were waiting for us in Navigation!” Blaster fire echoed in the background, drowning out the Captain’s voice.

“Oh my god! We need to get back now!” Sorn’s voice rose to above a whisper, laden with mounting hysteria. You turned and gripped his shoulder, giving him an assuring squeeze. Right now, he needs to know he’s not alone. Which proved harder than you hoped for. Worst thing on a mission is a rogue soldier.

“We need to go now, we need to go…” Helena twirled around and pinned him to the wall with a icy death glare. Her knuckles turned white around the grip of her rifle. Her jaw was set like stone, standing stoically, like a hero of your fantasy’s.

“If you don’t shut the hell up, you’ll get us killed! And if you get, Nel, hurt, I will haunt you for the rest of your eternal afterlife in Hell. Got me!?” Sorn actually looked contrite as he shrunk in on himself, grasping to wrangle his composure. Slowly his breathing levels out to an even tempo, his eyes still remained glassy and filled with fear.

“Shhhh! Listen…footsteps. I don’t hear them anymore. Think they moved on?” Peeling your ears away from the door, casting your eyes back on Helena and Sorn. With one last withering look, Helena tore her eyes away from Sorn then to you, nodding once. She turned back towards the door and slowly peaked through the open slit, leading to the dark halls.

“Hard to say. Nel, look at the schematics. What’s around us? Sounded like there were a few of them, but sounded like they were heading towards the Hangar.” You muffle a snort. There’s never a few and Helena knows that. Sandarians are brutal and they very much act like one collective mind, like a Hive. When there is one, there are at least twenty close by. They are never alone and never few in numbers. You catch a glimpse of, Sorn. For Sorns benefit, he doesn’t need to know that.

Flipping over your wrist over, your fingers deftly sprint across the keyboard as you pull up a holographic map of the level of the ship you’re currently on. However, instead of a crystal clear image of the layout, only a static hazy of scattered information came through, distorting everything to be utterly useless.

“Shit!” Your lips purse as you blow a gust of hot air. That really pisses you off to no end. Now your Unit is blind and your tech is failing. The fact that your tech is failing is what aggravates you more than anything. You pride yourself on your ability to modify, adapt, create and provide new and superior tech, than to what is floating around Space.

“Nel, what’s wrong?” Helena’s voice was calm and soothing, completely at odds with the warring torrent raging in your veins. “They jammed us. I’m getting nothing out. I can’t even reconnect with Titanus...we’re blind, Hel.”Frustration was evident in your tone.

“What do we do?” Sorn asks. Helena sat silent for a few seconds, her eyes made of Ice darted back and forth as her mind ran through countless options. Her lips quirk upwards like a cats, all teeth as she smiles.

“First, we will head back to the Ferrin. Once we secure our exit, we reestablish contact with Titanus and Team One. Titanus will send support once we get a update out.” Sorn interrupts, completely ignoring the way her eyes flash dangerously.

“Yes, you’re right! The Comms on the Ferrin is strong enough to get through whatever is jamming us.” His enthusiasm had a nice touch of hopefulness. However, you’ve been on Mission before with Helena. You’ve seen what being in dirt and blood is like, you’ve seen your fair share of combat. You aren’t the first responder as your specialty is more with what makes things work and tik.

Key word, ‘Should’. You know better. Nothing ever works out the way it should. You eye the Ion Batteries and some solar charge stations. It’s been awhile since you’ve seen this sort of archaic power supply. The engine resembled an oval, a floating sphere with a chassis that frames it. Attached at the base of the sphere are where the Ion Batteries are inserted. More running power supply nodes of neon glowing hues of blue and oranges criss-crossed overhead through power lines. All feeding into and sending out, however this particular sphere lays dead. Its exuberant color drained of its power, of its life.

The solar stations gather all the energy nearby and convert it into thermal and externally transferring into smaller converting stations that change the power to what is needed in those sectors. One main reason for not using Ion Batteries is because when incorporated with a Sphere power source, it can create an overload which in turn can shatter the protective barriers that keep everyone safe from most certain death by spontaneously combusting. The force from the explosion would be so intense it would rip the fabric of space, chances of a black hole being born is high. Result though is anyone’s guess, but one thing for certain is that there would be no survivors.

“Hey, Hel? I have an idea, give me a few minutes.” Helena looks out the door, she looks back and nods. “You’ve got 5.” You rush over and kneel on the steel grate flooring as it bites into your knees.

Throughout your years as an Engineer, you’ve learned a few tricks. You’ve learned to improvise when the situation warrants it, and this is one of those times. Pulling a few cylinders from your breast pocket and carefully slid some Solar and thermal charge panels aside. The idea is to siphon some of its excess energy and bottle it. If that can be done, you can start to manipulate the properties to your will. Essentially you’re going to turn this booby trap into multiple tiny stun charges. Less lethal, but effective.