Ship Wrecked III by Mark Wayne McGinnis

Author:Mark Wayne McGinnis [McGinnis, Mark Wayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781733514361
Publisher: Avenstar Productions
Published: 2019-10-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

The two Aquitaine escape pods had docked and, at least according to the console indicators, the locking clamps had properly engaged. Internal atmosphere levels were almost back to normal. Pods 1 and 2 were currently speeding through space, joined nose to nose. Still wearing their spacesuits, Heather, her father, and Kirk sat and waited. No one spoke. Heather continued to stare at the closed hatch.

Ding Ding Dong. A pleasant series of tones sounded, and finally, the hatchway to their own pod slid aside. But on the other side, the outer hatchway to Pod 2 was still closed.

“Oh, come on! What’s taking so long?” Heather exclaimed to no one in particular. Both her father and Kirk merely stared back at her—neither one knew anything at all about space travel. Hell, she was supposed to be the expert here.

“I’m just being impatient. Never mind me.”

Heather had no clue what had happened to that vessel, what the situation would be like inside. Some time had passed since they’d last established a comms link to either Pod 2 or the Aquitaine. Potentially, that could be their biggest obstacle getting home. Without any further navigational support from Tori, would she be able to reestablish their end-point voyage parameters, get them back on course?

“Maybe that hatch is broken,” Kirk said. “Maybe we’ll never be able to get it open.”

Heather’s father’s eyes slid sideways in Kirk’s direction. “Let’s just give it some time, boy.”

Ding Ding Dong.

Heather sat forward in her seat. The hatch, finally, slid aside. The interior of the opposite pod was dark—she couldn’t see any movement within. She jumped to her feet and ran into the pod’s darkness. “Manny! Cleeanne!”

Heather almost tripped over the two bodies, lying sprawled out on the deck, either unconscious or dead. She lowered her face close to Manny’s—listening for sounds of breathing.

“Is she okay?” Kirk asked, looking in from the hatchway’s threshold.

“Just shut up, let me listen!” Heather snapped back. She focused but still couldn’t hear any sound. It was cold inside the cabin—she saw her own breath vapors rising into the air. Removing her gloves, she searched for a pulse on Manny’s neck. The woman’s skin was so cold. “Oh God . . . wait, think I feel a pulse!” Heather yelled. “It’s weak, but it’s there. She’s alive!” She moved over to Cleeanne and brought her face close to the other woman’s lips. “She’s breathing!”

Heather sat back on her haunches. “Help me get them into the other pod. We need to get their body temps up fast.”

Her father rushed in. He picked up Manny as if she weighed nothing at all, walking back with her cradled in his arms. Kirk did the same with Cleeanne, leaving Heather alone in the darkened pod cabin. She felt sudden warmth entering in from the other pod.

“What happened in here?” she asked aloud. Getting up, she moved over to the console. By now, she knew just enough of the pod’s menu structure to access the CLS Archive—to get a full listing of the most recent AI system commands.

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