This Starry Deep by Adam P. Knave

Author:Adam P. Knave [Knave, Adam P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Creative Guy Publishing
Published: 2016-09-07T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23 - Mud

I SLID ALONG the corridor, matching its color and feel as best I could. Locating the section they held Mom in (no sign of, or word from, Dad) proved easy enough once I had the room quiet. I had disabled the room and the door’s ability to open, and had taken all the communication equipment the guards and staff carried, but I still knew it wouldn’t be long before the rest of the ship knew I was there.

And of course, they’d put her pretty far from where I stood. Which meant I had a lot of ground to cover if I intended to help. I considered, briefly, dressing as a security officer, but as the only Hurkz around I’d still stick out pretty bad unless I wore a full helmet.

It wasn’t often security wore a full helmet inside without a problem to respond to, and one officer never responds alone. Even if I could think of a good reason to pull that much off and get away with it, the security armor tended to have locators on it. Which meant the second anyone knew what I had done, they’d have me on a big map. A lone red dot trailing through their ship as obvious as could be.

No, I’d have to be better than that. Air ducts were right out, of course. Too small and rigged with security anyway. Maintenance passageways should do, for a while at least. There would still be security but less of it. Also less people in general. Just some engineering staff and a few drones.

I would’ve focused security on those passageways, personally, seeing as how they’re off the beaten path. They’re not a bad place to hide. Except that if you get caught in them, maintenance halls are far quicker to go into airless lockdown. Since they tend to be where people burn and cut things, you want a faster response time. Also, since people don’t roam them quite as freely, you have to count on the ability to just deadlock a passageway from everything else on the ship and secure it.

So they’d be my best bet, but far from simple should I be noticed. Getting into the passageways wasn’t as simple as a doorknob, either. Normal staff weren’t allowed in them. You didn’t give everyone keys to the backdoor.

A secure ID would’ve been nice, but I didn’t have one. Big shock. I did have full access to my finer tools now that I was in atmo. I fished them out of my thinsuit and got to work on a hatchway. I triggered the auto-release without the door sensor noticing and slipped inside. At least a few things were going my way.

The hallway on the other side felt like it belonged to another ship. Instead of the nicely lit, smooth-paneled passage, the maintenance shafts were dimmer and had exposed pipes. The sort of thing you might expect from an area where people needed to work, and fast, to fix problems. Nice place to sneak around a ship in but I wouldn’t want to live there.

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