Valor At Vauzlee (A Galaxy Unknown Book 2) by Thomas DePrima

Author:Thomas DePrima
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw
Publisher: Vinnia Publishing
Published: 2010-08-05T05:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Twelve

~ May 8th, 2268 ~

Swiveling the small monitor around so Jenetta could also see the image, Lt. Elizi pointed to a spot on the three-dimensional deck plan of Deck Seven, Section Eighteen. By touching any point on the image and moving her finger, the displayed image would revolve up, down, or sideways to see it from a different perspective. "It's here," Lt. Elizi said, pointing to a room highlighted in shades of red that indicated temperature gradients above forty degrees Celsius, "in the Corridor Five storeroom. Fire crews from Engineering are just beginning to arrive now. There weren't enough personnel on duty to initially handle the blaze, but the GQ alert has awakened everyone on the ship and more crewmen are checking in and suiting up."

"What about the fire suppression systems?"

"They've failed to operate. We don't know why, but neither the Alonn gas nor the fire suppression foam systems responded."

"What's in that storeroom?"

"It's a paint locker, which is why the blaze grew out of control so quickly. A lot of the material in there is highly flammable."

"A paint locker?" Jenetta knew that paint used onboard ship was mixed with a fire retardant as it was applied, but new paint had to be stored in its normal flammable state because the fire retardants caused the pigments to coagulate, making it unsuitable for use after a few days. "What else is in that area?"

"Other storerooms mostly. No armaments. No crew quarters. The rear bulkhead of the paint locker adjoins a large engineering section."

"What's in that engineering section?"

Lt. Elizi tapped an icon on the border of the monitor image, then touched the section in question. A list scrolled quickly up the screen. She looked up at Jenetta with a concerned expression. "It's a high security area. It contains data storage and the weapons control computers."

"Weapons control?"

"Aye, Captain." Lt. Elizi touched her Space Command ring, put her left hand up to cup her ear, and glanced away. "Watch command officer," she said. After listening for a few seconds she said, "Elizi out. Captain, the Maintenance Operations Center is sending us a live vid feed from the fire area."

Turning to the com chief, Jenetta said, "Put the vid feed on the front viewscreen. Make a general announcement to the crew that we have a fire onboard, but that there appears to be no imminent danger outside of Section Eighteen on decks six through eight."

"Aye, Captain."

An instant later, the image of a ship's corridor with a haze hanging heavily in the air appeared on the large monitor. Firefighters, fully encased in bright yellow protective suits, could be seen moving into and out of frame as they worked to attach something near the top of a corridor door. Once the large object, coupled to a large-diameter hose, was connected to the door using a special quick-setting epoxy, the firefighters pulled back. No further activity was observed for anxious minutes. Jenetta assumed the device was performing some important function and that the firefighters had pulled back to a safe area while it operated.

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