An Uneasy Alliance by J. N. Chaney & Jonathan P. Brazee

Author:J. N. Chaney & Jonathan P. Brazee [Chaney, J. N. & Brazee, Jonathan P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: military, SF
ISBN: 9798544373414
Google: hu3GzgEACAAJ
Publisher: self-published
Published: 2021-04-15T19:01:47.010981+00:00

Rev looked through the cracked window into life support. The hatch had buckled under the force of the blast and was now stuck, and even with Rev’s augmented strength, he couldn’t budge it. He had PTC to cut into the space, but there was no need. He could tell that the main life support wasn’t going to work again until the Nightingale’s Song was in drydock.

He opened a connection with his squad leader and keyed in the other three in his team. “Life support is offline, and nothing we can do is going to get it back. It’s totaled.”

“Shit. I was afraid of that. Look, we’re about to clear the engine room, so I’m going to be a little busy for the next few minutes. You start heading for the auxiliary life support control on Charlie Deck. I think the captain’s going to want you to check it out and secure it. The Nightingale’s or Taka’s engineers are going to have to use one of them if we’re going to get this thing up and running again.”

“Roger. Good hunting.”

“Gamay, out.”

“You heard her. We’re shifting our mission. Diamond formation, but key on me,” Rev said.

He gave one last look at the mess that was life support. Hopefully, the integrity of the rest of the ship would remain secure until the Navy could come in and get the secondary systems online.

There were two auxiliary life support stations. One was forward in passenger country. The one aft was one deck up and about twenty meters aft from their position, just forward of the engine room and propulsion tubes. Rev led his team aft to Frame 112 and the interim space where they could cross to the next deck. As before, he covered the space while Gingham opened the hatch. It was empty, and they made their way through what had been crew quarters for six people. Not much was left. Mattresses, pillows, all the normal accoutrements of life had been swept clean. The hatch at the other end into the C-deck was opened, and Rev pulled himself into the Charlie Deck, where he was greeted by a crew member who was slowly twisting in the passage, a stream of black globules arced behind him.

He was floating a few centimeters off of the bulkhead. His eyes were glassy and bulging, his mouth open. Around his nose and mouth were black bubbles that Rev knew would be bright red under normal lighting. Without an EVA suit or emergency hood, he would have had about only twenty or thirty seconds until the air was expelled from this section of the ship. Rev looked back at the interim space from which they’d just emerged. From the looks of it, the crewmember might have been inside the space. There should have been emergency hoods there, but maybe they’d been ripped away as the air rushed out. He probably emerged only as the air was lost, and he tried to reach safety. Clearly, he had tried to hold his breath while he struggled to find refuge.

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