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Two thousand or so miles away and unknown to the two law enforcement officers one of the heads of the Hydra had been well and truly decapitated, leaving Ray Connors with his next problem, for once inside the huge starship Ray had to move quickly or be discovered by one of the starship`s crew. He scanned the starship`s plan set on the wall near to the entrance, he was looking for the hanger deck, the engineering section and the sleeping quarters as the ship did not show any sign of having a brig anywhere upon the ship`s plan. By the time that the crew returned to the ship, he had located the ships hanger deck, also where the engineering section was and he had begun his search of the sleeping quarters. To his surprise, he heard the ship`s engines start up and felt the increased vibrations as it lifted off and headed up into space just as he had reached the storerooms in the lowest levels of the ship. Here he reckoned he would be safer from detection during the initial period of the starship`s journey, and it was here that he found a locked door. There was also a plastic magnetic key that had been foolishly left in the outside of the lock by a crewman, the crewman had hurried outside to see what had caused the loud explosion.
Jean looked up at the door of the near empty store room where she had been put for the duration of the voyage to the planet Lyre, wishing desperately for it to open, although what she would do now the ship had taken off she did not know, that it had taken off she was sure. Worried sick she went over the reason for her leaving home, it had been to find her missing brother, only to find that she would now be used to pressurise him into doing the bidding of his enemies. She knew her present predicament was all her own fault, both Ray and Harry had warned her of the many dangers on New Terra, now Harry might be dead. Ray would have no idea where she was and would be blaming himself for allowing two women to coerce him into bringing her to such a god-awful planet. Jean heard the plastic key operate the lock and looked up as the door opened and then she almost fainted, for she suddenly felt so light headed, what had caused this was the sight of Ray standing just inside the open doorway and who was now looking down at her, smiling.
“Well Jean, do you want to go home or would you rather stay in this delightful room?” Ray asked with the largest of grins set upon his craggy face and a twinkle in his eyes.
Jean was stunned, but then she realised that it really was Ray, and he really was standing there talking to her. She launched herself up from the floor and straight into his waiting arms.
“Ray I thought I would never see you again, please you must tell me if Harry is all right, and then you must tell me just how on Earth did you find me?” She gasped out, crying all time without trying to stop the tears of joy and relief from flowing down her face.
“Harry is fine and I will answer your other questions later for first we have to get off this ship, and as always we will have to do it quietly in case the crew of this ship realise that you are dead set on leaving them without even saying goodbye.”
“Ok Ray, I can be quiet.” Jean said beaming up at him. Jean continued looking at Ray even as they crept along the ship`s gloomy corridors and towards the ship`s hanger deck. This man had boarded an enemy starship to find her and to save her life against any of the odds that fate threw their way, what a man.
As they approached the hanger deck, Ray took out his long thin dagger and the look upon his face almost made Jean shudder, but she now knew that this man would do anything and everything that it took to get her back to safety, and she in turn would help him in every way possible.
“Wait here a moment Jean, I won`t be a moment, I just want to check to see if there is anyone home.” Ray whispered. With that, Ray entered the hanger deck, he saw that there was indeed someone working there, but one man only, a mechanic from the look of him putting the final touches to a repair he was carrying out on one of the two shuttlecrafts sitting upon the hanger deck of the starship. Ray approached him quietly and was almost upon him before the man turned and saw him.
“Who the hell are you?” He asked in Lyren. Moving the last two feet that separated them Ray put his knife against the mechanics throat and just pierced his skin with the tip of the blade of his evil looking knife.
“I am the man who will not kill you if you do as you are instructed.” Ray replied in Lyren. His father had traded with the planet for twenty years and had insisted that Ray learn the language to help him, and so Ray learned Lyren almost at the same time as he had learnt how to speak English. The crewmember blanched and tried to draw away from the sharp blade, but without success. Ray had chosen to use his knife in case the ship`s sensors warned the crew about the use of a Phaser weapon, should he be forced to use a weapon to silence the mechanic.
“Move over to the other shuttle and open the airlock and then stand back.” Not for a second did Ray take the knife away from the man`s throat as they edged awkwardly over to the other shuttle craft. As soon as the crewmember had opened the airlock, Ray called across to Jean.
“Jean, I want you to come over here and get aboard the shuttle, but do not come out again after I close the airlock because the hanger deck will be empty of air prior to us leaving.” Jean ran across the hanger deck but just before she went aboard the shuttle, she turned to Ray.
“What about you Ray, won`t you need some help with whatever else that needs doing before we can leave?”
“You do not need to worry about that, I will only be a moment and then I will join you aboard the shuttle.”
Jean was just about to go aboard the shuttle without further argument, and Ray could see that she was worried in case anything happened to him, when she stopped and said to him.
“No Ray, I will go aboard only when you are ready to leave with me.” Jean looked determined so Ray reluctantly agreed that they would stay together, for they didn`t have the time to argue about it. So he then turned to the mechanic and looking straight at him while pulling out his Phaser weapon, it would be easier to cover the Lyren with it as they travelled along the corridors, he would just have to hope that the ship`s sensors were not set to react to Phaser fire, should it become necessary.
“If you cause me one little bit of trouble I will forget that there is a lady present and I will shoot you, do you understand?” The mechanic understood and not used to being threatened, he felt an icy chill run through his body as he quickly nodded his head.
“We will take him down to that storage room where they incarcerated you Jean, and lock him in there.” They quickly marched the mechanic down and had soon deposited the mechanic down in the storage room with instructions to be quiet or they would come back and shoot him.
“Jean, we must now go to the engineering section and destroy the controls to the hyper-space controls so that the ship drops out of hyperspace, it will also delay them from chasing after the shuttle when we make our escape, they could quite easily blow the shuttle into space junk otherwise."
Inside the engineering section were six crew members who were all busy working at their posts and quite oblivious to their presence. That is until Ray moved over to what he knew to be the control panels to the hyper-drive engine. For each of the panels read hyper-drive control panel, he fixed plastic explosive to the nearest one and set the timer on it for ten seconds, he was just about to return to the door and back outside when one of the crewmembers noticed them and sounded the alarm. Ray and Jean sprinted out of the engineering section and down the corridor to the hanger deck, the explosion coming just as they entered it. The lights all went out on the hanger deck and the ship dropped suddenly out of hyperspace with an explosive jolt throwing them both to the floor, moments later the red emergency lighting came on.
“Jean, put on a pressure suit, and an oxygen bottle, you will find them in the lockers over by the far wall, when you are done you can bring a set over to me, I will be at the doorway watching out for the Lyren |crew.”
Ray stood just inside the air lock that was situated between the hanger deck and the remainder of the ship, here he would be ready to receive the Lyre cre
wmembers who he could already hear shouting out as they made their way towards them. The first two Lyren crewmembers briefly came into view only to disappear fast as Ray fired his Phaser at them; the high-pitched bolts of energy whistling passed their ears as the ducked behind the safety of a bulkhead. There now followed the noise of a heated discussion from the two crewmen, who were soon joined by another half a dozen men, including the ship`s captain, and he now called down to them.
“Surrender now and we will not harm you; you will never get off this ship alive unless you do as I say.”
“Sorry but the word of a Lyren pirate means nothing to me.” Ray answered; he was playing for time so that Jean could put on a pressure suit, and anyway there was no way that he would ever put his trust in these men.
“We are not pirates, we are just the crew of this freighter, we trade merchandise between Lyre and New Terra, and I urge you again to surrender now, before we are forced to hurt you.”
“If you are not pirates then tell me why you kidnapped a young Earth woman to take back to Lyre with you?”
Silence followed this question as Ray turned to look back into the hanger deck to see how Jean was getting on with the pressure suit. Jean had finished putting her pressure suit on but was struggling with the oxygen bottle. As the Lyrens showed no sign of attacking Ray quietly called Jean over and moving back inside of the hanger deck assisted her with the oxygen bottle, which he then connected up for her.
“Jean, take the Phaser and fire at anything you see moving while I put on my pressure suit. Jean positioned herself between the two doors of the air lock a position that almost caused her death minutes later but for the moment, she was busy ducking Phaser bolts, for the crew had decided to try to stop them from escaping from the starship. As Ray struggled into his pressure suit, he watched as Jean fired blindly back down the corridor as Phaser bolts whistled by her head to explode against the starship`s hanger deck inner wall. Ray cast many anxious looks Jean`s way but he finally got suited up and decided that Jean could be left to keep the Lyren crew busy while he went into the control room on the hanger deck and started the de-pressurisation of the hanger deck. As both Ray and Jean had pressure suits on this didn`t matter, but with the hanger door airlock open both the inner and outer doors of the airlock began to close automatically and almost trapped Jean inside. Although Jean was surprised when the two doors began to close, she still managed to just get out before the door closed. The first that Ray knew of it was when he saw Jean fling her bodily through the airlock and land painfully on the floor, a Phaser bolt whistling past her fast moving body.
“Sorry about that Jean, I should have realised that both of the airlock doors would close when I began the de-pressurisation of the hanger deck.” Ray said ruefully.
Jean smiled at him. “It`s ok Ray I`m fine, what do we do next?” She asked, making it sound as if this sort of thing was common place to her.
“Now it`s time for us to leave the party Jean, it is getting rather late, and we do not want to leave it too long and have our ship turn into a pumpkin?” Ray said with a smile playing on his face.
Jean looked up at Ray and smiling at him she sadly shook her head. “A pumpkin, I really must check out your reading matter to see if we cannot find you something more suited to your age Ray.” Jean said smiling condescendingly.
“You do that Jean.” Ray replied smiling across at her. “But first will you jump into the shuttle while I open the outer hanger deck door?”
Jean turned and ran awkwardly towards the shuttlecraft, for she had never run before while dressed in a pressure suit. Watching as she neared the small craft, Ray pressed a button that opened the hanger door, and then he too bolted for the shuttle. Luckily the hanger deck main door operated on a backup system to allow the crew to be able to leave a ship, without the ship`s main electrical power, if it ever became necessary. Ray ran to the front section of the shuttle and sat down in the pilot's chair, this shuttle was a little more modern than his own one, but it operated in much the same. A press of one button closed the shuttle`s airlock door; the press of another button started the shuttle`s engine. Ray quickly engaged the engine and the ship moved slowly forward out of the freighters hanger door and out into the blackness of space, and well before the bridge crew of the starship found a way to override the controls on the hanger deck. Slowly the large hanger deck outer door began to close, but it was too late to stop Ray and Jean from escaping. Ray took the shuttle away from the damaged Lyren freighter for one hundred miles before turning the shuttle in a long one hundred and eighty degree turn that took the shuttle well clear of the freighter. This was just in case the crew could still operate its concealed weapons, and then he set course for the second moon of New Terra, and the Jeanette where Ray knew he would find Harry.
What Ray didn`t realise was that the explosion that had pulled the freighter out of hyperspace had also disabled the controls to the subspace engines. Unfortunately, the ship had exited hyperspace very near to a giant red star that was even now dragging the stricken ship into its gaseous grasp.
It was a lucky mechanic who had been saved at the last minute by his close friend on the ship. Noticing his friend was missing he had asked the captain to institute a search of the ship before abandoning her, something the crew did in the newly repaired second shuttlecraft, and with only minutes to spare.