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– Chapter 8 –
Loren glared at Aurora, ‘Why don’t you do something useful for a change instead of relying on everyone else to save your precious skin.’
‘My skin was perfectly safe back there,’ she jerked her thumb towards the jail, ‘unlike you I’m worth something.’
Loren turned back furiously, ‘Well you can go back there and rot for all I care!’ Mervyn stepped between the girls as they squared up to each other, ‘This is the wrong place to have this argument. Let’s find somewhere safe.’
Tarun raised a hand for silence, ‘Shh, I hear someone coming.’
Aurora’s eyes swivelled towards the ceiling, ‘Not again.’ But she listened anyway.
‘He’s right. They’re coming up behind us,’ Mervyn said. He punched the button by the nearest door, but it refused to yield, ‘Try the other doors, we’ve got to get off this corridor.’ He tried the next and the next, but they all refused to budge; panic set in and he rush along the corridor trying door after door.
‘Here,’ Loren hissed, ‘I’ve got one.’
‘We can’t go in there, it says ‘Head of Security’,’ Tarun said.
‘We don’t have a choice,’ Mervyn hissed and shoved Tarun through the open door.
They waited anxiously until the footsteps receded then examined their surroundings. The harsh light reveal a cramped private cabin; a small lounge, kitchenette, and dining table. To the left, an arch led through to darkened sleeping quarters. Dirty plates, balanced precariously, littered every surface, and clothes littered the floor. Tarun wrinkled his nose, ‘Phew, someone could do with a wash.’
Mervyn ignored the smell, ‘Now what?’
‘All this skulking around is pointless,’ Aurora said. ‘I say we go back to the jail and wait.’
‘Aurora’s right,’ Tarun said. ‘Getting caught out here will lessen any bargaining power we have.’
Mervyn shook his head in disbelief at Ethrigian logic, ‘What if your uncle doesn’t pay the ransom, Aurora?’
‘Even worse, what if De Monsero pays more to have us silenced? ‘ Loren asked.
Aurora blanched, ‘Ok, you are right. We simply have to get out of here. Any ideas how?’
‘We’ve only got two choices -- steal a shuttle or find our sleds,’ Mervyn said. ‘We just need to find out where they are.’
‘Got it!’ They all turned at the sound of Loren’s voice. She moved a pile of plates to reveal a terminal set into the table. A request for security clearance flashed on the screen, ‘Hmm, it must be here somewhere,’ she ran her hands over the surface of the table. ‘Ah, there we go,’ a keyboard glowed through the surface of the table. Loren tapped furiously at the virtual keys then stood back in triumph, ‘We’re in.’
They all crowded round the screen. Aurora looked impressed again, ‘How do you do that?’
‘Easy, this ship is Centaph built. Centaph programming is pretty basic stuff -- hasn’t progressed for centuries.’ The others stared at her in awe, then her chima blushed pink, ‘Besides, the last user left themselves logged in – since when have you know any head of security t worry about their own security?’
Mervyn suppressed a laugh, ‘How do you know it’s Centaph?’
‘It’s got a single fuel core, see,’ she pointed to a schematic of the ship, ‘Most ships have duel cores -- two fusion reactors -- just in case one breaks down. The Centaph have never bothered with such niceties, they have so many ships they write off the broken one and send another. Cuts the manufacturing cost I should imagine.’
‘Another piece of the puzzle,’ Tarun said, and they looked at him questioningly. ‘The Centaph, well, the Naga had to get this warship from somewhere -- they don’t just drop off comets you know.’
‘Deary me,’ Loren muttered, ‘whoever left this terminal open has administrative privileges too -- very lax.’
Aurora looked over Loren’s shoulder, ‘Who’s Squiggles?’
‘My new user name -- I’m setting myself up with a user account and password -- just in case I need to get in again. Which domain do you think I should give myself access to -- network, ship, sector... or the whole empire.’ She ticked all the boxes to be certain. ‘I think it’s asking me what security clearance I want. Do Centaph think aces are high or low?’
‘Who cares,’ Tarun said, ‘just tick the lot so we can get out of here.’
Loren ticked everything again and hit enter, ‘Quarks, look at that security clearance -- I could override the captain.’
‘Save it for when you need it,’ Mervyn advised.
‘Ok everyone, pay attention please,’ Loren pointed to a schematic of the ship. ‘We are here. There are shuttle bays here, here, and here, and fighter bays here, and here. Our sleds are in this shuttle bay, the one closest to us,’ she looked round at their faces. ‘If we can’t get to our sleds I say we take some fighters, because they’re next closest.’
Aurora started at the schematics, ‘You can tell all that from this?’
‘Just trust me on this one, Aurora.’
‘Loren’s right,’ Mervyn said, ‘if we can’t get our sleds we go for fighters.’
‘In the worst case scenario,’ Loren said, ‘we steal suits, pop an escape hatch, crawl round the hull on the outside and climb into a fighter bay.’
‘How do we get back in?’ Mervyn asked.
‘Mervyn,’ Loren looked exasperated, ‘there are some things in this galaxy which are universal -- to all races -- and getting an engineer to go outside the hull without a manual override on the escape hatches is one of them. No one steps outside unless they are sure they can get back in. Squiggles gives us the manual override -- we can enter whenever we like.’
‘You are crazy’ Aurora said. ‘You really think they will let you take fighters?’
‘No more than they’ll let us take the sleds. Come on let’s go.’
Suddenly, the sound of running feet filled the corridor outside. Mervyn crossed to the door to listen, ‘We’re trapped,’ he flicked the door lock, a useless gesture, but it made him feel safer.
‘We could wait here and hope they pass by,’ Tarun suggested weakly, but even as he spoke a groan sounded from within the darkened bedroom. They looked at one another -- their escape bid was over.
Loren sighed deeply, ‘Best to give in before the shooting starts.’ She moved to unlock the door.