Ayan adjusted the shields and focused most of the energy on the dorsal side of the ship. “I think they followed through right behind us. They're fast.”
“Evading, we'll have to find somewhere to hide quick. Help me look,” they were past the point where they could relieve tension with jests and teasing. The pair were in trouble, serious trouble.
“I'm looking, but where I'm picking up life it's scant. The electromagnetic signatures are much thicker than normal. All the cities down there look like war zones and comms are jammed.”
“There's got to be something.”
The shield warning lights started blinking red and yellow. “We're down to nineteen percent overall shield power.”
“There's too many of them. I jink to avoid one and there's another firing right at us.”
“Shields are gone!” Ayan shouted as several enemy shots impacted the hull. “Losing integrity.”
“I'm pointing our rear at them, it'll take them more time to get through.”
“Damage to port engine, I'm re-routing,” Ayan's eyes went wide as something came up on their communications.
“Freeground ship, go to these coordinates, we'll cover you,” said the incoming voice.
“Can we trust them?” Minh asked as he turned quickly to the coordinates that were marked on his navigational system. He flipped the ship upside down and increased throttle, the deafening roar of the engines filled the cockpit.
“It's our only choice other than crashing, besides, they were transmitting using a laser link striking the hull.”
“Smart!” Minh exclaimed as the Warpig took several more hits along its upturned underside.
“We're losing power!”
“Just a couple thrusters left, maybe I should ditch in the ocean?” he searched the ground for any safe landing spot. “Wait! I see a hangar!” There was a yawning opening in the cliff side ahead.
A deafening explosion rang out from behind them and their engines went out. Minh activated the afterburners and the inertial dampeners nearly failed altogether. Both of them were pressed back into their seats so hard their vacsuits automatically sealed.
The hangar loomed larger and larger, and as the afterburners were about to run out of fuel he deactivated one a second before the other, spinning the ship so it was headed inside rear first and a little high.
As the second afterburner flamed out the near wreckage of the Warpig fell as much as collided right onto the front end of the large hangar back end first. The ship, barely recognizable, skidded with a scraping, grinding sound that could be heard for kilometres in all directions until it came to rest wedged in an open equipment bay.
Repairs
Stephanie could hear Jake but couldn't find him. The four meter high space was filled near to capacity with the Samson's largest systems. It was never properly lit, the walkways were as narrow as forty centimetres across in some places and she always had the feeling that the mass capacitors, energy management systems and the myriad of other old machinery that filled the space was about to activate and fry her alive or worse, close in and crush her.
It was one of the only places in the universe that made her feel claustrophobic and awkward. The clinking and clanking of someone trying to worm their way through a space that was even smaller than the narrow alcove of cables she stood in echoed again and she gave up on proximity radio. “Captain!” she called out.
Her reward was a quick, sharp CLANG! and the Captain Valance's voice carrying through a narrow space nearby.
“Ow! What the hell is it?” he called out from wherever he was beside or above her, she couldn't quite tell.
“I've been trying to get you on comms for half an hour sir.”
“Wireless doesn't work in this section, there's too much energy stored in the systems.” Captain Valance replied.
She could hear him shuffling through a space to her right. “So I'm surrounded by cables with power running through them. Nice.” Stephanie tried to be smaller, shrinking away from the interconnected components all around her.
“Aye, Chief Vercelli's crew almost have the Samson back in shape and the modifications I requested finished. The first load test was yesterday and all her internal systems are live.”
“Good to hear, we can start running two recruiting missions at a time when she's ready. Still, next time you decide to go making repairs you might want to let someone on the security staff know.”
“I ran into March on the way down here, he didn't log it with the security office?”
“No, sorry, I didn't get it. What are you doing in there anyway? I'm sure one of the deck crew would be happy to do it for you.”
Jake dropped down right in front of her, barely fitting in the walkway. He had to stand sideways to squeeze between the seemingly random components that enclosed him in on either side. “There's a jury rigged cross beam here that's barely anchored at one end. It's not critical for support but it'll rattle like hell if anyone pushes the Samson's engines near three quarter throttle. If Ashley ever pilots her again…”
“It'll happen all the time.” Stephanie finished for him. “Did you get it?”
“Nope, hands are too big. I'll have to get someone else to tighten it back down or come back with an extender. What brings you down anyway?”
“One of our new recruits was killed yesterday and sent out the main emitter control room service airlock. Price and Finn just found her drifting outside the ship.”
Jake lead the way out of the tight space then retrieved his gun belt and long coat from a railing on the way down the hall. “Have you figured out how it happened?”
“She was strangled with a moderately thin wire. Without the Triton 's artificial intelligences online we can't do a ship wide DNA scan to find the weapon but we're looking. Whoever did it knew that the emitter systems were being serviced around the main control room and they were able to remove all records of their passage through the ship. Everything points to either a small group of people or individual who were able to somehow transport a body without being noticed. I'm looking at medical staff.”
“Did you find any other evidence?”
“We found a freshly scratched tether loop inside the emitter control room which tells me whoever it was was tied to it when they hit the decompression switch. They were probably just standing a few feet away from her when she was flushed out into space.”
“Why didn't her vacsuit seal?”
“There was an override in place on her command and control unit. Whoever it was used one of Wheeler's back door codes.”
“Could it have been Burke?” Captain Valance asked as they walked across the darkened cargo area the Samson was secured in. The new energy emitters running across her outer hull made it look like some spiked sea creature.
“He was in stasis at the time.”
“Then we have a murderer on board. What do we know about this new recruit?”
“Vienna Lars was her name.”
“Any idea why Vienna was killed?”
“Records show her spending some time in the Pilot's Den, the lower berthing and she visited the command deck once to check in with security. She was looking to qualify for core engineering staff, with her education she might have made it too. She had a data and communications unit that's several years old with her and it has records of her being in contact with Regent Galactic going back several years. Over the last few months she's also been in touch with something called the Order of Eden. Her credit records show that a one hundred thousand credit deposit was made to them over eight months ago.”
“She was a West Keeper?” Jake asked in a whisper.
