Lieutenant Kilgary came last, shaking her head. 'We're breaking a few safety regulations doing this, people, but there's no doubt the Maury needs us and needs us fast. Nobody panic.' She wedged herself in and cycled the gig's hatch shut.
Paul immediately understood Kilgary's last instruction. With the hatch closed, the gig's packed interior felt dangerously claustrophobic. Somehow the lighting also felt dim, perhaps because some of the internal lights were covered by sailors or equipment, which only contributed to the feeling of being crowded into too small a space. But no one panicked, at least not openly, as a series of bumps, jars and lurches marked the gig's lifting from its cradle. An unbearably long period, perhaps a minute, passed before the gig's main drive lit off. The sailors near the rear groaned as the mass of their companions pressed against them. 'Take it easy!' Lieutenant Sindh called out. She was back there with her sailors, feeling everything they felt, and her presence kept any of them from being overwhelmed by the mental and physical pressure.
Paul chafed at the unfamiliar sensation of literally being in the dark. As an officer, he was used to be able to see situations. But, then, I probably don't want to see the Maury until I have to. How bad is the damage? How many of her crew died? That question again, the one he couldn't avoid thinking about.
'On final approach to the Maury,' the gig's conning officer announced over the officers' command circuit. 'Do you still want me directly amidships, Lieutenant Kilgary?'
'Affirmative.' Kilgary's voice was almost that of a stranger, cold and controlled. 'As close as you can get us.'
'It's pretty ugly out there, Lieutenant. Lots of junk drifting loose.'
'Don't risk the gig. We can jump to the Maury.'
Paul felt grateful he was surrounded too tightly by sailors to be able to shiver. The survival suits had a limited self-maneuvering capability and he'd jumped through space as part of his training. But he remembered the endless dark all around, the sense of falling forever with nothing to grab onto, the feeling that if he missed his objective he'd just keep falling and falling until his suit's power and air gave out.
The gig lurched a few more times. Paul felt torn between dread at leaving the gig and a growing sense of urgency. Let's get going, dammit!
A moment later, the gig's conning officer called again. 'That's as close as I want to risk it, Lieutenant Kilgary. I've got the gig's main hatch lined up with the Maury.'
'Roger. I'm popping the hatch now.' The hatch surface receded, then Lieutenant Kilgary pushed herself out, holding onto the inside with one hand while she looked around. 'Mary, mother of God. Paul, Sonya, it's worse than I thought. The Maury 's amidships is totally devastated. Both main engineering compartments definitely blew.'
'Can you see survivors?' Lieutenant Sindh asked.
'No. I don't expect to, either. Not in this area.' Paul heard a hiss as Kilgary drew in a breath. 'It looks to me like everyone in engineering must have been wiped out.'
I didn't hear it. I didn't hear it. I don't know what's happened to Jen. I won't know for a while. Just do my job. Think about that. Only that. There are people depending on me.
'I'm going to take Team One in deep amidships, try to assess internal damage and find out if anything or anybody's left. Paul, Team Two goes forward. Sonya, Team Three goes aft. It looks to me like the survival bulkheads held, so we want to strengthen and seal them. Find weak points and get them reinforced. Plug holes. You know the drill.'
Paul and Lieutenant Sindh answered up simultaneously. 'Aye, aye, ma'am.' Lieutenant Kilgary wasn't Colleen to them right now, she was the officer in charge.
'Look for air-tight boundaries. Anyone in the forward or after sections will be trying to maintain the integrity of those compartments. If you find a working internal airlock, send someone through to make contact. We have to know what shape the Maury 's remaining crew is in. Any questions? Okay, I'm launching. I want everybody to follow, one by one. Keep your spacing.'
Kilgary lined herself up on something Paul couldn't see, braced herself, then pushed off. The gig bobbled slightly in reaction, then the first sailor in Team One was at the hatch, raising fingers one by one as he counted to five before pushing off in turn. As more sailors left, the gig's maneuvering thrusters began firing in quick bursts, compensating for the reactions created by the sailors shoving off against the hatch.
Paul shuffled forward, getting only glimpses of the Maury until he reached the hatch. Once he got his first clear view, Paul gasped, staring at the damage. His first impression, that something had taken bites out of the Maury, was replaced by an image of monsters inside the Maury who'd burst out, shattering everything around them. Where the engineering compartments should've been there were instead a couple of irregular areas in which everything had been blasted outward and away. Surrounding those cleared areas were sections where the blasts had torn and smashed their way along the lines of least resistance, leaving a tangle of wreckage in their wake. The masses of wreckage gave way to either open space or disappeared in the shadows created by the still intact portions of the Maury.
The last member of Team One leaped across the gap, his shape dwindling rapidly toward an area where Lieutenant Kilgary had gathered the rest of her team. Paul aimed for a point closer toward the Maury 's bow, where he could see the remains of a compartment that seemed to offer a decent landing area. Okay. You've done this. Remember the drill. Line up your body. Both feet set firm. Push off evenly with both legs so you don't go off to one side. Don't push too hard because you'll reach your objective at that same speed. Keep your eyes on your landing spot. Ready. Go. He aimed and jumped, pushing off just as he'd learned during his training, not putting too much force into the effort, trying not to think about the infinite emptiness he'd just hurled himself into.
There wasn't anything under him, or above him, or to either side. Just the endless dark, lit with trillions of sparks of light. If Paul looked in those directions, he felt as if he might have been motionless, unable to judge his own movement against the incredibly distant stars. Part of his mind marveled at that. Both the Maury and the Michaelson 's gig were traveling through space at speed measured in kilometers per second, yet Paul felt none of that since he was moving at the same speed and there was no air resistance, gravity or friction to slow him relative to the ships. He felt tempted to look back toward the gig, but remembered the warning not to take his eyes off his target. More than one jumper had slammed painfully into a target they'd forgotten to watch. But as he did look directly at the target, Paul felt like he was falling onto it. It took a determined effort to focus on the fact that his body wasn't accelerating under gravity's pull as it would in a fall, but was moving at a steady pace even though his Earth-bound experience kept insisting that couldn't be happening.
Despite his concentration on his target, the ruined compartment on the Maury grew in size with shocking speed as Paul got close. Paul swung his feet forward and took the impact with flexed legs. He could almost hear an instructor grunting out a reluctant 'not bad' as he grabbed hold of the nearest object, in this case a section of electrical conduit swinging free on one end. The friction pads built into the survival suit gloves held firmly onto the conduit's smooth surface. Paul tested his stability, then looked up just as the first sailor on his team came flying into the compartment only about a meter from him. Blast it. I should've remembered to get clear of the landing spot. Paul swung off to one side, motioning the sailor to clear the area as well.
More sailors came sailing into the ruined compartment, landing with varying degrees of force and grace. Last came Chief Meyer, grunting as he landed. 'Where to, sir?'
Paul looked around, trying to judge where best to go. 'Our orders are to proceed to the survival bulkhead forward of the damage. Let's move toward the Maury 's bow.'
'Yes, sir. Spread out or stay together?'
Tough question. Spreading out would let them learn more, faster. But also separate them in an environment rendered unknowable by the damage the Maury had sustained. 'Together. There's no telling what's blocked up ahead. I'd rather not have some of the team cut off from the rest of us.'
They moved through the compartments, roughly along the line where the Maury 's outer hull had been. Segments of the inner hull, unmistakable with their hollow, honeycomb shapes, still clung to structural members or were bent back by the force of the blast. Wires and fiber optic cables drifted across his path, while clouds of fragmented insulation and other materials floated amid the wreckage. A large piece of warped metal that might have once been a control console in engineering had been wedged across their path, requiring the team to traverse some of the rougher areas. Paul reached for a pale, white object for his next hold, then stopped in mid-reach. It's an arm. The limb, naked against space, protruded from a crushed compartment. Is somebody still attached? I can't find out now. Not that I want to find out at all. He reached elsewhere. 'Watch out for human remains.' Somehow, Paul's voice didn't shake.
