I retrieved my Beretta, pointing it at the control panel. I had no idea if this would work or not. Shooting a gun in a space station was an incredibly stupid idea, but I had nothing else. Anna was going to die, trapped in her room, if I didn’t at least try. I pointed, aiming right for the panel, and fired.
In a shower of sparks, the bullet entered the panel. Immediately, the door hissed open. I couldn’t believe my luck.
Anna ran out, falling into my arms. I held her shoulders and looked into her face.
“There’s no time! We need to get to the Inner Ring.”
“There’s no way we can make it to the Inner Ring before the blast doors close,” Anna said.
“We have to try to make it.” I grabbed her hand. “Come on!”
We ran around the circle of the Mid Ring. Everyone was out of sight, now.
“Shit, we’ll never make it!” Anna said.
We ran on, about halfway to Alpha Tunnel. Lines of doors rushed past us in a blur as we sprinted full speed around the curve of the Ring.
At last, we reached Alpha Tunnel, turning into its long, straight path. On either side were windows that showed the spinning stars as Skyhome continued its rotation. The entrance to the Inner Ring lay at the end of the tunnel. Standing on the other side of the blast doors were Samuel and Makara, screaming at us. Distance and noise masked their words. In less than twenty seconds, the blast doors to the Inner Ring would close.
We were clearly not going to make in time.
“Come on,” I said. “The hangar’s this way!”
“What?” Anna asked. “We’ll die there!”
“We need to get to
We ran partway down the tunnel, turning into the hatch that led to the hangar. Once inside, we gunned it for
That is, if the incoming foreign mass didn’t hit the hangar or the ship.
I saw no other choice, though. I pulled Anna along, sprinting for the ship.
We ran up
The titanium alloy door opened with a hiss. I pushed Anna inside, following after her. As I pressed the button to shut the door, the voice sounded again.
The ship skidded across the hangar when the foreign mass impacted Skyhome. Anna and I crashed to the floor, toppling into one another. It felt like the entire station had been flipped on its side. For a moment, I was terrified Skyhome might fall off its orbital path and get pulled down to Earth.
Then, I was floating. The Mid Ring was slowing from loss of power. The ring would soon be at a complete standstill, meaning there would be nothing to keep our feet on the ground. My back banged into the ceiling, just enough to cause some pain. The ship’s interior was lit with dim, red lightning. A stainless steel container shot past my face and crashed into a cabinet. From the cabinet spilled silverware that did a crazy zero g dance. Somehow, Anna and I had both been thrown into the ship’s kitchen.
The red lights blinked off, then on, flickering a few times before remaining steady. The room spun around us. In a dizzying revelation, I realized that
“Grab onto a wall,” Anna said.
I reached for the wall, stopping myself from spinning. I stayed still, willing my rising nausea to go away.
“You alright?” Anna asked.
“Not sure. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“You should be alright in a second,” she said. “The ship is anchored to the floor with struts, so it’s not going anywhere.”
That was good to know. Upon hearing this, I already felt better. I let go. Anna pulled me away from the wall.
“We need to get to the cockpit,” Anna said. “There’s a transceiver and we can see if the others made it.”
Samuel and Makara probably had, because I had seen them at the end of the Alpha Tunnel, in the Inner Ring. Unless that part took a direct hit, then they were probably okay.
I pushed myself along cabinets and walls to get to
“That’s not good,” I said.
“Here,” Anna said, flicking a few buttons on the dash.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Powering on the ship to get life support running,” Anna said.
“We need that,” I said.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious.”
“
“Sorry,” Anna said. “You’re sitting in the captain’s chair, and you made an obvious statement. It had to be said.”
Anna flipped the transceiver on, finding the frequency to communicate with Skyhome.
“Skyhome, this is Anna Bliss. Alex and I are on
Anna’s voice would be spilling out of every speaker connected to the Skyhome network. Dr. Ashton or the others could be anywhere.
To my relief, the radio crackled to life.
“Anna, this is Ashton. Samuel and Makara are both with me in my office. Something hit the habs, and all of Delta Quadrant depressurized. Thankfully, everyone made it out in time. It only affected the Mid Ring. The blast doors kept the air in everywhere else. We were lucky. I guess those monthly drills were good for something.”
Those drills had been my bane. Getting up randomly at 2:30 or 3:30 in the morning and sprinting for the Inner Ring was no fun, but it least it had trained me on what to do in a situation like this. Although, Anna’s hab door malfunctioning had not been part of any of the drills. Usually, the drills gave us three minutes to get to the Inner Ring. This time, we had half that, and it was for real. I’m just glad I remembered the
“Glad to hear you guys made it,” I said. “But how do we make it out of here? We’re stuck on
“The whole Mid Ring isn’t,” Ashton said. “Just Delta Quadrant. But we have no idea what the hangar is like, so
“So there’s literally nothing we can do right now?” Anna asked.
“Affirmative,” Ashton said. “As soon as the atmosphere’s back up, getting the Ring rotating again should be no issue, granted that there was no damage to the mechanics of the station. If there is damage, you guys could be
