The air was breathable, but verythin. As long as they didn’t over exert themselves they would be fine.
Gillespie pulled his shoppinglist from an inside jacket pocket and began comparing it to the scans. Johnbrought the scans up on his chair, at first looking for anything from Earth,then at anything from a race they were familiar with or a ship that resembled Bismarck. There were a few possibilities and he gave Giacomo co-ordinates for a promisinglocation.
“Orbit set,” Giacomo confirmed.
John hit the intercom. “Bridgeto engineering. Kowalski, Red, Wright and Rodgers, transporter room in fiveminutes.”
“Yes, sir,” Red answered.
“Steve.”
Gillespie looked up.
“You and me.”
“Wait a minute,” McReidycomplained. “Your place is up here on the ship.”
“Since you were so dead setagainst the idea, I’m not asking you to go. The ship’s yours.” John stood upand turned to leave the bridge. Gillespie was waiting for him at the door. “Oh, and keep an eye out for patrols.”
He didn’t give her time toanswer.
The engineers were waiting in thetransporter room, along with North who was operating the transporter.
“Okay, boys, we’re goingshopping,” John went straight to the storage cupboards and opened one. “Notquite legal, so keep your eyes open. Mister North, be ready to pull us out ata moment’s notice.”
“Yes, sir,” North acknowledged.
John pulled out weapon belts,scanners and torches and dumped them on the console.
“Precaution only,” he told themas he buckled a belt on, pulled the phaser from the holster and checked itspower.
Gillespie grabbed and buckled abelt on. The engineers were a bit slower to react; Wright and Rodgers lookingat each other awkwardly before doing so.
John looked to the engineers. Afist fight they could handle. Weapons at close range – not something any ofthem were used to.
“We get what we need. If we’vegot time, we’ll see what else is there.”
*
The moon was cold and dark. Starlight shone down, covering the silence in a light grey gloom. A windwhistled around them, but John noticed the air was still. He shivered as helooked around. As his eyes became used to the dark, he could make out theghostly shapes around them.
The relics of ships long pasttheir usefulness were scattered everywhere. Most were in small pieces, theremains of self destructing before plummeting to the surface. Larger chunkslooked like they had simply been abandoned within the pull of gravity andsmashed on contact.
“Let’s check out the biggerstuff,” John pointed to an old transport that had cracked in half. The twomain pieces were a hundred metres apart with refuse scattered between. “Youthree,” he indicated Red, Wright and Rodgers, “Go check engineering. We’ll dothe bridge.”
“Yes, sir,” Red answered.
John checked the sky for patrolsand the soft dust for his footing as he made his way towards the forwardsection of the transport. He looked for markings to try and identify itsorigin. Anything that might have been there was coated in thick layers ofdust.
The wind whistled in the stillair and John couldn’t help shivering. The moon not only looked like agraveyard, it felt like one. The only things missing were the bodies.
The hatch had crumpled on contactand popped its hinges, causing it to hang off. A bit of effort from the threeof them and it ripped off completely; the shearing metal softened in the thinair.
John ducked the buckled frame ashe climbed aboard and into the dark. He switched on his torch and shone itaround, moving clear of the hatch as Kowalski and Gillespie climbed aboard.
“This way,” John inclined hishead and made his way the dozen steps to the bridge.
The bulkhead was sealed. Thatcould mean the bridge was still intact. As John looked for another way in,Kowalski had the control panel off. In seconds, the bulkhead gave and thebridge was open. He threw John a cheeky grin.
John stepped inside, his headmoving in all directions as he glanced over the entire bridge. It wouldn’thave surprised him to find the crew dead at their places. Instead, thecomplete emptiness of it sent a shiver down his spine. Light from outsidefiltered through the windows. And why could he still hear that wind whistling?
“Helm,” John pointed. “Go.”
Gillespie was at the controls. Nothing worked. “Dead here, sir.”
Kowalski squatted down andpropped his torch against the pilot’s seat, focusing the light in front ofhimself. He unscrewed a panel and carefully lifted it off. Dust andcobweb-like threads clung to it. Something tickled the back of his hand and hescreamed, flinging his hand away from his body. The panel dropped, crashingloudly on the floor, but he was half way across the bridge.
“Aw, geez, man! I hatespiders!” He shuddered as though it was still on him, his arms crossed overhis chest, fists buried into his armpits.
“I don’t think they have spidershere,” John reassured him. He was trying to access the logs from the captain’schair. The ship was without power and any decent captain would have erasedthem before dumping their ship here, but that didn’t stop him trying.
“Yeah… well maybe technically…they don’t have arachnids…” Kowalski persisted. “But if it’s black, hairy andcreepy, it’s a spider!”
Gillespie knelt down beside theopened panel. He shone his torch inside, cautiously checking the cobwebsbefore scooping them down. “Kowalski.”
Kowalski stayed where he was.
“Get over here,” Gillespiebullied.
Kowalski shook his head.
“I promise there’s no spiders.”
John looked across briefly,amused by Kowalski’s dilemma.
Kowalski hesitated, and slowlystepped back to the panel, an unconvinced look on his face.
“Everything looks intact… if youknow the system,” Gillespie continued.
Kowalski carefully peeped inside,looking more for whatever shouldn’t be there than what was. He reached intentatively and pulled out a control grid, then another. All the chips were inplace, some a little loose, but were easily put back.
“Well?” John asked, having givenup on being able to access anything without power.
“It seems… pretty basic,”Kowalski answered.
“Basic sounds good,” Johnencouraged.
“Lines appear fine. Do you think,”Kowalski began doubtfully “we can transport the whole lot up
