'Sure,' said one of the pilots, and a screen displayed a close-up of the damaged shuttle.
'It looks like one of its engines exploded,' said Buddy. 'Something blew up on the inside and ripped through the hull.'
'What the hell could do something like that?' Kendrick asked.
'There's no other ships in the vicinity,' replied the pilot, turning a little in his seat to give Kendrick and the rest a significant look. 'If I didn't know better, I'd say it looks like they tried to get away from it.'
The second pilot glanced over her shoulder with an expression clearly saying Tell me what in God's name is going on here. Kendrick caught her eye and shrugged feebly. She frowned at him and turned back.
Kendrick continued to study the Archimedes with interest, as Sabak consulted with the two pilots about docking strategies. After a few minutes' discussion they settled for another gantry that was positioned a little further around the circumference of the station. They were closer now to the exterior of the Archimedes and Kendrick gazed at the ripped-apart shuttle in horrified fascination. Nobody could have survived that sort of damage, he thought.
Their view changed further as they approached their selected gantry, the Archimedes' speed of rotation slowing to an apparent nil. Sabak guided them both to the rear of the cockpit where a row of tiny plastic seats were attached to the bulkhead.
They buckled in and waited. Soon a heavy, clanging reverberation rattled through the hull, as gravity returned.
The sudden change was jarring. Kendrick pictured the shuttle being whirled around now by the station as it rotated, providing artificial gravity as it tried to fling the incoming ship loose. They'd docked with the shuttle's underbelly facing outward, allowing them to walk around inside the shuttle without feeling as though they were the wrong way up.
Sabak unstrapped himself and motioned to Kendrick and Buddy to do likewise. Then he led them back into the short corridor connecting the cockpit to the main passenger bay.
'Wait just one second,' Sabak told them, pulling open a section of the wall to reveal a deep cabinet. There were weapons stored inside – rifles, pistols and what appeared to be grenades. There were also bricks of plastic explosive.
Sabak extracted a pair of side arms and handed one each to his companions. Buddy handled his with practised efficiency, nodding with apparent satisfaction.
Kendrick stared down suspiciously at the gun in his own hand.
'Just hold on to it,' Buddy advised him. 'I don't think it's likely that you'll have to use it. Give it here.' He took the weapon from Kendrick and slotted in an ammunition clip. 'This catch here on top is the safety, so just leave it where it is unless you feel you need to use the gun. Got that?'
'I think so.'
'Meanwhile keep it out of sight. We don't want Draeger's men knowing that we're armed. Any small advantage we have can only be good for us.'
Kendrick caught Sabak's eye. 'Draeger and his men -did anyone check them for weapons?'
'There was neither the time nor the opportunity,' Sabak replied sourly. 'Which is another good reason for making sure we're ready for anything.'
The flight crew caught up with them and Sabak doled weapons out to them as well, keeping a cautious eye on the door to the passenger area. Several Labrats – the only one Kendrick recognized was Veliz – slipped through from the passenger bay, and Sabak armed them too.
'What about all the rest of them?' said Buddy, nodding towards the door. 'None of that lot came up here expecting to be combatants.'
'I'm well aware of that,' Sabak replied darkly. 'We should split into two groups once we're further in. Some of us will move ahead and deal with any Los Muertos who may have been left behind. The other group can stay near the docking area and guard the rest of our lot.'
'And Draeger?' asked Kendrick.
'The question is whether he's likely to try anything once we're inside.'
'I'm sure of it. But then there's the matter of whether we're really going to let him have what he wants.' Kendrick looked at Sabak questioningly.
'I didn't expect we'd have to deal with Draeger when we got here. Which may have been a glaring mistake on our part.' Sabak turned to Buddy. 'You've got as much military experience as I have, so when we're in there I want you to help us keep an eye on Draeger and his goons. The question remains: are they likely to be armed?'
Buddy shrugged. 'Heavily, I'd be inclined to guess.'
Sabak nodded in agreement. 'Okay, let's go ahead on the assumption that we'll be dealing with opposition at some point. If we find no survivors from the Los Muertos shuttles, maybe we can step things down a little, except where Draeger is concerned.'
'Draeger's going to be searching for the same records that I want,' Kendrick reminded them.
Sabak squinted. 'The Archimedes is a big place. You'd need a couple of weeks to find something that specific. And a couple of weeks is what you don't have.'
Kendrick shook his head. 'I need to locate a research facility in the second chamber. That's exactly where I'll find what I'm looking for.'
Sabak shook his head slowly. 'A research facility?'
One of the flight crew spoke up. 'That's where all the station's functions are centrally controlled, sir. The computer systems are evenly distributed throughout the entire shell so that the station can continue functioning in case of serious trauma. But the research facility is the central point where you input data directly and get collated feedback.'
'We can't rule out sabotage either,' said Buddy. 'We don't know what Los Muertos have managed to do while they've been up here ahead of us.'
Kendrick was unable to avoid a deep sense of dread about what they might actually find once inside the Archimedes. Everything they knew so far had been filtered through the lens of Robert's fractured, dead mind. When it came down to it, none of them had any idea what they were up against.
They headed through to the passenger area, which had transformed from a vertical cylinder to a long, low- ceilinged room. Buddy, Sabak, and the flight crew checked everyone in turn, making sure they were fully suited up.
By some mutual unspoken decision they left Draeger and his men to take care of themselves. Within minutes, the external airlock opened to connect with a long, flexible tube linking to the Archimedes itself. The tube looked surprisingly flimsy and delicate.
Once Kendrick had his helmet on, the voices all around him were reduced to distant electronic squawks. He joined the queue and was guided by one of the pilots onto a platform with plenty of handgrips, obviously designed to carry them through the tube and into the station.
It took about twenty minutes to get everyone on board via the access tube. Kendrick and the rest found themselves in what had clearly been designed to be a reception area, full of desks and long, low couches. Kendrick studied some of the safety warnings and information posters still mounted on the pastel-coloured walls.
Sabak and his flight crew had gathered by another airlock door at the opposite end of the reception lobby. According to a nearby sign, this gave access to the interior of the main station proper.
Kendrick studied the screen built into the arm of his spacesuit. He played around with the menus, finding something that informed him that the atmospheric pressure outside his suit was currently zero. He wondered how this section of the station had come to lose its air, and if this meant that they were going to find the whole station depressurized.
He rejoined Sabak by the airlock door. One of the pilots had a panel open in the wall next to it and had attached a small device to some wires protruding from the interior. Kendrick wondered briefly why they didn't ask him or some other Labrat to magic the door open. Then he remembered that no one had ever tried that while wearing a bulky spacesuit.
After a little more effort, the airlock slid open to reveal a series of corridors branching off into the distance.
