The ship moaned its unhappiness as Alek tried to force it to do his bidding. The control stick juddered in his hands. The Lyra was going to fight him to the end. Which might be soon given the increasing frequency of the chaotic spins that hampered his attempts at navigating the maze deployed around the Sisters' station. Barely visible blips of light marked the 'walls' made up of a matrix of mines. The fact that Alek had to squint to make out the pinpoints of light and matte grey against the black meant they were armed...and the Lyra hadn't been invited in.
He had no choice but to attempt to fly it by sight since Cass hadn't yet answered any of his requests to overlay a map on the viewscreen.
"Cass, what y'at?" His jaw clenched tight as he spoke. The AI remained ominously silent.
"Any idea what's going on?" Rebeka asked from over his shoulder, as Kandi tumbled into the bridge and flopped at her station.
"Maybe not crashing us, that's an idea," Kandi said. The ship shuddered in response.
"I meant why we're slip-sliding all over the place."
Alek shook his head, trying to find space to think while keeping the ship from spinning out again. "It feels like the axial stabilizer is gone. But that makes no sense."
"Why?" A weak voice filtered in from the doorway.
"Ish!" Kandi jumped up, but her exclamation cut short by a grunt when the ship slipped sideways. A muttered curse followed.
"I didn't clear you to get out of bed."
"I'm fine."
Out of the corner of his eye, Alek saw Ish push against Kandi as she tried to get him to sit in Severn's seat beside hers.
"You're in your pyjamas," she said as the ship shimmied, struck by a bit of space junk. "But now that you're here, sit." She tried to push him down but gave up when he struggled too much.
"Sit down, both of you, and latch in." The captain's tone brooked no argument, and Ish stumbled into his seat beside Alek. Alek heard the click of a latching harness and nodded his approval.
"We're starting to hit some debris." Alek's jaw clenched. "It's like the Sisters haven't cleaned out the remains of previous interlopers from their maze." He tugged at the stick, nudging the ship away. "Buckle up."
"Back to Ish's question, why?" Rebeka asked. "Why can't the axial stabilizer be malfunctioning?"
"It's such an easy piece of equipment to keep ticking." Alek pressed a pedal at his foot as the ship tugged sideways. He gave the portside engine a little more juice. "You'd malign Tink's engineering to say it's malfunctioning." He tapped left as the ship shimmied again.
"It's not a..." Ish took a laboured breath in. "...malfunction." Alek spared a quick glance at his co-pilot. Instead of the usual slipstream ripples and waves, his display showed lines of code in varied colours. "Bastard!" Ish said with more oomph that Alek thought him capable of right now.
"So, what is it then?" Alek's gaze slid sideways as he struggled to keep the ship from sliding into a mine.
"Severn."
"Severn." Rebeka's voice was sharp as a laser.
Ish nodded. "When he bashed me over the head, he said..."
Glancing right again, Alek saw a flush on the navigator's cheeks.
Ish huffed out a breath. "He said he'd make sure there was another Cassandra event." He plucked at his display, flicking his fingers through letters and numbers. "He's definitely messed with her." Ish shook his head. "I'll see if I can sort her out, but it'll take time."
Alek swore he heard a growl behind him before the captain spoke. "Maybe he took out the stabilizer too."
Ish didn't say anything as he glanced from his display to the viewscreen. "Um, station." Alek returned his focus forward to the station looming large on the screen. The maze had...disappeared. There was no sign of the mines that had blocked their way a few seconds ago.
"Can you dock the ship like this?" Rebeka asked.
Alek didn't answer, using all his strength to help keep the nose of the Lyra pointed in the right direction, the ship still fighting him. The scar tissue in his shoulder seared in pain, but he ignored it. After a minute, the ship gave a little.
"Good ship," he whispered as he shrugged his shoulders. The sweat on his back caused his shirt to stick to his skin. "If it is the stabilizer, I can correct by adjusting the —" He reached over to the far end of his console as another judder nearly tore the stick from his grasp. "...the...."
He was forced to abandon his quest and grip the stick with both hands. A thump sounded beside him, and he glanced sidelong to see the captain jab a button on the console.
"Adjusting off the inertial dampers on the starboard side," she said, rubbing her left side as the ship settled into an unhappy path toward the station, shivering with displeasure every now and then but otherwise behaving.
Alek nodded sharply then breathed in deeply, willing his muscles to relax. For the most part they complied, except for the one shoulder. Maybe the Sisters of Elazir could give him some poison...potion. If he managed to get the ship and its crew through this last part alive.