Three days elapsed before the crew had dared leave the cargo bay. Harry’s reconfiguring of the communications panel had secured their freedom from Drusilla’s tyranny, at least for the moment. But they knew with the protective forcefield in place, the alien creatures would not be able to reach them. Harry had wanted to ensure that every single enemy was no longer on board. When they finally disabled the forcefield and made their way to engineering, that was when Harry had discovered Drusilla had fled in a preservation pod. He had hoped to find her unconscious on the bridge and then kill her himself, but right now, he would settle for having his ship back. The bridge, on the other hand, was another matter. In isolating that part of the ship, they had effectively locked themselves out, and it would take someone to crawl through the maintenance ducts, hack their way into the bridge and restore power, before anyone else could re-enter.
Teale had volunteered for the job, but Harry refused. Risking one life was bad enough, but risking a second who had no control over the decision, was out of the question. The conversation garnered a few looks from other crew members who were not yet aware of Teale’s condition, but Harry left engineering alone. He found the entrance point where the creatures had torn through the hull with the shields down, and managed to squeeze between the jagged metal and the deck plates to drop down into the bridge. The amount of blood on the floor, turned his stomach, particularly as he had been the cause.
“Necessary evil,” he told himself aloud as he made his way to the hidden circuitry beneath the viewscreen.
Removing one of the panels, he sat cross-legged on the floor, and began rearranging chips and wires much as he had done in the cargo bay. Only this time, the job was infinitely more complex. One false connection, and in it’s current preservation mode, the bridge would launch all the remaining pods, and deactivate life support.
“Teale to Ransome, how’s it going Sir?”
Harry tapped his communicator, a laser scalpel clenched between his teeth.
“Almost there Commander. I’ve managed to bypass the bulkhead lockouts, and deactivate the security fields. Should have bridge control back in a few minutes.”
But then, another siren began wailing throughout the bridge. Harry leapt up and sprinted for the nearest console, forgetting all of his wounds and injuries, and almost collapsing as he did so. Harry had managed to restore power to the science station, and when the problem became evident, his heart sank.
The sensors revealed that the Odyssey was caught in a gravitational field, of a strength usually associated with a planetary body. But there was nothing out there. The engines were not yet functioning, and hull stress was increasing.
“Shit!”
Harry flew back down to the communicator he had left by the open access panel.
“Teale? Can you get the engines started?”
“Activating them now Sir, but the pull is too strong!”
“Are they at max?”
“Aye Admiral. When we shorted out the bridge, we lost a few other systems. We’re running on everything we’ve got. The computer estimates three minutes until structural integrity reaches critical levels!”
Think, Harry, think…
His mind flew back to a training scenario back in the design process. There had been significant concern that one of the ships may encounter a gravity well, or be caught in the grip of a black hole. After all, their flight path would take them perilously close to previously discovered phenomenon.
“There may be a way, Jennifer,” Harry said solemnly.
Teale had been one of those at the design briefing. She had already considered this plan and dismissed it.
“No you fucking don’t! We can find another way!” she yelled down the comms channel.
But they were out of time.
“Do me a favour,” Harry asked, a small smile spreading across his face. “Make sure when you get back to Azanti Prime, you make a good life for yourself. And give that baby a good life. For Joshua.”
“Harry, please don’t do this! You can detach the bridge module, that might give the thrust we need!”
“You and I both know that’s not true,” Harry replied, frantically switching the wires around. “Your orders are to take this ship to the asteroid belt on the edge of the Azanti system… and leave her there. Do your best to hack into Drusilla’s messages and delete them, but if you can’t, take a shuttle to Azanti Prime, and live your lives.”
As Harry made the necessary final alterations to the panel configuration. A tear fell down his cheek.
“And Jennifer?”
“Yes Harry?”
“Make it a good one.”
One press of a button was all it took. The viewscreen broke apart into two vast, glass doors exposing the bridge to open space. The speed at which the bridge decompressed gave the Odyssey a surge of extra momentum, and propelled the ship away from the gravity disturbance. Once it was clear, the engines kicked in and the ship blasted away towards safety. As Harry’s slowly fading body spiralled down into the black oblivion, he saw his ship disappear out of sight. Icicles formed around his eyes, his lips, and he could feel his blood freezing over. But despite all of this, as the life left his body, once again, he smiled.