The corridor stretched into what felt like infinity in the dusky light. Doors lined both sides, closed with faint green spots glowing above them. At least three other corridors crossed the main one. Commander Hovart was right, this was not just any ship. This thing was huge.
“Where now?” Wade asked.
“There are some readings of energy that way,” Lovar said, eyes glued to the scanner as he waved vaguely to the right.
“What about the doors?” Wex walked to the nearest one and pushed it.
He must have hit the lights just right on the door surface. It slid neatly to one side. We crowded forward to look inside. The room was empty, a bare cube of space.
“Storage, I’d bet,” Wex said.
We spread out along the corridor, trying doors. None of them had anything remotely similar to the door controls on most ships. Most showed a combination of green lights. If they were pushed in the right order, the door slid open. About half opened, showing us empty space. The others, no matter what combination we tried, stayed shut. Lovar kept his face to the scanner. He walked slowly ahead of the rest of us.
“We’re wasting time,” Commander Hovart said as we looked into the tenth empty room. “Which way, Lovar?”
Lovar stood at the cross corridor moving the scanner back and forth. He pointed it at the ceiling and frowned. “Right, mostly, but also up. We need a way to move up a deck.”
“Then let’s find it,” Commander Hovart said.
We turned right. There were fewer doors, but they had more lights. Out of curiosity I pushed the lights on one door. They blinked and changed to a new pattern. I half expected a warning siren or something. Nothing else happened. The door stayed shut. I hurried to catch up with the others.
The corridor stretched an incredible distance. The whole ship must have been more than a mile long, judging by the length of the hallway. It was at least half that wide. We hurried down the hall, our boots raising echoes.
We came to another intersection of hallways. Lovar stopped, frowning over the scanner. We waited nervously as he took readings, looking down the other ways. A faint breeze of air blew from deeper in the ship. It smelled of old oil and metal and other things I couldn’t identify.
“I think straight ahead,” Lovar said. “There’s something big up there.”
We walked ahead. I twitched at every step. The ship didn’t feel deserted or empty. The people behind us with the globes wouldn’t have been stopped long by the door. I kept looking behind, expecting to see them coming after us.
The lighting in the corridor stayed dim and green. It was enough to let us see where we were going but not enough to see more than vague shapes in the distance.
We passed three more sets of cross halls. Lovar paused at each, taking brief readings. He shook his head and kept going straight. We followed him down the hall. Commander Hovart stayed to the rear. He had one of the stunners I’d brought in the bundles. I wondered if it would do us any good or if it would melt in his hand, but I didn’t say anything. Commander Hovart looked dangerous enough in the green light I didn’t want to irritate him. He could always use the stunner as a club.
I heard a growing murmur that sounded like wind in the distance. Vibrations rumbled underfoot, growing stronger the farther we went. The hall ended in a thick door with a large wheel mounted on it and no glowing light locks. Wade gripped the wheel and turned it. Or he tried to. It didn’t budge.
“Try the other way,” Wex said, not very helpfully.
Wade muttered something we all pretended not to hear, except Wex who muttered back that he was only trying to help. Wade tried spinning it the other way. The wheel creaked and gave way. Wade fell to the side, landing on the floor with an oomph. I helped him up while Lovar shoved the door open.
He stopped just inside the door. Wex ran into him, crowding in behind. Commander Hovart glanced over his shoulder, then shoved me and Wade through the door and slammed it shut behind us.
“They’re coming,” he said. And then stopped and stared with the rest of us.
Water ran everywhere, in clear pipes, in long streams from openings high overhead, in channels across the floor and down the walls. Pools scattered across the room glowed green, blue, red, and yellow. It was like being in a giant container of liquid jewels.
“What is this place?” Wex asked.
Lovar walked into the middle of it, head down, eyes glued to the scanner, passing under falling streams and missing being drenched by inches. He skirted a small pool that glowed cherry red and stopped, looking up.
“Any way out of here?” Commander Hovart asked.
Lovar shrugged.
“Water treatment,” Wade said. “I’d bet half a year’s pay on it.”
Pieces clicked into place. Of course the water would have to be artificially recycled. This was like a ship system except much bigger and a lot prettier.
“This is the water,” I said, mostly to myself. “The atmosphere generators should be somewhere near. And some way to trigger the rains. This explains the ponds.”
“What?” Commander Hovart asked me. “Ponds?”
“All the streams feed into ponds,” I said. “They have to bring the water back here. Closed system. If it weren’t, the water would have been lost to space a long time ago. This is a colony ship. And it’s doing its best to establish a colony here. But the planet is too small to support a self-sustaining colony. Not to mention the radiation.”
“Some scholar is going to make his reputation studying it,” Commander Hovart said. “But only if we can get out of here. Suggestions?”
“I think I found a way out,” Wex said from somewhere high overhead.
He stood on a platform of what looked like solid water, waves and ripples included. A stream of bright blue water poured behind him in a solid sheet.
“There’s a ladder behind the yellow spray,” he said.
“Over here,” Wade said from a different direction. “There’s another door.”
Lovar was out of sight, wandering through the maze of running water.
Commander Hovart muttered a curse. “I hate techs on missions like this.” He put his fingers in his mouth and let loose a piercing whistle. Something in the distance crashed. A pipe full of orange liquid gurgled and emptied, draining away.
Lovar returned, looking guilty. “There’s levers and things back there,” he said, waving behind him. “They control it. If we could figure it all out, we could divert the water and crash the whole system.”
“We don’t have time,” Commander Hovart said.
Wade came back. “Not a way out. Just a closet with spare parts.”
“Find the ladder and start climbing,” Commander Hovart said.
Wex sat on the platform, dangling his feet off the edge. We found the ladder he’d told us about and climbed up. Lovar and Wade were ahead of me. They kept stopping to stare around them. Commander Hovart shoved my feet, trying to get me to move faster.
“Hurry up,” I said to Wade.
He reached up and shoved Lovar’s rump. “Order to move it.”
Lovar sighed as he tucked the scanner into his pocket. He scampered up the ladder faster than most rats could have climbed it. Wade hurried after him. I did my best to match his speed. Commander Hovart was still breathing on my ankles the whole way up.
We crowded onto the small platform. It didn't have railings or anything to keep us from falling off into the multicolored tangle of water below.
“Where’s your way out?” Commander Hovart demanded of Wex.
“There’s a tunnel up there, above where the blue water comes out.” He pointed at a dark slit that couldn’t have been more than a foot high. “I couldn’t quite reach it, but I bet it goes way back.”
Lovar had his scanner already trained on the dark opening. “Too much interference to be sure, but, I think he’s right.” He snapped the scanner off and made a big deal of tucking it away.
“He’d better be right,” Commander Hovart said.
The main door opened, squealing on thick hinges.
Wade crouched down and held his hands out. “Ready?” he asked Wex.
Wex stepped on his hands. Wade heaved him up, level with the hole. Wex caught the edge and wiggled through. A moment later his head popped back out.
“Air vent,” he whispered loud enough that if the room hadn’t been full of running water even a deaf man could have heard him. He popped back out of sight.
“Dace,” Wade said.
I used his hands to help launch myself up. I grabbed for the vent. Wex caught my hands and hauled me in. My feet still got wet in the blue waterfall just below. I squeezed past Wex, crawling on my belly in the low vent.
“Here.” Wex fumbled for my hand in the dark, pushing a handlight into it.
I gripped the familiar round shaft and pushed the button. Dim yellow light filled the vent ahead of me. I slithered farther along. I heard the others coming behind me. I kept moving, on elbows and belly. I used my feet to help push myself along. I started looking for a way back out. It was too small, too cramped. Air pushed past me, ruffling my hair.
I caught a glint of faint light ahead. I squirmed faster, determined to reach it. I saw no side vents, no other outlets. The light seemed to grow farther away the faster I crawled, until I realized it was dimming. It faded entirely before starting to grow brighter again. Someone pushed my boots, urging me faster. I wondered if he was as claustrophobic as I was.
The light grew bright, a square not far ahead.
Nothing blocked the end of the tunnel. I stuck my head out and wished I hadn’t. I was halfway up a very tall shaft. I saw dark openings all over the shaft, tunnels such as the one I was in. At the bottom of the shaft was a huge fan, blowing air upwards. The breeze rushed past me. The shaft itself was only about eight feet across. But I saw no way to reach any of the other openings. I squeezed backwards, accidentally kicking whoever was behind me in the face.
I pulled my head back far enough so the breeze didn’t make me squint.
“Why are you stopping?” Wade said from behind me.
“We’re at the top of a very tall shaft with nowhere to go.”
He passed the message back. I heard their whispers as the answer was passed forwards.
Wade nudged my foot. “The Commander says to keep going.”
“Go where?”
Wade pushed my foot again. “Into the shaft. We can’t stay here, Dace.”
“I think I see a way out,” I said and squirmed forward. Small indentations lined the walls that might work as footholds and handholds.
The shaft was very deep and the closest handholds were a good four feet away. I hung halfway out of the shaft, reaching for them. I started to slide out. I scrambled against the smooth walls, trying to reach the handholds. The fan below was a long way down. I swore as my fingers slipped over the smooth metal.
Wade grabbed my legs, holding me steady. I swung to the side and managed to get one hand into the hole. It was small, but had a ledge that served well as something to grab. I got one hand jammed in and swung my other hand into the next one up.
“I got it, Wade,” I said. He let go of my ankles. My legs slithered out of the vent. My hands ached as I hung for a moment until I got my feet into holes. Only my toes fit inside. I clung to the wall, unsure which way to go.
“Up or down?” I asked Wade when his head popped out of the vent. He called back over his shoulder. The message passed down and back up. My fingers ached. “Hurry up!”
“Up one deck and to your right,” Wade said.
I pried one hand free and reached for the next hole up. It was a bit of a stretch. Wade climbed out of the vent. I climbed faster to get out of his way. He swung across, scrambling onto the handholds and making it look easy.
I kept going up. It was hard to tell where I might be. The vents spiraled up the shaft, exiting at different heights, no two seeming on the same level. I climbed what I guessed was the right number of steps and started looking for another vent. I found one at about the right height, but it was across the shaft. I went up a few more steps to the next one.
“Too high,” Lovar said from somewhere below my feet.
“It’s the only one I can reach,” I called back.
“Just go,” Commander Hovart said. He was wriggling free of the vent. It looked like a tight fit for his broad shoulders. “And hope the next one is bigger and connects to somewhere useful.”
I pulled myself into the vent. It had dark spots along the sides that looked like openings.
“This one looks good,” I called over my shoulder. It didn’t really matter, it was the first one I’d been able to reach. I belly crawled my way down it. The breeze from behind carried the sounds of the others climbing into the vent.
I reached the first dark spot. It was a grate, but one screened by very thick mesh that barely let air through. It was securely fastened into the wall. If I’d had half an hour and a blowtorch, or a few minutes with a blaster, I could have opened it, but it still wouldn’t have done us any good. It was too small. My arm might have fit through. I kept crawling.
I passed another dozen of the grates. I saw nothing helpful on the other side. I saw either pitch black nothing or blank corridor walls. My handlight flickered. The light dropped to almost nothing. I shook it and got a bit more light, for a few moments.
I could tell when Commander Hovart entered the vent. He swore like an engineer at the tight squeeze. This top of the vent was higher, but it was narrower than the last.
Wade pushed my feet again. “Find a way out.”
“I’m looking,” I answered back.
I spotted a large square on the floor of the vent just ahead. I squirmed up to it.
The square was a larger grate that opened on the ceiling of a corridor below. The lights below glowed brighter than the dim green we’d seen previously. The grate was large enough for me to fit through. I hoped it was big enough for Commander Hovart. To judge by his creative cursing, he was not happy about crawling through the vents. But the grate was securely bolted. And I had no tools.
No, I had my lockpicks. The sonic disruptor would do nicely to either shatter the bolts or unscrew them. But my lockpicks were strapped to my ankle and I couldn’t reach them in the narrow space.
“Wade!” I whispered over my shoulder.
“What?”
“I found a grate, but it’s screwed on. On the inside of my right ankle, there’s a small pocket. Get what’s inside it and pass it up to me.”
“You have a full toolkit inside your pant leg? You're full of surprises.”
He fumbled inside my pants at my ankle. It was weird and definitely ticklish. I did my best to stay still. He found the pocket and unfastened it. He pulled out the packet that held my lockpicks.
“What are these?”
“Never mind, just pass them up to me.” If it wasn’t necessary to pull them out, I wouldn’t have. Just owning them could get me several years prison time in the Empire. But if they weren’t going to get me off this one, it wouldn’t matter. If they did get us off, I doubted anyone would press charges. If they did, I bet Lowell would get any criminal charges dismissed. He had before.
Wade wriggled alongside me, his hand reaching over my butt. His hand found mine and pushed the lockpicks into it.
“What are you doing up there?” Commander Hovart grumbled from down the tunnel.
“Opening the grate,” Wade answered.
I slipped the sonic disruptor from the sleeve. It looked too slender, not nearly sturdy enough to unfasten the bolts, but it should work. If the bolts holding the grate were threaded. If the pick didn’t bend or break. If whoever had built the ship we were crawling through had been close enough to human to use similar methods of building. So far that last option seemed to hold true. I mentally crossed my fingers and wished for luck.
The bolts, one in each corner, had a slot across the top. My pick slid right into the groove. I twisted to the left. It wouldn’t budge. I tried to the right. Still nothing. I tried the other corner. The bolt moved to the right. Then stuck. I wriggled the pick. It bent. I eased up, drew in a deep breath, then tried again. I got the bolt to move a little at a time, gradually working it out of the hole. It rattled on the floor of the vent when I pulled it free. One down and three to go.
“What's the delay?” Commander Hovart asked impatiently.
“I’m working on it,” I said.
“Work faster,” Wex said.
I wanted to swear at them to shut up and let me work. Wade did it for me, much more nicely than I would have. Commander Hovart and Wex were both claustrophobic. But they weren’t the only ones. I wanted out, too.
I worked another bolt loose. The other two were on the far side of the grate. I had to crawl onto the grate to unfasten them.
I didn’t need to bother. Without the two bolts, the grate wasn’t sturdy enough to hold me even though I’m not that big. It gave with a crashing bang. The grate and I both fell to the floor below.
“That’s one way to do it,” Wade said, his head hanging from the hole above. He swung his legs down then dropped lightly beside me.
I lay on the floor, cataloging all the new bruises I’d just acquired.
Lovar came next. He was barely out of the vent before he had his scanner out again. He frowned and shook his head as Wex tumbled out of the hole. Commander Hovart squirmed out last, squeezing his shoulders through the opening. It was barely wide enough for him. He lowered himself from the hole, landing beside me.
“Where now?” he asked Lovar.
“We’re one deck too high,” Lovar answered. “But in the right area.”
“Then let’s find a way down,” Commander Hovart said. “Just as long as it isn’t through the air vents.”
I put my lockpicks back in their pocket on my ankle. Commander Hovart gave me a very long look when he saw what I had. I looked up at him, daring him to comment. He very deliberately looked away and didn’t say anything.
Wex and I got off the floor. We started down the corridor, looking for stairs or ladders or anything to let us move from deck to deck.