The hissing began as soon as the plasma cutter breached the wall. Ed had reckoned on about an hour to vent the two rooms, any quicker than that would be a bonus. They couldn’t delay because the Callametan engineers’ suits only had enough oxygen to last about two hours. So they sat watching each other with the suits vented to the outside and only switching to the oxygen supply when it became necessary. If they found that the monorail system was down, it would take longer to get to the shuttle and every breath could count.
Andy was operating the cutter near the floor and next to the door. They’d originally been a little nervous that sparking the cutter into life might cause an explosion with the sulphurous-smelling gas in the room and they’d all lain prone on the floor as he flashed the igniter for the first time.
‘Not too big, Andy,’ said Ed. ‘Cut one the other side too and then one every few feet.’
The atmosphere screamed out of the small apertures, they had to keep well clear of them and resist the urge to stick a hand down to feel the suction. Ed stood by the door after thirty minutes and kept trying it to see if the pressure had reduced enough for it to open.
After forty minutes he noticed it move slightly.
‘Nearly there,’ he shouted to the engineers. They’d been sealed up with their own oxygen for over ten minutes now.
‘Andy, give us a hand,’ he said and they both tugged at the handle.
The wind began whistling through the small gap and when it was wide enough, one of the engineers stuck a crowbar in the crack and heaved on that too. What was left of the atmosphere soon evacuated through the ever-increasing gap and with a final heave the door swung open.
‘Let’s go,’ said Ed, leading the group out into the main engineering area. He could see the wide and nervous eyes of the engineers as they ventured out into vacuum for the first time and hoped they wouldn’t panic or throw up when they reached weightlessness outside the hull.
It quickly became obvious the damage was at the far side of the chamber as Ed could see stars through a jagged rupture up in one corner. All around this section of the ship was stripped bare, none of the loose equipment remained and what was left was scorched black with soot. The fires were extinguished now in the vacuum of space, but the damage had been done and this ship was going nowhere without major repairs.
The breach he’d seen was unfortunately about thirty feet up and he swore under his breath as he realised there was nothing to climb on to get up there.
‘Pol, can you go back and get your lifter?’ he said. ‘I think it’s going to be the only way to get up there.’
She didn’t look very happy about the request, but turned and trotted off all the same. A few minutes later he could hear the whine of the lifter’s motor and watched as Pol rounded the huge antigrav drive housing they were behind and positioned the makeshift elevator underneath the breach.
‘Everybody in,’ she said, as she extended the stabiliser legs.
‘Top floor for lingerie,’ said Andy, but got only blank stares from the Callametans as they crammed into the cage.
Pol slowly lifted them up to the jagged hole and swung the cage over slightly until it touched the inner bent skin of the hull.
‘Right,’ said Ed. ‘Everyone with a Theo suit is to take one of the engineers, we follow in a line down over to the port side and open the first airlock we come to.’
‘Aren’t we going to tether ourselves?’ asked Kwin, her face white inside her faceplate.
‘Our suits have mini jets and we can pull you around,’ said Ed calmly, smiling to try to allay their nerves. ‘We won’t let you float off, you’re quite safe. Kwin, you follow me and hang on to my belt here.’
Ed moved onto a section of bent hull plating, made sure Kwin was with him, and stepped out into space. He could see Kwin hyperventilating behind him as she followed and they both floated out and over to the side to make room for the next two.
‘What a beautiful view,’ said Ed, touching helmets so they could converse and staring out at the starscape surrounding them.
‘It’s great,’ said Kwin. ‘But where the hell is Callamet?’
Ed peered round and saw what she meant – the planet should be dominating the view behind them.
‘And what the hell is that thing?’ she said, pointing at what appeared to be another ship sitting on top of the Hope.
‘Bloody hell,’ said Ed. ‘Where did that come from?’
‘It’s anchored onto the hull,’ said Andy, joining them with Tocc hanging on to his belt with a face of absolute terror.
‘That could be why we can’t see the planet,’ said Ed. ‘That ship has jump capability and is taking us somewhere.’
‘Has what?’ said Kwin, but Ed had lifted his helmet away.
He waited until Pol and Rialte joined them, before traversing around the hull and leading them down the port side towards an airlock.
‘Hang on,’ said Andy, staring off down the side of the Hope. ‘Shouldn’t we be able to see the shuttle down there?’
He pointed down the line of airlocks stretching away. Ed followed his finger and grimaced.
‘It might be a small ship but it would be obvious from here,’ Andy added.
‘You’re right,’ said Ed, searching through his suit’s menu for the magnification feature.
He zoomed in down towards the bow of the Hope and swore. A ragged and scorched remnant of the transfer tunnel hung off the side of the airlock they’d entered through earlier.
‘Oh shit,’ said Andy, after doing the same. ‘We’d better head straight for a hangar and hide inside a Callametan shuttle or something.’
‘I agree,’ said Ed, as they continued along to the airlock.
It opened as expected and Ed noticed the engineers’ obvious relief once they were inside and back into gravity. He peered left and right through the rectangular window of the inner door and seeing nothing of danger, pressed the round button.
The outer door motored across and sealed, followed by the hiss of pressurisation, the inner door sinking away from them and swinging over to the right. Ed and Andy both peered up and down the corridor. Finding it empty they led the small party out of the airlock and turned left towards the hangars.
Behind them a bulkhead door had slid across, blocking the passageway and sealing the rest of the ship from the hull breach in engineering.
‘The atmosphere’s at eighty-nine percent here,’ said Pol. ‘It’s safe to remove helmets.’
The three engineers did so, sniffing the air suspiciously as they released the locking catches.
‘How far to the first of the hangars?’ asked Ed.
‘A long way,’ said Tocc. ‘These are all the colonist chambers.’
‘We were in that one until very recently,’ said Rialte, pointing at the first door they came to. ‘All the engineering crews were near the back for obvious reasons.’
‘Can I see?’ said Ed, nodding towards the door.
‘Be my guest,’ replied Kwin, taking the lead and opening the door.
As with the hangars, a metal stairway led down, but this time to many lower levels. Each level had a metal grid walkway and row upon row of survival pods stacked four high. Ed stared down the top row. He couldn’t see the end of it, but looking across the ship, he could just about see the far side, some five hundred metres away.
‘How many chambers like this are there?’ he asked, looking back at Tocc.
‘Four,’ she said. ‘Two hundred and fifty thousand in each. This is chamber four.’
‘We need to find somewhere for these guys and fast,’ said Andy. ‘Hope told us only sixty-six percent are still alive.’
‘We know,’ said Rialte, dejectedly. ‘There should have been five in our group.’
They retreated to the corridor and carried on forward, passing many doorways until almost an hour later Kwin stopped, read the sign by the door and pointed at it.
‘This is hangar six,’ she said. ‘It contains larger transportation craft with initial arrival shelters and colony set up equipment.’
‘Sounds a good place to conceal ourselves,’ said Pol. ‘Are there food supplies in the ships?’
‘There should be plenty, so long as they’ve survived all this time,’ said Tocc, as she opened the door, ushered everyone inside and closed and locked it again.
‘It’s mostly edible,’ said Pol. ‘I’ve already had to survive on it for several weeks.’
The vessels in this hangar were indeed larger. Transport ships, designed to ferry heavy equipment down to the surface of the chosen world. As with the other hangar Ed had seen, there were rows of them stretching away towards the front of the ship.
‘We should wait in a ship next to the hangar door,’ said Rialte. ‘It would mean we could fly out if the situation availed.’
‘Where the hell’s the hangar door?’ asked Andy. ‘These hangars are all in the middle of the ship.’
‘In the floor,’ said Kwin. ‘Right in the middle of the room and the ships are all lined up facing that way and in probable order of need to avoid shuffling them around.’
They descended the stairway and began worming their way through the maze of ships, heading for the centre of the hangar.
‘Is there any way we can find out whether the Hope’s been boarded?’ asked Tocc, nervously glancing over her shoulder from the rear of the group.
‘Not without talking to Hope,’ said Rialte. ‘These ships all have the ability to converse with the mothership, but without countering this infuriating damping field, it’s not going to happen.’
They rounded the nose of a large transport ship and came across a wide clear rectangular section of floor. It was about a foot lower than the level of the rest of the hangar.
‘That’s the exit,’ said Rialte. ‘It splits in the middle and slides into the hull.’
‘Do you have an atmosphere shield?’ asked Andy.
‘What’s that?’ said Kwin, giving both her colleagues a glance.
‘Do you have to vent the hangar before opening the door?’ said Ed, waving at it.
‘Ah – yes. I see what you mean now and yes, the hangar has to be vented before launching the ships.’
Ed and Andy exchanged a knowing look and a shrug.
‘That must take some time with an area this big,’ said Ed, looking up and down the hangar.
‘About a day to do it safely,’ replied Tocc, nodding enthusiastically.
‘A day!’ exclaimed Andy. ‘You can’t be in any hurry then?’
‘Why would we?’ asked Rialte.
‘Good answer,’ said Ed.
‘What if the ship was under attack, though?’ Andy continued.
‘It’s a colony ship, not a warship,’ said Tocc.
‘So you have no defences at all?’
‘If you mean weapons – then, no. Basic shielding to repel space junk, yes, but no weapons,’ said Kwin.
The dim lighting in the hangar flickered slightly, causing them all to look up.
‘We might have just jumped again,’ said Ed. ‘I think they’re using power from the Hope to help boost the envelope size and range.’
‘You mentioned that before,’ said Kwin. ‘What is a jump?’
‘The ability to fold space and travel great distances fast,’ said Ed.
‘How far?’ asked Tocc.
‘Up to around a thousand light years for some of the powerful ones,’ said Ed.
‘And how long does a thousand-light-year jump take?’ asked Rialte, sounding very sceptical.
‘Around a hundredth of a second,’ said Andy, smiling as the three Callametan engineers turned to stare at him in disbelief.
‘That’s simply impossible, surely,’ said Rialte, looking for some consensus from her colleagues.
‘Actually it’s not,’ said Pol. ‘I’ve been on their ship and it’s pretty amazing.’
‘This isn’t the time to be discussing the ins and outs of theoretical physics,’ said Ed. ‘Let’s get inside one of these ships and have a sit down and a meal.’
‘I’ll second that,’ said Andy. ‘Do you have any pizza?’