The sudden explosion in an engineering bay deep in the bowels of the ship had been deliberately placed adjacent to the main power distribution nodes. It blew straight through the fibreskin wall and disrupted several major supply pythons as they were about to spread out and encircle the large vessel. Navigation, shields, jump drive, environmental and several more minor systems, one of which was lighting, were immediately taken out.
Groxl, Bache and Ed, all wearing Spleeta anti-radiation suits, made their way silently away from engineering in the gloom of the red emergency lighting.
Fifteen minutes earlier, Andy had jumped a cloaked Cartella inside one of the cruiser’s large stern hangars and discreetly in a corner dropped the three of them off. The ruse of undertaking a radiation leak drill had worked as Groxl had led them through a maze of corridors to place the charge.
He led the way again now, not only because he was familiar with the design of Klatt vessels, but he was the only one who could speak Klatt without a translator and was able to bullshit his way through any security checks.
Originally, he’d wanted to go alone, as the Gande was the first in a line of highly classified new warships. He’d baulked at the thought of showing the layout of the ship to two potential enemy combatants. But again, after being reminded that they’d all been murdered by the very regime he was trying to protect, he’d soon relented.
‘The bridge is generally high in the centre of the ship,’ he whispered to the other two, as they made their way as quickly as they could up one of the many stairways. The elevators had also been a victim of their earlier explosive mischief.
An unexpected thump and rattle shook the cruiser violently, causing them to stumble on the stairs.
‘I think the pilot’s having trouble keeping the ship under control within the rings,’ said Bache. ‘That sounded like a large lump of rock hitting the hull and shattering. The shields must be down too.’
‘So long as we don’t get a breach,’ said Ed. ‘I’ve been in one of those before and they ain’t much fun.’
‘You and me both,’ said Bache. ‘More than once.’
Ed glanced at Bache, wondering if he was joking or not, but with the dark helmet visors they sported, he couldn’t see his face.
Groxl nodded at the writing on the wall as they reached one of the higher levels.
‘This should be what we’re looking for,’ he said. ‘Senior officers only, that generally means the bridge and officers’ cabins are on this level.’
Ed had noticed how eerily quiet it had become on the ship after the explosion. Once the emergency sirens had been silenced, a surprisingly small fire crew had bundled past them going in the opposite direction and with the environmental system temporarily down, the usual background hum of an operational starship was noticeably absent.
As they left the stairwell through a bulkhead door and entered a wide corridor, the main lighting came on again and the muffled sound of shouting somewhere up ahead reached their ears.
‘Someone sounds pissed off,’ said Ed, continuing to wave his radiation detector around as they continued the ruse of a leak and made their way in the direction of the bridge.
‘That sounded like he was speaking words in Ellinika too,’ said Groxl, who was further up the passage.
‘He was – I made out a couple of the words,’ said Bache.
‘Which were?’ Ed asked, hurrying to catch up.
‘Fucking and arsehole.’
‘Oh dear, someone’s not happy with our work,’ Ed said, smirking inside his helmet.
Rounding the next corner, they were confronted by two armoured security guards facing them and blocking what must be the main bridge door. The door was open and Ed noticed it’d been opened manually, as a red winding handle was sticking out of the wall on the right-hand side.
‘What the hell do you think you three are doing?’ one of the guards demanded, bringing his weapon up to cover them.
‘Radiation leak,’ said Groxl. ‘Why aren’t you in your suits?’
A look of doubt crossed the guard’s face and he glanced at his colleague.
‘We were not informed,’ he said, as the other guard shrugged and shook his head.
‘Comms are down,’ continued Groxl. ‘We need to sweep the bridge – urgently,’ he added forcefully, as the guard hesitated.
Ed meanwhile had utilised his DOVI and ensured the guards’ weapons were non-functional.
Finally making a decision in their favour, the two guards stepped aside and nodded at the open door.
‘Be quick,’ the same one speaking again said. ‘The captains are busy.’
The use of the plural hadn’t gone unnoticed as they quickly bypassed the guards and entered the bridge. Ed noticed the room was a lot smaller than most GDA bridges. It was octagonal, with a seat facing all eight sides and a central slightly raised square plinth with two seats side by side, one of which looked as if it belonged and the other odd one, hastily brought in and dumped next to it. Only four of the bridge officers’ seats around the walls were taken and two men, who were standing on the raised area, turned and glowered at them as they entered. One was a younger Klatt in what Ed thought must be a captain’s uniform and the other a human in a senior GDA uniform.
‘What the fuck are these three idiots doing?’ demanded the human, turning to confront the younger Klatt next to him.
‘I have no idea,’ he replied, lifting his arm and pointing at Groxl. ‘What are you doing?’
Groxl ignored the question, turned, nodded at Ed and Bache, pulled a hidden laser pistol and shot both the senior officers. They crumpled to the floor, a look of shock and surprise still on their faces as they became still.
Ed and Bache meanwhile had spun around, produced their own concealed weapons and given both the guards the good news as they bundled through the door. Their armour did take some of the kick out of the stun shots, but two or three pulses each was more than enough to dump them flat on their backs with thin trails of smoke emanating from their armoured suit motors. The four remaining officers appeared to be unarmed and sat very still with shocked expressions and their hands up and away from the controls.
Groxl walked around the various control stations until he found the one he wanted, switched his weapon from stun to full power and turned the communication console to a pile of scrap. He did the same to the weapons station while Ed and Bache secured the remaining four officers to their seats with plastic ties.
‘Where are the other bridge crew?’ Groxl asked one of them.
‘This is it,’ one of them said. ‘We were told this voyage was just a systems check for the new design.’
‘That human was in charge,’ another said, pointing at the GDA officer.
‘Ganelaine,’ Bache whispered to Ed.
‘Eh?’ Ed replied, touching his helmet against Bache’s. ‘Who?’
‘Senior Captain Ganelaine, he’s another of the military advisors to the GDA council.’
‘What the fuck’s he doing on one of our experimental battle cruisers?’ Groxl asked, pointing at the human and staring at the four bridge officers in turn.
The four officers looked at each other and shrugged.
‘He joined the ship in neutral space just after launch,’ one of them said.
‘Captain Groxl seemed to be afraid of him,’ said another.
Ed realised at that moment that Groxl hadn’t had any qualms about stunning his own son. He reminded himself to remain extremely wary of the Klatt captain and not turn his back for a moment.
‘Pick them up,’ Groxl ordered and made his way back to the door.
Ed decided to pick up the unconscious GDA officer, leaving the lighter Klatt for Bache as he was older. They struggled a bit to get them up into a fireman’s lift and once there, followed Groxl into the corridor.
The Klatt wound the red handle once they’d passed, closing the bridge door again, stuck the red handle in his belt and nodded up the passageway.
‘Do we need anything else while we’re here?’ Groxl asked.
‘No,’ said Ed. ‘Let’s not push our luck, back to the hangar as quick as possible.’
‘We’re taking them to medical if we’re questioned,’ said Bache, as they reached the stairs again.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Groxl, waving his pistol in the air. ‘These bastards killed my ship. I’m using this if anyone gets in the way.’
‘Stun only though,’ said Ed. ‘Remember it was these two that killed your ship, not the skeleton crew brought aboard for a test flight.’ Even though he couldn’t see Groxl’s face, Ed knew he hated being told what to do and was probably gritting his teeth and glaring at him behind the smoked visor. But he still did as he was told and turned the weapon back to stun.
The whispering of the environmental system came online as they hurried down the stairs and back to the right level for the hangar decks. They only passed one person on the way back to the hangar where they’d entered the ship and he completely ignored them. Ed called Andy who’d been loitering nearby, and with the cruiser’s shields offline now, he was able to fly straight into the deserted hangar unimpeded to pick them up.
Ed exhaled with a sigh of relief as he dropped the heavy limp body on the cockpit floor and as the Cartella left the hangar, he was finally able to remove the claustrophobic helmet.
After securing their captives with more ties, they went directly back to the Gabriel and before the prisoners could wake up, they were placed in separate secure rooms that Cleo had prepared. As the Gabriel moved quickly away, the crew waited patiently with a degree of anticipation as to what they would find out when they woke up.