‘Are you ready?’ Ed asked, not bothering to turn and look at Pickyrd.
Pickyrd stared out of the front screen of the tiny shuttle. It was one of the smallest jump-capable vessels in the GDA’s inventory and they sat cloaked, hiding twenty kilometres out from the station.
‘You’d better be right about this,’ Pickyrd mumbled, his knuckles white as he gripped the sides of his seat.
‘We’ll be right,’ said Ed, his finger hovering above the jump icon.
‘So long as you’re sure there’s enough room in there,’ Pickyrd said, shutting his eyes as Ed dropped his finger.
A millisecond later the small vessel popped back into being inside the huge drive cone of the mysterious ship hidden inside the enclosed construction yard.
‘You can open them now,’ Ed said, concentrating on bringing the ship out of the cone and around towards one of the larger vessel’s hangar openings. He had to dodge and pause a couple of times to avoid constructor drones swarming around the hull.
Pickyrd shook his head in wonder.
‘Just when you think you’ve seen everything,’ he said. ‘Did we really just jump inside an engine?’
‘It was the only space big enough not crawling with these bloody drones, I didn’t want one joining us inside the cockpit.’
The reassuring buzz as they penetrated an atmosphere shield entering the hangar boosted their confidence as it meant the interior was most likely pressurised. They were immediately confronted by row upon row of small fighter-style ships. Hundreds of them, stretching away deep into the belly of the cruiser.
‘Not an exploration vessel then?’ said Pickyrd, raising his eyebrows.
‘There’s dozens more of these hangars all around and down the length of the ship,’ said Ed. ‘I just chose the nearest to the rear.’
‘There could be thousands of these fighters, if this one is anything to go by,’ Pickyrd stated. ‘Is there anywhere for us to land?’
Ed crept the ship across and above the lines of ships and in towards what looked like a short row of service bays against the back bulkhead wall. Turning the ship, he extended the struts and landed neatly, joining the end of a row just inside a service bay. Quickly shutting everything down, they waited silently to see if their uninvited arrival had drawn any attention.
Ed exhaled a few seconds later, not realising he’d been holding his breath and, peering out the front screen, he was pleased to see no movement.
‘Shall we go for a stroll?’ he asked, standing and grabbing his helmet.
The 28’s tailoring and engineering departments had been busy manufacturing two Spleeta armoured security suits.
‘I hope this doesn’t take too long,’ said Pickyrd, securing his own helmet. ‘I get very claustrophobic in these bloody things.’
The shuttle’s outer airlock door hissed away upwards inside the hull, leaving them facing the tool bay of one of the servicing areas. They clunked their way down the steps and then turned right towards a large airlock door big enough to take small trucks. Having already been inside the ship’s systems with his DOVI, Ed quickly cycled the doors. They found themselves in a four-metre-wide deserted corridor, with unintelligible wall-mounted signs written in Klatt.
‘Can you read those?’ asked Ed.
‘Sorry, no,’ replied Pickyrd, in a slightly metallic helmet voice. ‘We’re right at the rear of the ship. Something this big must have internal transportation of some kind though.’
Ed pushed open a door with a lit sign above and stuck his head inside. It was almost dark in the room, with faint rectangular shapes disappearing into the blackness. He felt around and found a touch panel on the wall. Ceiling light panels flickered on, flooding the room with a blinding white light.
He swore quietly as he realised it was a dormitory; the shapes he’d seen in the gloom were in fact sleeping bunks. Dozens of sleepy, squinting Klatt faces began peering out at him. None of them were smiling.
‘Are we there yet?’ one of the nearest asked, Ed’s internal translator converting it instantly.
‘No,’ he replied quickly in the suit’s metallic voice. ‘Security checks, go back to sleep.’
He hit the touch panel again, extinguishing the lighting, and pulled the door closed.
‘Shit,’ said Pickyrd. ‘This ship’s already fully crewed and they’re expecting to be somewhere else after this sleep period.’
‘Yeah,’ said Ed. ‘But where and for what purpose? This is a fully operational battleship intending to—’
Ed stopped as the background hum of the vessel altered for a second and the lighting in the corridor dimmed momentarily. He turned to find Pickyrd’s worried expression staring back at him through his faceplate.
‘That’s why the construction yard was enclosed,’ Pickyrd said. ‘A classified ship they never intended to fly out…’
‘We just jumped out, didn’t we?’
Pickyrd nodded.
‘What do we do now?’ Ed asked. ‘Will the 28 be able to pursue?’
‘I bloody hope so,’ said Pickyrd, glancing back towards the hangar. ‘We need to know where we jumped to.’
Ed understood the meaning as they both quickly headed back to the hangar and their ship. This time Pickyrd sat in the pilot’s seat, removed his helmet and powered up the ship’s systems. They both looked up as the holomap materialised in the centre of the cockpit.
‘We’re heading straight towards the region that includes Alpha Centauri and Sol,’ said Pickyrd.
‘This must be the flagship of the Klatt fleet,’ said Ed, dropping his helmet on the floor beside him. ‘Just shows how long this operation has been in the planning. The question is, do we stay aboard and try to sabotage the ship? Or do we bail out now and get back to the 28?’
‘How could we sabotage this thing?’ Pickyrd asked. ‘It’s kilometres long and we don’t know where anything is.’
Ed closed his eyes and activated his DOVI.
‘This isn’t really the time for a nap, Edward,’ said Pickyrd, crossing his arms and frowning.
Ed smirked at the comment, trying not to lose concentration.
‘I know where the bridge is,’ he said. ‘And main engineering and – oh?’
‘Oh, what?’
‘What’s a Yeltah Jaggon?’ asked Ed, opening his eyes and staring at Pickyrd.
‘Don’t know,’ said Pickyrd, tapping it into the computer. ‘But in Klatt it translates to – Eight Light or Beam. Why?’
‘It has a shit load of power diverted to it when it’s operated,’ said Ed. ‘I mean like, everything. Even the shields are compromised when whatever that thing is goes off.’
‘Got to be a weapon of some kind,’ Pickyrd surmised. ‘Perhaps it’s something like our Asteri Beam?’
‘They do take a lot of energy, I’ll admit,’ said Ed. ‘But this is off the scale. It has something to do with multiple mirror angles, well, eight actually.’
‘Hmm,’ grunted Pickyrd, glancing out the front screen. ‘The ship does have eight sides and eight arms hanging off it out there.’
Movement in the hangar caught Pickyrd’s eye. Ed picked up on his attention switch and swivelled around to see two Klatt personnel strolling through the lines of fighters. Quickly extinguishing the cabin lights, they ducked down and watched as the two patrolling guards approached.
They stopped and considered the GDA vessel for a moment, then had a little discussion with each other before one of them began approaching, obviously talking into a microphone and gesticulating at Ed and Pickyrd’s ship.
‘Ah, shit,’ said Ed, as he reached for the engine start controls. ‘I think our decision has been made for us.’
‘Wait,’ said Pickyrd, grabbing Ed’s hand before he could hit anything. ‘We could take them with us. They’d be a mine of information about this thing.’
Ed didn’t waste any time, knowing that was a good call.
‘I’ll play dead,’ he said. ‘You let them in and hide.’
Pickyrd dropped down on the floor and scuttled across to the airlock. He drew and checked his weapon was on stun before reaching up and opening the outer door. He shrank back, concealing himself in the shadows of the rear cabin, and waited. Ed slid into the pilot’s seat, slumped over the control console and concealed his pistol down his right side.
They could hear voices behind the inner door after a moment or two.
‘Come on, come on, take the bait,’ whispered Ed to himself.
It didn’t take long for inquisitiveness to do its work, as the porthole window in the inner door darkened with a face and shortly after came the whine of the door making its way into the ceiling.
Ed watched through partially closed eyes as the first guard stared at him and entered cautiously, closely followed by the more nervous second. Both had weapons drawn, but weren’t very experienced, as they had them pointed at the floor.
Pickyrd waited until the second guard was fully inside the cockpit before giving him the good news. The guard grunted and slumped into the back of his colleague, who was caught with his pistol facing the wrong way. He swivelled as fast as he could with an unconscious body trying to knock him over, but with Ed whipping his pistol up he now had two weapons pointing at him and he soon joined his partner in the land of unconsciousness.
‘I’ll deal with these two,’ said Pickyrd, disarming their two guests. ‘You get us out of here.’
Ed dropped his pistol on the floor, sat back up and reached to hit the airlock close icon. He was distracted by a loud thump from outside and all the lit icons in front of him went dark.
‘Oh, shit,’ he said, turning to see a familiar face smiling at him through the airlock doors.
Pickyrd, hearing Ed’s exclamation, began to turn, but was unconscious on top of one of the guards before he got half way around.
‘You really are a right pain in the arse, aren’t you, Virr?’ was the last thing Ed heard as the Skirmat Eagle stood in the doorway firing for a second time.