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I had to practically jog to keep up with Neptune. “What’s the problem?” I asked.
“Captain said maintenance confirmed a problem with the computer readings in engineering. Security protocol requires me to oversee the technicians while they work.”
“We’re going to miss the floor show? That’s not fair. That woman was gold. Do you think she was painted? Or was she born that way? I’ve never seen a gold woman before.” We were away from the crowd, so I pulled my hand out of his grip. “How about this. I’ll go back to our table and watch the floor show. You do the security thing and come get me when you’re done. If anybody asks about you, I’ll say you’re in the men’s room.”
“The BOP dictates that I can’t leave a prisoner unsupervised.”
The Saturnian wine had left me ever so slightly buzzed. I jabbed my finger into Neptune’s chest and pouted. “You’re not going to keep calling me a prisoner, are you?”
The ship tilted, and we both stumbled. I felt a vibration under the soles of my boots. When I looked up, I saw a new expression on Neptune’s face. I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew it wasn’t a joke.
“Come on.” He turned and ran down the hallway to the elevator.
“We’re not done talking about this,” I said under my breath.
As we rounded the corner, it wasn’t hard to see that things were more critical than I’d thought. Emergency bulbs mounted on the walls cast the room in a bath of red. With a sweeping glance, I counted two men passed out on the ground and a panel of blinking buttons on the computer that the men should have been monitoring. The red lights canceled out everything but the glow of the buttons, and almost immediately I recognized that the warning lights indicated a problem with the hull. I stepped over one of the bodies and prepared to override the system with a manual entry when Neptune pulled me away from the computer.
“Don’t touch it.”
“But there’s a problem with the hull. You said it yourself, earlier, when you were in the uniform ward. I heard you. You thought you fixed it, but you didn’t. There must be a gas leak making these men unconscious.”
He looked from me to the computer panel. I knew I was right. Apparently, Neptune recognized that I was right too. He shifted me out of the way and overrode the system. A loud alarm rang out, a series of Woop! Woop! Woop! sounds that made it difficult to hear anything else. One of the men on the ground stirred and grabbed my ankle. Instinctively I kicked his hand away. He locked eyes with me and grabbed at his throat like he was choking.
He was suffocating. I grabbed Neptune’s arm and pointed at the man. Neptune abandoned the computer and broke into a locked case of oxygen canisters. He threw one to the man on the ground, who pulled the pin and inhaled the pure air.
The noise level was deafening. Piercing sirens on repeat bounced off the walls, reverberating back at me and echoing inside my head. Neptune dropped to the ground and forced the other men to inhale from the oxygen canisters. I knew I wasn’t supposed to do anything. I knew he wanted me to stand to the side of the room and wait until he had things under control. I knew right now I was yet another problem Neptune thought he had to handle and the more I stayed out of the way, the better off he’d be. At least, I suspected it. But what Neptune didn’t know because he wouldn’t listen to me was that I could be of help. There wasn’t time to try to explain it. Not when I could demonstrate my skills and deal with the consequences after the crisis was over.
I hiked my aqua dinner dress up to mid-thigh and stepped over one of the bodies on the floor to get to the computer. It took a moment to remember the code sequence. I pressed two white buttons to the left and the red one to my right. The alarm shifted from Woop! Woop! to a more subdued Beep! Beep! and the red lights turned off. A moment later, they flashed on the far side of the room. I went to the wall and ran my fingers over it. In a matter of seconds, I located a tiny plastic hose jutting out from between two panels. I held my fingers in front of the opening and felt a stream of gas escaping from it.
There was no issue with computer readings. Someone had purposely rigged a gas leak in the engineering room.
I tried to get Neptune’s attention. He squatted next to the first officer and held the oxygen container to his mouth. The oxygen would revive the men temporarily, but we needed to move them, or they’d pass out as soon as Neptune removed the tank.
I ran forward and grabbed Neptune’s arm. He looked angry. I pointed to the wall where the plastic tube was hidden He pushed me back. I stumbled into the computer. I grabbed Neptune’s wrist with both hands and leaned back with my full weight. He barely budged.
I let go with one hand and pointed again, and then hollered, “Gas leak! Get them out of here!” but the siren was too loud, and even I couldn’t hear myself. I dropped Neptune’s arm and ran to the wall. The only way to keep more gas from leaking into the room was to divert it. I put the plastic tube to my mouth and inhaled it into my lungs.
Neptune’s eyes widened when he realized what I’d been trying to tell him. He lifted the officer next to him and carried him the way we’d come. Seconds later he returned and repeated the routine for the next officer. My eyes blurred with tears from inhaling the noxious gas. I had to make it a few seconds more, a few seconds until I could erase the toxins with a hit from the oxygen canister on the ground.
I put my thumb over the end of the hose to keep it from spewing out more gas and tried to hold my breath, but it was too late. The lack of pure oxygen in the ship, my being without my filtration helmet, and whatever I’d inhaled from the hose to keep the leak from further contaminating the air in the engineering room clouded my mind. I let go of the hose to put my hands over my ears and my legs buckled underneath me. I collapsed onto the floor and the world went black.