Starflare Universe – Ghosts-9
1002 Words
“Captain, we’ve got smoke in the hangar.”
Joe wanted to curse, that was the third location reporting smoke. Instead he replied calmly.
“Roger that. How bad is it Doug?”
“Getting pretty thick already, and hard to breathe. We’re breaking out the pressure suits for everyone that isn’t in a bird.”
“Will it stop you launching?”
“Negative. We’ll vent the atmosphere from the whole hangar once everyone is suited.”
“Good work. Keep me informed.”
“Yes Captain. Shadowhawk out.”
Things were bad. The medbay, one cabin and now the hangar were filling with smoke. Joe punched up a comm link to Granger, their engineer.
“Talk to me Granger, what’s wrong with the Panther?”
“I’m still trying to isolate it, Captain. There’s definitely something defective in or near life support but I can’t work out exactly where.”
“Why not?”
“It’s like the system’s fighting back, making it hard to find out what’s going on. The system or… well… you know… the ghosts.”
“Not you as well, Granger. I thought my engineer would have his head screwed on straight!”
“I do, and part of that means being open minded. Something has been messing with us since we left the Sundrenched. I’m not saying I think it’s really ghosts but it doesn’t really matter at the moment. Whatever it is seems to be working against my efforts to isolate the problem. I’m pretty sure it’s behind the problem too.”
“Can you tell me anything?”
“Not from the systems. I sent Sparks into the life support machinery with a couple of the other troopers. Let me patch him in… Sparks, what have you found?”
“A whole lotta smoke chief, way too much to see through. I can’t see my hand in front of my face. Something’s burning down here, though, I can hear it even through the pressure suit.”
“The fire suppression system hasn’t fired then. Can you activate the manual system? There’s an override lever about five feet in from the door on the right.”
“I dunno chief, I’ve got no idea where we are right now. We might have to backtrack to the door to get our bearings. Wish we had our combat suits on, the mapping system would be damn useful.”
Joe cut in. “Just try, Sparks. We need that fire under control. We’re seeing smoke spreading throughout the ship.”
“Aye Captain, we’ll do our best.”
“Good. Granger, while they do that is there any way to stop the smoke reaching the rest of the ship? Can we shut down the life support or stop it reaching sensitive areas? We’ve got enough pressure suits and backup air to last us a few days if we bleed it off the shuttles and fighters.”
“There should be but something is blocking me, like I said. There’s a backup system which should let me control the life support separately from the main systems, in case they were too badly damaged or corrupted, but that’s been compromised too.”
“There’s no manual system?”
“Yes, there’s manual controls to cut off sections of the ship if we’re dealing with massive damage. It’s designed to ensure we don’t bleed all our atmosphere if the ship is badly torn up and both systems are down.”
“Then use them!”
“That’s the problem… they’re all located in the life support section. The section where Sparks is right now. I don’t give much for his chances to find them, let alone be able to work out which ones to throw.”
“The way things are going he can just throw all of them. That smoke is spreading much too fast for my liking.”
“All right, Captain. Sparks, did you hear that?”
“Yeah. Just give us a second though. I think we’re almost at the fire suppressant control. If we can get that working then hopefully we can find everything else more easily.”
“Alright. Are you there…”
Screams cut Granger off, screams coming over the comm link.
“Granger, Sparks, what happened?” Joe shouted, voice raised so he could be heard. “Are you both alright?”
“I’m fine,” shouted Granger. “There’s nothing happening here. Sparks, what happened?”
“Rat’s hurt,” shouted Sparks. “Something electrical got him as he got near the override. We’re pulling him out now. I don’t think it was a coincidence. Something was trying to keep him away from those controls.”
“Damn it,” Joe shouted. “Alright, Doc’s on his way to you now. Granger, can we just vent the atmosphere from there?”
“Not easily,” Granger replied. “We’d need to vent several more sections leading to an external lock. Even if we do it might not put out the fire — if there’s oxygen leaking down there then the fire could keep going.”
“Maybe, but most of the smoke would be gone. Sparks could see what he’s dealing with.”
“Yeah, that’s a point. Everyone on the ship would need to get suited up. The smoke is getting through the life support systems so it’s possible we’d lose all the ship’s atmosphere.”
Joe sighed. “Nothing’s ever simple, is it? Alright, I think we’re going to have to take that risk. Let me…”
“Smoke on the bridge!” yelled Janine.
Joe turned towards her and cursed. Thick black smoke was oozing its way out of several air vents.
“Masks on everyone,” he shouted. “Get suited up as time allows. Dave, I want everyone on the ship suited up. Tell them we’re facing total depressurisation and make sure everyone has checked in.”
“Captain,” Janine shouted. “If this smoke keeps getting worse I’m not going to be able to see the controls to fly us. We need to drop into normal space and we need to do it soon.”
“Alright. Sasha, have you found us anywhere that can help?”
“I think so, Captain. There’s an exploration and mining vessel called the Grifter that should be operating in this area mining a large rogue asteroid. We could be there in just under seven minutes.”
“That’ll have to do. Send Janine the coordinates. Janine, if all else fails drop us back into normal space early but I really think we need to make it to the Grifter.”
“No pressure then!” Janine replied. “Changing course now. I just hope they’re there. Those type of ships aren’t known for their predictability.”
“They’ll be there,” Joe said confidently. No one else heard him mutter “I hope” under his breath.
- Writer
