Starflare Universe – Ghosts-10
466 Words
“Entire crew is now suited up with two exceptions, Captain,” Dave said.
“What exceptions? Who’s ignoring my order?” Joe replied.
“Doc. I’ll patch you through.”
“Doc,” Joe said, fighting to keep his temper. “I gave an order to suit up. We need the option to vent all atmosphere from the ship. Get your arse in gear and get into a suit now.”
“Can’t do that, Captain. I’m working on Rat right now. He’s too badly hurt to stuff into a suit and I sure as hell can’t treat him while wearing one. If the medbay wasn’t full of smoke I could seal it up tight, but it is and I’ve got no way to clear it.”
“Alright doc, we need to get you and Rat somewhere you can work without a suit.”
“Great idea. Where?”
“I don’t know, I… wait… a shuttle! Get Rat into a shuttle and lock it up.”
“Of course. I hate to move Rat again but things are getting damn smoky down here already. We’ll be there in two minutes. Doc out.”
Joe sighed. One problem solved. That only left another thousand or so. He peered towards Janine, the smoke making it hard to see her even though she was only a few steps away.
“Janine, how much longer?”
“Three minutes, Captain.”
“Can you get us there?”
“Damn right I can. I might need someone to come over and start wafting the smoke away though.”
“Just ask and you’ve got it!”
“I was joking, Captain.”
“I wasn’t. It might come to that.”
He opened a comm channel before she could answer.
“Doug, I want two ships launched the moment we reach the Grifter. She may well be up to something dodgy sitting this far out from the authorities.”
“No problem, Captain. I’ll lead. We’re all already tucked up in our fighters anyway.”
“Will the smoke be a problem when you launch?”
“No Captain. We’re in the Racks. We’ve sealed each one and vented the atmosphere.”
Joe nodded to himself. The Racks were four additional mini-hangars, each just big enough to hold one fighter. They’d been made by remodelling a section of the cargo bay, giving the Panther the ability to carry more fighters and avoiding the problem of a hit on the hangar preventing any fighters launching. Each was separate from the others which made them easy to seal off. At last something was going their way.
“How do the fighters seem?” Joe asked. “Are you seeing any… interference with their systems?”
“No. They seem to be holding out. Their systems are a lot more hardened than the Panther’s. Whatever the effect is they seem to be immune so far.”
“Alright, launch as soon as we arrive.”
“Aye Captain. Doug out.”
Joe frowned as a thought struck him. Were the fighters really immune to the effects? Or was whatever it was just laying low, biding its time? He glanced at the clock. In ninety seconds they’d know the answer.
- Writer
