Stellar Objects

Chapter 15: Pressed Into Service

Shelly refused to give up.

The Ghandi was taking a beating and had moments of life support left. Her captain was sprawled on the floor, and the body of their new, unwanted slave stirred and twitched atop a work-station. She had to act fast, and act decisively.

She grabbed Rys and carried the boy to where Nayar was laying.

"You take care of him," she ordered. "I'll take care of the ship."

Shelly wiped the sweat away from her face, but the back of her hand returned covered in blood. She paused, checked if she felt light-headed – she didn't – and decided to get to it.

She ran out of the bridge, and into the long corridor that connected the command section to the brig in the aft. She needed to restore power to the Ghandi and there was only one person aboard who knew how to do that.

*

Grunge's head was spinning; or maybe it was the rest of the room.

He finally stood up, spreading his legs to keep balance – the ship was listing – and checked that Andra was alive. She was.

The police woman, the Mizz, rushed into the brig covered in more grime than Grunge.

"I need you to come with me," she said, looking straight at him. Upon taking a closer look, Grunge realized it was blood, not grime, that covered her face.

"He's not going anywhere with out me!" shouted Andra.

"Unless you can reboot the engines, power the shields, and save our skins," said Mizz Shelly, "you're superfluous."

Grunge knew his sister wouldn't know that word, but wasn't about to leave her behind. "If I go, she goes," he said.

"Fine," said the cop, opening their cell.

Judson rattled his cage in protest, "hey, me too!"

"Good try handsome-cute," Shelly said, grabbing Grunge's hand and pulling him out of the cell and into the corridor.

They reached the engine room and Grunge worried the whole reactor was going to explode.

The core was working, but that was the problem. The outlay routes must've been damaged by whatever was attacking them so the energy the core was generating had nowhere to go.

"Can you fix it?" asked the lieutenant.

"He can fix anything," said Andra.

"It's not broken," Grunge said. "The rest of the ship is. I need to get into the energy artery to repair the connection. That'll boost the shields and give us propulsion again."

A blast hit the ship and Grunge heard the creaking of metal; the hull being torn beyond its limits.

Grunge raced out of the engine room and back into the main corridor. Andra and Lt. Carpace followed, though he couldn't understand why.

He found the access hatch and opened the panel.

"That was—" said the cop. "Oh, I see. That's how you slipped out earlier!?"

"He knows his way around the ship," said Andra.

Grunge lowered himself down, below the floor level and crawled through the darkness until he found an adjacent tunnel. He wriggled into the service tunnel and found the artery sputtering with blue fusion energy.

"Wait up!" called his sister.

"What are you doing?" he asked. "This is dangerous."

"That's why I can't let you do...whatever it is you're doing, by yourself," she said.

Together, they crawled forward, following the tube that contained the throbbing blue light.

"We could make for the shuttle," said Andra.

She was right. The ship was struck, the captain and his cop distracted, and they were more than half way towards the shuttle docking bay. He'd considered it, but she was the first to voice the option.

"We could," he said. "We should. But these people will die."

"These people," scoffed Andra, "are either criminals or slave masters and they deserve to—"

Suddenly, Grunge was slammed sideways. Andra toppled behind him, falling with a THWAP. The Ghandi had taken another hit, and Grunge feared that they may not make it out the service tunnel alive.

"You okay?" he asked his sister.

"I'll live," she said. Grunge was going to hold her to that.

Grunge was tempted to flee with her, but he couldn't let the Ghandi's crew and criminals die because of his actions.

"C'mon," he urged. "Up ahead, there's a kink in the artery. And we're going to fix it so that you make good on your promise."