The Madman's Clock

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

We made our way back the way we had come, using the schematic of the ship provided to us before our departure. Damage from the accident filled passageways with debris, girders and other wreckage. One passageway had been purposely barricaded with containers and anything else the crew could get their hands on and weld into place.

"Look, blast marks," Raj remarked as we examined the failed barricade.

"They're not plasma burns," David noted, rolling burned residue from one of the pock marks between his fingers.

"Edra?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

David nodded. "Yeah. The depth is about right. Looks like they were using anti-personnel rounds, so they wouldn't breach the hull."

The Edra, despite being centuries ahead of us technologically, still used projectile weapons. Each tiny bullet was a complex machine that could be modified to meet the needs of the moment. With the touch of a button, an Edra commando could turn his rifle into something that would shred a tank, and then make the very next round incapable of doing little more than inflicting a flesh wound. Fighting on a ship made that sort of flexibility very important, since even a single round punching through the hull could kill everyone in the area, as the air was sucked out into space. Explosive decompression was not fun.

"I guess the crew put a fight before retreating," Raj said.

"No," Kyle replied. "This wasn't a stand-up battle. There isn't enough damage, not enough bullet holes. A quick exchange of fire, maybe, but not a full-on fight. It looks like they set up this barricade and ran."

"Let's keep moving," I insisted.

We continued to move aft, closer to the core. The core itself was a spherical chamber three decks high, starting at deck 6 and rising to deck 4, like a bubble amidships. We were on deck 7, and perhaps twenty meters from the nearest ladder up. The passageways became increasingly cluttered with debris, the closer to the central core we moved. Several passageways were blocked completely. Every time we came close to the core, the radiation counters on our suits started to crackle slightly.

When we had come to our third blocked passageway, we stopped to consult our schematics.

"We might not be able to get there from here," David said, scowling at the map on his wrist display. "We might have more luck the further up we go. There is an access point on deck four, at the top of the core itself."

"Nothing between deck 4 and here?" Kyle asked from behind us, watching our flanks for visitors.

"No," David replied. "The time core is a large sphere, held in place from above on deck 4, and below on deck 6. Those are the only access points. Everything else is shielded."

"Alright," I started, before Kyle cut me off with a sharp snap of his fingers.

We were instantly quiet and on guard. I leveled my rifle, facing the passageway's T intersection. Raj and David stepped away from me, giving them clear shots. I didn't kneel, fighting the instincts of too many months in ground combat. In the field, you knelt behind cover. On a ship, people tended to fire down the middle of passageways, in order to avoid striking the power conduits that stretched along the ceilings. By kneeling, I was asking for a blast to the face. My teeth were not bulletproof.

Kyle signaled that he heard something. It was coming from around the corner, to our left. I slowly moved to him, stopping when I heard it, too. Clicking. Clicking and hissing, like an old steam engine that had sprung a leak. I recognized the sound. Edra.