𝙄'𝙈 𝘼 𝙎𝙐𝙍𝙑𝙄𝙑𝙊𝙍³ ➣ 𝐵. 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑘𝑒✔

02 | Eligius IV

"That's just annoying," Murphy stated.

Harper spoke, "If someone was here, they'd shut it off, right?"

"Not you," I heard Raven say. I turned to see the girl talking to Emori. "You should stay in the pod and run a full diagnostic check. That was a big impact. We don't know if we took on any damage."

Emori nodded and Murphy spoke. "I can, uh, stay back and help."

Emori gave the boy a look. "How? My making stupid little jokes?"

"Don't take it out on me because you screwed the pooch in your big debut, okay?"

Bellamy stepped toward Murphy, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, hey... Harper can help Emori. Everyone else move, now."

I held my katana at the ready as Bellamy led our group through the halls, holding up his flashlight. "This place is like a maze," he muttered. We turned a corner, which happened to be a dead end. A set of doors sat in front of us, a sign above them. "No inmates past this point."

I raised an eyebrow as Echo spoke, confused. "Inmates?"

"Prison labor," Monty explained. "The mining missions were dangerous. They sent people they thought were disposable."

I let out a scoff. "That sounds vaguely familiar."

"Relax," Raven butted in. "Our ancestors were prisoners a hundred years ago. Their descendants on that transport ship are survivors, just like us. The bridge is this way, come on."

We walked through the doors, following Raven down the hall to another set of doors, which were severely mangled. It was like someone had blown up the doors to get to the other side of them.

"Looks like someone forgot their key," Raven muttered. "Jackpot."

We followed the girl into the room. "Something bad happened here," Bellamy stated.

"I think the giant hole in the doors kind of give that away," I commented, causing Bellamy to give me a look, which I just shrugged off.

"Monty--"

"Help you access the ship's manifest and schematics so we can find out where they keep their hydrazine?" Monty interrupted.

Raven nodded. "Yes, but first let's kill this alarm."

The girl sat at one of the chairs at the control panel and turned the alarm off, causing me to let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

Monty took the chair at the other control panel and began typing away on the computer. "Fuel systems... Got it."

"Oh, captain's chair," I heard Monty mumble as he sat down.

Raven spoke, "This ship doesn't run on hydrazine. They could never store enough for a long-duration mission."

"Well, what, then?" Bellamy asked, his eyebrows furrowing.

"It looks like... Hythylodium."

"Must be what they were mining for," Monty commented, causing all of us to look at him, "incredibly efficient energy--"

Murphy interrupted. "Spare me the science lesson. Can we use it to land the pod or not?"

"Sure, if you want to explode every cell in your body," Raven answered with a shrug.

"Raven," Bellamy warned.

"Don't worry. Just because this ship doesn't run on hydrazine doesn't mean they don't have any onboard."

"The dropship."

Raven nodded. "Short-range transport. They'd have to have a supply for refueling." Raven typed away on the keyboard before stopping. "Boom... And the crowd goes wild."