“I’m used to travelling economy, but this is ridiculous,” whispered Amisha into her helmet mike, immediately hearing a nervous giggle in reply from Laura.
“Good thing we didn’t hit Duty Free,” replied Laura.
Twenty minutes earlier, the two of them had been helped into the overhead lockers by Teo and Cymon. It had been decided that the three of them should be fully-suited, with helmets in place.
“There’s no guarantee the hangar will be pressurised and oxygenated after we dock,” said Cymon, “We can’t have you stepping out into vacuum.”
Now, jammed into the lockers with their weapons between their legs and the shuttle on its way, there wasn’t an inch to spare.
Cymon’s voice came over their helmet speakers:
“It won’t be long. I estimate 40 minutes to rendezvous with the other ship. I’ll let you know when we’re close.”
The plan they had discussed before leaving was very simple.
Which didn’t necessarily make it a good one.
After docking, they expected Cymon to be taken prisoner and escorted off the shuttle and out of the hangar. Once the women were sure he was clear, they would come out from hiding and make their way into the ship. The three aliens had debated where Kate and Matias were most likely to be held.
“You need to know this,” Irvn had said quietly, “so we won’t hide it from you. We believe the most likely place they’ll take Kate will be the medical bay: they’ll want to examine her as soon as possible to discover as much as they can about your ‘alien’ biology. They don’t have the time we did.”
Laura shuddered and Amisha reached out to squeeze her hand.
“And what about Matias?” asked Amisha.
Irvn hesitated.
“They’ll interrogate him,” said Teo bluntly, “and try to get him to reveal the location of Earth. Once they know that, I’m afraid all of us are expendable.”
“Assuming we even get on board, how are we going to find them?” said Laura.
“All the ships in the fleet are identical,” said Cymon, “so we’ll walk the route here before we leave and show you which symbols to look for.”
“And what if we’re seen?” Amisha asked.
“You’ll be wearing your suits and helmets,” Teo replied, “So it won’t be immediately obvious you’re not one of us. But nobody is going to be fooled for more than a few moments.”
“And then what?” asked Amisha.
“None of the crew are likely to be armed - they’d have no reason to be,” said Cymon. “So you threaten them with your weapons and keep moving. Speed is the key: crew are mostly at their stations or in their quarters, there shouldn’t be many moving about.”
“And if the alarm is raised, it will be a few minutes before they can break out their own weapons,” said Teo. “At all costs, you have to keep moving.”
“How will we find Cymon?” asked Laura.
“We’re sure he’ll be taken straight to the bridge. If not, the tracker function in your communicators will help you locate him.”
Now, as they lay in the shuttle’s lockers the two women realised that Irvn’s original doubts about the plan were more than justified. Way too many ifs.
They heard Cymon’s voice over their communicators.
“We’re within communications range now which means they should soon detect us on their scanners. I’m going to make contact now, so not a sound please.”
They heard Cymon start to talk in the alien language. At first it sounded as if he was repeating the same phrase then, suddenly, a different alien male’s voice responded. A rapid conversation followed, with Cymon doing most of the talking until a different voice broke in - one they had heard before: the alien female.
Without understanding a word, it was obvious a rapid interrogation was taking place, as Cymon’s calm voice was counterpointed by the hard-edged tones of the Admiral. Finally, the shuttle fell silent apart from the steady hum of its systems.
“We’re alright - ,” said Cymon, “- so far. She seems to have accepted my story - at least at face value - and I’ve been given permission to dock. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
© Adriana Nicolas 2014