No alarms were audible, but Sabrina and Ford had to assume their escape had not gone unnoticed. Anxious to avoid recapture, Sabrina pushed a wall of air in front of them, hoping to knock any Kyan off its feet before it could react. The tactic worked with the first one they met; it was knocked backwards just as they rounded the corner, giving Sabrina a chance to throw a bolt of energy its way. It jerked, then went still, ominous wisps of smoke curling out of its joints.
"Okay, this isn't so hard," Ford said, slightly out of breath, as they paused. "Next time can you get the stunner before you fry it?"
"I'm not sure I'm up to special requests yet," Sabrina replied, panting. "Come on."
"Wait." Ford cocked his head, and she could feel the echo of what his sensitive hearing picked up: several pairs of metal feet approaching quickly. "Can you get that door open?"
Sabrina concentrated, and a moment later the door wrenched itself free of its frame and toppled to the floor with a resounding clang.
"I meant," Ford said, "so that we could close it behind us."
"Oh." Sabrina picked another door and focused on making it move sideways. It slid open reluctantly, and she and Ford dashed through. It closed automatically behind them, just in time.
"Do you want it permanently sealed?" she asked.
"No. It doesn't do us any good to escape if we lock ourselves in yet another room," Ford said. "Stand there and blast anything that comes through. I'll have a look around for something useful." After a moment, he added, "Er—some light would help."
Sabrina waved a hand irritably at the light panel on the ceiling, and it flickered to life. "I don't know how much more of this we can throw around. You're not glowing anymore."
"I noticed," he said. "Just stay focused. And get a weapon if you can manage." His voice faded as he wandered farther away. Sabrina resisted the urge to look and see what he was doing, trying to listen for noise in the corridor that would indicate someone was about to come through the door.
"I found another door. I'm going to try it," he called to her after a few minutes.
"Don't go too far. We don't know how close we have to be for the energy transfer to work."
"Links aren't distance-dependent," Ford reminded her. She heard the faint whoosh of a door sliding open, and then she was alone in the room. Her heart pounded in sudden terror until she felt him reach out through the link to reassure her.
Something clanked against the door, and Sabrina pushed hard with her mind to keep it closed, backing away. Then she turned and ran for the door Ford had gone through, releasing the main one once she was safely through.
"I think there's a whole maze of rooms back here," Ford said as she arrived. "Seal that door, would you?"
Sabrina did so, melting it into the wall. "Where are we headed? The bridge?"
"We need to find whatever's jamming our access to the Crystal and disable it. I doubt it's on the bridge; maybe engineering. Or a lab. No way to know, really."
"This looks a bit like a lab," Sabrina observed. "Do you think we'd have any luck traveling the air ducts?"
"I think that would just give us less room to maneuver," Ford said. "Come on, there's another door through here."
Sabrina glanced at the worktable with various containers of liquids, but she didn't have time to guess what they were for as she passed. The next lab, however, proclaimed its purpose immediately.
"Oh my God!" Sabrina slapped a hand over her mouth and nose, gagging at the stench of decay. On the table in front of her, various recognizable body parts, including an entire forearm with hand and fingers, were attached in varying degrees to electronic components.
Ford looked queasy. "Our predecessors in this assignment, I presume."
"Do you—" Sabrina swallowed hard. "Do you think that's what they have in mind for us?"
"Maybe. After they're done with whatever they're doing now." Ford peered at part of a foot with an electronic stump above the ankle. "I don't think this experiment is working. That is, if they're doing cybernetics. I should really get a genetic sample—do you have a bag or something handy?"
Sabrina shook her head, appalled. "They'd be able to find us from the smell alone!"
"I don't think they can smell," Ford said. "Otherwise they would ventilate this room. Let's go—one of us is feeling very sick."
"Or both of us," Sabrina muttered, taking his hand and following him to yet another door. When they were sealed off from the lab behind them, she took a deep breath. "Do you think they need atmosphere to live? Or is this just for our benefit?"
"Hm," Ford said. "Interesting question."
"I'm really asking if we can expect to have the air turned off on us."
"We'll just have to hope not."
They went through two more darkened labs, with Sabrina turning on as few light panels as possible. "Does this look like the prelude to an invasion to you?" she asked.
"Maybe. Certainly they're interested in learning about us. I'm definitely going to recommend to Homeworld and to Mother that this be stopped as quickly as possible."
"You won't have to. Once they hear about the crystal jammer, they'll want to smash this ship to tiny little pieces and then throw the pieces in a black hole."
"True," Ford said. "And rightly so. If we don't beat them to it, that is. We at least need to smash the resonance jammer."
"You don't think we should study it, see if we can find a way to block it?"
"No. We can't take the chance of other enemies finding out about this, or, Miah forbid, stealing it. Besides, if we had such a thing in our possession, Homeworld would probably consider that an act of war. And I'm certainly not going to give it to Homeworld to wreak havoc on the Realm. This thing has to be destroyed."
"We have to find it first. How many labs can they have on one ship?"
"This is definitely a fact-finding expedition. It's too well equipped to be a military scouting party," Ford mused.
"That was probably what we ran into before, when they boarded Khediva," Sabrina said. "Those were certainly well armed."
"That makes sense, I suppose. A military scouting party to establish a foothold in our galaxy, and then a scientific party later to gather the knowledge they need for a full-scale invasion."
"So we need to take these guys out so they'll call off the invasion."
"Intergalactic travel must take a very long time. If I'm right, the invasion force is already en route."
"Great," she sighed.
"We have to get off this ship alive, Sabrina. We have to let someone know what we've learned," Ford said grimly. "Our galaxy needs to be ready for them."
A noise in the corridor made them fall silent. Sabrina dissipated the energy she'd sent into the nearest lighting panel, and they waited in tense darkness to see if they'd been found. After a moment, it appeared they were still safe.
"Should we split up, increase our chances of one of us making it to a lifepod?" Sabrina whispered reluctantly.
"No. For one thing, I doubt there are lifepods," Ford replied. "And we stand a better chance together."
"If there aren't any lifepods, how are you planning to get us off this ship?"
"I suppose we'll have to commandeer it."
"Great."
"What are you complaining about? You've hijacked a Wayship."
"That was Scotty, not me. And I was a lot younger and more optimistic then."
"Ah, but then you hadn't developed a talent for crystal manipulation."
"I still haven't. I've developed the ability to manipulate energy you feed me. It's not quite the same thing," Sabrina pointed out.
"It's still useful." Ford put his ear to the door and listened. "Come on. I think the corridor is clear."
——————————
"Wow," Sastarn breathed. "It's even worse than the last one."
"And not because it's been bouncing off rocks," Ricar agreed. "They really obliterated it, didn't they? We probably aren't going to find a log buoy here either."
"Maybe pieces of one," Scotty said.
They all stared at the smashed remains of the ship on the viewscreen, sharing a moment of silence in respect for the crew, certainly dead. Then Ricar said, "It shows us Wilmik's gadget works. Let's move on to the next one."
"Right," Sastarn said, shaking himself back to reality. "Any progress on making sure that doesn't happen to us?"
"My team are working as fast as they can," Ricar said, getting up. "But I'll just go see if I can help."
Scotty slid into the vacated seat. "A nasty way to go."
"But probably quick," Sastarn said. "Um...I hate to sound defeatist, but would you rather go ahead and jettison the log buoy now? It'll have a better chance of being found if it's not aboard when we're attacked."
"Not yet," Scotty said. "I'm not counting us out. At least not before we do what we came to do: find out what happened to my sister and Ford. Then we jettison the log buoy. Not before."
"Right," Sastarn said. "Well, let's hope that's our next stop."