The man did not reply immediately but instead looked at the Captain thoughtfully. Captain Lee was about to ask him again when he decided to reply, "Yes, I'm crew. Name's Donald Moore. Now, I've got to go, I don't think you're really here," he replied, lifting up his legs to brace himself against the ladder.
"Not really here!? Where are you going?"
Donald began to straighten his legs and launched himself along the corridor, but Captain Lee reacted with lightning speed, firmly grabbing Donald's bony shoulder and stopping him from going anywhere.
"Let me go. I'm not missing that ship."
"What ship? There's..." Captain Lee gasped as Donald speedily rotated and kicked both his feet into the Captain's chest. The multiple layers of the EVA suit absorbed much of the impact, but not enough.
Donald squirmed loose of Captain Lee's grasp, and then kicked out his legs again, launching himself rapidly along the corridor in the direction of the corridor that led off to the main airlock. Captain Lee reached out to grab him again but was too late. Out of control, Donald reached the corridor, missed his grip on the corner and slammed into the intersecting corridor's opposite wall. As he bounced he scrabbled against the surface and moments later he was sailing off along that corridor.
Captain Lee ran as fast as his EVA suit and magnetic boots would permit, reaching the intersection just seconds after Donald flew from view. He turned to look into the corridor, surprised to find no trace of anyone there. It seemed that Donald had simply vanished. Captain Lee studied the walls, ceiling and floor to see if there were any hatches or compartments that Donald could use to hide in or leave the corridor, but there were none.
Perplexed, and more rattled than he cared to admit to himself, Captain Lee ignored the strange event and set off towards the back of the ship. On the way, he tried his radio again, but there was still no reply from the Colonel.
He passed doors on either side of the corridor, the one on the left marked "Galley" and the opposite one 'Game Room & Gym'. A few metres on there was another ladder bolted to the wall with open hatches above and below. He ignored it and continued to the next set of doors. These were marked "Hospital" and "Showers". A short way beyond those the corridor ended in an airlock door, currently sealed.
Captain Lee checked the panel and, on finding the airlock was currently pressurised, he tapped the button to open the inner door. It slid neatly almost half-way and then made a metallic grinding noise, scraping on for a few centimetres before giving up. The chamber inside was empty. He walked cautiously inside, hoping there would be some trace that Colonel Miller and Lieutenant Collins had passed through, but there was none. Beginning to feel distinctly ill-at-ease, he lowered his helmet visor, sealing his suit.
He leant across to the display beside the outer door. As he expected it read zero pressure on the other side. Presumably, the tube that bridged the gap between the two sections of the ship had ruptured and depressurised. He tried the radio again.
"Colonel, are you reading me?"
"Yes, Captain."
"Where are you now?"
"Advancing into the drive section, we're about twenty metres in from the airlock here. The connecting tube was massively bent and distorted. Big chunks of the side walls have broken away and the airlock at the end is totally disabled. Collins had to open the emergency access hatch to get us inside."
"Is the drive recoverable?"
"No. I don't think so. Wait, somethin..." her transmission ended with static.
Captain Lee barely had time to look down at the signal strength display on his wrist panel before her voice resumed, "...don't know, Captain, but our oxygen reserves are getting low and it would be good to head back now."
Captain Lee knew he had missed a chunk of her sentence, but he could not make sense of her reply. According to his suit's indicators, he had about five hours of oxygen left, and then the reserve tank. Collins and the Colonel should have been in roughly the same condition, certainly nowhere near saying it was low.
"Sorry, Colonel, what was the last thing I asked you?"
"Sir?"
"Can you repeat my last question?"
"Yes, Captain, you asked if we could get the fusion reactors back online to get the ion drives started."
"Colonel, I want both of you back to the main airlock A.S.A.F.P.. Something is seriously wrong here."
"Okay, roger that. We're on our way."
"Lewis, how are you getting on with the datavault?"
He waited but there was no reply. He hoped it was simply due to the distance he and Lewis were from each other and the sheer quantity of spacecraft between them that was blocking the radio signals. He checked his suit was sealed then looked again at the airlock's display panel on the wall beside the outer door. He pushed the button on the screen to close the inner door. It ground and screeched its way shut, clunking heavily as it locked itself in place.
Captain Lee checked his suit's status again, feeling increasingly ill-at-ease. He pressed the button to open the outer door. For a few seconds, the display showed the air pressure reducing as the pumps evacuated the airlock. Silence fell as the pressure dropped to nothing, and he felt almost relieved when the door simply slid silently open, revealing the inside of the tubular tunnel that linked the front section of the Oppenheimer to the rear.
It was instantly apparent why the tube was no longer airtight. Barely five metres away from where he was standing, there was a long thin rupture cutting diagonally across the tube, leaving a gap more than twenty centimetres wide open to space.
However, that damage was minor in comparison to what he could see further along the tube. After another ten or so metres, a section of the tunnel some seven or eight metres long was simply missing, leaving jagged edges in the double-layered, super-strong fabric from which the tunnel was formed. All that remained were the rods spaced almost a metre apart around the circumference of the tunnel that were usually hidden between the two layers, and the floor mesh which sat near the bottom of the tunnel.
He moved slowly out along the floor mesh, his magboots gripping the mesh but not as firmly as the internal decking. Moving along the wrecked tube, he could see there were other tears and splits further on. Through the missing section, he could see the port side of the drive section, battered and dented. He noticed immediately that there were no lights at all visible on it, giving it a foreboding, lifeless appearance.
Suddenly he felt a vibration through the mesh floor beneath his feet. At first, he could not see the cause, then, through the large gap in the tunnel, he saw a round, white pod, probably three or four metres across, the outer surface dotted with several long, thin antennae, jetting away from the drive section with two fine streams of flame from its small thrusters. Brilliant red lights in a circle around its equator flashed rapidly.
Captain Lee was reasonably sure that he was watching an escape pod launching, but what worried him most was that, as far as he was aware, the only people in the drive section were his two crew members. He activated his radio again.
"Colonel, are you aware of an escape pod launch?"
There was a pause, then Colonel Miller's voice, "No, Captain. We heard a siren then a banging noise, but I don't think it was near us."
"You didn't just launch yourself in an escape pod?"
Colonel Miller's laugh sounded distorted over the radio, then she replied, "No, Captain. We're back at the emergency access hatch and about to climb out now."
"Good. I'm waiting at the airlock at the forward end of the tunnel. I'll keep the airlock door open for you."
"Thanks, Captain, be there soon."
Please don't forget to VOTE if you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you!