Chaos Rising

6

Kiron felt his blood pumping in his ears. He was anxious for his brother. Leif could handle himself, but he would be unprepared for the ambush. From the feed, Kiron knew that the engineers had their backs against the wall.

"A shuttle is docking with the port-side shuttle bay," Winter announced over Kiron's private comm. The doctor looked confused as well. Clearly Winter had them patched in together. "The slavers are already moving people back to their ship. I estimate that about 27% of the passengers who survived the pulse laser fire have been taken. I'm cycling airlocks and locking passenger compartments to try to keep the slavers contained."

"Damn," the doctor hissed. "They're moving people out so quickly! What about Security?"

"Most of the Security detail have surrendered or have been captured," Winter reported. "I'm seeing hordes of Gnarl all over the ship. They're carrying people and supplies back to the docking tubes. They're even carrying the dead. They can't work computers, so I'm doing my best to keep them with the rest of the pirates."

"Thank you, Winter," Kiron replied. "Keep us posted."

Kiron and the doctor headed down the arterial corridor and reached the corner at the end. The doctor kept staring at all the starboard-side bulkheads to their right.

"All of these... They're... empty," the doctor breathed.

"There's nothing we can do for them now," Kiron replied. He'd never felt much attachment to the other passengers. Most of them barely noticed him.

"Ye-yes," the doctor stuttered.

"Deck 1 has now been cleared of passengers and crew," Winter reported. "31% of passengers have been transported."

"Thank you, Winter," Kiron said. He could feel how much these reports distressed the doctor. "Can you open the storage elevator? I can see it from here."

"Opening," Winter replied.

Just ahead, a large section of the wall marked with yellow crosshatching parted to reveal a large, dusty service elevator. Thankfully, Kiron saw that no one was inside.

"Winter, are we clear? Anyone nearby?" Kiron asked, while stopping the doctor from making a run for the elevator.

There was a short pause before Winter replied. "Sorry," she said eventually. "There's trouble on Decks 7, 5 and 2. Yes, you are clear. Go now."

Kiron and the doctor hurried into the elevator and closed the door behind them.

"Doctor, the scan, please," Kiron urged. The wiry doctor wiped a hand across his sweaty dark brow. He moved over to the panel on the wall and keyed Engineering into the controls. The panel beeped and scanned the doctor's eye. With a clunk, the elevator started descending.

Kiron looked himself over. He was tense and needed to distract himself. The robe he was wearing now seemed oddly heavy and awkward. Kiron pulled it off and folded it on the floor. Underneath the robe was the two-piece ablative bodyglove he had taken from Lihasa. Kiron liked the black and dark grey bodyglove in every aspect except for it's lack of a hood. He always felt exposed without a hood; there was a certain comfort to knowing that people could only see your face if you wanted them to.

There was a loud clanking noise followed by an eerie silence outside the lift. It was a silence unlike any other that Kiron had heard on a spaceship; it was a total silence. Apart from the subtle whirring of the lift, there was a complete lack of the everyday buzzing sounds of shipboard life, the humming of the artificial gravity, the thrumming of the engines and the chatter of benign, daily processes.

"Winter?" Kiron whispered, more out of fear of breaking the silence than fear of someone overhearing.

"That was Deck 4," Winter said solemnly. "The pirates cleared all the people they could get to and switched off the power. I'm working on returning life support to the few rooms that still had people in them. They might already be dead."

"Keep working on it," Kiron affirmed.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..." the doctor hissed.

"Doctor, calm down," Kiron tried, kneeling down next to the man.

"We're all going to die..."

"No we're not," Kiron said firmly. "We are going to get through this, and we are going to make sure other people get out too!"

"I..."

"Doctor, I don't even know your name," Kiron said quickly, changing the subject. "Why don't you tell me about yourself?"

"Uh... My name is Dray," the doctor choked. "I was born on Station 63." Kiron had a hazy idea of space stations. Built by the insectoid Hexes, there were dozens of them all through the Inner Colonies. The doctor took a breath and continued: "I'm an offshoot. My mother was Human, from Nairobi on Earth actually, but my dad was a Cataron." The doctor pulled back his short black hair to expose two small nodules of horns.

Suddenly, there was a creaking noise and Kiron looked around worriedly. The elevator had stopped. Looking up at the blue holographic panel halfway up the wall, Kiron saw that they were still on Deck 4.

"Wint-" Kiron began, before the elevator plummeted downwards. Kiron was thrown around and felt himself rise into the air with the fall. The doctor's mouth was open as if trying to scream, but no words were coming out.

A screeching noise bored into Kiron's ears as the elevator's emergency brakes kicked in and the elevator's descent slowed. Kiron felt pain in his wrists and looked back to see Dray clutching him tightly. The elevator's descent halted completely. Dray and Kiron were thrown into the ceiling, before falling to the floor again.

"Ow!" the doctor groaned. Kiron felt winded. He rolled onto his side and made himself just breathe. "Are you okay?"

"Someone just pulled a fuse in Engineering, cutting power to lights and elevators," Winter cut in. "I can't fix it from here. You're stuck on Deck 6."

"Deck 6?!" Kiron spat. He could feel his brother's life slipping through his fingers. "Is there any way back to Engineering?"

"My schematics are down," Winter replied. "But I believe there are maintenance shafts in the long-term care ward."

"Come on," Dray urged. "Don't lose hope now!"

Kiron pulled himself together. His brother needed him to think clearly.

"I'm opening the door now," Winter decided.