The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Seventeen

No one breathed. No one moved. No one dared.

The ringing sound faded. The vibrations gradually dying even as they echoed off metal walls.

Malachi strained his ears for some clue they had been discovered. None came. He swallowed, and the sound of it inside his head surprised him.

But there were no shouts, no threats. They were in the epicentre, he reasoned. As loud as it had seemed to them they were still undiscovered.

They still had a chance.

'We have to go back,' Malachi said to Tila. 'We'll find another way round.'

'We don't know if it will be safer to go back, Mal,' said Tila.

'I'm just weighing up the risks, okay? If we go back they might see us. If we go forward they will definitely see us!'

'Ellie?' said Tila.

'I don't know! I just want to be somewhere else. You two make the decisions.'

'Tila makes most of them,' said Malachi.

'Someone has to,' said Tila. 'Okay, new plan. We go back and take the long way round, but this time we go to the top deck and find our way back from there. Plan?'

'Won't they see us climbing the stairs?' said Ellie. She looked up into the gloom high above them.

'We'll have to take that chance.'

'How many decks do we have to climb?' said Ellie.

'Ready?' said Tila, already inching forward.

'Wait! How many?'

'Six or seven,' said Mal. He followed Ellie's gaze upwards. 'What are you thinking, El?'

'How high is this room?' said Ellie, thoughtfully.

Tila looked up too, saw what Ellie was thinking and glanced at Malachi. She pointed at the heavy chains hanging from the darkness. 'Would that work?'

Malachi looked at the control platform over Tila's shoulder. 'If we can get up there and turn them on...yeah, maybe. They'll hear us but once we're moving they won't be able to catch us. It's a good head start.'

Tila checked the platform too. It was close enough for her to jump to if she could scramble up the side of these machines, but Malachi was the expert here. She told him so.

'I can't get up there like you can,' he said. 'And those machines are idiot proof. There will be something marked 'cranes', and big levers or buttons. It will be obvious what to do. They design these things so accidents don't happen.'

Tila's mind raced through their options, plotting out the next minute of their lives.

'Okay, new plan. I climb up there and turn on the crane. You two get to the loading area underneath the chains and wait. We'll all go up together and work out our next move from up top. Plan?

'Whatever you say,' said Malachi.

'Told you,' Ellie said to him.

Tila didn't wait for an answer. The plan was made. Now it was time for action. She took one last look around. Satisfied they were still unseen she took three quick steps and scrambled up the side of one of the machines. On top, Tila dropped flat and waited. No one called. No one shouted. No one saw her.

Below her Malachi and Ellie edged their way forward to the loading area near the control platform. The loading area itself was a clearing among the factory floor. They would have to hide in the shadows until Tila got the crane working. After that they would have to trust to luck once more.

Tila rose on toes and fingertips and crabbed forward. She would have to leap to her next stepping stone, and from there make a running jump to the platform.

She lifted her eyes and listened. The pirates were still out there somewhere, but for now safely out of sight. She rose to her feet and jumped.

Tila landed as softly as she could and rolled once, coming up on to one knee. She pressed her palms pressed flat again the cold of the transport container beneath her and sized up her next jump. The platform was higher than she realised, and the container didn't go under it. She would have to run and jump and make it first time. Otherwise she would be back on the ground and have to start again. That would make noise and take time. There was too much of one and too little of the other.

Tila crawled to the far end of the container so she could see how much space she really had. It wasn't much.

She lay there for a moment, looking down on the decals and labels on the side of the crate. Looking without seeing. From this angle they were just letters and symbols and bright colours to attract attention. They demanded to be read.

Tila crawled backward, preparing herself to make the leap. Her body tensed, then her mind slotted into place the shapes and colours she had just seen. Tila stopped and quickly crawled forward to read the words again. Now the words fell into place. The stencilled letters screamed at her in red and white the name of their ship of origin.

A colony ship.

The Far Horizon.