“Ah hell’s bells”
I quickly turned to the distress signal launcher and smacked it. Hopefully help would arrive before I became part of a shuttle pancake, but in case it didn’t I was on my own. This Lambda class Arconan shuttle that I was travelling on had a jettisonable cockpit, but I hope I don’t have to resort to that measure.
Yeah, hopefully help arrives.
I unstrapped myself from my seat, and without the gravity I floated upwards. Stretching myself out, I could feel my back and hips groaning in long needed comfort after having been stuck in that seat so long. I could feel my feet firmly touching something solid in front of me; likely the windshield itself or one of the surface panels. I pushed myself off from this foundation over towards the midsection of the shuttle, stopping at the systems control panel.
I quickly yanked an oxygen tank and breather and slung it around my back. I don’t know how long I had, but I didn’t want to be helpless just yet. Yanking open the diagnostics panel I quickly surveyed the shuttle layout, as well as each system’s information.
I already knew the shuttle’s layout well enough. It was your standard Lambda-class tri wing shuttle. Mainly with a large troop transport area, but with enough weapons to hit hard. There wasn’t really much else to the station, no secret hallways or extra passages. Just a cockpit and the transport area along with one single lifeboat which wasn’t big enough to hold a full shuttle.
I swallowed, wondering if that’s a design flaw or something created with the intention of culling out the weak should the need arise. Natural selection always could use a boost I suppose.
They layout confirmed my suspicion: No major crazy surprises in terms of hallways and passages, and so I turned my attention to the diagnostics panel for each system. It looks like the entire system had been rebooted, and everything was coming back online. What could have caused that? I went from the top of the list down, taking my time and taking in all the details being flashed in my face.
Weapons were running again, navigation coming back online, Pressure and oxygen were still running, lifeboat functional (phew).
The “offline” message continued to blink for the engines.
Now that could be a problem.
I looked at the map again, figuring out the best way to see the engine supply from inside the craft. Before I could push off, I felt the shuttle lurch towards the planet. I glanced back to the cockpit and saw that it had begun its fateful descent down into whatever planet was down there; the situation had caused me to forget the name of the planet.
It won’t matter anyways if I don’t fix the engines. The dead have no use for remember planet names.
I quickly kicked my brain back in gear, I moved to the hatch labeled by the schematics and grabbed the handle. Yanking the door open, I looked down the dark passageway to the engine panel, no loud noises, no sounds. Not even the whirring of the engine. That’s not a good thing. I climbed the rails and began to pull myself down into the passageway. It was narrow, but I was able to cozy inside and move down to the engine control panel.
After passing lots of dark gray wiring, cold metal, and very very dim lighting from LED lights, I finally got to a bunch of large coils that came from the walls and went into a large panel labeled “Engine Control”. Bingo.
As I floated towards the panel, I noticed a small round device on the ground, blinking a deep blue right below me. I looked down and instantly recognized the design. It was a weak EMP device, designed to temporarily disrupt systems with a weak pulse. How did that get there? More importantly, who put it there?
I could feel a pit in my stomach forming as ideas and theories popped into my mind. Thoughts of who could have accessed this shuttle before I flew out from it all formed. I tried parsing through the memories as to what or who could have done this to me.
My train of thought was interrupted by a loud beep that came from the panel itself. It didn’t sound like anything I’d want to hear on a good day. I glanced at the panel, licking my lips. I floated cautiously and quietly, listening for any other sounds coming out of the box. Nothing.
I opened the door, and a nice bright red LED light greeted me. Behind it was clearly some kind of thermal material.
And a timer, counting down to about 15 seconds from now. Strapped to a bunch of explosives.
“Stars and stones” I cursed under my breath, I pushed myself towards the end of the passageway, moving as quickly as I could and pushing myself rhymically. I didn’t have much time and I needed to hurry. Once I got to the end, I angled myself and pushed myself up-
*BOOM*
I felt the explosion in my teeth, as well as the force causing the shuttle to lurch in its current trajectory. I could feel the shuttle slowly beginning to spin under the pressure of the blast.
Ow. Ow. Ow. Turn. Ow. Stop. Spinning. Ow.
No time to think, only instinct would help now. I push hard against the floor with my hands, coming up feet first out of the small passageway. Feeling my feet planting on the ceiling, I tried to angle myself towards the cockpit. The ceiling disagreed and just kept on turning. I started moving my feet, moving like a hamster in a wheel while I could get my bearings.
I saw the cockpit and began to bounce my way towards it, feeling the spinning intensifying as I approached one end of the circulation. I sat down, strapped myself in and gritted my teeth at the pain at the number of bruises I’d gotten from bouncing around. Ouch.
I quickly slapped my hand onto the cockpit release button, and felt the spinning slow down as the cockpit flew away from the rest of the spinning deathtrap. I put all the thrusters in full gear and headed back to orbit around the planet, thankful to get out of that little ordeal.
As I felt the adrenaline rush fading away from all that little action, the comm line beeped and I heard a familiar voice come through the speakers.
“I recognized your distress signal, you still there?” my master, Kalon, had a voice that did not joke around. He wasn’t happy. Then again, when was he?
“Yeah, I’m fine now, but man have I got a story for you….”