“Sonofabitch. I thought I could always access it?”
McMurtry’s voice sounds dark and liberally threaded with anger.
Not at me, at whoever fucked with “his” engine and ship’s systems. “Youaresupposed to be able to. It’s being overridden at the system root level.” He mutters something that I’m pretty sure is a very profane Onyx oath and curse all rolled into one, directed at whoever fucked with the ship’s systems.
“From the life pod?” I ask.
“I believe so. I am trying to track it down now, but I do not know what else they have done to my bunk console to bypass me seeing the full systems. I don’t have enough curses amongst all my forefathers to rain down upon these holes of asses. I might have to go into Engineering, and—”
“Dude, donot. They’re sending a boarding team. Sit tight and stay locked in your cabin, where it’ssafe. I told you, don’t come out until Olarte tells us it’s all clear.”
I’m now eyeing the bright orange container that always stays on the top of my stuff on my porta-sled when I’m on board the ship, the container holding my personal emergency suit. I switch my com unit to hands-free voice mode and reach over to remove the suit from its container.
Better safe than sorry.
“Put on your A-1,” I tell him as I pull open the main fastener.
It’s the same suit system as the ones in the cargo bay airlock, only this one’s made for me, for my size, to easily fit over my clothes and give me at least an hour of air, along with a few other safety features. It’s a relatively new one, just bought it two years ago when they came out with newer models. I have a second one stashed in one of my totes, the older one. It’s not required I have a personal one, since the ship has enough for all crew and passengers, but I wanted my own, just in case the worst-case scenario ever happened. It’s a model that will filter and siphon surrounding air as long as there is some, and switch to internal air if full decompression is experienced, or the external atmosphere is completely incompatible.
Looks like we might be approaching that option right now.
“My A-1? Why?” McMurtry asks. “We have not lost atmosphere.”
“Because I’ve got areallybad freaking feeling. The captain’s going to be desperate and do something stupid, I justknowit. Put your fucking safety suit on, man. Rightnow.”
“I do not have time to—”
“Dammit, McMurtry! Put on your A-1!”
“I will after I return.”
I freeze. “Return? From where?”
“I’m going into Engineering. If I manually pull the main relays from the plasma panel, it’ll shut down the bridge command linkups. That will buy us time and maybe allow me to override whatever those bitch’s sons are doing.”
My heart pounds in my chest, even harder than it already was. “Fuck that, McMurtry! Put on your A-1first!” I pop the helmet section over my head, pull the center fastener up, and seal myself in. “Don’t be an idiot.”
“I will move faster without the suit. I was the dumbest of asses to sign with this Shalfin, Davies. The least I can do is try to stop him. In case your hunch is correct, thank you for your friendshipping and your kindness to me. You are a good man, and Olarte is very lucky.”
“McMurtry!” He doesn’t respond. “Goddammit! McMurtry!”
I realize he’s ended the connection.
I grab my stylus from where I dropped it when I reached for my suit, because now I really need it to type on my com unit to update Olarte. I have touch pads in the fingers of this suit, but I make more errors with them than I do with my stylus.
Over the ship’s PA system, the captain’s now frantically screaming orders in Shalfin. Now I realize that, yes, there were more crew members in on this operation than just him and the unknown passenger. I’m beginning to wonder if me and McMurtry were the only ones not involved.
Fuckballs.
My translator’s keeping up with the captain’s screaming, mostly, but there are epithets and idioms I don’t recognize.
I do recognize the command that sends fucking shivers down my spine. “Break out the weapons stash immediately and prepare to repel boarding party!”
Motherfucker!
I flip my com unit back into voice mode and call Olarte.
They answer almost immediately. “Love, do not—”
