Max cringed because James did have a point there. If Max could use internal scanners to identify where the enemies were, his odds of success went up. But that did not justify putting James in the middle of a damn counterattack. “No. Show me how to access scanners.”
“Too complex. Time too short. Must win enemy.” For someone with a limited understanding of English, James was good at choosing words that would translate in order to communicate his ideas.
“No. Dangerous.”
“All danger.” James wrapped two more tentacles around Max’s arm. “Quickly win enemy. I work scanners.”
Max's hands started to lose some feeling. Fear and dread built in the pit of his stomach. They did not have time to fight about this because the enemy could find that body at any moment. Max lived in constant terror of hearing some alarm over the ship’s systems. Of course, that was assuming that the ship had alarm systems because at this point, it didn't seem like anyone had considered internal security during its design. “I must go,” he said firmly.
“I must go also.”
Xander chimed in. “Max and James work against enemy together. Let James help.”
Max glared at the obnoxious little traitor. Any other time he would have argued, but he couldn’t waste another second. “Kohei, take care of your brother.”
With one last look toward the two of them huddled together, Max took off for the door. “Query, where’s the nearest console?”
James reached toward the wall, and Max checked both directions before he stopped near a glass panel. He had suspected they were control panels like on the translation computer, but nothing he did activated them.
James’s motions were sure and quick as he called up an internal schematic of the ship. What Max had thought was a command deck was a transition of some sort between what appeared to be the lower decks and some sort of higher-security upper deck structure. With a few quick taps, James changed the display, and a number of dots moved around the various sections.
Two yellow dots were in the filtration room, and Max pointed at the display. “Hide them,” he said.
James jerked his tentacles back. “Can’t. Can only distract display.”
Even though Max didn’t understand what that meant, he dropped the issue. If James couldn’t accomplish some piece of programming, Max wasn’t going to guilt him about it. So he focused on his job. In the corridor outside the filtration room, one yellow and one blue dot blinked. That implied the computer was tracking different species rather than intruders and people who should be on the ship. Two dots were in the corridor by the medical room and two were outside the lower storage decks. The cavernous rooms were empty.
That was four more enemy in addition to the leader. One yellow and one bluish-green dot were still in the “control” room.
The medical corridor was the closest, so that was Max’s first stop. Time to figure out the weapon. He urged James to move, so James curled his strong walking tentacle around his neck as Max dashed for the service shaft.
With every step, he expected to hear an alien voice shout or a weapon discharge or an alarm sound. So far the invaders were as tactically oblivious as Rick. Once he was far enough away from the filtration room that any noise he made would draw invaders away from the children, Max pulled out the triangular weapon and studied the short part of the triangle where the aliens had held it.
It had long grooves, and Max ran his finger along the indentations. He felt the slightest seam. He pointed the weapon away from the filtration room and pressed it. Nothing happened.
All the work on the translation computer had taught Max to seek creative work-arounds, so he switched to using his thumbnail. He ran a finger forward over the seam and then backward. He feared the weapon had a security lock, but then he drew a circle over the seam. The last-ditch effort paid off when energy gathered along the sides of the triangle and then discharged with enough energy to send the deck plates exploding up into the air before they clattered back to the floor in a twisted heap of rubble.
“Win,” James said. He waved two long, slender tentacles.
James might be right. They might win. However, Max had to keep in mind that the other side had the same weapons, so Max had to play this smart. Time to move fast.
