Their engine was destroyed. They were dead in the water, the ship was full of holes and hull breaches, and their cargo hold was full of bombs that were primed to explode the moment they came out of subspace and were susceptible again. The closest thing they had to an evac pod was the landing shuttle, and the entrance to that was in main storage, a place that was exposed to subspace, right beside the bombs, and had been also left alone with their invaders. Meaning, they couldn’t guarantee that it hadn’t been tampered with.
And besides all that, Vytln was gone.
To protect them…
No, she corrected herself with a tearful whimper, resting her head on the cold, sealed door. To protecther, he’d let himself be taken away. Because he knew that they were losing and, if he didn’t give them what they wanted, they’d keep coming. Keep shooting. Put her in further danger.
He’d sacrificed himself to protect her. And they had no way of getting back to him. The boring tunnel only went one way. Their door was still sealed to them. Their weapons couldn’t aim in the direction of their ship. They couldn’t get away and put distance between them. Even if they had the ability to do any of that, they couldn’t because of the bombs.
They’d only had a day and a half to think of a plan, and the only thing any of them could come up with was just to try to survive the explosion.
“Haven. It’s time.”
She opened her eyes on the blank metal of the door. She could see the reflective glow of Alred’s light behind her.
Time to go to the shelter room.
It was the only part of the ship that could possibly survive an explosion. Unlike the landing shuttle, it had no means of locomotion, it couldn’t communicate with the outside world, it didn’t even have a way for those inside to know what was going on outside. It was their absolute last line of defense, and the only possibility they had to survive the incoming explosion.
They didn’t know if it could. They didn’t know exactly how strong the explosives were, only that there was enough todestroy this ship. They couldn’t even guarantee that the shelter room was strong enough to survive it. They had designed it to be as strong as possible, but it wasn’t like they had ever tested it. Going inside was a gamble, but the only chance they had.
If Alred was here, they were about to swing out, so she had to go to the shelter so they could all be locked inside.
And then…
No one was sure. They had no plan for what to do if they survived the explosion. The shelter room couldn’t communicate, couldn’t move on its own power, had no way of sending out an emergency signal. It was a last resort, and not a great one.
The first step was surviving at all. If they could. They’d have to figure it out after that.
But whether they survived the explosion or not, it didn’t change the fact that Vytln was in Kldyn’s hands, in their ship. If he was still alive…
Her heart clenched painfully. She couldn’t think otherwise. She had to believe he was alive. He might not be perfectly alright, but if he was alive, there was hope.
And if she was acting like there was a chance…
“I’m not going,” she declared, lifting her head and looking at Alred.
He stood in the hallway, his expression uncharacteristically serious. Even the glow of his yellow light form seemed somehow less jovial, less sparkly than usual.
“You aren’t going?” He repeated.
Haven nodded and turned to walk away. She had her own plan, and it didn’t involve hiding away inside the shelter room, hoping she survived.
Admittedly, what she was planning wasn’t much better, but she couldn’t hide. She couldn’t do nothing. Not when there was a chance.
“Do we having like a jetpacking or something?”
“A jetpack?” Alred repeated. “You’re not thinking about trying to get to their ship, are you?”
She frowned. “You’re being right. Flying there won’t working. I can use the boring tunnel to get around. Do we have a metal cutter somewhere? Besides the workroom, I mean.”
“Haven.” Alred tried to appear in front of her, but she didn’t stop, walking right through him and continuing on her way.
She was pretty sure there was a metal cutter in the center command room. Vytln needed to cut through to get to her old room to fix the broken pipe. It might still there. And she’d need it.
As she came around the corner, however, she came up short. Tanin was there, standing in the hall as he helped Garnet, obviously pregnant, step down into the shelter room. Rok was already inside, using his four hands to guide her down. Grace wasn’t there, neither was Sway or Trove, so she imagined they were already below. Goldie was standing in the hall, however, along with Sorbet and Tebros, waiting for their turn to go down. Goldie was a bit back, however, biting her lip, holding her arms across her chest.
The moment she caught sight of Alred, she ran his way.
