Chapter 30

It was several long, tense minutes before status reports started coming back over the common frequency assigned to the assault team. They had, apparently, caught the civilians with their pants down, figuratively speaking. There had been no real resistance, but a collision alarm had sounded once the civilian ship sensed the shuttles in near proximity when the stealth fields had dropped for the final maneuvers. The crewmen were sprinting to damage control stations and struggling into vacuum suits when they should have been preparing to repel boarders.

The heavy assault element was working their way to the bridge now, against light resistance. The ship's crew were waking up, realizing that they were under attack and attempting to form some kind of response. The weapons being used were wholly ineffective against the heavy armor, the frangible rounds leaving smears of metal residue on the tough ceramic armor, but not even slowing down the assault.

The heavily armed and superbly trained marines were wading through the Resistance like it wasn't there.

Gunny Murtoc, standing in the hatchway between the shuttle and the ship, gave a nod to some unheard message and turned to face the command group. "Follow me, and stay close. This sector has been secured and prisoners are being rounded up. The sapper crew has completed their assignment and disabled the engines, so it is just a matter of gaining control of the bridge and the engineering spaces."

Kat pushed forward eagerly, Bob right on her heels and followed closely by their medic, the Naval Corpsman Chief, as they entered the ship and followed the Gunny forward.

Several of the compartments they passed had doors that were mangled and torn open. The power-assisted armor of the heavy assault group hadn't bothered with being subtle, ripping open any door they found locked, checking for weapons and moving on. The raiders, hot on their trail, had immobilized anyone they found by binding them, hands and feet, with tough, plastic bands.

Frightened and, in a few cases, battered eyes followed the command group as they stalked past trussed up personnel in the passageways and crew spaces.

As they passed through the medical bay, Kat tapped the Gunny on the shoulder and told him that they needed to secure a Doctor named Bagley. After several minutes of searching, they found him, along with several of his staff, bound securely to a bulkhead behind the nurses' station in the central bay.

Kat gestured to Gunny who knelt down and, using a knife as long as Kat's arm cut the bonds on the terrified medico and hauled him to his feet. Gunny re-secured the man's hands behind his back and marched him ahead of the group as they moved forward.

Pan had slipped into the engineering spaces and was moving from cover to cover, keeping out of sight as he moved deeper into the bowels of the ship. It was taking longer than he had anticipated because the collision alarm had activated a lock down of all air-tight doors. He had to override each one locally, and then lock it again behind him to allow the next door to be overridden. There was no security process to do so, just a set of manual levers, but it was time consuming and he was exposed during the procedure.

The collision imminent warnings had stopped and now there were a series of conflicting reports of fighting breaking out on several decks. The last announcement, before it went silent, was that they were being boarded and ordering the crew to resist.

Pan was exultant. If the ship was being assaulted, it almost had to be Union troops or pirates. In either case, it was an opportunity for him to sew some mayhem.

A crash from somewhere down the long corridor behind him made Pan spin, and almost lose his balance as he unconsciously tried to stabilize himself with his missing leg. It was still several hatches back, but it sounded like whoever was attacking the ship had the same ideas about heading for the engineering spaces. He grinned, and kept moving.

The hatch ahead was marked 'Fuel Mixing Station 2' and bordered with a red and white pattern that denoted a potentially hazardous environment. It was an ideal spot for a little creative mayhem and he threw the levers that would allow him to override the lockout. Swinging the hatch open and hopping over the lip, he turned to lock the door again and felt a cold piece of metal pressed against the back of his head. A shiver ran down his spine as he recognized the feel of a handgun.

"One move, one twitch, and I will splatter your brains all over the wall." The voice was wavering, scared and he could feel the pistol barrel shake.

Pan slowly raised his hands, and, trying to keep his crutches in place with just the pressure of his upper arms, turned to face the armed crewman. "Look, I am just trying to stay the hell away from the fighting!" he temporized, hoping he sounded sincere.

"Bullshit! You are that spy, that prisoner the captain warned us to stay clear of. You wouldn't run to a fueling point to escape danger, you were trying to pull something!" Now that Pan was facing the crewman, he could see that the man wasn't a man, really, just a scared kid. His eyes were wide and his hand was shaking so hard that Pan was more worried about accidentally being shot than being killed on purpose.

Pan shook his head, putting an earnest expression on his face. "I am not a navy guy! I was just moving away from the shooting. When I saw the sign on the door, I thought that this would be a perfect place. Only a mad man would fire a weapon in here, right? Flammable stuff and fuel and whatever?"

The crewman, calming somewhat, rolled his eyes at Pan, the pistol steadying a little. "It's not flammable in here, you idiot. It is dangerous because the catalyzation process is toxic." The crewman's eyes flicked sideways, towards the stacks of chemical components that lined one wall.

Pan didn't hesitate. He lifted one crutch as fast and hard as possible, hitting the crewman squarely in the groin and breaking the light plastic crutch. The blow wasn't enough to do serious damage through the pressure suit the man was wearing, but if you hit any man in that spot, the natural reaction is predictable.