Each time we made a jump, the blackouts felt shorter in duration. I’m not sure if it was because I was fighting it more every time or whether our bodies were becoming accustomed to the high stress of jumping.

Either way, I saw what I saw and when my eyes opened again it felt like what I witnessed was the universe snapping back to a still state — like an elastic band being stretched and let go to take its original form.

I wasted no time in pulling myself back along the rope to the exterior hull, then scrambling to the airlock that Henderson pointed out before the jump. I hadn’t heard from her or anyone else for that matter and I was growing concerned whether we all made it through or not.

My hands kept slipping as I struggled to get a solid grip on the airlock, all I needed was two good rotations for it to activate decompression and release. However that would only work if the interior hatch door was closed.

C’mon. C’mon you stupid thing.

My visors sensors started to chirp. They were notifying me that my oxygen was running out, and at a rapid rate while I struggled with the airlock.

After a few more trying attempts I got the first turn, then the second. After a minute the airlock door fully released and I was able to pull myself into the small bay, closing the hatch behind me.

I pushed off the wall and glided over to the control panel, quickly cycling the air back in while my visor was indicating critical low oxygen. I was gasping for the air by the time I dropped to the ground and just managed to unlock my helmet.

—

I had entered into a locked down deck. Made apparent by the deep red lighting and the light strips flowing along either side of the hallways, plus the lack of crew or Miltech near the airlock was a good giveaway. No welcoming party for me.

Airlocks were always located in restricted areas on Salvation. It was one of those things that you couldn’t just let any old passenger walk up to and open, even with the safety features, so it was odd that no body was there to staunchly greet me as I entered from the outside.

After rummaging around nearby crew locker rooms, I managed to find some plain clothes. There was no way I could stroll around a locked down deck in my Miltech without being noticed or attacked.

Leaving the restricted area, that was still void of anyone, the lights flickered back to normal. The dull red illuminated hallway turned to a blinding white in contrast. Something had shifted. I heard cheers ahead from a large gathering in one of the mess halls which grew louder as I zig-zagged the walkways toward the noise.

“These are our demands.”

The crowd fell silent again, happy to hear the coming words from their elected, or self-appointed leader that sounded across the main intercom.

“We demand a return to Biterra.

“We refuse to be complicit in Miltech warmongering and their breaches of the laws that they swore to uphold.”

Roars of assent filled the hall and came pouring in from other areas of the deck nearby.

“We still have the Captain and control of the bridge. I urge anyone who hasn’t joined our fight for freedom to join us now. They have to listen to the majority.”

“Just kill him,” shouted someone from the crowd which was met with further agreement from others.

They were fired up, and the worrisome thing is, that I kind of agreed with their leaders statements. Miltech has been pretty heavy handed in provoking our own kind, as well as other humanoids such as the Solari.

Though I could agree with some of the sentiments, it was turning into a serious revolt and there was no doubt in my mind that it had already spread further than just the locked down decks of Salvation. Our trip over to Nuvora had been the tipping point. The passengers felt trapped in a huge tin can in space and were dragged along wherever Miltech wanted to go and I couldn’t blame them for being frustrated.

—

With everyone distracted by the demand speech, I was able to hide in the background unnoticed and slip off to try and get out of the locked down deck. I knew that there were a mix of service and hidden Miltech shafts but I still wasn’t entirely sure where they were all located, or if any were even accessible during such a serious lockdown.

Making my way through the deck I kept my eyes peeled for any crew or Miltech areas before I came to a breached door. It was an entrance to a Miltech area, the door broken in by sheer force from the unruly mob on the deck.

I walked in and saw gear, paper and rubbish covering the floor. It was fully looted as I checked door to door before I came to one of the last closed offices.

Mutually startled, I opened the door on a man rummaging through an office.

“Who are you,” he shouted, steadily holding a piece of pipe next to his body as he positioned himself to face me.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

His face was scrunched up in an aggressive frown with his

his sleeves rolled up, showing his tensed, sweaty forearms and clenched fist.

“Just trying to find a way out of this fucking jail cell of a deck man.”

I tried to match his frustrated manner in an attempt to not seem so out of place like I was just another passenger trapped on this deck. A facade the man grew suspicious of almost instantly.

“I don’t know you,” he said.

I scoffed.

“I know everyone who’s trapped on this deck.”

”Oh really? Mister popular are we?”

His face grew menacing, his hand twitched ever so slightly but made glaringly obvious due to the pipe he was holding. He didn’t believe me and was ready to strike.

He lunged forward with a yell, swinging his arm back and around for full momentum with the piece of metal pipe. He was too quick for me to be able to pull out my pistol I shoved in the waistband of my pants. The one accessory I was warned never to leave behind by Henderson and I couldn’t even get it.

I stepped to the side, dodging the strike, leaving it to smash against the wall. He quickly spun to face me.

“You’re one of them.”

“One of who?” I asked with urgency and my hands out in front of me. A last ditch bid to get him to calm down.

He swung again. This time hitting my arms as I raised them to defend. The crushing blow sending waves of pain shooting down my arms.

A monstrous yell filled the room. It wasn’t the man though. It was me. The pain and the frustration I had at the situation unleashed the bottled up rage I had been holding in.

I pushed him forward with my forearm , grabbing his shirt on the side he held the pipe to dampen any effort to use it again.

“You—“

I landed a heavy blow on his face with my free hand.

“Piece—“

And another.

“Of—“

And another.

“Shit.”

A final blow sent him tumbling to the ground, semi-conscious and spitting out blood. He was groaning in pain and kept repeating ‘it’s all a game’ as I grabbed the pipe from him.

As he kept muttering to himself, I got a better look around the room and noticed that there was a doorway slightly exposed and hidden behind some shelves. It had a key code lock on it, the guy must have been looking for a passcode when I had interrupted him.

I walked over to the keypad and had an urge to see if just simply putting in my assigned Miltech number would work. Lucky for me it did, my authority must have been updated by either Jeremy or Henderson.

I quickly entered through the door and it let straight into what I was looking for. I slammed the door shut behind me and made my way through the Miltech shafts before exiting on the deck above.

I arrived at another door with a keypad, put in the code, and the door swung open. Waiting for me and somehow to my complete surprise were about twenty officers pointing their rifles at me.

“Easy fella’s,” I said.

I stepped out with my arms raised and hoped none of these guys were feeling trigger happy.

“I’m Corporal Carter. With Miltech.”

“Bullshit. Why are you in civvies, and there’s no way you’d be entering from a locked down deck” said one of the men. His patch let me know he was a Sergeant.

I was worried. Feeling guilty even, as he stepped forward with his rifle still pointed at me, waiting for me to respond.

I knew I wasn’t guilty of anything at all but I could tell that he had already made up his mind that I was lying. The story of how I got to this point would surely make it even more unbelievable in his eyes. However, there was nothing else to tell besides the real story. So that’s just what I did.

He considered it for a moment and even slightly lowered his rifle before snapping it back upright at me.

“So if I put out a call for Major Lewis or Staff Sergeant Ro they’ll be on the ship will they?” He said rather condescendingly.

“Mhm,” I replied with a nod.

The Sergeant left the room, leaving the squad of men to guard me with the sights of their weapons never dropping from my eye line for the longest ten minutes of my life.

“Of course the Major would be involved in something that sounds so utterly ridiculous,” he said aith a scoff as he walked back in.

“At ease guys. He’s telling the truth.”

Ah thank god. I thought, finally able to relax my body after being tensed up with stress for so long.

“We’ll take you up to where they both are, by the bridge.

“You’re going to have to gear up again though. The whole ship is turning to shit Corporal.”

The Sergeant wasn’t lying at all. There were protests breaking out that were quickly turning into full blown riots on the way over to the bridge. It seemed the whole ship had turned on itself. We were attacked by passengers. Passengers were attacking other passengers. It was mayhem, so much so that decks were getting locked down ship-wide.

—

“Thank god you managed to make it back in,” said Ro as we arrived on the deck just below the bridge.

“Great work buddy,” said Jeremy, slapping my shoulder.

“Were you guys still outside of the ship when we made the jump?” I asked.

They both looked at each other and then to me.

“No. We had already made it inside for a while before the jump,” said Jeremy.

“Were you still outside the ship Carter?” Asked Ro.

The way they acted and spoke to me was like there was something wrong with being on the outside or perhaps they thought I was starting to go batshit crazy again.

“That’s a story for later,” I said, deciding against divulging what I had seen while outside during the jump right away.

“Anyway. What’s the go with these demands? Salvations passengers have turned fucking mental.”

“We’re going to agree to their terms,” said Jeremy solemnly.

I shot him a quick look of disbelief, although I did think it was a smart decision.

“I would have never guessed that the SecMajor would give in to demands much less even entertain the idea of negotiations,” I said.

“She didn’t. I can’t get hold of her. The passengers are going to only get more out of control. The crew is refusing to work. It’s the only way forward. If we still have the time.”

Jeremy was stern and serious as he told me that he made the decision to give in to the mutineers demands without Hendersons approval. It would be internally killing him to lose this battle. To essentially surrender Miltech against passengers of a transporter.

Either way, it had to be done and we began our walk up to the bridge.