“Okay, Hunter. Do your stuff.” The man said and waved at the pitch black corridor. The suit lights only went about ten feet.
“Be right back.” I said and popped my boots off from the deck, then pushed off the wall and quickly floated down the large hallway and out of their sight. I had my suit lights off.
“Don't go too fast.” Tessa warned. “You should be mindful of your momentum.”
“I am.” I said and concentrated on looking for people. “There's a T section in the corridor. Going left for now.”
“I think he's just showing off and isn't actually searching.” The man beside Tessa said.
“If you're going to have a private conversation, you should turn off your live microphone, stupid.” Tessa said.
“Oops.” He said. “Sorry.”
“Who are you apologizing to?” Tessa asked.
“You.”
“Well, that's even more stupid.” Tessa said. “Hunter can hear you.”
“I'm not apologizing to a guy.” The man said, and Tessa laughed.
“You might want to reconsider that.” Tessa said. “He's...”
“...found a dozen people five floors below this one.” I said as I saw them. “They aren't moving; but, I think they are conserving energy and air.”
“Any wreckage between here and there?” Tessa asked.
“None that I can see. Of course, I won't get a good view until I go down to the floor and see it at the right angle.” I said. “What I see as a support beam or a part of the wall, could be a foreign object that's been lodged into the ship.”
“I see what you mean by not a lot of experience.” Tessa said.
“There's a stairway down just after the T in the hallway.” I said as I floated back down the hallway and turned on my lights so they would see me. “I think there's supposed to be a lift around here somewhere, since these are emergency stairs.”
Tessa and the man with her walked down the hallway to me. “The ship's schematics say there was one about a hundred feet that way.” She said and pointed to the right. “Want to go see if it was right while we go down the stairs?”
“Sure.” I said and pushed off to go to the right of the T section, then I stopped about twenty feet away. “No, there's no lift... and no ship.”
“What? I thought... the hull goes on for another two hundred feet.” Tessa said.
“On the surface, yeah.” I said and floated back. “I don't know what happened to remove it and leave the outside.”
“I've seen some weird things out here.” The man said. “It's eerie at first, then you get used to it.”
“Should we get the spacesuits now or get the survivors?” I asked.
“Survivors.” Tessa and the man said together.
“We get them as close to the exit as possible, then get the suits.” The man said.
“I didn't do that.” I said as we entered the stairwell. “I went to them first, let them know I was there, then went to get the spacesuits.”
“Was there breathable air?”
“For a good portion of it... I think.” I said. “I didn't want to take the chance, not after melting the girders off. I didn't know what kind of odors or gasses that might have left, so I had them suit up in the room they were in, then took them out.”
“Well, you got them out, that's what matters.” The man said.
“You don't sound happy about that.” I said.
“You could have killed them by not following proper procedure.”
“Well, I don't know proper procedure.” I said, slightly angry. “I keep telling everyone that and they still expect me to go out rescuing people. I'm doing my best, okay?”
Tessa reached out and touched my shoulder. “Calm down. You're using up your air.”
“No, I'm not.” I said. “I'm only taking one breath for every three of yours.”
Tessa stopped walking and looked at me. “No, you... are you really?” She asked. “How are you doing that?”
“It's just a basic breathing technique.” I said. “I've used this suit quite a bit. When I recharge the air, it only takes a minute or two.”
Tessa shook her head and kept walking. “Now I'm wondering what else you can do, just like Orim was.”
“I didn't want to show off.” I said and pulled myself over the railing and down, then let go.
“Hey! Wait!” Tessa almost yelled and tried to walk faster.
“Don't rush.” I said and used Presence to stop myself when I reached the fifth floor. “I can't see anyone else here.” I said and pulled myself back onto the stairs and stood on the landing to wait.
“You'll need to go inside and down the hallway.” The man said.
“I'd like to; but, I'm pretty sure I can't.” I said and looked through the door.
“Why? What is it?” Tessa asked as she clomped down the stairs of the third floor and onto the fourth.
“I was right. I couldn't see that the hallway was completely blocked by... well, another hallway.”
“Wh-what?” Tessa asked and came to a stop beside me.
“Have a look.” I said and opened the hatch.
“WAIT!” Tessa yelled, then was surprised that there was no decompression or even the sound of hissing air when she saw that the floor was pushed up by the floor below it and there was barely crawling room between the floor and the ceiling. “What? How...”
“A collision, maybe?” Orim asked as he came to a stop and looked in, then he whistled. “Hooo, baby! The whole floor is pushed up!”
“Hunter, the people!” Tessa exclaimed and looked at me. “Where are they?”
“Third door down the hallway.” I said. “This was why they aren't moving.”
“Don't tell me they're crushed!”
“No, thank god.” I said, and they looked at me with wide eyes. “They just can't open the door.”
“Should we go above or below?” Orim asked. “That thing looks solid; but, we shouldn't trust it by trying to crawl in and cutting out the door.”
“Definitely should come in from above.” Tessa said. “That way if anything happens, we aren't below this... whatever happened.”
The three of us went up a level and I told them it was clear. I opened the door and we all walked down to the third door and went inside. We heard several thumps, and a possible scream for help.
“They know someone's here.” I said and walked over to stand above the screaming woman, knelt, and hit the floor three times. She stopped yelling and I hit the floor once, then hit it twice more, and finally three times.
“What kind of code was that?” Tessa asked.
“It was code for 'shut up, we heard you'.” I said and grinned at her, and she laughed.
“Hunter, I know the general area for the floor structure and the main beams.” Orim said and set up his plasma cutter. “I need you to tell me where the main wire bundles are and any junction boxes.”
“So, you don't know everything about the ship?” I asked, and he chuckled.
“They modify ships a lot, run new wires, and add new things all the damn time.” Orim said. “We only learn the basic schematics and hope that we can cut into a non-vital area.”
“Okay.” I said and stood up, then walked over to where he was. “The people are there, there...” I pointed to all twelve of them. “The largest wire bundle is right there on a thick floor beam.” I pointed to a spot three feet to the right of where he was. “Minor bundles there, there and there.” I pointed to spots six feet, eight feet, and twelve feet away. “Junction boxes are there and there, and some kind of pipes are there.”
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“By the Goddess, I want to hire you for my permanent crew.” Orim said and drew out the spot he needed to cut.
“I'd like that.” Tessa chuckled.
“Okay, stand back.” Orim said and turned on the plasma cutter. He quickly cut through the floor plating and tossed it aside. “Now the fun part.” He said and started cutting through one of the floor's cross members. “We're lucky that we only have to cut one of these.” He said as he cut down through it, then it made a creaking sound. I grabbed his collar with a Presence Hand and pulled him back, just as the cross member broke off the last bit and popped up about a foot from the floor.
“Whoa! That almost hit me!” Orim said. “Thanks a... lot?” He said as turned to look at the person who had pulled him out of the way and didn't see anyone.
'You're welcome.” I said, and he turned and looked at me. “Why did it pop like that?”
“The floor must be under a lot of strain from the floor beneath.” Orim said and took a deep breath. “I can't imagine what would have happened if you had used your Light sword like you did on the hull.”
I'm glad I didn't offer. I thought and nodded.
“Okay, let me get this out of the way.” Orim said and used the plasma cutter to cut off the cross member about four feet from the first cut. Tessa grabbed it and put it aside, and Orim started to cut out the ceiling of the floor below. Since it was only a thin sheet of metal, barely half the thickness of the metal on the floor, he did it in only a few seconds. There wasn't any gravity, so he had to try and take it out without letting the hot metal edges touch anything, especially his hands.
“Can I do that for you?” I asked.
Orim looked at me for a moment and nodded, so I used a Presence Hand to push it up from below and then used another to grab it on the side and lifted it from the hole and moved it out of the way.
“Tessa, you're up.” Orim said.
Tessa disengaged her boots and hopped into the air. He grabbed her feet and flipped her over, then lowered her head first into the hole he had just cut.
“Hi, everybody!” Tessa said in a happy voice over her external suit speakers. “We're here to rescue you.”
“Thank the Goddess Chaiya!” The woman about ten feet away from the hole exclaimed. “Get us out of here!”
“Can you crawl over?” Tessa asked, and a few of them started to inch their way over. “Be careful of the edge of the hole. It's still hot and really sharp.”
With that bit of knowledge, I covered the edges of the cut hole with Presence and made it solid.
“Did you find anyone else?” The woman asked.
“We only found you so far and we came right to you to get you out.” Tessa said. “We'll search the rest of the ship once we get you out.”
The woman smiled and made her way over to the hole. It was too tight of a space to float, even with no gravity, so it took her a couple of minutes to reach Tessa. When she did, Tessa reached out and took her hand, then gently pulled her into the middle of the hole.
“Orim.” She said over the suit com, and he pulled the both of them up and out of the hole.
“Don't leave us!” A man said frantically.
Tessa laughed over the external speakers. “We just got here!” She said and let the woman go as she gave her a little nudge towards me. I caught her easily and walked over to the side of the room and told her to grab a handhold. Tessa hopped back into the air and Orim grabbed her and turned her over and put her back into the hole. “We're getting you out before we move on, remember?”
“Only four of them are moving.” I said on the suit com to Tessa and Orim. “The others are either too scared to move, hurt, or stuck.”
“I don't think cutting more holes is a good idea with the floor under strain like it is.” Orim said.
“I can try to drag them to the hole.” I offered.
“You're taller than Tessa and she won't fit into the crawl space with her helmet.” Orim said. “How could you do it?”
“I can give them a safety line to grab onto and we can pull them out.” I said.
Orim glanced at me and then nodded. “We'll get the movers out first, then try that.”
The other four people were taken from the hole and I put them next to the wall, and then walked over to the hole. Orim took out a length of tether cable and handed the end to me. I knelt and put the end down into the hole, then grabbed it with a Presence Hand and pulled it over to one of the people that hadn't moved.
“I can't grab that! It's a bare cable!” The woman said.
I covered about five feet of it with a thin layer of Presence and made it solid. “It's all right.” I said in a reassuring voice, and I heard her sigh. “It's a special cable that only looks rough. Go ahead and touch it to see.”
“Hunter, you shouldn't lie to people.” Orim said. “She's going to scrape her hands a little on it.”
“It really is smooth!” The woman said, surprised. “I'm holding it!”
I looked at her down through the floor and saw that she had a good grip on it, so I used a Presence Hand to grab the collar of her uniform and pulled on both her and the cable at the same time. She was almost laughing when she reached the hole.
“I barely felt you tugging on the cable!” She said as I lifted her from the hole. “Thank you.”
“You're welcome.” I said and handed her off to Tessa, who brought her over to the others by the door. I repeated this several times, and retrieved four more people without incident. The last three were a bit of a problem, because they were injured.
“One has a broken arm, one has two broken legs, and the last one is unconscious.” I said over the suit com. “I can't see any visible injuries, so I have to assume he banged his head or something.”
“Why do you say that?” Tessa asked. “He could be asleep.”
“If he was sleeping he would have woken up by now.”
“We have been making too much noise for him to only be sleeping.” Orim said. “What should we do?”
“I can cover the other two injuries with Presence to protect them, then drag them over.”
“Without the cable?”
“I was using that to reassure the people by letting them hold onto something while we were getting them out.” I said with a smile. “The one with the broken legs is the only one that can grab the cable if we use it again.”
“Then bring him over first.” Tessa said. “Carefully.”
“Not a problem.” I said and walked over to where the man was on the floor below, covered his legs in Presence and made it solid, then used a Presence Hand to grab his collar and walked over to the hole with him. He looked up at me with a shocked face and I picked him up. His legs were bent at two odd angles and weren't moving, and he looked down at them.
“What in the... why aren't they... they still hurt, but...” The man sputtered.
“I'm holding them still.” I said over my suit speakers.
Tessa took him from me and stared at his legs for a moment, then gave him some kind of injection.
“They'll stay like that until I let them go.” I said and then walked over to where the man with the broken arm was and did the same thing. I covered his arm in Presence and made it solid, then dragged him over to the hole and picked him up. He didn't say anything as I passed him to Orim, then I walked over to the unconscious man. As a precaution, I covered his neck in Presence and made it solid, then dragged him over to the hole and picked him up. No one spoke as I carried him over to the door.
We all left the room and went down the hallway, then carefully floated everyone up four floors to the right spot, then exited the stairwell and went down the hallway. Tessa left us there and went through the temporary airlock to get the spacesuits everyone would need. She brought the first six through and then went to get the rest of them.
“I barely managed to get five spacesuits and myself through the temporary airlock when I did that.” I said as six of the people got dressed.
“We haven't figured out how to put just the suits through.” Orim said.
“Oh, I guess I could have done that.” I said and he glanced at me, then Tessa came back with the last six spacesuits and handed them out.
“I'll need a hand getting into this.” The man with the broken arm said.
“I'll need... well, a much bigger space suit.” The man with the two broken legs said.
“Oh, damn.” Tessa said. “How are we getting him into one?”
“I'm tempted to offer to straighten his legs; but, we all know that's not a good idea without a medical professional to do it.” I said, and the man visibly relaxed. “Do you have anything like a rescue bag or something?”
Orim laughed. “A rescue bag? What the heck is that?!?”
“Well, it would just be a cloth or heavy plastic sack that you could slide over someone and seal. It could have a little pack like spacesuits have for air and lights, and you could fit any shape into it.”
Orim and Tessa stared at me, as did all the survivors.
“It's a stupid idea, isn't it?” I asked.
“Actually, that's the most brilliant thing I've ever heard.” Tessa said, wonder in her voice. “I've lost count of how many people had to be jammed into a spacesuit and made their injuries worse.”
“It's a great idea, but it doesn't help us right now.” Orim said.
“Actually, I think it does.” Tessa said. “I'll be right back!”
“I don't think I want to get in a plastic sack.” The man with the broken legs said.
“I'm sure that's not what she's going to do.” Orim said. “Maybe.”
Several people helped us put the unconscious man into a spacesuit, and everyone was ready to depart except for the man with the broken legs. Tessa came back through the hatch and she carried another portable airlock.
“That's not going to work.” Orim said. “Once you unfold it and activate...”
“We don't have to unfold it!” Tessa said excitedly. “Watch!”
We all watched as she carefully pulled out the cloth part from the bits of metal that attached it to the wall, then she spread it out to show us that it didn't need to be unfolded at all.
“Once it's inflated, it won't fit through the other hatch.” I said, and she chuckled.
“You don't need to inflate it, either.” Tessa said and opened the cloth. “That's only for ease of access through the airlock when it's attached. We aren't sending him through this, we're putting him inside!”
“But there's no air!” The man with broken legs said.
“There's lots of air.” Tessa said and billowed it out. “Once we get you through the portable airlock, you can also hit the pressurize button and it'll fill up with even more air.”
“Now who's the brilliant one?” Orim asked and Tessa blushed.
With a bit of jostling and fumbling, we managed to get the man and his broken legs inside and sealed it. Tessa went through the airlock first so she would be on the other side to get him, and he was the first one we sent through the portable airlock. When he was on the other side, she told him to hit the button to pressurize, and it swelled up to its full shape.
“It worked! Ha ha ha!” The man with the broken legs laughed.
We quickly cycled everyone through and brought them over to the hole I had cut through the hull. We tied everyone to a guide cable, the same one Orim and I had used to pull them out of the crushed room. We sent them over and the man that had stayed in the cargo hold of my ship caught them and moved them back. With those survivors safely out of harm's way, Tessa, Orim, and I checked the rest of the ship. We found two more people at the far end, stuck in an engineering access hallway.
It was a breeze to get them out, since they were already wearing spacesuits, and we went back to the ship. Orim took out a pistol that looked like a flare gun and shot the wreck. I saw a metal disc fly out and stick to the hull, then he checked the side of the gun.
“The mark's working.” Orim said and stepped back and closed the cargo doors. “Rhubin, head back to the station. We've got a full cargo hold.”
“You got it.” Rhubin said over the suit com and he flew us back to the station. Instead of docking to the ring with the main hatch, he entered the large ship dock that was for maintenance. It was already pressurized so he landed the ship. We opened the cargo doors and a medical team was there to take the wounded.
“What the hell did you do to this man?” One of them asked as they saw the collapsed portable airlock with the man inside.
“His legs are severely broken.” Tessa said and opened it, and the man inside sat up and hugged her.
“Thank you.” He said sincerely. “You saved my life.”
“It... it was Hunter's idea.”
“That doesn't matter.” He said and nodded to the medical team, who picked him up and put him on a stretcher.
“Why aren't his legs moving?” One of them asked and touched the solid Presence around them.
“I'm holding them.” I said and then pointed. “Like his broken arm.”
“Oh, yeah.” The man said. “My arm's broken.”
“Let them go, please.” The medical tech said.
“Get them supported first.” I said, and he and the others quickly made sure the broken legs wouldn't collapse, and I absorbed the Presence holding them steady.
“Argh!” The man grunted. “I think that pain shot's wearing off.”
“You'll have lots in a few minutes.” The medical tech said and they took everyone with them.
“Good job.” An alien maintenance tech said. “You're the first ones to get back.”
“It's not a race; but, it's good to know that we're winning.” Tessa said with a grin, and the alien laughed.
We got back onto the ship and went back out to see who else we could save.