“Get down!” cried Will, throwing himself over Debra as shrapnel tore into the console they were hiding behind. The room reverberated with the sound of metal slamming into metal and was soon filled with the smell of fired explosive mixed with a blast of cold air.

When the noise finally subsided, Will got up and helped Debra to her feet. “Thanks,” she said brushing herself off. She tilted her head and gave him a smile. “Perhaps I’ll get a chance to return the favor sometime.” Will cleared his throat, but didn’t answer.

The escape pod and a portion of the wall it had been attached to were gone. In their place was a large opening which was surrounded by blackened and twisted metal. Through it Will and Debra could see the bleak overcast sky and a cold wind blew into the engine room.

Walking over to the opening, they took off their masks. Looking out the opening, they could see the escape pop lying on its side about thirty feet below them. It was battered and dented and its back end was still smoking from where the explosive bolts had fired. The side of the ship sloped downward steeply and its skin was perfectly smooth.

“Yeah, we’re climbing down that,” suggested Debra.

“Guess, I’ll need to get the jetpacks,” replied Will looking at the ground below. “You stay here, and I’ll head back out through the tunnel.”

After helping Will climb back up into the opening he’d cut into the wall Debra went back over to check on the four injured people. As she was scanning them, one of the men began to regain consciousness. His eyes darted around wildly and he tried to get up, but was too weak.

“It’s okay,” said Debra in the most reassuring tone she could muster while putting a hand on his chest. “You and the others are safe.”

However, that didn’t seem to help as he continued struggling to get up. He then tried pulling off his oxygen mask. “No,” cried Debra, grabbing his arm. “You need that.”

Yet, he continued to fight her. Finally, she took a sedative from the medikit and injected it into his arm. Within thirty seconds, he was once again unconscious. To insure no one else awakened, particularly while were transporting them back to the ship, she also sedated the other three.

Will worked his way back through the tunnel and soon reached the hatch. Climbing down, he went back through the maze of cables and damaged structure to where they’d left the jetpacks. He put his on and picked up Debra’s and in a few minutes was jetting over the ship to the opening they’d made. Although large enough for him to fit through, he had to be careful because of the sharp pieces of metal around its edges.

As his feet came down on the engine room floor, he shut down the jet pack and Debra came over. He handed her the jetpack he was carrying. “We’ll need a stretcher from the ship to carry them over,” said Will. “I’ll be right back.”

He took off again and as he approached the ship, he pushed a button on his belt and the cargo bay door slid open. Once he was inside, he took the stretcher assembly from one of the storage lockers and was soon flying back to Debra with it.

When he returned they began strapping the one of the injured men to the stretcher. It wasn’t an easy or quick process as they had to lift him onto the stretcher and then strap him in, being careful to insure everything was secure. Then they had to carry it over to the opening and attach it their jetpack harnesses.

“Keep an eye on me and match what I’m doing,” instructed Will when they were ready.

“Got it.”

“Now,” said Will and they both activated their jetpacks and lifted off into the air. They flew slowly so the stretcher hanging just above their wastes wouldn’t be jostled too much. Landing in the cargo bay, they unhooked the stretcher and carried it into the visitor quarters which fortunately were on the same level. The room was much larger that the crew quarters, but that was because it contained six beds. After unstrapping him, they lifted the unconscious man onto one of beds.

Then they were immediately back in the air, making the round trip three more times to bring the remaining injured to the ship. As they brought the last person into the cargo bay, they closed the cargo bay door.

After the last person was placed onto one of the beds, Debra wiped her brow and sat down on one the unoccupied beds. “Glad that’s over. They’ve all been sedated and should sleep for another eight hours or so.” She got up and scanned each of the four. “Their oxygen levels are nearly normal so we can remove the masks. However, they are still very dehydrated and malnourished. We should apply another hydropack along with a nutriopack.”

“I’ll go get them,” offered Will as Debra began removing the oxygen masks.

He was back in a few minutes and together they applied the packs to their four patients. As each pack was put in place, it adhered to the skin and slowly dispensed its contents directly through the skin.

Will and Debra climbed back up the control section and collapsed into their seats.

“So, what are we going to do with them?” asked Debra.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Make arrangements to get them back to Earth, somehow,” replied Will. “However, we’ve got time to figure that out. Right now we need to see what we can find on the cruiser’s computers that might implicate Grandle.”

“The cruiser doesn’t have power, so we’ll need to take over an auxiliary power unit,” suggested Debra.

“There’s one in the cargo bay.”

“Shall be go then?” asked Debra getting to her feet.

“Absolutely,” agreed Will, following her down the ladder to the cargo bay. From one of the lockers Will took out a silver cube which was about three feet long on each side. After putting on his jetpack, Will attached the cube to the front of the jetpack’s harness.

“Ready?” he asked as he stood by the cargo bay door control.

“Always,” answered Debra. Will opened the door.

The wind that hit them as the cargo bay door opened was even colder now as the last rays of the planet’s sun peaked over the horizon. Under overcast skies, the only other light was what came through the cargo bay door. Turning on the lights attached to their jetpacks, they flew over to the cruiser.

“The computer interface should be over here,” called Will after they’d reached the engine room and removed their jetpacks. He led them towards one of the walls to which several consoles were attached.

“They don’t look damaged,” said Debra, examining them under the glow of her light.

“Good,” said Will. “Now let’s see if we can get them working.”

He put down the silver case and detached one of its sides. Kneeling down in front of the console, he pulled off its front panel. “Hand me the connectors,” he called.

Debra slid the metal case over and pulled out two cables from its open side. “Here they are,” she said handing them to him.

Reaching under the console, he clicked them into place. “Let’s see if this works.” He opened the top of the silver case and flipped its switch. The case began humming. “Come on,” muttered Will as he stared at the console.

Suddenly the lights on the console began blinking.

“Yes!” exclaimed Will, but his excitement was short lived as other consoles came to life, many shooting out sparks because they’d been damaged. At the same time, the lights in the engine room came on.

“What’s happening?” cried Debra.

“I think the cruiser’s emergency power generation system has been activated,” called Will. “I need to turn off the auxiliary power unit until before it overloads.” He reached over to flip the switch, but immediately pulled his hand back with a scream of pain.

Debra got down beside him, grabbed the cables and pulled. She fell backwards as they broke away from the console. “You all right?”

“Yeah, got a nasty burn.”

She pulled the medikit from her belt. “Give me your hand.” He held it out and she sprayed a blue liquid over it.

“Thanks,” said Will as the pain went away and the burned skin immediately began to heal.

Debra brought out her scanner and plugged it into the console. “Let’s see if we can download the ship’s communication’s logs,” she said as she began typing on the console’s keyboard.

“I’ll take a look around,” said Will, as Debra continued working. She just gave him a quick nod.

He headed over to the main status console to make sure there would be no more surprises. Walking over, he saw something over in one of the corners that appeared to be covered with a tarp. He started towards it, but quickly turned away when a smell he knew too well reached him. It appeared that not everyone in the engine room had survived.

Looking over the console he saw they had somehow activated the ship emergency power system when they hooked up their power unit. Other than emergency ship power and communications, none of the other ship systems seemed to be active. “Why would communications be active?” he wondered. Then he saw it, a blinking green light which indicated an outgoing transmission was in progress. He immediately knew what it had to be.

“How much longer?” cried Will.

“Don’t know,” called Debra. “I’m having a hard time locating the communication logs.”

He ran over to Debra. “We’ve got to hurry,” he said urgently. “The ship’s emergency location beacon’s been activated.”

Having been in the military, she understood. When any Earth ship received such a signal, their first duty was to respond to it at maximum speed. “I’ve going as fast as I can. Can you disable it?”

“Not without shutting down ship’s power.”

Although he had no way of knowing where the closest Earth ship was located, Will had always believed in assuming the worst and acting accordingly. Based on that, he wanted to get back into space as soon as possible.

“Think I’ve got it,” shouted Debra. “I’m downloading the logs now.”

Will looked over her shoulder. “Did you see anything that would help?”

She shook her head. “No time. We’ll have to go through the data once we’re back on the ship and hope we got something.”

The scanner beeped and Debra pulled it out of the console. “Done.”

Will rushed over to the main console and began typing in the commands to shut down the ship’s emergency power system. Finishing, he pressed enter, but all the lights remained on. He tried again with the same results.

“Can’t shut down ship’s power. Let’s get out of here.”

The two of them put on their jetpacks and flew back to the ship. Landing in the cargo bay, they tore off there jetpacks, closed the cargo bay doors and darted up the ladder to the control section.

After strapping themselves into their seats, Will began flipping switches and as he flipped the last one announced, “Initiating ignition sequence.” The ship’s engines roared to life and they shot up into the sky.

As they left the atmosphere, Will brought up the tactical display while Debra began using the sensors to scan for other ships. “Nothing on sensors,” she reported.

Will set the ship on a heading away from Earth assuming that any Earth ships would be coming from that direction. He could only hope he was right.

And for the first several hours, it looked like he was.

“Sensors show an incoming vessel,” called Debra.

Will looked up at the tactical display. “Vega class cruiser. Not very big, but fast and maneuverable. We’ll never out run them.”

He looked at Debra. “Let’s see if they can be reasonable. After all, we did rescue four of their people.”

He flipped on the radio. “Come in Earth vessel,” he radioed. “Please come in.”

There was silence for several minutes, but the radio finally crackled to life. “We recognize your ship, Captain Power. By order of President Grandle you are to surrender immediately. Bring your vessel to a halt and shut down your shields and weapons.”

“So much for being reasonable,” muttered Debra.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that because we are currently engaged in rescue operations,” answered Will. “We have recovered four survivors from a crashed ship on the fourth planet of Omega-245.”

There was more silence. There was now hesitation in the voice which came from the radio. “I’m sorry, Captain Power, but our orders regarding you are specific. You must surrender or be destroyed.”

“Well we tried,” sighed Will as he brought the ship around and set course back for the Omega-245 system.