That seemed to satisfy the boys who went back to patiently waiting. A few more
moments passed before a low rumbling began. The rumbling morphed into a loud grinding. The
grinding grew slower and slower until it sounded like a giant burping. The burp ended abruptly
followed by a high pitched pop that sounded like a bottle of fizzup opening. Then…silence.
The silence was a surprise because the mechanical sound of the module had been so
overpowering. For the first time they could hear the sound of the bubbling lava nearby.
Merrell smiled and gave Jacinda a thumbs-up. She returned the smile beaming at his
approval. Devon watched the exchange and smiled as well, but that had more to do with Merrell
and Jacinda’s growing friendship than anything else.
They all heard a mechanical whir as the nearby hatch slid open. A grubby looking fellow
emerged, a look of irritation on his face.
“Infernal piece of garbage! I done patched ya four times already.” He said no one in
particular.
The man continued to berate the unseen target of his wrath. “If I have to fix you again
I’ll recycle you into a toilet control valve.”
Devon had to stifle a laugh as the ragged man ambled and cursed his way to the control
port Jacinda had sabotaged. He turned the corner, going out of sight of Devon and the others.
This is when they planned on sneaking into the module.
Finally reaching the control port, the man fished in one of the pockets of his baggy
jumpsuit. Not finding what he was looking for, he moved on to another pocket. He failed to
locate the goal of his quest in that pocket as well.
“Where is that durn zeta-driver?” He growled. “I had it right here…somewhere.”
The man began to empty his pockets, tossing various tools, widget and gizmos onto the
ground around him. ”Hold on, let me think. I was working on the enviro-evaporator. Then I
fixed the core resonator. I didn’t need it to adjust the toaster…so I must have left it by the
resonator.”
While the man searched, Devon and his friends snuck into the module, slipping in the
open hatch and hiding behind a stack of battered equipment cases. Devon rummaged around for
a moment and found a stained, canvas tarp. He draped the tarp over the stack and then attached
it onto a hook on the wall, giving them a bit more cover. With the mess in the room, he did not
think that something out of place, like the tarp, would be noticed.
All three froze when they heard a clatter from the other side of the room. Devon peeked
out from underneath the tarp, checking to see if the man had returned. He noticed that a box had
fallen from a table spilling a handful of electronic parts across the floor, but he did not see any
sign of the man.
Just as Devon began to relax, he was startled by the mumbling curses of the man
returning from repairing the sabotaged control port.
“Durn, stinkin’, broken-down, piece of garbage. Can’t hold together for more than a
week without fritzin out.” He mumbled as he entered the room, thumbing the switch to close the
hatch. “If Cappy wants me to keep this place going he is gonna have to pony up a bigger share.”
The man turned and stormed out of the room, kicking aside the spilled electronic parts as
he did. He stomped through the hatch leading out of the room and slammed it behind him.
Jacinda pulled the tarp aside and ran to the hatch the man had just slammed shut. She
punched several buttons on a control panel next to the hatch and then sighed.
“That should lock them out so we can do our work.” Jacinda said.
“We risked all that just to lock ourselves in this room?” Merrell asked, looking confused.
“Yup, because these modules are used in very dangerous places, every room, even the
hallways, can be sealed and has an auxiliary control console. I may need to hack their control
codes, but once I do that we can run the entire module from here. We only needed to get inside
so we could access their systems.”
“Good job, Jacinda.” Devon said, obviously impressed. “How long do you think this
will take?”
“I can’t be sure until I try to access the system…but if their security is as sloppy as the
rest of their operation, it shouldn’t take too long. The first thing we have to do is find the control
console.”
Devon, Jacinda, and Merrell began searching the walls, moving cases and generally
rummaging around, trying to find anything that might be a control console. Several times Devon
though he heard the scrabble of something unseen moving around in the debris around the room,
but not seeing anything, he guessed it was probably just a mouse.
The search dragged on for quite a wile before it was interrupted by a curse from Jacinda.
“Oh, great. These pirates really don’t care about safety at all.” She said.
“Why, what did you find?” Devon asked.
“Well, I found out where the console is
supposed
to be. Unfortunately, these bozos have
removed it, probably to use it as a replacement for one of the primary control consoles. Doing
that is just dangerous. If someone was trapped in here during an emergency than they would be
helpless.”
“So what do we do now?” Merrell asked.
“Well…I think I may be able to patch my datapad into the system using the interface
wires that they
did
leave. But I will be limited in what I can do. But, it may be enough.”
Jacinda once again retrieved the toolkit from her pocket and set to work hooking up her
datapad to the control wires. She worked intently, a bit of pick tongue peeking out from the side
of her mouth showing her concentration.
She mumbled in frustration a few times before looking up at Devon and Merrell, her face
beaming.
“I think I got it. Now I just have to hack their system.” She typed furiously with her
thumbs on the tiny keyboard. “It looks like they haven’t even done any security upgrades for
quite a while. So…yup, I got it. We are in.”
Devon eyed Jacinda suspiciously. “How do you know how to hack into a system? I
knew you could work on hardware and stuff, but the hacking thing is unexpected.”
“What, I just know a little. You know, like enough to watch vids I’m not supposed
to…or getting an extra helping of dessert from the food machines. I don’t make a habit of it.”
Jacinda responded, a blush growing in her cheeks.
Merrell stifled a laugh. “Don’t worry Jacinda, Devon and I won’t turn you in. In fact, I
like your dark side.”
“I don’t have a dark side.” Jacinda said. “Just because I am poor doesn’t mean that I’m a
criminal.” Tears welled in her eyes.
Merrell was shocked by Jacinda’s heated response. “Jacinda, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it
that way. I…I…I’m just so sorry.”
Jacinda wiped away the tears, her anger disappearing. “No, Merrell, you didn’t mean it
bad. I can be sensitive about it. I shouldn’t take it out on you.”
Merrell shifted uncomfortably. “Still, I’m really sorry.”
Jacinda wiped away the last of the tears and cleared her throat.
“Well, that is enough of that. Now let’s get down to business. What should we do first?”
Jacinda asked.
Devon thought for a moment. “Jacinda, you know better than us how to throw a wrench
into their works. What do you think we should do?”
Her brows furrowed in though for a moment. She smiled suddenly, the light of mischief
in her eyes. “How about we start by reversing their sewer pumps and work our way up from
there.
Chapter 24
Burgess slammed the hatch behind him, scattering various bits of junk. He huffed, and
puffed, and grumbled his way back to his control console.
“Cappy had better get me better equipment soon or I’ll jet.” Burgess muttered. “I’m sick
and tired of keeping this place together with spit and bailing wire.” As he spoke, he rummaged
through a small box filled with electronic do-dads, like rainbow plastic popcorn. He plucked
items out one at a time, examining them for a moment then plopped them back into the box. A
few he simply tossed them over his shoulder to clatter on the floor, adding to the already
considerable piles of junk scattered around.
Burgess’ muttering lessened as his temper cooled, as did the frantic sorting of his bits and
pieces. He finally put down the box and turned his attention back to his control console. An
amber light on the console drew his attention to the waste control readouts. His confusion turned
to shock and then to dismay. He had only a moment to wonder what was going on before a
storm of yelling and the sound of rushing liquid drew his attention away from the console and
toward the bathroom hatch.
The hatch slid open, releasing a wave of foul-looking, brown liquid into the room. Cappy
rolled into the room, caught up in the vile wave. His arms flailed as he was tossed head-first out
of the bathroom, flinging gobs of waste all over the room.
Burgess ducked to avoid a particularly large gob and then nearly gagged as the smell of
the onrushing wave hit him. In the small room the stink made him dizzy and burned his eyes.
He leapt into his chair, the thought of being caught up in the stinking wave suddenly very
terrifying.
Cappy’s ride came to an end at the feet of Burgess’ chair. Cappy lay there unmoving, the
dregs of the wave washing past him. Burgess was afraid. If Cappy was gone than he was stuck
here all alone until one of the pilots returned to pick up the smelted ore. On the other hand, if
Cappy survived he would surely blame him for this. There was no telling what Cappy might do
in anger. Burgess pondered which fate he preferred for Cappy.
Fate answered the question for Burgess as Cappy rolled over with a groan. The groan
became a deep cough. Burgess did not want to imagine what Cappy might be coughing up out of
his lungs. The thought made him shudder.
Finally, Cappy sat up and eyed Burgess.
“What in tarnation is going on? Even
you
can’t be this incompetent.” Cappy said.
“I swear I don’t know what is happening.” Burgess replied. “It’s like somebody reversed
the sewer pumps on purpose. I watched the readout change, but it was too late to do anything
about it, before…well, you know, before your accident.”
“It doesn’t sound like an accident to me.” Cappy snapped.
“Okay, Cappy, let me run the systems through a full check. I’ll find out what happened.”
“Fine, I’ll be in my quarters cleaning up.” Cappy said.
He stood up, his clothes squishing and dripping as he did. He walked over to the hatch
leading to the crew quarters.
“Burgess, open the hatch. My hands are dirty.”
Burgess nodded a smile. “Aye, Cappy.” He punched the release button on his console.
The console squawked rudely, and the door did not open. He pressed the button again and got
the same response.
“Can you hurry it up?” Cappy asked.
“Uh, Cappy, it’s not working. It acts like I am locked out.”
“Whatever it is, fix it…this stuff is starting to dry and I’m getting crackly.”
Burgess had to stifle a laugh. “Aye…Cappy.”
He flipped switches, turned knobs and tried to access any of the other controls, but the
console seemed frozen. That could only mean one thing.
“Cappy, I got really bad news.” Burgess said. “Someone else has taken over the
controls. That means that they are inside somewhere.”
What?” Cappy said. “Good thing I got this.” He smiled a shark’s smile and drew a
chunky pistol from his jumpsuit.
Burgess pales. He might be a bad man, but he had never been a violent one. The thought
of fighting intruders made him go pale. Cappy walked over and grabbed the front of Burgess’
jumpsuit.
“Don’t get soft now, Burgess. We have to finish this, and I can’t get out of here unless
you can get one of these hatches open.” Cappy snarled. The smell, the gun and Cappy’s snarl
conspired to break him out of his shock.
“Sure boss, but I don’t think I can get one of the hatches open…” Burgess said, but was
interrupted by Cappy, who waved the gun in his direction. “But I was gonna say that the hatches
ain’t the only way out of here.”
Cappy grinned evilly.
Chapter 25
Devon and Merrell stood behind Jacinda as she feverishly tapped out commands on her
datapad.
“Okay, everyone is locked in wherever they are. That should give us some time.”
Jacinda said, in between keystrokes.
“Any chance they can get out and stop us?” Devon asked.
“Nope, not unless they know some way to override that I don’t know about.” Jacinda
