The Outer Worlds: Book One of the Epherian Chronicles (3 page)

The blood
drained from Michael’s face.

‘
Battle droids,’ said Ethan in a low and nervous voice.
‘Captain, we have to get out of here.’

‘
Agreed,’ said Ajax sternly.

Michael’s
wrist-com beeped. ‘Sara. What’s going on?’

‘…
Captain, the entire station has powered up. My scanners have
detected droids approaching your position. They are moving like
battle droids; they’re in the service corridor. You have about
twenty seconds! Get out of there!...’

‘
We’re trapped!’ yelled Ajax.

‘
Weld the door!’ shouted Michael.

Ethan dashed
forward and grabbed a handheld welder from his pack. ‘This won’t
hold for long, Captain! The Blueys will break through in a few
seconds,’ he said, rushing his words. He used his welder to melt
the steel door to the frame. A huge dent appeared from a heavy
impact on the other side.

‘
Let’s go. This way!’ yelled Michael.

They followed
Michael through a side door. A narrow corridor cut away from the
command room. About thirty seconds later they came to a sharp right
hand turn; they faced another door. Michael pressed the green
operation button, but the door didn’t open.

‘
The main computer is attempting to seal us in,’ said
Ivan.

‘
Captain, they’ve broken through the door!’ shouted Ethan, who
was watching the corridor that led back to the command
room.

‘
Hold them off!’ yelled Michael as he lifted his rifle and
fired on the locked door.

Ethan opened
fire as the battle droids appeared in the corridor. The droids
fired back; a torrent of bright orange charged particle beams shot
by. Ajax moved up beside Ethan, and he pointed the electromagnetic
pulse gun at the approaching Blueys. He pulled the trigger; three
battle droids instantly powered down and fell to the ground. A
second group of battle droids, which were further down the
corridor, stopped in their tracks and quickly retreated to the
command room.

‘
Captain, the electromagnetic pulse gun stopped them,’ said
Ajax with a smile. ‘They’re retreating!’

‘
They’ll be back! They’re programmed not to give up until we’re
dead, and they have ways of dealing with electromagnetic
weapons.’

Michael fired
on the locked door again and then kicked it open. Directly ahead
was a small medical room.

His wrist-com
beeped. ‘What’s happening, Sara?’

‘…
Captain, I have to detach. A group of battle droids have
discovered the Out Drifter’s position. Four of them are approaching
the attachment point. They will board the ship if I don’t leave
now. I’ll attempt to reattach at a different location…’

‘
If you detach we’ll be trapped on the space station,’ said
Ethan. ‘The battle droids will intercept any attempt you make to
reattach.’

‘…
Captain! I need to go, now!...’

‘
Okay, Sara, detach,’ he said, his face becoming
stony.

‘…
Detaching, Captain…’

The team
turned to Michael. No one said a word for a few moments. Ethan
glanced down at his scanner and his jaw dropped. ‘Captain, the
computer is opening the exterior ventilation ducts. It’s purposely
causing a complete decompression. We’ll be exposed to the vacuum of
space. We’re going to die in here.’

‘
How long do we have?’ asked Michael.

Ethan examined
the scanner for a moment. ‘Three or four minutes; we don’t have
time to make it out, even if Sara finds a suitable reattachment
point.’

‘
Ethan, where is the escape pod launching bay?’ asked
Michael.

‘
Captain, if the entire population evacuated there won’t be any
escape pods left,’ said Ethan.

‘
Just tell me where they are,’ said Michael firmly.

The handheld
scanner showed the entire station level by level. Ethan quickly
completed a scan for the escape pod launching bay. ‘We have to
return to the storage hold. The escape pod launching bay is on the
opposite side.’

‘
Follow me!’ said Michael as he ran back toward the command
room.

‘
This is a bad idea, Cap,’ said Ajax as they
followed.

‘
Have that electromagnetic pulse gun ready. The battle droids
think we are on the run; they won’t expect us to
attack.’

A moment later
they dashed into the command room. Michael opened fire; charged
particle beams blasted over the consoles. Five battle droids
whirled around to face them. Two of them fell as the beams cut
directly through them. Ajax fired the electromagnetic pulse gun,
and two more droids powered down instantly, but the remaining
battle droid managed to dodge the onslaught. The Bluey’s rocket
launcher began unleashing, and its charged particle rifle fired
rapidly.

‘
Take cover!’ yelled Michael.

Michael dived
behind a console and Ajax was thrown to the ground by the backlash
of a rocket exploding beside him.

Ethan returned
fire, but the beams from his plasma rifle were hitting an invisible
magnetic shield. Ivan ran forward with his plasma rifle blazing,
but the shield was too strong and the plasma beams dissipated. The
battle droid turned to face Ivan and opened fire. Ivan, realising
the danger, leapt for cover behind a console. His left arm tore
away from his body at the shoulder leaving exposed grey synthetic
muscle and loose wiring.

‘
Captain, I am hit; my arm is missing,’ he said in
monotone.

‘
I’ll order you a new one when we get out of this place,’
yelled Michael.

Ajax and
Michael were taking cover behind the main control console. Ethan
was hiding behind the holographic table. The battle droid was
waiting beside the door that led to the service corridor. The room
was clouded with smoke from the exploding rockets.

‘
The Bluey is protected by a magnetic shield,’ whispered
Michael.

‘
That shield only works against particle, plasma and
electromagnetic weapons,’ said Ajax.

‘
Did you bring any projectile weapons?’

‘
Just this,’ he replied, drawing a large combat
knife.

‘
You’ve got to be joking,’ said Michael, shaking his
head.

Ajax smiled
dryly. ‘Don’t worry, Cap. This one was sharpened by nano-bots. Make
a distraction …now!’

Michael leapt
up, yelled at the top of his lungs, and sprinted across the room as
he simultaneously fired his rifle. The charged particle beams
struck the magnetic shield as the battle droid turned to face him.
In the same moment Ajax jumped up and threw the knife with all his
might. The blade passed directly through the magnetic shield,
striking the droid’s blue glowing sensor. Sparks blasted out in
every direction. The Bluey instantly lurched forward and collapsed
as it powered down.

‘
Come on. Let’s go! The air is starting to thin,’ shouted
Michael.

The team ran
into the service corridor and made their way as quickly as possible
to the storage hold. They arrived at the security door at the far
end within a minute, but the door was locked.

‘
It’s the computer trying to stop us escaping!’ shouted
Ajax.

‘
Do you have those magno-explosives?’ asked Michael.

‘
Right here, Captain,’ replied Ethan.

‘
Blast the lock off!’

‘
Just give me a second.’ Ethan placed two small metal boxes on
the side where the lock was mounted. The explosives were the size
of matchboxes; they magnetically attached to the door. ‘Step
back.’

They moved
back. Ethan then switched the remote. The charges detonated and
blasted the lock off. Michael and Ajax ran forward, and together
they heaved the door open. They entered the storage hold and
proceeded as quickly as they could. The air was becoming so thin
that it was difficult to breathe. Only Ivan was unaffected. Ethan
opened the door at the far side of the storage hold; they entered
the escape pod launching room. Michael’s eyes quickly scanned the
pod bays; there were no remaining escape pods.

Ethan hung his
head. ‘This is it, Captain. We are going to suffocate.’

‘
I will survive this incident,’ said Ivan. ‘I can continue
functioning in a vacuum.’

Ajax rolled
his eyes. ‘Lucky you,’ he said.

‘
It’s been nice working with you,’ said Ethan in a cheerless
voice.

Michael shook
his head. He had come so far and couldn’t give up now. ‘Follow me,’
he said, his voice faltering from lack of breath.

‘
It’s over, Captain,’ said Ethan grimly.

‘
Not until I say it is,’ replied Michael as he walked back into
the storage hold. ‘Ethan. Are the seals on those spare sleeping
pods space worthy?’

‘
Yes, they are, but even if we get in them we won’t be able to
get away from the space station, and by the time anyone can rescue
us we will be found and killed by the battle droids.’

‘
What about the shipping container? Is it vacuum
proof?’

‘
It should be.’

‘
Ivan won’t run out of air,’ said Michael. ‘Follow
me.’

They quickly
crossed the storage hold; Michael opened the shipping container
with the sleeping pods. ‘Get into the sleeping pods.’

‘
I would rather die fighting the battle droids,’ said Ajax, his
face hardening.

‘
You’re not going to die,’ said Michael.

‘
Ethan is right; this is another bad idea,’ added
Ajax.

‘
Just get into the shipping container,’ commanded Michael as he
grabbed the quantum code breaker from Ethan. Ethan and Ajax
followed his order. ‘Not you, Ivan. I need you to seal the
container from the outside and then break the quantum code on the
storage hold space door. We are going to float away from this space
station.’

‘
But, Captain, I will be sucked out into space,’ said
Ivan.

‘
Don’t worry; you will be fine; remember I originally found you
floating in space. I know you can do this, Ivan. Don’t let me
down.’

His wrist-com
beeped again. ‘…Captain…’

‘
Yes, Sara?’

‘…
There are four battle droids approaching your position…you
have about thirty seconds…’

‘
Ivan, go!’ he shouted as he stepped into the shipping
container.

Ivan sealed
the shipping container door from the outside and then sprinted
across to the manual control console of the storage hold space
door. With his one remaining hand he powered up the quantum code
breaker. The outer space door had a double quantum encryption and
also needed an approval code from the central computer.

Ivan lifted
his wrist-com. ‘Captain, the door cannot be opened.’

The four
battle droids entered the storage hold from the service corridor.
Ivan dropped the quantum code breaker and reached for his plasma
rifle which was slung over his shoulder, but the battle droids
opened fire before he could point the rifle. A blast of charged
particles tore through his chest. He was thrown back and his rifle
slid away across the floor. He immediately sat up and drew his
pistol. Sparking wires were hanging out of a gaping hole in his
chest. He fired several shots at the droids, but their laser
systems burst into operation. Several bright red beams cut directly
through his synthetic body; an instant later he fell back and
powered down.

‘…
The battle droids finished Ivan…’ said Sara.

‘
No!’ yelled Michael.

‘
Now this is a tight situation,’ said Ajax with a grimace. ‘Not
only are we nearly out of air, but we are locked and sealed in this
shipping container and surrounded by Epherian battle droids. Do you
have any more bright ideas?’

‘
One or two,’ said Michael under his breath as he lifted his
wrist-com. ‘Sara. I want you to fire the Out Drifter’s rocket
launchers at the storage hold’s space door.’

‘…
You want me to what?...’

‘
Fire rockets at the storage hold’s outer space door,’ he
repeated.

‘…
but, Captain, I…’

‘
Sara, fire the rockets. That’s an order.’

Ajax shook his
head and wiped his brow. ‘If we survive this I’m going to buy you a
trophy,’ he said, a grim smile crossing his lips.

‘
Get into a sleeping pod! We’re going to make it.’

‘
I’ve always admired your overconfidence, Cap,’ said Ajax as he
reluctantly hopped into one of the sleeping pods; Ethan had already
slid into another.

‘
Seal your pods,’ shouted Michael.

‘
What about you, Cap?’

‘
I’ll be the last one in.’

Both Ajax and
Ethan hit the operation lever inside their pods. A moment later the
pods sealed and they both immediately fell asleep.

An explosion
rang out which was followed by two additional blasts. Within
moments the artificial gravity dissipated inside the shipping
container. Michael lost his footing and was floating in zero
gravity as the container was sucked out into space through the
gaping hole in the side of the space station. He half expected the
shipping container to decompress as it drifted away, but the door
seal maintained its integrity.

‘
Sara, pull us in with the gravitational harpoon.’

‘…
Captain, how will I get you on board the Out Drifter? I can’t
open the shipping container in space…’