33. Circle of life

• “Dan, they cut me off from the computers down there. I don’t think they can stop the calculations, most of the controls froze. And not sure how long we can stay in…”

He ran into another closed and broken bulkhead. Haven’t eaten for a day, sipping recirculated water from the helmet, unable to relax properly. And those were the last words he heard from Gopher an hour ago.

Another bulkhead stood in his path to safety, but this one got its share. Though Dan’s leg hurt for longer after kicking the bad door. Unable to hear, to use most of the senses in the dark corridors so teared up, no atmosphere could be supported.

He thought returning to the kitchen he found two days ago, mostly in tact. Must have been a crew mess hall. Only a single unlucky guy splashed onto a wall. He put a table cloth on his body, said a few made up words to honor him, even though he wasn’t much into religion. Felt the right thing to do.

Dan was afraid of trying his radio too often, conscious of his pursuers. Only a few times after Gopher’s broken message, while on the move and far from the kitchen. So he could return to a safer room. Without an updated map, he was trapped in a labyrinth of metal guts. Deep in the body of the Giant, with topped up oxygen supply he felt suffocating anyway.

Losing a sense of time, even with the numbers shown on his helmet display, his stomach rumbled again. Fortunately this can’t give away his position. On his way back to the kitchen, he zig zagged between corridors. Partly to avoid his pursuers, partly to scavenge anything useful. Passing a bulkhead fallen on a crew member, he found himself in familiar location.

He knew he was here before, circling for days at this point. Moments later he realized what was weird. The bulkhead crashed a space suited crew man, but no-one had time to react to the accident nor had any sign of it will happen. This must be one of his pursuers, left alone by the others when tripped into the trap Dan forgot about.

Too long dead for a connection, Dan still searched through him to find anything. Nothing beyond some batteries and another water tank. Not even an insignia, a name card under the suit, nothing. Except on the neck, a familiar style of tattoo. Swordfish brunt wearing crew member suit.

His crunching of an emergency ration loudly reverberated in the silent kitchen. No-one to talk to, this was the only sound. In his boredom and flailing thoughts, he started to modulate his rhythm. At least gave him two minutes to empty his thoughts. He was not entertaining the thought, he may stuck here forever. Giving up is not a concept in his vocabulary.

The next day he hit a goldmine. An engineering station with tools properly stored. Among the usual, he found a diagnostic drone. Which was not unusual in itself, but most civilian drones were designed for atmospheric navigation or zero-gravity. Currently he had gravity, but no air to use for flying. This one was different, seemed modified by one of the engineers posted here. Signs of hand-soldering along the spider legs. Immense luck, this drone will work, he just had to figure out the controls.

An hour of playing with the new toy, and he could make it do tricks even. Wondered if the original programming could be applied. He used them once in a while in the docks, these small mechanical pets were really adept at finding structural weaknesses. He may find a route out of this forsaken place!

Just to be sure his private kitchen remains a secret, he only activated the drone far away. The previously insulted bulkhead didn’t budge to his tries, neither the drone found an exploitable weakness. Neither a path around it.

Hours passing by, Dan trying to retrace his original steps leading to the ships bow. He only found ruble where he suspected his entrance. Unlike the heavy door he could lift away from the brunt’s body, sections of this ruble fused with the bulkhead. Uncontrolled electrical surges from dangling wires had enough power to fuse steel.

Standing there thinking on alternatives when he saw another standing silhouette afar in the parallel corridor. The silhouette stood for a while, staring at each other without eye contact. Then in a moment, it sprinted toward Dan. Readying his crowbar, turning around in full circle to see how many opponents he may face. The single sprinter already halfway toward him when the floor breaks under the silhouette.

Before the sprinter could get up from the ground, Dan jumped after him with swinging the crowbar down onto the head. His clean hit almost chopped off the head. Dan mapped this area very well, and confirmed with the drone’s sensors that the trap will work. While it didn’t want to let him go, the guts of the Giant of the Star became his castle on the hill. The terrain favored the lone defender against a group of invaders.

He had no idea how many were after him, he could only confirm two were down and out. Again this one had no personal identifiers on him. And dead people don’t talk, so no match with the stored voice prints. However Dan felt none of these grunts were the main opponent he was facing. He expected more class from that commanding voice, not a mindless charge on treacherous grounds.

Inside the helmet, in the bottom extension slots he found a short range radio chip. Unlike the ones they used as dock workers, they were without any manufacturer branding. He put it into his helmet’s slots, and heard the familiar voice immediately:

• “Fourth, come in, did you get him?” — so these guys didn’t even use names. Well, Fourth, rest in pieces, thought Dan to himself.
• “Sixth, check up on him. Two floors below you.” — heard the same voice again. Dan knew its him. Three, corrected him, just for himself.

Dan quickly recovered the drone and traversed up two floors, cutting into a few steps on the metal ladder, just for good measures. He planned to get the high ground again, so sent the drone for a quick scouting. Transferring the sensor data to his helmet display. He could see an overlay where ultra sound and infrared vision combined spot the metal bending and deforming. Where he saw more of the reds convulsing, suspected the metal is weaker and ready to break.

In large scale structural damages, patterns of these repeat for multiple floors. His expectation confirmed by the drone. The next floor’s corridor is just ready to fall where the blow floor did. Now waiting in a dark corner.

• “Boss, found him, not moving.” — Not yet, Dan, not yet.
• “Dam… another… check up on him… but careful.”
• “Yeah, his head was bashed in.” — Now.

Dan ran onto the weakened floor, hoping it will budge under his weight. Crouching down, he felt the metal giving way. A second later, vibrating under his boots, he fell with the floor converted a slide board. Sixth pinned down by the combined weight, face gone before he could recover from his surprise.

Dan heard noise through the radio this time. So Sixth was in continuous connection.

• “Sixth, what happened?” — again the familiar voice.

Read the story leading up to now:

Giant of the Stars

Fictional story of a luxury starliner’s catastrophy