The Abyss of Time

Chapter Seven

     Dundee recovered enough to help Miller find the handcuff key and a moment later the Exec's hands were free. "Contact whoever's taken charge of security," he told the guard as he searched the room for his phone, taken by the cyborg and casually tossed away. He spotted a P16 and scooped it up. "Find out what the situation is."

     Dundee nodded and activated his hands-free communications gear. He tapped it a few times and frowned. "No signal," he said. "The comm systems are down."

     Miller found his phone, examined it and found it undamaged. He turned it on and tried to call the Operations room. A message popped up on the screen telling him that his call couldn't be connected. "The computer handles the phone system," he said. "It's located under the Ops room. It was probably damaged by gunfire. Looks like we'll have to go there and ask them."

     Dundee nodded and they went to where the travel car was still sitting on its rails, just beside the exit from the travel tunnel. The door opened as they approached, but there was another error message on its wall-screen. "Travel service is currently unavailable. We apologise for the inconvenience."

     "Does the computer handle the travel tube system as well?" asked Dundee.

     "Yes," said Miller. "Hopefully it'll just be a few processor crystals need replacing. A five minute fix. In the meantime, though, it looks like we're walking. A little under eight hundred metres. No, wait. Something more important first.

     He went to the nearest door that opened onto a connecting corridor; a passageway used to access the maintenance bays and machine shops. The door failed to open as they approached it, a safety feature that was intended to operate when the ship suffered some kind of major disaster. Miller thought about Karalis's threat to blow up the operations room, but refused to let himself think about that for the moment. Instead, he opened a hatch in the wall to reveal the manual door release. He pulled it and the door slid open.

     He went through and Dundee followed him around twists and turns and up a flight of stairs until they came to the fabrication suite. Miller went straight to the two processor crystal imprinters and fired at them until they were riddled with holes that sparked and smoked angrily.

     "They won't be using them to make any more Conversion machines," he said with satisfaction. He aimed another burst of gunfire at them, just to make sure, then swept out of the room.

     "There are six more of them around the ship and on the landing craft," Dundee reminded him.

     "Yes, and we'll get the them one at a time. The cyborgs need two things. Conversion machines and people to convert. If we can keep them both out of their hands, they lose."

     "We'll need to print some chips ourselves, if we want to repair the computers," said Dundee doubtfully.

     "We can make do with a lower level of technology," the Exec told him. "They can't. Do you know where the imprinters are on the Beagle class landers?"

     "Yes."

     "Go and destroy them. All four imprinters. Make sure you do a good job of it."

     Dundee looked frightened. "That's where the cyborgs'll be heading," he said.

     "I know. Just get there first. Blow them to hell and get out. This is important. Understand?"

     The guard nodded. "There are two more in Engineering," he said. "Small enough that two men can carry one between them. The cyborgs'll have taken them before they blew the room up."

     "We'll deal with that when he can. First we destroy the ones we can get to. Don't let me down, soldier."

     "Yes, Sir."