The Tartarus Directive

Chapter 17

They approached the door hesitantly. This was the end of the line. Even from the other side of the lead-lined door, they felt the intense heat radiating out from the reactor core. If the containment had been breached, the reactor control room would be filled with high levels of radiation. They did not have to be scientists to know the risks, but exposure to radiation would mean nothing if the ship was destroyed, and it was worth the risk to try.

Rehema went to work opening the door. The radiation shielding on the door made it heavier than any other on the ship, making it nearly impossible to open through brute force alone. Rehema pried the control panel open and drew a small device not unlike the one Griff had found plugged into the commander's computer console. Rehema delicately disconnected wires from the control mechanism and hooked them up to his device. He struggled with great frustration to complete his task under the pressure. Just as he was about to succeed in the initial stage of opening the door, all the lights suddenly turned on and the door began to open. Rehema looked to the other two men with confusion.

A pale green light shined under the door as it rose, and the muffled hum of the reactor became a low growl. The low voices they had heard before had ceased. As soon as the door was open just enough to pass, they ducked under it one-by-one with their weapons trained ahead.

The reactor control center was a half-ring-shaped room with tall, thick, sloping windows of safety glass facing down into the reactor core itself. Beneath the windows was an array of computer consoles and screens from which the technicians worked to keep the reactor running. This technology was largely analog despite the important task the equipment was executing. The wall closest to the door was covered in a diagram of the reactor with lights and numbers indicating the status of each of the reactor's components.

The technicians were not at their stations. They were lined up against the far wall on their knees, guarded at gunpoint by a squad of Mavros' men. Two technicians lay dead at the feet of their stations. Upon seeing the three men enter the control room, Mavros' men did not turn their guns on them--they began hurriedly executing the technicians who were still alive. All three men fired their weapons as quickly as they could at the insurgents, but they were not fast enough. When all five of the gunmen were dead, six of the seven technicians including the shift supervisor had been killed. The seventh technician scrambled to her feet and got as far away from the bodies as she could in the small room. She began rapidly muttering things to herself, the words muffled by the hood of her radiation suit. After a few seconds, she pulled the hood of her radiation suit off in a panic and dropped it to the floor. She was no older than twenty-five. Her face was red from the heat, her eyes sunken with exhaustion, and her hair matted with sweat. She began hyperventilating. Griff helped her into a rolling chair in front of the control panel.

"Where is Mavros?" Griff asked, getting straight to the point.

The technician's eyes were glazed over and bloodshot, staring at the bodies on the floor in silent terror.

"Where is Mavros?" Griff repeated, again to no response.

He raised his arm in a swift motion to strike her with his hand. Harkness caught him by the wrist with a firm grip.

"Markham, over here!" Rehema shouted over the din of the reactor mechanisms.

Harkness gave Griff an uncharacteristically stern and disapproving look at the prospect of Griff's violence. Griff looked at the young technician and then back to Harkness.

"Here!" Rehema called urgently.

Harkness let go of Griff and the two men went to Rehema, who stood peering through a small window in the hatch that opened into the reactor core. Mavros stood in the chamber next to a console holding a bloodied Commander Rowland at gunpoint. Mavros pressed the call button on the console's intercom, his voice came through speakers in the control room.