Drifting Dark

Chapter 4: The Heart

Cassie was not out of breath by the time they walked into the engine room.

She was almost out of breath. And trying to hide it.

The trek back through the entire length of the ship had taken them almost an hour, and they hadn't even gotten lost once. Helen clearly knew this place like the back of her hand, confidently leading them to the subdecks that housed the major systems. The hum of working machinery was getting louder. Power generation, propulsion, environmentals, it was all up here.

This was the heart of the ship.

But not a healthy one.

Once they'd gotten up the ladder, she'd quickly lost count of how many shoddy repairs she'd been able to spot so far. And those were only the ones that were visible. And she hadn't even gotten to the main systems yet.

She peeked into a room as they walked by, distracted by the familiar sharp, acrid scent of rubberized metal. It looked like it housed one of the oxygen scrubbers, one that didn't seem to be working. The workstation screen was silently flashing red with errors, begging for attention. Part of the complex network of pipes and chemical vats had been dissembled... and not in an organized fashion.

Along with the parts scattered on the floor, she spotted a laser torch, just lying on the ground, as if forgotten. Not recently either, given the thin coating of dust. And there was no sign of anyone in there.

"We're almost there," Helen called out ahead of her.

Cassie ducked under a low hanging cable, moving onto the next room, which was completely packed with machinery. Even Helen had to slow down here, taking care to avoid tripping over the thick cables snaking across the floor as she made her way deeper into the inanimate jungle.

Cassie followed, carefully navigating the narrow throughways, which had some alarmingly sharp edges sticking out. If there was some sort of path their captain was following, Cassie couldn't see it.

The hum was louder here and, unlike the rest of the ship, this place smelled. Not a lot, but enough for someone used to clean, filtered, scrubbed air to notice. She couldn't quite identify the metallic tang lingering about, or the faint smell of burnt toast.

The smell shouldn't have been there. The filters in the ventilation system should have removed it. But she liked it. It was real. It meant stuff was working.

It was comforting, like home.

One of the free hanging cables brushed her sleeve, leaving a greasy, black smudge. She didn't even notice it, the colour easily blended into her stained uniform, and she was focused on avoiding an exposed gearbox on her right.

Cassie made a mental note to never let her hair down in here.

It wasn't the only thing around here that had had it's guard removed. Or modified. Some equipment seemed to be constructed entirely out of patchwork, so much so that she was beginning to wonder how much of the original ship was even left.

Helen slowed to a stop. "So this is our maintenance hub." She raised her voice above the noise. "You'll be working here."

Cassie nodded, eager to finally get started.

"Aqeel?" Helen called out, sticking her head between two humming metal boxes.

There was frustrated muttering from the depths of the mechanical jungle.

Cassie couldn't make out any of the words over the cacophony.

Helen stuck her head further in, raising her voice. "We're getting ready to undock, is everything good?"