SIREN

Chapter Seven

I said my goodbyes to Doctor White and followed Sam's flightpath. We moved through the doors and down the tubular corridors. Some of the panels had cracked and splintered during the asteroid assault and now they were floating around, blocking our way. Bright yellow sparks spat from exposed wiring and droplets of oil and other fluids drifted aimlessly. All the screens that once showed valuable information fizzed and showed the same odd signs that I saw earlier at my computer. I was about to take a closer look when Sam pulled at my arm.

'Don't bother,' he said. 'It's always the same. A load of weird spirals with lines through them.'

'Fascinating. I think they're remnants from the virus, or maybe this is the virus...' I maundered, 'what does that curl mean? And the line running through it, what's the significance there? Sam, does it look like a thunderbolt to you, too?'

'Don't know, don't care,' he said, pulling me along.

'How can you not care?' My stomach fluttered with excitement. 'That, on the screen, is interesting!'

Sam mumbled under his breath and then said, 'how are we going to fix those things anyway?'

'Fix the computers? Hoshi will help when she wakes up.'

'If.'

'What?'

'If she wakes up.'

I raised my eyebrows. 'You're positive.'

'I'm being realistic,' he said, 'she's not in a great way, Teabags.'

'Realistic? Call it what you want, Sam, it's still depressing,' I said, swinging round a corner. More debris met my body and I had to paw some pieces of plastic away from my eyes.

'Teabags, if you can't see how bad this situation is, you're blind.'

'I never said it was good, I'm just saying we should be, you know, thinking optimistically. We'll pull through this. We're professionals. We've been trained.'

Sam stopped. 'Trained in this? This exact scenario?'

'Well, no, but—'

'Exactly!' he fumed, 'we've seen similar things, and yeah, we've been told what to do, but we are out of our depth here, Teabags.'

I swallowed and licked my lips. No words came, so I carried on moving.

Sam and me stayed silent, only breaking the quiet to grunt as we pushed crates and junk out of the way. Eventually, the corridor ended and we were faced with a set of wide silver doors. Two bright blue bars locked the handles together, sealing the hangar tight.

'Wonderful,' Sam said. 'That's just wonderful.'

'So, what now?' I said, getting closer to the bars. I put my fingers over them, feeling their thickness. 'Do you think these are too big too shift by hand?'

Sam moved to a monitor. He pressed a button on the side and talked into a small round grate. 'Captain, are you there?'

'What do you want?' She said back.

'Hangar door is in lockdown. Please advise.'

'You're a weapons expert,' she cried, 'do something with your weapons.'

'Right, yeah,' Sam said, 'Teabags, stay here. Don't touch anything.' And with that, he rushed off and left me alone.

I did nothing but think. I floated there, next to the door, going over everything in my head. The spiral on the screens, Hoshi, the asteroids, the Poseidon transmission and Olga's temper... I cast my mind over it all and tried to find some way to fix our situation. Things seemed hopeless, and to make matters worse, I felt as useless as our engines.

Sam returned a minute later with an overstuffed black rucksack. He had it slung over his shoulder, with cables spewing out the sides.

'What's in there?' I asked, approaching him.

'Toys,' he smiled, throwing the bag to me.

I caught it, unzipped the top and peeked inside. I gasped at the collection of grenades, Semtex, cables and detonators Sam had packed. 'You're going to use all this on that?'

'Don't be stupid, Teabags,' he said, snatching the explosive materials from my hands, 'I'm going to use this.' He put his fingers into his trouser pocket and pulled out a long black tube with a red stud on the end.

'What's that?' I said as I watched Sam approach the hangar door. 'Is it going to pick the lock, or maybe—?'

'Shut up,' he said. 'Just watch.'

He lifted the tube and ripped off the stud. A blinding aqua flame, about two inches long, shot out the bottom. Sam raised an arm and covered his eyes.

'I don't remember seeing that on Earth,' I said, shouting over the hissing noise.

'Yeah, you wouldn't. This is something I worked on down in the labs. It's a handheld plasma cutter.' He sliced through one of the blue locks and smiled. 'It doesn't work for very long, though. Single use.'

'Fascinating...' I said, peering through the gaps in my fingers.

Sam worked his way through the second lock and then threw the tool over his shoulder. It spiralled away, knocked against a wall, and careered down the corridor.

'Isn't that hot?' I asked, watching it go.

'Yeah, but it'll cool down soon.'

'It won't start a fire?'

Sam punched my arm. 'Can you please stop worrying about things? It's starting to freak me out.'

'Sorry.'

'Help me with this door,' he said, pressing his shoulder against the steel.

I moved over and stood opposite him. 'What do I do?'

'Grab the bars, no, the blue ones. Grab the blue ones. Lift on three, yeah?'

'Say when.'

'Okay...' He paused and sniffed. 'Three!'

I heaved with everything in me. My knees felt like they were about to break and my arms told me to stop over and over. The hangar door made a squealing sound and then started to creak. Slowly, a small gap opened and Sam darted his hand between it. He placed both his feet on the bottom half and then his hands on the top. 'Teabags, pass me that box behind you,' he said, gasping in pain.

'This?' I said, reaching for a red toolbox.

'Yeah, that! Slide it here.'

I did as I was told and propped the box lengthways. Sam let go and backed away with his hands up.

'Wow. I didn't think that would work,' he said.

'So, what do we do now? Fly through?' I grimaced as I imagined my body being chopped in half.

'Yep,' Sam smiled and dashed off. He clung to the front of the door, tucked his legs under, and tossed his body through the gap. Within seconds, I had lost sight of him completely.

'Right,' I muttered. I followed Sam's lead and did what he had done. I didn't move as gracefully as him and my legs did bash the toolbox briefly.

'Careful!' I heard him cry from the other side.

Thankfully, I arrived in the hangar with my limbs still attached.