The Road to Hell

Chapter 29

Back in the otherspace control room, Tanner was on the comm with Captain Hannigan again. "You tried to fuck with us last time and look what happened. You ready to play ball this time?" he asked.

Hannigan was just as livid as Tanner. "Yeah I'm ready to play ball," he said, "but you've been holding out on me. Some friends of yours are upstairs right now, wreaking all sorts of havoc. I don't know what you think you're doing here, but we've had enough. We'll let you and your men leave the station, as long as you cease all hostilities immediately. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

"Let the hostages go first," Hannigan said. "And tell your friends aboveground to stop their attack."

Tanner glanced over at Armin. "How much longer?"Armin shrugged. "Just a few minutes more and I'll bring the system back online. See if you can stall just a little more."

Tanner switched back to Hannnigan. "No deal. We keep the hostages right until we put this place in our rear view. Forgive me if I don't think you'll keep your word."

Hannigan didn't like it, but Tanner wasn't being unreasonable. "Okay. One minute."

Tanner cut the line and left the room to go update Talon and Fitch. As soon as he was gone, one of the technicians chanced speaking up. "Why are you guys doing this?"

Armin tried to ignore him, but the same guy risked moving closer. "Hey! Get back, okay?" Armin menacingly waved the shotgun in their direction, before going back to think about his problem.

"What are you really doing?" the technician asked. "It shouldn't have taken you this long just to bypass the ignition mechanism. You obviously know what you're doing, but something tells me the others don't." Armin continued to block him out. "Where are you trying to take us?"

"We're not taking you anywhere," Armin snapped. He was running out of time and he hadn't figured out a solution yet.

"Then why—

"Shut up! I have to concentrate, okay? Otherwise you're all just going to die."

The technician frowned. "What, you expect me to believe you're trying to help?"

"Yes. I'm trying, but I need time to think, to look over the goddamn schematics and operating manuals of this system to even know if what I want to do is possible. Of course I can't do any of that right now, so it looks like you're all fucked."

"Listen," the technician said softly, "we know this system inside and out. If you're really trying to help us then we can work together, but I'm not doing anything until you let me know what's going on here." He stared Armin down.

Finally, Armin relented and lowered the shotgun. "The plan was to blow up the Senate, but that backfired," he explained quickly. "When that happened, my commander decided that the next best thing to do would be to jump the station into the Sun. That's why we're here."

"That's why he wanted the ignition key."

"Right, and since that was destroyed he got me here to bypass it."

"So I don't get it, what are you trying to do now?"

Armin smiled. "Believe it or not, we're on your side. We just have to do this to stop a very bad man. But I figured that since I'm down here, maybe we can get away without having to destroy the station."

"So, what's your plan?" the technician asked. The others looked interested now. A glimmer of hope peeked out from behind their tired eyes.

"I need to know if there's a way for us to control the jump destination from down here."