Taking Space 2

-HIJACK -

Lord Maddog finished carefully cutting a hole into the ship and reattached the handy beam to his belt loop.

Stephanie breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm surprised that didn't alert them that we're here."

"Well the only reason it probably didn't is because whatsoever in that box is putting off an awful lot of energy fluctuation," Steven answered.

"I don't like the sound of that," Michael mused. "This cargo is sounding more and more dangerous by the moment."

"At least we will know what it is in a few minutes," Stephanie said. "Going in."

"Ah, you should probably let me do that. There is a lot of sensors in there and I need to bypass them before we try to get at the box," Steven told Stephanie.

She nodded and tossed him the control hat.

Steven caught it, set it on his head and closed his eyes.

Lord Maddog pulled a second EVA shield he had latched onto his toolbelt and attached it to the side of the ship then activated it so it formed bubble around him and the cut in hull of the ship.

"Why are you doing that?" Daniel asked.

Steven kept his eyes closed as he answered, "So they don't detect a hull breach when I removed this piece duh."

"Stealth boarding 101," Stephanie chimed.

Daniel crossed his arms and said, "Well excuse me for not being good at stealth."

"That's the understatement of the year," Steven mocked as he used the electromagnets in Lord Maddog's hands to pull out the chunk of severed armor and bulkhead. "Now everyone be quiet I need to concentrate." Having removed the obstacle Maddog carefully climbed through the hole and into the cargo bay. Once inside he pulled out an assortment of tools and crept along the wall stopping ever so often to use the micro blade to cut into the wall and attach circular like clamps to the wires he found.

After two complete circuits of the cargo bay Steven finally breathed a sigh of relief. "All clear," he declared with a note of self-satisfaction. "You know for a ship this size this is a really small bay."

"Maneuverability," Michael said, "Cargo bays equal mass and mass is the enemy of maneuverability."

"True that," Steven answered. Lord Maddog stood up straight for the first time since he entered the cargo bay and started to walk towards the large mysterious black box.

"Wait," Catherine snapped as Maddog reached to push the open button on the side of the box.

Steven stopped squinting in concentration and raised an eyebrow at her, "Why, from what I can tell there's no booby-trap on its just a simple scanner shielded box."

"Well for one while you were securing the room I noticed when you switch to x-ray vision that there are four guards standing outside the cargo bay, and two what ever is inside the box could be dangerous. I think it best if we remove it from the cargo bay and out into open space before we open it," Catherine explained.

Steven shrugged. "I guess you're right," he stated and looked up at the main view screen. "Alf take a squad of droids and set up a temporary chamber on the other side of my prototype starway I'll send this box there shortly."

"Yes sir," the AI answered.

Turning his attention back to the android Steven had Lord Maddog detach a string of tubes from his belt and set them on the floor. The tube snapped together forming a six and a half foot in diameter circle resembling a giant hula hoop. Lord Maddog then picked up the hoop as Steven said, "Alf you ready?"