Chromium

3.1

The only thing Dia could feel was her heart, thumping in her throat. She was running, her side vision blurred as she dashed across the hallway with just one thought in her mind: she had to escape, leave the ship alive. That was her mission, the last the captain gave her.

The empire had to know what happened here.

"Dia! Stop! The turbolifts!" Jenkins shouted from behind her.

Dia slowed down, her legs hurting as her feet skidded on the floor like was she skiing.

"We don't have time, Jenkins!" Dia shouted to her when she stopped.

The turbolifts---the Siren's elevators---were dark, offline just like half of the ship's systems. They had done something to them, just like with their communications, weapons and the damn shields. Dia couldn't stay here; she had to move, reach those escape pods close to the cargo bay.

"Just how do you expect to cross half the ship and reach the pods with those things waltzing around?" Jenkins replied, her words sarcastic but she looked calm. 

It was like she was the soldier and Dia the tech, not the other way around. Dia had always envied her for that.

"Now please, keep watch while I fix this mess." Jenkins continued while she bent down near the turbolift's control panel, removing its metal sheet with her magnetic screwdriver.

"Fuck" Dia muttered, biting her lips. "I don't like this." She said, taking out her ordinance sidearm from its holster. 

The security team was guarding the docking bay, but she knew they could do little except for slowing them down. They would be here soon.

I should be with them. She was the rookie, a newcomer transferred here just a week before the beginning of the mission. Many of the others in her squad had years of service, families waiting for them at home. They should have been the ones to run, not her.

"I know." Jenkins replied, her tone sympathetic like she knew what Dia was really thinking. "But even if you were there, you could do nothing." She said while she kept messing about with the turbolift's wires.

Dia gritted her teeth. She knew Jenkins was right, but she still didn't like it. Above all, she didn't understand why the captain had been so categorical in saying she, and no one else, had to be the one to bring the message.

"Done." Jenkins said, calling her attention back to the present. "Now it should ope..."

However, at that moment an explosion shook the entire ship, throwing both of them on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Dia asked her as stood up, her hand searching for her laser gun.

"I am fine..." Jenkins started, but those words died in her throat.

They heard something coming from the side of the hallway leading to the docking bay. The unmistakable noise of laser fire.

"Better to move." Dia said as she retrieved the gun from the floor and pointed it in that direction.

Jenkins nodded, her lips tight as she began to put the metal sheet back in its place.

The noises kept coming closer and closer until they could hear steps not far from them. And then screams, human screams.

"Jenkins..."

"I know!" Jenkins snarled. "This thing is stuck, but I can fix it." She repeated, in her voice a note of that stubbornness Dia had learned to know well. "He just needs some convincing."