Where Weavers Daire

Chapter Three

A Long Leash

"What were you thinking?" Jainey pulled off her helmet once the inner airlock door cycled shut and the telltale lights glowed green. "I got trussed up for nothing?"

"No. Someone picked my locks. All of my gear is completely useless." Thomas closed the lid to his trunk. "Wait. If they went after the trunk, what else..."

"What?" Jainey said.

"I spooled up the defense suite." Thomas pushed himself out of the airlock and across the secondary deck. Through the cramped hallway to the closet he had labeled Toy's Weapons Bay.

The door swished open and the two iron kegs latched onto the floor were silent. The silence from their tiny monitors meant nothing had been spooled up, but no spells were cooking to explode.

Thomas stared at the kegs. What's wrong with this picture? Mindy isn't on board. You've brought the ship to a dead halt and your defense suite is cold as a witch's tit. What's wrong with this— He stopped and pointed to the wiring. He followed it out the door and bumped into Jainey.

"Now what?" Jainey said. "We need to get Mindy."

"Following my nose," he said. "And we will. I need to know what they did to Toy."

"Who did?" Jainey said.

"Someone picked my locks and spun down all my defense weapons. Someone who knew how to pick the unpick able. And right now, our defense suite is cold."

"You said you spun them up," Jainey said and the Toy's interior lights extinguished.

The emergency lights above Thomas flickered to life and coated the bulkheads in urine yellow. The glow tabs that lined the sharp corners of the auxiliary engineering console next to the airlock pulsed a green tint.

He closed his eyes. One, two, three, four, five, six.

"What are you doing?" Jainey said.

Eight, nine, ten. "Waiting for those expensive shielded back-up generators to kick in," Thomas said. "Stay here, I need to fix something."

"It can wait." Jainey's voice rose.

"Not if we can't get the mains back up." Thomas pointed to the airlock door. "The only thing keeping that closed is the seal. Guess what happens when we can't seal the door properly after whoever just cut our power decides to slice it open because they're too lazy to open it manually?" He pulled himself up the ladder into the mid-cabin and gripped a wall handhold to stop. "Don't touch anything. I need to bring the back-ups on first then the mains."

"I ran this ship before you were born. Tell me what's wrong," Jainey shouted.

"Once I know what's wrong, I will." Thomas pushed off and floated through the darkened common area. The glow tabs that lined the edge of the dining area table gave way to stars she had lined the walls with when she was six. Their fading light guided her towards the rear cabin. No artificial gravity well meant it's a small ship. He grabbed a handhold on the ceiling and spun around to face the floor. Small ship meant one or two-man boarding crew.

"What happens when they kill us and go after you?" Jainey echoed over the racket.

"You honestly think I'm going to let anyone through those doors?" Thomas pulled off the floor plate and pushed it against the magnetic strip on the wall. One click later and his hands dove into sea of wires and tape. "Next time, Mindy, promise me to hide the surge protector at eye level." He pulled out a length of wire and an acid smell filled his nose.