They stared into the hole Ulrich had unceremoniously carved into the wall. He had used the tools available to him- a bolt cutter, a hammer, a powered saw- and they had all been tossed to the floor when Erik had pulled him out of the wall. He was working like a prisoner tunneling to freedom, which, if Ulrich’s accusations of the Hellbender were true, carried a sad irony.
At’hala, Erik, Yuriel, Ulrich, and Ursa stood silent. They had gathered around the opening, watching the hole protrude into the dark. It became temporarily illuminated when a loose wire sparked, causing Ursa to jump. It smelled like burning copper.
“I was almost through, I think,” Ulrich said to the group, not sounding one hundred percent sure. “There was only one layer left to go. It seems like it would be the inner wall of the holding chamber if my spatial reasoning is correct.”
“You did hit your head pretty hard,” Erik told him.
“We have to go in there,” At’hala said. His synthetic voice conveyed no emotion, but somehow his body language signaled fear and distress. He seemed to hope Ulrich was wrong. What if there is some kind of weapon in there, what if there was food, or building supplies? They all seemed to agree that they needed to know.
“I’ll go first,” Ulrich said. “I’ll break through and then yell when the next person should come.”
“That’s fine,” Erik said.
“Who would be next?” asked Yuriel.
“You can go, if you want.”
“Don’t cut yourself when you follow me,” Ulrich said, crawling into the opening. “I
didn’t exactly have time to sand the edges.”
They all watched him disappear into the narrow tunnel. Eventually, after all they
could see was his feet, they heard him banging an iron hammer against something metallic. Erik wondered how he was strong enough to gain any leverage against a structural piece of the ship while laying on his chest like that. Successively louder banging drowned out the sounds of him cursing the barrier between him and whatever secrets the Hellbender may hold. The tension between everyone else became palatable as they waited. The fumes of burning rubber and soldered metal began to fill the room again, suggesting Ulrich had switched tactics. Erik approached the hole Ulrich’s feet had disappeared into, peering inside to see the ejecting blasts of light from a cutting torch that he must have carried in with him. After what felt like an eternity of slicing, all the while listening to the Hellbender’s ancient hull creak with stress, Erik wondered if what they found would even matter. Even if the battle they were caught amidst was a seven on three tilt in favor of the Rostran in numbers, Erik knew deep inside him that the Rostran might not be able to hold off against the superior Ministry ships.
He glanced toward the others as if trying to plan his next move.
"Do we follow him?" Yuriel asked.
"I assume that's what he meant for us to do. After all, he just left."
Ursa leaned down toward the opening. "Ulrich! Do you see anything?"
She waited to hear something besides her own voice. Nothing. It was as if the ship
had swallowed him whole and left no trace. Without discussing it with anyone, Erik leaned in and began crawling after Ulrich. Peering his head into the opening, he became
hyper aware of the razor-sharp metal cuttings that surrounded him from all sides. "What if it's not safe in there?" Yuriel pleaded with Erik, grabbing his shoulder.
There was desperation in her voice that seemed to know there was nothing it could do to stop Erik from going through with what he made up his mind to do. Erik might not have always made the best decisions, but he made the right ones, and that had been what counted so far. He was going to find what was on the other side of the wall.
