The trio stared at the closed door.

  “Well, shit.” Tarl said ftly.

  Gami shined her light around, “Let’s see if we can squeeze through one of the holes.”

  They each picked a direction and started searching. Gami gave what had once been the floor and ceiling a check as she headed toward one of the walls. She reached her destination and got started. Making sure that she avoided the numerous pieces of floating debris, she guided her light along the wall. There were a few holes, but none of them were rge enough to even fit her arm through. One looked promising at first, but upon closer inspection it was just a bit too small, especially with the risk of their space suits getting hung up on jagged edges.

  “I’ve got nothing,” Eli said.

  “Me either,” Gami reported, trying not to sound dejected.

  “Even I couldn’t fit through any of them,” Tarl observed.

  “Okay, okay,” Eli said, “No reason to panic. Tarl, have the bodies that are manning the turrets come out here and work on cutting us out.”

  “I’ll try, but it will take a while. Even the inner hulls of this ship were sturdy.”

  “Then lets just bst our way out, use the ship’s guns.”

  “That might work. Might also turn us into boiling mush.”

  “Okay then, what about a bomb. I’ve got some shaped charges in the armory.”

  “You’d have to instruct me on how to use them. Then there’d be the same problem. You think that we can make a hole big enough to fit through, without killing us?”

  Eli took another look around the room, “You could toss them in through one of the holes and direct the bst outward. No air to make a shockwave. But I don’t see anything that we could use to protect us from shrapnel. It’d be risky.”

  “Better than suffocating,” Gami advised, “I’ve only got thirty more minutes of oxygen left.”

  Eli checked the indicator on his suit’s HUD. His was about twenty-five minutes.

  ***

  Rotek stuck the metal food tray through the bars. She examined the reflection. The logo of the Cyn’luth corporation was proudly dispyed on the door’s control panel. This was a good sign. She knew how to pick several of their locks. Stray particles from a dozen spectrums were reflected off of the tray, giving her important information about the power network.

  If she went to the edge of the door that was furthest away from the panel and craned her neck, she could just make out a little stream of heat radiating from the bottom of the device. From this, she was able to identify the location of the encryption board.

  Wearing a satisfied smile, Rotek got up and went to the closet. She removed the rod from which the clothes hangers were suspended. Afte several minutes, she had fashioned several crude tools. Returning to the door, she used these curved tools and the mirror to start working on the panel.

  Rotek had just gained a lot of important information about the door to her cell. But the most important thing she had discovered was the fact that no one was going to come and keep her from messing with the control panel. As she looked at the security camera on the wall opposite her cell, she pondered the reasons why this could be.

  It could very well be a test. Maybe they were letting her try to escape so that they could learn their vulnerabilities. Or maybe there was something wrong. Maybe some pressing issue had absorbed their attention. Either way, she’d make her move while she had the chance.

  ***

  Two of Tarl’s butar maneuvered out of one of Cavalier’s airlocks. They carried a collection of tools, including cutting torches and welders. The duo sped toward the section of the ship, making a beeline for the rgest hole that the trapped crew members had been able to find. They got to work, trying to enrge the gap into an escape route.

  Eli was at the hole, working from the inside out. Gami was posted up on the door panel, trying to find a way to override the decompression lockdown. Tarl was at the computer station, trying to do the same thing.

  “How we lookin’?” Eli asked the others.

  Tarl unnecessarily turned his head to speak, “I’m not getting anywhere.”

  Gami let out a sigh, “The system is specifically designed to prevent someone from opening the doors when there’s been a hull breach. I don’t think we’ll be able to get them open without tampering with the mechanism itself.”

  Tarl pushed himself away from the computer and boosted across the chamber to the door, “Then that’s what we’ll have to do.”

  “I don’t think we’ve got the time. My readout says twenty minutes of oxygen left.”

  Eli had been trying to ignore his indicator, which had been periodically fshing red. Just twenty minutes away from an agonizing death. He kept cutting away at the sturdy wall pte. The ranger hadn’t come this far to die in any way that wasn’t a bze of glory.

  ***

  Rotek worked diligently. After a few tries she had gotten the panel open. Now, she was attempting to reroute the power. She took quick gnces up and down the hall. No one yet, not even one of those little furry guys.

  Just a few more minutes. She just needed a little more time and she’d be out of that cell. From there, she’d do whatever it took to stop them from taking her back home.

  ***

  Fifteen minutes worth of oxygen left. Eli kept fighting to widen the gap in the hull. He could see two of Tarl’s bodies on the other side, frantically working to do the same. One was operating a cutting torch. While the other was using a pair of hydraulic cws to rip and tear away the obstructions

  Eli supposed that the situation was especially hard on the pilot. Afterall, he’d not only have to experience the agony of suffocating, he’d have to live with the memory of it. That, and he’d have to watch his friends die as well.

  The body that was trapped was still at the door. That body was helping Gami as she bored to manipute the mechanism that opened and closed the door. She must have known what her companions did. They cked the tools needed to operate the heavy pneumatic cylinders.

  It was hopeless. That door was going to remain shut no matter what they did to it. Its creators had designed it to keep the rest of the crew from being killed when all of the air rushed out of the room and into space. Ironically, it was going to doom Eli and Gami to that very fate.

  It was then that the solution came to him.

  “Wait. Wait. Tarl, stop!” Eli shouted into the com.

  “What?” the pilot asked, the two bodies shutting off their tools.

  “I’ve got an idea. Move the ship in closer. And go to the other pieces of debris. Hurry, there’s still time if we hurry!”