"You just wanna go around shooting things."
"We're sitting in the middle of a docking bay, behind launch schedule, there's barely any power and lots of questions that need to be answered about what's going on."
"He's got a point, Captain." said the first officer. "We should send an armed away team to the Starbase."
"How do we know there aren't a bazillion Borg out there waiting?"
"Because the Starbase couldn't possibly hold that many people. We'd all be long gone by now."
"What if they decided to go for Earth, instead?" Jason asked.
"We won't know anything until we get Starbase back online," Aaen said, looking at the Captain.
The Captain gasped.
"Captain." said the first officer.
"–Fine. But you're going on the away team, helm."
Aaen grinned. "Yes, sir."
"Get him a sidearm. Tactical, give him yours. Operations–" the first officer gestured for Operations to give his sidemarm to Tactical.
"Operations officer, take all power from weapons, tractor beam, shields, and the stealth system," said Engineer.
"What?" the Captain asked sharply.
"Okay."
"It's going to need to be more than just two people going back, Captain," Jensen said.
"Sensors and Communications, go with the away team." said the Captain.
The group proceeded to the sickbay section of the bridge and then donned E.V. suits. The E.V. suits fit over the away team's uniforms.
"Activate the internal comm system in your suit," said Jensen. The group tested their comm systems. Each member of the away team nodded to each other as a double-confirmation that the suits' communication systems were online.
"Away team, make sure you have an open comm link with Odyssey," Aaen said, noticing the Captain's facial expression did not indicate approval of Aaen's reminder to the away team. Authoritarian, Aaen reasoned. The first officer entered the necessary commands into the communications station to open a channel to the away team.
"Test. Test." Aaen said, hearing his voice echo through the bridge and his suit.
The first officer returned to his station.
"Make sure you get to Starbase, help them restore power and make sure there aren't intruders." said the Captain.
Aaen turned his attention to Jensen. "Lieutenant Commander, how are we getting back to Starbase?"
"The same way I got here. Follow me. Make sure to pressurize your suits."
The away team entered the necessary controls to ensure an ideal internal suit atmosphere and then gathered in front of the hatch. Aaen was second behind Jensen.
Jensen opened the hatch, the away team followed him behind the hatch. Aaen shouldered the hatch closed.
"It's pitch black in here. Gravity feels a little lower in here." Aaen observed. "Away team, might wanna turn on your helmet lights so you can see."
"Right. Just follow me, Lieutenant." Jensen said. "On reserve power, only vital systems in key areas of the ship remain operational to conserve power. Activate magnetic boots once you're outside. You don't wanna float away out there."
Really? Aaen thought about Jensen's technical comments, slightly sarcastically. "Wait a minute—'out there'? Where are you taking us?"
Jensen disengaged the magnets in his suit's boots, and then pressed against the deck plating, floating up toward a rectangular emergency escape port in the ceiling of the passageway. He entered a brief command into the port's control panel. The port drifted open, the apparent vacuum outside sucked what little air out of the passageway in what seemed like an instant. Aaen was second to go through the escape port. The magnetic boots caused a brief dull reverberating hum to echo through Aaen's suit with each step, followed by a brief, dull tap. Aaen disengaged the magnets and then pushed against the deck. He floated through the hatchway, grabbing the edge of the hatch as he reactivated the magnets in his boots. Inching his feet towards the hull, he soft landed after a few seconds. Jensen started helping the rest of the away team outside the port-dorsal hull, five feet from the port translight drive nacelle. Aaen stepped away from the hatch while looking up and around.
WOAH! Aaen silently exclaimed, wide-eyed. The docking bay was pitch black—and seemed massive, like there were a million people hidden in the darkness, staring at the away team. The only lights were coming from the away team's helmet lights. Aaen felt like he was being watched. Two minutes later. . .
"Everyone okay?" Jensen asked over the comm line.
"So far," Aaen replied. The rest of the away team responded similarly in turn.
Aaen took a couple of deep breaths through his mouth. "Alright, Lieutenant Commander. Where'do we go next?"
Jensen gasped briefly, before responding, "The primary way to get back into Starbase from within a docking bay is to either go through the jet bridge—which the Odyssey doesn't use—or go through a maintenance tube, or we go outside and then try to get in through another ship's jet bridge."
"H. . .hey, wha. .do you mean by 'go outside'?" said Sensors.
"As in: we manually override the launch doors, and then we spacewalk over the hull to a neighboring docking bay, do the same thing to that ship's launch doors, and then use the ship's jet bridge to enter Starbase—"
"—I say we go through a tube!" Sensors said. The rest of the away team laughed.
"Considering we're pressed for time, I'd say that's a good idea," Aaen said.
"Agreed," Jensen said.
"Anything, as long as wherever we go to next has lights on," said Communications. Aaen grinned, briefly.
"The nearest maintenance tube is about a thousand feet up and to our left—up there."
Aaen turned right to see Jensen pointing up and left. Aaen shifted left. The helmets small spotlights were just bright enough to make the away team's apparent destination noticeably visible.
"How big is that hatch, Lieutenant Commander?" Aaen asked, slightly skeptical.
"About four square meters, Lieutenant."
Aaen found himself wide-eyed and then squinted. Holy cow! You can barely see it from here!
"Everyone, just line up over there next to Aaen. You're going to have to aim your jump so that you reach at least the edge of the hatch opening."
The away team followed Jensen's instructions.
"Aaen, you're first."
"Copy that." Feeling adventurous, Aaen grinned. What's the worst that could happen? He thought. Here goes nothin'. . .
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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