Just like old times (Part 2)
05 Oct 2020Amaya Matsuda
Just like Old Times (Part 2)(Part 1: https://inara.cz/cmdr-logbook/271178/50508/ )
Prying open a sealed elevator door from the inside proved to be considerably more difficult. As far as Amaya could tell this one was still magnetically sealed and the override circuitry was melted to hell. She gripped the grooves of the door and pulled as hard as she could for several seconds. Nothing. She scanned the area. There was a vent a few feet up she might be able to use. Probably sealed, but perhaps the heat had weakened it. It was worth a shot.
She pulled herself up a few feet and steadies herself, before giving the vent a mighty kick. It bent inward. Progress. She braced herself again, and repeated the action. It started to cave in. Good. She gave it another kick, then another, then another, and with a crunch the vent came apart and fell to the floor below on the other side of the elevator door. She slid through the opening and dropped into the hallway. Smoke was everywhere and the heat was brutal, but she was determined. "Now... where's the interstation transit..."
She moved down the hallway, keeping a mental map just in case she needed it later. She passed hastily abandoned stores that sold personal holo-computer systems, various kinds of clothes, various types of consumables that promised prolonged life or increased combat performance. Finally she found the interstation transit. "Closed: Fire." The red light on the door helpfully read. "Yeah, I'm noticing that." she thought to herself. She tried the door. The auto-open didn't work, but it seemed like it would be willing to move if she pushed hard enough. She braced herself and gave it a shove... And in the next moment was pulled hard against the slim opening as all the air and smoke in the room was suddenly being pulled through with tremendous force. She braced against the doors, pushing herself back from the suction. The body of a fallen rescue team tech slammed into her from behind and she cursed loudly, ignoring the pain and pouring her strength into closing the doors back up. The suction stopped, and she fell to the ground with a hard thud. The transport officer had been right. This section of the transit system must have blown open and been exposed to vacuum.
"Ok... not going that way... New plan..."
She turned to the body of the fallen rescue tech, kneeling and searching his suit for a connection port. Finally she found one, and pulled a connector from her own suit to slot into it. The tech's security protocols protested and lit her hud up red as it denied her suit access. "Gonna be like that, huh." she thought, concentrating for a moment, letting her suit systems access and sync with her mind. "Let's try that again..." Once again it tried to deny her access but this time she brushed it's attempts at security aside. After a few moments she had what she needed. The emergency calls began playing in her mind, along with a 3D holo-map of the station interior that popped up on her internal hud with the call locations marked.
"Much better." She thought. "Now... how do I get to you from here..."
___
"Attention all hands! Area 5 of Deck C will be sealed off in 20 minutes! Repeat, Area 5 of C Deck is being sealed off in 20 minutes! All Rescue teams fall back now!"
Nadia Jones cursed loudly as she set a 20 minute timer, then finished pulled herself through the wreckage of another collapsed door. "Keep up the pace! They're about to leave us to die!" she called back to the group following her. They were mostly scared kids, a few years younger than her at 12 or 13 or so, wearing the same suits with "Juvenile Rehabilitation Ward" stamped on them. She had been in charge of the little group ever since their "chaperone" had decided it would be best to lock the ward and make a run for the exit. She had made sure he didn't get away, something she was sure station authorities would be all to pleased to toss her into a hole for when all this was over, but she didn't regret it. The scared kids following her now were all the family she had left.
She scanned the hallway ahead as the rest of the group pulled themselves through the door. There wasn't much smoke here, that was good. It looked like a straight shot all the way down to the end by the transit station. If they could follow that all the way to the elevator system, and take that up... She shook her head and took a deep breath to steady herself. "Focus on the now." she thought.
"That's everyone through the door, where to now?" asked Eric, one of the younger boys with an unusually cool head.
"Straight on down to the interstation transit, keep you eyes open for anything useful." She answered. The timer beeped. 10 minutes. "Don't think. Keep moving." She thought, and took off at a jog down the hallway with the group in tow. At any other time she would have loved to have free reign to run through the various abandoned shops and security stations they passed, to be able to grab whatever she wanted. But she had bigger things to worry about now. It was a miracle this entire hallway section was still largely clear. If they could just keep going like this just a little longer, they might just survive. They might just make it out of-
An explosion rocked the area, throwing her and half the group off their feet. A portion of the wall blasted inward and flame began shooting out along with some sort of yellowish-green oily mist. It started to cling to the metal of the walls and floor, and a sort of sizzling melting sound could be heard. "Oh hell! Get away from it! Back up! Back it up now!"
The group stumbled to their feet and started backing away, but the mist was spreading and starting to disintigrate everything it touched. The timer beeped. 10 minutes. Didn't matter. That mist was melting through the metal walls. If it got on them...
"Turn left." A voice suddenly crackled over the PA. "Head into the consumer electronics store, go to the back. Through the service door into the inventory area. There's a maintenence hatch in the ceiling I can get open for you."
"Who is that?" asked Samantha, one of the girls in the back.
Nadia bit her lip hard for a long moment. "Doesn't matter. We're screwed if we stay here. Let's go." She spun to the left and hurried into the store with the rest of the group in tow. The voice hadn't been lying, through the back door in the service inventory area there was a hatch just waiting for them. Nadia grabbed the handle on the hatch and pulled as hard as she could. It didn't budge. Then she looked closer, and saw the welding marks. The hatch had been welded shut. "The damn hatch is sealed!" she swore, turning to look back at the small group of kids following her. "Do you hear me, mysterious voice? Your damn hatch is sealed!"
"Then step back a second so I can unseal it." the PA crackled again, and in the next moment a burning jet of fire sliced through one side of the hatch, cutting through slowly but surely. Seconds ticked by, but finally the flame jet made it's way around the entire door and with a loud clanging sound it fell forward. A woman in a Remlock suit stepped out from behind it. Behind her was a maze of dark twisty pathways through short cramped tunnels.
"Nice to meet you." Amaya said. "Now come on, it's time to go. Everybody in."