The ship lurched hard as a plasma conduit let go, sending a white-hot inferno exploding out of the bulkhead as it roared through the compartment. Xuilan screamed, clawing at her harness as she fought to escape. Slavko released his own restraints, only to be hurled against the hatch as Heuristic Fealty bucked yet again. Cursing a blue streak, Remi freed himself and kicked off from his chair, narrowly avoiding the gunner’s fate as he grabbed hold of the pilot’s console, working desperately to rescue her from the roaring flames. As the belts ensnaring her finally fell away, he grabbed her by the waist and launched them both toward safety.

“Mairead! Isi! Can you hear me?” he shouted into the helmet mic as he and Xuilan landed beside the still-tumbling gunner. Out of immediate danger, the pilot hurriedly secured Slavko and checked his suit readouts while her captain struggled with the hatch.

“Shit, he’s losing oxygen,” Xuilan swore, frantically checking his suit for leaks. She found a tear beneath his arm, yanking a patch from her suit pocket and slapping it over the hole, sealing the breach.

“Captain? Captain!” the Tinker responded over the suit radio, “the ship is dying! We have to abandon!”

“Get to the escape pod!” he gasped in reply, wrenching the hatch open. “And make sure you’re armed!” Unlike Gyrfalcon, the Eleexxi ship contained escape pods at various locations in case of emergencies. In case the worst happened, he’d designated the most centrally located pod as a rallying point. If they had to abandon ship, he wanted to keep the crew together, though if the situation was bad enough, that might not be possible. As for their weapons, given their circumstances and the risks they were taking, they’d kept them on hand, just in case. It was uncomfortable when they were in their seats, but worth the misery. A glance at the others confirmed they were, thankfully, still armed as well.

“On my way!” Isi answered, bringing a sob of relief from Xuilan as she finally heard his voice. “Mairead’s keeping the core from fucking exploding!”

“Goddamn it, Mairead, get out of there!” Remi howled in return while the pilot clipped onto Slavko, securing him for transport. “Don’t be a fucking hero!”

“I need five minutes!” the engineer snarled. “Otherwise we’re all dead!”

“Fucking hell!” the captain cursed, furious at their plight as the trio began making their way from the bridge, heading aft with the gunner between them. Slavko was still struggling, and as he glanced into his faceplate, Remi recognized the possibility he’d suffered some brain damage. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it, not under these conditions. At the moment, their only goal was to get the hell off the ship, anything beyond that would just have to wait.

Another explosion tore through the hull, sending a blast of plasma and shrapnel in all directions. They were witnessing Heuristic Fealty’s death throes, and if they wanted to live through the next few minutes, then they needed to get clear… fast.

Slavko’s head lolled as they detoured around the worst of the damage, the pair towing him as they raced to link up with the others. Yet another explosion tore a breach in the hull while they headed aft, though thankfully the bulk of the ship’s atmosphere had already escaped. Lucky for them; if it hadn’t they’d be at risk of being blown out into space through a gaping maw of jagged metal, guaranteed to tear their suits to shreds as they died gasping for air.

“Isi!” Xuilan shouted, waving frantically at the figure hovering near the airlock’s entrance. “Slavko’s hurt!” Glancing up, Remi was relieved to see that he’d made it and was still in one piece.

“... I’m… okay,” the gunner mumbled, barely coherent.

The purser immediately pushed off the bulkhead and swam out to meet them, snagging a nearby stanchion to halt himself before giving the gunner a quick once over.

“He got thrown into a bulkhead,” Remi explained. “Pretty sure he’s got some head trauma.”

“... I’m fine,” Slavko protested, though his objection fell on deaf ears.

“Had a suit leak, too,” Xuilan chimed in.

Isi squinted into Slavko’s faceplate. “He’s got a blown pupil,” the purser observed, as a sense of foreboding came over them. “... it could be hypoxia from the leak,” he said in a rush, hastily recanting while Xuilan stared in horror.

As much as he wanted to tend to Slavko’s injuries, they had bigger problems at the moment. “Status,” Remi barked.

“Engineering’s wrecked,” Isi informed him. “It’s a goddamn miracle the core hasn’t already gone up. Mairead swears she can stabilize it, but not for long. Enough for us to get clear, maybe.”

“Maybe?” Xuilan said shrilly.

“Debate later. Evacuate now,” Remi snapped. “Get to the escape pod, and look after Slavko.” He rapped the gunner’s helmet with his fist. “We need to move. You still with us?”

It took him a moment to focus. “Yeah,” he rasped, “... I’m good.”

Another shudder rippled through the dying ship. “Go!” the captain shouted. “I’m going after Mairead!” Kicking off, he headed aft, ignoring the crew’s shouts. He trusted Isi and Xuilan to get Slavko to the pod safely, but the Tinker was all alone. There was no way in hell he was abandoning her, not after all they’d been through. Besides, knowing her as he did, there was a damned good chance she’d delay abandoning ship until it was too late. He’d pull her out kicking and screaming if he had to, as long as she was alive to bitch about it later.

A massive section of the hull suddenly broke free, plummeting out of sight and leaving the compartment open to space while he held on for dear life. The ship was disintegrating all around them, and with each new fissure came additional vents of searing plasma and dangling cables that sparked with deadly energies. The lack of atmosphere did little to quench the hazards surrounding him, though at least being blown into space was no longer a concern.

After two more detours and a few close calls, Remi finally arrived in engineering, or what was left of it. Given the ship’s condition, he was amazed as much had survived as it had, though one look at the shattered core filled his mortal soul with dread. That it hadn’t exploded… yet… was a testimony to its builders. Say what you want about the Eleexxi, but their technology and science were without peer.

It was equally obvious that the power plant couldn’t hold out much longer; given its current status, an explosion was both inevitable and imminent. Amid the screaming, arcing maelstrom, he spotted Mairead, fighting to contain the demonic energies demanding release.

“Mairead!” he shouted, “Get out of there!”

“Just two more minutes!” she howled back, welding a patch across the most heavily damaged section. “I can stabilize it!”

As good as she was… and Mairead was damned good… nothing could stop an implosion now. That much was obvious even to him, but the Tinker’s desperation and stubborn pride refused to let her accept defeat. She’d battle to the bitter end and beyond to salvage what she could, but they’d lost this fight before it had even begun. With no time for debate, he went to her side and pulled her away, dragging her away as she struggled in his grasp.

“My toolkit!” she screamed, redoubling her efforts to escape his clutches, raining down blows on his head and shoulders.

“Leave it!” he roared, ignoring her assault as he made for the escape pod. The sound of tearing metal filled their ears and set their teeth on edge as the entire forward section tore away, rotating end for end as they stared in shock, as Remi redoubled his efforts. “Come on!”

Whatever resistance still possessing the engineer vanished as the ship broke in half. Mairead stopped wrestling in his grasp and began making her way forward in earnest, enough that her captain released her and joined in her efforts. Another hard jolt sent them both careening through the ship’s carcass like pinballs, but after much effort and liberal use of profanity, they found their way at last to the waiting pod. Xuilan frantically waved them both forward as they approached, howling, “Hurry!”

Once inside, Remi slammed the hatch shut and sealed it while the pilot prepared to blast them free from the ship. Isi and Slavko were already strapped in as the others hurried to do likewise before the captain grabbed his engineer by the arm. “Can you launch the other pods from here?” he demanded.

She thought hard for a moment and then nodded. “There’s an override switch in the panel,” she told him, undogging the access plate and pointing it out. “Why?” Mairead asked.

“Cover!” he fired back, shoving her hand out of the way and activating the switch. “So the Troika doesn’t know which one is ours,” he explained further. “Might buy us a few minutes if we’re lucky.” That done, Remi turned to their pilot, sparing the crew one last look before ordering, “Get us out of here!”

Xuilan slammed the Launch button as the pod’s engines came online, blasting them away from what remained of Heuristic Fealty. “Does this thing have sensors?” he asked her.

“Barely,” she responded. “A few cameras, a homing beacon, and a very basic system that looks for ships and habitable planets.”

“That’s it?” he said in disgust.

Xuilan rolled her eyes. “It’s a lifepod, captain, not a battlecruiser. It’s designed to get you someplace safe before the air runs out, but that’s it.”

Somewhere in his head he’d known that, but given how desperate their situation was, he’d been clutching at straws. “Do what you can with it,” he told her, “and see what ships are close by. I don’t think we can evade them, but if we can blend in with the debris field…”

Something slammed into the pod, triggering warning klaxons as they were flung aside like garbage. The tiny craft pitched violently, spinning out of control until Xuilan could dampen down the worst of it. Mairead quickly joined her, double-checking the affected systems while she worked to silence the alarms.

“I’d say that blast marked the end of Heuristic Fealty,” Isi remarked dryly.

Remi nodded in agreement before turning his attention to their gunner. “How are you doing, Slavko?” he asked.

He groaned in reply, his movements choppy and uncoordinated. “I’m okay,” he said again. “Head hurts though.”

“You just take it easy,” he reassured him. “We’re working on a way to get out of this mess.”

He struggled to focus his gaze. “Don’t bullshit me, Cap’n,” he slurred. “We’re fucked, and you know it.”

The captain grimaced at his words. “Maybe,” he admitted, “but I’m not giving up. There’s a way out of this, I’m sure of it. We just have to find it.”

“... sure, boss,” he mumbled, closing his eyes, “whatever you say.”

He and the purser shared a look before Isi shrugged. You could think all the happy thoughts you wanted, but they didn’t change reality. It might be good for your mental health, but right now his only concern was getting them clear of this disaster, to some place where it was safe. At the moment, the only asylum close at hand was Terra Nova itself, and the odds of the Troika letting them anywhere near it were nil. Even if they convinced them the pod was nothing more than a harmless bit of wreckage, at the snail’s pace they were currently traveling, it would take months to reach the Precursor homeworld, maybe even years. Whatever meager provisions the pod had stocked would run out long before then, though the lack of fresh oxygen would likely kill them first.

Stymied for answers, he turned back to the two women. “Anything?” he asked them.

“Not much I can tell you,” Xuilan said unhappily. “No habitable planets within range. In fact, nothing uninhabitable close by either. We were still in interstellar space when we got ambushed.”

Remi made an impatient gesture, urging her to continue. “As far as ships go, I’m still trying to sort that out. There’s a lot of interference, what with Heuristic Fealty blowing up and all. At the moment, I can’t tell you what the Troika is up to.”

Mairead turned and faced him. “You think they’ll try to grab us… or just shoot us out of the sky?”

“I don’t know,” he sighed, “and being honest? I’m not sure which option is worse.”

“Kind of hard to come back from dead,” the Tinker pointed out.

“You and I both know there are worse things than being dead,” Remi said grimly, trying not to shudder before something caught his eye. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing at a flashing icon on the pod’s thumbnail version of a control panel.

The two ladies gave it a quick glance. “Transponder,” Xuilan explained. “The indicator light just means it’s putting out an active pulse for Search and Rescue…”

Their eyes all widened in panic as her words sank in. “Shut it down now!” their captain shouted, as she hurried to comply. A few tense seconds later, the lamp blinked off.

A deafening silence filled the pod. “Do you think they spotted us?” Mairead asked quietly.

“No way to know, unless something happens,” Isi volunteered. “If a day or two goes by and we’re still here, we’re probably good.”

“So until then, we wait,” Remi stated. “Isi, check out our supplies. I want to know where we stand.”

“Aye aye, Cap’n,” he acknowledged, as he began inventorying the recessed lockers’ and cabinets’ contents.

“Xuilan,” he continued, turning to the pilot, “keep searching for any nearby ships. I want to know if any of them get close.”

“Aye, sir,” she swallowed. “I mean, I’ll try, but like I said, the sensors are pretty rudimentary.”

“Do what you can,” he told her, before moving on to Mairead. “I don’t know how long we’ll be stuck in this thing,” Remi continued, “but we need to stretch out our resources for as long as possible… especially our oxygen. Any ideas how we can do that?”

The Tinker scratched her head as she considered the problem. “There’s always some built-in redundancy with lifepods,“ she said thoughtfully. “Let me dig into the systems and see what I can squeeze out of them.”

“The sooner the better,” he insisted, “because the longer we wait…”

A loud, reverberating clang echoed through the pod like a church bell, bringing the conversation to a crashing halt. “I don’t suppose we could have bumped into some debris?” he asked, hoping for a miracle.

“Sorry, Cap’n,” Isi answered, drawing his plasma weapon, “those were docking clamps. They’ve got us.”

Pulling out his beam pistol, he pointed it at the hatch. “Get ready, people,” he told them, “because we’re about to get company.”

The crew readied their own weapons and waited, their fingers tense on the triggers. A minute ticked by. Two. They shared furtive glances as the standoff continued, until finally, Mairead said in disgust, “What the hell are they wai…”

An intense burst of energy filled the pod as the Terrans screamed, paralyzing them before knocking them unconscious.