Chapter 15
Listening to Naomi and Holden go over their plan, Nik was impressed at their ability to focus on helping others while keeping their ship out of danger. Holden would pilot the Roci's shuttle into the docks on the side of the station that took the least amount of damage. He and Amos would take a small powered trolley loaded with tools and equipment they might need. Nik would stay in contact with them through their suits' commlinks and guide them to the distress beacons they had selected.
While the three of them concentrated on rescue efforts within the station, Alex and Naomi would join the handful of ships conducting rescue missions on damaged and stranded ships around the station. Once the shuttle was at max capacity, Holden would pilot it back to the Roci and offload those rescued before going after more.
It could take hours to get everyone to safety, but the Roci along with the other ships were determined no one would be left behind to die. They would keep working as long as there was someone on the station still breathing.
Before they left to suit up, Holden stopped at Nik's side.
"We're counting on you to get us in and out safely. Are you sure you're up to it?"
She met his eyes as well as she could strapped into the chair, "I've been running that station for almost twenty years. I know every passageway, tunnel, shaft, vent, and duct on it. If there is an opening that I can squeeze through, I know it."
Holden held her gaze for a moment before nodding, "okay, then. Let's do this."
Nik watched him leave then turned her head to regard Amos, still hovering by the rail. He was also watching her with that same bland expression that chilled her on the station.
"Are you going to ask me if I know what I'm doing?" she challenged him, her gray eyes narrowing.
He shrugged that grating inner shrug with his shoulders, "Nah, I'm just trying to decide how much I trust you."
She laughed, "trust me or not, go where I tell you to go, or not, it's up to you. I don't care what you do." She couldn't turn her back to him to physically show how little she cared, so she looked down at her console and pulled up the first distress beacon to start plotting a path to it.
She heard him move but refused to look up.
"Yeah. You might not care about us, but I do. They're my family."
"Then don't be stupid and do what I tell you to do."
"See you when we get back, Kitten."
"Stop calling me that," she snapped, looking up. But he was already gone though she could hear his chuckle from below.
"Paxoníseki," she muttered to herself and went back to planning the route to the beacon.
The next hour was a flurry of activity not involving Nik. For a change, she did as she was told and stayed strapped in her chair out of harm's way. To occupy herself and take her mind off the nagging fact that her family was on its way to Ganymede without her, she worked out primary, secondary, tertiary, and last-ditch routes from the dock to the first three targets.
"Roci, we are docked and ready to depart the shuttle," Holden's voice came over the commlink.
"Roger that, Hoss," Alex replied. "We are on our way to rendezvous with the Ba Le. I'll turn you over to your tour guide now. You're on, Little Niki."
"Don't call me that." What was these people's deal? "Kay, Holden, if it's clear, make your way to the second level. There should be a ladder to your left fifty meters on the inboard bulkhead."
"There's a bunch of equipment in the way, but I think we can find a path around it," he replied.
There was silence on the line for a minute then, "got it. Looks clear."
"Go up two levels from where you are now."
Step by step, Nik guided them deeper into the station. It was slow going. Doors had to be pried open. Fallen structures climbed over. Metal and heavy equipment shifted as the wild rotation of the station destabilized anything not bolted down securely. She had to redirect them twice to get them to the room where survivors were trapped. A support beam had fallen and wedged itself into the door, keeping them from prying it open from the inside.
Amos used the cutting torch they brought with them on the trolley, then he and Holden forced the door open. Two of the four station residents from inside wanted to join Holden and Amos on their search for others. Holden didn't want them to risk themselves plus they only had enough spare air bottles for the two of them. The residents argued that they knew the station better than two Inners. After some arguing back and forth, Nik offered a compromise: have them come along for the next group and help get that group back to the shuttle. One of the residents was a pilot and he could fly the shuttle back to the Roci, drop everyone off, and return to the station. That would free up Holden and Amos to go on to the third group before having to return to the shuttle. It would save them time, which was something some of the people on the station didn't have in abundance.
The next group was more difficult to reach. It was closer to the one of the explosions and there was a lot of damage. The family was trapped in a narrow corridor that had collapsed on the inboard end. All that stood between the family and open space on the outboard end of the corridor was a poorly maintained containment door with a failing seal. When the secondary seal failed to engage, they had sealed the pinhole leaks with that material they had on hand, but the door was on the verge of complete failure.
Nik got the two men as close as she could to the family, but with the debris blocking the way from the main corridor system and the maintenance tunnels, the only way to get to them was through the ventilation ducts. There was only one catch: if the containment door's seal failed completely, it would trigger the next layer of containment. That would not only cut off the corridor escape, but also the ventilation duct.
The ventilation system of the station was not one continuous system of ducts. Both the reality of living in the vacuum of space and the class system that had arose to divide the spacefaring humans had led to a division of the system into smaller systems that serviced different nodes. The docks, construction dome, inner residential rings, outer residential rings, and utility areas were all fed air through separate systems. Nodes within each area segmented the systems into smaller units that were connected through a series of containment gates that could be both manually and automatically controlled. The automated control system was designed to take over damage control during emergencies and the containment gates engaged to prevent the station's depressurization.
The family was on the wrong side of the next containment gate.
"The only way in or out of that corridor is through the duct," Nik sighed with exasperation after a futile attempt to find another way. "They are going to have to climb through it to get to you."
"Their comms have failed, we can't reach them to tell them that," Holden told her for the second time.
"Then one of you has to climb through to them and lead them out," she tried to sound reasonable.
"I'm not sending one of my crew in there with the risk of being cut off," Holden snapped back at her.
"And I'm not going to let you take that risk either," Amos chimed in.
"Then your only option is to move on to the next group. Hell, they could be dead. You ever think that's why they aren't responding?"
"No, that isn't an option," Holden replied. "We can hear someone banging on the wall in there."
"That could be anything," Amos told him.
"He's right. It could be anything."
"We are not going to abandon these people. Not if there's a chance they're still alive in there." Holden refused to give in to reason. "Look again for another way."
"I have looked!" she snapped back. "Another path hasn't magically appeared since I last looked."
There was a long pause.
"I'm going in," Holden announced, finally giving up on a safer route.
"Cap…," Amos started to object.
"I'm done arguing about it. Every minute we do nothing is less time for those people."
"The closest vent is behind you about ten meters and to the right."
Nik talked Holden through his slow crawl through the duct until he reached the trapped family. They were still alive, though the father was bleeding from a head wound and the youngest child's arm hung at an odd angle. During the four hours they had been trapped, their comm unit had died, probably from old age. Holden had to crawl out of the duct and help each family member up using a rope that Amos held the other end of.
He gave the oldest child his comm unit and sent her ahead with Nik giving her directions. Then he helped the father climb up and passed him the injured little boy. The boy couldn't crawl through the duct by himself, so Holden would have to pull him along. He would bring up the rear of the group with the boy.
"I'm at the T," the girl said over the comm.
"Go left. This is the last turn, you should be able to see the open vent now," Nik told her encouragingly. "You're almost there."
The girl was almost to the containment gate and her father wasn't far behind her. Holden was lagging further back with the boy.
"I see it!" the girls excited cry rang in her ears.
"I told you," she answered with a grin of her own. "Belta take care of our own, setara mali."
"I can feel the air now."
Nik quit smiling, "what?"
"I can feel the air moving. It's blowing my hair."
"Keep going, I've got to check on something." She shut down her link to the girl. "Amos?"
"Something's wrong," he told her without preamble.
"Can you feel air moving?"
"Yeah, I think there's a breach."
"Shit. Shit, that's not good." She opened the link to the girl. "Hey, I need you to turn around and tell me where everyone is."
"Kay. Pappa is right behind me, but I don't see the man with my beratna."
"Call out to him for me. His name is Holden."
"Holden!" the girl yelled making Nik cringe. "Holden!"
There was a pause, "I hear him. He hasn't made it to the junction yet."
"Yell at him that Nik says hurry. Yell it loud."
"Holden! Nik says to hurry!" she yelled. "My Pappa is here now."
"Can you let him go past you?"
"No, but I can wiggle past him."
"Do that and tell him to go ahead."
The girl relayed the message to her father.
"The air is getting stronger," she told Nik.
"Yell at Holden again. Tell him to hurry," Nik instructed her voice rising.
"I see him! I'm going to go help."
"No! Stay where you are. Just tell me what's going on, kay?"
Another voice came over the link, "what's going on?" Naomi asked.
"I don't have time," Nik shut off the link. "Amos? Is the rope still in the duct?"
"Yeah."
"Start pulling it out. Slowly at first until you feel someone on it." Back to the girl, "the rope is going to start moving. You and your papa stay off it, kay."
"Kay. Pappa is climbing out of the vent."
"Good. Can you still see Holden?"
"Ya, but he is going slow with Wali."
"Yell at him to grab the rope and hang on tight."
She listened as the girl relayed her instruction.
"He's got it!"
"Get out of there now!" Nik switched to Amos, "Pull, pull hard and fast. Get the others to help!"
"Alarms are going off," Amos grunted.
Nik looked down at her console. The corridor area was flashing orange.
"Pull, Amos! Get him out of there!"
The comms went quiet as she waited for news. A hand on her shoulder made her nearly jump out of her skin. Naomi was floating beside her chair watching her console intently. The area changed to a flashing red, then a steady red.
"The containment gate is closed now," she told Naomi.
"He got out," the other woman said with confidence.
They waited in silence for several long minutes before Amos' voice came over the link.
"We got them!"
Despite her assertion, Naomi was clearly relieved. She patted Nik on the shoulder, "good job Sésata."
Nik only had time to nod at her before Holden came back over the link, "quick thinking, Nik. I owe you a drink."
In a few minutes, the family was on their way to the shuttle with the pilot from the first rescue and the two men were ready to move on to the next beacon.