11
"Lost it. Lost it." Jamie yells with alarm as he struggles with the clips for his seat's straps.
Another huge vibration. An electrical fire breaks out along three control panels. Huge flash fire whips along a corridor. Hewson and Jamie see the pandemonium. Jamie hits the secondary generator switch. A pressure valve blows. Another conduit breaks loose. All lights go out.
They grab hand lights from wall.
Still in darkness on the bridge John says calmly "Secondary generator should kick over."
"Where is it?" Suzie growls with annoyance.
Moments. Nothing. John grabs an emergency headlamp from the wall by their seats. Followed by Suzie and Clew.
"What happened?" Ianto asks through the coms link to the Torchwood above them.
Jack ignores him as he hits the internal coms. "Engine room, what happened?"
"God damn electrical fire, that's what happened." Hewson yells back. On the Torchwood thy listen with rapt attention as the coms relay back to them as well.
"It's big" Jamie agrees.
Hewson is fighting an electrical fire on one of his panels. Jamie shouting into his coms "The intakes are clogged. We overheated and burned out a whole cell...Christ, it's really breaking loose down here..."
"Somebody give me a simple answer, has the hull been breached." Jack asks calmly.
Suzie scans her gauges. "I don't see anything. We've still got pressure."
A beep from the communicator.
"Hit the screen." Jack demands.
Andy snaps three toggles. The screens flicker, but remain black. " Nothing."
"I mean it... slap the prick" Jack mimes hitting it with his hand and Andy laughs softly as he complies.
Outside the wind howls. The storm continues to blow around the craft. A few glittering lights distinguish the Spark from absolute darkness.
Hewson is on the communicator to the bridge. "4D panel is totally shot, the secondary load sharing unit is out, at least three cells on 12 module are gone."
Suzie listening to Hewson. John standing over her. No images on any screens.
"Is that it?" Suzie asks.
"Couldn't fix it out here anyway." Hewson continues "And we need to reroute a couple of these ducts. Can't really fix them without a whole dry-dock..."
"What else." Suzie demands, rolling her eyes as she knows this is bullshit.
"We lost a cell. Some fragments caked up and blew the whole system. We've got to clean it all out and re-pressurize."
"Get started on 4 panel. I'll be down in five minutes." Suzie demands, reaching to unhook from her chair. She shuts off her voice communicator.
"How long before we're functional." Jack asks.
"Fifteen to twenty minutes..."
"Stay on it. What about the auxiliaries." Jack nodded.
"Working on it."
Bridge lights come to life. Illuminate nothing but a patch of featureless ground. The wind and storm now at a higher pitch.
.
.
Up on the Torchwood Ianto, the General, and Toshiko are slouched around the bridge. Drinking coffee. Occasionally staring at the opaque screens.
"Any response yet?" Ianto asks for the umpteenth time.
"Nothing. All channels are dead." Toshiko says softly "so far no one has responded to the ship's arrival."
.
.
.
Down on the surface of the planet Jack is also struggling to see, finally demanding "Kick on the floods."
A ring of floodlights comes to life. Dimly illuminating the rocky landscape. The wind and dust now at a higher pitch.
Jack stares at the dark screens.
"We can't go anywhere in this." John says with annoyance. "The sun's coming up in about ten minutes, right?"
How far from the colony's Hub?" Jack is leaning forward as they scan for anything that resembles life.
"Northeast... about 3000 meters." John replies "Close enough to walk."
"Let's run an atmospheric." Jack decides.
John punches buttons, starts to consult his panel. "Atmo intact. I see oxygen…. Light as to be expected but breathable. I volunteer for the first group going out with you."
"I hear you. Suzie. You too."
Pause.
"Swell." She mutters.
"One more thing. Let's get out some weapons."
.
.
Sunrise.
The atmosphere begins to lighten. Silhouette of the Spark becoming dimly visible. Spark is perched on barren rock. More rolling clouds of dust. The floodlights automatically shut off. They lean forward to look out the window and see something they wish they hadn't.
"Maybe… it was before we landed" John says softly but they knew better.
Some of the settlers had run for the vessel as they heard it landing but had never reached the landing pad.
Their remains strewn about like a bear attack mauling.
Jack prayed they were not all that was left of them as there seems to be less than a dozen to cause this, hopefully… god… hopefully more were still in the Hub where they were safe awaiting evac.
John is right.
Time to arm up.