Chapter 19

From there, it was a straight shot through to the shuttle. Good thing, too, Nik thought. Her oxygen level was in the orange now. She had less than fifteen minutes of air left. They could take a detour and take care of the problem, but she was tired, hurt, and hungry; she just wanted to get back to the Roci, strap in and take a long nap to let her body recover from what she put it through in the past few hours. It was all she could do to put one foot in front of another at this point.

Caught up in her thoughts of a nap, she didn't see Holden and Amos stop until she almost bumped into them. Looking around them, she saw what had caused them to stop and groaned aloud.

The door to the docks was collapsed in upon itself and through the narrow opening that remained a pile of twisted metal was visible.

"Uh, Roci, can you get the shuttle on comms?" Holden asked.

"That's a big negative, Hoss. I was about to radio you with the info," Alex replied. "Can you see it?"

"Hold on a minute, Alex, we're at the docks now. I'll let you know what we find out."

"Roger that. Be careful, there have been some accidents over the last couple hours. Pilots not being careful, getting too close."

"Good to know. Stand by."

Holden turned to Amos, "can you get through there?"

Nik didn't wait for him to reply. There was no way he was going to squeeze through the gap. It was questionable if she could even make it. Ducking around the two men, she picked her way through the rubble scattered in front of the door.

"Hey!" Holden called to her over the comm link.

"Give me a minute. I'm just gonna take a look," she assured him.

"When we're back on the Roci, we're going to have a conversation about who's the captain."

"I'm not one of your crew, Holden."

Holden didn't bother to answer, and Nik was at the door. The opening was wider than it looked. Even Amos might could fit through it. Easing through the opening until her head was free, she looked at the wreckage in front of her. At first, it looked like a bomb had detonated in here also, but there wasn't shredded debris scattered around.

"What do you see?" Holden asked.

"It looks like someone tried to pilot one of the ships out of here and lost control," she answered.

"Can we get through?"

"It wouldn't do any good," she said wearily.

"Why not?"

She pushed herself back through the opening and started back towards the two men.

"Because there's no way for the shuttle to get in there."

There was a pause as her statement sank in. Then, "Okay, where's the next place we can dock the shuttle?"

"Already on it," Alex told her.

Just then, Nik's air monitor turned red and beeped a warning.

"Um, we need to figure something out fast," she told her companions.

"Why?" Amos asked.

"My oxygen is in the red. I've got less than five minutes left."

Amos strode over and grabbed her good arm that had the monitor on it, holding it up to read it.

"When were you going to tell us?" he asked sharply.

"It wouldn't have mattered if this hadn't happened," she said as she jerked her arm away.

"Where's the nearest locker with suits?"

She pointed, "out there."

"Shit. You need to find some place close or Nik's going to run out of air," he said over the comm link for all to hear.

"No can do, partner," Alex replied. "Everything in that area is a wreck. The entrance is blocked with three different ships. If the hole in the dome was bigger, I could fly us in to get you, but right now there's nothing close. Better get moving before you lose that little hellcat."

"Hold on," Naomi overrode him. "Jim, can you get into the docks at all from where you're at?"

"Not through this door, no. Only Nik is small enough to squeeze through it."

"Wait," she stopped him. "It is big enough for you both to get through. It just doesn't look it from back here."

"Good," Naomi said. "You guys get in there and head for the entrance. We can't fly the Roci in to get to you, but you can fly out to the Roci. We'll catch you."

"That's crazy," Holden told her.

"What's crazy is letting Nik suffocate while you argue about it."

Holden turned to her, "are you sure there's no other place to get you more air?"

"None that I can guarantee. I think she's right; this is the best bet."

Her monitor sounded an alarm and it suddenly became hard to breath. She felt a jerk, heard a snap, then a whoosh of air and could draw a breath. Looking up, she saw Amos standing over her with his airline connected to her suit's auxiliary connection.

"She's right, Cap. She won't make if much longer."

"Well, shit. I guess we're going for a walk outside," Holden sighed. "Alex, get as close as you safely can. Naomi, get to the airlock and be ready to open it for us."

Amos knelt in front of Nik, his head only a little lower than hers, "you need to stay close to me, okay. Whenever your monitor alarms, I'll juice you up again. Got it?"

He unhooked her from his air and reconnected it to his suit. "We need to go now, Cap."

A few minutes later, the three were picking their way through the destroyed docks as fast as they could. They were forced to climb over downed support structures, crushed cargo pods and go around the wrecked ships and heavy equipment. They weren't making good time and Amos had to refresh Nik's air supply three times before they were halfway to their destination.

Nik's suit beeped its alarm and they stopped again for Amos to hook up to her suit. As he stepped up to her, there was a flash of light to her right and the grating under their feet shifted as a secondary explosion sent a shockwave through the station. Holden, standing a few meters away went down on his knees as a section of stairs broke free and swung wildly towards them passing harmlessly over his head. Amos had his back to Holden and didn't see the danger. At Holden's shout over the comm link, he started to turn around.

Acting quickly, Nik shoved him sideways, away from her, then unlocked her mag-boots and pushed off from the grating straight up. If they had been out in the void, it would have been easy to just push off and let her forward momentum and suit thrusters do the work. But they were still inside the station and it was still spinning, albeit more slowly, and creating rotational gravity. Luckily, the slower spin also meant less force and she was able to jump higher than she normally would have been able to. However, the time she took to push Amos out of harm's way slowed her down just a fraction and the stairs caught her mid-thigh as they flew by.

Tumbling out of control, she couldn't control her trajectory. Slamming into a large cargo loader, she ricocheted away from it, still tumbling. Her suit's alarm was a constant blare in her ears above her frantic breathing, and she was hitting smaller bits and pieces of debris as she sailed through the docks. Then she couldn't draw a breath. She was out of air. Her vision began to fade as her brain struggled without oxygen, but she caught a glimpse of the dock's bay doors looming large before her before her rotation spun it out of her line of sight.

Something grabbed her leg and pulled on it. Out of instinct she kicked and struggled weakly against it, then Amos' voice was in her ear over the comm link.

"Stop fighting! Be still!"

Another pair of hands grabbed her and held her still until she heard the whoosh of air in her suit. She took big gulping breaths of air as her vision cleared.

"There you go. Slow down. Take slow deep breaths. Atta girl," Amos coached over the link.

Too soon, he was forced to disconnect so he could breathe also.

"Well, at least we're here. And I can see the Roci," Holden told them.

Just a few minutes later, the three stood in the airlock waiting for the pressure to stabilize. A light flashed green over the inner door, indicating it was safe to proceed and they took their helmets off and took a deep breath of the Roci's air. Naomi opened the inner door and rushed in to wrap Holden in a hug.

Releasing him, she turned to Nik, "welcome back, sésata. You were great out there."

Blushing, Nik smiled shyly, "it was noting, any belta would have done the same."

"Not for Inners, they wouldn't."

"Na, probably not," Nik agreed. "I'm gonna end up regretting it, I'm sure."

"Probably," Naomi smiled. "Let's get you out of that suit. You look like you could use some sleep."

"Ya, that's sounds good."

Naomi and Holden filed out the door and Nik started to follow, only to be jerked back and pushed up against the bulkhead of the air lock. Amos stared down at her with a frown.

"Don't ever do that again."

"I'm sorry I panicked," she apologized. "I couldn't help it."

"Not that," he shook his head impatiently then leaned down until the tip of his nose almost touched hers. "Don't ever risk your life for me. Do you hear me. Ever!" He shook her a bit at the last word and shoved away from her, turning towards the door.

"Why?" she asked his back. When he didn't answer, she repeated the question louder, "Why not?"

She barely heard his answer before he left the airlock.

"Because I'm not worth it."