Lukas glanced out of the window. He saw three harpoons wedged deep between armour plated. Primitive, yes, but nonetheless effective. "What? The beacon links have been down ever since we got here?"
"Hmm!" Max shot a sideways look at the slowly-rotating 3D beacon map. Sure enough, all of the links were red. "Do they have an experimental FTL link bypass system or something?"
"Nah. There's only one of those, and it's currently in the Rebel Flagship."
"They must just be REALLY fast." Zoe added.
Alex grabbed the comms headset and leaned closely in to the mic. "Hello?"
"You have Zoe". The voice was a lot clearer than it would be over the headset. "Stand up and turn around. Hands behind your head!"
Three Zoltan boarders brandished their blasters as the four unarmed Avianeers faced them. The first smiled. "Ah, Zoe, good to see you! These guys been treating you ok?"
"Yep. Come on, guys. Don't be so hostile! No threat."
The second Zoltan aimed squarely at Lukas' chest. "See… you took our Shield Charge Booster. We NEED that to fight the Flagship."
"Wait… You were sent to fight the Flagship? So were we!" A bead of sweat rolled down Max's forehead. "We can work together!"
"Ah, teamwork. I remember when that was an option. Sadly, your scrap would be much more useful top us than you would."
Lukas desperately attempted to catch someone's- anyone's! - eye. Max glanced over, and Lukas put his hand behind him, gesturing for Max to copy. Puzzled, Max surreptitiously extended his hand behind him, and his eyes widened as he realised what he was holding on to. Lukas turned to look at Alex, who was nodding feverishly as he tried to keep the conversation going. Good, they were distracted.
Max slowly eased the lever back. Lukas heard a hiss as vents all over the ship began to open. Unbeknownst to the Zoltan invaders, the ship's O2 vents were disgorging most of their electrolysed oxygen into space.
"…But how are you going to disable their missiles? You need to send someone in to take out the guy?" Alex was saying. The Zoltans were laughing heartily.
"Do you know about hacking technology?" said one. "We can use it to disable them with no need for potential traitors on our ship. We can also upgrade it to make it physically damage anyone and anything inside it… hang on. Do you hear that?"
All three Zoltans turned to look at the vent, that had just so happened to hiss at that exact moment. Zoe took the opportunity and slammed her fist into the nearest Zoltan's head. It accomplished about the same amount as punching a jelly – his body wobbled and he fell over. Zoe grabbed his blaster and pistol-whipped the second Zoltan, before sprinting out of the room, frantically motioning for the others to follow. The third Zoltan, who was still staring at the vent, spun around and caught sight of the three prisoners attempting to escape, pulled out his blaster, and shot wildly in their direction before finally understanding what having a hole in his chest felt like.
Thirty seconds later, three crew members burst through the doors of the Medbay, the fourth being dragged behind, his hands around his throat. The moment the room was sealed Max punched the button that would oxygenate the room. The he punched it again. The red lights continued to swirl. "Those sneaky beggars! They sabotaged out oxygen system!"
"So… we're stuck here?" asked Zoe.
"I guess so" Alex removed his hands from his airway. In the sudden quiet all four of them began to truly understand where the line was drawn between life and death. Although their cells were not receiving any oxygen, the Medbay was repairing the damage done, so they were somehow alive, and yet at the same time dead.
"One of us will need to sacrifice ourselves to fix the generator." said Lukas. "Who here's feeling lucky?"
"I'll go" said Zoe, and before anything else could be said she was gone.
Max immediately leapt up and tried to follow her, but the doors were locked shut. "Why would she do this?"
"I guess she felt responsible for this mess" replied Alex.
Suddenly the red lights stopped flashing. Moments later a female form crashed through the doors, not even out of breath. "All they had time to do was pull out the dispersal cord. Turns out all the oxygen was being diverted into the room! It might've exploded if I hasn't opened the doors."
Everyone laughed, suddenly relieved at how easy the solution to their dilemma had been. "Well we'd better get back to our stations" said Max, and the crew dispersed into their rooms to prepare for the jump.