3. The Ship
"For the last time, Toph, no, you can't pilot my ship!" Sokka cried, exasperated, as they made their way through the crowded hangar. Katara and Aang shared a look behind their backs.
"Why not?" Toph demanded, hands on her hips. A group of vibrant Shu strode past them, nodding to Toph as they passed; she acknowledged them with a careless wave. Katara rolled her eyes.
"Because you don't have a license, that's why!" said Sokka, stomping up the Penguin Runner's gangplank.
"So?" Toph asked, following him. Aang and Katara weren't far behind them. The interior of Sokka's new ship was still surprisingly clean, though she didn't expect that to last. Katara followed the rest of the gang up to the cockpit, where Sokka was fiercely trying to keep Toph away from the pilot's seat. Katara grinned as the small Shu girl grabbed Sokka and lifted him above her head.
"Toph! Put me down!" he screamed, furious.
"Not until you say I can pilot your ship," Toph said, unperturbed by neither the weight nor the yelling.
"I could co-pilot for her," Aang offered, a spark of mischief in his eyes. "You can trust me." Sokka craned his neck to look at the A'pa boy.
"Are you suggesting that I be a passenger on my own ship?" he demanded in scandalized tones.
"Or," Katara said, employing the diplomacy for which she had gained intergalactic recognition, "Sokka can pilot, Toph can co-pilot, and Aang can still navigate. Then we won't have any problems."
There was a pause, as all parties concerned considered this.
"Sounds good," declared Toph, and Katara knew it was settled.
"Can we see the rest of your ship, Sokka?" she asked, wanting to distract her brother before he realized that he's been talked into a compromise in which Toph got partial control of his ship. He brightened immediately.
"Sure!" He led them down the ladder into the main body of the ship. "There's the bunkroom, that's the head, there's some cargo storage - and down this ladder is a sort of conference room thing, the med-bay, and the galley. And below that is the weapons turret, which is a WT-275 laser turret with…" Katara's eyes glazed over as he brother went on and on about his ship's weaponry. She glanced over at Aang and saw the same expression mirrored on his face. Toph was hanging on Sokka's every word, nodding enthusiastically, though that was to be expected - she always did have a weakness for weapons. And Water Tribe boys.
"That's great, Sokka," Katara said finally, interrupting him mid-adjective. "But shouldn't we be leaving soon? You told Dad we'd be back as soon as the summit was over."
"Right, right," said Sokka, heading for the cockpit.
"I think I'll come with you guys," Toph announced.
"Well, we were planning on giving you a lift," Katara reminded her. "Since you live one planet over from the government center and all."
"No, I mean to your homeworld. I've never actually been out of the Cluster, and it'll be fun to hang out with you guys for a little longer."
"What about your parents?" asked Katara. Toph's parents, leaders of the majority party in the Ba Sing Se Parliament, were famously overprotective.
"I'll give 'em a call," Toph shrugged.
There was a pause. Katara raised an eyebrow, waiting.
"Oh, you mean now?" Toph asked.
"Yes. Preferably before takeoff."
"Okay," Toph said, stepping into the galley. "Give me a sec, I'll meet you up in the cockpit."
"Ready for takeoff," Sokka said, putting his comm in his ear. "Ba Sing Se Tower, this is Water Tribe ship Penguin Runner, requesting permission to take off."
"Penguin Runner, this is the Tower. Cleared for takeoff. Thank you for visiting the capital," the Tower control's bored voice replied.
"Preflight check," Sokka said. "Fuel mixture?"
"42,000 ppm," Toph replied, glancing at the readout in front of her.
"Internal pressure?"
"Normal."
"Oxygen filters?"
"Filters on and functioning within normal parameters."
"Art-grav?"
"One gee and holding steady."
"Coordinates?"
"Laid in and ready."
"Seatbelts?"
"… What?"
"Seatbelts," Sokka repeated. "Does everyone have a seatbelt on?" Toph glanced around the cockpit.
"Yep," she said.
"Okay," said Sokka, firing up the engines. "Here we go!"
They'd been traveling for about three hours when the nav-computer pinged. Katara looked up from the agricultural report she'd been reading. Aang glanced over the readout. "Nav-computer says there's an obstruction 200 klicks ahead of us."
"What do the sensors say?" Sokka asked, not taking his eyes off the main screens.
"Um… ship of some sort," Aang reported. Toph came over, looking at the screen over his shoulder.
"It's leaking oxygen," she said, frowning. "And the sensors are picking up traces of fuel mixture in the surrounding area. I think they're damaged pretty badly."
"What are their coordinates?" Sokka asked, slowing the ship to half-speed. Katara set down her report.
"67x, 92y, 3z," said Aang, typing it into the nav-computer.
"I'll get the med-kit," said Katara, heading for sickbay. She grabbed one of the portable med-kits out of the cabinet and hurried back to the cockpit. While she was gifted with the rare healing ability of the Water Tribe, it was a severe drain on her energy, and judging from the sensor readout, this was a large ship, with lots of potentially injured crewmembers.
When she got back up to the cockpit, the damaged ship was clearly visible through the front windows. She couldn't hold back a gasp. The ship - pretty large, sleek, military-class - had been ripped apart, showing burn marks on the outer hull where laser bursts and space debris had made their impact. There was a gaping hole in the side of the ship, the inside of which was blackened and burnt.
"Well, that would explain why they wouldn't answer our hails. You have the med-kit, right?" asked Sokka, uncharacteristically serious. Aang looked sick. Toph looked impassive, but her leg was bouncing up and down at a furious rate.
"We'll need space suits" was all Katara said, already heading for the ship's hatch, Aang on her heels. Once they were in the cargo bay, she took a deep breath, calming her screaming nerves, then slipped on her space suit. She tapped the comm unit on her wrist. "Sokka? Can you hear me?"
"Yep," her brother replied. "I'm sending Toph down with you guys, but I'll keep an eye on the sensors and let you know if anyone's coming our way."
"All right," said Katara. "Tell her to hurry."
"It's an Agni Kai ship," Aang said suddenly. Katara turned to look at him. "The style - it's Agni Kai," he repeated. "That's where I'd seen it before - it's one of their destroyers."
"What's an Agni Kai destroyer doing around here? We're awfully close to the Cluster," Katara frowned.
"It's Agni Kai?" Toph said, landing with a thud on the deck. "I bet they have some sweet weapons systems."
"It's probably been drifting," Aang said to Katara. "We ready to go?"
"Yeah, I'm good," Toph said, setting her helmet on her head.
"Hey, Sokka, are we alongside that hole yet?" Katara asked.
"Just about," Sokka said. "We should be able to fit inside, so I'll get right up to the inner door. You'll need to engage the docking attachment seal so their air doesn't get sucked out when we open the doors; I'm pretty sure the ship sealed itself after the hull breach."
"Just tell me when we're up against their door," Aang said.
"Will do."
There were a few tense moments as Sokka maneuvered the ship into position. Then there was a thud. "I'm right up against their inner door," Sokka reported. Aang punched the button to engage the docking attachment. "Equalizing," said the cool female voice of the computer. The airlock doors slid open to reveal a short plastic tunnel - the docking attachment - and another sealed door with a keypad.
"I got it," said Aang, crossing the tunnel. Within a minute the door opened with a hiss.
Toph sucked in a breath. Aang recoiled. Katara gasped, holding back a wave of nausea.
"What? What's wrong?" asked Sokka, worried.
"They're dead," said Katara, numbly. "They're all dead."
The hall was littered with corpses - those of the Agni Kai crewmen, intermixed with Oma and Water Tribe men.
"Pirates," said Toph, a dark scowl on her face. Aang looked like he was going to be sick.
"Sokka, scan for life signs," Katara ordered, cursing herself for not doing it before. She'd been so sure there would be plenty of survivors.
"Uh… I got one," Sokka reported.
"One?" Toph repeated, incredulous. "In the entire ship?"
"Yeah, and it's really weak. Check the bridge," he replied.
"Aang, are the turbolifts working?" asked Katara.
"They should be," the A'pa boy replied, looking down at his scanner. "Yep. The bridge is the top level."
"You know the layout of Agni Kai ships? I thought they didn't let anyone study them," Toph said as they picked their way over to the turbolift at the end of the hall. Aang shrugged.
"There have been a couple leaked schematics on the net, and I know they all follow the same basic layout if it's an Armada ship, which I'm pretty sure this one is," he replied, as the lift began climbing.
"Their art-grav is still on, and I think life-support must still be mostly functioning," said Katara, thinking out loud. "But they've sustained some serious damage. Where did we come in?"
"Engineering, I think," Aang answered, fingers tapping nervously on his thighs.
Suddenly Toph slammed her fist against the wall, making her two companions jump.
"Toph - " started Katara, surprised.
"This is our problem!" the Shu girl snapped. "The Cluster's. We're the ones who should be dealing with this. Now this whole crew's been slaughtered… " She fell silent, pressing her lips together tightly.
"Not the whole crew," Katara said. Toph looked up.
"Right. How big is this ship?!" she exclaimed, as the turbolift continued to rise.
"We're almost there," said Aang, glancing at the keypad, where the deck numbers continued to rise. "Get the med-kit ready."
"Sokka, you still there?" Katara asked.
"Right here," her brother replied.
"Good. What's the range on these comm-sets?"
"Don't know. I haven't had time to test them yet."
The lift door hissed open.
Although Katara was expecting more corpses, she was not expecting to see a massive hole in the bridge door that looked like it had been made by laser cutters. She was also not expecting the bridge to have more dead pirates than crewmen. Apparently the officers of an Agni Kai Armada ship were not to be trifled with. She'd never met an Agni Kai, though of course she'd heard stories of their ferocity and prowess in battle. You didn't grow up the daughter of the chief of a major galactic power without picking up some galactic politics.
"Here! This one!" Aang cried, standing over a prone figure. Katara hurried over, yanking open the med-kit. She dropped to her knees and carefully turned the Agni Kai man onto his back.
And gasped. His uniform was soaked with blood and torn in several places where laser bursts had grazed him. An angry red scar stretched over his left eye. The handle of a knife still protruded from his ribs. She was surprised he was still alive. She knew in an instant that the med-kit wasn't going to be enough for the knife wound - he must have serious internal damage already. She looked up at Aang, who was looking sick again. "Is is safe to depressurize the suit in here? I need to take my gloves off."
He checked his scanner. "All clear."
"Toph, be ready to take him back to the turbolift," Katara ordered, whipping off her gloves. She paused for a moment, considering how she was going to do this. She took a deep breath, steadying herself, then pulled out the knife, quickly sticking her fingers in the wound as the blood welled up around her fingers. The Agni Kai man twitched.
Katara's hands began to glow blue. She willed the ripped tissues to mend, the blood to clot, the pain to fade. She felt the energy draining out of her and into the wound. She kept her hands in his side, wanting to heal as much of the internal damage as she could.
The injured man let out a groan, still unconscious. Katara winced in sympathy, but continued her healing, knitting the flesh together.
Her vision was swimming. She blinked back spots - she could feel that the majority of the damage was almost healed. Unfortunately, that last bit required more energy than she had, and she felt herself slump, utterly spent. She gave one last burst of energy - come on, heal! - and then her eyes slipped shut of their own accord and she slid to the ground.