Chapter 23: Rescue

Bower wheezed and coughed after he closed the door behind him. He had held his breath, but the remnants of the tear gas agent on his clothing was still enough to choke him. His recently shaved face burned; his nose and eyes streamed mucous and tears. His eyes were on fire, since he had to leave them open during his escape from the gas filled room.

In his haste to escape the gas, he realized that he had made several huge mistakes.

The first mistake he had made, was exiting the room through the opposite door that he needed to get through. He should have killed the security robot and finished running the bypass program on the door that Gallo had locked. He had exited the wrong door.

The second mistake, was because he was panicked to vacate and kill the robot at the same time, he had left both of his axes behind. That left him armed with only the anti riot gun. Even though the gas alone wasn't enough of a deterrent to keep him from reentering, he knew that Gallo had enough control of the room to possible kill him within it. He needed to keep moving.

The third and probably the worst mistake of all was that he also left behind the hand held computer unit still connected to the opposite door and the tool belt lying on the floor. Even if he managed to find an alternate route back to the room that Nadia was trapped in, he still lacked the means to get her out.

Bower tried to think. He needed a plan and he needed one fast.

The hall that he was in was a "T" section. There was no steam here to hide him, no noisy reactor to mask his sounds and all the lights that weren't broken or burnt out, were brightly lit. He was exposed to the hunters as a rabbit on a golf course. Luck was with him though because despite all his coughing, there were no signs that any hunters had detected him.

His impatience to get Nadia out was causing him to be reckless.

I need to get my head screwed on straight.

Bower decided to head starboard and try to find a path aft towards the reactor room. After that, he should be able to find the correct level and room that Nadia was trapped in. The only way aft from this hallway was a stairwell. On one side, the stairs led up and the other, down.

He decided to go up.

The lights in the stairwell were burned out on this level and the one above which left both sets of stairs shrouded with inky black shadows that seemed to be lying in wait. Was there a cold breeze flowing down the stairs at him? He wondered if he was imagining it.

Bower hesitated.

He knew he had to locate another set of tools or at least another hand held computer before he made his way back to Nadia. The most important thing for him to do was to stay alive. Getting killed before he could rescue her was out of the question. He was useless to her dead. He finally had a chance to impress her, finally had an opportunity to show her how important she was to him. He was going to rescue her, no matter what.

Cautiously, he entered the stairway. Apparently, none of the lights in the vast stairwell weren't working at all because it was as dark as pitch even as he looked between the staircases at the higher and lower decks. He crept up slowly, one stair at a time, ears perked, eyes sweeping all around, body tense and perspiring.

I can't believe I left both axes behind.

The slightest noise echoed in the quiet stairwell.

If memory served, Bower was almost positive that the next deck he was nearing had been the lounge and recreational area for the crew. There were game rooms, a movie room and several lounges here for the crew to relax. He remembered that most of the lighting on this level had been large, overhead fluorescent lights always brightly lit.

Before entering the cryopods, the entire crew had remained awake for the first three months in space during travel to make the necessary preparation for the long sleep. They would all be awake for the last three months of the journey as well. During that first three months, there had been people buzzing here before, everyone enjoying themselves and hanging out with buddies. The sound of music, people talking, laughing and different movie channels blaring from the different rooms, had all meshed together into a pleasant accord.

The area was probably a ghost town now dark, derelict and silent.

Bower reached the halfway point up the stairs where the switchback was. He peeked around the corner and saw a skull laying on the stairs a few steps above him. It had been there quite a long time because the skin and hair appeared to be nearly mummified. On the steps right above it there were several rib bones and what looked to be a femur. As he continued scanning the stairs, he saw that there were multiple bones scattered all over the stairs. The bones were all old, black and brown mottled from blood stains and stringy bits of gristle that had dried on the surface.

The bones were scattered carelessly. Someone's remains had been discarded like refuse.

Silent as a shadow, he moved up the stairs, carefully avoiding the bones. The switchback ended at a small junction with a door. Piled up were more discarded bones and skulls that nearly completely coated the floor of the cramped junction.

He hesitated again.

Since the bones had all been piled outside this door, it was possible that on the other side lay a lair of hunters, perhaps even a small tribe. Entering here while being armed with only the anti riot weapon was folly at best. He looked up the stairs leading to the next level above him and they were clear. He could see no bones or red flashing signs of obvious danger.

He decided to go up one more level.

Bower tried to remember what deck this was but couldn't. It was probably quarters. The ship was built to house the entire crew comfortably before and after cryogenic sleep. Each crew member had their own quarters, however cramped and small they might be.

The door to the next level was unlocked when he tried the handle and as he slowly pulled the door opened, the hinges protested noisily.

More darkness.

As his eyes became more and more adjusted to the shadows, Bower saw that he was in a hallway that ran starboard for quite a distance passed the stairwell. He hurried down the hall, passing by several quarter doors to the small apartments that had once housed the crew members.

He reached a set of double doors leading aft that lead him to one of the three large dining facilities on board. It was in shambles. Broken dishes, busted up furniture and trash littered the floor. Every scrap of food and water had probably been hastily taken or consumed on the spot.

Passing through the cafeteria, he saw more sets of doors leading to a mechanical room.

Twenty minutes had passed since Nadia had seen Bower.

She had tried plugging in the electric forklifts into the charging stations, after the power had been restored. Every battery that she could find wouldn't hold a charge. If she could get one of the forklifts working, she could use it to either pry the door opened or break it down.

What confused her was that the batteries didn't appear to be damaged or simply outdated, they seemed to be completely deteriorated. Some of them were practically corroded in their mounts as though they had been sitting there for decades. Was it possible that they had been asleep even longer than she and Mahn had theorized? She hoped not.

A frightening thought entered Nadia's mind, the terrible idea that the Elysium had drifted right passed their intended destination of Pandorum and was now traveling aimless into deep space. If they had been asleep and the navigation systems and auto piloting systems of the ship weren't working properly, they could have overshot the planet by a vast distance.

Nadia shook the idea from her mind. She needed to focus and find a way to escape.

The rest of the room was devoid of furniture and decorations. Just the forklifts, lockers full of spare parts and tools for maintenance on the forklifts and a few workbenches. Adjacent to each workbench there were pneumatically fed hoses for oil, grease, fluids and also a large plug to charge the forklifts with.

She searched as quickly as she could, determined to find something, anything to help her.

There has to be SOMETHING!

"You've been a bad girl," said Gallo from the com unit. "Forget all about that hero. I rule this ship and as the King, I demand you rule at my side as my Queen."

Nadia continued searching, "You'd better pray I never get out of here."

"You'll be let out as soon as you pledge yourself to me."

"I'm going to kill you when you let me out," Her voice was cold.

He laughed cruelly. "Even when murderous you excite me. I can't wait to touch you."

"You'll find touching me difficult after I chop off your filthy hands."

"You should be nicer to me. Your list of friends is getting shorter. You need all the help you can get."

"Just wait until I get out of here!" Nadia hollered, "I'm going to fucking kill you!"

Gallo's voice was serious, "Nadia."

Nadia sighed.

"Nadia."

"What?"

Gallo's voice was solemn, "I'm afraid Bower didn't make it."

She held her breath, her body tense. "You're a liar."

Silence.

Bower couldn't be dead. It was impossible. She felt tears welling up and an ache in her heart. What difference did it make whether he was alive or dead? She still had to survive. She still needed to focus and escape.

She willed herself to rifle through the small lockers in the room to look for anything that she might have overlooked but she couldn't. There was a heavy weight pressing down on her and she felt short of breath. Her legs felt weak.

"If it's any consolation," Gallo said quietly, "He died fighting. He maintained his dignity at least."

"You're lying!" Her voice was weaker than she wanted it to be.

Gallo was silent again but only for a few seconds. Then he shouted at her, "Tell me you haven't gone and fallen for him!" He was angry. He sounded like a jealous boyfriend, "I knew there was something between you two! I knew it!"

"He can't be dead," Tears fell even though Nadia tried to resist sobbing. Her legs gave and she sat down hard. She mustn't allow herself to be forlorn. She should not have allowed herself to get close to anyone. He was gone but she was still alive. She had to go on. She had to try and save the remaining passengers on board. Even as Nadia tried to convince herself to press on, it all seemed futile without Bower.

Bower stood at the top of the stairs of the nearly sterile mechanical room. There was some rust and residual steam coming from the heat exchange units and some of the hot water pipes but other than that, the lightly painted, well lit room was nearly devoid of dilapidation.

The massive heating, ventilation and air conditioning units stretched a full two stories high. Pipes, gauges and power lines were neatly laid out into parallel layouts with catwalks and walkways intersecting them for easy maintenance. He knew that once he found the aft exit of this massive room, it should lead him back to the reactor room.

Bower squinted in the bright lights and was surprised to see that on the lower level of this room, he could see blankets and makeshift tents. He rushed down the metal stairs and called out for anyone that may still be in the small camp. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

He found a desiccated corpse lying on a blanket in one of the tents. All of the body parts were intact and there was no trauma to the bones. As far as he could tell, the person died naturally but no one had buried the body.

Bower knew he couldn't dawdle, wondering about the history of the ship. Nadia needed his help in getting out of her prison. He rushed through the small human settlement but another body in one of the other tents caught his eye. It was toddler sized. There had been no children aboard the Elysium. The spouses and children of the crew had boarded the sister ship, the Utopia.

Bower wanted to take the time to investigate and try to find out what had happened to this small band of people that had found a way to avoid the hunters long enough to have children. Too bad there was no time. He had to press on.

Had disease wiped them out? Maybe starvation? He had no idea.

Bower reluctantly continued on to the aft end of the chamber and saw another set of double doors leading reactor room. He fought to keep from looking back at the small pathetic encampment that held unknown information and untold history of the people who had once lived there.

Carefully, he pushed the doors open, slipped into the room and closed the door behind him. No hunters were detected in the massive chamber. He saw that the elevator on this side of the huge reactor room was working again so he entered it and punched the button for two levels below.

The elevator delivered him to the correct level and he recklessly hurried to the room Nadia was trapped in. The bar was still sticking out of the door where he had left it. He could hear her weeping so he rushed to the door to make sure she was safe.

There was a green light on her door indicating it was unlocked. Bower stared at it, thinking he was hallucinating. He blinked a few times, rubbed his eyes and looked at it again. He wasn't seeing things, the door was definitely unlocked so Bower opened it and went inside.

Nadia sat on the floor, bawling her heart out, deep sobs erupting from her and fat tears falling from her eyes. She gasped when she saw him, leaped to her feet staring at him incredulously, hastily wiping the tears from her eyes.

He heard the com unit on the wall. It was Gallo, "How did you get in there, hero? That sneaky fucking infidel! He unlocked the door! That rotten son of a bitch! Stay away from my queen! Don't you touch her you fuck! I'll kill you! I swear I will fucking kill you!"

Nadia was still staring at Bower as though she were looking at a ghost. She smiled, that lovely wonderful smile.

Gallo continued to rant but all Bower could see and hear was Nadia. He took a few steps towards her, "Are you okay?"

Amazingly, she ran to him and threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely. "I thought you were dead," she said quietly in his ear. Her breath gave him goosebumps again. She squeezed him so tightly and close that he could scarcely breath but he hugged her back, happy that he was finally able to hold her. She felt so good in his arms that he was speechless. Her body was so warm and she felt almost natural in his arms. He was very disappointed when she abruptly released him. "We have to get to the bridge! We have to stop him!"

Bower wanted to kiss her but he resisted. Instead, he gently wiped away one of her tears. "Yeah," he told her, "Let's go."

Gallo continued to scream at them even as they left the unlocked room.