They followed Sally, moving with the cautious grace of wasteland scavengers, checking the next room from cover before going in. Calli checked her Pip-boy often noting when an object highlighted indicating it could be activated by them. The door blocking their path couldn't be opened. Sally scampered into a small opening in the wall and disappeared. They were trapped.
"Well, I guess the kid played us for fools", Somah said.
Just then the door cycled and opened. Sally stood on the other side.
"See, I told you I could help", she said smugly.
"How did you do that?", Calli asked.
"Oh, there's lots of wires and stuff in the walls. I figured out which ones to put together to make the doors open."
Calli was impressed and told the girl so. She beamed at the praise.
In the next room they found many interesting things, but they weren't able to use most of the technology. There was a crate that Calli could open. She was delighted to find it contained her belongings. She quickly peeled off the uniform and boots and slipped into her armor. As she pulled her pack from the crate and began an inventory of the high powered weaponry and meds, she noticed Somah staring at her.
"Who are you?", Somah asked suspiciously, eyeing the tiny woman dressed as a warrior, sliding the combat knife into her boot. Calli looked up.
"My name's Calli", she said.
"By the One!", Somah exclaimed. "You're Calli? You look like a teenager!"
"Looks can be deceiving", Calli replied mildly, checking the Combat Rifle. It was fully loaded. She picked up her helmet and snapped it on.
"Hey, hold on", Somah said. "If we all stick together we'll get wiped out together. I think I'll just hold back and follow you from a distance."
"Sure, that sounds like a good idea", Calli agreed dryly. Sometimes her reputation as a super soldier could be a little inconvenient. Then again, she usually preferred to fight alone. It made sneaking easier.
"Not me!", Sally said. "I'm going with Calli." She had decided the little warrior was her best friend.
The next door opened into a steam filled room. Gigantic pipes made a maze in the warehouse size room. Calli was amazed such an advanced craft was utilizing steam. Sally stopped.
"Shhhh", she said. "they're looking for us now. I can get through the walls but you're too big. You're gonna hafta go through the steam works to get to the engine room. I can help by opening doors for you but there's some guards down by the next door."
"If I give you a grenade, can you slip up behind them and take them out when you open the door?", Calli asked.
Sally's eyes got big. "Wow, you're gonna let me have a grenade? Really? Cool. Sure I can."
Calli nodded gravely and pulled a plasma grenade from her belt. "You know how to use this?", she asked. "Just pull this pin while you hold down this switch. Don't let go of the switch until you throw it or you'll blow yourself up. Be sure you stay in cover. I don't want you to get hurt."
"Got it", Sally said, taking the grenade.
Calli was uneasy but she was fully aware the child was mature way beyond her years. Maybe. Actually she wasn't quite sure how old she really was.
"Wait here", Sally said and climbed into the duct. Calli pulled out her tri-beam laser and waited. Shortly there was an explosion down the hall.
"Got the door open for you", Sally's voice echoed eerily from the wall. "Hurry. More guards are coming."
Calli hurried toward the door. She stepped over the bodies of dead aliens as she went into the hall. Sally had done a good job.
Sally was very helpful guiding Calli through the maze of the steam works while staying safe in the duct work. It wasn't easy. A few times guards came at her two or three at a time. These aliens wore a type of armor and helmet that made them much harder to take out than the ones that had guarded the cells, and they had high powered laser weapons as well as shock wands, but Calli managed to make it through with just minor wounds. Her armor wasn't as lucky even though it was custom made and highly advanced. It was badly damaged by the time she reached the Engineering Core. She had collected a nice assemblage of the laser weapons, though, as well as some items that looked like they might be useful.
Somah appeared shortly after her arrival, slipping quietly through the cleared corridors before more guards could take the place of the ones Calli left behind. Sally was already there since she had clear passage through the duct work.
Calli was curious. The aliens didn't seem to be aware of their presence in the Core. As far as that went they didn't seem to know where any of them were unless they actually saw them. They didn't have any strategy in their attacks either. These weren't the actions of an intelligent race.
Her first priority was checking out the area around the Core to make sure it was safe. The Core itself was in the middle of the room and was encircled by a walkway. It sparked with energy bands running the entire depth of the ship from what Calli could tell by looking over the rail. It would be deadly to fall in there. Walkways ran off the central one in three other directions.
"Come on", Sally said, trying to pull her down one of the walkways. "I gotta show you this."
"Hold on. We have to make sure it's safe here", Calli objected.
"Oh, I've been here before and I never see any of the mean ones. Just the workers, you know, the ones that don't bother you. They just run away", Sally informed her.
Calli had noticed this too and found it interesting. The workers never reported them. They just seemed intent on their tasks and stayed out of their way.
"Okay, show me what you got. Somah, keep an eye out here anyway, would you?", Calli asked.
"Sure", Somah agreed. The large, mostly open bay wouldn't be hard to watch. She would be able to spot any aliens coming from any of the doorways before they were in firing range.
The walkway ended in a platform no more than 10 feet wide. A doorway was in the middle of the platform. On either side of the doorway were shelves of items. Sally was pulling Calli toward the door. They stepped into a cold, misty room containing a number of huge, egg shaped pods. Calli walked from pod to pod. The transparent walls allowed her to see the human figures inside.
"Isn't this cool?", Sally asked. "We can wake them up with the controls over there. Maybe they can help us. Anyway we have to wake this one", she said, stopping in front of one containing a figure in an old space suit.
"Why do we need this one?", Calli asked, removing her helmet and walking over to stand by Sally.
"Because the transport pads aren't working, silly", Sally said impatiently. "He has to go outside to get to the main deck and make the pads work so we can go down to the earth. You have to have a space suit to do that! But to get to the outside you have to get the air out so the aliens won't get you, but to do that you have to blow up the generators that make the air." Calli smiled at the child's logic.
"Hmmm, these men all look like fighters. I think we might be able to use them. Let's give it a go", Calli said enthusiastically. She walked over to the controls and activated them.
The pods opened with a hiss of escaping gasses. The men slowly stirred, turning around, sitting abruptly in the pods.
"Take it easy", Calli said, going from man to man. "You've been suspended a long time. Give yourself a minute to readjust."
She frowned at the space man. He lay unmoving. She knelt and checked him over, then shook her head at Sally who was watching her.
"Yeah, these freezers are dangerous. Sometimes the people don't wake up", Sally said sadly. "I guess you're going to have to use the space suit now. "
"I guess so", Calli agreed. She stripped the space man while the others watched from where they sat. She pushed the body back into the pod and closed the door. She didn't know how long they might be here and it would start to smell in a few days. She reactivated the freezing mechanism.
The men had regained their equilibrium and all wanted to know what was going on, how long they had been frozen and who this young woman was who seemed to be in charge. They turned to Somah, who seemed older than the young warrior.
"You need to listen to Calli", Somah said. "I'm not sure all of you know what a mutant is, but take it from me. This woman is older and more experienced than any of us. She's one of the top warriors in the wasteland. It's these aliens bad luck they chose to take her because our odds of getting out of here alive are a whole lot better with her in charge."
The medic spoke up. "I heard they were trying to make mutant super warriors before the war. Are you one of those?", he asked Calli.
"I wasn't created before the war but basically I am what they were aiming for", she shrugged. "You all can follow me or not, I'm not big on being in charge. I will do whatever I can to get you all out of here. It'll be easier if you'll help me out. Right now I have to figure out what we're up against."
She began checking out some of the computers.
"Whatcha looking for?", Sally asked, watching her.
"Some history on these aliens", Calli replied.
"Who cares about their history? We just need a way out of here!", Somah said.
Calli glanced over at her. "We need to know who we're dealing with. Always know your enemy. It's how I've stayed alive this long."
Somah muttered something under her breath but Calli just ignored it. She was finding what she needed to know. Calli shut down the computers and faced the assemblage.
"Listen, guys", she said. "I'm not just going to get out of here. I'm taking this ship."
"Are you crazy?", the medic objected. "You saw what the creatures do. We'll be lucky just to make it out."
"Yes, I saw, but I also know what they are now", she said. "They're an ancient race, so old in fact they've deteriorated as a people. They aren't intelligent, they're programmed. The computers run the ship and the aliens, but they're running on ancient algorithms. Old humans tried before to take over but greed and dissension lead to their destroying each other. If we work together we can take this ship and I can reprogram it to serve us. Not the warriors, they're basically wired to attack any foreign creatures, but the scientists and workers can be reprogrammed. Talk it over and let me know what you want to do. I'll get you off here if that's what you want but I'm taking this ship. In the meantime I want to talk to each of you and get some background and a sense of your strengths."
They looked at each other. The young looking woman might be crazy but there was definitely something about her that inspired confidence. Calli approached each in turn to learn his story. Elliott Tercorien, the medic, taken with his unit during the war in Anchorage; Paulson, the cowboy, taken with his wife and son while riding sometime in the late 1800's, an excellent shot with a .45; the samurai. Calli never got his story because he only spoke Mandarin, but he seemed quite handy with a sword and showed no tendency to harm them. Somah, she learned, could repair most items and was a whiz with computers.
She stripped out of her suit and gave it to Somah to repair. Somah had discovered a repair area on one of the other platforms. The men cast surreptitious admiring glances at Calli that she ignored as she rummaged in her pack to find something to put on. All she seemed to have in the pack was a light weight dress.
"Calli, I told you. I know how to get off here", Sally said.
"Yes, you did, I didn't forget. Tell me now", she said to the impatient girl.
"Okay. There are three doors out of here. One goes to the cryo lab, that's right back here in this room. The others go to the hangar where there's a bunch of ships, and to a robot assembly area where they make the big robots that try to kill you. In each of these areas there's a room with a generator. You have to blow those generators. That'll take down the power to the air so you can use the spacesuit to get out and go to the big room where the control is for the transport pad. Got it?"
"Yeah, got it", Calli agreed.
The medic approached them. "Listen, Calli, I heard what the girl said. That's the cryo lab through there. That's where they took my men. I want to go after them. I don't know if there's anything I can do for them but I can't just abandon them."
Calli nodded. "All right, we'll go there first. We'll see what we can do for your men then blow those generators. I downloaded the ships specs to my wrist computer while I was in there. It'll help us find our way around. I'm going to need some rest before I go anywhere though. I know you're impatient but your men have already been in there for 200 years and I can't help anyone if I'm exhausted. Somah, how long do you think it'll take to fix my suit?"
"I'd say about 6 or 7 hours", she said.
"All right, then, I'm going to get some sleep. Wake me when it's done" Calli headed down the stairs to the room below which the cowboy had found. It had a makeshift pad she could sleep on.
Elliot was waiting when she woke and had some alien food for her. It wasn't much to her liking but it seemed to be nutritious anyway. At least these creatures were enough like them that they required water so it was readily available as well.
Having redressed in her armor and helmet she lead Elliot to the entrance to the cryo labs. "You never know what you're going to find on the other side of a door", she said. "But I have come across warriors, turrets and robots in the steamworks, so be prepared for them. Are you ready?"
At his nod she activated the door.