Some bolts caught the robots, with no effect. A slight shimmering distortion around them indicated shielding.
"Arrachachak!" Aeyris yelled. The giant had braced himself against a wall, and was trying to aim his cumbersome weapon. A hideous screech, almost a bang, as it went off. The blast missed the robot, blasting a portion of the wall out. The human guard nearest to the impact was flung aside, where he lay twitching on the floor. The robot shuddered, but continued firing.
"Hurry up!" Marchero yelled at him. "Fire again!"
"Just keep shooting yourself, and leave the cannon to Arrachachak," one of the pirates snarled at her.
It was ten seconds before the cannon had cooled down. The next blast caught a robot straight on, obliterating it. So did the third, taking out the final guard with it. Aeyris himself took a glancing hit in his left leg.
When the cannon hit the doors they buckled under the strain, but stayed in one piece. It took two more shots to open a hole in it, but as soon as it did they left their cover and ran for it, Kirrik and Aeyris being helped along, and Arrachachak wincing at the effort after the bruising jolts he had received each time he had operated the pulse laser.
They all made it through the door, some picking up nasty burns from the cooling, twisted metal. As Arrachachak ducked through the gap dozens of soldiers appeared in the hall behind them. Arrachachak took several steps back from the door, and loosed his cannon upwards. Without anything to brace against he was hurled to the floor, smashing the power pack on his back. From above, though, came a pile of twisted metal as the cranes and gantries that had been torn free from the shot crashed down to block the door.
They were in the hangar, fourteen of the twenty-one who had started. No other people could be seen, only service robots who were oblivious to anything that did not directly concern them. And in the centre of the hangar sat the new Constrictor.
"Over to you," Aeyris told Kirrik. His voice was steady but his face was pale and his leg bloody.
"Over to me what?"
"Where's the door? How does it open? It was your idea to come here, so I hope you had an idea about how to get in."
Kirrik looked up at the grey metallic mass. "Around the other side," he told them. They walked around to the far side of the ship. One of the pirates glanced back at the mess surrounding the hangar's entrance.
"Can't see or hear any sign of anyone trying to break through," he pointed out.
There were a few puzzled looks from the rest of the team, until Marchero's face suddenly took on a look of panic. "In the ship, fast!" she shouted.
"What?"
"Why aren't they trying to break in? Why not just seal off the area and let the air out?" She was greeted with several worried looks, and several questions along the line of "How do you know?"
"It's a guess, OK?" she snapped back. "Any other ideas? Or do you want to stand around and find out if I'm right?"
Kirrik found the door. At a touch it slid open, much to his surprise. "No lock? Never mind that now, everyone on board."
Most of them were on when machinery started up at the far side of the hangar. The last few took a panicked glance at the hangar doors and leapt in after their companions, cramming together in the narrow entrance.
"Close the bloody door!" someone at the front yelled. The pirate at the back looked around in alarm.
"With what? There's no panel here, just a bundle of wires!" he exclaimed.
"Well go out there and close it from outside!"
"Get lost!"
"You'll die just the same. Only we all will if you stay here."
"You go then."
"I would if you lot weren't piled in the way."
"Like hell you would!"
"Shut up everyone!" Kirrik's voice rose above the noise. "Get out of my way and let me get to the bridge. I'll see if I can close it from there." There was much shuffling and cursing as he forced his way from his place in the middle of the crush. The air started moving, out of the ship and through the hangar.
Kirrik had disappeared from view. The wind had turned into a gale.
"Help!" a man exclaimed, uselessly, as his ears popped. People furthest from the door were trying to make their way deeper into the ship, people near the back were trying to grab hold of the people in front to stop themselves from being blown out. A few abandoned weapons bounced out of the hatch, and clanks and clangs resounded over the ship as pieces of equipment and debris bounced off its hull.
Then the door slid shut. Hands were removed from ringing ears; they popped again as the ship's reserves restored air pressure to normal. When Kirrik returned he was greeted by cheers, even Marchero grudgingly thanked him.
"I didn't have time to take a close look, but it seems this ship is close enough to the original for me to know what to do. Aeyris, are you still as good as you were?" he asked bluntly.
He quickly scanned all that remained of his gang. "Silsi, can you fly this?" he asked.
An attractive young woman announced "I'd love to give it a go."
"Not you?" Kirrik asked Aeyris.
"I need to have this leg sorted out, and my reactions aren't what they used to be. Silsi's as capable as anyone. Made it from Harmless to Deadly in five years, in all sorts of ships, too."
"Fine. Marchero, you can take the navigation console. It's about time you proved yourself useful. Aeyris, pick someone for secondary gunner, will you? The rest of you, find somewhere out of the way. We'll sort other positions out when we need them."
Aeyris chose another of his pirates for the secondary gunner, and sent the rest off to search the ship and make an inventory report. Their doctor was sent looking for medical supplies. Kirrik lead the rest of them to the bridge.
The Constrictor's bridge was spacious, five chairs sitting at various stations and a sixth at the back for the commander. The girl Silsi took the foremost one, sitting in front of the main monitor. Kirrik indicated a chair on the left wall to Marchero, next to her he sat Aeyris' gunner, a nondescript middle-aged man.
Kirrik sat himself at the bridge engineering station, on the opposite side of the room to Marchero while Aeyris rummaged around in the lockers looking for a first aid kit.
Kirrik found the engine controls and brought them on. There was a sharp protesting whine from somewhere back in the ship as the drive was powered up quickly from cold. Possibly for the vessel's maiden flight, not a reassuring thought. The readouts stabilised rapidly, though. Indicators flashed on throughout the bridge and previously blank consoles illuminated. The viewscreen came to life, showing the hangar wall and the wrecked doorway. The piled junk had been too heavy to have been moved much by the decompression, but as they watched it shifted under the force of the bulldozer that had appeared behind it. A passage was quickly cleared, spacesuited soldiers were following it in.
Kirrik left his place and moved to the commander's chair. He flicked the viewscreen onto rear view, where it now displayed the main hangar door.
It had not been necessary to open it completely in order to decompress the hangar, and it the gap was not wide enough for the Constrictor to pass. Aeyris gave up looking for a first aid kit and ordered, "John, hit the door!" The secondary gunner found the controls for the rear laser and let loose.
The laser was powerful, and destroyed the heavy door where it hit it. But it was strong enough to remain intact away from the blast point. Kirrik glanced across to the engineering console. The engines had powered up without problem, but the motivators had not yet charged.
"Silsi, any movement?" he demanded.
She shook the controls. "Nothing yet," she replied.
Kirrik returned to the controls on the chair of his arm. He attempted to key the entrance door controls, but it would not lock. Switching the viewscreen revealed the soldiers moving around to that door. The charge reading crept up.