Captain Marquis Krojen instinctively grabbed at his console as a shudder ran through the bridge. The invaders must be braking the life support wheels. He didn't want to think what that would be doing to the central stress structure.
"Can we use our reserve power to maintain the bearings?" he asked the AS.
"No, sir."
Every question, every countermove he came up with received that same bland answer.
"They're in wheel one," Colin Jeffries reported. "We just lost contact."
Captain Marquis Krojen clenched his teeth to stop himself swearing. The bridge crew had been using secondary transmitters to provide communications between the wheels and the spaceplanes outside. Now the schematic showed wheel one as a black outline.
Another shudder rocked the bridge. This time it was accompanied by a metallic creaking sound. He couldn't wait any longer. "Okay, get our squad up into the axial corridor."
"Aye, sir," Colin Jeffries acknowledged grimly. He issued the order.
The squad consisted of bridge officers who'd drawn the carbines and found themselves a few laser welding tools. According to the AS, none of them stood a chance of damaging a Skin. The idea was to use the firefight to lure the Skin into a hub compartment that they'd wired into the reserve power supply. The voltage they could push through him might be sufficient to disable the Skin suit, or possibly even kill the man inside.
If the Skin chased them.
If they didn't all get killed in the first few seconds.
"Wheel one is venting," Colin Jeffries called. "That software has blown the escape hatches and used the fire dump nozzles."
A pane showed Marquis Krojen the life support wheel with precious air gushing out of its rim to spew across the stars.
"Spacesuits, everybody," the captain ordered bitterly. "You have my authority to abandon ship if your life support wheel loses pressure." He began to pull his own suit on, a task made difficult by the falling gravity. Optronic membranes showed him the squad opening a pressure door up into the rotating transfer toroid.
"Moving through," the lieutenant commanding the squad reported. "Nothing in the transfer toroid. Opening radial corridor pressure door."
Gravity on the bridge had almost vanished. At least that meant the shaking had stopped. Marquis Krojen used a Velcro patch to secure his helmet on the console next to him, keeping it within reach. "Isn't it locked?"
"No, sir. Going through. A lot of smoke in here. Can't see much."
"Pull back," Marquis said. "He knows you're there, his software will be tracking you."
"I can see someone." The muffled sound of carbine fire came out of the speaker.
"Pull back."
"Yes, sir." The telemetry display from the squad began to waver. "Suit... can't... Malfunction."
"They're firing!" another squad member cried. "Down."
"Back!"
"There!"
"Shot. Shot me. Oh fuck, I'm hit."
The lieutenant screamed.
"Can't breathe."
All the squad telemetry vanished. "Subversion alert," the AS said.
"In here?" Marquis asked hurriedly.
"An attempt was made through the communications link," the AS said. "I have disengaged the life support wheel's internal nodes from the network."
"So we've lost contact with the squad?"
"Yes, sir."
"How many casualties?"
"I am uncertain. Their spacesuit electronics were being subverted. Telemetry after they entered the transfer toroid is unreliable."
Marquis was looking at the camera image showing him the open pressure door. Black smoke was oozing through it, hazing the compartment. He could see the fire alarm strobes flashing brightly. "Have any of them made it back into the wheel?"
"No, sir."
"Communication with wheel two lost," Colin reported.
"Turn off your spacesuit communications," Marquis ordered. "Don't let it get inside." He glanced at the camera pictures. Vigorous geysers of atmosphere were spraying out of wheel two. It was like watching a friend bleed to death.
Weary sadness replaced the anger that had carried him this far.
"Abandon ship."
"Sir?" Colin Jeffries said.
The remaining bridge crew were staring at him.
"There's nothing else we can do. And I'm not leaving any of my people hostage to these bastards. Use the lifeboats, get clear. The spaceplanes will pick you up."
"What about you?"
"The captain stays with his ship. You know that!"
"Then I'm staying as well."
"Colin, please—" Pane displays began to fracture into random chunks of color, then went dead. The steady background whine of the environmental fans faded away. All the lights went off. Marquis snatched up the helmet and jammed it down on his collar. Shaking fingers engaged the seal. He gripped the arms on his chair just as the air turned into a howling hurricane. Paper, plastic cups, food trays, electronics, foaming water and even clothing streamed past him, caught in stop-motion flight by the blazing scarlet strobe light that was intent on warning the bridge of a decompression. A T-shirt wrapped itself around his helmet, flapping furiously. He didn't dare let go of the chair to push it off. The wild torrent would have carried him with it. He tried rocking from side to side, and eventually the fabric slipped away.
Air was pouring through an open hatchway. He could actually see moisture vapor scoring thin contrails, marking out the flow. Any unsecured item had been sucked through. When he pictured the wheel's layout he remembered there was an escape hatch three compartments along. The subversion software must have fired the explosive bolts.
It took several minutes for all the atmosphere to clear. When the gusts and roaring had shrunk away, the red decompression strobe was still flashing. It had been joined by green strobes that had come on around the lifeboat hatch that had opened in the floor. With his communication circuit off, Marquis could hear nothing. He switched on his spacesuit helmet light, then pushed out of his chair. Colin and the other crew were doing the same. He beckoned Colin over, and they touched helmets.
"Take the lifeboat," Marquis shouted. "Get these people out."
"You must come with us." Colin's voice was like a muffled buzzing.
"No. I ordered the squad to intercept that Skin. I'm going to find out what happened to them. They're my responsibility."