He retreated slowly to the lobby. “Does anyone else want to say something?” he asked quietly.
When he got no answer, he hit the square on the wall and the door slid down.
“I don’t get it.” Joanne was standing just behind Jeff.
He turned around. “What don’t you get?”
“The light alien that you saw.”
“What about it?” Jeff asked.
“Why it ran away when Green turned up?”
“Maybe they only dare to attack us when we’re alone. Remember—the one we saw when we were together also didn’t attack.”
“You said you shot at the creature and the bullet went straight through it,” Castle said.
“Yes,” Jeff nodded.
“If our weapons have no effect, why should they be afraid?”
“I don’t know,” Jeff admitted.
“And if they’re immaterial like ghosts, how can they cut people up like that?” Owl asked.
Joanne frowned. “Maybe it’s some kind of protective light shield, which they can turn on and off at will.”
“Or only their weapons are material,” Castle suggested.
“God help us…” Joanne whispered.
“I don’t believe they’re intelligent, technically advanced beings. If they were, things on this ship would look different,” Mac said.
Jeff shook his head. They’d been over this a thousand times. They just went round and round in circles. “Let’s face it, we have no idea, and that’s one of the reasons we’re going to the center of the ship. To try and find some answers.”
“If we haven’t all been killed by the time we get there,” Mac said phlegmatically.
“I think it’s a bad idea,” Owl whined. “We should have gone to the shell and blown our way out. It’s not too late—we could still go back.”
Shorty nodded grimly.
Now the arguments were going to start all over again—which is exactly what Jeff wanted to avoid. Not that it was surprising, in light of Finni’s horrific death. “Come on! We’ve got this far. We’ve nearly reached the center of the ship. We can’t give up now.”
Mac gave a shrill laugh. “This far? We’ve only gone about sixty miles. We’ve still got another two hundred and fifty ahead of us.”
“I say we turn around before we’re all dead,” Owl said.
Jeff’s gaze roved over the faces of his team. Owl, Mac, and Shorty were in favor of returning to the outer shell. Jeff was sure Owl and Mac would have no qualms about disobeying him, but would they be prepared to commit mutiny without the backing of at least one officer?
“I’m also not sure if we should go further into this hellish ship,” Castle said.
Shit!
As if Mac and Owl had been waiting for this, they immediately swung round to the WSO.
“Then we’ll go back!” Mac announced. “Let Boy Wonder here go and explore the ship alone, if he’s so crazy to see what’s there.”
“What do you think?” Castle asked Joanne.
“You’re a damned idiot,” Joanne hissed and came and stood next to Jeff.
“Private Short! Private McGuinness,” Green suddenly spoke in an icy tone that would tolerate no contradiction. Even Jeff started. “Captain Austin is our commander, and he has decided we will continue to the center of the ship. We will all obey his order, is that clear?”
Mac stared at him open-mouthed. Jeff had never seen this side of the usually phlegmatic Green. Maybe Finni’s death had hit him harder than he thought. Or maybe he had a bad conscience because he’d deserted Finni.
“Is that clear?” Green repeated.
“Yes, Sir,” Owl answered flatly.
Mac said nothing but lowered his head and nodded.
Jeff let out a sigh of relief. If Green hadn’t reacted so quickly, he might have had a mutiny on his hands. Now it was important for him to take control again. “We will spend the night here in the lobby, and tomorrow we’ll go in search of the cavity,” he said. He made an effort to sound firm, but all that came out of him was a feeble croak. “To prevent another attack, we will stay together from now on and not split up on any account. From tonight, we will always have two people on watch. Any questions?”
“Who’ll be next?” Owl muttered, so quietly that Jeff pretended he hadn’t heard him. But if he was honest with himself, he was wondering the same thing.
21.
“These are supposed to lead to the cavity?” Castle asked, gazing up at one the huge gates in front of him. He rapped his fist on the metal, but all that came back was a hollow clanging sound. The doors must be very thick.
Jeff yawned. He was having trouble concentrating. Another—sleepless—night had come and gone. But what did “night” even mean in this strange place, where the only source of light came from their headlamps and flashlights. When they were switched off, they were surrounded by utter darkness. While Jeff had been slipping in and out of sleep during the night, he’d had the surreal feeling that time in this ship was literally frozen. He flinched when Joanne tapped him lightly.
“Don’t fall asleep,” she whispered, before walking over to Castle with her handheld. “At least this is the right direction—if we can trust the hologram in the map room. We can’t be more than forty feet away from the cavity.”
“Now all we need to know is how to get these things open,” Shorty said.
Jeff looked over at Mac and Owl, who were standing by the metal stairs talking to one another in subdued voices. They kept glancing in his direction. He had won yesterday’s dispute, but clearly they were scheming. He would have liked to separate them, but in the circumstances that wasn’t possible.
“How will we get them open?” Shorty repeated his question.
“I have no idea,” Jeff admitted. “If this is really some kind of transit hub, there must be a control system—a switchboard or something.”
“We’ve searched the whole place already—there’s nothing” Castle said.
“Apart from these small squares,” Joanne said, pointing to the one next to the gate in front of her.
“Which we all know work flawlessly…” Castle said sarcastically. To prove his point, he punched one of the squares on the wall. Nothing happened.
“Maybe they changed everything to remote control after renovating the ship,” Shorty suggested.
Jeff shrugged. Another wild guess.
“If this was some kind of security control area, then it was for living beings to pass through. After they all left the ship, it would have become obsolete. So why would they have needed to change anything?” Joanne asked.
“If this was a security control,” Castle said quietly and went over to one of the long tables. He ran his hand over the metallic surface and looked around again. “It looks like something else to me.”
“Oh?” Joanne said. “Like what?”
The weapons expert scratched his head. “I could be wrong, but I think it’s a kind of airlock.”
“An airlock?” Joanne asked, unimpressed. “Why would they need an airlock inside the ship?”
“Perhaps as a security measure,” Castle answered. “In case the ship was damaged and the air escaped, you could safely enter the evacuated area here wearing a space suit. Look at the thick doors. Everything about this place is designed for a big change in pressure.”
Jeff gazed around the room and nodded. Even the little door through which they’d entered was extremely thick and had membrane seals.
Joanne looked skeptical. “Even if you’re right, how’s that going to help us open the gates?”
Castle frowned and rubbed his chin. Suddenly his eyes widened. He grinned and pointed upward with his right forefinger. “Watch!” He sprinted toward the open gates on the other side of the hall.