Gorgon turned and headed for the forward compartment, but someone stopped him at the door.
It was Jasmine. Ke’er was supposed to take her along, but somehow she’d evaded the raptor’s vision and run back.
Gorgon looked down at the little thing, who barely came up to his waist. It seemed like he could kill her just by lifting his foot and stepping on her.
She said nothing. The two of them faced each other in silence.
Gorgon rubbed his chin.
The little thing had been staring at that ship earlier, and she hadn’t looked like she was daydreaming. Now she’d suddenly run back to stop him.
Whatever she’d figured out, she’d already proven she wasn’t cargo that would sit quietly and wait for someone else to deal with her. Leaving her on the ship for Ke’er and Selin to watch over was even stupider than bringing her along.
Besides, she’d calculated the distance with a single glance, while even Selin had been stumped for a few seconds.
“Jas… Jasmine! Why did you run off without saying anything…” Ke’er hurried back and grabbed Jasmine by the shoulders from behind, looking like she was afraid the captain would kick her flying.
Jasmine stumbled back a few steps, but didn’t turn around. She only furrowed her brow slightly and stared at the captain.
“Ke’er, get the spare External Operations Deck from the storage room,” Gorgon said, looking at the bewildered Ke’er.
“What do you need that for?”
“I have to take this thing up there.” He pointed at Jasmine in front of him.
“—!” A sharp cry rang out from Ke’er, followed by her furious growl. “Are you fucking crazy?! She hasn’t had any External Operations training!”
“I have to take responsibility for you, Selin, and this ship. With your senses, there’s no way you didn’t see her following you out. All I can say is, she’s a little sneaky.”
Ke’er flapped her wings hard. She looked ready to start cursing him out, but someone tugged at the hem of her clothes. It was Jasmine.
“Ke’er.” The girl looked up earnestly at the bird doctor.
“…What is it?” Ke’er shot Gorgon one last glare, then crouched down to listen to Jasmine.
“I’ll go, and then you’ll help me?”
The forward compartment was colder than the Bridge.
It was the least-used place on the ship. The Emergency Docking Arm sat in its maintenance slot, its hull covered in scratches and patched welds.
Gorgon removed the auxiliary control box with one hand, revealing a mechanical control system that looked like it had been salvaged from a museum.
No one had ever used the thing, because no sane person would fly a ship into a situation where they had to use it to stay alive.
“-Preheating has started,” Selin’s voice came through the communicator. “Let it burn for 20 seconds before firing.”
Ulga stood beside the docking arm, watching the giant ship through the narrow viewing slit.
The collapsed cargo bay was just outside, slowly turning into view with the ship’s rotation. It was so huge that it seemed motionless, yet if you stared at it long enough, you couldn’t help wondering if you were drifting toward it.
“-Preheating complete. Listen carefully.”
Gorgon placed his hand on the trigger lever.
“-The bow is 11 degrees to the right of the target vector and 3 degrees too low. Open only forward ventral ports two and three on the left. Don’t open them all the way. Wait for me to say stop.”
“Understood.”
“-We’ll reach the correction line in 10 seconds. Nine, eight, seven…”
There was no main screen on the Bridge, and there wasn’t one in the forward compartment either. Selin had only a few frames of imagery and her own sense of inertia to gauge the timing. Any error in even a single frame would carry them several kilometers off course from the giant ship.
“-Three, two, one, fire!”
Gorgon pressed the trigger lever all the way down.
There was no deafening roar. With the main controls powered down and the entire ship silent, the burst felt like a heavy blow to the small of the ship’s back.
The forward compartment floor dipped slightly, and the whole ship seemed to get shoved from the side. There was no obvious movement through the viewing slit, but Ulga knew the thrust had been applied. The faint inertia she felt through the magnetic boots proved it.
“-Stop!” Selin’s voice came through, and Gorgon immediately let go.
“-0.92 seconds.” Selin gave the data almost instantly. “You overdid it, you idiot! But it’s within tolerance. From now on, nobody touches a single switch. Let the ship drift on its own!”
Gorgon replaced the safety pin to prevent anyone from accidentally triggering the controls. Then he came over to Ulga and looked out through the viewing slit.
At first, it was impossible to see anything. But after half a minute, the collapsed area on the giant ship’s starboard side began to shift slowly in their field of view. It wasn’t rotating any faster, but the Peril Resolver’s extra lateral inertia had finally begun to show its effect over a distance of several kilometers.
“-The drift is established. We’re entering a long silent stretch. Nobody moves for the next 40 minutes!”
The 40 minutes were harder to endure than the first exchange of fire.
The Bridge remained silent. Selin only reported the margin of error every five minutes, never saying a word more.
Jasmine stood in front of the docking arm. She said nothing, only watched as the ship outside slowly drew closer.
At first, it was just a black shape in the distance. As time passed, the breach came into view.
Later, even the layers of armor curled from the heat around the breach became distinct. The outline of the Emergency Docking Port beneath the collapsed cargo bay emerged as well. The guide ring was still there, but one side had been twisted. The outer seal skirt had burned away, leaving a metal edge like a ring of teeth ripped out by force.
“-Revised closest approach estimate,” Selin suddenly said. “8.3 meters.”
“-The seventh attitude thruster on her port side just leaked once. That gave us a little extra help. Don’t celebrate yet. She could leak again in the next minute and take all that help back.”
Time passed bit by bit. The collapsed area finally began to line up in front of them. It had been hidden in the shadow of the entire ship, but now, as the ship rotated, the edge caught the slanted light of a distant star. The damaged guide ring, the collapsed hull, and a connector neck half-buried in the structure came into view. It was the only place they could latch onto today.
Ke’er secured Jasmine in the upper-body harness of the makeshift External Operations Deck. Calling it an External Operations Deck was generous. It was just a hard shell that could keep her warm and under pressure for a short time while holding her in place. The transparent helmet outside it provided the only real seal.
“Whatever you see, don’t move around. If Gorgon tells you to walk, walk. If he tells you to crouch, crouch,” she said quietly as she tightened the shoulder straps.
Jasmine nodded.
“And,” Ke’er said, pressing the final lock into place, “if the docking shakes hard, don’t reach out to brace yourself against the hatch. That’s how a lot of people lost their hands.”
Jasmine nodded again.
Soon, Ke’er finished checking Jasmine’s External Operations Deck and confirmed the seal was secure. Then she left the forward compartment to depressurize it.
“-The window starts now,” Selin said, her voice dropping a few degrees. “From this moment until she slides out ahead of us: 21 seconds.”