Codename Alpha

Chapter 6

"Alright."

I held out a paw to help him get back up. He took it, and was halfway off the ground when a cheetah ran over and began talking with an urgent tone of voice.

"Hold on, ensign, where are you taking him?"

"I got contacted by someone from the bridge. Right now, they're stuck up there, and they need someone who can pilot the ship. They didn't mention it, but things weren't sounding so good up there, so I'd imagine that they need engineers. You know if anyone around here can do that kind of thing? They could use some doctors, too, they've got injured."

"Andrews and Schmidt should be able to help. I'll round them up, and send them to..." he motioned for me to finish his sentence.

"The main maintenance crawlway access hatch."

"...that place. I'll see if I can find any able-bodied engineers, and send them over as well. Good luck, Ensign."

"Thank you, doctor."

Max and I left and walked back to the crawlway hatch. After waiting for a few minutes, a gray hyena and a mountain, Andrews and Schmidt respectfully, appeared from around the corner. They were both carrying medkits on their shoulders.

"Are you the bridge people?" Andrews asked.

"Yeah, that's us. Any engineers?" I asked.

"I think so. They should be right behind us." Just as he said that, three more people came from around the corner. I immediately recognized Commander Ibrahimhov along with two others. One of the engineers was limping, but they had a hopeful look on their face. Both were carrying toolboxes with them.

"Is thi-" Max began to speak, but was cut off by Commander Ibrahimov.

"I'll be leading the way to the bridge," He stated, rather forcefully.

"Aye, sir. After you," Max said. The commander made his way to the crawlway hatch and pried it open, using more force than he really needed to.

He awkwardly climbed inside, with the rest of us following close behind. Part of me was a little bit excited to go onto A-Deck. It's not that the command deck was restricted or anything, but that the little I had seen of the ship's command facilities were through pictures, since I never had any reason to go there before. When we reached the cramped junction, however, the door was still locked. There was a hot glow coming on the hatch, and mechanical hissing from the other side.

"I think they're cutting their way through," one of the engineers commented. The 'Plasma torch' bit from earlier made sense. They carefully knocked on the hatch a few times, and waited for a response. Hissing from the other side ceased, and we received a couple of knocks in return.

"Keep going!" Ibrahimov shouted. Heat from the glowing metal didn't help make the already cramped and hot junction any nicer, and I was panting because of it. Eventually, the hissing stopped and whoever was on the other end knocked a few times. There was some shouting, but it was hard to make out anything distinct. Nonetheless, it was evident that it was about to be kicked down.

"Alright, everyone. Get clear." Nobody moved. Not for lack of trying, but because there wasn't much space to get clear. "Out of the way!" Ibrahimov ordered, a second time.

To the best of our abilities, we all attempted to back away from the hatch. Of course, there wasn't all that much space you could shuffle away, subsequently resulting in quite a few collisions. He began to kick where the glowing lines indicated. It took him a few tries, but the chunk of metal eventually slipped out of position and came down onto the deckhead with a heavy thud. Light from emergency flood lamps immediately shone into the junction, and for a brief second, I was blinded due to the sheer difference in brightness. There was shouting from outside as a hopefully heatproof white sheet was laid on the metal that was still glowing.