Chapter 8: Passenger Transport

“Laine! Get down, NOW!” I said as firmly as I could without alerting the armed being.

I looked around for something useful. We’d packed away our stun guns with our space suits in our suite. Who knew we’d need to bring weapons to breakfast!

I picked up a plate and a fork. They were all that seemed useful.

By now, Laine had slid down in her seat and sunk below the table. It might save her for a minute or two, before the armed being got closer. I had to do something before then.

I stayed low and moved from my chair to behind a structural support pillar. It gave me cover. The armed being was searching for someone. There was lots of screaming and beings were cowering on the floor, hoping not to get shot.

Then I realized something. He was about the same size and build as a Lagaid, but his facial features were different. His weapon looked Lagaid too.

If he was Lagaid, then he was looking for us! I should wear a disguise!

I waited as long as I thought safe to do. He was approaching our position and would soon have line of sight with Laine.

At the last second, I threw the plate at his head as hard as I could. Then I ran straight at him, waving the fork.

In a fraction of a second, he noticed me running, and I figure it distracted him from dodging the plate. The plate hit his forehead, edge on, with a loud crack.

He fell backwards. I kept running, and as I reached him, I pushed his arm with the weapon up towards the ceiling.

As he landed, the weapon blasted a hole in the ceiling. Fortunately, he was unconscious. I grabbed the weapon from him.

“Laine, find something to restrain him!” I yelled. I stood with the weapon trained on the unconscious being.

Laine jumped up and searched for something suitable.

I realized there were many scared beings in the room. I had another inspiration.

“Excuse me, everyone!” I yelled in Ori. “Security forces. This room is now a crime scene. Please get up and return to your cabins in an orderly fashion.”

Everyone recognized my Ori security forces jumpsuit and took me at my word. They started filing out of the dining lounge, stepping around the body of the server. I’d avoided a mass panic.

By now, Laine returned with several straps, which she fastened around the being’s limbs.

I saw a server nearby, looking confused.

“Hey, please call the Captain,” I said.

She nodded and went to a panel on the wall.

“Brian, look at this!” said Laine.

She had him tied up and lying on his side, still unconscious. Laine was pointing to the inside of his jacket.

He wore an explosive vest.

“Crap!” I said.

“I don’t see a timer,” said Laine.

“We have to disarm it and get it off him,” I said.

The server returned.

“The Captain is on his way, Sir!” she said.

“Thank you. Can you find me a sharp knife?” I said.

She dashed to a serving station and fetched a knife.

I took the knife from her.

“Gather any remaining dining staff and move them elsewhere. He is wearing a bomb,” I ordered.

“Yes, Sir!” she replied. She spun around and herded the remaining servers away.

“Do you have any experience defusing bombs?” I asked.

“No I don’t. Do you?” she replied.

“Check his sleeves for wires. It looks fairly simple, if we can disconnect the detonator from the explosives,” I said.

Laine moved around behind him while I traced wires. I pulled out or cut anything I could. I doubted they had any trained bomb disposal technicians aboard this passenger transport.

Nothing exploded. It was as simple as it appeared. I started cutting away the vest and pulling it off his body. Laine helped me.

We’d finished removing the vest when the Captain arrived.

I stood up, holding the remains of the explosive vest. Laine picked up the weapon and trained it on our prisoner.

“Just who are you??” yelled the Captain.

“My name is not important. I just stopped an armed being from killing the diners! He shot and killed your server and was about to kill everyone in here with an explosive vest,” I said, with all the authority in my voice.

Then he saw the weapon, the explosive vest, and Laine guarding the prisoner. It was like a software reset.

“Oh my! This is terrible!” he said. His tone had changed.

“I have disabled this vest. We need a safe place to store it. Do you have a brig? This being is extremely dangerous,” I asked.

“I can put that in a hold. I don’t have a brig,” replied the Captain.

“Do you have an empty room you can lock?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Keep him restrained, or he will kill you. I believe he is a Lagaid, although he had his face altered,” I said.

The Captain visibly paled.

“Brian! Listen,” said Laine.

The Lagaid was wearing a small communicator, and we could hear someone speaking.

“Brian, the voice was in Lagaid. It said unit one, status report,” said Laine.

“Crap! There is at least one more of them aboard this vessel,” I said.

The Captain looked about to faint.

I put a hand on his shoulder.

“Captain, there’s at least one more Lagaid, possibly with another bomb. I need to stop him. You must take care of this prisoner, while I search for the other,” I said.

He nodded. I wasn’t too confident he understood the gravity of the situation.

I saw the female server standing near the entrance and waved her over to us.

“Excuse me, the Captain needs your help. He must secure the explosives and the Lagaid, but not together. I have to find another Lagaid. Do you understand?” I asked.

“Yes, Sir!” she replied. I wondered if she had military experience.

“Laine, remove his communicator. Bring it with us,” I said.

Laine pulled it off the Lagaid and stood up beside me.

“Now, where would he be hiding?” I asked.

I looked at the communicator. It was a basic short-range device.

“Come with me, Laine. I’ve got an idea,” I said.

Laine grinned.

“When you get ideas, Lagaid need to worry,” she replied. We moved to a corner of the dining lounge, away from the disturbance.

I looked around and grabbed a few cloth napkins, which I wrapped over the communicator to muffle it.

“I need you to translate into Lagaid. Speak using as deep a voice as you can. Say unit one negative contact. Have you reached the bridge yet?“ I said.

Laine took the communicator and spoke Lagaid through the napkins. She nodded.

“Now listen,” I said.

We waited. Then there came a response, in Lagaid.

“He said no, I am in engineering, you idiot!“ said Laine.

We both smiled. Our enemy had given out his location!

The captain and the server were dragging the Lagaid out of the dining lounge. I walked over and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Captain, the other Lagaid is in the engineering section. I must stop him before he destroys this vessel,” I said.

“It’s on level one. There are two crew stationed there,” replied the captain.

“Your crew are probably dead by now. We must hurry,” I said.

As we spoke, the sound of the hyper space engines stopped.

“We’ve dropped out of hyper space,” said the captain.

“That confirms it. We must stop him,” I replied.

Laine and I ran along the corridor. We took the stairs down to level one. I didn’t want to get trapped in an elevator if the power failed.

We arrived at the entrance to the engineering section.

They build all vessels with emergency bulkheads. This one was open. Just inside was the body of another crew member.

Laine handed me the Lagaid weapon we’d taken.

“Stay behind cover, Laine. I don’t want you shot,” I said.

I stepped over the body of the crew member, looking and listening for the Lagaid. The engineering section contained all the equipment and engines that made the vessel go. It was quiet now.

I kept low and used whatever cover was available. I didn’t want to give him an easy target.

Where was he hiding? If he set off an explosive down here, it could destroy the whole vessel.

I looked back towards Laine. She was hiding outside the entrance, talking into the Lagaid communicator.

A minute later he came into view, climbing around the side of a large engine housing. I decided I had to stop him before he saw me.

I took aim and fired. My shot hit the Lagaid in the upper torso and he twisted and raised his weapon as he fell back towards the outer hull. His weapon fired, an involuntary twitch as he died.

The weapon blasted a hole in the outer hull. Low pressure alarms started going off as the atmosphere vented into space.

“Brian!” Yelled Laine.

I turned her way and saw the emergency bulkhead was closing to seal off the affected section.

I dropped my weapon and ran as fast as I could towards the doorway. It was already half-closed. I made a dive for the gap.

On the other side, Laine grabbed me and pulled me fully through as the door closed.

I barely made it.

Laine helped me stand. I looked at the emergency bulkhead. Behind it was now a vacuum.

“Thank you!” I said.

“You’re welcome,” she replied.

“How did you get him to break cover?” I asked.

“I used the communicator. It worked once, so I said he had to come to the dining lounge,” she replied.

I smiled at Laine.

“We should find the captain,” I said.

Laine and I took the stairs and the corridor back to the dining lounge. It was where we saw the captain last.

We found the female server cleaning up the mess from earlier. She stood to attention when we approached her.