Anna leaned into the shaft and grabbed hold of the ladder, “Stay close!” She said commandingly,
“HOLD IT!” A booming voice from the bridge commanded,
Anna looked into the relative brightness of the corridor at Frank, who was staring down the hall, “Frank?” She whispered silently, too quiet for Frank to hear,
Frank glanced subtly into the shaft at Anna, “Keep going!” He whispered before turning back to the General, “General!” He exclaimed loudly,
Anna paused, “General!” She whispered frustrated as she hit the rung of the ladder quietly with her foot,
“We were just…” Frank paused thoughtfully as he made his way down the corridor towards the General,
Anna shook her head and put one foot onto the edge of the corridor, Anna looked up after a subtle cough was slightly audible, “What?” She mouthed as she looked as Susan,
Susan growled quietly angrily, “Just keep going, find Golgi, and get the ship working!” She whispered quietly,
“But…” Anna said thoughtfully,
“Just go!” Susan reiterated, Susan moved over to cover the entrance of the shaft and passed the small cube Gogi had given Frank , “Take this, when you get away…” she whispered,
“Yeah push the sides but….” Anna whispered, but Susan was already too far away and was moving slowly down the hall towards Frank, who was in the middle of trying to con the General,
“Who’s in the shaft!” The General proclaimed menacingly
, “Damn it!” Anna muttered quietly as she slid the cube into her trouser pocket while moving back onto the ladder and started to descend rapidly, as she descended the barely audible sound of Frank and the General arguing rang in her ears, Anna paused as she heard Susan yell out Frank’s name, “Son of a b…” She mumbled as she agonised over keeping going or going back, “NO!” She whispered firmly as she taped her head of the rungs of the ladder, “Find Golgi!” She added as she continued her decent. As more time passed, her sense of urgency increased, she descended faster, and faster,
“Stop!” The booming voice of the General sounded as it echoed around the shaft and around Anna’s ears,
Anna looked up, the faint silhouette of the Generals massive structure was bialy visible a good ten floors up, Anna looked around in panic, looking for an idea, “Typical! No way out!” She stated in anger as she slumped against the doors to her right, as she leaned back the doors slid open slightly, a thin sliver of dull light, which wouldn’t of really been noticeable if it hadn’t been so dark, left a glorious shaft of light on Anna’s leg, “Brilliant!” She exclaimed in delight as she drew her pistol, “Yeah right!” She exclaimed loudly as she launched a volley of weapon’s fire towards the General, when the General had ducked back, Anna turned to the door and started to slid it open, the door would barely budge, several shots hurtled past her, as the door crept open millimetre by millimetre,
“Missed me!” She yelled defiantly, as she blindly aimed her pistol back up the shaft and launched another volley of shots at the General, then back to the door. Just as the door was opening a shot grazed her back, blood seeped from the wound and dripped audibly on the ladder, “Ahhhh!” She screamed as she slumped through the gap in the door, “Son of a b….” She declared angrily as she looked about the dimly lit corridor. She put her hands down to get her self to her feet, her hand pressed against something soft and cold, the dead body’s of several troopers littered the corridor, each had been violently mutilated, Anna screamed audibly, another volley of shots hurtled there way past the entrance, Anna reacted quickly and rolled the body of the trooper she was beside to the lift shaft, “I’m sorry about this!” She apologised to the petrified face of the dead trooper, before pushing him into the shaft,. His body thumped loudly against the walls as it fell rapidly towards the ground. Anna could make out the sound of Frank yelling out her name, “Frank!” She muttered quietly as she slumped up against the wall and struggled to feel the wound on her back, “Just a flesh wound!” She declared quietly as she looked at the dribble of blood on her hand.

As she sat in the dark she listened attentively to the conversation going on in the corridor, “Engineering!” She exclaimed, “Right!” She added quietly as she pulled her self to her feet and started to close the doors to the deck, the faint sound of the General shouting at his troops, and the group, was audible above the faint rattling of the ladder, Anna started to panic, the doors were barely closing, and the troopers were on there way down, “Come on!” She groaned quietly as the door finally slid shut,
“What was that?” The voice of a nervous trooper quietly exclaimed from the other side of the doors,
Anna drew her pistols and pointed them directly at the doors, a bead of sweet rolled down her forehead, her breathing speed up, which seemed to echo around the whole ship, Anna closed her eyes and took a quiet and deep breath,
“Nothing! Come on!” The louder voice of another trooper yelled angrily,
Anna’s arm’s dropped in relief, and she backed off slowly, down the dark, gloomy corridor. She started to move faster, “I’m on…” She said quietly to her self as she looked at the passing walls to find a deck number, “Deck Eleven!” She exclaimed eventually, “Now if I knew where engineering was I’d be laughing!” She joked quietly as she reached the end of the long corridor. “OW!” She exclaimed as she pressed up against the wall, “What the…” She asked questioningly as she removed the object that was pressing into her leg, “Golgi!” She stated obviously “Duh!” She added as she pushed the sides of the cube, which lit up and flashed merrily, “Okay, now what?” Anna asked as she stared completely mesmerised by the small flashing cube. Anna sighed in frustration as, after about thirty seconds, the box stopped flashing, Anna pushed the sides again, but nothing happened, “I Knew it!” She said angrily as she hit the wall with the butt of her pistol, “I knew we couldn’t trust that….” Before she could finish her sentence a bright red light lit up a panel on the opposite wall about twenty yards away, it was the only thing visible in the gloom, Anna dropped to her knee and pointed her pistol at it, she slowly, and cautiously made her way down the corridor towards the light, still crouched. Anna moved cautiously to her feet beside the panel and looked curiously at it. A button that had lit up read, ‘Talk’ Anna thought for a second, wondering if she should push the button, “Ah what the hell!” She eventually proclaimed, before pushing the button, “Go ahead!” She said in a deep, fake voice,
“Anna!” The faint crackly voice of Golgi stated,
“Golgi!” Anna said with relieved surprise, in her own voice, “Where are you?” She added quickly,
“Main Comms bay, deck 64!” He answered,
“How did you know where I was?” Anna asked,
“There was a location transmitter in the cube I gave you, it….” The comm. Unit crackled and Golgi’s voice was bairly audiable,
“Golgi, I can’t hear you!” Anna proclaimed in frustration, the comm. Unit stopped crackling and the light went out, “Typical!” Anna said angrily as she punched the unit firmly,
“Anna, can you hear me?” Golgi’s voice said faintly as the unit came back on,
“Yes, but bairly!” Anna said excitedly,
“Good, there’s not much power on your deck, so I don’t know how much time I have!”
“Tell me how to get to you!”
“Right there should be a hatch below the comms panel, it should contain an emergency kit!”
Anna felt around the panel below the comm. Panel, which eventually came away, Anna removed a strap on arm light, which she duly switched on and attached to her right wrist, “Got it!” She proclaimed as she raised her head to the comm. Panel,
“Good!” Golgi said, “there should be a light, emergency door slides and a small emergency medi kit!” He added,
Anna looked into the small box, “there are only door slides, no medi kit!” She said,
“It doesn’t matter, all you’ll need it the light and door slides!” Golgi replied reassuringly, “Do you have the communicator I gave Frank?”
Anna shook her head, “No!” She said,
“Okay!” Golgi replied in a frustrated voice, “Listen carefully, “Continue down the corridor the way you were going, take the fourth corridor on the left, continue down that till you reach the end of that corridor, look for a small panel labelled, EE15678, it’ll be sandwiched between a series of large glass panels looking out into space.” Golgi paused for a second while the panel crackled and hissed, “Use the door slides to open the panel up and crawl in, you’ll see a button just in side the crawl space on the left hand side, push it, when the green light comes on at the far side, crawl in, you’ll then have to drop down a few feet onto a large platform, then enter the code 8124-64, and push execute, and hold on!”
There was a brief silence, “Then what?” Anna asked curiously,
“Then hold on tight!” Golgi replied, “And hurry! The ship may be about to blow up!” He added with some urgency,
“I know, how long do we have?” Anna asked curiously,
“About an hour and fifteen minutes”
“I’m on my way!” Anna proclaimed loudly as she started running quickly down the corridor.
“Anna!” The faint voice of Golgi crackled, “The ships been boarded by Patrol troopers, so watch your self” The was a long pause, the sound of Anna’s foot steps grew fainter into the gloom, “Anna?” Golgi asked, “Are you….” He started, before the panel cut out once and for all.

It had taken some thirty minutes, but Frank finally stepped off the ladder and into the corridor, sweat poured from his head as he reflected on the fifty flours they had just climbed down, “That was fun!” he panted sarcastically as he slumped down beside Artok and Susan, who were crouched panting in the well lit corridor, “Well at least there’s power on this deck!” he said after regaining his breath,
Susan smiled agreeably, “Yeah! At least this way we can see what’s trying to kill us!” She joked sarcastically,
“Funny!” Artok replied as he pulled himself to his feet,
All the troopers were now in the corridor and had spread out, there rifles aimed in anticipation at the end of the corridor, the General was a little further down the corridor, he appeared to be tending to Queen Senqual, who appeared to be in less than a healthy condition, it was difficult to see properly from the groups position, but it was obvious she was very badly injured, the General turned to several troopers who were standing guard near by and seemed to make a couple of orders to them, in an uncharacteristically quite and calm manner the troopers moved over and lifted the stretcher the Queen was on and moved down the corridor before turning cautiously down another corridor near the far end, the General got to his feet slowly and paused for a moment. As he turned to face the remaining troops his usual, angry, vicious demeanour had returned, he seemed to gip his rile tighter as he moved over towards Frank, Susan, Artok and Wilson “You two can go first!” He snarled pointing at Frank and Susan,
“But….” Frank started angrily,
“But what?” The General snapped as he dragged Susan to her feet,
“We’re unarmed!” Frank said defensively as he leapt to his feet, “You took our weapons!” he added as he forced the General to let go of Susan,
The General smiled as he shoved Frank in front of him, “I know!” He said sadistically as he pushed them forward,
“Hey!” Artok shouted as the General brushed his way past, “What about me!” He stated defiantly,
The General paused and looked back at him angrily, “What about you!” He stated firmly,
“If they’re going first, so am I!” He answered, almost as firmly as the General as he started to move to the front,
The General put his arm out to block Artok’s way, “You’re still useful to me alive!” He snapped as he tried to push Artok back,
Artok kept going and shoved his way past the General’s arm, “Tough!” He snapped angrily as he moved in front of frank and Anna and continued down the long, well lit corridor,
“Fine! Get moving!” The General ordered angrily as he shoved frank into Susan.
The group moved slowly down the corridor, occasionally being poked in the back by the General’s rifle when he wanted them to move faster, each one of there foot steps seemed to echo around them and the smell of burnt plastic and burned flesh and drying blood, slowly filled the stale, putrid air.
As the group reached the end of the corridor, which was only about thirty feet or so, the corridor reached a T-Junction, with one leading off left and the other right, Frank, Artok and Susan were pushed over to the wall on the left by the General,
“Right!” He whispered quietly, “Engineering’s the first door on the left!”
“So?” Frank asked angrily,
“So pop your head out and have a look down the corridor!”
“Gee thanks!” Frank replied in a lippy voice,
“I’ll do it!” Susan said bravely as she tried to move in front of Artok,
“No!” Artok whispered as he held out his arm to stop Susan, “I’ll do it!” he said, and before any one could say anything he popped his head into the corridor and then back again, “Right!” He whispered as he leaned over to the General, “Both the creatures are at the end of the corridor, I don’t think they saw me.” Artok paused as a rye smile appeared on his face, “there’s also a giant pink dricurian sea slug dancing with your mother!” He added loudly and sarcastically before sniggering loudly,
There was a clearly audiable snigger from the troopers behind the General, and from frank and Susan, The General, however, stared angrily at Artok, before growling and smacking him in the gut with his rifle. Immediately the sniggering from behind the General stopped,
Susan leaned over and, struggled, to hold Artok up, “You’ve been spending to much time with us!” She whispered quietly,
Artok looked at her in pain and curiosity, “Why?” He asked as he panted for breath,
“You’re getting cheeky and brave!” She joked, “You never know, we may start liking you!”
“Great!” Artok said, “My life long ambition is finally coming true!” He grinned sarcastically,
The General pointed to a couple of his troopers and signalled them to go forward. The troopers moved forward, and anxiously moved into the open corridor, “All clear!” One of the troopers said as he signalled the rest of the squad to move forward, the group were shepherded forward by the General and along the corridor to a pair of large double doors,
Frank smiled, “Let me guess!” He said sarcastically, “This is engineering!” He stated, pointing at the large, bold ‘Engineering’ text printed on the door,
The General sneered and shoved him out the way of a control panel he was standing in front of and entered a command code. Several of the troopers moved in to position, there weapons pointing at the door in anticipation, the door hissed as it quickly opened.

“Move in!” The General yelled as he raised his rifle and moved into engineering,
Frank moved in, just behind the General. Engineering, there wasn’t that much to see, a large glass screen had lowered and was blocking of about most of engineering, the area directly behind had filled up with some kind of gas. All that was accessible was a couple of computer terminals and an airlock leading to the sealed area.
One of the troopers moved over to the terminal beside the airlock, “It’s bad!” He exclaimed after a minute or so,

“How bad?” The General asked curiously,
“Very bad! The main plasma injectors have been smashed, we’ve only five minutes to shut the core down before it goes critical!”
the General growled angrily, “So shut it down!” He sighed,
“I can’t from here!” The trooper replied angrily, “It has to be done from in there!” He added pointing at the gas filled area behind the screen!
“How did we guess you were going to say that!” Frank sighed as he moved over to the airlock,
Frank and the trooper peered through the small round window at the top of the metal airlock, “We’ve a problem!” They both sighed at the same time,
“What is it!” The General shouted as he shoved his way past the two and peered into the air lock, as he looked in, he realised the horror of there situation. The air lock was very small, only two suits were hanging on the wall, both of which had giant tears in them, clearly direct results of the creatures claws. “Options?” The General sighed as he rested his head on the door,
“Abandon ship!” The Trooper replied after a brief pause.
“NO!” He replied firmly, “There has to be some other way!”
“There isn’t, and we don’t have much time!” The trooper said firmly, “There’s only fifty minutes till the ship goes supernova, and….” The trooper paused,
“And what?” Frank asked curiously,
“And… In an escape pod it’ll take forty five minutes to get to the minimum safe distance to escape the blast!”
“Is there some way of giving us more time?” The General snapped as he moved back into the centre of the room,
The trooper stood thinking for a second, “Yes!” He proclaimed suddenly, “I can alter the flight direction of the pods to alter course a couple of minutes after launch, so they fly away from the ship.” The trooper added as he ran quickly over to a panel at the other side of the room, “Hmmm, let me see!” He said thoughtfully as he pushed several buttons, in the touch screen display, “Ahhh, there you are!” He said as he hit a button firmly, the panel lit up and made several beeps. “Done!”
The General moved so his troops could see him clearly, “Listen up!” He proclaimed, “We’re abandoning ship!” He added firmly, like it was his plan all along, “There are escape pods on this deck, near the main docking ports. We have approximately fifteen minutes to get there and start our evacuation before it’s too late!” The General gave a slight smile to his troops in an attempt to settle them, but it was obvious from there nervous reaction that it didn’t work, after all, the General didn’t seem like the kind of person that smiled a lot, which was clearly evident from his effort, which resembled more of growl, than a smile. “Right!” He said confidently, and loudly so his troops could here his confidence, as he approached Frank, Susan, Artok and the trooper, who were now all standing around the consol, “Sound the evacuation alert!” He said quietly to the trooper as he pushed his way between the group and the trooper,
“Aye sir!” The trooper replied, “But sir…” He stammered nervously, “We’ve got another problem!” He added pointing to the screen,
The General’s eye’s narrowed in anger as he looked at the screen, a vain popped out his forehead, the trooper had brought up a video feed of the main docking bay, the huge sight of the Patrol ship, and several dozen Patrol troops setting up recognisance bays on the deck, “What’s their status!” The General snapped angrily as he started to stroke his rifle,
“They seem to have set up bases in several locations on the deck!” The trooper replied as he brought up a plan of the deck, “But the remaining security doors have all sealed, so they’re not in the corridors between us and the escape pods, yet!”
“What do you mean, yet?”
“Well, it wouldn’t take too long for them to blast through the doors if they want, so as soon as the alarm for evacuation goes off, they’ll probably want to secure the escape pods!”
“Options?” The General asked thoughtfully, “We can’t just abandon ship and leave the rest of the crew to be blown up!”
“Well we should set it off!” The trooper said as he handed the General a small microphone, “The automatic evacuation alarms going to go off in about….” The trooper paused as he checked the countdown timer on the screen, “Two minutes!” he added quickly, “I’ve already sent an immediate distress call to all our ships, we’ve been answered by trade vessel 2875!”
“How long till they get here?” The General asked,
“About an hour!”
“Good, but that’ll leave us vulnerable in the escape pods, can we stop that damn patrol ship leaving?”
“Yes hold on, I’ll disable the release clamps, the only way they’ll be able to leave will be to either decrypt the security block out on this terminal, or…” The trooper paused as he thought, “Or, use the manual release clamps on deck 76. But that would take ages! They've connected up through a few different air locks too so if they try to force their way clear it'll tear their ship appart!”
“Okay, set the alarm off and deal with the clamps!” The General said as he turned back to his troops, “Listen up!” He boomed loudly, the troopers, who had been chatting loudly amongst them self’s fell silent instantly and looked at the General, “Set it off!” He ordered the trooper, who did, a loud siren echoed around the ship and fell gradually quieter, until it was just a quiet background sound, “Attention all crew!” The General boomed into the microphone, his voice echoed around the whole ship, “We have been forced to abandon ship, so make your way to an escape bay immediately.” The General paused to let the echo of his voice fade, “Another thing! Patrol troopers are occupying several decks of the ship, so move with caution and if you come accross any feel free to kill as many as you want!” He snarled, “Good luck.” The General looked over at the trooper, who had finished working at the panel, a sadistic grin appeared on his face “And a special note to the Patrol troopers on my ship, being as you were so rude as to invade our vessel, you can get blown up with it! We’ve permanently disabled the release clamps, and if you try to force your way clear, you’ll take half your ship apart!” He laughed loudly as he threw the microphone to the ground, “Major Terouln!” The General ordered as he looked over at Terouln,
“Aye sir?” Terouln said, with a slight hint of distaste in his voice as he moved over to the General,
“I’m putting you in charge of watching those three.” He answered quietly as he glared over at Frank, Susan and Artok, “If they even look at you the wrong way….”
“Kill them!” Terouln replied expectantly, “Sir, they’re unarmed!”
“What’s your point?” The General asked angrily,
“They’d be more use armed! Especially if there are as many of those patrol officers as it would appear.”
The General growled angrily, “Fine, on your head be it!” The General replied as he moved past Terouln, “Right people!” The General said as he shepherded his troops out the door,
“Sir, what about the control panel?” The trooper who had been working at the panel asked as he moved past the General,
“It was that one, wasn’t it?” The General relied, pointing his rifle at the computer terminal,
“Yes!”
“Good!” He shouted, before blasting several shots directly into it, the screen exploded and the terminal popped and crackled as the internal components fried in side, “No longer a problem!” He said triumphantly as he started to move down the corridor,
“Terouln!” Susan said as she moved to the door, “What’s going on?”
“I’m watching you!” he said as he handed the group there pistols, “Stay where I can see you, and don’t do any thing stupid, and we may just live through this!” He promised nervously,
“Just let us go!” Frank pleaded, “Come with us?” He added hopefully,
“You know I can’t.” Terouln replied apologetically, a cheeky smile crossed his face as he paused for thought, “Maybe, I’ll take my eye of you for a moment. You never know!” He added before winking his third eye at the group as he ordered them into the corridor.