Vetis groaned with effort as he gradually pulled the doors open, as the door slid open, inch by inch, a thin bead of light broke the gloom and extended along the floor and up Franks back,
“How’s that door coming on?” Frank asked nervously, as the screech from the creatures got distinctly louder, a faint tapping sound was also audible,
“Almost….” Vetis groaned, as the door opened a few inches more, That's it!” He panted, the door wasn’t open very much, it was enough for the group to squeeze through, “Go!” He added as he directed Susan through the gap, on the other side, was, a surprisingly well lit corridor, which only extended for ten feet or so, at the far end was a entrance to a lift, it was a bit battered and there were several blast marks on it, but it seemed to be in tact.
One by one the group squeezed through the gap, the group followed Golgi, who had a bit of trouble getting through, over to the lift, which he started working on the control panel to open the door. As Frank squeezed through, leaving only Vetis on the other side, As Frank took the door opener, he saw the faint silhouette of one of the creatures moving quickly towards the door,
“Vetis!” Frank shouted, “Come on!” He added, with a sense of urgency,
“No problem!” Vetis said as he squeezed through,
“Help me close the door!” Vetis said nervously as he made it through,
the creature was baring down on them rapidly as they reattached the opener to the door and started to push the door closed. The door edged closed, inch by agonising inch, the trill of the creature grew louder, and louder, till it was almost deafening. Just as the door was about to seal, a strange, clawed hand grabbed hold of the edge of the door and started to push it open,
“Guys!” Frank yelled, as he and Vetis struggled to stop the door opening,
“What?” Artok asked angrily as he turned away from what Golgi was doing, “Oh crap!” He said loudly, when he noticed the door, gradually opening, “Hold on!” He shouted urgently as raised his rifle and ran over to the door, “Here!” He snarled, through his gritted sharp teeth as he shoved the barrel of his rifle through the slight opening and opened up a barrage of shots, a strange white goo splattered through the gap as the creature yelled with pain, before it’s hand disappeared, Artok removed his rifle and threw it behind him, before grabbing hold of the door opener and pulling the door closed,
“Thank you!” Frank panted as he moved away from the door,
“Yeah thanks!” Vetis said as he leaned back on the door to get his breath,
“No problem!” Artok said triumphantly as he picked up his rifle,
“Come on!” Golgi yelled, they had got the lift open, and were now all inside,
As they were moving away, Vetis gave out a blood curdling yell, Frank and Artok spun around, a large claw had come straight through the door and through Vetis’s chest,
“Vetis!” Frank yelled as he moved over and grabbed hold of him, pulling him off the claw,
Artok aimed his rifle and started to fire shot, after shot at the claw hole in the door, Vetis’s body slumped down on the ground, almost pulling Frank with it,
“Vetis, are you….” Frank asked Pointlessly as he looked at the horrible wound,
“Frank come on!” Artok yelled as he grabbed hold of Frank’s shoulder, pulling him to his feet towards the lift door.

As they entered the lift, the door to the cargo bay started to ominously slid open slowly, Frank and Artok fired a few more shots, but they didn’t appear to make any difference, the door kept opening,
“Golgi let’s go!” Terouln yelled as he joined Frank and Artok taking pot shots at the door,
“Okay! This isn’t all that easy you know!” Golgi snapped as he worked at the open control panel, he seemed to be connecting the power pack from one of the rifles to the lifts energy coupling, “All the lift’s are locked down! So I’m having to hot wire this one with a power pack. We won’t be able to auto program the lift to go to a specific floor.” Golgi paused as he ripped a wire out of the panel and connected it to the power pack, “Got it!” He proclaimed as the lift doors slammed shut,
“How will….” Frank said as he, Artok and Terouln, backed away from the lift doors, their weapons trained on them,
“Before you ask I’ll have to guess when we’re at the right floor!” Golgi snapped as he, visible started to make calculations,
“Just go!” Frank yelled as the sound of the creatures hitting the out side of the lift door echoed around the small lift space,
“Fine!” Golgi snapped, before connecting one of the remaining loose wires to an open connecter on the exposed circuit board, the lift jerked into action, the force of the lift moving was very unsettling, “Sorry, the stabilisers are off line!” Golgi choked queasily as the lift jolted and jerked side to side,
“I’ll let you away with it!” Susan said as she patted Golgi on the back,
Golgi looked over at her and shrugged his shoulders,

“Golgi!” Artok yelled,
“Oh, right!” He replied, before pulling the wire out, the lift screeched to a halt, sending the group clattering into the walls, “Sorry!” Golgi said as he pulled him self up, “Hold on…”
“Golgi, I don’t think those things are too far behind us!” Frank said nervously as he looked at the floor,
“Almost….”
“Golgi!”
“Got it!” He shouted as the doors slid open,
“Every one out!” Frank yelled as moved onto the poorly lit corridor,
“No this isn’t right!” Golgi yelled as he was shepherded off the lift by Susan,
“What do you mean?” Artok snapped as he followed them off the lift,
“We should be in the habitat bay control room!” Golgi yelled as he looked around the, rather plain looking corridor they had walked into. The corridor stretched away from them, with several connecting corridors veering off, at the far end there was a clear bright light, emanating from a large glass panel,
A loud thud emanated from the lift as Terouln entered the corridor, “What the!” He exclaimed, when he turned round, a huge claw had pierced the floor and was slowly tearing a hole into, “I don’t think we should complain!” Terouln cried nervously, before shoving the emergency close button, that was located on the panel beside him.
“Come on!” Anna yelled as she moved to the front of the group, and started running down the corridor, “Any idea where we are?”
“I think we over shot by two decks!” Golgi replied, “We’re on one of the crew apartment floors, we might…” Before he could complete the sentence he was drowned out by the thumping of the creature trying to open the lift door,
Frank looked back as he ran, several huge bulges had been bashed into the door, “How do we get down!” He yelled as the approached the end of the corridor,
“Hold it!” Anna whispered as she peered round the corner at the end of the corridor,
“What is it?” Terouln asked as he moved behind her,
“Troopers!” She said nervously,
“Who’s side?”
“Not sure!” She replied as she moved out of Terouln’s way, “Have a look!”
Terouln peered cautiously round the corner, at the far side were at least two dozen troopers, “Their Pats!” He proclaimed in frustration,
“What are they up to?” Anna whispered,
“They’re trying to get access to the Escape pods on this deck!”
“Caught between the Pat’s and those things!” Frank said as he looked back at the lift door, which was starting to open slowly, “What can we do?”
Golgi moved forward and looked up the corridor, away from the troopers, “Look there!” He whispered, pointing at the archway of an emergency door,
“What about it?” Susan asked curiously,
“We’ll go that way, seal the door, I’ve an idea to get down!”

The group moved quickly and quietly to the archway, Golgi shepherded everyone through and started to work on the panel to close the blast door,
“This won’t take long!” He said reassuringly, “Could someone go into one of these apartments and get as many sheets as you can!” He added, before turning back to the control panel,
“Sheets?” Frank asked questioningly,
Golgi sighed and looked back at Frank, “Yeah, sheets!” He replied angrily,
“I’ll go!” Artok said firmly before moving up the corridor,
“What are we going to do?” Frank asked questioningly,
“Look!” Golgi said, rather too loudly in anger, and was about to open up into an angry rant, when he realised what he had just done! “Oops!” he proclaimed as he looked back at the Pats at the far end of the corridor, who were now looking in the groups direction,
“Oi!” One of the Pat’s yelled,
“Give em hell!” Frank yelled, before running to the other side of the archway and taking cover, “Sorry about that Golgi!” He added apologetically, as several blast hurtled their way past the archway,
“Don’t mention it!” Golgi snapped angrily, as he got back to work on the door panel, “Got you!” With that the door slammed shut, the Pat’s weapon blasts thumped pointlessly against the blast proof door, “Someone kill this panel!” Golgi added as he moved away from the panel, and down the corridor,
“My pleasure!” Susan said, before taking a step back and blasting the panel apart.
“What now?” Frank asked as he looked through the small glass panel at the small group of Pat troopers, that had been send down to investigate, “Golgi?” Frank said curiously, after a brief pause,
“Here!” Golgi, who had made his way down three glass panels, said, before leaning down and opening a small hatch at the base of the support beam,
“Golgi, what are you doing?” Frank asked, as he moved towards Golgi,
“Frank!” Susan, who was standing between Frank and Golgi, still looking out the window on the emergency door, said, her face had turned white and a look of fear was stricken across her face, Frank turned and looked through at the Pat’s, who were in the middle of a fight for their life’s with the creature, which was leaping between one trooper after another, swiping it’s claw viciously, “We better be quick!” Frank said urgently as he turned and ran over to Golgi, “Golgi!” Before Frank could say another word, two of the glass panels shattered and fell, leaving two open panels with a large support strut between them, a cool refreshing breeze wafted into the corridor from the habitat, two floors below the group,
“Artok!” Golgi yelled as he clambered to his feet,
“What?” The faint sound of Artok’s voice yelled, from somewhere up the corridor,
“How are you doing?”
Artok appeared from a door, not too far up the corridor, several large, white sheets in his arms, “This enough?” He asked as he trotted towards Golgi,
“I think so!” Golgi said as she snatched one of the sheets from Artok’s outreached arms,
“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” Terouln asked curiously,
Golgi looked up at him from his now crouched position and nodded, “Yeah, here, catch!” He said, before throwing one end of the sheet round the support strut at Terouln,
“Now what?” Terouln asked as he caught the end of the sheet,
“Now tie it very tight to something that won't move!”
“So let me get this straight!” Frank said, as Terouln leaned down and started to tie the sheet to the strut, “We’re making a rope out of sheets?”
Golgi, who was busy tying the rest of the sheets together nodded his head agreeably,
“This was your great idea?”
Again, Golgi made no response, other than to nod his head agreeably,
“We’re on one of the most advanced ships I’ve ever been on, and we’re reduced to using sheets to survive?”
“Got a better plan?” Golgi snapped angrily,
“What, there’s no, fancy anti gravity device that could effortlessly lower us to the ground?”
“No.”
“No, Emergency lift to carry us to the ground?"
“No!”
“Not even a proper rope?”
“NO! NO! NO!” Golgi yelled angrily, as he turned to look scornfully at Frank, “Oh wait!” He said thoughtfully, “There was a rope… But you blew it up!”
Frank smiled gingerly, “Oops!” He said,
“That answer your question!” Golgi snapped, before getting back to tying the sheets together,
“Yeah, I was just asking, no need to get angry!” Frank said jokingly.
It only took a couple of minutes of frantic tying before the rope of sheets was ready. Golgi pulled him self to his feet, “That end tight?” He asked Terouln,
“Yeah!” Terouln replied confidently as he tugged on the sheet to prove it was tied okay,
“Good!” Golgi said, before throwing the rope over the side, it fell down the wall and ended a few feet from the ground, “Not bad!” Golgi said triumphantly, before dangling his feet over the edge and grabbing hold of the sheet, “I’ll see you all down there!” He said grinning, before carefully dropping of the edge and climbing, surprisingly nimbly, down the rope.

Frank was the last of the rope, most of the group were already running across the open habitat bay towards the entrance to the long glass tunnel the group had been led down earlier, only Artok remained, he had been holding the rope steady for Frank’s decent, the habitat bay seemed a completely different place now, the UV lights had turned off, so it, like the rest of the ship, was now pretty poorly lit, only some emergency lighting, and the bright image of the long glass tunnel illuminated the area, “How are they doing?” Frank asked solemnly as he looked morbidly up at where the Patrol troopers were, it was obvious that there was still a fire fight in progress, as every now and then, there would be a flash of weapons fire,
“I don’t think they’re doing to well!” Artok said sadly as he grabbed hold of Frank’s shoulder, “What ever happens….”
Frank turned and looked at the giant Surt standing before him, “No apology needed!”
“Apology!” Artok said, a rye smile crossed his face, “I was just going to say, what ever happens I want you to know, I still don’t like you!”
Frank grinned in amusement, “Good!” He said proudly, before patting Artok on the shoulder, “Let’s go!”
Frank and Artok ran quickly across the habitat bay, the rest of the group had already entered the corridor, and were moving swiftly towards the main landing bay. As they reached the entrance to the tunnel, a loud shattering noise echoed faintly around the habitat bay, Frank and Artok both stopped dead and looked back, in the distance was the faint silhouette, of what appeared to be a badly injured creature, hobbling towards them,
“Come on!” Frank yelled, a real panic had entered his voice as he dragged Artok into the corridor,
The long wide corridor, brightly lit corridor the group had been led up earlier, was now dark, uninviting, a thin vale of smoke filled the air, as Artok and Frank moved down the corridor, the grim sight of dead body’s littered the floor,
“No!” Artok said firmly as he stopped dead,
“What?” Frank said in disbelief as he slid to a halt and looked back at Artok, who seemed more interested in the control panel for an emergency door, than escaping from the creature, “What the hell are you doing?” He added in disbelief,
“Do you still have that head set?” Artok asked as he picked a similar one of a body that was slumped on the floor beside him,
“Yes!” Frank said angrily as he moved towards Artok,
“Put it on!” Artok said firmly before hitting the ‘Shut’ button
“No!” Frank yelled as he lunged forwards, but it was too late, the door slammed shut, “What the hell are you doing!” He shouted angrily as he put the head set on,
“I’m stopping this thing!”
“You can’t!”
Artok turned and smiled at Frank through the Window, “I can! It’s injured!”
“Don’t be a damn hero! It doesn’t suit you!” Frank said, before hitting the glass with his palm,
“Enough people have died, because of me!” Artok said sadly as he turned back to face the corridor,
“Oh great! You develop a conscious now!”
“Get the hell out of here, I’ll follow when that thing’s dead!” He sneered angrily, before readying his rifle,
Frank rubbed his forehead in annoyance, “If you die can I have you’re stuff?” Frank said jokingly,
Artok laughed loudly, “Sure, why the hell not! Now go!”
Frank nodded his head before turning and running up the corridor.