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Blast a hole in the hull and suddenly you could be sucked into space and die from both intense ice and fire in the same moment.
The second guard pressed a button on a set of controls on the wall and the shuttlecraft’s hatch door whirred open.
It thunked into place, making a loud clunk noise as it set down on the metal grating.
I was disappointed to see the locks attached to the shuttlecraft’s underside were still in place.
“I need to fly her around,” I said. “Check to make sure she’s space-worthy.”
“No flying,” the guard with the itchy trigger finger said.
He glared at me, the light from the plasma container shimmered and cast ugly lines over his face.
He looked like something from a terrible nightmare.
“I need to fly her,” I said stubbornly. “Otherwise I’m going to have to check her engine systems. And do you know how long that’s going to take me?”
Not long, in truth, but they didn’t need to know that.
“You can’t fly her,” the guard at the controls said. “We don’t have the keys to unlock the most valuable items.”
It wasn’t difficult to guess who did have the required authority.
Draw.
But there was also a chance he had a second who might have access.
Better to be safe than sorry.
“Only Draw has the authority?” I said.
“Yes. Now are you going to check the ship or aren’t you?” the guard at the controls said as he joined his buddy with the quivering forefinger.
If I just waited a few more minutes, that rifle would explode and destroy the two guards.
Then I could scoop up the second rifle and disappear through a door in the back that would take me upstairs to Draw’s quarters.
A simple, but effective, plan.
“Ease down on the plasma rifle,” the second guard said, dashing my hopes. “You know you always overdo it.”
The guard eased up on the controls and let the rifle power down.
Ion steam issued from the tip of the rifle.
Damn! It was so close to blowing too!
I stomped inside the shuttlecraft and pressed at the buttons randomly in an effort to appear like I knew what I was doing.
I wasn’t the greatest engineer but I was a damn good pilot.
But no matter how many buttons I initiated and switches I flicked, nothing worked.
“Hey,” I said. “Where’s the power?”
“It’s been disengaged,” the smarter guard said.
“So re-engage it. I need to check she still works.”
