Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 65: Engine Room

Jace ran into the engineering bay while pulling on a spacesuit. There was a rush of air as his suit became airtight. Typically it would not be standard to wear a spacesuit in engineering but he had orders to specifically repair the engine which was damaged by the first volley that hit them before their shields went up. So he would likely be near damaged areas of the ship.

In the center of the area was the reactor core. A giant hunk of metal that was loudly roaring with multiple consoles surrounding it. Then around the rest of the room were screens, consoles, and square tunnels that would go to the remote locations of the ship.

"You are Sergeant Steel correct?" An older man with the symbol for chief engineer on his overalls asked.

"Yes sir." Jace answered.

"Good, take these tools and follow this tunnel to the engine. You will have to go through decompression because the air in that section was compromised." The chief engineer shoved a metal box full of tools in his chest and pointed at a crawl tunnel.

Jace sighed and quickly climbed into the tunnel and began moving quickly through it. Initially he was slow moving but he quickly figured out he could crouch walk through the tunnel and arrived at a metal plate after a few minutes. He began looking through the panel on the side and found the decompression was operational so he began the process so he could enter.

As it took a few seconds his communication began buzzing, he answered. Getting the call through his headset inside his helmet.

"Sergeant Steel, the bridge wants to know the status of the engines. Are you there yet?" The chief engineer asked as Jace stepped into the airlock. He started tapping on the controls side panel and the door closed as air was sucked out.

"I am about to enter the area without air now. Standby." Jace responded and a few seconds later the airlock opened and he crawled out finding the engine room.

It was supposed to be several metal reaction chambers that were causing small explosions that were directed out of one of the three main chambers. Instead one of the main chamber walls was damaged while the other two chambers were perfectly operational. He looked around for another problem that could cause the engines to completely fail and found a coupling device was destroyed.

But both the destroyed coupling device and the main reaction chamber wall were both suspicious in their destruction. Because aside from that damage there was nothing else. No minor damage to other areas or consoles. Almost like it was specifically focused on those two locations.

"I have a damaged coupling I need to replace. But the main reaction chamber 2's wall was breached. I will have to disable it to keep it inactive. This will take me a few moments. But you can tell the bridge that this damage looks less like a lucky shot from a laser cannon and more like planned sabotage." Jace informed the chief engineer as he moved over to a cabinet and pulled out a replacement coupling.

"Understood I will pass along the message. Keep your head on a swivel; they might still be around." The chief engineer would likely have more damage to worry about before the day was done. So he would likely let the ship captain worry about that while he worried about repairing damage while spreading word about the saboteur if the captain ordered it.

Jace's own focus was on repairing these engines. Which is why he started by replacing the coupling. Then he disabled the firing mechanisms in the chambers that lead to the third chamber. After that was done he began working on the console to bypass the safety protocol now that it was fixed. But as it was running a diagnostic on the engines it showed another damaged coupling further in, near a compartment by chamber two.

He pulled out another coupling and moved over to the compartment, which was a hatch in the floor. He opened it up and reeled back in surprise at what he found.

Shoved into the compartment was a pile of blood and skin that he could only assume was once a person. He could see the expression of shock on the face of the young man this once was. He saw no other signs of a struggle in the rest of the engine room despite his enhanced senses. So he could only assume the engineer was killed in this spot.

But by what and how?

He frowned and reached his gloved hand into the center of the bloody mass. His hand sunk down until he found something solid. He pulled it out and most of the folded corpse came out with the spine. He tossed the spine and the attached body to the side. Then he started pulling out chunks of bone and blood clearing out the compartment.

Once it was cleared out he found the coupling that was covered in blood. The coupling was both loose and had a slash through it. A clear sign of sabotage if the body was not already evidence enough. He tapped his comm device before pulling out the coupling and installing the replacement.

"Sergeant Steel I am busy, so unless you are telling me the repairs are done-"

"I found a dead body and a coupling that was intentionally destroyed." Jace informed the chief engineer quickly. "I am almost done but it looks like the saboteur completely surprised the engineer on duty and had enough strength to flatten the man's body in a small compartment." Jace glanced over at the corpse as he closed the compartment.

It was a bleeding mass that looked like the body went through a shredder. "Understood," the chief engineer took an audible breath as he whispered a name. "Then stay in the engine compartment after you reactivate the engine. I will see about getting you-"

KRICCCKKSS!

Loud static began ringing though his comm device. It was being jammed. He quickly disabled the device and began looking around the engine room as he moved over to the console and attempted to start the engine. The process began as he saw a shimmer out of the corner of his eye and ducked.

Looking to his right he saw a… humanoid? Its skinny form and robotic limbs would indicate it was a robot. But its upper torso and most of its head were contained within a pressurized armor.

Aside from the arm blade that was its write arm all of its metal limbs and armor were black with red lights visible between the cracks. Its left arm was raised as gears on it began whirling and the thin line retracted pulling back a small knife that the… thing fired at him.

"I am guessing we will not be talking this out." Jace nervously chuckled as he assessed the thing in front of him.

As its knife fitted back into a hidden spot within the left arm that it was shot out of. The thing's head tilted to the side, but it kept snapping with a visible click like it was moving with gears. Then on the lower portion of its face it's jaw snapped open.

Then he heard his comm device crackle to life without any input from him, "RAARARRGHH!" It screeched loud enough that it dazed Jace for a moment. But not enough that he could not dodge the attack the thing launched.

It leaped forward swinging its sword arm. Jace leaped back and moved backwards toward the broken engine chamber. Attempting to minimize damage to this area. But despite his efforts to dodge back it still cut through a console.

The thing followed him launching itself forward. Eventually finding itself at the entrance of the engine main chamber where a hole was blowin into it. It is an open area aside from the pipes from the other chambers.

He could see the moving parts within the thing's body was spinning quickly. Giving away its movements, making it easy for him to know what it was going to do. It was fast moving, but not quicker than him. The only issue was that he was unarmed at the moment and he did not want to give away the fact that he has a sword. Especially with its mechanical nature it might be recording or transmitting video.

With the way it could jam him or speak directly into his communication device he was worried about the creature's technical abilities that might be superior to his own. So he was going to keep to what he grew up being good at: improvisation.

The thing leaped forward with its sword arm sticking forward. Jace dodged to the side and as it passed he grabbed the thing's arm and jabbed it fully forward. Forcing it to stab into the chamber wall.

It raised its other arm and fired the knife but Jace caught the knife and spun the wire around its arm. Then he stabbed the knife into a space in the arm where gears were visible, getting it stuck in between the gears.

Then he maneuvered behind the thing and watched in surprise as the head spun around and opened its jaw again. He quickly reached his right hand forward and sent a high amount of electricity through the creature. He watched as it mostly remained unharmed but there was a small spark somewhere behind its red eyes, and all the red light's disabled on the creature. Instead of immediately investigating he just used his ability to get the schematic and jumped out of the main chamber tapping his communication device. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

He did not know what he had just fought but it was incredibly dangerous and was likely not the only one. Because if they could get one of these on board a ship that was going to a classified destination they likely managed to send more than just the one he had disabled.