High Flyght – Chapter 26

When the airlock door opens, we’re greeted with smoke and alarms blaring. The sheep bleat, and the goats scream. The cargo bay door is open, and Lia is ushering in a spaceport fire team.

Shit. Skylar said Ai was melting down, not the whole ship!

“Where’s Frogger?” I run forward, practically tripping over my own feet, and hack into my fist.

Lia squints into the smoke as she meets me halfway across the cargo bay.

“In your quarters! Standard fire protocol! All quarters, the bridge, and engine room are sealed shut and life support systems are engaged. Skylar is on the bridge!” Lia points to the main deck. “It’s Carlos’s den!”

Ken and Jinzo peel off.

“I’ll check Marcelo’s shuttle!” Ken is on the case.

“Where’s Carlos?” Jinzo asks, and Lia waves him to the cargo bay door.

My head swivels up to see the auxiliary cargo bay, which is still wide open. Fuck. My plants! I run straight up and shut the door before it can get any worse in there. Then I head to Carlos’s den and the bridge.

“Skylar!” I call out, but the bridge is sealed off, and with the chaos of the fire teams, she can’t hear me.

Smoke and fire suppression chemicals roll down the hallway as I approach. I squint my eyes and bring my shirt up to my face to breathe through. Just around the corner of the doorway, the firemen are picking through the destroyed room. Servers are hanging off walls, and Carlos’s usual gear is scattered everywhere.

“Power was cut quick!” One man yells to another. “Fire is out! No sign of fire anywhere else!”

My eyes water, so I turn and run back to the fresh air of the cargo bay door, slide down the door, and land on the concrete of the spaceport. What a mess! Our area of the spaceport is filled with people staring and pointing.

Once my feet are under me, I stand up and take a big gulp of fresh air. My lungs ache, and I cough, but I don’t think I caused any permanent damage. Another fire team approaches, but the venting truck hasn’t arrived yet. The only way to remove smoke from a ship while on a planet is with powerful vacuum pumps that will vent the common spaces in no time flat. We just need to herd the animals off the ship and seal up the auxiliary cargo bay.

Carlos is sitting on the edge of the door, his face covered in soot, and staring into space. I squat down in front of him.

“What happened?” I squeeze his knees and coax him to look at me.

“I don’t know.” His stare is trancelike. “I really don’t. I felt like I was making good progress on fixing Ai. There were a few drives that were always crapping out, though. They shouldn’t have. They were practically brand new. But she couldn’t access all her sensors if those drives wouldn’t function.”

He shakes his head and looks up at Jinzo hovering nearby.

“I went to take a nap, thinking I’d start fresh after some sleep. I was asleep for like twenty minutes? Maybe? When Ai called for help. She kept saying, ‘Help me!’ over and over. I ran to the server room, and it was so hot in there. Before I knew it, it was up in flames.”

A tear falls down his cheek, clearing a path through the darkened soot.

“The flames.” He shakes his head again, and I reach out to squeeze his shoulder. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

I sit down next to him and turn my wristlet. A connection error pops up on my screen. Great. I can’t even call Skylar to find out how she is in there. A stream of sheep barrel past us and congregate on the pavement of the spaceport. I’m impressed that they don’t go anywhere farther. Lia has them trained well. She exits the Amagi with Sally, the goat, on a leash and hands the rope to me.

“Watch her, please.”

I eye Sally and her rectangular pupils. Goats are strange, but she’s better than most.

Lia returns a moment later with a hoverlift full of chickens, rabbits, the duck, and whatever else she keeps in our ship. I’ve lost count.

She lets out a huge breath of relief when the hoverlift glides to the pavement next to the sheep. “All present and accounted for, Captain. I practiced my fire drills, so I knew exactly what to do.”

Ladies and gentlemen, give this young lady a ship. She’s more competent than all of us put together.

“I remembered to use the fire extinguisher, but it was too late.” Carlos is a mess. “What are we going to do, Captain?”

“Well,” I start, looking into Sally’s eyes before she lies down at my feet, “I’m not entirely sure.”

Ken appears out of the Amagi. His eyes are watery, but he seems okay.

“The computer room is toast. It’s going to need a complete overhaul, and it sounds like you’ll need a new AI as well. Marcelo’s shuttle is gone so he must still be visiting friends.”

“Where’s Gus?” I ask, panic edging into my voice.

“Last I spoke to him he was going to be in the city for the day.”

Jinzo walks up from the side of the ship. “I just did a visual inspection of the outside. Everything appears to be okay. Once the fire crews have done their job and we’ve vacuumed out the available air, I can call in a cleaning crew to finish up the job.” He folds his arms across his chest. “Should take about a week. I can patch her up so we can get flying again and make it to the shipyards. She’s going to need a complete overhaul of a lot of the electrical systems. We can replace everything, even your servers, but the AI will have to come from elsewhere. We can install them, but we don’t broker them.”

I sigh and rest my chin on my hand. “I wonder how much that’ll cost us.”

Jinzo taps his foot against the cargo bay door. “Well, normally, it would cost a few hundred thousand credits, but I know a guy.” He raises his eyebrows. “I think it might cost you a few nights in bed.”

“If I throw in some days as well, can we get this job rushed?”

Ken laughs, and Carlos groans.

“I’m going to be sick,” he says, bending further over. I reach over and rub his back.

“Only humor will get us through this, Carlos.”

“I’m glad you can laugh, Captain,” he says, sniffing up and raising his head. “But humor won’t bring back Ai. I…” He looks off into the ship and at the fire teams descending the stairs. “I have this feeling like…”

“Like what?”

He shakes his head as if reality can change if he just shifts his perspective.

“You the captain?” The lead firefighter is covered in sweat, and his green eyes look me over from head to toe.

“That’s me,” I say with a small wave. “What’s the status?”

“You’re all good now. Fire was contained to your server room and mostly to the server stacks. Your tech was smart and had fire procedures.” He nods at Carlos. “The vacuum truck will be here soon. Seal off secondary rooms and await their arrival.”

I thank him and watch him walk away with his crew.

“See? You did good. Don’t worry about it, Carlos.”

Carlos’s eyes are far away.

“You were saying something?” I poke him in the upper arm.

“Yeah, uh, no. Nah. I think I’m seeing things that aren’t there.” He bites his lower lip and stares off into space. “I’m going to work on archiving Ai for later once the trucks are gone.”

The sheep begin to bleat and chickens panic as the vacuum trucks pull up. Their engines roar to a deafening crescendo.

“All right!” I call out, backing into the Amagi. “Seal off the secondary rooms! Lia, you move the animals to a secure area. Ken, check my grow room. Jinzo, you help the vacuum team hook up to the airlock. Carlos, you secure the galley.”

Before everybody breaks off, I grab Ken’s arm. “I hope we can still make it to your meeting.”

“No worries, Vivi. Let’s get this task underway and then you, Jinzo, and I can go clean up at my apartment before the meeting.” His eyes follow the crew as they stream past. “Do you think this is a coincidence? It seems fishy to me.”

Carlos’s concerned face pops into my mind. “I don’t know, but I’ll have to handle that later.”

Pounding echoes through the Amagi and a muffled voice shouts, “Get me out of here! What’s happened to my ship?”

Ugh. Skylar.

“Actually, what I’ll be handling later is buying an entire case of wine for my cousin. She’s going to need it after this.”