“We’ve got to get out in the open, Skipper,” Colonel Moody said. “In a cramped space like this we can’t use any our advanced weapons capabilities. Even a corridor is better than this airlock.”

“How many, Lieutenant?” Hunter asked as he helped one of the landing party marines fix his environmental controls.

“Now more than 40 confirmed readings, sir,” Zony replied. “I estimate a new creature appears roughly once every 160 seconds.”

“Yili, what if we rigged the environmental controls to re-pressurize the ship with an atmosphere poisonous to the creatures?”

Curtiss shook her head. “That level of environmental control would take an hour to establish and that’s only if I can get to engineering.”

“I doubt we can fight our way that far down, sir, and even if we did, we could get pinned and not be able to get back to the bridge,” Moo added.

“We can fight our way out, sir,” one of the marines said. “Just give me a target.”

“You’ll get your shot, sergeant,” Moo replied.

“What can we do from here, engineer?” Hunter asked.

“I can restart the mains and power up the ship in about 20 minutes if we ignore the checklist, sir. But with respect, where to? We can’t operate all the systems on the Dunkerque without more manpower, and even if we could, we have nowhere to go.”

Hunter’s eyebrow rose, which intrigued the colonel. Then Jason grinned, and Moo could tell he was on to something.

“What about maneuvering?”

“Sure, I guess. If we can get to the bridge and barricade ourselves in there, we can drive around for a while. We can’t use the jump engines without navigational and SRS personnel, though. Sublight is do-able within reason,” Yili replied.

“Reason?” Moo asked.

“Without shields or armor power we don’t want to get going too fast to avoid debris or obstacles.”

“We don’t need to go anywhere,” Hunter said. “We just need to be able to stop.”

“Sir?”

“Our guests don’t have seatbelts, and if we conveniently forget to activate the drive field, they’re going to get a first class education in what it’s like to ride in a moving van during a Mach One slalom event. Let’s get to the bridge. Zony, you keep us out of our guests’ way.” The Captain hefted his weapon and peered out into the loading deck corridor. It was clear in both directions.

“Smartly now.”

Hunter slid up the airlock corridor quietly and took a cover position at the junction with the cross-tunnel that led to the Dunkerque’s magneto-lifts.

“Nothing on this deck, sir,” Zony said quietly over the squad commlink.

“Watch our back, Moo,” Hunter said.

“Affirmative, Skipper.”

Hunter led the column swiftly along the cross-tunnel while Zony kept her local area sensors locked on the creature’s biological profile.

“What about the lifts, Yili?” Hunter asked.

“They have autopower systems, sir. They’ll run off the batteries without any extra work.”

“Outstanding.” Hunter stopped at the airlock deck core structure and looked around with his helmet lights. The ship’s interior was beginning to show signs of condensation. Water vapor in the residual atmosphere was gathering on flat surfaces and cooling to a liquid state as the internal temperature fell. Every boarding party member’s suit was reading the atmospheric pressure at about seven pounds per square inch and air temperature at just over thirty degrees Fahrenheit.

“Lift Four to the bridge. Yili, Moo and Zony first. Marine squad in Lift Three. I’ll follow you up.”

“Sir, I–”

“Understood, colonel. These two are more important. Let’s go.”

The Argent’s senior officers didn’t look convinced, but they followed their orders. In a few moments Lifts Three and Four were on their way to Deck One.

Hunter moved around the core structure to Lift Two and saw that it was operational. He keyed in the universal access code and listened as the pressure door released the seal. He trained his weapon on the lift car as the doors opened, but there was nothing waiting for him except an empty space. He climbed aboard and keyed Deck One.

“I don’t understand where the crew went,” Zony said as the squad occupied the Dunkerque bridge. “If they were forced off the ship, that would be one thing, but how do you get 170 people to involuntarily abandon ship?”

“That’s a very good question. There wasn’t much of a fight, because I haven’t seen a single mark anywhere on this ship,” the colonel said as he directed his squad to take up defensive positions at the two bridge entrances. He keyed his commlink. “Skipper?”

Zony and Yili set to work reactivating the strike cruiser’s systems. The first priority would be to generate a position report and get at least auxiliary power operational. As long as all the control systems were in place, it wouldn’t take long. An entire marine squad guarded the two officers and the bridge while they did their vital work.

“Skipper?” Moo said again. He waited and listened to the silent channel.

Jason Hunter exited Lift Two and quickly made his way up the Deck One center corridor to the bridge entrance.

Deck One was empty.