Her head peeped up over the hatch. Pam looked around the hydroponics garden and saw little more than weeds. In less than a second the humid scathing air caused sweat to break out on her forehead. This module had been special built to maintain certain environmental conditions. It seemed to do it almost too well. Even with the giant windows, above, the light in deep space was not enough to grow decent plants. Heating lamps and other such light emitting devices were all over the room and they kept it like a hot box.

The plants were attached to lines running from top to bottom. The roots were running free and getting nutrients from the air and mist that saturated the compartment. Pam pulled herself on up into the humidity and took a better look around. "Julia?"

"Over here," replied the botanist.

Wading through the jungle Pam found her friend. Julia was attached to the bulkhead by her Velcro shoes. She was looking up into the star field above. "You can see so much from up here. Funny thing is that it doesn't look any different now than it has for the last couple of years."

"I was just down in the observatory," related Pam. It was just a normal module where they kept all of the equipment that was directly connected to the ships array of telescopes and camera's. All you saw there were pictures on a monitor. "No where near the view you have in here. Harry said that we could get a good look at the Gas Giant we're coming up on. I don’t see it."

"It still just looks like a dot out there," replied Julia. "I called him yesterday about it. Can't even see it from this side of the ship now. Not since we turned around."

Julia was normally a fairly out going person if not a bit moody. Pam could not help but notice how introverted she had become since Larry died. Touching her friend on the shoulder ever so lightly, Pam asked, "You all right kiddo?"

"I've just had a lot on mind lately, that's all."

"Everything OK with Pete," asked Pam?

"Oh yeah, I guess we're just about the same. He has been acting a lot different lately though, not mean or anything, just different. He's been going right to sleep when he gets off work lately."

Pam rolled her eyes. It was just like a man, "sheesh, you two are just engaged and already he's ignoring you."

"It's not that," Julia was being reflective, "It's everything Pam. Ever since Larry died. I mean we had all gotten so comfortable here. We forgot where we were, what we were doing."

"I know what you mean girl," Pam noticed that Julia never stopped looking at the stars. "It hit us all hard. I'm just glad I don't have anybody to worry about like you. I mean having a family here has got to be a strain."

For once Julia actually looked down. She thought about it, "No, I'm glad I don't have to go through this alone. You know, thinking back on everything, I think that is probably what I wanted most out of life. For Joey to have a dad that loved him, and for me, well... you know."

Pam elbowed her friend; "You have a dirty mind for a married lady I tell you."

Julia finally smiled. It was the basis of their friendship. Pam could always make Julia laugh. They both enjoyed it because, as Julia laughed, Pam loved watching to see the reactions she got. Julia pushed her friend back, "Oh I'm dirty minded huh. I'm not the one who let a guy..."

"Hey!" blurted out Pam, "you said you weren't going mention that again."

"You know Yurgani, I wanted to be on the bridge instead of down here," complained Saiid.

They were both in the lab of the B spin module. Vitosk had quite a bit of work to do if he wanted to be able to duplicate Larry's work. "Oh would you stop complaining Saiid. You Muslims are always complaining."

Saiid took offense at that, "I'm not Muslim. I'm a Roman Catholic, my family is Lebanese."

Vitosk looked up from his computer screen for a second. A puzzled look came across his face, "Is there a difference? I wouldn't have noticed. Anyhow it's your fault that you are here. If you had not made this damn computer system of yours so complicated I would not need you in the first place."

Saiid put his hands on his hips, "Well that's the point Yurgani. If I make something real simple nobody would have needed me and I wouldn't have been able to come."

"Ah," exclaimed Vitosk, "You are neither Catholic nor Muslim, Saiid. You are a capitalist. Now, I need you to get me the raw data from the OK probes."

"What for?" asked Saiid as he walked over and began hitting keys over Vitosk’s shoulder. "Jack went over this stuff with a fine tooth comb long before Larry even started his work. I mean Jack picked the landing sight."

Vitosk slapped the computer engineer's hands away from the keyboard. Where some called it, "typing" Saiid had the unnerving habit of calling the act of working a keyboard, "stroking." Vitosk had a hard time watching him do it from that point on. He handled the keyboard better than any man had ever a woman.

Turning to face Saiid. Vitosk pulled his glassed down on his nose, "Well first, if you would note Jack's hair you would realize that his experience with a comb must be limited due to the lack of substance to practice with. Second, I do not follow others work. I prefer to be thorough and double-check their facts first. My experience with facts are that they are just another name for opinions. So, if you do not mind, please tell me how to call up the damn files."

Joey stopped for a second. He peeked under the tarp. It was not that he had lacked in seeing it but, he could not help but grab one more peek. Bill Morton called out a number from another strapped down box. When he did not get an answer he looked back. "You just can't wait can you?"

Dropping the tarp, Joey pulled himself back further into the shuttles cargo bay. "You think my Mom will let me drive the Hummer when we get to Moe?"

"I don't believe you kid. Any other boy your age would give their left nut to be able to fly a space shuttle and you're still salivating over a fuc... freaking car."

"It looks like fun Bill. I mean taking it and jumping sand dunes and stuff. I know you want too," replied the kid.

He had hit it on the mark. Like most pilots Bill got a definite hard on for any thrill ride, "No, I'm a professional and you need to be too. Right now we have to make sure everything that's suppose to be here is. Then swap it out from the storage modules with stuff we might need. I mean there's a lot of stuff that goes with being a pilot."

It was all of that mundane stuff that someone forgot to tell Joey about when he agreed to do this job. Still, he accepted it, if ever so reluctantly, and kept thinking about what was at the end of the line, "OK."

Pete floated into the bay and interrupted the inspection once again. Pete tossed Bill a key, "Fetch me three Captain."

Bill looked at the key, knowing full well what it was for, "Colonel Kelly approved this sir?"

"I don't need his approval for this Captain Morton, now get me three of them please."

With some reluctance Bill opened the arms locker and retrieved three, forty caliber, semi auto pistols along with their holsters and ammunition. Pete nodded for him to put one on and then took the other two. After strapping a side arm on himself Pete handed the other set to Joey, "think you can handle it?"

"Just like you showed me!?"

"Yep," Pete snapped the leg strap in place, "Now don't go waving that thing around ok?"

"Just like you showed me Uncle Pete," the boy was all smiles.

Bill Morton frowned, "Colonel, you sure about..."

"Sure about what Morton?" Pete was busy inspecting his weapon. "There's a murderer loose on board and you want us to be unprotected."

It still seemed like a bad idea. "What about Julia?"

Joey's head snapped up, "Uh, you know Mom doesn't like me touching guns that much."

"I'll handle your Mom. Now you two get back to work."

The command module had not been so busy since the day they left Earth. A full crew was manning every workstation. They were all doing their job with the smoothness that one would expect after two years of on the job training. Still, Jack couldn't help but notice that there was tension. They were all nervous. Everybody on the ship seemed on edge. If the killer had not accomplished one single real act of sabotage he had managed something more crucial. What once was a happy family was now quietly tearing itself apart.

"Hello," said Dee leaning over the plotting board. "You with me here Jack?"

Jack shook it off, "Sorry, now where were we?"

Looking up at the mission clock, and then over to the remote control station, Dee then checked her watch. "Well the probe we fired should be entering the atmosphere of the Gas Giant any minute now."

"I don't know if I like this Dee."

She nodded, "We've been over this already. The breaking isn't enough. We rolled over to late. It was way to late before we even knew it. If we skirt the atmosphere of this planet, added with the gravity well itself, once we turn away we should be able to slow down enough to achieve some kind of orbit around Moe."

Jack still did not see why the gravity of the Gas Giant would not do it. The planet was three times the size of Jupiter. Dee had all the figures she had worked out and they looked on target though. If they didn't pull this maneuver off then they would wind up flying right into the star Alpha Centauri in about a week. Actually Jack did not think the situation was that drastic. They could change course but they would well overshoot Moe if they did. That was bad no matter how many happy faces Jack tried to put on it.

The remote station lit up with data all over its screens. Dee ripped her feet clear of the Velcro holding her to the steel cage. She pulled herself over to the screen and almost pushed Gina clear. Dee clapped her hands, "Yes! It'll take some time to go over this but, the probe is working perfectly."

Jack looked up at his navigations clock. "Well you got three hours to have your figures together."

Dee had already pulled a pen and paper out of her jump suit. She began noting some data that would be worth looking back over. "No prob."

The observatory module was empty, save Harry. Everybody else was now up in the A spin module watching the pictures that the probe was beaming back from the rapidly approaching planet. Harry had other things on his mind. He was taking his own readings and looking for other objects. In a new solar system there was a lot to discover out there. Harry was going to put his name on as much of it as he could. After all, North America was named North America. It should have been called Columbia but the navigator was the guy who drew the maps. His name had been Amerigo Vespuchi. Somehow Harry Wu could not see this system called Wu, Wuville, Harry's star, or any other combination he could think of but he would have that figured out before they got back.

While rubbing his eyes, Harry looked away from his work. He noticed one of his monitors that was displaying data from the ships small radio telescope. One of the readings had just went off the scale. Harry left his work floating and skipped from one worn Velcro strip to another until he was in front of the monitor. He used his light pin to call up that column of data. He took a hard look at it.

"Jesus Christ Superstar!"

What could be causing that? There was only one thing that could. The implications were too much to even think about right now. Harry keyed his intercom, "Uh... Uh... Jack!"

Everybody on the bridge pulled their speakers clear of their ears with a hint of pain. Jack was the first to put his back in, "What Harry! Sheesh! You couldn't say that a little louder?"

"Sorry," the intercom crackled again, "uh you guys got to look at the radio telescope readings we're getting from our big buddy ahead. I mean this is wild man."

Snapping his fingers Jack discovered that Dee had already pulled up the data on the main monitor just above the command chair. Jack knew he was supposed to think something about it but at the moment he was at a loss. "So?"

Dee answered for Harry, "Oh my God Jack. That's a strong K band light source."

"So?" replied Jack. "It's a gas giant. It's going to emit just a tad more radiation than it absorbs."

"NO!" Dee had a worried look on her face. "Nothing in nature would direct something that precise. It's a lot stronger than the background anyway. Jack! Somebody's looking us over with a radar."

Pete stopped at the rear module of the ship which was the drive control center. All of the hardware directly linked with the drive train ran through this module. That made it critical and, as such, a target. Pete looked inside. Normally only Bill Sams worked in here. At the moment he was up in the A Spin module with most of the crew. That was good and would make this easy.

Pointing to the hatch Pete indicated to McCandles and Red, "all right guys, nobody goes in or out of here without my permission. Well except for Colonel Kelly, Doctor Brewer, myself, or Chief Sams."

McCandles looked down to his side and the weapon strapped to it. "Think we should give Bill a side arm too, sir?"

Thinking it over for a second Pete finally decided against it. "Not that I think he's our problem. Let me just say that after the episode with Airman Fujitsu the other day... Well you know?"

The intercom crackled, "Sergeant Major McCandles report to the command module."

Pete heard it as well. He looked to Red, "You got the guard duty Red?"

"No problem Pete."

Vitosk shook his head when he looked over what Jack and Larry had been working on. The common sense of the average engineer always amazed Vitosk. While it was the academic types like Vitosk who were always accused of having none, it was clear that such criticism was missing the mark. Vitosk could not help but note that he had never failed to out think an engineer in practical matters. That went double for the American Engineer types who were naturally handicapped due to nationality in the first place.

"Why would they want to land here? It's a desert. There is desert to the north, east, and west, for hundreds of miles even. To the south you have some of the biggest mountains on the entire planet. Sure they could land and take off there but they would be no where near anything interesting."

Saiid was scrolling through screens of endless files. He was bored, "Larry was talking about the under carriage on the shuttle. I think they were looking for a place that would be hard and long enough to take off again. It had to be clear and flat and all that jazz."

Vitosk turned around on his stool. "When I was a young man living in Volgagrad. Everyday when I got off work I had to drive to a security parking lot and take my car apart piece by piece. The windshield wipers, the battery, the alternator, anything that could be quickly removed by a thief went in a shopping bag. I then took a bus the rest of the way home. The point being, I know which end of a screw driver is up."

What really amazed Saiid was the thief part of the story, "Wow, that's worse than Pittsburgh."

"Yes, quite," replied Vitosk. "The point being is that I looked at that undercarriage and it looked plenty strong to me. I helped design our own version of that vessel years ago. We never finished it of course but, what we were making it out of is far inferior to the three we have here on Hermes. I think that Larry was underestimating the serviceability of his own aircraft. Understandable considering he was an engineer. They often do that you know."

"Not me," replied Saiid, "I ring my machines out of everything they are worth."

"Yes Saiid, but people do not die if your hard drive crashes and that is not true if an aircraft does. What we are looking for here is a place that is large and flat. Cold if need be and that would be preferable. A plain maybe, or, somewhere that boulders would not be present in large numbers."

Snapping his fingers, Saiid began calling the main map up once again. "What about this area here?"

After reviewing it on his own screen Vitosk began to see potential. "There was a ground probe that landed near there according to this. Can you get me the surface level photo's of that area please?”

After a few moments Saiid was frustrated, "I can't find them. I don't see them in the main menu anywhere."

Vitosk protested, "Well they’re in the damn computer somewhere. Find them man."

"I know," this was more Saiid's speed. Solving blocks in software was his god given talent. It was something he had been doing before he entered grade school. "Hang on Yurgani, I'm just going to do a parameter search of the entire system. One of my little toys I put in that I just forgot to tell everybody about."

"Is that the Christian thing to do Saiid?" asked Vitosk.

"No," replied Saiid, "It's the American. Holy shit!"

Now Vitosk was looking over his shoulder, "What is that box there mean?"

"Somebody put an encrypted key pad lock on it. I don't get it? I mean why would you do something like that?"

Vitosk had some ideas, "can you tell who did it? Can you get past it?"

What a stupid set of questions. This was Saiid's system and his masterpiece to boot. He was not about to build it without keys to the entire kingdom. He entered his master override code and then called up the files. He then checked the computer log to see who put in the code key. "Shit! It was Dee?"

"Let's have a look at those pictures Saiid. I have a feeling we are going to find more there than just some photographs."

Jack stood back and let McCandles go through the data with Dee. He pushed himself back and then steadied with a handgrip. McCandles had spent almost a lifetime in air defense artillery. He was the most qualified to make the call, "Yes sir, there is no doubt in my mind. Our radar is being scrambled at the source."

"Couldn't be the Japs," said Jack, "there's no way in hell they could have gotten here this fast."

"No," replied Dee. "I can at least get some basic data despite the interference it's giving us. The object is a cylinder of some sorts and it's only about four meters long and maybe with a diameter of half that. Definitely not the Japanese and hardly big enough to hold a man."

"A probe of some sort then," Jack thought out loud. "I mean it's not a natural object whatever it is. Could it be one of the OK probes maybe?"

"No," replied Dee, "why would we put a jamming device on one of our probes?"

Looking up from her workstation and charts, Dee spotted Gary floating near the entrance to the hatch. He was watching her ever so closely. When she made eye contact with him he left the command module. Dee got her thoughts back in order, "Jack, we need to make a decision right now. Are we still going to use the atmosphere to break?"

"I recommend not sir. It would take us to close to this object if I'm reading that stuff over there right," said the Sergeant Major.

Dee pleaded her case, "Jack we'll overshoot the target if we don't."

The benefits of command, "All right Dee, start our approach. We have no indication that this thing is hostile, or a weapon, or anything. It's too small to be manned so I don't think there's that great a risk."

The teletype began whining and spitting out paper into a special bin that was designed to hold it, in place, in zero gravity. For a second, Gina did not even bother with it. Then she realized what had just happened. The teletype was for receiving transmissions. She stood there stunned, just gaping at it. "Co... Co... Colonel we just got a message here."

To Jack, the ones, zero's, and other symbols, that included a letter here and there, all looked like gibberish to him. He showed it to Dee and her conclusion was, "It's gibberish." Gary was not far and was the most logical person to examine it next. He looked at it, "It's gibberish."

Jack nodded, "Glad we're all in agreement. Now find out where this came from."

Dee grabbed her pin and got ready to do some basic trig but not before giving Gary a stern look. "If I were a betting girl I know where I'd put my money at."

Maybe they were just rejects? Vitosk ruled that out since some of the pictures were perfectly clear. There were also several other missing batches not in the computer. There were notes indicating that the bad photos were never up loaded. These pictures from the planets surface were in here under maximum-security lock for a reason. Vitosk scrolled back towards the end of the list and called up the last few. He doubled back on one. It was the dark blob that almost covered the screen that was setting off alarms in Yurgani's head. It looked almost recognizable.

There were sharp triangular shaped bright spots seeping through the sea of darkness. It grew wider the further up it got from the center of the picture. At the base of the darkness it took a right angle upwards and turned into a shiver on the background of light. "Saiid, why is it that there is so much light behind this blob here."

"I'm a computer engineer not a photographer damn it!" There was silence from Vitosk who did not get the reference.

"Uh," Saiid went on, "I don't know. It looks kind of like the camera was pointed right at the sun, or star, or whatever you call it. You know the big glowing thing in the sky."

None of the other pictures pointed up. Vitosk had read the blueprints for these probes before he left Earth. The cameras on it did not face up on their own. He looked at the blob. Sweat was running down his forehead and he did not know why. He could not put his finger… "a finger. Oh my god." Yurgani put his hand on the screen and covered the blob. His hand matched the shape of the dark area. He was looking at a hand over the lens!

"What is that?" asked Saiid.

Vitosk hit the print button on the keyboard and stood up. He pocketed his glasses and bit his lip. He wanted to be wrong about all of this. "My Dear Saiid. That is a motive for murder."

"We've passed it at about a hundred kilometers above us," relayed Gina as she watched the radar screen.

Jack was too busy listening to Harry over the intercom. He nodded and switched on one of three overhead monitors. Harry had managed to acquire a picture of the object at this close range. The video signal was coming from the observatory module where Harry was now tracking the object. Everyone gathered around. Jack rubbed his chin. It looked like not much more than a small point of light just above the horizon.

"Doesn't look like anything to write home about."

Pete scratched his head, "Well there's no doubt the transmission came from it Jack. I would say it is. The real question is if it’s Jap, OK, or other?"

"Maybe the Japs launched a probe themselves," remarked Gina.

"I don't see the first solar panel on it. That would be an odd probe design," responded Dee.

A beeping noise came from Dee's computer station. She grabbed a handgrip and pulled herself to it. She noted the ships velocity indicator and the hull temperature readings. "We're clearing the atmosphere and the breaking looks like it worked. We've slowed down to something that the drive train should be able to handle."

Jack looked over his shoulder at her. Before he could make any kind of remark he noted the background light had become brighter. It was enough to cause Jack to squint. There were gasps and Jack quickly looked back to see a brilliant light emitting from the screen, "What just happened?"

Pete was busy checking the data that was being collected from Hermes passive sensor arrays. "Jesus! It just power spiked and then wham! It blew up!"

There was silence. Dee was the one who vocalized the concerns running through everybody's mind at the moment, "Oh shit, how strong, did it create a shock wave!"

Pete gulped, "about four megatons at least. I can't really tell anything else. The passive array looks likes it's going berserk."

That answered the question about the shock wave. There was one, it was headed toward them, and it would crush them like a tin can. Options! Jack needed them right now. His mind ran through what he was going to do at lighting speed, "Sound General Quarters! Collision alarm! Secure all air tight seals!"

Pete reached over and unlocked the emergency control box. He slapped the big red button and alarms and klaxons began to sound. "Collision sounded! General Quarters sounded!"

"Dee!" yelled Jack.

"There's no need to yell! I'm three feet away!" she yelled back.

Jack got a hold of himself, "right, I need an ETA on that shock wave. Can we duck behind the planet somebody?"

Pete looked at the navigational board and charts, "I don't think so. The maneuver would take to long."

"Twelve minutes!" yelled Dee as she punched it into the mission clock over her head. "We got twelve minutes and twenty two seconds till impact."

That was definitely not enough time to execute a turn and enter orbit around the gas giant. Space ships did not spin on a dime. The thrusters were only powerful enough to alter the direction slowly and with the drive train running at eighty five percent power, trying to break them, it was close to impossible. That was it, "Dee! The drive train! Can we execute an emergency shut down of the particle accelerators. That would cut our breaking and give us more time?"

"Yeah, but we still wouldn't out run the shock wave and then it would take me hours to get them back on line."

"Spin habitats secured," yelled Pete.

Jack thought hard. If he couldn't duck it then maybe he could out run it, "What about a roll over. Can we do it with the drive running? Put the drive facing the shock wave and then begin acceleration."

"No!" Dee was frustrated, "I would have to shut the drive down for us to roll over..."

Pete snapped at her, "You had a thought! What was it?”

Dee pulled herself over to the chart table. She called up a separate screen with the blue prints of the ship. She began scrolling through them and a smile came to her face. "Here! We can manually reroute the exhaust system here. Send it right into outboard O2 tank number five. I can blast air into the mixing chamber. It'll push the gas cloud out past the range of the charging rods and that should temporarily cut the particle field. Then we cut the flow of air and we're back in business. We'll never have to bother with the particle accelerators."

Jack grabbed her by the neck and pulled her over for a kiss on the lips, "Your sexy when you're smart woman. Pete, go with her and get Sams. Reroute that duct and do it ASAP."

The lights went out. When the yellowish glow of the emergency light replaced the mains, Vitosk looked around in the elevator. He tried his communicator but only got static. The ship was well shielded from cosmic rays and as a result the wireless communicator had problems as well. Without the repeaters in every com panel all over the ship you had a hard time talking to someone in the next room. Vitosk picked up the phone next to the floor buttons.

"Command Module, Hello... Damn!" Vitosk let out a sigh. He looked up, and then down. There were emergency hatches in both directions. He shoved the pictures in his jump suit and rolled up his sleeves. "Well I'm not bloody well staying here during another bloody power failure."

"What the hell are we colliding with!" exclaimed Julia as she looked in terror at the alarms going off.

Pam was not waiting. It had been a long time since they had a drill. It had been over a year as far as she could remember. She thought about what needed to be done. She also knew this part of the ship was empty, right now, since everybody was up in the galley watching the pictures of the gas giant. "I don't think this a drill Julia! Start securing this room! I'll shut the hatches in the module bellow."

With her friend darting off down the hatch, and into the module below, Julia almost panicked. Her first thought was of Joey. If this was for real she needed to be with him and she had no idea where he was! He was supposed to be at the shuttle but that did not mean anything. Did she have time to go find him? Was he with Pete? What was she going to do? It was enough to give her a headache.

"Hey Bill," called out Joey. He was floating just below the service hatch that was connected to the airlock. "The emergency hatch just closed on us."

Bill was trying to pull a panel to replace a burned out bulb. He let his screwdriver drift away and pushed himself out of the confined space he was in. When he saw the hatch he just shook it off. "Damn automatic systems are jacking us around again. I wouldn’t worry about it. It'll open back up on it's own. If it doesn't I'll call Gina down in control and get her to send somebody up here to fix it."

The lack of gravity quickly got Saiid's attention. He picked up the phone and called the command module and got the story. Saiid's mouth dropped open. They were about to be hit by a shock wave that could take out the entire ship! Collision had been sounded but somehow did not go off in the B spin module. The A module was already buttoned up which was easy enough since almost everybody was in it at the moment. Saiid and the three other people that were wandering around this module would have to close all the doors themselves.

"No way," Saiid thought about his situation for a moment. He was in a module that was essentially suspended out on a big pole. He wasn't going to stay out here. He called up the emergency systems on his lab computer. The overrides had already double sealed the outer hatches. The hatches to the spin arms had also closed automatically and shut down the elevators to each habitat. Saiid overrode the ones to the B module and reopened the hatches. "Down the ladder and then out we go. Now to see if I can find everybody else."

Dee handed the air wrench back to Sams. She looked at her watch. They still had three minutes to go before impact. "It's done! Pete! Tell Jack he can start the roll on my mark. Three... Two..."

The ship jerked. It almost felt like a minor tremor that Jack had once experienced when he was serving at Twenty Nine Palms. He listened to Pete over the phone and repeated it to Gina who was standing by at the thrusters panel. "One... Fire series one!"

Upon flipping the switches to the upright position the conventional chemical thrusters on the hull, in various places, began to fire. Harry Wu had just come into the command module behind the closing of the airtight doors. He was watching the ship telemetry, "it's working, we're rolling!"

Jack watched the seconds hand of his watch, "Kill the burn! On my mark fire the second burn. Ready... Ready... three, two..."

There was somebody down here after all. Pam did not close the hatch. Instead she pulled herself through it. She could hear some tools running back in the machine shop. She did not see anybody however. Looking around Pam was beginning to think that she was just hearing things. Then she heard a creek from the air lock adjoining the module. The inner hatch to it was open. Pam pulled herself to the corner and peeked in.

She gasped. Jerry was in there! He had taken the panel next to the outer lock off! It looked like he was trying to pull out the hydraulic hoses that double locked the doors. The electronic panel was also open with several wires spliced together. He was by passing the alarms and safety features. Why was he doing that? A cold chill ran up Pam's spine. He was the murderer. He was the one who killed Larry! What was she suppose to do now?

"That's it!" yelled Harry. A cheer rose in the command module. "Our nose is pointing in the direction of our forward momentum. The drive train is aft."

Jack called into the phone, "Pete! Tell Dee to give us a kick in the butt!"

Gina called out, "one minute and ten seconds to impact!"

Dee hit the trigger on the air wrench. The valves switched and the air from the exhaust system ceased. The ship jerked once again. Dee gave a sigh of relief. "I really didn't think that was going to work."

Pete rolled his eyes. He looked at Chief Sams, "Now she tells us. I'm glad it did. We just about drained all the O2 out that tank to do it."

Jack strapped himself into his chair. He seldom had used the thing since they left Earth. He let out yet another sigh of relief, "adds a whole new meaning to the words, 'Scotty I need more speed.' Gina! What’s the calculation for the shock wave with our new velocity."

A few moments later Gina answered, "Uh... Uh... Jack! We got about three minutes before impact."

Considering the news Jack took it rather well. He scratched his chin, "Well shit!"

Keeping her knee's bent so as not to even risk letting the Velcro make contact, and hence make noise, Pam shoved herself over to the inner compartment of the air lock. Jerry was busy with the hydraulic lines that were giving him fits. Pam caught herself on the opposite wall right next to the EVA tool closet. She reached in and unhooked a large wrench from the wall and then slowly pushed herself forward.

Jerry turned around. He too had a wrench in his hand. Pam stretched out her legs and hooked her shoes to the Velcro padding. Now she needed support rather than stealth. "Just give it up Jerry. Put the wrench down. It's all over."

He held up his empty hand with his palm out. Then he made a fist with it as he pointed, "Pam, just turn around and leave. This is none of your business."

What did he mean by that! It had to be a ruse. If she turned around then he would probably kill her too! "Just give up now."

"Leave!" he was getting hostile. His voice sent ripples up Pam’s spine. She was starting to think this had been a bad idea. The frontal attack was a bust. Pam started thinking about another option. Her mind was blank.

Gary popped the manual hatch release. Saiid stuck his head out. "Thank god. I knew I should have let the computer control the manual locks too."

Gary helped pull all four of his shipmates out of the crawl space and then resealed the hatch behind them. Saiid brushed off his clothing. He looked up as if a light bulb flashed in his head, "Hey! Did Yurgani make it down here?"

"Doctor Vitosk?" responded Barringer, "haven't seen him."

The elevator doors were closed. Saiid pushed himself over to them. Soon everyone was helping pry them open. Vitosk was floating on the other side, "Well it's about bloody time!"

After getting out of the shaft Vitosk caught his breath and told of his efforts that allowed him past the emergency hatch. He did not as much accredit his success to his own brilliance but, more towards, "stupid engineers. Their logic will be their undoing. You... Barringer, I want to have a word with you."

Gary watched as the Russian pulled out the pictures and flashed them at him. Gary simply shrugged, "What are they?"

Vitosk snorted, "Don't play stupid, you would have to know about these. It's why you are really here, no?"

Barringer rubbed his forehead, "uh, Yes?"

"I want to know the whole story," said Vitosk.

"Circuits on," called out Bill.

Joey was bored. He threw the circuit board on and went back to his hand held video game. He forgot about the game when he heard Bill yell out, "Holy Shit!"

"What? Do I need to throw the breakers?"

"No," replied the Air Force Captain. Bill shoved his headset on and patched it into the shuttles radio, "Venture Star One to Hermes! Come in!"

Joey reached the flight deck and started looking over Bill's shoulder. "What's going on Bill?"

Bill's hand pointed to the sensor array monitor, "Look at that power spike. Hello, Hermes, we're out in the shuttle. You have to open the hatch!"

Gina looked worn when she called to Jack, "Colonel! Captain Morton and Joey are in the shuttle!"

Jack attached the last strap in his chair, "Holy Jesus." It was to late to get them out now. The clock gave them less than a minute. "Tell them to hunker down and get ready to ride it out."

Vitosk came flying through the top hatch, "Jack we have to talk now!"

Only Vitosk would say something like that at a time like this. Jack waved him off, "Not now Yurgani."

Gina strapped herself to the cage and grabbed for whatever she could hang onto. "Thirty seconds to impact."

Red Darby shook his head, "Well it's been nice knowing everybody. Hope somebody has some good last prayers for us all."

Pam did the only thing she could. She had him cornered but they were equally armed. There was nothing left to say to him. All she could do was draw back with her giant wrench and take a swing. The results were not exactly what she had envisioned. The Velcro did not hold her feet to the floor. There was little resistance to stop her swing and Jerry ducked. Pam found herself spinning around and then Jerry flipped up, braced himself on the wall, and kicked her right out of the air lock.

The grinding wheel and its frame stopped the free flight. Pam felt the wind knocked right out of her. Her eyes did manage to stay fixed on the air lock. Her hand started feeling around for the wrench. She had released it at some point and was not really sure when. The air lock door began to close. Not knowing why Pam decided she had to stop him from doing this. She grabbed the grinding wheel frame and flipped back over on her feet. When she heard the crunching noise of the Velcro she flung herself at the hatch.

The wrench was floating just in front of the air lock. Pam grabbed it and then jammed it in the doorway. There was a scream from the other side, "Won't you just leave me alone!"

Pam smiled before a thought struck her, "Now what?"

Jerry answered that for her. He slammed his own wrench into the one obstructing the door. It was knocked free but instead of closing the hatch he stepped out. "I told you to stand clear Pam! I've killed more people than you will ever know! You people just don't understand!"

Gina looked at her clock. It read zero point zero. Nothing happened. "It's supposed to impact?"

Suddenly the ship sounded like a giant creaking door. It gave a terrible moan like that of a man crying out in pain.