It felt good to be standing again, but Elisa turned to me with a horrified look. “I can’t close the airlock. The treasure must have damaged it.”
“Damn.” Must have happened when it slammed into the side of it at two gees. If we undocked from the Bloody Dagger, we’d lose all our air.
“Is there another airlock on this ship?” I asked, now wishing I had explored it more.
“No,” she said. “That’s the only one.”
“Pressure suits?”
She shook her head.
I had to think fast. “Go guard the airlock. Shoot anything that tries to get onboard.”
She nodded and ran.
I hit the radio. “This is Chumba calling the Dread. Come in, please.”
“This is Dread,” Miko’s voice came back.
“Situation report,” I ordered.
“We are engaging the Vesperian fleet. It’s not going well. We need to withdraw as soon as you can dock with us.”
“We can’t undock from this ship without losing our air,” I said. “But there’s one solution.”
“What is that?” Miko asked.
I told them what I had in mind.
“It’ll never work.” That was Barrie.
“You have a better idea?” I asked.
Static.
“No, sir,” Barrie finally said.
“Get as close to us as you can, and make sure that docking ring is facing us,” I ordered.
I hit the ship’s comm. “Elisa, come to the bridge.”
She was there in a few moments. I outlined my plan.
“We’ll both die.”
“Not if we do it right.”
“And are very lucky.”
I couldn’t disagree.
It took a few minutes, then Miko said, “We’re in position. We can’t stay here long.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “Believe me, we’ll hurry.”
I undocked from the Bloody Dagger.