Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [13]
“Tell you what, Harry. Why don’t you rig a charge. Set it for remote detonation so you can set it off with your clicker. The rest of you men, regroup over here.”
The corpsman set to work preparing a breaching explosive for remote detonation while the Team formed up outside the blasted air lock. The two scouts, Sanchez and Marannis, probed into the shadowy confines, and Harry Teal set his C-6 charge. The corpsman drifted over to the CO after two minutes, holding a small detonator in his hand. “I can set it off from up to a kilometer away, LT,” he said.
“Good.” Jackson kept one eye on his men while he analyzed the entry and formulated a plan. He activated his microphone and spoke to Coxswain Grafton, the pilot of Mikey. “Grafty, can you download those deck plans into my computer? I want to check out what’s behind door number three here.”
“No problem, sir.” In a few seconds, the boat’s computer had spit the high-density data stream into Jackson’s wrist-mounted computer. He projected the results as a heads-up display, examining the deck plan of the Lotus as a HUD projected onto the inside of his helmet’s face shield. The results were encouraging, suggesting that the adjacent smaller passageway ran roughly parallel to this larger cargo hall.
By that time Sanchez had glided back out of the air lock to make his report. “Got a short corridor inside. It T’s after about twelve meters. The branches go twenty or thirty meters right and left. Each ends in another air lock, closed and secured. There’s also a hatch just at the base of the T. That one’s open. The control panel looks dark. I think it’s disabled, skipper.”
“All right. Harry, keep a finger on your clicker. The rest of you, move out, standard penetration drill.”
Still moving in combat formation, half the men stationary to cover their companions who were moving, the Team moved through the blasted hatch. The metal of the framework was peeled and twisted, indicating that considerable force had been used in the entry. Fortunately, the inner lock, though currently open, did not look to have been twisted out of alignment.
As Sanchez had described, there was a second, undamaged air lock hatch a short distance inside the blasted barrier. The hatch was open, but if they could seal it, they would secure this T-shaped corridor section from the vacuum of the hangar deck and outer space beyond.
Jackson gestured to Baxter, who in his short time with the Team had displayed a remarkable skill with mechanics and electronics. “Fritz, see if you can get that air lock operable.”
“Aye, aye, sir. It’s just a matter of hooking up a power source,” Baxter reported. He shrugged out of the ungainly battery pack he wore on his back and pulled out a pair of wires tipped with alligator clips. With a quick slice of a hand torch, he cut away the faceplate of the hatch control panel. In a few seconds, he identified a pair of contacts and affixed the stout terminals of his Mark 21 battery pack. Jackson knew that the compact unit could generate enough electricity to run a small office building if necessary. It shouldn’t take that much to close and seal the air lock.
And it didn’t. Fritz fiddled with the controls, adjusted the output of his power source, and waited for Jackson’s signal. The lieutenant checked to see that his entire Team was positioned inside the corridors and then gave the thumbs-up. Baxter pushed the button, and the door slid down and nested into its gasket with a smooth, soundless glide. Of course, the corridor they occupied was still in a vacuum state, but now that vacuum wasn’t connected to the whole gulf of space outside.
“The rest of you, follow me.”
It was time to move. Jackson found Teal and Harris near the front of the formation. Calling up the schematic of the deck plan onto his HUD again, the officer studied the shape of the corridor and tried to picture the adjacent air lock where the lone surviving pirate had escaped from the hangar.
“I want another C-6 charge on the