Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [122]
As Sanchez had described, there was a second, undamaged airlock 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, can you see if you can get that airlock 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 town, if necessary. It shouldn’t take that much to close and seal the airlock.
And it didn’t. Fritz fiddled with the controls, adjusted the output of his powersource, and waited for Jackson’s signal. The lieutenant checked to see that his entire Team was positioned inside the corridors, and gave the thumb’s 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. The officer studied the shape of the corridor, and tried to picture the adjacent airlock where the lone surviving pirate had escaped from the hangar.
“I want another C-6 charge on the bulkhead, right here,” he ordered. “Set it to go off ten seconds after the first one.”
“Gotcha, L.T,” Harry Teal replied. In less than a minute he had affixed a small packet of plastic explosive to the wall Jackson had indicated.
“Stand to, Team,” Jackson ordered. “We move in as soon as the pressure equalizes—but remember, we don’t know if we’re tapping into a vacuum or not.”
The men nodded, understanding the crucial difference: if the target proved to be pressurized, they would be faced by a quick blast of air as soon as they breached the bulkhead. Because the airlock was closed behind them, however, the wind would quickly ceased, as their own passageway achieved an equal pressure. If the compartment beyond the bulkhead was in vacuum, of course, there would be no exchange of air, and they could move in at once.
The Team backed into the other dead-end corridor, as far away from the explosive as they could get—and out of the direct line of the blast effect. Jackson didn’t need to explain the plan in any more detail. Each man understood that the first blast, on the outer airlock, was to distract the enemy. The second explosion would create the breach for the Team’s attack. Teal held his clicker at the ready, watching Jackson, and finally the officer nodded his go-ahead.
The first blast was a distant crump, barely felt through the metal of the surrounding bulkheads. The small hatch connecting the hangar to the ship’s interior should have been blown off its hinges by the charge, but of course they couldn’t see that. The ten seconds seemed to last for half an hour, but when the nearer explosive blasted it sent a flash of light and debris through the corridor where the SEALS were waiting.
The first men, Marannis and Sanchez, were blown back but a gust of air—they had obviously tapped into a pressurized compartment—but almost immediately the pressure equalized, since the T-shaped corridor had been sealed off from space and quickly filled with the air spilling in through the breach.
“Go! Go! Go!” Jackson shouted the unnecessary encouragement as his men, using their jets to move through the weightless environment, started for the