Chapter 10 : Emergency Security Clearance
8pm SST Sunday 13 January 2085
Zak let his eyes adjust to the peculiar light in the outer shell. He presumed the hijackers thought everyone was locked up, as they hadn’t issued any more calls since gathering in the restaurant. But Krushkov had warned they would continue to watch the PSIs. He’d better not dawdle.
He suspected that the senior crew would have been taken to the jail, so he decided to try there first. Its location was 18-I-R, near the centre of the ship on the upper floor.
He looked for a hole to get out, but realised he had dropped down in the middle of the huge restaurant. Looking along the ship, the nearest hole, visible via a dim ray of light, seemed miles away. It would be quicker to crawl round to a different quadrant.
He scrambled along the outer shell in the direction of the curve, and eventually came to a vertical shaft of light – created by a hole leading to the lower maintenance zone.
With great care, he eased his head out and checked there was no-one around. He pulled himself out of the hole, and immediately started climbing the ladder. To his surprise he surged up the ladder – had he lost weight?
He perched himself on the edge of the restaurant’s huge rectangular roof, which curved up out of sight to one side. The shapes and distances confirmed he was near the front of the ship. To his relief, it was deserted.
The ladder continued on to the upper maintenance zone. It looked a long climb, but he reached the top in seconds. Stepping onto the roof, he struggled to plant his feet. The sensation was different to before – this time he was nearly weightless.
