It was only two minutes after the victory when the alarms started wailing again. We had destroyed the enemy ship successfully, but the damage we suffered from the missile attack was still affecting us.
"Engineering, report!"
Undoubtedly, the ship was in a very bad situation. Even on the ship's intercom, there was a lot of noise which made hearing the other side very hard.
"Sir, we seem to ###### the connection from the ma##n reactor, two teams of five are on th###r way to ##### the problem. The flight control and sensor systems on the starboard side o##### hand, mi##t not even be reachable. The whole geometry of the decks ahead of th###### section has changed. We can do some digging, but then we will risk an air leak that might further compli### ##tuation."
"Chief, I can barely hear you." I shouted. "When can we start moving again?"
"Movin###, sir!? We are no### ##oing anywhere without recalibrating the nav####### and the propellant tanks need some rebal#####."
"Chief, the intercom is acting up. Can you do anything about that?" I finally asked. The only reply to that was some loud white noise.
"I'm going down to the main engineering deck." I told the bridge crew of two. "I need to inspect everything with my own eyes."
"No, you stay here." said Mei. "I can go."
"No." I said. Mei kept staring at me, wishing that this could change my mind. That was until I made an addition to my statement. "That's an order."
"Yes... sir."
"And prof, watch the sensors regularly. Anything comes by, report to me." I ordered.
"Watching, of course. Reporting on the other hand might be difficult, with the communication problems and all." he said.
"At least try." I said. "I'm off."
Just as I left the bridge, and explosion caused all walls to vibrate. The sound was definitely from the reactor, which was closest to the main engineering.
"Sir, maybe you should rethink-"
I didn't even listen to the professor and walked away quickly.
When I got closer to the main engineering, I saw that all the lights in the vicinity were off. Corridors were almost completely dark, but sometimes, I could see shadows created by portable light sources moving around. The air was getting hotter and hotter.
Finally, I encountered two engineers running the opposite way I was going. One of them had a flashlight. I stopped them with my arm.
"What happened? How is the situation over there, in main engineering?"
"Bad." the guy in the front said. "Chief sent us to find materials from another deck. The reactor is on fire."
I lightly hit the guy's back, and said "Carry on!" before continuing my journey to the main engineering. When I finally arrived, the blinding light and deadly heat from the flames kept me from entering the deck, for about a minute or two. The moment I stepped in, I already had a layer of sweat on my body.
In the deck, everyone was shouting things at each other while running around with tools in their hands. The general atmosphere was that of… panic, terror and pure chaos.
"Chief!" I yelled. "George! Omar!"
I spotted chief engineer Omar running towards me, with a hazard suit on.
"Commander! Leave the deck at once!" he yelled back at me from afar. I didn't comply with his instructions.
"Chief! Is the reactor-"
I was interrupted by a scary sound. A water pipe connection running along the wall on my left side could not handle the pressure and split into two, spraying boiling water everywhere. The screws that kept the pipe-connecting flanges in place were launched away at high speeds, as if they were bullets. I instinctively hit the deck and protected my head as they bounced around the walls.
I looked back up once the danger passed. Some metal pieces had pierced through the walls, leaving holes wherever they passed. And then, I noticed the chief laying still on the ground, covered in blood. Even though I wanted to, I couldn't approach him because of the hot water leaking from the damaged pipe.
"Chief! Chief!" I tried to get his attention, but he wasn't giving the slightest reaction to me. I looked around to find someone with their hazard suit on, and noticed someone who looked like an electrical systems technician.
"Hey, you! Help me!"
"I'm almost there, commander!" the guy said.
"Get the chief out of there!"
Omar was pulled by his legs out of the boiling water shower.
"Sir, I need to go. They need me to fix the transformer on sublevel 2 of the reactor room." said the technician, and ran away. If his job really was that urgent, I was not going to keep him busy any longer.
I crawled towards Omar and removed his helmet to take a better look at him. This decision instanty turned into a regret. Omar had a huge open wound on his forehead. A screw had penetrated both his hazard suit and skull, and he had already lost liters of blood. His eyes were open, but locked in place. His mouth and nose were completely painted red, and he was no longer breathing.
I didn't have much time to mourn his death before the next crisis happened.
"Get down!" someone shouted from the rear portion of the engineering deck. "Get down, now!"
Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and laid straight on the floor. I did the same. All the random chatter suddenly went silent.
And boom!
This new explosion happened farther than I thought it would. More sirens joined the siren orchestra that was already loud enough. Everyone got back up, and the technical chatter among engineers and technicians began once more.
"Explosion in aft starboard habitation!" someone shouted. "Explosion in aft starboard habitation!"
I panicked when someone grabbed my arm and started pulling me away from the main engineering, but it didn't last very long.
"Chief! George!"
"It is too dangerous for you to stay here." he said. "Stay sheltered together with the bridge crew."
"When can we start moving again?" I asked him.
"Moving? Are you kidding me!? There is no way we can get this ship to navigate again, it's barely even staying in one piece!" he said. "And even that is debatable…"
"C-chief…" I said. "Omar is dead."
"Oh, for god's sake…" he said. "I will try to reorganize the teams under his command, but not now. I have to go!"
While he rushed back towards the main power reactor, I rushed back to the bridge.
"I... We can't lose another ship!" I told myself. "We can't afford losing another... No way!"