Kilroy Owns the Night: Day 28 (Maze)
“We're trapped!” Gorpl shrieked over the intercom.
“Wonderful,” Mercury said. “Now I can kick everybody's ass without interruptions.”
Herpezoids don’t create schematics when building Junkcruisers. They claim schematics inhibit their creative process. So, my nanotech couldn’t pull up a standard blueprint allowing me to find the Still onboard. Guess work would have to do. The Encyclopedia of Potentially Dangerous Things vibrated in my pocket.
I took a chance that the resonance chamber was beneath the engine room, accessible through a maintenance corridor. Easy enough, except the corridor ran through a maze of storage compartments, ventilation shafts, and what appeared to be a bathroom. Mercury followed me. Max followed Mercury, nursing his wrist and making threats. We passed through a doorway into a room filled with washing machine parts.
“Left,” I announced. We turned left. Another room filled with discarded takeout food containers.
“You're lost,” Mercury said.
“I’m letting the Still guide me to it.”
The ship lurched. A pipe burst, showering us with peach schnapps.
“I told those idiots not to activate that thing!” Max shouted.
“Herpezoids, amiright?” I said.
Mercury spotted a hatch beneath some scrap metal.
“Down there?” she pointed.
“Why not? Life is short.”
We scrambled into a cramped chamber dominated by a humming cylinder I recognized as THE HARMONIC STILL OF THREX-9. Beside it stood an emergency cargo-transfer portal. My nanochip identified the controls and operating instructions. A grin spread across my face.
“Mercury, I have an idea.”
“I find no comfort in that thought.”
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