CHAPTER 14
A FLOOD ABOARD THE SPACESHIP
Vikki paced back and forth between the laundry room and the storage room, stopping to feel the vibration in the wall or the floor. Her brown eyes scanned every corner for an escape. She rummaged through the supply room shelves for anything that could help her open the locked door.
She tried the door again but it remained closed.
The room shook knocking her down. The laundry machines bounced away from the wall. Water sprayed from behind one. She pushed the machine back against the wall as water sprayed her. Reaching over the machine she tried to turn the lever to stop the water.
The room bounced again, all the machines lifted off the floor and clustered together against one wall, stretching the hoses which sprayed more water from strained connections. The wet floor was slippery, Vikki tried to push the big machines back but fell. The room shook again, bouncing machines broke away from their hoses which flailed about like writhing snakes as they threw streams of water around the room. Soon there was an inch of water on the floor. She fumbled with valves to turn off the water but only succeeded with a few. Every room on the ship was airtight, there was no place for the water to go, it was quickly rising around her ankles.
The communications center on the wall awoke white with snow and static then became clear for a moment. "We have been boarded, the pirates are at airlock three. Prepare..." More static and white snow.
"Pirates! What? It's an attack?"
The water was rising.
"There has got to be a way to open this door." Splashing through the ankle deep water she pounded the pad next to the door. She ran her hand around the pad feeling for a seam to pull it apart. "If I could get this thing apart I might be able to open it."
The water was now half way to her knee. Giving up on the door for the time she tried again to stop the water from the hoses.
Her ears popped. "Shit! The Air pressure is increasing." Air pressure was everything on a space ship. She would get the bends if it decreased suddenly- a painful death.
Looking around in the green gloom she saw an air vent near the ceiling. "If I open that I can release the air pressure." Climbing on top of a laundry machine she clawed at the locked shutters with her fingers. "It must have shut when the door locked." She tried to pull the shutters open with her fingernails but without success. She looked around for something to pry it open with. "Crap. If I don't drown or suffocate I will die of the bends. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. God help me. I don't want to die."
(c) Adron
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