Julius Rosenthal will make candy no more and other short stories by Nicholas Russell (tools of titans ebook .txt) 📕

An intense throbbing pulled Ram back to consciousness. She thought at first it was her head but quickly realized it was the ground itself. With blurry eyes she looked about she could hear a panicked mumbling off to her right. There was something wet in Ram’s hair and when she went to touch it a flash of pain. When she pulled her hand away the tips of her fingers were a bright red. “It’s about time your awake we have a problem.”

Despite her blurred vision Ram immediately recognized Conklin’s voice. Her legs were still wobbly from the hit but she did her best to stand anyways. She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. Two deep breaths and Ram was ready to continue, she looked to Conklin and could see the worry on his face. “Connors had an access code to the jump drive.”

Only guild pilots were supposed to have access to the jump drive, in theory even the ship’s captain couldn’t access the system. Most Captains had the code in case of emergencies but this was something she had never heard before. “Is it set to jump before System Patrol is able to get here?”

Conklin didn’t answer, at first Ram thought he was just lost in the control systems trying to get the massive ships engines back in line. But then his silence started to last longer than it should have. “They are on their way right.”

Conklin turned and his shoulders slumped down. “Connors was able to disable the Comm. systems before I could get a message out.”

Ram took a step back and turned towards the view ports. She used to enjoy the field of stars before her. Looking at the stars now knowing there was a good chance she was trapped light years from help with a crew that was not just ready to kill her but actually looking forward to it. “What about the distress signal, I hit the emergency alarm?”

“Ram.” She turned and for the first time Conklin met her gaze. “He disable all outside communications. Now I am trying to stop this jump we are still on the main shipping lane out of this system. Connors jammed the system so I can’t reseal the door. I need you to cover it while I try to finish this.”

She was halfway to the door when she stopped “The Engines”

Conklin never looked back he simple continued working on the rerouting the controls. “What if we disable the engines?”

“To disable the engines we would have to be in the Engine room. And last time I checked the Captain was the only one who had access.” Conklin continued with the flight controls. He had brought most of the electronic systems off-line and was working through a base line system. None of the screens were active save the center and the creepy young pilot had somehow managed to connect his vid-panel as a way to enter commands into the system.

“There is an air vent in the central cargo bay that goes straight to the engine room.” Ram had started to move back towards Conklin when they heard the lift chime. She was struck suddenly with the knowledge that she no longer had a weapon “Where’s my gun. Conklin pointed to the corner nearest the door. Ram hadn’t seen it before but crumpled in the corner was Connors. Searching the body she not only found her pistol but his as well. With a pistol in each hand she rushed back to the door. The flight deck seemed eerily silent as Ram stood waiting for the sound of footsteps. There was low swoosh as the door opened and a thump but nothing else. She wanted to turn to Conklin, but knew it wasn’t wise to leave the door uncovered.

Ram moved to the side so that she wasn’t standing in the middle of the door in case someone decided to come in blazing. She knelt down and tightening her grip on both pistols Ram leapt through the door. Landing on her stomach she was able to keep the lift in sight. The person she expected to see standing there wasn’t instead there was a body laying across the elevators doors.

Keeping one of the pistols aimed down the hall Ram got to her feet. She moved down the hall pausing at the open comm. room, using the second pistol to cover the door. She kept an eye on the body while taking a sweeping glance of the comm. room. It looked empty so she moved on. As she drew closer to the body Ram was starting to wonder if she really wanted to know who it was. Ram kneeled down to check for a pulse when the body jerked and a deep moan escaped it. She pulled back and placed the barrel of her pistol against the back of the man’s head.

His head started to turn but Ram kept the pistol level as his face began to come into view se realized with a fright that it was Higgins. She grabbed his body and started to drag him from the lift screaming for Conklin’s help when Higgins spoke “Jam the doors, we need to make sure they can’t use the lift.”

His voice was strained he was covered in blood Ram was praying it wasn’t his, but given the cuts she could see there wasn’t much chance of that. She started patting him down hoping to find where he was bleeding as a pool of blood began to form. There was a lot of blood and she was starting to panic, his eyes were closed. Were they open when she first found him? Ram couldn’t remember, she slapped him in the face and when he didn’t respond she slapped him harder