The motorized pulley hissed, tensioning the line and halting Breach’s outward drift. But as Eyes reeled Breach back, a plasma conduit ruptured right behind his position. The blast of venting gas slammed into Eyes' side, and pinning his left leg "Gah! Suit breach in the left lower extremity!" Eyes gasped as his suit's internal HUD started flashing a rapid warning tone. "Autoseal deployed, but my left mag-boot is completely dead.

"Patch immediately scrambled forward. "I can stabilize the suit's atmospheric pressure, Starfield, but Eyes' some of his suit electronics are fried." Sage tapped her wrist PADD, scanning the door leading back inside the ship. "Sir, there is an auxiliary maintenance access hatch right here. It leads directly into the mid-deck corridors which is a path up to the bridge, but the radiation levels in there are climbing." Khalil processed the data. "Patch, do what you can. Eyes, get Breach in here. Sage, take point on the mid-deck. Curie, how long will our suits hold out?"

"Copy that, Starfield," Patch responded, slapping a patch over Eyes' ruptured seam. Eyes, gritting his teeth, grabbed Breach by the shoulder harness, and together they scrambled through the open maintenance hatch into the dim, emerald-tinted corridor.

Sage slid past them, her wrist-mounted PADD casting a blue glow against the metallic green walls. "Corridor is clear of active automated defenses, sir, but the structural integrity here is failing."

Curie stepped inside last, sealing the maintenance hatch behind them. She raised her tricorder, her visor reflecting a stark, pulsing amber. "The Hawking radiation isn't so heavy in this sector, Starfield," Curie reported, her voice tight. "At current ambient levels, our environmental suits' shielding will hold out for seven or eight minutes. There is a massive, chroniton buildup blocking the corridor fifty meters ahead. We can't simply walk through it."

"Curie, do you think me can make it to the bridge in time?" Starfield inquired

"I think we can sir."

"Ears tapped his gauntlet, interfacing with a scorched auxiliary power terminal on the wall. "Interfacing,.. twelve percent power available. I am attempting to reroute emergency power to the Structural Integrity Field generators in this section."

"Scanning for maintenance bypasses," Sage called out. "Got it! There is a class-four auxiliary access conduit running parallel to this corridor. It loops right around the primary radiation pool. But it’s tight, sir. We’ll be in a single-file crawl, and with Eyes' dead mag-boot, it’s going to slow our transit time significantly."

Khalil turned to Curie. "will the dampening field allow us to get through that pocket if we have to?"

"Barely," Curie replied. "Sir! By redlining the emitter output, I managed to squeeze out an extra fifteen seconds, giving us sixty seconds of total containment. But the emitter will overheat, once we go in, there is no turning back!"

The overhead emergency lights flared from amber to a harsh, blinding crimson.

"SIF is coming back online in this sector!" Ears yelled over the comms. "But the grid is fighting me! The automated security is going to lock down the entire deck to slow the power draw!"

“We could wait for the SIF to stabilize,” Khalil said, checking the timer. “But we don't have the time. Flight, get up here, Eyes is injured, The SIF should hold for now, Ears, stay with Eyes. Tac, Patch, Sage, go through the maintenance crawlway. Curie, Huffn' Puff, with me through the center. Curie, see if you can squeeze a little more power out of that dampener. Prepare to move out!" Khalil barked, taking point and stepping directly into the shimmering, oily green wall of the chroniton field. Curie followed a fraction of a second later, her field dampener unit emitting a high-pitched, whine as it generated a sapphire-blue bubble around the three of them. Huffn'Puff brought up the rear. Khalil took point so he could set an aggressive but controlled pace "Keep the pace steady!"

"Thirty seconds!" Curie shouted over the screaming comms static. "Emitter temperature is at 112 percent!"

"Hull plating is warping to our left. Step right!"

"I see it," Huffn'Puff rumbled from the rear. Khalil veered toward the right bulkhead just as the left side of the corridor to buckled. Khalil's pace from the front, the trio bypassed the fracture point cleanly. With the edge of the radiation field in sight the crimson emergency lights of the ship gave a final, desperate flash. CLANG. The heavy, armored security bulkhead at the far end of the corridor slammed shut. "We're trapped!" Curie gasped, her dampener unit entering its final ten seconds of operational life. Suddenly, the maintenance hatch on the right wall flew open. Sage crawled out into the corridor, followed closely by Tac and Patch.

Behind him, Sage was already tearing into the door's emergency release wiring. "Sage, Huffn'Puff you're up, get that door open," Khalil ordered. "Patch, I think we'll need some of that good rad juice you packed. Everyone else, keep as far from that plume as you can."