Chapter Twenty Four

Burgess slammed the hatch behind him, scattering various bits of junk. He huffed, and puffed, and grumbled his way back to his control console.

“Cappy had better get me better equipment soon or I’ll jet.” Burgess muttered. “I’m sick and tired of keeping this place together with spit and bailing wire.” As he spoke, he rummaged through a small box filled with electronic do-dads, like rainbow plastic popcorn. He plucked items out one at a time, examining them for a moment then plopped them back into the box. A few he simply tossed them over his shoulder to clatter on the floor, adding to the already considerable piles of junk scattered around.

Burgess’ muttering lessened as his temper cooled, as did the frantic sorting of his bits and pieces. He finally put down the box and turned his attention back to his control console. An amber light on the console drew his attention to the waste control readouts. His confusion turned to shock and then to dismay. He had only a moment to wonder what was going on before a storm of yelling and the sound of rushing liquid drew his attention away from the console and toward the bathroom hatch.

The hatch slid open, releasing a wave of foul-looking, brown liquid into the room. Cappy rolled into the room, caught up in the vile wave. His arms flailed as he was tossed head-first out of the bathroom, flinging gobs of waste all over the room.

Burgess ducked to avoid a particularly large gob and then nearly gagged as the smell of the onrushing wave hit him. In the small room the stink made him dizzy and burned his eyes. He leapt into his chair, the thought of being caught up in the stinking wave suddenly very terrifying.

Cappy’s ride came to an end at the feet of Burgess’ chair. Cappy lay there unmoving, the dregs of the wave washing past him. Burgess was afraid. If Cappy was gone than he was stuck here all alone until one of the pilots returned to pick up the smelted ore. On the other hand, if Cappy survived he would surely blame him for this. There was no telling what Cappy might do in anger. Burgess pondered which fate he preferred for Cappy.

Fate answered the question for Burgess as Cappy rolled over with a groan. The groan became a deep cough. Burgess did not want to imagine what Cappy might be coughing up out of his lungs. The thought made him shudder.

Finally, Cappy sat up and eyed Burgess.

“What in tarnation is going on? Even you can’t be this incompetent.” Cappy said.

“I swear I don’t know what is happening.” Burgess replied. “It’s like somebody reversed the sewer pumps on purpose. I watched the readout change, but it was too late to do anything about it, before…well, you know, before your accident.”

“It doesn’t sound like an accident to me.” Cappy snapped.

“Okay, Cappy, let me run the systems through a full check. I’ll find out what happened.”

“Fine, I’ll be in my quarters cleaning up.” Cappy said.

He stood up, his clothes squishing and dripping as he did. He walked over to the hatch leading to the crew quarters.

“Burgess, open the hatch. My hands are dirty.”

Burgess nodded a smile. “Aye, Cappy.” He punched the release button on his console. The console squawked rudely, and the door did not open. He pressed the button again and got the same response.

“Can you hurry it up?” Cappy asked.

“Uh, Cappy, it’s not working. It acts like I am locked out.”

“Whatever it is, fix it…this stuff is starting to dry and I’m getting crackly.”

Burgess had to stifle a laugh. “Aye…Cappy.”

He flipped switches, turned knobs and tried to access any of the other controls, but the console seemed frozen. That could only mean one thing.

“Cappy, I got really bad news.” Burgess said. “Someone else has taken over the controls. That means that they are inside somewhere.”

What?” Cappy said. “Good thing I got this.” He smiled a shark’s smile and drew a chunky pistol from his jumpsuit.

Burgess pales. He might be a bad man, but he had never been a violent one. The thought of fighting intruders made him go pale. Cappy walked over and grabbed the front of Burgess’ jumpsuit.

“Don’t get soft now, Burgess. We have to finish this, and I can’t get out of here unless you can get one of these hatches open.” Cappy snarled. The smell, the gun and Cappy’s snarl conspired to break him out of his shock.

“Sure boss, but I don’t think I can get one of the hatches open…” Burgess said, but was interrupted by Cappy, who waved the gun in his direction. “But I was gonna say that the hatches ain’t the only way out of here.”

Cappy grinned evilly.