That was it. He had to jump. Willing his fingers to let go of the rung, Kip drew in a ragged breath and prepared to plunge headfirst into the darkness.

The water dropped away, Leesa cheering as it drained through a set of open doors, weak emergency lighting illuminating the shaft.

A head appeared through the doors, ginger hair dripping wet.

“Well?” Jom said, grinning up at Kip. “You waiting for an official invitation?”

They clambered down, Jom helping them swing into the corridor, which like the rest of the ship was listing to the side. Nwo’s wheezing had gotten worse than ever, but even he leapt forward to make a grab for Leesa as the vessel suddenly lurched and she lost her footing.

“We’ve got you,” Kip said as they pulled her from the shaft, but nothing could stop the datapad from tumbling from her waistband to plop into the water that had settled beneath the open doors.

“Please tell me you don’t need me to go after that?” Jom asked, peering into the murky liquid.

“No need,” Leesa said, steadying herself on the wall to stop herself from slipping. “The shuttle bay’s down here.”

Luckily they didn’t have to go far, but that didn’t stop Nwo from taking a tumble or two, each fall prompting Kip to wonder if the old-timer would make it back to his feet again.

“Not far now,” Leesa promised as they rounded a corner, finding that the shuttle bay itself was in a worse state than Nwo. Barrels and containers had tumbled from one side of the hangar to the other, collecting on the far wall, cables hanging from a ceiling that looked dangerously close to collapse. But there was one glimmer of hope in the shape of a sublight shuttle that had slipped with the barrels but looked like it was still in one piece.

“The hatch is open,” Leesa called as she clambered aboard.

“Is it dry?” Jom asked.

“As a Chaaktil night.” Lights flashed on within the cabin. “And we have power!”

They helped Nwo through the hatch, finding two rows of seats, three at the back and two behind the flight controls. Leesa slipped into the pilot’s seat, flicking switches on the console and frowning.

“What is it?” asked Jom, noticing her expression.

“We may have power, but the hangar bay doesn’t.” She peered through the shuttle’s transparisteel viewport at the huge double doors that would usually lead out into the vacuum of space. “Those things are jammed shut.”

Jom and Kip joined her, Jom dropping into the copilot’s seat. “And there’s nothing we can do from here?”

The buttons beneath Leesa’s fingers beeped helplessly. “The system is blown.”

Kip turned to climb back outside.

“Where are you going?”

He turned back to Jom. “There must be a manual control, like in the lift shaft.”