Page 68 of Chosen By Swift

“The controls have gone haywire,” Rigel said tightly. “There’s no rhyme or reason to the ship’s behavior to any input. We’ve run the troubleshooting checklist. Nothing is working.”

“Sabotage again?” Swift muttered before jumping into action. He dropped to his knees and crawled between the two pilot seats. “Hang on.”

“What are you—?” Drift shifted his leg out of the way as Swift dove for the hidden control panel.

“Focus on the controls,” Swift gritted out as he took hold of Drift’s seat to keep himself from being flung around the cockpit. The panel popped free after one good whack, and he followed the colored wires from one end of the panel to the other. When he found the wires he needed to disconnect, he grabbed hold and yanked. There was a spark and a zap that left him hissing—and then the ship’s wild movements ceased.

But the broken controls weren’t the only problem that needed to be suddenly fixed. As soon as Rigel regained control of their ship, they lost false gravity.

“What did you do?” Rigel demanded.

“That’s not me.” Swift shoved away from the console and practically swam through the air to another access panel on the far side of the cockpit. It wasn’t as easy to open as the other, and he struggled with it.

“Here. Move.” Hazard appeared from the open doorway of the cockpit and sailed toward him. He snatched his pocket knife and used it to pry open the panel in question.

“There.” Swift found the switch he needed but hesitated before tearing it out. There was something off about the layout of the switches and wires. One blue wire seemed thicker than the others. “See this?”

“Yep.” Hazard grunted as he shifted his tenuous hold on a cabinet to get a better angle. He used the knife to nick away some of the blue outer coating on the wire. Swift used his thumb nails to spread the coating aside more and uncovered a twist of four different wires. “Well, that’s not up to code,” Hazard remarked.

“No, it’s not.” Swift traced the thick wire to the bottom of the panel where it disappeared. He gestured for Hazard to pop that next panel as well. Together, they followed the wire across the cockpit wall and floor and then out into the corridor where they found Grim and Lethal holding tight to emergency grips on the ceiling.

“What the hell is going on?” Grim growled.

“Sabotage,” Swift answered and located the end of the wire in question. He found the position where it had been tied in and held out his hand for the knife. He used it to cut and slash the wire. All of the lights flickered and went dark, but it only lasted a few seconds before they powered back on right along with the gravity generator.

“Every ship was checked and rechecked after the previous sabotage,” Grim said after they all landed on their feet.

“Apparently not close enough,” Swift remarked, wondering how much more danger was hidden in the ship. Turning toward Hazard, he instructed, “We need a full scan and breakdown of every system on—.”

“Hey! We’re coming up on the target ship,” Rigel called out from the nearby cockpit.

“What? Already?” Swift glanced at his watch. It was much too early in the trip to have reached their destination. He strode back to the cockpit with Grim, Lethal and Hazard hot on his heels. Sure enough, in the far distance, the cargo ship in question grew larger and larger.

“It moved.” Grim checked the navigational chart on the nearest screen.

“And we just happened to drop out of hyperdrive nearly right on top of it?” Hazard remarked skeptically.

Swift glanced at the panels he and Hazard had just destroyed. “There must be a beacon on the cargo ship that was sending data to our ship’s system.”

“I don’t like this,” Lethal said, eyeing the looming ship with concern. “It feels like a setup.”

“Because it is,” Grim replied. “Hold back at blast distance, Rigel.” Looking at Swift, he said, “You’ll board with us. We need a pilot.” He glanced at Drift. “Bring the kid. Hazard can stay here with Rigel.”

Hazard clearly didn’t approve of the plan and began to argue with Grim who reminded Hazard that he was in charge of the mission. Hazard continued to grumble about it as Swift left the cockpit.

“Sir?” Drift called out as he jogged to catch up. “Here.”

Swift looked at the disposable first aid towel Drift held. “What’s that for?”

“Your face, sir. You’re bleeding everywhere.”

In the aftermath of being thrown from his bunk and the adrenaline rush of trying to save the ship, Swift hadn’t noticed any injuries. Now that Drift had drawn attention to them, he touched his face and felt the slick heat of blood. There was a dull throb above his right eye, and a sharper pain in his nose and cheek. “Is it bad?”

“You need some strip sutures.” Drift held out the suture compartment of a first aid kit. “I grabbed this on my way out of the cockpit.”

“You’ll have to do them for me.”

When they reached the deploying platform for the search and rescue vehicles, he stood still long enough for Drift to mop up his face and apply the suture strips on the worst spots. As the Shadow Force agents rallied around them, Swift noticed quite a few of them were equally banged up. Drift handed around the first aid kit as Grim gave a quick rundown of the situation and his plan for boarding and searching the drifting ship.

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