The Voyage of the Star Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    â€œHARLIE?” he asked.
    No response. He didn’t expect one. It was still bad news. If the ship was totally dead, then so were they. The CO 2 buildup would get them within hours. His head hurt and his shirt and shorts were drenched with sweat and blood. He’d fouled himself as well.
    â€œStarsuits.” Korie said it aloud. But if the ship was without power, then the suits would probably be dead too.
    What was wrong with the auxiliary power? Why hadn’t it kicked in?
    â€œCaptain?” Li’s voice. He sounded strained. “Mr. Korie? Anyone?”
    Korie caught his breath. He couldn’t believe how his lungs ached. “Here,” he said. “Can you move?”
    â€œI don’t know. I’m caught on something. What’s wrong with the power?”
    â€œI don’t know. Anyone else conscious?” Korie called.
    He was answered by groans and pleas for help. Someone was crying softly. That was a good sign, Korie thought. If you have the strength to cry, you have the strength to heal. “Hodel?” he asked. “Hodel, where are you?”
    The crying hesitated.
    â€œHodel, is that you?”
    â€œOver here, sir.” A different direction.
    â€œYou okay?”
    â€œI will be. In a year or two.”
    â€œI think the emergency power system failed. We’re going to have to plug in the fuel cells manually and jump start the system.”
    Hodel groaned.
    â€œCan you move?”
    â€œI can move. I just don’t know where I am.”
    â€œAll right. I’m on a railing. And I’m holding onto someone. Wait a minute, let me see if I can feel who it is.” Korie moved his hand carefully across the other man’s body, trying to find a shoulder so he could feel the insignia. . . .
    He was holding the captain.
    He pulled the captain closer to him, felt for his neck and his jugular vein.
    He couldn’t tell if the captain was alive or not.
    Korie didn’t want to let go of him, but there was nothing else he could do for Captain Lowell until some kind of light was restored to the Bridge. Korie felt his way along the railing; it was the railing of the Bridge. He reached the end and felt his way down to the floor. Good. He knew where he was now. Still holding on to the railing, he felt his way back along the floor to the emergency panels. If he was right—
    He popped the floor panel open and felt around inside the compartment. There. He pulled out a flashbeam and prayed that it still worked. It should; it held a solid-state fuel cell.
    It did.
    There were cheers as he swept the beam across the Operations deck. Besides Captain Lowell, there were two other bodies floating unconscious. There were dark globules of blood and vomit and shit floating in the air. Hodel was hanging onto a chair; so was Li.
    â€œHodel? Can you move?”
    â€œI haven’t tried—” Cautiously he launched himself toward Korie. He floated across the Operations deck and grabbed at the Bridge railing, grimacing as he caught it. “If that’s what it’s like to be dead, I don’t like it.”
    â€œIt’s not the dead part that hurts. It’s the coming back.”
    â€œIt’s a long way to come back, sir. I hurt all over.”
    â€œSo does everyone else,” said Korie. He passed Hodel the light. “Aim it there—” He pulled himself along the floor to the next emergencypanel and yanked it open. Inside was a double bank of switches. He began punching them on.
    Nothing happened. Korie and Hodel exchanged worried looks.
    â€œTry again?”
    Korie nodded and began punching at the buttons one more time.
    Again, nothing happened.
    â€œShit,” said Korie. “All right. We’ll go down to the keel and try every fuel cell in the floor until we find a set that works. All we need is one. We’re not dead yet.” He pulled open the next panel and started passing equipment to Hodel. “I think