Goths in Space

Repairing the malfunctioning ship's gravity generators was becoming something of a priority.

I told you not to look down. Pull yourself together, stop procrastinating and pass me the grappling hook launcher. We've got a long way to climb before we reach the entrance to the fortress' ventilation ducts.

It wouldn't be long before they found her, and once they did there would be no time for anything but running. "Why am I always the decoy?"

Agent Nerina planted the explosives at the base of the launch tower, set the timers, and sprinted for safety. Her cover would soon be blown, but at least the starship would not make it to its rendezvous.

Looking out from the platform she finally saw the secret that they had been working on in the cavernous cellars of the moon base. Unfortunately the secret had also spotted her.

Even taking into account time dilation this stardrive engine was several hundred years old. Every few decades the propulsion team would be woken from stasis with some minor fault that the shipboard systems would be unable to automatically repair. The designers of this particular type of engine, realising that repairs might need to take place lightyears from major facilities, had built them to be maintainable with even the lowest grades of technology.