Mesozoic zigzag

– You’re shamelessly taking advantage of my equal in rank! But I’m warning you: if a single foot of a “civilian” gets near the control room, or if my officers are disturbed by the clattering of these non-statutory spurs… What idiot invented them?! Well, if anything like that happens, I’ll stop it in a heartbeat.

– Very well. I agree, but I don’t understand your reluctance to help. After all, we’re doing the same thing!

The life of the young part of the expedition took on new colors from that moment on. Jumoke joined the group of two more boys and a girl. The guys’ names were Iabis and Dakkarei, and the lady’s name was Tanafriti.

Iabis (Abis to his friends) was a planetary biologist. He was short in stature, stocky, and wore an old blue army jumpsuit, which felt a little self-conscious about. Abys was obsessed with all sorts of animals, and could talk for hours about “rustling one-legged jumpers from the planet Krivz`s” or discuss “wide-mouthed gruss” from a star system he knew only to himself.

Dakkarei was a climatologist and spent most of his day taking notes and statistical models of the atmospheres of various planets. Unlike Abys, he was tall, slender, and aristocratic, but a lively, curious nature. Dakkarei always wore a neatly pressed overalls of the fashionable among young black color. He did not like his long name very much, so he asked to be called simply Dak.

Tanafriti (or simply Tana) was a pretty, short, smiling person. Her voice was quiet and melodic, but very clear and convincing. She liked to wear a bright green jumpsuit of soft feminine cut made of some rare beautiful fabric, which spoke of good taste. Tana studied the internal structure of celestial bodies from stars to small satellites of planets. Many asked her why she made such a choice? Most of the time Tanafrithi grudgingly hummed and avoided answering, but she told the boys that both of her parents, as her grandmother said, had been doing it all their lives. They had died on a distant expedition, and even the name of the planetary system where it had happened, Tanafriti had not been able to learn. She was raised by her grandmother, as were twenty other orphaned “chickens” like her. They lived on a farm in one of the peripheral star systems. Tana decided to study and study certainly in the metropolis to become a planetologist! As soon as she came of age, she ran away from home with the money she earned on the farm, writing a letter to her “sweet grandmother” asking her to forgive her.

To understand such an extravagant step from the Zwiggs’ point of view, one must know that every true female citizen was obliged first of all to bring new citizens into this world. Education, especially in the last three hundred cycles, was not only optional for the female population of the Empire, but was even considered harmful. And only a handful of women from the most noble or famous families could afford a career in science. Nevertheless, to the surprise and delight of Tanafriti herself, the university of the metropolis paid absolutely no attention to such defiant, seemingly uninformed behavior of an unknown poor visiting dreamer and after serious examinations accepted her to study (and even gave her a scholarship).

One evening, after running around and eating a hearty dinner, the whole group sat in Jum’s small cabin and discussed the quest they had almost won first place in.

– If we had been allowed to walk normally around the ship, we could have taken a side corridor to get past those snooty Cogl’s crewmen! – Jum was furious.

– Calm down! – Tana smiled. – You realize that would be cheating!

– Don’t you think it’s strange that there are non-standard restrictions for some of the crew? – Abys said faintly. – As far as I remember the charter of mixed expeditions, it doesn’t say a word about the prohibition of civilian movement on the ship. With the exception of the military arsenal, everywhere else is open. So the truth is on our side.

– Well, well. Take it easy, – Dak hummed. – Who are you going to make a claim to? We’re outside the Empire! And if Thabit has agreed to this development, then… I like your idea of going around the corridor, Jum, though, frankly!

– Boys, what are you doing? It’s dangerous! – Tana said fearfully.

But the trio, looking at each other, were already discussing a plan to win the first place.

As it turned out, Dak, working with his programs on atmospheric anomalies, “unintentionally”, of course, got into the ship’s database. And although almost everything in it was protected, but the young climatologist managed to get to the scheme of rooms. Now they had not only the desire to win, but also the shortest way to this victory.

In the evening, on the eve of the next quest, a printout of the plan of their deck and two neighboring ones (with all the corridors) was in Tana’s pocket. The guys had managed to not only get her to participate in their plan, but to keep the printout in her possession.

– In case of an emergency, the lady is less likely to be searched immediately, – Jum said reasonably.

The foursome slept poorly that night in anticipation of victory.

Several times Jum fell into a restless sleep with horrible dreams. Then he and the rest of the crew fell into cunning traps in forbidden corridors, then their deception was revealed, and the captain, eyes bulging and shaking with indignation, sentenced him, Jum, as the main troublemaker, to immediate ejection into outer space with his bunk tied to his leg as cargo! Jum, though in a dream, was still perplexed: what was the point of the cargo if he, Jum, would be in a state of weightlessness? But all his arguments led only to the fact that Benaip ordered to spin the system “Jum – bed” around the common center of mass in space! Anyway, in the morning, when the boys met in the wardroom, Jum made sure that everyone’s dreams, if any, had clearly not improved their mood or promoted rest. The red eyes, the earthy color face, and the gait of a criminal sentenced to execution were simply the trademark of their crew.

– So…, – Jum decided to take matters into his own hands, – Cheer up! We will have things to tell our children about!

The answer to him was fake smiles.

– Oh-ho-ho! – Abys scratched the back of his head. – I sense in my head that our best prospect is a thousand years in the disciplinary cell.

The usually cautious Dak, who had been thinking about something, raised his head and, to Jum’s surprise, said: “Guys, but this is going to be an adventure! Otherwise, you can die of monotony…”

– What does the lady think of our enterprise? – Jum asked.

– You know, I’m used to doubts before I make a decision, not after… So, let’s hurry up and have breakfast and go to the drawing of lots. May we get the lucky number! – smiled Tana.

Two hours later, the “Lucky Four,” as Jum called his team, moved deeper into the corridors, reading the task of today’s search as they went.

Forbidden route

The only unforbidden route led down the main corridor almost to the stern of the ship, where they had to walk back along the deck below to the same place where they were standing now and start performing tasks there. The question arose: wouldn’t it be possible to use the secret map of the ship to go down the forbidden side corridor and gain a lot of time?

– Okay, stop! I guess all the competitors are already ahead of us? – Jum stopped everyone after a bit of breathing from his fast walk. – Tana, get the plan! We’ll study it as we go.

The girl opened the flap of her bag and took out a printout of the ship’s corridor diagram from a hidden pocket and unfolded it. Everyone leaned over the map.

– There, see? This corridor will definitely get us to the next game question faster than the others! Let the losers who are now running down the long deck corridors gnash their teeth! – gloatingly said the quiet Abis. The others, hearing these words from him, only smiled at each other. The boy, too, was caught up in their future adventure.

– By the way… If you look carefully at this corridor, my dear potential criminals, you can easily see that it cuts through all the main decks and leads straight to the warriors’ area, – Tana pointed her finger at the diagram. – Doesn’t that bother you?

– No risk, no prize! Isn’t that, right? And if you look carefully, it’s clear to beings who choose to take reasonable risks that the probability of meeting any of the crew and guards there is negligible! – Jum rubbed his palms together in anticipation. – Come on, colleagues, our prize and our glory await us.

The boys looked around to make sure that no one was around, then sneaked to one of a string of doors along the main corridor and quickly opened it, slipping inside.

The platform on which they stood was only lightly illuminated by a small lamp in the ceiling. The steep steps that began at the edge of the platform went up and down.

Jum took a quick look at his small group and shook his head: “Well? Shall we move? Let’s be as quiet as possible. Who knows, there might be some solitary warrior wandering up and down these stairs.

The four began to descend silently.

The light from the lamps in the walls barely reached their feet, and there was a danger of catching something on the stairs, not seeing it in time, and rolling down with a rumble, announcing violation. Jum, believing that he could see better than anyone else in the dark, went down first. After four spans there should have been an exit to the lower-level corridor. That was where they wanted to go, to get ahead of the competition. But the strange thing was… The door was locked! Not only was it locked, but it was welded at the top and bottom with something that fused the metal of the door and the bulkhead.

– Wow! – Jum whispered, twitching the handle of the door, which was now completely unnecessary. – What do you say? Something must be done quickly.

– All right! Let’s have a look at the diagram. There must be some other way into this corridor! – Abys replied.

– Guys, why don’t we go back upstairs before it’s too late? We may be the last ones, but at least we won’t end up in the punishment cell or something worse, – Tana said with fear in her voice.

– There’s still time! Don’t panic. Dak, give me the map, – Jum shook his head.

Dak was already unfolding the diagram, bringing it as close to the dim lamp as possible.

– Look, this descent can be continued down one level, and then cross the corridor below us and come up the other side to the place we need.

– All right! Let’s do that. We don’t have much time anyway, – Jum whispered quickly.

– By the way, did you notice that the weld is quite fresh? The verification labels that were partially burned during welding have our flight code, – Abis said thoughtfully.

– All the more reason not to stay here any longer, – Jum exhaled.

And they began to descend further. Indeed, after four stairs, another door appeared in the semi-darkness, and it appeared to be open. Dak, who went first with the scheme, carefully pulled the handle, and the door opened silently. Immediately after that, all four of them heard muffled voices outside in the corridor, just a few meters away. And that door was inaccessible to them.

Dak tried to close the door, but it wouldn’t close. Something was in the way. Dak and Jum, who was standing next to him, leaned over to see what was keeping the door from closing, and immediately recoiled. It was someone’s gloved hand. The body had evidently been leaning against the wall near the doorway, and the moment the door opened, the unknown man’s hand, which was leaning on it, fell inside.

The attempt to push his hand back into the corridor and close the unfortunate door resulted in something metal hanging from his hand hitting the corridor floor with a clang.