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legs had seized up also.

  "Hello, S'Hara, can you read me?" No response. The channel was dead. She tried again, then switched to the suit's emergency channel. Again, no response. The burning sensation had now flowed down, covered her legs, lower torso, and was inching up her chest. When the burning sensation reached her fingertips, just before she lost sensation, she realized they had felt incredibly cold. The tank's liquid deuterium was leaking into her suit!

  Frantically, she tried to contact Jihon using the cyberlink he had established with her when he had activated.

  Alarms began to blare all over the ship.

  "Jihon, what's happening?" S'Hara said.

  "Emergency. Service airlock two, main fuel tank. Aya is in imminent danger of total life support termination." Even before he finished, Idova was up and out the door, bouncing off the walls and diving through the cross-shaft entrance to the engineering section.

  S'Hara and Willem quickly followed her.

  She sensed, rather than felt, the liquid as it reached her neck. Her air supply had long since leaked out, and she was only barely conscious. The intense cold numbed her, and for a moment, she felt as if she was flying, then as if a switch had been turned, she felt nothing.

  Idova braced herself and canceled her forward velocity as she came across the airlock. It was still shut tight, and indicated there was still fuel in the tunnel. Obviously the fuel tank side door of the airlock had not yet shut.

  As she hit the emergency release for the inner door, she called to Jihon for him to emergency seal off access corridor two. The bulkheads at both ends of the corridor instantly fell into place, and sealant bubbled around them as they fused into position.

  A hooting alarm started up as the emergency release was hit, and an instant later, the inner hatch snapped upwards. A burst of liquid hydrogen poured out of the 1 meter square opening, flowing over her legs and the floor. She cried out in pain, then stopped herself. A blue glow illuminated and silhouetted her body briefly. Concentrating, she pulled Aya's prone form out of the airlock using her TK. She felt her lungs tightening as the hydrogen flash boiled into gas, and the temperature began to drop dramatically.

  Idova, concentrating, moved Aya's form over to a clear spot near the inner bulkhead, then carefully set it upright. A thin stream of liquid hydrogen briefly poured from the shattered suit, but was gaseous before it hit the floor. The air was now colder than Idova had ever imagined it could be, and her feet were cracked and bits had begun to break off.

  Idova levitated over the growing pool of liquid hydrogen, leaving most of her feet, and the tip of her tail lying in the bubbling liquid gas. The flow from the open airlock slowed as Jihon closed the hatch again, however the hatch did not fully shut, and a stream of liquid hydrogen continued to flow..

  A wall of energy, very similar to the ovoid flicked into place between them and the rest of the corridor. "Jihon, evacuate the atmosphere in corridor two. Also, recycle the air on my side of the field so I can clear the hydrogen gas away."

  As the other size of the force wall coated in mist, indicating a sudden dumping of air on the other size, Idova carefully pulled the remnants of the helmet away from Aya's frozen head.

  Using her psi, she probed into the other woman, trying to find the essential spark of life. It was still glowing, but fading very quickly. She had but seconds left.

  Quickly placing her wrists on Aya's temples, she touched foreheads with the other woman, then closed her eyes in intense concentration.

  A blue glow built from within Idova, quickly flowing out and then covering Aya's frozen body. It grew in brightness and strength, and seemed to go into the other woman, slowly delving deeper and deeper.

  S'Hara and Willem stood just inside the doorway to Corridor two. "Jihon, why is the emergency bulkhead sealed?" She called out.

  "Idova has requested it. She is attempting to rectify Aya's currently terminal situation." Jihon reported in an oddly flat voice.

  "What is the situation at the moment?"

  "Internal bulkheads at both ends of access corridor two have been sealed. Hydrogen levels have increased to 75% of atmospheric integrity within the area. Access airlock into primary fuel tank had been emergency opened, and approximately thirty cubic mets of hydrogen has been exposed to the corridor. Access airlock is unable to be properly closed due to some form of blockage."

  "I see why she wanted the corridor sealed. That would cause one hell of a big bang if it got out here, S'Hara." Willem said.

  "Update on situation. Corridor two has been evacuated due to extreme build-up of hydrogen gas in the area. Please either enter corridor one, or return to main down shaft. Main engineering must be sealed to prevent further damage to ship and crew."

  As they retreated, S'Hara ordered Jihon to refresh the air in main engineering as soon as possible. Then they both returned to the main bridge to watch what was happening on the corridor cameras.

  A sudden sharp snap did not break Idova's concencntration, but indicated the bulkhead sealing the corridor from the rest of Engineering had been opened, and an army of small, fist-sized robots quickly scurried down the corridor towards the barely visible force field.

  The first one reached it, pushed against the solid energy, then turned to the others, and indicated another direction. They all spun around, and scurried off at a speed which would rival any running person's pace.

  The image on the bridge view screen flickered, then brightened to show Idova, deep in concentration, in contact with Aya's unmoving form. Aya was still in her suit, the helmet lying beside them, and was covered in a very odd blue pastel glow.

  As they watched, Idova went slowly from a crouching position to a less comfortable kneeling position, she seemed to be weakening somehow.

  On the other side of the two was a shimmering field of energy, and as they watched, a horde of repair robots ran up to the field, examined it, then scurried off back the way they came.

  The robots crept along the outer hull, an army of them, traveling along the hull as easily as a spider along it's web. The leader came to an open vent, and signaled to his troops. A third of them ran down the first vent, the second third went down the middle vent, and he led the final group down the third vent and into the evacuated corridor.

  They scurried along the ceiling and walls, carefully avoiding the growing pool of liquid hydrogen that had now run up against the force wall and was slowly beginning to rise. They scurried along and six of them ran into the access airlock. Once inside, the lead two shut down, and allowed the next two in line to carry them into the sluggishly flowing stream of hydrogen and into the tank itself. The two in motion quickly froze and then shattered as their internal batteries imploded under the thermal shock.

  The two who had shut down now powered up, and before they too imploded, sent images back to the rest of the team of the situation inside the tank and of the blockage of the airlock.

  The leader quickly gathered his troops and they had a strategy session. Using ultra high frequency signals they quickly formulated a plan of action. The cutters quickly moved up to the still flowing stream of hydrogen and sitting on the edges of the door, ignited their electric arc torches. Leaning into the flow, one by one they froze, then fell away, but their sacrifice was not in vain, for as the second-to last cutter fell, the debris blocking the door from closing was cut free, and the door slid down to seal the airlock from the fuel tank.

  Idova had begun to weaken, but kept at her regenerative attempts. It was working, the frost had vanished, and Aya's skin was just beginning to lose the sickly white texture it had previously held.

  The army of robots quickly ran out of the open door, the last one out signaled to close it, then they all ignited tiny oxygen flares, which flared very brightly as the excess hydrogen was quickly burnt off. As soon as spectrograph sensors indicated the hydrogen levels had dropped below the ignition threshold, the vents sealed, and massive volumes of air flowed back into the corridor. Th
e danger to the ship was past.

  Aya blinked her eyes. She was very cold, and began shivering immediately. She looked at Idova, the K'Traan was looking very pale, and completely exhausted.

  Idova looked up at Aya, realizing she was conscious. Still in danger unless she got medical attention, but she was alive. Idova managed a weak smile, which froze on he lips as she realized she was slipping into unconsciousness.

  "Cannot maintain field. Vacuum on other side. Sorry, Aya, I..." she fell sideways even as Aya heard a soft pop, then felt a rush of warm air flow over her. She returned to the realms of blissful nothingness.

  The next thing Aya recalled was waking up, surrounded by the soft hum of machinery and an intense warm feeling which seemed to penetrate deep within her. As she regained full awareness, the hum faded, and she faintly heard the sound of mechanical servos as the medical support equipment retracted from her bedside. She no longer felt cold, or sickly, just very weak and rather disorientated. Raising her head slightly, she turned to see the bed beside her. Idova lay, surrounded by support equipment which was obviously still hard at work on her.

  She thought back over the last few minutes she remembered. The feeling of intense cold, and the shock of breathing almost pure hydrogen. It had been very cold,