Gomez Awakes

"Can you hear me?"

The voice seemed foggy and distant, like an echo down a tunnel.

"Can you hear me, Gomez?"

The name was familiar. Somebody he knew. Somebody who was very close to him.

"Gomez, wake the smeg up!"

The revelation that he was a Spanish grease monkey called Alfredo Ricardo Gomez hit him at the same time as the slap did.

"Ay, what is going on?" Gomez grumbled, coming to, he stared at the grim-faced nurse standing over him.

"Senorita, why you hit me?" he asked

"You were taking too long to wake up. We slipped something into your tea ration in order for you to sleep off the pain of stitching you back up." she explained. "You started mumbling in your sleep and playing with yourself. You were talking about someone called Isobel."

Gomez looked down at himself. It was true what the nurse had said, he was sporting a fairly impressive bulge under his trousers for a man who had been beaten half to death a few hours previously.

"I apologise, I am sorry" he told the nurse, who seemed not in the least bit impressed by him.

"Just grab your stuff and get out."

Not wanting an arguement, Gomez grabbed his jacket and quickly exited the room that had been converted into a makeshift medical unit. He made his way back to the main stasis corridor, wary of any more giant monsters that might be willing to jump him. After a while, he found a group of orange jumpsuited engineers who seemed to be arguing over a schematic of Blue Dwarf that had been pinned up on a wall.

"Look, I'm telling you that it can't be done - the engineering decks were completely gutted by the explosion and are inaccessible." said one of the engineers animatedly.

"I'm telling you it's possible - we can still access the main engineering deck through an emergency escape shaft on the promenade. It should have been shielded from damage." argued back another. Gomez, feeling that he should probably offer his help, decided to step in.

"Excuse me, senors, but what ees the problem?"

"Who are you?" asked the first engineer.

"I am Alfredo Gomez, I am a mechanic. I have much knowledge on engineering, maybe I can help"

"Well, in that case, pleased to make your aquaitence - I'm First Tech Bill Fleming."

"Fourth Engineer Russell Cole" said the other man, nodding curtly at Gomez.

"I am Alfredo Gomez, I am an engineer too, maybe I can help?"

"It's like this, Gomez" said Russell "we need to restore power to the ship, otherwise we'll be trapped in here forever. Fleming here reckons that it isn't possible to access engineering as the explosion down there would make it too hazardous to venture into."

Bill noded his head in agreement "The place is a mess - the blast tore a hole in the side of the ship leaving it open to the vaccum of space outside, there's been massive structual damage and there might just be some residual radiation left down there."

"Bill thinks it's impossible to get down to it, but I know for a fact that the promenade had about a dozen or so escape shafts meant for emergencies that lead straight down into the engine room. It's about a mile straight down, but if they are careful, somebody might be able to make it down there and restore power."

Gomez looked at both men. He agreed that it was a gamble, but he felt he should do something to help - the crew of Blue Dwarf had taken him after he nearly died escaping from the JMC forces, after all.

"Senors" he said "I volunteer to find this, how you say, hatch. I have had training in such matters, eet will OK."

"You sure?" asked Bill "it'll be dangerous pal. Perhaps you best take some backup, y'know?". Bill rummaged through a supply locker and brought out a two-way radio and a laser pistol. "We'll tell you what to do over the radio. Take this gun in case you run into trouble. You should be able to find what supplies you need on the promenade, we're a bit short here."

Gomez, remembering his encounter with the lizard monster, gladly took the gun and radio and moved off in the direction of stairwell that would take him down to the promenade.

<PART 2 to follow shortly>