Chapter 11. Getting ready.
After chatting for a while Tommy excused himself and went to his room where he stashed his chips and after that he went out to do his training.
He didn't want to break his routine so that no one would get suspicious of him.
When he came back and took a shower which was one of the things that he intended to fix so that he could use a water shower.
He dove right to the data chips.
Some of them were of no interest to him like: medical data of the patients or some inventory of the IV drips.
Chips containing medical data were all put aside. Maybe Alice would want to read them.
When he went through all of the chips, only about a dozen had the information he needed,the rest was either medical data or just normal bureaucratic trash.
However he did find a star map, it was 10 years out of date but it was at least something,and also someone left their programming course behind it was the basic course but he could learn it given enough time.
The next day he went straight to the med bay and started assembling the medical scanner,while Alice was breathing down his neck ,eager to try it out.
It took around 5 hours to assemble the device and power it up.
When he was picking up his tools Alice came to him.
-This thing needs a test run and since you're already here,you'll be my guinea pig.
She said with a smile that sent chills down his spine.
It looked like he had no choice but to agree.
He knew how it worked. It was not his first time being scanned but he dreaded the sensation it caused.
Not having a way out he stripped his clothes down to his underwear and layed down in the plastic tube.
Alice turned the device on and the device emitted a light beam going up and down the tube.
Tommy felt like there were thousands of ants walking all over him but he didnt move.
The scan took only one minute but for the scanned person it was a pure torture and if they moved to much then the scan had to be repeated.
Alice had a slight satisfaction watching Tommy's face twitch slightly.
-That will teach you not to make fun of me.
She thought to herself but her satisfied smile quickly turned into a surprise and then a shock when she saw a 3d representation of the man's body with the data compiling right next to it.
The list of old and healed wounds was staggering.
At only 22 years old he had most of his ribs broken or cracked at least once the same goes for his limbs.the skull was fractured at least 3 times and that was just data on his skeleton.
When she saw the full report she was speechless.
The amount of injuries compiled showed that he was seriously wounded multiple times and some of those wounds could be deadly if not treated in time.
When Tommy climbed out of the capsule and put his clothes on he saw her looking at him with disbelief plastered all over her face.
-What's the matter if you look like you saw a ghost?
He asked with a slight smile.
-Stop joking around. She said seriously.
-Tell me how the hell are you still alive with injuries like that?
He came closer to look at the display.
-What can i say i had some good friends when i was a mercenary and they were the ones that saved me every time and i did the same for them when they got injured during a mission.
And we had a great medic on our team, that's the reason I'm alive.
He said and wondered how everybody was now.
But he moved those thoughts aside,the last thing he wanted to do was to think about everyone he left behind,right now he had to focus on what was ahead.
Alice was quiet right now; she didn't know what to say to that.
Tommy didn't want to continue this topic so he excused himself and went to work.
Aside from gathering materials to be sold he gathered some small parts into his backpack,mainly he gathered electronic parts but he also took some thin long pieces of metal.
After the break he went to the engineering and looked for some more information that could be useful.
Then he went to do his training and after that he started to use the parts that he gathered to create some devices that he learned how to build when he was still a mercenary.
Creating his special gear took a few days and some of the gadgets were still not ready but it was just a matter of time.
And using the computer in engineering he started to learn programming from the chip he found.
Progress was slow but he had the time to do it step by step.
In all of this time there was only one noteworthy event and that was the arrival of the new exiles and three of them at once, one woman and two men.
According to Simon it was unusual to see that many people tossed in at once.
Alice took them to the mad bay but other than some bruises all three of them were healthy.
Other than that it was the usual day by day.
Three weeks later both of the fighters were dismantled and everyone was working on the shuttle.
Tommy had to shut down the generator when the cannons signaled that they were fully charged.
No one was in a hurry to get the new ship while they had at least two more weeks before they were finished with the shuttle.
The day was just like any other,work,break ,engineering and training. What was different was that after everyone went back to their rooms Tommy took his equipment and went in the direction of one of the welded passages.
Two days prior he found a maintenance shaft leading to the other part of the station on one of the schematics.
And he confirmed that it is accessible yesterday.
He didn't want to escape for now but he needed to do some reconnaissance.
Sneaking into the engineering deck was easy; he didn't see anyone along the way and he also made sure that nobody was following him.
The last thing he wanted was to be spotted and questioned about what he was doing, not to mention it would be almost impossible to explain some of the gear he had on his belt.
So far nobody was around and he wasn't going to wait for someone to come.
The entrance was closed but the guys who were responsible for that must have been too lazy to weld it shut so they just locked it with the key and left.
He could have cut through the lock with his small cutting torch but he didn't want to leave any traces that there was someone tampering with it,luckily he knew how to build an electronic lock pick which he put on the lock and pressed the button.
In less then a minute he heard a click and the entrance to the maintenance tunnel was opened.
Tommy took another look around to make sure that there was no one around and he vanished inside, the small door closing behind him with a click.