After reading through all the documents Tom quickly got to work.
First he had to take the snapped wires and reattach them somehow. After looking around he noticed most of the loose wires were dangerously close to the active jets.
The more he looked at everything the more he realized that even if others took this job from him they easily could've failed or gotten themselves killed.
The radiation from the black hole was so intense it burned his skin. Fortunately, he was strong enough to withstand it.
After climbing his way to the metal cables he slowly began dragging them his way.
Once he pulled one of them halfway he noticed just how durable they really were.
'This tech is really something else.'
He didn't know what the name of the metal was but it was surprisingly heat resistant.
'So why did it snap?'
After giving the chains a once over he slowly began bending the broken pieces together with his bare hands.
Each one required him to pull 10,000 pounds of pressure.
After snapping each chain together all he had to do was connect the last coupling on the base of the rocket.
Tom would've heaved in exhaustion if it weren't for the lack of oxygen.
Looking at the giant coupling the size of a small house and made entirely out of exotic metals he wasn't exactly thrilled about putting them back together.
'Where do I even grab it from?'
'Why do people always forget to put handles?'
Tom sighed in his heart for the hundredth time before deciding to grab hold of anything with a surface.
Grabbing anything at a 90-degree angle is almost impossible.
After struggling for a little bit he tried something else.
He began climbing his way through wires and metal pipes until he finally found what he was looking for.
'So there were handles! Haha!'
Tom couldn't be happier.
It had been a few hours since he had been working on this and he could barely see the Foundation out in the distance.
They had their orders and that's all he could ask of them. If the Hope is lost then the Foundation will just have to go on without them. Fortunately there's at least 30,000 people left on that ship.
They may struggle but without our best and the brightest everyone will struggle.
'Don't get distracted. Just one more pull and I'm home free.'
After one more pull he finally managed to connect the two clasp together.
A moment later he felt the engine turning back on and almost imagined the people cheering in the background.
Just as he thought of relaxing he felt the ship shudder.
When he looked up instead of seeing one rocket turn back on he saw something that shocked him to his core!
'3?! HOW?! IMPOSSIBLE!'
Three rockets were down and the ship was falling fast.
From a small ship in the distance to a mere spot, the Foundation would be lost forever and the Hope would be forced to fend for itself.
Not that that's plausible.
With three rockets down the black hole is only getting closer and closer.
Just as he was preparing himself to fix the other rockets he felt a strong punch to the gut strong enough to send him flying into the distance and away from the ship!
Once he managed to stabilize himself he looked around in every direction until he saw what hit him.
'YOU!'
Tom was baffled and terrified by what was in front of him. Why wouldn't he? The very creatures that had hunted his entire race to near extinction were on board his ship the entire time and he was none the wiser!
The thing that floated in front of him was 6 feet tall and full of muscle, and from the looks of it he wasn't even a warrior among his race considering his soft blue skin and the tool belt at his side.
Tom could only give a vicious smile upon seeing this.
'I get it. He's just a combat engineer sent to sabotage my ship. A suicide mission, but what the hell is he still doing? His empire has long forgotten him by now. It's been thousands of years already.'
'Who cares? It's time for an easy kill!'
After looking upon his enemy he realized something.
This may no longer be a suicide mission for the alien but it was for him.
Now that a majority of the rockets were down it was easier to keep the same pace as his ship so hiding on its hull will be easy enough. His best guess is that he had maybe 2 or 3 days before they hit a point of no return.
Before the black hole could take them he decided he would continue to watch the engineer fix the damage he caused before going for the kill. At least his people will survive.
....
Two days passed by and Tom had found a place to hide on the hull of the ship. He hadn't seen the alien yet but he knew he was still there after feeling the ship speed up at least twice.
After waiting for a little while he thought it was about time the third engine would turn back on and when it didn't Tom only grew suspicious. That's when he began looking around.
BAM
The alien made a sneak attack from behind him hoping to knock him off but Tom predicted it beforehand.
The first time was just a fluke, there won't be a second time.
After grabbing the aliens arm he squeezed as hard he could and SNAP!
The blue skin and soft boned aliens were a result of a bad genetic mutation. His people didn't know if it was intentional or accidental but the purple and olive skinned aliens seemed to treat them like slaves due to how fragile they were.
He already spotted the broken fingers from when he was attacked earlier.
As Tom watched the alien creature scream in the silence of space he went in for another jab breaking a few ribs.
As a cat-kin he had the same bad habit all his kind had.
He liked to play with his kills.
After toying with his prey a little he figured there would be no harm in just letting him drift off into space.
The black hole would take him eventually.
After climbing his way over to the rocket he found the last coupling was already in place. He just needed-
'Shit!'
BOOM!
VROOO!
The rockets were destroyed!
Not sabotaged! Destroyed! How?!
Six rockets were completely crushed, leaving nothing but debris to drift off into space, including an entire rocket!
Once Tom moved over to the crash site he was amazed to see something straight out of your nightmare.
A four armed alien reduced to a puddle of blood and gore.
'That fucker kamakazied my ship!'
There were only 7 rockets on the ship and only 1 was left. The worst part is, it's the one made for steering.
Right before the failsafe kicked in it had forced us to do a minor U-turn! Now we're sideways, barreling and spinning towards the black hole! We're in a worse situation than we were before!
'Bastard!'
Just then, as Tom was about to give in and rage at the unfairness of the world, something miraculous happened.
An entire planet teleported right behind him!