door slammed home with a bone-rattling thud, severing the blinding glare and the oppressive wave of superheated plasma.

Silence fell—absolute and suffocating, broken only by

the lip of the threshold, releasing his grip on the bar a fraction of a second too late—or maybe just in time.

The hydraulic seals screamed in protest, and the massive tungsten

white-hot vibration that hummed straight through his jawbone.

With a raw, tearing scream that choked in his throat, he threw his entire weight forward. He lurched over

He dragged his right boot forward, scraping for leverage against the slick, heat-warped grating beneath him. The agony in his left shoulder was no longer just pain; it had transcended into a

, but shock kept his fingers locked around the manual override bar. If he let go now, the pneumatic pressure would slam the heavy bulkhead shut, sealing him inside the starboard maintenance conduit to roast alive.