Two.

“Careful with those explosives. You've got to be gentle.”

“Don't worry, I've got this.”

Maximus looked on anxiously as his companion climbed out of the airlock, wearing the old suit he had patched up himself. He hoped it would hold. Virtually everything on the entire ship had been repaired at least once, but it was different with a suit: A suit didn't have any back-ups. If it failed...

Andromeda seemed to be doing fine, though. He saw her do the thumbs up before she climbed up on top of the ship, disappearing from sight. When she next appeared, she was floating gracefully through empty space, holding a cable. She had calculated the jump carefully – moments later, she slammed into the wreckage. Maximus breathed a sigh in relief – at least the easy part was over.
“All right, Andy, do you hear me?” he said into the microphone on the control panel.

“Loud and clear.” came a distorted reply. “I'm setting down the charges now.”

“Make sure you attach the cable.”

“Already have.”

There was no noise, of course. Maximus just saw the explosions light up, and then the airlock doors of the wrecked spaceship collapsed. He sent a thought to the poor bastards who had been on board – to die in space wasn't a pleasant fate.

“I'm going in.” came Andromeda's voice from his speakers.

She was already climbing across the hull of the ship, reaching the destroyed doors and disappearing inside. He hated this part: The waiting. “Roger that.” he responded, and leaned backwards, trying to distract himself.

He settled for practising a little of the old Earth languages he was studying. Closing his eyes, he mumbled the words one by one, slowly, so they would last for a while. Minutes went by.

“You okay, Andy?”

“I'm fine. Already on my way back.”

He opened his eyes, and saw her float through space – holding the cable in one hand and a metal briefcase in the other. She disappeared from sight, and he stared in anticipation at the airlock. After a little while, it opened.

Andromeda was a tall woman, much taller than himself – much taller than most men, in fact, and powerfully built: The fact that the briefcase caused her to stagger a little against the artificial gravity meant it probably was rather heavy. She dragged it into the cockpit, and just ruffled his hair as he tried to help her with it.

“Let's just open it here, Max, all right?”

He nodded, and cleared away some space on the small desk. Andromeda set the briefcase down, and opened it – it wasn't locked.

A strange green light emerged from inside, illuminating the both of them. They stared at the contents, trying to make sense of what it meant.

“Are these... coordinates?” asked Maximus.

“You know, I think they are."

“For what? What could possibly be so important that you use a whole computer just to store the coordinates?”

The answer to the question struck them both at once.