That was another bit of tech that I was still getting used to. The atmospheric containment barrier, or ACB, was like something out of old school science fiction. A charged particle field that acted like a semi-permeable membrane for the shuttle bay, it would allow larger objects, like a shuttlecraft, or yours truly in an EVA suit, to enter and exit, without the need of a conventional airlock system. So instead of the entire shuttlebay needing to be depressurized for me to start this foray, I just had to take a careful step out.
Bringing my attention back to the vista before me, I breathed out a long breath. My experience in salvaging debris fields and derelict ships told me that there was easily the remains of at least eight ships there, depending on the classifications. Most of them were still showing signs of radioactive glow along ragged and torn edges of hull plating, the spars and the bulkheads. The electromagnetic noise from antimatter explosions and fusion reactor breaches still permeated the area to the point I was very glad I was not attempting this in a standard EVA suit. As it was there was a possibility I’d need to be treated for exposure when I got back to the ship.
“All systems are green Thomas,” Boudya told me, and I confirmed via the holographic heads up display, and the secondary mounted on my arm. Every system showed green status lights beside them.
“Confirmed, all systems green.”
“We’re pulling within 500 meters of the signal source.” Jophixa informed me over the commlink, her tone brisk and all business. I knew she still wasn’t happy about this diversion from our original course, “Any closer and we’ll send too much debris tumbling, we’re already tracking way too much for my comfort levels as it is. Be careful out there, but get it done as quickly as possible. We’ll have the quarantine pod waiting to the starboard of the docking bay, just as planned.”
“Aye Commander,” I replied, smiling to myself. I might be a bit anxious about this EVA, but this was an anxiety I was used to. “Quick but safe, like stabilizing a reactor fluctuating close to critical. All part of the business. I’ve done it dozens of times.”
“Don’t get cocky Thomas! Remember, there could be pockets of Contagion out there. We might not be picking any up, but that could easily be due to the background radiation. We don’t know what actually happened here, and I’d rather not have you get infected.”
“And you’re sure the material used for my EVA suit will keep the contagion out?”
“That’s what our scientists determined.” Stacy put in, “all testing proved impervious to the contagion. So you should be safe, and the quarantine pod is constructed of the same material. As long as we’re careful, we should be safe.”
“Thomas,” Toftri cut in, “Jesse just identified telemetry on a large chunk of what is likely hull plating. It’s closing with the fighter’s position at about twenty-five of your kilometers per hour. Current course shows no impact is likely, but it will still be a close one. We’ll be tracking it closely and let you know if that changes.”
“Roger that Toftri, thanks for the heads up!”
Don’t worry Stace, I thought back at her, I don’t plan on dying for any Enigma Osiris stooge.
I did one more check on the seal of my helmet, running my gloved hands around its periphery. It still amazed me at times to think how far EVA suits had come since the early days of space flight.gave the connection to my tether a tug to make sure it was firmly seated, then gave Boudya a thumbs up. “All set. I’ll be back in a jiff. Make sure to have some graptak ready for me when I get back!”
She smiled back, “I’ll even make some of that shortbread stuff you like so much.”
“Now you’re talkin’!”
Walking up to the threshold of the ACB, I pause for a moment. This was the part of an Extra Vehicular Activity that never got old for me. That first step into the cold hard blackness of space always sent a thrill up my spine, no matter how many times I’ve done it. There was just something about stepping out of the safe confines of a ship, into that vastness, with all the dangers involved, knowing that even with all your skill and equipment, something as random as a tiny sliver of metal travelling at insane speeds that were possible in a vacuum, could ruin your day in a moment - it just got the blood pumping.
Glancing at the beacon on my HUD indicating my target, I lined myself up then stepped carefully through the barrier and into the weightlessness of space.
Five hundred meters might not seem like that far to go, but when you’re keeping half an eye out on debris spinning and shifting in all directions, it can feel like walking through a firefight. Thankfully, however, this fighter seemed to be relatively clear of the main mass of debris - another kilometer or two away, and I’d be worried about my tether getting tangled up in ship spars or cut by sharpened shards of deck plating. “Twenty meters away now.” I reported, “Still no signs of movement from within the fighter, but I think I can make out the pilot strapped into the cockpit. Here’s hoping the buckles haven’t gotten fouled.”
“Did you forget your belt cutter or something?” Boudya shot back.
“Negative, I just don’t want to be out here longer than I need to be. I’m not as foolish as I look, you know.” I adjusted my course slightly with my maneuvering jets. “Ten meters. Still no signs of movement from the pilot. This fighter is a right mess though. I’m surprised she even survived, let alone had enough juice left to power a distress beacon.”
“Five meters. Three meters. One meter. Contact. I’ve contacted at midship, moving forward to check the pilot.”
I moved slowly, paying attention to the sharp edges of the fighter’s hull. My suit was made of fairly cut proof material, but it’s never good to be careless when it comes to your suit integrity.
“Approaching the cockpit.” I reported, “I can see the instrument panel, it’s set to show life support status. Looks like she’s still got life support to spare, but her O2 is on the low side. Showing pulse and blood oxygen stable. I’m seeing slow, measured breathing from the pilot but otherwise no movement.”
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“She could be using a form of meditation to slow her breathing and heart rate” Tratsa informed me, “It’s something pilots from many species are taught in case of this kind of situation. It extends life support resources until rescue arrives.”
“Understood. Let’s hope she doesn’t come out of it swinging.” I examined the boundary of the cockpit for shards of canopy composite, “Looks like she already blew the canopy charges, there’s no sign of it. Likely did so in order to see if she could affect enough repairs to get out of here. That’ll make this easier.
“Proceeding into the cockpit to cut her loose.”
Slipping carefully in close to the pilot, I kept a close eye on her as I reached for her harness. While she wasn’t likely to hurt me directly if she took a swing, she could knock my helmet up against something, and I’d rather avoid the risk of that. Hell, I’d rather not see her break her hand against my helmet either.
“Still no sign of reaction from the pilot. Unbuckling her harness now.” I reached in and carefully unbuckled the harness, “Attaching tether to the pilot now.” I latched her on, then gently pulled her away from her seat and let her float just outside the cockpit. “Going after the flight recorder now.”
“That hunk of hull plating is pretty close now Thomas.” Toftri reported, “Looks like it should pass by you within maybe ten meters.”
“Acknowledged.” I slipped further into the cockpit to hunt for the flight recorder. “Let’s see, where would they put the flight recorder in a ship like this. My money is on - under the seat.” Pulling out my handheld scanner, I waved it over and around the seat for a moment. “Bingo. One of the most protected points in the ship. Now I just need to access the thing. Checking with the endo-scope.”
I kept up my running dialog as I examined the attachment points. I was going to have to pull the whole seat out to get to it. “This is going to take a minute.” I reported, and got to work on unfastening all the bolts holding the seat down, sparing the odd moment to check on the pilot, and glance towards the hunk of hull plating moving ever closer to us.
Damn that thing was imposing.
I hear you Sweety. Thanks for the heads up.
I finally got the seat loose, and carefully maneuvered it out of the cockpit, and set it drifting away in a direction it shouldn’t cause a hazard to us. “The seat is out, flight recorder next.”
“That debris is nearly right on top of you Thomas. It’s going to pass within five meters.”
“Acknowledged.” I sent back, “just one more… got it, I have the flight recorder. Attached to the toolbelt, and I’m exiting the cockpit.”
I gently backed my way out of the cockpit and approached the pilot. I thought I could see her stirring just a bit, which was a good sign. When I got to her, she had her eyes - not just open, but wide open. They were as wide as saucers, staring into the black behind me. The rest of her had gone stock still by the time I got to her, and I thought maybe she was just in shock, but then Stacy came over the comm, “THOMAS! Behind you!”
I moved to turn around, but as I did, the pilot snapped out of her shock, and her arm came up, a survival model sidearm in her hand fired off a three round burst, the flashes burning temporary spots in my peripheral vision. “What the fuck!”
I thought for a moment she had shot at me, but as I finished the turn I had begun a moment before, a sound like all the demons of hell doing unholy things to the cheapest of violins pierced my skull, and I caught sight of a monstrous black shape, only half visible against the stars behind it, a sizzling, burning hole burning along what I could only guess was a - shoulder?
The pilot fired again, and again. That demonic screech hit my skull once more, and I caught sight of something like a trail of spherical globs passing within mere centimeters of my visor. “KTONSHI!” I screamed into the comm. “Reel me in!”
I felt the tether jerk tight, and the acceleration of it pulling us back towards the Elegance. The pilot was still unloading her sidearm at the Ktonshi, which must have been hidden on the chunk of hull plating. It didn’t seem to be doing a whole lot of damage, but the kinetic effects while in zero g were at least ensuring any effort made to launch towards us would be foiled.
As if fate read my thoughts, that was when her ammunition ran dry, and the Ktonshi, which must have been waiting for just that opportunity, launched itself on - holy FUCK that’s too many legs - towards us.
“FUCK FUCK FUCK!” I screamed, and grabbed on my toolbelt for the sidearm that Jophixa had insisted I make part of my kit for this EVA. I was no crack shot - I’m an engineer, not a damned soldier - but the Ktonshi seemed as big as a bus in my mind, and it just seemed to be getting bigger as it was somehow closing on us. “FASTER!!! REEL US IN FASTER!”
Raising the giobhioni weapon, I began blind firing at the horrific thing, and it goes to show you how large it loomed in my vision that every single shot landed, blasting off bits of carapace from its body. With every chunk of carapace that spun off into space, it screamed, driving daggers into my skull.
“Hold on Thomas!” Jophixa called “we’re maneuvering to use the shipboard weapons, and get you out of danger! Firing in three, two, one, FIRE!”
A pulse of collimated light at least a half meter thick shot out from the underside of the Elegance and slammed into the Ktonshi. The searing blast that resulted was satisfying, leaving the ktonshi a charred husk spinning away from us into the dark. “Void’s MAW, I think I pissed myself!” I exclaimed, “I need a bigger fucking gun!”
I heard a nervous chuckle that sounded like Boudya, which was confirmed a moment later when she said “Isn’t it lucky that damned suit takes care of accidents like that?”
A not entirely non-hysterical laugh erupted from my own throat in response to that. “Just get me back inside the ship damn you. I need to feel dense hull plating around me.”
I glanced over at the pilot, Giselle Kintzel, who was still staring off in the direction the Ktonshi went spinning off in, her eyes still as wide as they could be. Oh yeah lady, I feel ya. I thought to myself, That’s gonna be nightmare fuel for -years-.
Ten minutes later, Lieutenant Kintzel was tucked inside the quarantine pod we’d prepared, and I was standing in an isolation chamber just inside the ACB.
After a close encounter with a Ktonshi like that, it was decided (both Jophixa and I insisted) that I undergo a period of quarantine myself. There was no way in the deepest reaches of Void’s emptiness was I going to expose the rest of the ship to the ktonshi contagion! I’d honestly rather step back out into the vacuum of space and breach the seal on my helmet. So they quickly assembled another airlock-like chamber I could get into until thorough medical scans could be done to ensure there was no trace of the contagion on the outside of my suit.
We now knew for certain that the contagion was out loose, and active. There were ktonshi operating in the vicinity of the Commonwealth and our allies. We weren’t sure just how far the infection had spread yet, since we hadn’t had a chance to ask Lieutenant Kintzel any questions, and the flight recorder was in the isolation chamber with me. There hadn’t been enough time to set up anything inside it for me to work on accessing it, so we were going to have to wait until I was declared safe to wander the ship again.
I was itching to get at the data on the recorder, hoping desperately that there’d be enough there that we could convince someone in Fleet Command, or government, to take this seriously. Boudya was going to try to make contact with her connections within the Benastian Cooperative to pass the information along that way as well, but we both knew politicians could be damned annoying when it came to convincing them to do something important, especially if it meant spending money on things that didn’t ultimately end up in their own pockets.
“How the hell are we going to convince them before it’s too late?” I asked myself, and slid down the wall until I was sitting on the deck. The adrenaline rush from the EVA was starting to crash, and I just felt exhausted. Resting my head back against the wall of the isolation pod, I closed my eyes and started to drift off…
Only to start awake screaming as I was met with the gleaming eyes staring at me in furious hate from out of that sickeningly gray cupie doll face, mouth stretched wide in a terrible rictus, lower jaw splitting to reveal glistening, chittering pedipalps and chelicerae. Long spindly legs by the dozen reached out across the emptiness of the void. Tiny bristling hairs along their length quivering with anticipation and rage as they grew ever closer… They came within touching distance of my visor and lunged…
I jolted upright, screaming.
Still gasping in terror, I leaned my head back against the wall again and tried to slow my breathing. Just a nightmare, I thought back, that was…
she soothed,
I still couldn’t bring myself to close my eyes, but I let them unfocused, and concentrated on just breathing. Stacy kept up a soothing, whispered dialog in the back of my mind, urging me to relax, for my thoughts to be still. Eventually, I lost myself in the rhythm of my breath and the mitre of her voice. The terror slowly faded away and I drifted towards thoughts of circuitry and mechanics.
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