by Dain White
I was so completely disoriented. I felt like I had fallen out of a bad dream, into a nightmare. I clawed and pushed, as hard as my sore muscles and burns let me, and managed to claw out a bit of an opening to get my leg under me.
“Yak?” I called again in a husky voice that sounded like someone else.
Still no answer, unfortunately. I had to get moving, and try to locate him. Carefully setting my left leg under me, I lifted slowly, inexorably, through the debris overhead, shoving it away as best as I could. My ribs ached at just about any movement, including my breath, but I was alive.
I rose up above the debris, and realized where I was. I was roughly in the middle of the intersection.
“Em…? Yak…?” I called softly.
The space above me was vast, silent, and empty.
I forced myself to relax. There wasn’t anything down here to be afraid of, and Yak knew where I was, he left me here, right?
I wasn’t sure if that was a dream. I was having a bit of a tough time focusing, actually.
08232614@15:54 Gene Mitchell
“Gene, report!” the captain called on comms.
“Reporting, aye,” I groused. “I’m about three levels down in Viceroy, looking for this blast-damned vent switch.”
“Are you keeping a firm eye on the situation at the bottom of Viceroy, Gene?”
I realized that I hadn’t. “I’m a little busy here skipper”
“Busy being vulgar…” he replied smugly. “Listen, Gene, you have to work fast here. There’s a pretty big situation down there, from what Janis tells me.”
“Fast, aye,” I groused, walking along a ratway between massive HVAC units, venting air through enormous fans below me. The lights were half out, and one of the fans was off-center just enough to make a crazy crashing thrumming sound that made me want to remove my teeth.
“How bad is it?” I asked softly.
“Gene, I’m not a reactor tech, but if this was a starship, I’d want to put it down into a flat looking field somewhere and run for the hills.”
“I am almost to the first vent, Dak.”
“Very well. Em, I am headed up in support of Gene. Can you collect Yak and Jane please?”
“On my way, sir,” she replied immediately.
“Coming up to help Dak?” I laughed, charging the switch pump handle. It only takes a few pumps of the handle before the light pops green – from there, all I have to do is haul down on the big handle until it clicks.
Ugh, these things were heavy as hell. Finally I had it clicked, and the sound of hydraulics kicked in above me as the vent cap opened.
“Gene, I am registering a 25% increase in coolant,” Janis said suddenly.
“Well, that’s good – but is it enough?”
“No, Gene,” she replied, flatly.
Maybe it was her tone of voice, maybe it was the thought of a runaway fusion reactor 15,000 meters below me, give or take. Maybe it was the satisfaction of a job well done, fixing machinery – I don’t know. I do know that I ran down the ratway like my feet were on fire.
No longer was I worried about the rattle, the sway, or the howling fans far below. I wasn’t worried about anything, other than slapping the next access panel open, priming the pump switch, and then closing that gap. I ran it through my head like a mantra, a holy procedure, a sacred task.
Unfortunately, the next panel was fused shut.
08232614@15:59 Captain Dak Smith
“Captain, I am about to drop out of contact,” Emwan called on comms, as I held the gig on its tail reaching for the sky.
“Very well,” I replied. “Janis, take the Archaea to high cap, and do not let anything escape.”
“High cap, aye,” she replied smartly. I had a brief view of her racing into the upper atmosphere as we came near the top of Viceroy. What a beautiful ship.
Viceroy was the opposite of beautiful. A dour old corroded edifice, crusted with the dust and filth of antiquity. There were no penthouse suites, no playland mansions on this hulk. Viceroy was capped with little more than a stardock and various repeater and cooling towers. I whipped us around smartly and set down in the rough center of the dock.
“Pauli, how’s it going up there son?” I called, relaxing into a nice stretch.
“We’re doing well, sir,” he replied in his ‘I’m-not-really-listening’ tone, his hands furiously punishing his keys again.
“Uh huh,” I nodded, using the movement to joggle my head around in a circle and stretch my neck a bit. “Janis, how are the Marines doing down there?”
“Captain, we have patrols throughout the perimeter, though for safety I am keeping them outside this sector.”
“Well, we’ve already killed everything around here, right?”
“It is unclear to me if that is the case, sir. From an analysis of Jane and Yak’s suits, I am confident that we located one outlier colony, and what I believe was the main colony.”
“But you think there may be others?”
“I do, sir. While their webbing presents an effective shield for scan, I have issued orders to deploy radio beacons into intersections. With the knowledge we have gained so far, I am confident we will locate them.”
“Well, when you do, make sure you engage them at range.”
“I have issued orders to deploy aerosols.”
“That was where that scout came from?”
“Yes, sir. I believe for some reason it had shields activated and therefore survived the initial salvo from Jane.”
“It survived point eight kilotons?”
“It would appear that it did. I admit, that is beyond the results of my analysis.”
“Well, the railers on the gig weren’t even scratching it. I am impressed with the crab, to tell you the truth.”
“Indeed, Captain. The crab quite effectively overwhelmed the shielding. I was quite pleased at the results, though they were well within the upper limits.”
“Well, it hits like a destroyer.”
“Indeed it can, sir. As those are mechanically railers, they can fire continually. That would be utterly destructive, sir.”
I whistled softly, thinking briefly about the strange twists of fate that brought us all to this point. We might very well be the only thing that can make a difference in this fight.
If we can maintain a tactical advantage, that is.
A sudden flash below the clouds to the east lit up the tops of Allied and Monarch. “Janis, report,” I asked softly.
“Fuel air explosive, sir.”
“Very well. What’s the status of the reactor?”
“Captain, it is dire, I am not certain Gene will be able to restore pressure in time. Even at 75%, we do not have enough pressure to bleed heat off of the containment.”
Something tickled the back of my head. “Janis, wait. Thorium salt – it’s already liquid. Wouldn’t the heat naturally dissipate?”
“Sir, it is true Thorium salt is far safer when compared to solid fuel reactors, where the collapse to a melted state is the worst component of a core fire. However, with Thorium, the heat is what sustains the reaction. Without an ability to carry away the heat, the reaction will sustain. That is what we currently have, an active, strong reaction being barely managed in the secondary containment vessel.”
“And what about fail-safes?”
“All are being employed, sir, providing the minimal amount of management I currently have over the situation.”
“Good grief. Gene?”
“Captain, I can’t get through this panel.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s… corroded… rusted…shut…” he replied, the sound of clanging metal punctuating each break.
“Wedge a knife in there man, break it loose!”
“Dak. I have the panel loose, the hinge is a block of rust, all blown out. I can flap the panel like a wing, but I can’t get enough clearance to prime the pump.”
“Very well,” I replied smartly, rotating my chair and unc
lipping. “Janis, you have the conn.”
“I have the conn, aye,” she replied, as I ran aft for the open lock.
08232614@16:08 Gene Mitchell
I tracked back to the middle hatch into the chillers and started working the levers.
“Gene, what’s your twenty?”
I stopped for a moment and stared at the hatch. “I’m uh… go through the top hatch and down the stairs to the second door. It should be open. I am down the ratway about halfway across the building, I think.”
“I see the door. What’s the situation?”
“I am looking for a tool, some sort of lever,” I replied.
“Very well, I’ll make my way towards you. Are you at the panel?”
“No skipper, the panel is closer to you. Look for the flap of plasteel with the antique hinge. It’s on a little jog in the scaffold.”
“These fans are huge, Gene,” he replied.
I laughed wryly as I kicked open the reluctant door, a brown cloud of rust drifting down out of the rim. The space inside was empty, just another ratway through the chiller units, giant wet-vat filters with thousands upon thousands of miles of evaporator coils. The air smelled musty and dank, and it felt heavy and humid.
There was definitely nothing in here.
“Gene, get back here!”
“On the way,” I hollered, and ran back through the hatch. He was straining mightily against the flap, legs up on the walkway, and veins sticking out of his neck. He was practically purple.
“There’s nothing…” I started, as I ran close.
“Heave mister,” he commanded in a calmly grunting voice, as I took ahold of the lower section of the plate.
“HEAVE!” he screamed, and threw himself against the plate. We pushed until I saw stars swimming around in the space inside my eyes, and finally… it creaked.
“Wait Dak,” I called out. “Shove it shut. Let’s work it back and forth a bit.”
I had my precious little bottle of Teflon out, and hit as much as I could of the hinge, while he worked the panel back and forth. After a few times, it stopped howling.
“Ready Gene?” he asked, getting set again.
“Ready,” I replied, getting a good grip on the lower edge.
“HEAVE!” he gritted out, and we threw ourselves hard against the panel.
Unfortunately, we only got another few inches.
I got to work with the bottle again, and cursed like a proper sailor, all the better to appease the gods of machinery.
Captain Smith flew a regulation eyebrow at some of the more choice expositions, and smiled at a few. For all his bluster about the vulgar side of humanity, I think he understands this is how you talk to machinery, especially stupid, corroded machinery.
“Let’s try it again, Gene. We’re running out of time here,” he said earnestly. The look in his eyes was something I have never seen before. He looked grim.
“Should go this time, skipper,” I replied confidently and wedged myself under the low side of the panel, putting me left foot as high on the wall as I could get it.
“Okay Gene, let’s pull it shut just a bit…” he called out and proceeded to shut me in the door.
“Grk,” I replied pointedly.
He chuckled. “Here we go Gene. Ready? HEAVE!”
08232614@16:10 Shaun Onebull
I woke up from a really comfortable dream, into a terrifying nightmare. I was immobilized.
“Jane?” I called out. “Em? Anyone?” I called. I couldn’t see anything. I felt fine, and my suit was active, but all of my scans were blank. I wiggled my toe, and realized it could move.
I willed myself to move, and laughed as my arms crushed upwards through a dense blanket of rotting debris and dust. I pushed a rotting timber aside and cleared a little bit of room to push my hands up to my face.
Once I cleaned a little bit of the dust off of my head, I could see a little better. Radar scans showed a bewildering tangle of debris all around me. I kicked upright, and shoved my feed under me. From that point, I just put my shoulder down and lifted through it, laughing again at the ease by which I crushed through the tangled layers.
“Jane?” I called again, as I broke free of the surface, rising slowly in the dusty dark. Luckily, there was nothing out here looking for me, because my mimetics were completely shot.
I tried to orient myself, and remember which direction I flew here from, and an inertial track of my descent rendered in the air above me.
Now that I knew where I was, I knew where Jane was. She was likely up the trench ahead of me, possibly on the next intersection.
08232614@16:18 Captain Dak Smith
“How many pumps, Gene?” I asked Gene, his grizzled mug scowling.
“Well, it should have lit by now…” he trailed off.
I could feel a bit of a catch in the handle, but it seemed to be flapping free on each stroke.
“Gene, is it supposed to have a bit of a drag to it?”
“Nope, it’s supposed to drag from top to bottom. We’re not engaging the gears in this thing.”
“Can we take it apart?”
He looked at me, exasperated. The wind howling past moaned a song of desperation.
“Yeah – hang on a second.”
I took a break. “Janis, what’s the status on containment?”
“It is being managed, but the situation is degrading, sir.”
“How much time do we have here before it blows?”
A brief moment of silence on comms set my neck hairs aloft. “We will lose containment in thirteen minutes, sir, and counting.”
“How confident are you of this?”
“I have complete confidence in my simulation, sir.”
“And how goes the evacuation?”
“It is proceeding, sir. All tubeways are running at capacity, and I have deployed forces on all connected expressways to shut down incoming traffic, and allow egress by all lanes.”
“What percent are clear?”
“As best as I can determine, between 60 and 70, sir,” she replied sadly. “I am afraid it does not appear as if we will have enough time.”
“Never lose hope, Janis. Work on a solution – anything.” I flashed Gene my most concerned look of immediacy.
“Solutions, aye,” she replied quickly. “Sir, we have located another nest, and are engaging it now.”
“Very well, keep me posted. We ought to have this vent cap open in… forty-five seconds.” I chuckled grimly at Gene’s scowl. He had a light in his teeth, and was working a ratchet handle on the fasteners holding the plate around the prime pump.
“Janis, any word on the kids?”
“None, sir. I am afraid I am unable to extrapolate anything meaningful for you regarding their status.”
“Keep trying, dear.”
08232614@16:19 Gene Mitchell
“Gene, we need this running, now,” Dak hissed, the urgency in his voice unmistakable. I flashed him a quick look of frustration, and tried for the twentieth time to hold the broken gear together while I set the handle back in the housing.
Every time I tried, it seemed as if it was holding together, then at the last moment, the parts would clatter out of the housing – and each time it was a desperate snatch to try to keep from losing the precious gear parts through the grating into the howling fans below.
I frowned sternly at the captain, as I mashed my fingers tight against the closing housing, holding the gear together to the very last moment… and then slowly… carefully… eased out my fingers.
As before, at the last minute, the shattered piece of the gear slipped out and flashed across the rail.
Unfortunately, this time, I was too slow.
“Did you catch it?” Dak barked, eyes wide.
I shook my head slowly, and lifted off the cover plate, reaching in to catch the bigger pieces. Not that they mattered much now.
“Can we do anything else, Gene? Do you have a wrench or spanner we could use? We just need to get a grip
on it.”
I nodded, hands slapping down my leg pockets, my lumbar, looking for anything that might help. My ratchet handle, maybe… I tried to wedge it in sideways, just nonchalantly, just seeing if I could get it to catch in the broken gear in the housing.
“Wait Gene!” he said suddenly. “You have a spanner, right? Hand it over and I’ll get a pinch on the gear above it and wedge it down. Maybe we can work it together!”
I handed it over, and took a lean to let him by. He worked the handle of the spanner into the broken hear above the ratchet handle, and gave me a look.
“Okay skipper. Easy does it. Up…” I said, slowly pushing upwards against his handle.
“Damn it! Wait,” he spat out as the spanner broke free. “Let me get a better angle here.”
“We don’t have any time, Dak,” I hissed.
“We have time, mister. Okay, try it again.”
I slowly raised the handle, raising my eyebrows as I lifted.
He raised his in unison, as our hands together pulled the broken gear slowly up. A whirring sound inside the unit sang a song that made my heart skip a beat.
“Again, Dak… ready?” My eyebrow lifted again as I slowly pushed upwards. The green flickered.
“One more…” I breathed out, and we pushed it up again, the whirring of the internal dynamo timed with the glow of the green light.
“That’s it!” I called out, and mashed the switch. We both cheered as a whining growl as the hydraulic pumps rang out.
“Captain, coolant is at one-hundred-percent, but I am afraid we are out of time. Please make your way back to the stardock. A breach event will occur in moments, and Viceroy will lose structural integrity. Please hurry, sir.”
“You heard the lady, Gene, after you,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder and giving me a shove.
I had barely covered five meters, when I felt it.
08232614@16:24 Jane Short
I saw the flash an instant before my screens went black, leaving an afterimage like a fracture in the world.