by Jack Vantage
Everyone screamed as they clutched at chairs and tables, but nothing held. One by one, they hit the wall turned floor. Dylan looked to Lecodia and assessed her safety. He quickly noticed one of the large cumbersome tables falling from top room, gaining momentum. She stood right in its path, unaware, as she regained her composure. Without saying a word Dylan ran fast, nimble like a sprinter, and jumped into her. He felt the air squeeze from her lungs. “Uggggh.” But it saved her life.
Bang! Crash!
The table nearly deafened as it smashed into the floor like a sky-mobile hitting a wall. Its sound vibrated like a tuning fork, painfully ringing the ears as other tables walloped down. The room rained junk, papers, tables, and food which everyone dodged.
“Is everyone okay?” David said. He pulled his hand away from his forehead. A small blotch of blood stained.
Fox stood up from under a pile of junk, “Is everyone okay, Jesus you're cut.”
“I’m fine, just a scratch.”
Calvin said with hand in air, “I’m good. Up you get Derik.” He lifted Derek up from under junk.
As everyone self-assessed and nodded, Fox yelled, “Let’s go!”
“Where the fuck do we go now?” Leon said. He brushed food from himself. “What do we do now?”
“Keep calm Leon. Worst thing you can do is panic.” Hammed replied.
Leon took a deep breath, then patted and hugged Hammed.
“We have to go down, well the same direction we were heading,” Michael said, as he inspected David’s cut.
Dylan wasn’t sure if he’d felt it, surely in space it wasn’t possible. Then he knew it was real as it intensified. Water drops splashed at his skin, slow at first, then a stormy downpour fell from above and drenched all around.
“Oh shit!” Michael said. “The stations water supply is contained in a large reservoir aboard this station.”
He moved towards a door that was positioned on the floor. Already the water level was above their shoes.
The door was jammed. He yelled, “Everyone, we need to get this door open.”
He and David broke a tables leg together, while Dylan looked up at a loud creaking sound. Then a door on the ceiling burst open with a surge of water. The room echoed as water flooded in. The surge knocked Leon off his feet, washing him sideward. Derik flew with him. Dylan and Calvin offered their hands and helped them up from the white foaming water.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Leon said. “I d, d, don’t like th, th, th, this,” Derik stuttered like a lost child.
Everyone but Derik crowded around the door. They pulled, yanked, pivoted, and tugged at it. Finally, the door gave, and its pressure released with a hiss.
“Leocodia, you first!” Michael shouted over the noise of the water.
Michael and Dylan lowered her into a corridor. Then one by one each dropped in. The door sealed above them as they stood in another long corridor.
This time the fake video windows were that of Quazar skylines erect in the daylight. Now they were on the floor, beneath a shallow puddle of water they had to paddle through.
“Hold on,” Michael said. “I need to get my bearings.” His face was shadowed by the red emergency lights.
Fox looked at Michael. “Let’s go through the biological operating rooms. That’ll take us to the bridge we must cross. Trust me I worked here for years as a biologist,” Fox replied.
“Let’s check the map,” he said.
The wet group waited as Michael and Fox inspected a station map that was drawn onto the floor between two windows. It drew a spaghetti of lines and routes.
“I need to get out of here,” Derik mumbled. His hands touched his face with simplicity, and he paced in distress.
“Derik keep calm,” Calvin said.
“Why can't I be safe?” Derik said. He quailed like a spoilt child.
Calvin placed two hands on his shoulders and spoke to him face to face,
“Look Derik, I told you I’d look after you, now cool down, stop whimpering.”
Michael said, “Right. We drop down at the end of the corridor and we’re almost at the bridge to the next station, where our ship is.”
“I don’t know what condition the bridge is in. If it’s gone, we need to access the external maintenance room. There are a dozen on each station. We’ll find it when we get there if needed. We need to get this door open. Two doors down everybody.” Fox said.
She pointed to the door. ‘Biological Operating Bays’ ‘Only Authorised Personnel May Enter’ read on the door.
David stood beside Michael and said, “Thanks for doing this with me.”
Michael smiled and nodded, “Thank me when we've made it.”
The men surrounded the door and pulled it open, but it was filled with water. Cold, dark, murky water, that slowly spilled upward into the corridor.
“If God throws one more obstacle at me, I’m going to kill him.” Leon said. His moral was pushed to its limits. Everyone eyed each other. “You’re not seriously thinking about going in there.”
“I can’t go in there,” Derik said, stepping back. He winced like a child and cried with a Yelp.
“Derik, we have to,” Calvin said. “I’ll help you.”
“It’s not far,” Fox said. “We’ll have to swim two rooms.”
“But what if the water has filled the entire station? What if we’re jumping to our death?” Derik said.
Fox touched his shoulder. “Trust me, it can only be the two rooms. From there we go up to the bridge. There is not enough water to fill up any further. The water will have pushed somewhere else.” She paused, then said, “I know this way. If we go the other way, we won’t make it. It will take at least twenty minutes, maybe half an hour to get to the bridge, and that’s if it hasn’t been sealed. This way will take us only a few minutes.
Michael said, “We go one after another, and we stay close together.”
“This is a bad idea,” Dylan said.
The canteen door they’d dropped from began creaking and leaking heavy water. That's all it took to get the group moving.
Fox plunged in feet first. The water splashed into the corridor and she was gone. Leon took rapid deep breaths and turned to Dylan, “See you the other side.” He disappeared. Like a line of penguins Michael, David, and Hammed plunged. The group was slowed only by the dithering Derik. Calvin knew time was precious, so he forced him in with a violent grab and tug, then jumped after him.
Dylan looked into Lecodia’s eyes as he breathed rapidly and didn’t need to say a word. He jumped, and the cold water surrounded his skin. Dylan could feel the water start at his feet then rise as he submerged, filling his ears and muffling the sound. He could hear the kicks and panicked swim of the front runners, and thankfully could see the body of Calvin swimming with flipper legs.
The room was spacious, an operating area, hazed by red emergency lights. Super-light chromisan tables floated around, and operating tools cluttered the way.
Dylan pushed a bundle of antiseptic bandages from his path and turned his head to check for Lecodia. She was there, her hair spread like a fan, her eyes wide, and her mouth closed. Dylan created a circle with his index finger and thumb. He directed it at her. She replied with the same sign which comforted him. Then his oxygen levels reminded him to keep going.
Funny thing oxygen, he’d taken it for granted. He realised it was the only thing keeping him alive, keeping everyone alive, it was one of life’s only free necessities. He could feel his lungs losing what little he had left, slowly. Could sense the brain damage coming, could taste the lung full of water on the tip of his tong.
Dylan watched Calvin arrive at a doorway, then pull himself through by its frame. Dylan followed and continued his breast stroke and pulled himself into the next operating room through the open doorway.
Something moved ahead, a chromisan operating table. Dylan watched as it closed in on Calvin. There was nothing he could do.
The table was surrounded by thin
arms that bent out from it like metallic arachnid legs. Dylan had seen them on medical shows. They were capable of operating with no human interaction. A few legs could cut open flesh with laser cutters, while others would perform the operation.
It bumped into Calvin and burst into action. A thin red laser boiled through the water.
Dylan panicked and nearly breathed with his mouth open. He somehow dodged the beam, then the table’s deadly fingers turned and pointed forward as the beam spun the table with force through the water. Three red beams shot into the darkness ahead, the water bubbling and boiling along its heated path. Calvin swam sideward, and the table’s operating light flickered on. It lit a cold, hard halogen blue, igniting the room. The surrounding walls were a collection of glass cabinets that held medicines and equipment, many of their contents floating and cluttering the water-filled room. The cabinets moved with dancing shadows that the disturbed water cast. Derik was struck by a laser. His left leg was sliced from his body and it still kicked as it floated away from him.
He turned and screamed. It was like Derik stood in a pool of light before a theatre of people. He then grabbed at his throat as water filled his lungs, but the lasers put him out of his misery before he could drown.
Three boiling beams crisscrossed his body as the table span unpredictably. One sliced him diagonally from left of his stomach to his right shoulder. Another split him vertically, from head to crotch, and the third decapitated him. His eyes were void of life, as they floated apart to reveal his glopping brain. From his left nostril popped an air bubble. The water turned blood red, as Derik’s internal organs floated from inside him like they were sushi.
Dylan followed Calvin’s path, then turned and pulled Lecodia away from the heat of the beams. They swam the outskirts and finally the exit point came into view. He could feel his lungs compress, drain like a loose balloon. He didn’t know if he’d make the final five or so meters. Ahead, hands lifted Calvin through a doorway on the ceiling. Dylan reached there, stopped, and gestured for Lecodia to go first. She swam past and grabbed the hands.
The final ten seconds were the worst he’d ever experienced. He felt his head dizzy, and his strength dissipate. He began floating backward before he felt hands grab hold of him and pull him to the exit. The first breath was wonderful and agonizing. Dylan breathed hard and deep as David pulled him up into the corridor. “Not on my watch,” he said, whilst filling his own lungs.
The group all sat and lay about the corridor. All breathed hard.
“Derik?” David said.
Calvin looked to Dylan, then shook his head with disappointment, “He’ll be resting in pieces.”
“Okay,” Michael said standing. “We should be home free now. Through that big door there we should be able to cross and reach the ship. We’ll be able to see it from the bridge.” He looked to Fox who nodded.
Dylan and Lecodia sat on a window that looked out into space. They were almost there. In the distance were stars. His parents entered his thoughts. It would be good to see them, touch them. He longed for their embrace.
The group stared at the grey double doors. Small window slits ran the top. They looked indestructible. One thing nagged at Dylan. The station had rolled. He hoped it hadn’t damaged the bridge. Leon realised it to.
“Look,” Leon said. “The doors are on the ceiling. How’s that going to still be a bridge?”
Fox sighed and stood. “If the bridge has been destroyed, we’ll have to go outside and jettison across.”
“Now you want us to go outside?” Leon said. His sarcasm cut.
Dylan could see his best friend’s nerves and temperament fracture under deaths strain. Leon looked up at the door with his hands in the air.
“We just as well give up now, the fucking ships must have left.”
“God I am ready for you,” Hammed said.
“Leon, we don’t know that yet,” Dylan replied.
“See. Space is all that’s there, and the ripped bridge all mangled.” Hope was fading from him by the second.
As if reading Dylan’s mind, Lecodia squeezed his hand. Her warmth and love were like an insanity deterrent. Without her he would have succumb to the madness a long time ago.
Michael said, “You’re right. I’m sure the bridge is gone.”
Fox nodded, then took a deep breath. “We’ll have to get maintenance kits on. They have jet propulsion systems on the suits. We can shoot the void in the escape pods that we can control, then eject when we’re near enough the ship. I’ll show you how they work. Until he was killed, my husband was a maintenance officer, so I’m familiar with them.”
Asteroid hits began sounding again, another bout of universal stoning. Calvin dropped his head and rubbed his neck. “I was a Quazar prison guard and I know now what it felt like being locked up, caged and detained.”
After a moment, Michael said, “We either die here or we die trying.”
“I’d rather try,” David said.
Dylan nodded. “Me too.”
Leon stopped his panic, and spoke with hands on his hips, “Then let’s fucking do it.”
The drenched group stood, rejuvenated for the final hurdle of survival, and followed Fox towards their only chance. She led them to a door positioned on the floor that was scribed Maintenance Bay. The men forced it open.
The room looked like a changing room in a gymnasium, albeit turned sideways. Luminous orange space suits lined the wall-turned-ceiling. The equipment was trashed about the floor, which was a ten meter drop below.
“Lower me down,” Fox said.
Calvin and Dylan lowered her into the room. She found footing on the changing stand that run centre room, then shouted up for everyone to follow.
One by one the surviving group carefully climbed down, arriving at the floor with Fox.
“Okay guys,” she said. “The door you see there is the exit bay. It’s a small room that compresses pressure and pushes out radiation. The escape pods are in there too, ready for ejection. Everyone grab a suit. It adjusts itself to your body.”
The arms and legs of the suits were stretched like someone had pulled on them. The fabric was wrinkled and scrunched.
Fox continued. “There is an intelligent computer in each suit. We can communicate with the ships from them. So, let’s get a move on. Clothes off everyone. The suit’s heating system will keep you warm. It tightens onto your skin.”
Swiftly everyone stripped to nothing and slipped on the orange suits, which bore the stations emblem of connected blood cells. On the back of each suit was scribed Maintenance.
Dylan held the transparent helmet that clipped to the suit in his hands. It was spherical, and a muzzle-like mouthpiece moulded from it. There were lines across the muzzled area, like a black bar code. He looked at Fox.
“What are the lines in the helmet for?”
Fox fitted her shoulders in and looked to the group. “The lines are for carbon dioxide. They absorb your poison as your breath, like a filter. They are made of lithium hydroxide. The entire suit recycles oxygen. You are breathing the same air over and over.” She moved to the pressure bay door and pressed the button to open while speaking. “Each suit has the ability to create pure atmospheric air, there are cartridges inside each one. They will last for weeks and what they do is take the nitrogen from the oxygen, then clean and recycle your breath. Our lungs and body need to be at the correct pressure to go outside. We’re not breathing earth like oxygen.”
A solid grey hexagon door split open in front of Fox. The group were worried. Dylan could see it in their eyes. They looked into the new pale cream room. There were two padded benches inside. It must have been eight meters in all directions, with small hexagon tiles indenting the walls all over its geodesic grid shape.
“This is the pressure bay,” she said. “Our bodies need to be at the correct pressure. We’ll go through three stages before we go outside.”
Dylan spotted a collection of thin black tubes with nozzles and tips, dangling from
the rounded wall turned ceiling. They looked like harnesses.
Fox moved into the pressure bay. “The suits are made of neoprene, Dacron, Mylar and a moisture absorber named Hellinex. It reflects, protects, warms, and pressurises your body. It adjusts with nano-fabric to your shape.”
One by one the survivors stepped into the bay.
Fox said, “Everyone listen. To the person next to you, please zip the suits upward, then connect the silver collar together and tighten. The carbon zip should vanish under its seam.”
Dylan turned to Lecodia. Her eyes peered into him, like she was touching his soul.
“We’re just going for a walk baby,” he said. “That’s all.”
The zip sealed Lecodia's suit with a seamless bond. Dylan couldn’t see the join, and it eased under the metallic like collar which connected around the neck. Dylan pushed that either side. It clinked and fitted snugly. Dylan was satisfied at her safety.
“We’re going to make it,” Lecodia said. Hope filled her eyes.
“Baby we are,” Dylan said, as she began his suit.
Fox hit the button that sealed the room. The nerves had materialised, Dylan swore he could see it in the air.
“Everyone, clip your helmets on. You’ll know when they’re working, because you’ll see a small micro-screen in the top left of your helmet. It will show your vital signs and communication links. In a moment it will beep and suck the suit to the preparation stage, the first stage.”
She continued instructing them in the suits’ dynamics, and the use of propellant thrusters.
Dylan helped Lecodia place the helmet over her head and clipped it down. It beeped an echoed beep, before a digital flickering covered the clear helmet, which hid Lecodia momentarily. She reappeared, and the suit vacuumed the air, which pressurised like someone was sucking it from her. The arms shortened, and the suit pulled tight around her body, like a wetsuit would in preparation of earth’s oceans. The suit was now a smooth rubbery fabric, with small dark lines beneath the orange colour. The lines ran the arms body, supplying oxygen, warmth, and life to the void walker. That’s what Dylan assumed they were as he inspected Lecodia. Her body’s shape was exquisite, every curve was clear.