Escape to the Stars!

by Glenn L Erickson

  Chapter 12: Vacuum Practice

  A chime from the Comm panel awakened her. She struggled back to consciousness and managed to locate the Talk button before another chime could sound.

  “Yes?”

  “Ms. Alexandra Loginov?”

  “Yes?” Hearing her formal name bothered her for some reason.

  “Please report to Training Center 15 in an hour for orientation.”

  “Uh, Okay.” The Comm panel went silent. She glanced at the chronometer and realized she had been asleep for nearly 9 hours. She stepped into the shower and took what she was told was a “Navy Shower”. She missed the long hot showers of home and the University. She had been introduced to water-conserving measures like the navy shower during her training at the base on Earth. She didn’t like them but it was better than the alternative.

  Toweling off, she took stock of her body in the metal mirror on the back of the shower door. She was pleased to see that she hadn’t started gaining the belly-bulge that had plagued her mother. Dressing quickly, she ran a comb through her now-shorter hair and popped a tooth-cleanser tablet into her mouth. Looking around, she realized that she was procrastinating so she opened the door and stepped out.

  After locking the door to her cubical, she consulted her pad for directions to Training Room 15. The route would lead her past a galley so she headed off, desperate for a cup of tea to wash the tooth-cleanser taste out of her mouth.

  She ordered an omelet and orange juice with her tea and had a hurried breakfast before walking the few hundred yards to the training room. She was introduced to many other colonists that had been there a bit longer and was given an overview of the training she would receive for the next few weeks.

  She read the list on her pad and was appalled to realize that they would be undergoing space-suited damage-control drills. Her suit had been fitted to her on Earth but she hadn’t seen it since. She hoped it had made the transit with her. She dreaded the chance that something would go wrong. Or worse; that she would throw-up in the helmet. She had heard stories of people having thrown-up in their helmets never getting the smell out again.

  Her father had worked with his hands all his life and had made sure Alexi and her brothers had good skills with tools. She didn’t mind the DC drills while in atmosphere, but DC in vacuum was very dangerous. If you snagged your suit, you could die within seconds or minutes if you couldn’t slap a self-adhesive patch over the hole. Even in the practices on Earth in the vacuum chambers there had been deaths and near-deaths in training.

  Scrolling further down the list, she was overjoyed to see that she was going to be allowed to learn how to pilot the one-person jumpers that were used outside the ships for repairs, and occasionally, for fun. She had watched recordings of un-sanctioned races and other demonstrations of skill by experienced Jumper pilots. It looked like a lot of fun! The rest of the list was mainly refresher and more zero-gee training. No sweat.

  She and the other newly-arrived colonists were re-introduced to their space suits. A station tech helped them to unpack the suits and inspect the seals. They put the suits together and inflated them with helium, then ran wands over the seals looking for leaks. A couple of suits needed repairs but her seals were okay.

  She was then asked to prep and don her suit. First, she deflated the suit and removed the helmet. She hung the body of the suit from the hooks on the stand and placed the helmet on the head-rest. She unzipped the front of the suit and clipped the flaps open. She emptied her pockets of loose or pointed objects and pulled on a disposable skull-cap.

  With the tech standing by and her back to the suit, she grabbed the bar over her head and kicked off lightly. The tech guided her feet into the waist-high opening of the lower half of her suit. Once she was positioned properly, she lowered herself gently, pointing her toes to clear the foot-openings. When she settled her feet into the attached boots, she straightened and reached back to shrug into the shoulder straps and settle the suit onto her shoulders. She then brought the leg and waist-straps together in front of her and snapped each into the quick-released buckle.

  She pushed her hands into the attached gloves and flexed her fingers and wrists to check the range-of-motion. Satisfied, she reached behind her and connected the umbilical from the portable power-pack and turned it on. Cool air flooded the suit.

  Next, she zipped up the front seals and tucked the tabs so the ends wouldn’t snag on something. She pulled the helmet off the rest and slowly lowered it onto the seals and locked it into place. She felt the pressure inflate the suit and she verified that it was air-tight by watching the tell-tales in her helmet. She nodded to the tech and he touched his pad. He grinned at her and said “Not bad for a rookie. Now, let’s see you take it off properly.”

  Sighing, Alexei recalled the mantra she had learned to properly enter and leave her suit. He timed her as she removed and prepped the suit for storage. He had her go through the exercise two more times before he would certify her for egress readiness.

  “Alright, let’s head for the practice chamber.” He walked beside her as she followed the painted footsteps on the floor to the practice chamber. She had a brief moment of panic as the tech closed the door behind her but she managed to quell her fear quickly. She hoped the monitors in her suit hadn’t given her away.

  The tech’s voice sounded in her ears. “Okay. I’m depressurizing the chamber. Signal if you have any problems.”

  “You mean like having a case of the screaming mimi’s?” she asked half-jokingly.

  “Those too but I won’t bring you out because of those. You’ll just have to do what I do.” He didn’t finish the sentence.

  She waited for him to complete the statement. “What do you do?” she asked, curious.

  He looked at her with serious eyes and said quietly “I turn off my radio and wait until I’m done screaming.”

  “Oh.” Knowing that a seasoned space-veteran could still get the shakes did little to reassure her.

  She followed all of his directions and he had her out of the chamber in less than an hour. As she slowly shed the suit, she realized that she had been sweating heavily, despite the cooling unit. She was conscious of the tech helping her out of the suit and wondered if the odor was reaching him.

  When they had completed removing the suit, she disposed of the skull-cap. She then assisted the tech in prepping the suit for storage until the next session. When they had the suit back in its storage locker, the tech silently pointed to a door at the back of the room. Obediently, she thanked him and headed for the mysterious door. She stepped through to find unisex shower stalls, without water-meters! Gratefully, she stepped into one and locked the door. She took her time luxuriating under the endless hot water and shampooed her hair twice.

  When she was re-dressed after her shower, she stepped back into the training room to find the tech was helping another student into the chamber. She waved her thanks to him as she left and he gave her a knowing smile.

  The rest of her training was nearly behind her when received news that her father had died in an industrial accident while training some young engineers. Her brother’s somber face on the screen told her how hard it had hit him. Alexi was stunned into silence. She missed her next class but no one chided her for it. Every one of her instructors seemed to be aware of what had happened. It wasn’t until two days later that the stations’ chaplain visited her. He sat and listened politely as she told him about her father and rubbed her back as she bawled like a baby.

  She slipped into the training room on the third day and no one commented. The instructor welcomed her back with a smile and let her approach him for missed material. She was numb for a week.