The Sentinel Fulcrum, 8: Unwelcome Surprise
30 Nov 2021Meowers
Uh... Honestly, we've been so screwed. Hell knows where, and ship systems went down completely and..completely unexpected. Crap! I know this ship inside out, there were no damage alerts, no signs of any malfunction, except that weird metal sound... But damaged drive doesn't sound like that. And now..silence. Silent falling onto an unknown star. Crap... Ah, okay, I have to go outside and assess the possible damage. And look at the starscape. Maybe I'll have any idea about our location...
So, Creamy volunteered to accompany me on that EVA walk and... huh, opened the cockpit door. Like, hah, like I'm too weak to open it manually by myself? Ah, those manners... Centuries pass, they remain the same. Always display that you're 'stronger'. Ugh. Gross. And, hah, he forgot to connect the safety cord.
"Oh, awesome", finishing with connecting the EVA safety cord to my suit, I took the second reel out of the emergency supplies locker and slowly pushed it towards Creamy. Hah. Sometimes I enjoy throwing stuff around in zero-G... And then I nodded towards the slowly floating reel. "You better catch this. Courtesy is useless when you're falling onto a star. And... yeah. Always letting women go to the dangerous places first, heh?"
Can't say that I was graceful with those zero-G EVA floating moves... I'm not graceful at all, to be honest, hah. But, well, effective at least. So... I needed a plan. And it was pretty simple: EVA first, find and deal with any damage or interference, inspect the ship, and then do any internal repairs and system reboot. And... Let's follow it. Before leaving the cockpit, I glanced at the rifle, that was placed in the holding clamps on the wall. Hmmm... Yup. As for me, being armed is being prepared. And I, kind of... Like that weapon. Saved my sorry arse several times. I may not need that thing after all, but if I'm going to need it... It's better to have it on my back. And, uh. Who knows what kind of weird crap could be haunting us. So... Whatever it is, it's going to choke on a heated plasma rounds before getting to me. Releasing the clamps, I took the weapon and fixed the belt on my suit, so it won't be flapping-flopping around.
"Ah, don't ask me", I mumbled quietly, arming myself. "Let's go. EVA first, internals later. Inspect, locate, repair". And I walked down the main corridor towards the emergency airlock in its end. It was completely dark, so I tried to activate the flashlight on my suit... Only to see nothing. Crap! Seems like all electrical devices went offline, even those not connected to the ship. However, it was narrowing the search down to... Interferences. Not the ship malfunctions. So.. Suit circuitry was out as well. At least the oxygen supply was using the simple pressure physics, and thermal insulation was good enough, I had, like, half an hour outside, before getting fried by that... Yellow star. And, uh, my first destination point was the red dwarf. Crap, weird crap...
Anyway, said that he should follow me, because I know the Marshmallow better than station techs and anybody else. At least we were able to talk in the ship. But... gestures-only outside. As soon as we left the cockpit, we lost the light of the star and Creamy had to stay close to me. Fortunately, the airlock had a narrow view port in both doors that lie a little light trickle into the prep area. Creamy took a stack of old-fashioned magnetic clamps and tested them on a bulk head. They may be manual, but they still had a very strong grip, providing they made contact with a magnetic surface. So, hm, he offered his help with keeping us anchored to the hull.
But... Ugh. You know, the less air inside the airlock, the shorter the pressure equalising. So, we had to go in pair and that guy... Was standing just a few inches away from me, face to face. And looking at me. And smiling. Goddammit. He was just, like, one or two centimetres taller than me, and, huh, tried to stand on tiptoe to look taller? Damn. That's annoying, but the most annoying part, he just put his hand on the wall beside my head and...leaned down to 'talk'. FFff...
About a 'suit seal check'. Damn. Actually, it was a logical idea, since the suit power was off, and so were the pressure indicators. We could lose air even without noticing it. But, well, you know, I had that idea, that..he just wanted to touch me. Crap.
He pushed himself away and leaned on the wall behind him, putting his hands on his thighs.
Ah, those slow mechanical air vents. They were meant to slow down the air flow, while it was escaping the ship, into the open space... So..uh. Staying so close to this man wasn't really a comfortable experience, but, yup, the more people inside, the less free space, and less air to lose. Told him that there's no need to hover over me so close... Still enough air to hear each other. I hoped that my usual flat tone won't be perceived as a 'passive acceptance' of this situation.
Checking his gloves-to-sleeves and sleeves-to-vest connections was simple enough, but looking at the helmet seal brought me..uncomfortably close again. Yep..you know. I don't have any prejudices or whatever, but..too close. My former target and now accidental companion wasn't looking..interested only in the practical side of that process..you got it. Yep, that smile. And did he try to look me in the eyes, while I was inspecting that helmet seal?
And, uh, those vest and boots. There was too little room, and I had to almost sit on the floor, and, hah..You know, I'm clumsy a bit. So, both of his boots were looking okay... And then the vest-to-trousers... Ah, crap. Yup, it was okay, sealed tightly, but, you know. I couldn't see it, but I guess that guy was smiling like an idiot. Ugh... those casanovas.
Saying that he's good to go, I stood up from the floor. Also had to add that it's his turn now. Or, well... A last chance to touch me without being shot. And that devilish grin. Learned that thing long ago and completely liked the effect, hah.
So, okay. Time to be professional. While Creamy was opening the door, I gave him a shoulder pat to attract his attention, then pointed at the little panel on the wall, opened it, and at the cord reel, placed on my belt. Then I slowly put the reel on the rod behind that panel, fixed it and checked how it works, pulling some centimetres of the cord away. Okay, with those magnetic clamps and the cords we were safe enough.
Looking at Creamy's attempts to open the door, I stood motionless for a while, giving him that slight smile... Then pointed at a red-coloured switch with the 'primary lock' sign above it. Slowly pulling down the switch, I looked how my naive companion almost lost his footing, with one magboot detaching from the floor. Thumbs up, let's go.
Opening the door..I took a little pause to look at the endless, black, deep space with stars scattered all over it. Admiring the beauty. Frightening endlessness, eternity and immortality of matter... I've remembered the history lessons..those astronauts of the old times, their simple orbital ships and first stations..made of thin light alloys. Now, EVA in open space is a rare, emergency procedure... But those years it was everyday basic. Truly amazing, brave people they were.
Grabbing the handrail, I turned around and attached my magnetic clamps on the hull, starting to crawl upwards, until I was able to stand on my feet, attaching the magboots to the hull. Without electricity, their power was at 'default medium' level, but it was enough, since ship was motionless. And that yellow star... It was beautiful..and dangerous. And the hull of my trusty Marshmallow...Looking good so far. Ah, that creamy-beige colour..a little yellowy in that lighting, but still. Hah. One of my favourites. So, let's go further.
My companion was nearly useless. He knew bloody nothing about Fer-de-Lances and wasn't a tech to assess the possible damage, so, he was a kind of anchor, holding my cord, but I had magboots and hand magclamps as well. So... He was crawling, I was carefully walking, and the ship exterior seemed to be completely intact. Not a dent, not a spark, nothing, just completely intact armour plating.
Fore part... check. Sides... check. Wings... check. Bottom... check. Marshmallow was completely okay from the outside. But something blown out the fuses and turned off..everything. Including suits. Including autonomous circuitry of the emergency airlock. So... I brought us into the shadow zone, to dissipate accumulated heat from the star. And started thinking. Gesturing Creamy to slow down.
See... His ship went completely offline when he activated his mining lasers. Years ago. And now... Marshmallow went offline, and those weird photos... When I got that contract to eliminate him! So..something...wanted...to eliminate Creamy. Why by my hands? Can't figure out now. But...when I refused to do that, and..they..got to know.. They started causing troubles for me as well. What. The. Weird. Crap. Come on, you little shit, show your face! Ah...Hate this. You know, I like to keep things plain and simple. I'm not hiding from confrontations, I may be predictable and too open, but I rely on my skills and I'm improving them constantly to overcome waves of crap that this life is throwing at me. And I'm doing better and better each year.
So, then...We inspected the ship once again, starting from the aft part this time... And... Just look at this crap. You know those heat dissipator panels? They're yellowish almost all the time, because they're hot. But now, when ship was offline and temperatures lowered... There was a faint electric blue light visible in the corner of one of them. Too small and too faint to be visible when ship is powered...So, I went to investigate.
A goddamn tracking device! Or whatever. It emitted the same electric blue glow...That was on those weird photos. That was enveloping Creamy's lost Anaconda. What the crap... Detaching that thing from the ship, I've also shown it to Creamy, and..he just shrugged. Hah. No surprise. If his ship had the same stuff attached, there was no way for him to find it. Anaconda is a large ship, significantly larger than my Fer-de-Lance, and he's no tech, and he was alone there.
Hah. I know what to do with this thing...I'll just throw it away. But not that simple...I took the rifle and aimed. Holo-projector scope was offline, obviously, but, hey, nothing could beat the glorious might of the iron sights! Blam! Ah, okay, there's no 'blam' in space...But this thing magnificently evaporated, adding its slowly dissipating blue glow to the perfect picture of detonating high-explosive plasma round.
And shortly after...Hah...I've seen the helmet HUD appearing and comm channel opening...Ah, dammit, this guy was singing..some crappy pop song! Hah...Then he realised that comms were open and, like, let out a little apologetic cough. And I made the most sarcastic 'ha ha ha'. Ha!
So, we returned to the ship to do internal diagnostics, and, during it, I found a time to finally ask him. Like... Was it looking like something that happened to his ship back then?
Looks like I'm getting off that stinking hook.
(What the heck is that and who put that thing on my ship?)