The Sirius Job, Part 4
18 May 2017User4296
Mitschigua SystemImperial Space
February 3302
The message was simple. "We've found it, come to the airlock. Bring your suit."
And so I found myself nearing the Pyrrha's airlock, once again dressed in my pilot's jumpsuit, helmet tucked under one arm. Takamura and the others were already there, though only the Asian, Tucker, and one of the soldiers wore suits similar to mine.
Takamura nodded at my approach. "We... must alter the plan slightly. The ice field is too dense to scoop what we need directly, and so we must do things the old fashioned way."
"We're going out and collecting it ourselves?" I asked.
The female technician stepped forward, keeping her eyes pointed down toward the deck. "Er, yes, sir... The four of you will guide the life pod close to the cargo bay... I'll collect the pod using the tractor beams and guide it inside."
"You sure you like me getting a look at your cargo?" I asked.
He tilted his head. "It is an acceptable risk. In any case, it is now necessary - one of our crew... was ill-prepared, and will now sit out the rest of the mission." It was then that I noticed the other male technician was missing.
"Don't you think that's a bit harsh?" I asked.
"For us, failure is quite serious," Takamura said, turning and pressing the keypad next to the inner airlock door. It slid open with a hiss. He and Tucker pulled the helmets on over their heads, as the soldier and I followed them into the small room, quickly following suit. The four of us hooked our tethers to the wall.
Tucker turned and tapped the side of his helmet. "Be careful. We still aren't sure why we lost the freighter. Scans are normal, but..."
Takamura waved his hand as the interior door closed and the oxygen drained from the room. "Caution is always required, Tucker-san," his voice came through the communication system built into the helmet this time, taking on the distinctive "tinny" sound that radios seemed to imbue upon spacesuits. At that, the outer door slid open, and the four of us stepped into the void, one after the other.
I stepped out last, and was immediately struck at how massive the ice field seemed now that I was outside the safety of the ship. White mist seemed to extend out in all directions, seeping in to wherever a large chunk of ice wasn't. The soldier and I glanced at each other for a moment - she was just as inexperienced at this as I was, and we needed the extra time to regain our senses.
Takamura and Tucker had already reached one of the nearby escape pods and appeared to be scanning the computer attached to the side of the pod. Tucker looked up at Takamura and nodded, before motioning the rest of us over.
"What about the rest of them?" I asked, indicating the other pods with a sweep of my arm when I reached the pod. There were clusters of them around the wreck, easily enough for at least ten crewmembers.
Takamura shook his head. "This is the important one. This is the mission."
"So many... We're leaving all of them?" the soldier asked.
What a shitty way to die, I thought. Humans could survive in stasis nearly indefinitely, provided they had enough power. Escape pods had large power reserves, but were constantly being drained - both by keeping the person inside alive and by the occasional distress signal the pod emitted, but eventually those reserves would run out.
I wonder if they wake up long enough to suffocate to death?
"You have your orders, corporal," Takamura said, and set about unhooking the tether from his suit and attaching it to one side of the pod. Tucker floated to the opposite side of the pod and the soldier moved to the front, before they both did the same, leaving me to float nearby, watching.
I nodded toward her. "Your company may send out another ship soon," I offered hopefully. "Maybe the rest of these people have a shot." The glance she shot me as she moved around to the back of the pod said all I needed to know - she believed that even less than I did.
The three of them activated their tether controls, allowing the Pyrrha to slowly begin pulling the pod toward the ship, pulling them along with it. I followed closely, until I noticed something spark against the side of the pod.
"Did you see that?" I asked.
Tucker answered without turning around. "Micro-meteorite," he said. "They're all over the place in planetary rings and asteroid belts. If we move quickly we should be fi-"
He was cut short by a scream. The three of us turned toward the female soldier, who was struggling with one of the shoulders on her suit.
"What's wrong?" I asked, before the problem became painfully apparent. Oxygen, in the form of a small stream of gas, was escaping out of her suit, despite her best attempts to plug the hole with her other hand. She had let go of the pod to do this, and was slowly drifting away, the small leak acting as propellant.
I reached out for her, and she feebly grasped out with her hand. Our fingers barely brushed together, but it wasn't close enough - the stream of air had stopped, replaced by a thin trickle of blood, doubtless from whatever wound that the micro-meteorite caused when it pierced the suit. She was spinning through space now, flailing at the void, her communication-link transmitting the last of her labored attempts at breathing.
Then she was silent.
I turned to see the two men guiding the pod around toward the front of the ship, having re-attached their tethers to themselves, now that they didn't need them to pull the pod to the ship. The third tether simply hung in space.
"It… is regrettable, John-san," Takamura said, over the radio. "However, this is what she volunteered for."
"... That micro-meteorite must have ricocheted off the pod and into her," Tucker observed. "That's damn unlucky."
I floated in the ice field for a moment, before pressing the tether control on my belt. The Pyrrha began pulling me in.
"We will meet you inside, commander," Takamura said.
Something about how casually he was taking all of this suddenly enraged me.
"Unlucky? Like all these poor bastards we're leaving here to die?" I spat.
There was no response from either of them.
***
It was probably a good thing there was no one in the corridor between the airlock and the cabin, as it was all I could do to not throw my helmet across the room once I arrived. Instead, I settled on slamming the helmet into the small galley's table, which scared my new companion. He let out a whimper and darted into the head.
I stood in the small room for the moment and seethed. I had seen people die before - hell, I'd even killed my fair share of them - but that was usually in combat, or self-defense, or the defense of someone else. This was something else entirely. These people were being left to die.
Maybe, in some way, I was blaming myself for the soldier's death. She was right there, and inches separated us and her survival.
My companion had wandered back into the room, tail between his legs and head slightly bowed, and had slowly padded his way over. I glanced down at him before I knelt and gently patted his head with a gloved hand.
"Unlucky, eh?" I asked him. In response, he tilted his head and huffed. I stood and turned toward the door, pausing before I moved through it again, back into the corridor.
Maybe the soldier was unlucky. There wasn't anything you could do.
I crossed the threshold.
That doesn't mean all these people have to be unlucky too.