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HULL BREACH
Andrew Stebbins
In the mineral-rich belts of the ringed planet Orimini VII, oddly enough, not many miners visit to seek minerals. In fact, rarely miners visit at all. It’s a place of seclusion, cut off from the rest of the galaxy of Eve. But, every once in awhile, a straggler looking for easy riches will happily drop into the belts for a few plentiful hours of mining. But for one person, it is a relief, a vacation from the constant hustle and bustle of the business world. He cruises along the curious Oriminian gas clouds and gazes into the system’s majestic bright white star. But, with today’s visit, he simply wishes to be one of those stragglers who want to pull riches out of the rings of Orimini VII. In these belts there are exotic metals, mostly Pyroxeres, Scordite, and Veldspar, but every here and there, you might just catch a sparkle of Hedbridgite or Crokite, maybe even some Mecroxit here and there out of the corner of your eye. This is the stuff miners are trained to look for. Our guy, Kreed Izkhanilov, also CEO of Epsilon Manufacturing and Co-Founder of the Gears alliance, has just seen this sparkle, and he slowly made his way to the group of Crokite asteroids he found, happy that he’ll be making a rather generous profit when he returns home. He leaned back in the command console chair and sighed in relief as his targeting computer chirped away, locking onto several asteroids. As he got within range, he zeroed the throttle and fired the forward jets, the ship slowly drifted to a stop within mining range of several valuable asteroids.
“Aura.” he inquired lazily.
“Yes?” replied a voice, that of an English female, which was the selected voice for his ship computer.
“Please energize our fitted mining lasers and begin mining the asteroids I have you locked onto.” he instructed, gently placing his hands behind his head and leaning further into the chair.
“Certainly.” the computer replied, and he watched as three radiant bright orange beams of light grew off the ship and began drilling the asteroids he had targeted earlier. His Xenon Chloride Astrogeological Drilling beams began vaporizing the rocks they were mining, converting their contents to gas, and pulling them into the ship, where they were flash-frozen and return to a solid state. This ore was then deposited into the ship’s cargo bay. Kreed slowly closed his eyes, relaxed and self-satisfied. Shortly after he closed his eyes, he fell into calm sleep. The ship continued mining, and shortly stripped the asteroids of their mineral contents. The shipboard computer decided not to wake him, and corrected the drills’ angles to line up with separate, untouched asteroids, holding other valuable ores. Minutes passed … thirty-three of them. Kreed awoke staring out the forward window of the ship, staring directly at the lonely gas cloud covered planet of Orimini VII. He jumped slightly, thinking he was on a collision course, but noticed the majestic asteroids drifting silently around his ship, and calmed down. He stretched and called the computer, once again, to his attention.
“Aura…?” he asked, yawning slightly.
“Yes?” she replied.
“How full is the cargo bay?” he inquired.
“A little bit over half of a load.” she ensured.
“Alright, let me know wh--” and he was cut off, he had heard a massive explosion, not a combustion sort of explosion, but a collision sort of explosion. The ship shook violently and the mining lasers lost power, locked in the positions they were at when they were mining. The ship began to drift wounded out of the belt. Kreed jumped to his feet in panic, only to find only to find that the artificial gravity had also been impaired. He drifted to the ceiling and put his hands up to break his glide.
“Aura, what the heck was that?!” he demanded, very shocked.
“Running a diagnostic now, I’ll be right with you.” she ensured.
“Please hurry…” he begged. Twenty-seven seconds passed and she finally answered his plea.
“There’s been a collision.” she reported, then continued, “An adrift asteroid must’ve hit the ship, and judging by the size of the hole it made, it wasn’t small or light.”
“Hole!?” he gasped.
“Yes, the hull has been fully breached. I have managed to seal that section off, but several oxygen lines have cracked on the exterior, and are bleeding air into space. I can’t do anything to seal them, the damage is too critical.”
“Alright … Do you still have thruster control?” he inquired shakily. She checked once more over her systems and replied.
“Yes, but it’s minimal. I can only travel at 12% full capacity, any more than that could risk the hull shaking to pieces.”
Kreed thought for a short while, then inquired, “Are exterior scanning systems active? I have an idea.” he said, still shaking, trying to conserve his breath.
“Just barely. They can only pick up objects within 3.24 kilometers.” she said.
“Do a full area scan, try to find some wreckage…” he demanded, his voice rasp and scared.
“Alright.” she replied, and the chip chirped, deafened by the constant screeching and creaking of the wounded hull. She found some results, and described them to him.
“I have some significant wreckage 2.2 Kilometers from here, looks like another cruiser went down. But your best bet is a battle cruiser wreck four kilometers from here.” she detailed.
“I thought you could only scan three and a quarter kilos” Kreed said.
“I used the magnetic properties of the Veldspar and Pyroxeres in the belt to boost the signal.” she informed him.
“Clever, alright, lay a course for that battle cruiser wreck, try to scan for some salvageable material, I’ll suit up and get ready to go outside.” he informed her.
“Outside? What do you mean outside?” she asked him, concerned with his safety.
“I’m going to patch up the ship with pieces of metal in the wreckages.” he told her, then promptly drifted away from the control panel, sparks were dashing about all over the corridor he was floating down. As the ship drifted to a stop, he could see pieces of her hull drifting into space, and he was flushed in a feeling of despair, realizing how badly hurt his beloved vessel was. Fitted in his spacesuit and Nitrous Oxide jetpack, he drifted into space toward the wreck, with a torch in his left hand. He drifted to the wreck and gently fired the forward breaking jets, coming to a stop. He scoped the wreckage, mesmerized by the massive charred planks of metal that drift silently past him. He scoped the forest of mangled Tritanium and found a thin piece of metal which was roughly shaped like the breached section of his ship. Not being held by the forces of gravity, he took hold of the massive sheet of metal and drifted to the breach in his cruiser. As he drifted around the tail of hip ship, he closed his eyes not entirely ready to witness the damage his ship had to suffer. He slowly opened them and sighed in sheer terror.
“Oh my God…Aura, are you getting this?” he asked, and adjusted the small camera feed attached to his helmet.
“Yes…” she replied through the suit’s comm. system.
“I can see the oxygen venting, and the main injury is too immense to describe, all three layers of the hull were breached, the ship’s wide open right here…I can see the walkway to the observation deck in plain sight, it’s too much for words…” he paused, then continued, “Well … let’s bandage this baby.” he said with a slight smirk, and slowly positioned the slab of metal over the gap and held it there, it floated effortlessly as he let go and drifted slowly around it. He stopped before the gap and carefully scanned around it’s edges with his eyes to find outwardly bent pieces of metal that would prevent an airtight fit. He carefully pinpointed these areas and fired his torch, lifting it carefully to the scrapped metal and cutting away the small shards of Tritanium. One the surface was cut to a smooth surface, he carefully tapped his Nitrous pack controls and drifted back around the slab of metal, pushing it slowly against the ship’s hull, once it clanged, making contact, he took his torch and slowly welded the two pieces of metal together. Once he had finished, he let off a sigh of relief and turned his head to investigate the punctures which were bleeding oxygen. He caught a drifting piece of shredded metal in the corner of his eye and reached out to grab it. Luckily, he caught it with the tips of his fingers and quickly pulled it to him. Examining it, he nodded and pressed it against the bleeding oxygen, it patched the hole well. Pressure was rapidly dropping, which told him he needed to hurry, or he wouldn’t make it home to deliver his minerals, which he feared would pay for the repair of his ship. He carefully welded the piece of scrap metal onto the heavily wounded hull, and reluctantly set off to find another piece of shredded Tritanium hull.
“Aura, what’s my status on oxygen?” he inquired, afraid of the answer.
“If you don’t patch that last hole up in the next three or four minutes, we won’t make it back.” she said with a slight rush to her voice.
“…Great.” he sulked, and promptly grabbed a piece of twisted metal he found twirling, stationary in space.
He returned to his ship and, unhappy with what he had to work with, twisted the metal into a somewhat reasonable shape and pressed it against the hole. Rushed with the feel of good fortune, he sighed in relief as it fit perfectly over the gap. He carefully welded it in place, and the ship was finally sealed, aside from a dozen or so other gashes, none of which were venting anything. As he drifted under the ship and passed under the cargo bay doors, his feeling of good fortune was immediately washed away when a razor sharp piece of mangled Tritanium passed him at a reasonable speed. It sliced through his suit and into the arm below it. Shrieking in unparallel pain, he tossed his torch into space and clutched his wounded arm.
“AURA!” he screamed into the comm. System.
“Yes? Are you alright?” she inquired, concern in her voice.
He replied, panting heavily. “I’m injured badly, open the cargo doors, I can’t make it to the airlock!” he demanded painfully.
“You’ll lose all your ore, though…” she insured him.
“BLAST THE ORE! Open the doors!” he demanded harshly.
“Alright.” she replied, the bay doors hissed and opened, the rocks drifting into space, pulled by the vacuum of depressurization. Kreed frantically dodged a couple of the rocks and fired his verticals on the Nitrous pack, once he was in the bay his blood was frozen over his arm, and his arm numb with pain.
“Close the doors, Aura! Hurry!” he demanded, in sheer pain.
“Closing.” she replied.
The doors slowly closed and the bay pressurized, artificial gravity was still impaired from the collision. He floated in the bay, panting slowly as to not use up his air supply, he reached up and removes his helmet with his uninjured hand, hissing in pain. Once he had it removed, he took a deep breath of the oxygen that he had worked so hard to keep a hold of. Deeply disappointed that he lost his valuable ore, he sighed sadly. He looked around the bay, it was dark, quiet… but he saw a crimson sparkle in the distance. He set his foot on a loose pipe and kicked gently off it toward the sparkle, stopping before it. Still clutching his forearm, he reached out with his injured hand and grabbed the two crimson stones. They were chipped off pieces of Morphite. Satisfied that he was able to keep something of value, he grasped the Morphite in his hand and spoke softly into the comm. System.
“Aura…” he said quietly.
“Yes?” she replied, relief in her voice, knowing he was okay.
“Take us home…” he replied, drifting quietly in the cargo bay of the ship.
“Alright…” she said quietly, and the ship creaked quietly as it slowly pulled away from the asteroid belt that could have been it’s demise. Kreed smiled gently, realizing the fate he had evaded.
THE END
[[ιzкнαиιℓσν]] ‹—«¨«•яєνєяѕє єиgιиєєяιиg•»¨»—›   Kreed Izkhanilov · Tue Mar 04, 2008 @ 10:40pm · 2 Comments |
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