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Chapter 6

Chapter Six

March 20th 2157

            A crowd had gathered around Jake’s workspace.  Mathews, Jafta, and Salim watched as Jake manipulated the controls warming the processer up.  Mathews was coordinating the movement of the large asteroid.  Sam, Mel, and Luca were working in tandem, using the combined thrust of the three suits to maneuver the asteroid to the station.  After the better part of two hours the asteroid was now on approach.

            “Alright, lets ease up a little.  Slow it down a little more.  Five hundred meters until station.”  Mathews looked at Jake, “Is the processer on line and ready?”

            “The grinder is spinning up as we speak.”

            “Good,” Mathews returned his focus back to his DNAC.  “Luca, tighten up your tether, we don’t want too much slack.”

            There was a moment where all focus was on the screens in front of the small group.  There was something that Jake wanted to ask Mathews, and he decided now was as good a time as any.  “Mathews, what is Luca’s story?  Why does he dislike me so much?”

            Mathews stopped manipulating his DNAC and looked up at him.  “I don’t think he dislikes you.  I suppose he still hasn’t gotten over the loss of Arom.  Arom was our last processor.”

            Jacob continued to work his console, but was also very interested in Mathew’s story.  Mathew’s continued, “Luca and Arom were very close.  They both grew up together and started working on this station at the same time.  They got married two years back.  Three months ago Arom was running some tests on a nearby asteroid.”

            Mathew’s took a deep breath and then continued once again, “Arom’s suit malfunctioned.  His exoskeleton broke down at his left elbow.  The hydraulics overpowered and shattered the frame.  The suits are tear resistant, but it wasn’t built to withstand sharp metal forced at a high velocity.”

            Jake realized that he had stopped paying attention to his work, and turned back to the monitors.  Several moments of silence passed.  He made sure that the processor was running and at full capacity.

            A squawk was heard from the comm unit, it was Mel.  “We have the rock in position, and have begun cutting.”  Using bonded plasma cutters, the team could control how large of chunks would be fed into the grinder portion of the processor.  All three collectors were working to cut up this massive payday.

            Mathews used the break in conversation to continue his story.  “Arom’s suit had a puncture roughly a centimeter long.  He called for help as the malfunction happened, but it was too late.  His suit started to decompress, pulling air water and blood out through the small hole.  Luca was the first to reach Arom; he tethered to Arom and began to drag him to the station.  Arom was still conscious and speaking as Luca did his best to pull him to safety.”

            “It took Luca nearly ten minutes to get Arom into the are lock.  Once the room began to recompress Luca began to remove Arom’s exoskeleton and then his suit.”  Once again Mathews paused, Jake turned and made eye contact with him.  “Do you know what happens when a human is exposed to space?”

            “Well,” Jake said hesitantly.  “Not everything, just what I have seen in movies and read in books.”

            “It’s not quite the same as in the books and movies.  Some of them get close though.  First all of the air inside your body would rush out of the nearest orifice because of the pull of the vacuum.  Without a protective suit you would black out in about ten to fifteen seconds.  Then because of the lack of pressure, all of your soft tissues would rupture, and any liquids exposed to the vacuum would then begin to boil.”

            “I thought the body would freeze.”  Jacob said as he noted that the first chunk of asteroid had been entered into the grinder.  He took a moment to read the measurements of the machine to make sure it was working correctly and efficiently.

            “No, without an atmosphere to handle the transfer of heat, the loss of temperature is slow.”  Mathews took a few deep breaths and then continued, “Arom’s left elbow from mid bicep down looked as if it had been baked and turned into jerky.  At the shoulder and covering the rest of his body was an angry burn that looked bright red…  Sam, cut the cubes smaller, we don’t want the grinder working too hard.”

            It took Jake a moment to realize that Mathews was no longer talking to him, but to Sam over the comm.  He probably would have realized earlier but he was lost in the story.  He had no idea that this had occurred, Jake hadn’t actually thought about why there was an opening on this station.

            “The accident happened when Arom had close to ninety percent tank pressure.  Which slowed the rate at which he suffocated, and burned.  It took him over five minutes before he passed out.  He was still slightly alive when Luca pulled him out of his suit.  Moisture from his mouth was boiling as the pressure began to rise in the air lock… as well as his eyes.  Arom died as we were moving him into to loading dock.”

            “My god,” Jake had lived a quiet life.  Up until coming to this station, death was a quiet thing that occurred in hospitals.  And now within forty-eight hours he had been introduced to two-second hand accounts of tragedy.  A few moments passed in silence as Jake checked the readings again and Mathews checked on the progress of the collectors.

            “I don’t think that Luca dislikes you.  I just don’t think he is ready for you to replace him.”   Mathews once again turned his full attention on the collectors cutting the asteroid into workable cubes.

            “Well,” Salim broke the silence.  “I guess I have put off working long enough.  I’m getting suited up.”  Salim turned and floated toward the loading dock whistling as he went.  He almost made it out of the room when Mel called over the comm.

            “Hey, Mathews, we have something here.  Sam, Luca, come help me out with this.”

            “What have you got?”  Inquired Mathews.

            “I’m not sure, there is something inside the asteroid.  It’s black, opaque, and…  It has a straight edge.”

            “An edge?”  Jacob asked?

            “Yeah, it definitely has an edge.  That would indicate it isn’t natural.”

            “Could it be part of a satellite?”  It was Mathews turn to ask.

            “I have no idea, Sam and Luca are here and we are extracting it from the asteroid.”  Mel stopped talking and focused on freeing the strange object from the rock.

            Jake was curious as to how a man made object could end up inside an asteroid.  Man had been sending objects into space for over two hundred years, would that have been enough time for a satellite to become encased in an asteroid?  It seamed highly unlikely.

            As the three collectors worked to remove the object, Salim had suited up and was moving toward the three.  Jacob could see from the holo screen that Salim had attached some testing gear onto his exoskeleton.  Why would he need testing gear for a satellite?

            “Sam, be carful!” Mel yelled.

            “Relax,” Sam retaliated.  “It’s hard, the photon blade didn’t cut into it.”

            “Jake, what is the status of the centrifuge?”

            “Uh, um…”  Jacob had forgotten about his work on the processor.  He worked the controls for a beat before responding to Mathews.  “Uh, yeah.  The first load is currently being heated up.”

            “Good, we can’t neglect our jobs just because we got sidetracked with some pretty object.”  The tone of Mathews voice indicated that he didn’t believe that the object was worth any of their time or attention.  Mathews attention was on the crew finishing up freeing the object.  “Once it’s free I don’t want all of you bringing it back to the station.  Salim why don’t you bring it in?  Anchor it to the station until we can figure out what to do with it?  I want the rest of you back to cutting the asteroid.”