Prisoner Six

Part 3

Day 740 13:33 Hours

Three minutes later, Sam was spraying the last of the fire suppressant inside Power Compartment 1, bracing herself against the opposite wall. At last, the fire subsided, but she kept her oxygen mask on. The smoke had made the air unbreathable, so the compartment would need to be sealed off from the rest of the ship and the air purged. Sam suspected the power converters and hull would also need significant repair. Yet, after doing some mental inventory for spare converters, she came up short. Too many converters had already fried or died during her long voyage.

Then, Sam remembered: fire. There was a separate protocol for that. Scolding herself once more for her sloppiness, she called out to Vox.

"Vox, initiate emergency fire protocol in PC1."

"Yes, Commander," said Vox.

Below Sam's feet, a portion of the scorched floor slid aside, revealing a hidden storage locker made of heavy, flame- and freeze-resistant material, locked with a manual safe lock. If a catastrophic fire or hull breach destroyed vital equipment in a compartment, this was the last-ditch solution to salvage it. Sam opened the manual lock and examined the contents inside the locker. She smiled as she pulled out several pristine, spare converters. Perhaps this hulk of a ship would last a bit longer after all—that is, if the hull was still intact. Sam looked up at the walls of the compartment. They appeared unblemished and the air pressure felt stable.

"Vox, give me the hull status in PC1," she ordered.

"The hull is undamaged in PC1."

"How is that possible? Then what caused the fire?"

"The hull was breached in PC2," corrected Vox.

Sam's breath caught in her throat. No...

"What's the reactor's status?" she asked tightly.

"Stable... for the moment," answered Vox. "There is no damage to the unit itself and no contamination detected. But the breach froze the coolant system, causing the converters to overheat, which sparked the fire in PC1. I've dropped the ship's power to 70% to prevent further overheating, but it is recommended that you perform an EVA immediately to repair the hull in PC2 and restore the coolant system."

Sam sighed into her mask. On a sliding scale of damage, this ranked somewhere between "royally screwed" and "asteroid-and-a-hard-place." While the damage had missed the reactor itself—which could have triggered a fission reaction—the risk of radiation exposure in PC2 meant the hull repairs had to be performed outside the ship. It was a difficult task to achieve... alone. Even so, Sam used to enjoy doing zero-G maintenance. The thrill of weightlessness plus the straightforward nature of mechanical tasks gave her a sort of peace. Now, after repairing and re-repairing nearly every system on the aging ship, maintenance EVA's only served to remind her that she was floating on a ticking time bomb that had long surpassed its expiration date.

At the moment, however, that was not Sam's biggest problem. Her biggest problem was waiting for her—in stasis container six.

Sam replaced the fire suppressant and sealed the power compartment off from the rest of the ship. She then slowly made her way around the wheel to the prisoner observation deck. As she reached the door, Vox stopped her with a question.

"Commander... what is your intention?"

Good question, thought Sam. She wasn't entirely sure.

"I'm going to assess his vitals and attempt communication. Please standby on mute and pause the cameras in the prisoner observation deck," she instructed.