A Time of Useful Consciousness

EVA

The reaction control system in the backpack kicked me in the back like a mule as it turned me to face the sphere. I could see Anna far ahead, she motioned thumbs up as a question. I returned the gesture to reassure I was fine but almost immediately the various pains that had been masked by adrenalin caught up with me. I was in pain all over, normally a functioning suit would even out the temperature and pressure ensuring both were even across the body. With the jury rigged remains of the suit I only had pressure where the belts were wrapped around me, in those spots I was simply uncomfortable rather than hurting.

My waist was on fire from the oxygen generators but the rest of me was freezing cold, even with all the layers of insulation I'd padded on. My lifeline were the twelve tubes of oxygen rushing into the helmet. There was a burning smell to the air that I hoped was normal but otherwise I was still breathing. After each breath I could feel the air getting sucked out via the gaps around the neck despite the rolls of duct tape and repair patches we'd applied. Looking down at my chest I could see little jets of fog vented into space all around me.

Anna turned back toward the sphere and I could see her reaction control system light up before the rope went taut and I was pulled toward her. I could still feel the occasional kick from the backpack as it stopped me from spinning as Anna was remotely controlling the direction we faced. We drifted like this for a few minutes, the sphere looming larger and larger ahead until it quickly began to fill my entire field of vision.

I kept feeling a regular kick from the backpack and feared it might be malfunctioning. Looking behind me I saw the problem, one of my oxygen pipes had come loose and was flicking wildly behind me. With all the duct tape and belts holding the suit together it was extremely difficult to move but I managed to grab it. To my horror, another of the pipes broke in the process, the plastic tube crumbling like a layer of thin ice. Even though the oxygen was warm the exposed tubes were freezing, I tried to limit my movements to only what was absolutely necessary.

As we neared the sphere Anna's jetpack cut out and she turned back toward me to motion we should start pulling the rope inward. We needed to regroup to decelerate together, hitting the sphere at this speed with my suit would be a quick death. Anna held a palm out to motion danger as a huge shard of blue stone from the shattering ring spun past my right shoulder. As it spun I could see an empty airline seat attached to the underside and the torn carpet of the aisle. Once it passed Anna motioned again to start pulling the rope.

We'd practiced this simple motion of looping the rope around our arms in the aisle but here in space it seemed almost impossibly complex. I paused after the first few loops of rope, it took some time to be sure but at least two more of the oxygen tubes had stopped. The heat from them still burned around my waist but somewhere between there and my helmet the tubes had shattered.

We reached each other with about two thirds of the way to go toward the sphere. Anna pressed her helmet against mine and asked if I was ok, I nodded and gave another thumbs up. She crawled around to my back and holding on we turned in unison before I felt the push from her jetpack kick in. As we decelerated I listened carefully and counted, only six tubes were still flowing.

The ring was a chaos of wreckage and through it the creatures writhed like ants. Anna pointed to the middle of a section still distant from the expanding collapse. Two silent explosions had just gone off, the short distance between them looked like it was at either end of a single cabin. The resulting debris was a rapidly expanding cloud of crushed seats, luggage and creatures, some of which were now heading toward the sphere.

Anna pressed her helmet against mine again. "They blew the fuel stores like we found at the Hlé field". I could see tiny yellow sparkling dots from the unburned biofuel beads glinting in the light. The cloud of wreckage passed behind the sphere as we turned one last time to face the now visible airlock door only meters away.

Against the pale blue stone of the sphere the airlock stood out, not just because of the change in material but because of what was on the door. A curved red arrow above which the word "Exit" was printed. Below was a handle flush with the surface of the door which Anna grabbed for as soon as we came close. Once we were both still she braced her feet against the sphere and pulled the handle out then turned. The door opened inward before revealing a small blue room with another identical door on the other side. She looked up with a smile just as the creature barreled into her.

I'd been distracted by my oxygen tubes, I was down to four and fighting to stay focused. I simply watched them both struggling in space as they floated away. The bright flash of Anna's jetpack snapped me out of it. She was accelerating away on purpose and the rope around my arm was getting whipped away. At the last second I had the sense to wrap it around the door handle and brace.

The creature was clinging to her shoulders with one hand repeatedly smashing her helmet. They were both still accelerating when the rope snapped tight, Anna was flung backward and the creature having built up momentum was wrenched off her. It flailed and writhed right up until it made violent contact with the expanding cloud of wreckage. I clung to the airlock door and watched placidly as it passed through the shards of blue stone and was satisfied as it came out the other side in pieces. Some of the oxygen tubes were still flowing but I couldn't tell how many, I kept losing count.

Anna was slowly spinning at the end of the rope. Pulling the rope she started to move in my direction as my vision started to tunnel. I pulled again, once more and then hooked the rope over the door handle before closing my eyes to sleep.