'Sacmis' (formerly 'Alien Abduction')

Chapter 35: New Suits

The next few hours kept them all busy.

Irvn had work to do on the bridge, so Cymon and Teo took Gemma. Amisha and Laura to try on spacesuits.

“Won’t your spacesuits be way too big for us?” asked Gemma.

“We always carry a few female suits,” said Irvn. “They’ll still be a little tall, but I think we can adapt them.”

Even though Gemma had already told them, Laura and Amisha were still surprised by the sheer number of identical silvery suits racked on rails along both sides of a tube-shaped chamber, about 30 metres long. 

“I hear you normally carry about 30 marines,” said Amisha, “So where are their weapons?”

“They’re stored in the armoury,” said Cymon, noticing the gleam in her eye, “locked away.”

At the far end of the chamber, was a hefty circular hatch with a large, spoked locking wheel in the centre.

“Where does that go?” asked Laura.

“Outside!” said Cymon, “That’s one of the ships airlocks. We mostly use that one if we’re carrying out maintenance.”

Teo slid one of the smaller suits out on its rail, so that it hung in the central part of the chamber.

“Let me show you how these work. You should learn how to put them on without our help. Just in case.”

“In case of what?” asked Amisha.

“Failure of the oxygen supply, loss of air..”

“That’s not very reassuring,” said Laura.

“Think about it,” said Cymon, “every time you fly on Earth, they give you the safety demonstration don’t they, show you the oxygen masks and so on…?

The women nodded.

“And have you ever had to use them?”

“No,” said Amisha.

“It’s just the same here. Problems like this are very, very rare. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be prepared.”

The suit was made of a silvery metallic fabric, thick - and obviously very tough - but quite flexible, with articulated reinforcements at all the main joints of the body and a compact power pack attached to the back. 

For the next 20 minutes Teo showed them the main functions of the suit, how to step into it, how to close and check the seals, how to fasten the helmet, turn on the oxygen supply and power it up. 

“How do we talk to each other once it’s on?” asked Amisha.

“All the suits have radio connection up to about five kilometres on the ground - and much further if the ship is overhead to relay the signal,” said Teo. “In space, they can carry for hundreds of kilometres.” 

“Once you’ve put the helmet on and powered up the suit you’ll see a head-up display on your helmet glass. When someone talks to you, you’ll see a small projection of their face. Now - who wants to be first?”

The women looked at each other.

“I don’t mind being the guinea pig,” said Laura.

“Good,” said Teo, “but you’ll need to take off your jeans. They’re too bulky for the suit.”

“Why am I not surprised?” said Amisha. 

Laura shrugged and casually stepped out of her jeans. 

“Wow, those are seriously good legs, Laura,” said Amisha, “I hope you have them insured.”

As the other two women watched, amused at Teo’s obvious (but not entirely successful) efforts not to look at Laura’s legs, he showed her the right way to step into the suit while it was still on the rail. Then he watched as she faultlessly went through the routine he’d just demonstrated and successfully closed up the suit.

“Very good,” said Teo, “you are a fast learner.”

Laura gave him a withering glance.

“You are talking to one of the most successful Junior Barristers in the Inns of Court,” she said huffily. “Taking instructions…attention to detail… it’s what I do.”

Teo smiled. 

“My turn,” said Amisha, “do you have one in pink?”

“Let me see,” said Cymon. “No. It appears we’re out of pink. We have silver… or silver.”

“Then I’ll take the silver,” she said.

Just like Laura had done, she slipped off her jeans and quickly and effectively got into the suit.

“Does my bum look big in this?” she asked, stretching her head to look over her shoulder.

“Enormous,” said Gemma. 

Amisha stuck out her tongue. “Are you any good with a needle, Cymon?” she asked, “This will have to be taken in.”

Finally, Gemma was also suited up and the three women stared at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

“This is insane,” said Gemma, “we look like a bad TV commercial for foil wrap.”

“Helmets now,” said Cymon and he and Teo showed the women how to lock them into place, then power up the suits.

“What happens if you need to pee?” asked Amisha.

“Pee?” said Cymon.

“Colloquial for urinate,” explained Laura.

“Ah - the suits have no…arrangement…for that,” said Teo.

“Can you cross your legs in these?” asked Gemma.

“With great difficulty,” said Cymon.

© Adriana Nicolas 2014