I opened the hatch and dove into the chamber beyond it. Turning quickly I pulled it shut and spun the handle to seal it behind me. This intense feeling of deja vu swept over me as I cocked my head to listen to the announcement blaring from the speaker over the door. “Batten all hatches and observe containment protocol until further notice. We’ve been breached. If your compartment is losing air, remember to seal your suit before you help others seal theirs.”
We had drilled for this situation in training but this was my first time in an actual situation. We were two weeks from anywhere and that was assuming that the engines were still functional. This could get interesting fast. I was intensely curious as I fastened the last seam of my model 2700X3 emergency space suit. It was built for barest survival, not for spending hours on EVAs. It would keep your blood from boiling until you could cycle through an airlock but you’d be lucky if you didn’t have a bad case of frostbite.
There wasn’t enough room to carry complete EVA suits for everyone on a freighter like the Roger Miller. If it hadn’t been for the catastrophe three years ago, the fleet wouldn’t have been required to have emergency suits for everyone. I was relieved to discover that the compartment I was in was intact. It also had a full complement of emergency rations. I turned on the comm unit in my helmet.
“This is Al, from logistics. I’m in A6 forward. What can I do to help?” I said. The comm was totally silent for a minute.
“Al? Is that you? It’s Steve, the cook.” That certainly wasn’t a voice I expected to hear right now.
“Hey Steve, where are you?” I asked. We were taught to identify ourselves and give our location when signing on to comms during an emergency.
“I’m in the galley, of course. Where else would I be. Do you know what’s going on?”
“No, and we should see if anyone else is on comms. You start at the top channel and work down. I’ll start at the other end and work up. We’ll meet back on this channel in five minutes. Agreed?” This was also standard protocol but since Steve had forgotten to say where he was, I felt justified in reminding him.
“Will do. Talk to you in five.” I heard the click as Steve changed the channel of his comm unit. I did the same and started scanning for other crew members on the lower channels. I found Jim the ships medic on four and told him about the rendezvous on channel ten in three minutes. Out of twenty crew members there was only three of us on comms, that I knew of anyway.
We met up on channel ten at the assigned time. Steve had found Kay, the exec on channel eighteen. She was in the captains ready room. Jim was in sick bay. Kay gave us the situation as she knew it. “The bridge has lost atmosphere. I have little hope for Greg or Ralph.” Greg was the captain and Ralph was the navigator. “The rest of the crew were in their quarters. We assume they sealed their hatches and put on their emergency suits. I can only hope that they are okay. They should have been able to turn their comm units on though. I am in command unless or until the captain is found to have survived. Everybody with me so far?”
We were. With her and a hair’s breadth from panic. “Yes, ma’am.” I replied. Steve and Jim also acknowledged her.
“Okay. Who has an EVA suit?” The comms were silent. “That’s not good. Isn’t there one in sick bay, Jim?” she asked.
“Rodrigo was upgrading the radios on it.” Jim said.
“Here’s what I’m going to do. I can make it to the fore airlock in this emergency suit. If you lose contact with me, Jim is in charge. Here I go.” I heard the sound of the air being pumped out of a chamber as Kay got ready to open the hatch to the companionway. Her teeth were starting to chatter. “Damn! It’s cold. I’m almost to the airlock.” We held our breath as we waited to hear whether she had made it or not.
The next thing we heard was the sound of the pumps bringing the airlock to full pressure. “That’s as close as I want to come to freezing to death.” Kay said when she was warm enough her teeth stopped chattering. We could tell she had found the EVA suit because of the clangs of the fasteners as she opened them and started putting it on.
“I’ve got a PAL here. I can move around among pressurized compartments using that.” A PAL was a Portable Air Lock. It was made out of air tight plastic and had a small pump and a cylinder of air attached to it.
“I want you all to check the inventory of the compartment where you are. We may need to do some consolidation until we can restore atmosphere to the whole ship.”
“What happened?” I asked since no one else had bothered.
“I think we were hit by an asteroid. That’s the theory I’m going by until I find out otherwise.” she replied. “Radio check. Can you hear me on this suit’s comm unit?”
“Roger that.” Jim replied. “Be careful. You’re the only officer left. We need your experience.”
“Thanks. I will. Al, take notes. I’ll narrate my exploration of the ship. I don’t want to have to repeat it unnecessarily.” I heard the clang of the airlock transmitted through the walls of the ship as she opened the hatch to the companionway.
“I’ve got my pad recording. I’ll take notes as you give them.” The pad could record audio for weeks but it wasn’t that good searching speech. That took processing on the level of the ship’s main computer. As far as I could tell it was offline. I would take notes in plain text. That would be easily searched on the pad.
And here ends this installment of this story. I like it. I suspect I’ll continue it.
Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the people you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.