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| Original Artist: Shawn Poh | https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qdOQL |
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The problem, simply, is larger than many people
tend to realize. Space, and space travel, requires all
of the relevant resources to be carried with at all
times; or, at least, some measure of acquiring the
necessary resources. Ask your average layperson and
they will give you the big four: food, water, air, and
fuel. But existence requires more than that.
Any tool you will ever have, or the ability to fabricate that
tool, must be brought with you. You must bring clothes,
medicines, recreation...literally anything and everything
you would need to function both mentally and physically;
all of that must be shoved into a cramped, vehicle
with you as you shuttle through the dark.
Imagine being forced to live in an apartment for
years on end. Every door, window, every crack to the
outside would be sealed and you would have to live in
there without anything but telecommunications to the
outside. No physical, outside assistance of any kind.
What would you need to bring with you to survive
for all of that time?
- Captain Tatiana Botezatu, The Nagato
Chapter 2
The entire door gave way with a muted thunk that wasn't so much heard as it was felt through the reverberations of the environmental suit. However, thanks to the microgravity, the door didn't fall, but rather just began to drift lazily backwards away from them.
"After you, little lady." Dunagan said with a wave of his hand.
"Well, if lady's first, by all means." Colby shot back with a wave of her own hand.
"Well now, don't mind if I do." he responded with a mock flip of imagined hair.
The big man pushed off gently from where he rested near the door, floating into the hallway beyond, followed shortly thereafter by Colby.
The hall was pretty much what they were used to with these sorts of ships. Cramped with only enough space for the two of them to be side by side, drifting maybe a foot or two off the deck. Sleek, metallic paneling, thick, solid metal doors, big, bulky electronic doorpads and monitors, hardened polyglass lighting across the roof and floor, and clearly marked walkways, doors, and location designations in bright off-white paint that, without the century of exposure to the elements, would have glown in the dark with natural bio-luminescence.
Everything was sturdy, built to last, and meant to survive and help the passengers survive deep space. No frills. No decoration. Just functionality and rugged durability.
All about them, things drifted quietly in the dark. Random objects that found no rest due to the microgravity. A pen spinning in a constant, lazy circle. An old tablet that drifted near one corner of the hall. Someone's discarded hat, a UMC private's hat based on the designation on it, hovers just between them as they move. The dented remains of a steel coffee tumbler slowly bounces off one wall.
"Spooky place." Merrick crackled out over the radio.
"Eh, it ain't the worst place we've been too." Colby said with a non-committal shrug that the pilot on the other side couldn't see.
"Still... gives me the creeps." she shot back.
"And that's why you don't dive." Jameson's voice came through over the static of the radio.
"Nah. Don't say that, boss." Dunagan replied with a smirk Colby could make out even through his darkened visor. "Give the little girl a chance. Next time, I'll fly and she can go with Colbs."
"No fuckin' way." Merrick answered quickly.
Half way down the hall, Dunagan and Colby stopped in front of the next door. Near identical to the one they just cut through, this door was labeled as 'EQUIPMENT STORAGE'. Glancing back the way they came, Colby could just make out 'ALPHA LAB' next to the sizeable hole in the metal that they'd passed through.
"What? Don't think I'd make a good pilot?" Dunagan chided.
"Dunagan, I don't think you could fly us a hundred kilometers through open space with the ship on autopilot."
"Technically, that wouldn't be flying." Huli seemed almost to whisper through the static of the connection.
"Look, all I need is a fancy hat and to sit in the squishy chair. No muss, no fuss." Dunagan blustered with a gentle wave of one hand. "Best damn pilot y'all have ever seen."
Colby glanced down the hall to the flotsam floating about. After spotting her target, she hopped along the wall for a moment and snatched the old private's hat before returning and tapping the old piece of headwear against the chest of Dunagan's environmental suit.
"There ya go, big guy." Colby said. "All your's."
"Ah!" he almost squeaked with joy, a sound you wouldn't expect out of the wall of muscle that was the big man. "A fancy hat!"
"And I'm sure we'll find you a squishy chair somewhere in here if we look hard enough." Colby returned as she pulled the plasma torch once again from her belt.
"But is it Merrick's squishy chair?" he asked.
"No, I guess not."
"Well then I don't want that one. I want Merrick's."
"It's my squishy chair, Dunagan." Merrick hissed out playfully. "All mine. You'll never get it."
The blue-white flame ignited on the plasma torch, spurting and flickering with little flashes of white and gold trailing off its edges as Colby brought the tool up to the outside edges of the door. Instantly, the metal there began turning to a soft, molten putty beneath the torch's heat.
"But see, I got the hat, Merrick. And you'll be on a dive with Colbs. There will be no one to stop me!"
"Buhh." Colby could hear Merrick practically shudder through the radio connection. "No thanks. And, even if I did go on one of those deathwalks with Colby, someone could stop you."
"No one could!" Dunagan repeated.
"Huli could."
"Here I thought you'd say Pascall." Colby commented, her focus on her work in front of her.
"N-no. She's right. I'd just lock out your access to the command consoles." Huli said, her voice distant as she seemed to be thinking about it. "And probably my door after that. No, definitely after that. But, worst comes to worst, yea, I'd call Pascall."
"They've got ya beat, Dun." Colby observed.
"What am I being called for?" Pascall's thick baratone scratched out through the microphone.
"It's nothing, Pascall." Merrick replied. "Just threatening Dun."
"Dunagan?" Pascall asked, just the slightest hint of threat in his tone.
"Alright, alright." Dunagan said, holding up his hands in defeat, though only Colby could see it. "I'll be good. But I'm keeping the hat!" he quickly added.
"Love ya, Dun." Merrick chided.
"Yea, yea. Say that all you want but you cheated bringing Pascall into this."
"What can I say? I'm just a fan of the man with the high power sedatives."
There were a few scattered chuckles throughout the radio feed, though, unsurprisingly, not from the doctor himself. Pascall was almost certainly more focused on some other project more interesting to him unless something drastic happened and the team had need of his services.
"Got it!" Colby said as she finished cutting through the metal around the door.
She stepped aside and, gingerly, Dunagan drew the slab of metal that was the door back out into the hall with them and set it to drift away down the hall to join the rest of the detritus. It was always easier to bring the doors to them versus trying to shove them into potentially small spaces like an unknown room. In this instance, it was definitely the right choice.
Beyond, they found themselves in what seemed to be some sort of large, walk-in freezer. The walls were a thick, textured metal and several large vents could be seen overtop of three heavy-looking, industrial shelving units packed to the brim with assorted items.
It's probably colder now then it ever was when the power was on. Colby mused.
"What've got, guys? Can't quite make it out." Jameson asked through the static.
Dunagan and Colby both drifted carefully into the room and started going through the stuff on the shelves. Plenty of it was basic lab equipment. Beakers, vials, metallic and plastic hand tools of every, shape, size, and level of precision. Cleaning supplies for every state of matter be it solid, liquid, or gas. Nothing more than they might find on in their own ship's haul.
"Nothing interesting here." Colby announced.
"Sucks to suck." Dunagan commented, causing her to glance over his shoulder, though the only thing she could make out were some sort of darkened polyglass jars.
"Got something?" she asked.
"Hey, Jameson." Dunagan asked, ignoring Colby's question. "What's the rule about pets on board, again?"
"Only Sir Fredrickson the Third is allowed on board and only because he is fluffy and delightful." the captain replied in his normal, strict monotone despite the ludicrousness of the statement.
"So if I told you I found something slimy and disgusting?" Dunagan asked while proffering up the jar he was holding to Colby, who took it gingerly.
"I'd say you should probably clean your sheets." Merrick offered.
Colby stared down at the jar in her hands, trying to understand what she was looking at. The jar seemed almost perfectly sealed, as though it were never meant to be opened somehow, though, how whatever was inside actually got inside was beyond her. Smooth polyglass in a perfect cylinder, maybe some 30 centimeters tall and 13 centimeters wide. No openings, tabs, or any obvious means of getting into it short of sawing the thing open.
Whatever was inside the jar was a lot harder to make out, however.
The majority of the inside was stained a deep ombre green with scattered batches of brown, black, and deep violet purple. Those patches that she could see through, Colby could make out some sort of thick mold or growth coating the inside of the cylinder that appeared almost furry or fuzzy in appearance. Tiny tendrils of some sort of plant or something grew out from the fuzz and drifted listlessly about like it was in a fluid.
Colby gently shook the cylinder in her hand and, confirming, saw things drift about thickly as though in a soup. She couldn't make out any liquid actually sloshing, and concluded that it must be vacuumed sealed.
Then, as she watched, something small and with far too manly limbs moved swiftly from one of the patches of mold to another. Disappearing just as quickly as it appeared.
"Guhhh." Colby exclaimed.
"Wow." Huli proclaimed. "I think something's moving in that, Colby."
"Definitely is." she confirmed.
"And we got more!" Dunagan declared excitedly before motioning to the several shelves of similar containers, probably at least two dozen in total.
"The hell is this thing?" Colby asked as she held it up closer to look, once again seeing something small and slimy dart from mold patch to mold patch.
"Whatever it is somehow hasn't frozen in deep space and still has shit living in it, so that's good enough for me." Jameson declared matter of factly.
"These things are gonna sell for a pretty penny." Dunagan declared happily and Colby felt her own excitement growing.
"Let's get them back to the ship." Colby said, brief thoughts of what something like this could be worth flashing through her mind.
"Negative." Jameson said. "I'll mark it and you can pick them up on your return sweep."
"But Boss..." Dunagan began.
"What if something happens to them?" Colby finished.
"If a century in space hasn't done it yet then I hardly think another thirty minutes or so is going to matter. Besides, you're going to follow quarantine procedure and put those things in DeCon tanks. This isn't the family station wagon."
Colby and Dunagan stared at each other through their visors, looking at the jar in his hand and the ones on the shelving, but it seemed like the matter was already settled on the other end.
"What is a station wagon?" Merrick asked.
"Th-they were a type of old fossil fuel vehicle." Huli answered.
"Huh. Weird."
"Boss..." Colby began again.
"No. Now hurry up. You're burning air." Jameson said flatly, shutting down any further discussion with that simple fact.
She stared at the jar, a bubble of worry starting to creep into her stomach.
"Come on." Dunagan said with a gentle pat on her shoulder as he took the jar, placing it back on the shelf where he found it. "We'll grab em on the way out."
Colby stared after the jar for a few seconds longer, watching as something dark and slimy flitted from once side of it to the other, appearing only long enough to disappear into the mold on the opposing end and wondered at how anything could be living in there and not be frozen solid.
"Yea. I guess you're right." she said before finally looking at her diving partner. "Let's go."
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