“You’re going to die. You know that right?”
I ignored her and slowly opened my eyes, I was in the middle of the module and the emergency lights were the only source of illumination.
She was floating over in the corner, glaring at me despite her own injuries.
“Just die already, to keep fighting is pointless,” she drawled her voice low and threatening.
Something was keeping my left eye almost closed, glue or something. Rubbing at my eye for a moment I opened it again and looked at the residue on my hand. It almost looked like blood, but then that had to be from the emergency lights, they tinted everything red.
Tubes of chemicals and other supplies were drifting all around me in the cabin, liquids and small electronics that were normally secured were adrift as well.
Something else, a thick black haze was coiling through the air. I glanced at the alien, wondering if it was part of her attack but she shook her head and pointed with a clawed hand, “Behind you, human,” she grumbled.
I grabbed at the side of the module and swung myself around.
Crawling along the sides of the next module was a conflagration of smoke and fire. It licked at the sides and spun slightly, looking almost like the mouth of some giant fire breathing demon.
“Holy,” I pushed off of the wall and towards the demonic flames. I had to beat it to the hatch.
Grabbing the stored compartment door, and swinging its mass around I shoved it onto the frame and spun the lock.
There was no solid clunk as the mechanics slid home, instead only a small tinkling click. Looking at the sides of the frame I swore. The door had mechanical locks on it that would once the handle was turned reach out and latch into the metal frame of the connection module and push the door up onto it’s seal. Those connection points were bent out of place. What had done that to the station, and how the connections hadn’t yet failed I had no idea.
“You can’t escape this human. You’re going to die.” She said from behind me, laughter evident in her voice.
She wasn’t going to help; she was the one responsible for this entire mess.
I spun the wheel in the center of the hatch again to no avail, the latches were simply not going to slide into place with the damage.
“God damn it.”
Leaving the hatch in place I spun around to look at what I had in my module, the tiny fire extinguisher on the wall next to me was not going to be able to extinguish the approaching conflagration.
“What are you going to do human? You don’t have the strength to hold the door in place, and the fire will no doubt heat the entire compartment, it needs only to make its way in here to cook you alive. Even if it does not, it will still consume the rest of your oxygen.”
I looked back at the hatch, it was almost in place sitting on the seal. If I could bend a few of the small rods that held the hatch in place away most of them would fit. They were solid steel though, and an inch in circumference.
There was no way I would be able to bend them.
Oxygen.
“Human.”
The alien was holding one of the oxygen tanks in her hands.
“Give me that!” kicking off of the hatch I grabbed at the tank wrenching it from her hands.
She raised her tentacles in surrender and gave me a bemused look
“What are you going to do with that?” she asked, “The fire will still cook you alive.”
“If I feed the fire, it’ll leave me alone.”
She looked at me, “Feed the fire? You’re insane human.”
I didn’t reply, but spun around, kicked her in the face, and drifted back to the door, still holding the tank in my hands. I looked at the valve assembly for a moment; I had to focus. My head was pounding and it felt as if the fire was already burning my scalp.
The tank was designed to withstand enormous pressure, and heat, but to do so without exploding it had an emergency release. If the pressure was too high, it would vent, releasing that pent up pressure and the gas inside.
I turned the bottle around in my hands and looked at the fill gauge.
I was in luck; the bottle was full.
I pulled the hatch away and was hit with a rolling blast of heat. I winced, closed my eyes, and turned away from the fire. Quickly I chucked the bottle into it and slammed the hatch back into place twisting the handle so the metal prongs retracted. They would only be a hindrance holding the hatch slightly off it’s seal.
Bracing myself I tried to push the hatch and hold it closed.
For a moment I managed, but then I was pushed away.
“The air inside that compartment is expanding, human. You do not have the strength. You are weak!”
“Shut up!”
Sliding the hatch back onto it’s seals I cranked the mechanism again. The few rods that were not bent out of shape latched into place, holding it steady. Still the damaged rods prevented the seal from forming and a steady blast of hot air poured through the gap near my face where it was not seated correctly.
I ignored the scorching heat and waited.
The hatch was beginning to burn to the touch, but still I held onto it.
Glancing through the small window on the hatch I looked at the flames. I couldn’t see the bottle inside the compartment. A few objects were floating in the air, most of them burning.
After a minute, I saw the results I had been hoping for.
A jet of flame more violent than anything else in the compartment flared to life. Like a tongue inside the mouth of a dragon it began to violently whip about. The steady stream of pure oxygen pouring from the bottle propelled it through the compartment like a rocket.
The entire frame of the station shook, and the bottle careened about and slammed into the hatch. I winced as it did so and although it creaked the few unbent latch points held and it remained in place.
After another moment I saw what I hoped for. The canister hit the wall of the compartment and spun away, but not before breaching the shell of the pressure vessel. The flames inside the compartment all wavered and began to lean towards the hole.
The bottle slammed into another wall and the compartment opened to space.
The compartment tore like a tin can as the air rushed from it. What had been a stream of hot air blowing on my face a moment ago became a maelstrom of wind blowing out into space whipping violently past my face.
I had been holding the door closed to keep the fire from spreading into my compartment, but with the sudden breach and the change in the direction of air the hatch squealed as it was pulled onto its seal the bent metal rods the only thing keeping it from completely slamming home onto it.
Reaching down I spun the locking mechanism, retracting the rods that would have normally sealed the compartment. The hatch slammed down onto the seal with a final shriek, now the very atmosphere I was breathing held it in place pushing it onto the seal.
The compartment I was in rocked and began to spin. Disoriented I let go of the hatch and drifted into the center of the cabin.
All around me the compartment spun as I remained stable.
The alien had drifted away from the wall as well, and floating next to me she watched the compartment spin around us.
“Well this is an improvement,” she grumbled.
I ignored her and reaching out grabbed at the wall, hanging onto it I was slammed into the side of the module. Reorienting myself I glanced at the small window in the module. It took a moment to get a look at the station, the spin was along several axises.
“You’re lucky. Had you been in the core compartments of your pitiful station, you would have died instantly,” said the woman as she joined me at the window her talons clicking against the metal as she latched onto the module’s inner hull with more grace than I had.
The station was in pieces; the structural module I had been attached to was one of a dozen that had been breached. The central spine of the station was twisted and bent, but for the beating it had been given it was still in one piece even as everything else around it disintegrated and spun away into space. Like I had.
“Why?” I asked, my mouth dry.
“Why not? You are a weak species.”
She slammed a hand onto the inner hull, “I need no container, no weak vessel. I have nothing to fear in space. The arrogance of a species such as your own to lay claim to any section of our domain is laughable and insulting.”
I looked over at her and rolled my eyes.
“The difficulty only makes it that much more impressive that we managed to claim even some small part of it.”
She frowned and sniffed rolling her eyes at me.
“But you will die here. In the end I will remain.”
“I’m going to die?” I asked.
She laughed, “Of course you are!”
“You seemed sure of that a few minutes ago, yet here I am.”
She raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Looking around the small module for the first time now I grimaced, it was a simple service module. A glorified broom closet that had been tacked onto the massive station in recent years to augment its capacity. It had no independent life support or guidance systems. Only basic electronics that could be adapted to function in a variety of roles were strapped to its walls.
I had been using it to run diagnostics on the electrical systems of the station. My normal workstation near the core having been commandeered to run some sort of communication test. That was probably what had attracted the aliens.
I blinked and noticed that it had suddenly gone dark, we had passed into the shadow of Earth. Only the dim red glow of the emergency lights provided illumination.
Looking back out the window as the module continued to slowly spin I shuddered, the station was gone either all of its lights were out or I had drifted far away from it.
The Earth far below still looked normal, “You haven’t attacked the surface?”
She rolled her eyes and derisively sneered at me, “Our domain is space. We have no care for what you do as you crawl around in the dirt.”
I slowly nodded and turned back to the window wincing at the light that was streaming in through it.
“So now what human? You have perhaps only a few more hours of air.”
“Radio, I need a radio.”
The woman smiled and pointed at my ear, “that?” she asked.
Reaching up I pulled the small earbud out of my ear wincing, the plastic had apparently melted a little in the fire. In fact that entire side of my face hurt now that I considered it.
I frowned and touched my ear, only feeling something that had a vague resemblance to an ear, a lot of it was missing.
“You know I wasn’t going to say anything. You were so ugly beforehand that the burns might be an improvement.”
I looked at the small thing for a moment, “No. Not powerful enough.”
She crossed her arms, “Alright then, what are you going to do jury rig a transmitter and send out an SOS?”
“No need. Emergency beacon.” I pointed at the small module that was strapped to the wall near where the hatch had been stored.
“Oh. Well that makes more sense.”
Drifting over I pried the module off the wall where is was stuck with Velcro and held it up. Something has smashed into it during the attack and the plastic casing was broken. Pulling the safety cap off I flipped the switch.
No lights flickered on, and no steady beep.
“Damn it.”
Turning the device over I pulled the plastic casing apart.
The PCBA inside was cracked in half, a few small integrated circuits and capacitors were the only thing holding it together. Not to mention the fact that it looked as if the battery had been breached.
“See you’re dead human.”
“No I am not.”
Holding the device out I grabbed at the plastic and ignoring where the sharp bits of it cut into my skin I tore it off giving me complete access to the rest of the component’s
“You are dead human, dead!”
Letting the PCBA float I looked around the compartment, I could fix it easily enough it was only a single layer board of etched paths on the PCB and it wasn’t composed of anything but large components, assuming I had the tools.
“You’ve got solder human, but your tools were in the compartment you decided to torch. I saw them when I boarded.”
She held up the small coil of wire and juggled it back and forth in her hands smiling.
Trying to see in the darkness of the module I looked around for something anything I could use.
A pencil drifted in front of me and I blinked.
“You’re only delaying the inevitable human.”
I grabbed at the writing utensil and raising it to my mouth bit down on it, ignoring the bad taste of the wood I quickly stripped it away and extracted the graphite core. Absentmindedly rubbing it against the side of the inner hull to sharpen it I looked around and spotted a damaged panel.
Drifting over I grabbed at it and looked inside, components were still lit and for the moment the batteries appeared to have sustained power. A small laptop was strapped onto the damaged panel, it’s screen smashed. The battery would be good though.
Careful not to touch anything that could be electrified I reached into the panel and ripped out wire. I would only need a foot or so, maybe a little more.
“Oh, I see what you’re doing human. You have a resistor, and if you can connect it to the primitive electrical systems you have here you can heat it up to the melting point of your solder. Clever, still pointless but clever.”
Again ignoring her as was the habit at this point I carefully wrapped one wire around the tip of the graphite and the other around the end it. Glancing around I found duct tape that was being used to hold a pad of paper to the wall.
Smiling, I grabbed the small strip of the versatile stuff and careful to not waste it secured everything together creating a primitive soldering gun.
“Solder!” I growled holding my hand out.
She sighed apparently exasperated with me, but handed it over.
Ripping some smaller gauge wires out of the damaged panel and using the remaining duct tape to secure them in place next to me I ripped the two live leads off of the equipment cabinet. Careful not to short the circuits by touching the two together I carefully wrapped the wires onto my very dangerous soldering iron.
I could feel the heat building up almost immediately, the tape around the graphite began to burn.
Grabbing the PCBA I looked at the etches on board, seeing all of the connections I would have to repair. The light pouring in from outside the module giving me a perfect view. It looked like a total of eight traces would have to be repaired, three of them so close to one another that I was liable to short them if I wasn’t careful.
Placing the PCBA against the side of the jagged metal case I had extracted the wire from I scratched away at the protection on both sides of the broken boards traces giving me access to the conductive paths. Using the last of the tape I carefully attached the board to the wall and picked up the soldering iron, carful of the hot tip.
In the dim light provided by the remaining electronics and emergency lights in the module I carefully began repairing each trace. In some instances, I used no wire, and where individual traces were too close I used wire a to separate my work and keep the individual circuits from shorting.
Had to be careful.
Several times my hand slipped on the impromptu soldering iron, burning my hand and making me wince.
At one point the alien reached over with a talon and swiped at the board damaging half of the work I had done.
“Back off!” I growled waving a hand at her.
She retreated, raising her tentacles in surrender.
Finishing the last trace on the board I carefully unwound the wire from one prong of my iron.
The amperage that the laptop battery would output was lower than the original battery but it would have to do. Spinning around I grabbed the thing, and bracing my legs against the inner curved hull pulled.
The laptop came free from its mooring point with a harsh squeal. Tearing at it and worming my fingers between the cracked plastic, ignoring the red stuff that was coming out of the laptop I pried it open.
The battery was glued to the internals, but with a small yank it was free. Taking the last of the wire I had stripped earlier I squinted at the PCB double checking the leads.
“Red to black, and black to red Human. Even I know that.”
I almost believed her, “No. Other way around.”
She sighed, “Oh well I guess you are somewhat intelligent then.”
Again ignoring her I tore a small bit of the remaining duct tape in half and affixed the wires. Holding my breath, I looked at the whole assembly.
The LED on the front of it slowly faded on. A small chirp sounded.
“Fuck you!” I growled at the alien.
“Good for you, now they know you’re alive. You expect a ship to make it up here before you run out of air? Or better yet burn up in the atmosphere? That impact was in near direct opposition to your orbit. It had to have imparted some retrograde momentum.”
“Fuck me.”
“Humans are so weak, a little extra co2 is all it takes. Your own body is going to produce enough to kill you long before you run out of air.”
I glanced up at the small vent in the module. The station had centralized life support meaning I was now without a fresh supply and had been for a few hours at least.
“You’ve got some bottled oxygen, right there.” The alien pointed a tentacle at it.
I pushed off of the near wall and grabbed it.
Resisting the urge to take the mask off of the bottle and begin breathing it I looked around the compartment for the co2 detector. It was an independent module, battery operated and in a solid case. It should have survived the impact.
“It’s over there.” Said the alien pointing a hand at the wall behind me.
Twisting around I grabbed at the device, noticing for the first time the chirping noise it was issuing.
“An 8% concentration?” the alien whistled, “You humans go crazy at something like 10% right?”
I ignored her and quickly took the mask off of the canister and slipped it over my face. Twisting the on valve I felt the air rush over my face and I took a grateful gulp. I couldn’t actually feel the co2 buildup, but just imagining it was enough to make it feel as if the warm air was constricting.
“Still going to die entering the atmosphere human.”
I took another breath of the oxygen and tried to think, closing my eyes for a moment I winced as the light from the sun flashed across my eyes.
“Human!”
Opening my eyes to the dark module I looked at the alien, “What?”
“Your primitive construct is vibrating,”
Reaching out I put a hand to the side of the capsule and swore.
“Well Human? What are you going to do?”
I swallowed my mouth still dry like I hadn’t had anything to drink in days, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” asked the alien.
I looked around the module again looking at the scientific equipment and recorders.
“There’s a big difference between fixing a beacon or a hatch, and preparing a craft for re-entry.”
“So you are going to die.”
“I am.”
The alien was silent for a moment.
I closed my eyes and relaxed slightly. The oxygen was clearing my head.
“You’re not going to freak out? Scream at me or something?”
“No.”
Opening my eyes again I stared out of the window at the Earth below, the alien glanced at me before slowly drifting over to join me.
“I’m going to die.”
“Why did you fight so much before if this is inevitable?”
“I don’t want to die.”
I kept my eyes on the Earth.
“Your efforts have only let you live for another day or so Human,”
“Day?”
She nodded, “Day.”
Leaning down I put my forehead on the glass. It felt good, it was cool to the touch.
“I don’t want to die.”
“Why do you not want to die?”
I didn’t move, I wasn’t exactly sure why.
“I never got to do anything. I never got to live.”
“You’re one of the few hundred humans who have even gotten to see your planet from this vantage point. You are not living?”
“I never did anything important. I worked my whole life to get up here, and I’m a glorified janitor. I wanted, I want my life to mean something.”
I trailed off and opening my eyes looked past the Earth in the window below. I looked towards the stars above the atmosphere. They were so much more vibrant up here in space, so much more real. As if for my entire life they had been covered by a thin film.
“I want to explore. I want to reach into the dust of Mars and pull up a little fossil. I want to see Jupiter with my own eyes. I want to go rocketing into the depths of space, challenge the very laws of nature itself.”
“You’ve seen aliens at least? Does that not at least give you some meaning? The first human to see an alien?”
The module was heating up now, and beginning to vibrate more. A slow spin was building up as we fell towards the Earth. As we were dragged back down away from the wide infinite sky and towards the dirt.
I turned away from the window, which was now smeared with red blood. My head pounding, I looked around the cabin.
It was empty, I was alone.