The Rat Trap
Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 9:18am by Commanding Officer Mickey Serendipity & Medical Officer Alex Garcia & Passenger Kol Wescott-Fitzgerald & Medical Officer Florian McLennan & Pilot Allegra Jennings
Mission:
Ticket To Rhea
Location: SS Albatross Interior, Lower Decks.
Timeline: Just After One Among The Vastness
Tags: u
Mickey was the last one off the ladder and into the engineering deck, the usual private domain of the 'Tross's engineer Ken. The centre of the room was dominated by the shielded upper dome of the spherical fusion reactor, a beast now currently silenced and safed against accidental use. Racks of tools were carefully locked down, and work stations were arrayed on secure surfaces or reinforced arms.
"Okay, so today we're doing engine checks, water, and air filters," Mickey said, looking at his terminal at the loaded checklist. "Way I see it we all work together we can get this done quickly. Kol I imagine you've never worked near or with a fusion drive before? What about water and air filter and distribution systems?"
"I dabbled with the air and water filters during my time on Eros, but most of my time in the black has been spent as a passenger" Kol admitted, his face a slight hue of red with embarrassment at his almost uselessness, "I am a quick study though, give me a list of instructions and I'll tackle anything you throw my way" he promised.
"Okay then," Mickey said and gestured over to a wall panel. He punched in a universal access code, something all of the crew had for certain things, and the panel slid out on smooth greased rollers. Within was a honeycomb of white plastic and blue foam spheres. "CO2 filters. They're a passive flow system, meaning they require the ships air handlers to be working to function. Pumps bring the ship's air down here, through the filters, and they latch onto the CO2. What you want to look for is..ah, here."
He reached into the corner and pulled one of the blue foam balls from its holder in the honeycomb. He held the ball up to Kol, its surface dotted with little black deposited. "This ones okay for the time being, but anything over 50% coverage needs to be pulled out and replaced. You shouldn't find many needing to be replaced in this panel, we only swapped them out before the Eros run. But given Rhea is a long jog on a single bottle of air, rather we double-checked things."
The last thing Flo could remember was the deafening rumble of the ship's engine. A deep, resonant roar that threatened to rip through his eardrums, flooding past all his other senses as he fought against the pain in his head. He remembered screaming, his voice completely drowned out.
Next came nothing - how long for, he couldn't tell. The immense headache had persisted, striking the moment he woke and confirming to him that he was still alive. As his eyesight gradually returned - first his left visual field, and then his right - he found himself still within the dim, dungeonous confinement he had scurried into whilst escaping Deimos. The grumble of engines gone, replaced by a silence that magnified the piercing tinnitus reverberating within his skull.
They hadn't been far behind. If he hadn't made the snap decision to haul his weight through the open latch, he would've been long dead. Not that he'd expected to survive departure - without any insight whatsoever on how to be a safe stowaway, Flo had taken a gamble. There hadn't been any time to analyse alternative options. His fear of certain death served as enough impetus for him to risk his life, as sad and pathetic as he thought it was.
So now he remained adrift, only just noticing the lack of gravitational pull. Tiny micro-blebs of what he presumed to be his own blood hovered around his head. His left arm felt cold, weak, numb. Breaths shallow, for anything more than would invite a searing pain across his chest.
Bruised, battered and effectively paralysed by whatever wounds he'd suffered, Flo parted his lips and groaned once.
"Now this...huh" Mickey plucked one of the air scrubbers out of the frame and turned it over in his hands. There weren't a lot of black flecks on it, and in fact Mickey would have passed it over for other ones in the set. Save for the large red stain on it. "Kol, Allegra, either one of you got a cut or something?"
He looked over at the scrubber panel, seeing where the filter had come from. The frame was engraved with a location code that was eighteen characters long. But Mickey shortened it to: Engine Module, Lower Hab Level.
"Because if you don't, then someone is bleeding," Mickey walked over to the floor hatch that led into the lower levels of the engineering deck. He pressed the toe of his mag boots into the recessed release switch, and the hatch swung upwards. And in the trail of the tiny microcurrent in the air, a trio of red blood globules floated.
"And if that someone is bleeding on my ship, I'm less than likely to let them keep breathing my air," Mickey said into the dark pit.
Not hearing a response Kol grabbed a stowed flashlight from behind a wall panel and shone it into space illuminating a horrific scene. Due to the lack of gravity blood was spattered throughout the space Florian had sought sanctuary. With little thought, Kol dropped down into space and headed straight for the concerningly limp stowaway, "We're gonna need the doc, Mickey" Kol called behind himself as he shifted Florian so that he faced him, "Hey, kid, you okay?" Kol said firmly as he squeezed at Florian's shoulder.
"Well let's see what sort of human being we have on our hands," Mickey said. "We did just skipped on a station that got thrown apart by a nuclear-powered whip crack. Besides, Doc's an expensive commodity."
The bleeding boy could hardly reply. He managed to open the one eye that wasn't swollen shut, and saw two people - no, two men - stepping towards him in what he presumed were mag boots. How else were they not drifting like he was? He could just make out their faces. Rather generic faces, if he was to be honest. Perhaps his vision was too blurred for him to make a proper assessment, since over the years he'd learned that the way someone carried their face offered a heap of information.
He let out a tiny cough, and pain soared through one side of his rib cage, forcing him to groan yet again. He remained mostly paralysed, at the mercy of those who had found him. If it wasn't going to be the G-forces during launch that kills him, perhaps it would be these men. And that would be it. The end of his sad, miserable life. Flo didn't mind.
Mickey took out his terminal and opened a link to the EVA crew on the hull.
"Hey, Ken reckon you can spare the Doc for a spell? We have need of his very unique skill set," Mickey said with a sigh.
Mickey nodded a moment, and stepped to one side as his ear bud buzzed. He answered the unheard question from Ken.
"Stowaway. Seems we have some who hid out in the undercroft of the reactor room. Must have gotten in just before we arrived back on High Elysium. Got in probably through the airlock survive conduit. Stupid brave, but its the only atmosphere rated connection save the main lock. But then we rushed in and hit five gee's sustained. We had crash couches, this punk did not. Found the blood fouling up one of the atmosphere scrubbers. Any hey, it's under control. You do what you're doing out there, I learn anything we'll walk about it at the evening meal." He flicked his terminal, and the connection cut off. "Doc's on his way. Whether or not he works on our friend is another thing entirely."
Flo had barely hard the word 'doc' and 'way'. Perhaps he was going to live after all. Another cough, another shooting pain gripping across his chest. He raised an arm, as if trying to grab someone's attention. A small tear droplet escaped the surface tension it had with his eyelid, floating off the way his blobs of blood had. "H... help..."
Alex entered the reactor room and zeroed in on the group of people huddled down at one end. Carefully making his way to them he started to take note of just exactly why he'd been called down. There was a prone figure, apparently barely conscious, and with some pretty serious injuries. He was seeing severe bruising, and there were several areas of the body that looked misshapen.
Coming to a stop close enough to give the man a cursory exam he started talking. "I'm going to need help. I have to get him to the med bay, and it needs to be quick. I can't do anything for him here," he said, looking around at the people gathered around him. Then, looking back at the figure he placed his hand gently on the side of his head, "Don't worry, I'm gonna get you all fixed up. Just hang in there," he said, letting his professional calm, and bedside manner exert themselves.
Flo managed to nod the tiniest nod, having heard the more reassuring voice telling him that he was soon to be helped out of his misery. The kid suddenly felt himself float in another direction, as hands carefully held onto his body and made arrangements to move him around and out of the confined space.
"Yeah first thing we do is check to make sure he's not carrying anything more dangerous than his internal organs," Mickey said. He eyed Alex with a thin smile. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do your business, but I've seen plenty of medic's get turned into useful hostage fodder because no one checked to see if their 'dying patient' had a shiv up his sleeve. Plus the bag of assorted injuries here went and stowed away on my ship, you can understand that might make me..."
Mickey closed his eyes.
"Fine, fine," he clicked his heels, disengaging the mag boots and swung around the edge of the access hatch until he was on the opposite side. "I'll grab his hips. Kol you take his chest and arms, Doc you've got the head. Reckon the three of us can move him easily enough in micro gee without twisting any broken bones."
Alex had given the man a rather obviously angry look when he'd begun his tirade, and only dropped back to his normal stoic expression when he changed tacks and began issuing orders to move him. "Not twisting them would be ideal, but it is far more important that he be gotten to the med bay quickly enough to save his life. He may have to just deal with the pain of a few more jars to his body along the way," he said as they all got in position to begin moving the stowaway towards the hatch.
"I am shockingly okay with this kid feeling a little pain," Mickey grumbled. "Okay let's move him on your count."
"On three, one, two, three, go!" Alex called out, and began to move along with the others.
