by Scott Baron
She brushed a few hairs from her eyes as a pressure change sent a waft of air across her face.
Great. Somewhere, there’s yet one more thing for me to fix. After this current pain-in-the-ass task, that is. Come on—fit, you bastard!
Click.
The piece slid home at last, surprising her with its sudden obedience, and Daisy wound up whacking her elbow from the unexpected lack of resistance.
“Son of a bitch!”
She looked at the soot that smeared across her throbbing arm. There really shouldn’t be so much.
“Everything all right, Daisy?” Gustavo asked.
“Yeah, I guess I leaned on my transmit button. Sorry. Just hit my elbow, is all.”
“So how’s it coming in there? Sarah’s done, and it looks like the rest of the ship is under control.”
“Just locked in the last relay. Hang on, I’ll power it back up.” She reached out and reactivated the unit. “Okay, it’s on. You reading the corresponding points?”
“Affirmative. That’s the last of it.”
“Great, it’s about time.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. Now hop on out of there.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.”
Daisy felt herself unexpectedly floating.
“Hey, did you kill gravity down here?”
“Negative. Must be another glitch. I’ll have Mal run a diagnostic.”
“Copy that,” Daisy replied. “I’m gonna get out of here. It looks like—”
She froze. A flickering, drifting light was approaching.
Rapidly.
Fire.
“Oh, shit, there’s a—” Her comms cut out as she forcefully pushed back from the panel, yanking the cord from the connector.
Shit, shit, shit! No wonder there was too much soot. Fucking busted antigrav let the fire float away.
The ball of strangely pulsing flames drifted near, closing the gap rapidly as another pressure shift caused a slight breeze, pushing it toward her even faster. Daisy passed from one section to the next, scrambling backwards as she went. Her legs abruptly slammed down into the hard metal as she crossed the transition into the segment behind her.
Goddamn antigrav, make up your mind!
“There’s a fire! I repeat, there’s a fire!” she shouted into her comms.
No reply.
“Fuck!” Daisy crawled backwards as fast as she could, banging her knees as she went, the floating fireball becoming hotter and hotter against her skin as it neared. She whipped the fire extinguisher from her hip and fired it. The stream of foam arced then fell short, the gravity of the section she was in taking hold before it could reach the zero-gravity section and continue to its target.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
The gravity beneath her suddenly went out, and she felt herself floating again, the fireball moving closer at a dangerous speed.
The access hatch has to be only twenty meters behind me. Straight shot. I can do this in zero-g.
Daisy pushed, hard, rocketing backwards toward the open access.
Yes! I’m going to—
Artificial gravity slammed her knees into the metal again. She didn’t stop to think. She didn’t even stop to swear. A fiery death was speeding toward her. All Daisy could do was scramble backward as fast as she was able. One foot cleared the lip of the access hatch. She gave a final shove, sending her body out the narrow hole, but was yanked abruptly to a stop, pain shooting from her arm to her shoulder.
Her forearm tool kit had become snagged on something.
Panic flowed over her as the flames raced closer. Gravity fluctuated on and off, but she could not break free. Her gaze drifted across old scribblings decorating the tight space around her. She hadn’t noticed them before, and now it looked like she would never get a chance to look closer in the future.
Because she didn’t have one anymore.
Of all the ways to—
Daisy felt powerful arms wrap around her waist, yanking her from the Narrows, her tool kit tearing free with a painful wrench. She tumbled to the deck in a heap and looked up to see Vincent aiming a fire extinguisher into the shaft.
“Come on, you bastard.” He eyed the space intently. “Gotcha!”
The gravity shifted again as he fired. The stream of thick foam blasted forward, propelled the full length of the gravity-free crawlspace, its force enhanced by his solidly anchored body. Vince had leaned into the zero-g space to take the shot, but had the presence of mind to keep his feet firmly out. The foam utilized that extra force and slammed into the speeding fireball, blasting much of it into oblivion, coating the entire crawlspace. Despite the apparent mess, the specially-designed foam would evaporate to vapor in a few minutes, leaving no trace.
Unfortunately, a sizable ball of fiery death had escaped and was hurtling toward the opening. Vince pulled himself free and dove to the side, just as the flames leapt from the open access panel into the pod.
While gravity was now taking hold, making the fire more traditional in form, that, combined with the speed with which the flames exited the zero-g Narrows, made it spray out like a mini flamethrower. In a split-second, the condensed ball had grown into a wall of flame spreading across the pod floor and walls.
“Look out!” Daisy yelled, shoving Vince out of the way of a rapidly advancing tendril of fire. “Come on! We’ve got to get out of here!” She tugged fiercely on Vince’s arm as he scrambled to his feet.
“Wait! The Narrows!”
She realized what he was saying. If they didn’t seal the access, the blaze would just make its way back to the zero-g space in the walls, bigger and stronger than before. They’d be even worse off than before.
“Clear a path to the door! I’ll seal the panel!” she shouted over the now-roaring flames.
Vince nodded and took off in a hunched-over run, staying below the smoke as best he could. Daisy dove low and slid on her belly, snatching up the access panel from the deck.
“Please let it be here,” she said, digging in her rear pocket. “Gotcha!” she cried triumphantly, pulling a spare power ratchet from its depths.
She slammed the panel in place and quickly torqued the first two bolts into place. Her eyes were already burning from the smoke, and her lungs ached from holding her breath, but she knew there was no other choice. The panel had to be sealed, and she was the one to do it.
Her lungs burned, desperate for air, as the power ratchet whirred, the remaining six bolts driving home, sealing off the Narrows from smoke and fire alike. Daisy felt her legs wobble as she dropped to her knees, pressing her face to the floor, desperately searching for a breathable gulp of air in the blazing pod.
Gotta get up, she told herself, but her oxygen-starved body wouldn’t respond. She felt light, almost like she was floating in the air. It took a good several seconds before she realized she actually was floating. Well, to be fair, she was being carried, but whatever her means of transit, she was off the floor and rapidly heading for the airlock doors.
Vince cycled open the inner door and jumped into the narrow space, then sealed it and opened the outer one to the corridor. With no time to lose, he slid Daisy to the deck as the door slid shut, his fingers rapidly typing in a series of commands on the wall-mounted panel.
“Mal, I can’t activate the suppression system! Purge the pod, quick!”
“Are all humans clear, Vince?”
“Yes! Just do it!”
The airlock door to the void of space cracked open, the vacuum sucking the air from the pod in an instant, extinguishing the flames entirely before sealing shut again.
Vince reached down and helped Daisy to her feet.
“How did you—” She broke into a coughing fit.
“I heard your comms cut out. Sounded like you were in trouble.”
“I…” She stared into his concerned eyes as the crazed adrenaline surge began to slowly clear from her system. “I’m sorry I was rough on you earlier. Thank you,” she managed. “I’
m Daisy, by the way.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m Vincent. Vincent Cooper, but you can call me Vince.”
The sooty pair shared a smile, and Daisy found herself vaguely remembering learning something about attraction being heightened in dangerous situations.
“Swarthmore, Cooper, is everything all right down there?” Harkaway called over the comms.
“Yes, Captain,” Vince answered. “The fire is out, and everything is okay now.”
The captain sighed audibly over the open comms.
“Good work, all of you. I want you to clean up, eat something, then get some rack time. Being pulled out of your cryo and neuro-stim cycles and thrown into a situation like this is going to feel far worse than a hangover tomorrow. We all need to get some rest. Mal and Barry will keep watch.”
As Daisy showered off the sweat and soot from her ordeal, she couldn’t help but think about the turn her day had taken.
Still six months from home. That’s a helluva long time, she mused as the warm water flowed over her body, easing the stress of the abrupt wake up.
She rinsed her hair, dried off, slipped into the clean sweats she had brought to the shower pod, and stepped out into the hallway, running smack into the likewise freshly-showered man passing by, his hair still damp and mussed.
“Oh, sorry,” she blurted.
Vincent laughed.
“This is how you repay me? Attacking me in the corridors and stepping on my foot, now? Such a violent woman,” he said with a grin. “Well, I suppose we’re even, now. And for the record, I am sorry I stepped on your foot earlier.”
The pause left a crackling in the air as they stared at one another.
This is crazy. You just met the guy.
Daisy’s heart beat loud in her ears, and she could feel the heat in her belly spreading lower. She studied Vince. Tall, fit, and damn good-looking.
I almost died, she rationalized. What the hell. Just a meaningless fling. I deserve it.
She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him down the passageway.
“Um, where are we going?” he asked, a little surprised.
“My place,” she replied, matter-of-factly.
The quickening pulse suddenly thundering in his neck revealed his thoughts on the idea.
“Um, okay.”
Daisy cycled open the first door and pushed him inside, shutting it behind her. By the time the inner airlock door opened, they were both in an advanced state of undress.
“Come here, you,” she growled, pulling him to her. Her hands traced the musculature of his body as he pressed his mouth firmly to hers. He trailed off to the sweet spot below her ear, gently latching on as Daisy shuddered and groaned reaching out and grabbing a shelf to steady herself against the bulkhead as her knees suddenly went weak.
Not a bad way to wake up from cryo-sleep. She smiled to herself. Not bad at all.
Chapter Four
The cold bite of hard metal ringing off your forehead is one hell of a way to wake up, and Daisy was none too amused by it.
She had jerked abruptly to consciousness in her bunk, as she had so many times in the six months since her rude cryo-awakening, but this time Daisy had actually bolted upright and somehow managed to slam her head into the titanium rack above her bunk in the cramped space.
“Fuck! Sonofa—” she blurted, her fingers gingerly feeling the rapidly growing bump on her head as she checked for signs of blood.
Clean fingers. Be happy for small victories. It would be oh-so funny if the crewmember whose job relied on her sharp analytical skills suddenly rendered herself comatose, she grimly mused.
She had been having that strange dream again. Beautiful green trees, fresh air, and blue skies.
And silence. Total silence.
Lingering on the fringe of the vision, there had been something else, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, and the nascent ache in her head put a quick end to any hopes of remembering further details, at least for the time being. Pretty much everything was momentarily on the back burner as the rapidly increasing pain demanded her full attention.
It was going to be a double-dose of pain meds kind of morning.
Gingerly, careful not to add insult to painful injury, she removed the slender neuro-stim band wrapped around her head and sat up in her bed. While she had a visceral unease with the mechanical parts stuck on human bodies, she found herself able to rationalize using the neuro-stim far easier, though self-loathing would sometimes seep through in spite of herself.
It wasn’t an actual replacement part, after all. She wasn’t physically changing her body. It was just a simple tool, and one she could give up anytime if she wanted to. For now, however, it was keeping her sharp and letting her do her job a little bit better. Kind of like taking a stim pack when working a double shift.
She’d used more than a few of those when weariness threatened the quality of her work in those first frantic days, but she soon decided she couldn’t risk the residual effects. Even with the chemicals fully metabolized out of her system, Daisy hadn’t really had a single good night’s slumber since she’d woken six months prior. To be fair, however, many of those sleepless nights were also due to a certain well-muscled engineer.
So much for a one-night stand. Daisy smiled at the thought, cozy and reluctant to leave the warmth of her covers. Of course, she knew if she dilly-dallied too much Sarah would just come and lean on her door chime until she had no choice but to rouse herself for their daily pre-breakfast Qi Gong routine.
Why did I ever agree to join her?
“It’ll help you center yourself,” Sarah had said. “Find your balance, focus your energy. Maybe you’ll even sleep better.”
Daisy had picked up the simple movements quickly. Her muscle tone and fitness were exceptional. The muscle-stim surface electrodes had done their job admirably, keeping her body in top-notch physical condition as she slumbered through the lengthy voyage. Now she met with Sarah every morning, and though her friend was far more advanced than she was, Daisy was pleased to find she had little trouble keeping up.
A few months into their routine, Sarah suggested they add Tai Chi. It would be a little bit more strain on the body at first, adding all those unusual movements, but physically, Daisy had no problems with it. Mentally, well, that was another story.
The neural stimulator was the issue. Daisy and the rest of the crew had all been hooked up to one during their lengthy stasis, and once awakened, had continued utilizing the smaller versions Mal had wired into their quarters.
The massively complicated devices were supposed to not only regulate brain activity in cryo-sleep, keeping the wearer in a restful state, but would also gently impart useful information and training updates to the unconscious mind in a slow trickle.
The theory behind it was that mission-specific knowledge could be drip-fed and learned en route, allowing individuals to jump headfirst into whatever tasks awaited them as soon as they woke upon arriving at their destination, rather than spending days, or even weeks, training after being roused from their slumber.
For everyone else on the crew, the system seemed to work perfectly. For Daisy, not so much. It frustrated her to no end that despite her technical know-how, she simply couldn’t figure out why.
Apparently, the early prototypes of the machine had tried to simply upload massive amounts of information to the wearers at once. It seemed logical, the storage capacity was certainly there, but the AI who had designed the system hadn’t fully taken into account the remarkably delicate nature of human gray matter. In the first series of tests, those who didn’t die outright, invariably went mad.
Eventually it was determined, through much trial and error, that only the slowest drip of information could be safely absorbed. A steady but small trickle rather than a flood, and closely regulated and monitored at all times. There wasn’t all that much you could learn in a short trip, but on a longer one such as this, during those months and years of cryo-time, a traveler could effectively
update their technical skill set and incorporate any new revisions to operations protocols.
Unfortunately, while the rest of the crew slept well and were fully able to wear their neuro-stims out of cryo stasis with no issues, Daisy found early on that she could only use the neural stimulator if she flooded her brain with copious amounts of sleep drugs. That simply wasn’t an option for someone whose job depended on a clear and logical mind. So it passed that she resolved to see if she could find a fix.
That’s when she began tinkering with the device.
After her first week of unrestful sleep, she decided to try a new work-around, tweaking a few lines of the device’s base code and disabling a pair of inhibitors from the machine, altering the rate and intensity of data flow during her sleep sessions. It took a little trial-and-error, but fairly quickly, she found a mix that worked well enough most of the time.
As she tinkered with the neuro-stim, Daisy had been pleasantly surprised to find herself innately aware of the ins and outs of the complex system, though at the same time, she also felt that a full understanding was always just out of her reach. She was a tech, and a damn good one, but the neuro-stims were simply far beyond her training, and much of the time she was working on instinct alone. It was hit-and-miss, and, unfortunately, that occasionally meant bad dreams.
And bumps to the head when she woke from them.
Given the option, she’d have simply chosen to go back into cryo, but after the accident there had been so many repairs to make, and so many lingering glitches in the ship’s systems, that the captain had felt it best if they all stayed awake the remainder of the trip.
At least she had Vince to help pass the time. Him and the massive entertainment collection Captain Harkaway had seen fit to load onto the ship before departing.
Currently, she and Vince were spending their evenings together working through the science fiction and horror classics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As crew of an actual spacecraft, they found themselves regularly amused at things that weren’t supposed to be funny. If only the filmmakers had known how far off their predictions of the future would be.
