by Mark Tufo
“That is where our breach is going to be. I’m going to need to go outside,” Porter said, rising up out of his seat.
“Outside where? Winter says it’s pretty cold,” Tallow told him.
“Cedar was right about the hole. I need to see if it is repairable.”
“Can Genogerians hold their breaths for a really long time?” Tallow asked.
“He’ll have a suit, goofball,” Cedar said as she switched seats.
Porter looked back at her before nodding. “The coordinates are programmed into the ship, if something should happen.”
“Hurry back,” Cedar told him in response. “I’ll keep an eye on you with the drone.”
Porter went into the airlock, suited up, grabbed a tool kit he said was designed just for this problem. “Normally, the fear is micro-meteorites,” he said over the speakers.
“Great, something else to worry about.” Lendor threw his hands in the air. Once Porter went through the airlock and out into space, we all crowded into the cockpit to watch him. Cedar moved the drone so that he was always in our field of vision.
“How does he move around out there, Cedar?” I asked.
“His suit has small jets that will propel him.” As she said this, we saw faint white puffs exit from his back and he floated forward.
Porter moved clumsily around. “I did not do well on space-walk tests,” he mumbled as way of explanation.
“Steady, Porter, you already used five percent of your tanks.” Cedar sounded concerned.
“Five percent doesn’t sound that bad,” I said.
Cedar hit a switch. “In this situation, it’s a lot; there’s a very limited amount of fuel in those suits. He should have barely registered a hit. The same inertia principles apply to him as to this ship. A little gets you a very long way. He’s nervous, bordering on scared…if his heart rate is any indication.
“And if he runs out of tanks?” Tallow wanted to know, as did we all.
“It’s not the tanks,” Cedar corrected. “It’s what’s inside them. But if he runs out of fuel, he might not be able to get back inside.”
Porter hit the side of the ship with a jarring impact. We could hear his “oomphs” as he braced himself from injuring anything vital.
“Cedar, please move the drone closer to the damage on the wing. There is some sort of coating left behind by the attack.”
I didn’t like the fact at all that we could no longer see Porter as Cedar pulled the tiny ship in close.
“Does that look like it’s glowing to anyone else?” Serrot was pointing to the screen.
“Yes, Porter—it did leave something behind, and at least from here, it looks active,” Cedar told him.
“It is likely it is eating away at our hull,” he said. “I do not know if this will work, but there is a hose in the airlock. I will need one of you to unwind it from its spool, and then reopen the hatch so that I may retrieve it without using too much of my power.”
“Porter, how are you going to use a hose out there without flying off into space?” Cedar asked.
“I will have to counteract the effects of the force with my suit,” he said.
Cedar was shaking her head in negation.
“You cannot think too much on this, Cedar.” Porter said. “I see the hole we have now; it is reparable, but if those grooves are eaten through any further, I do not have the material available to fix it.”
“Winter, can you get that hose ready? Let me know when you’re back here.”
“You think he can do it?” I asked her.
“He can do it, he just won’t be able to get back in,” Cedar replied.
“Just have him hold on to the hose; we’ll reel him in.”
“Don’t think that will work, Tallow,” Cedar said. “You’d have to be inside the airlock. Wait, Porter…are there extra suits?”
“Three, but why?” he asked. “I cannot change out here and we are running out of time.”
“Not for you. We’ll have the hose ready; when you’re done with it, do not let go. We are going to reel you in with it,” Cedar said.
“I’ll do it,” Tallow volunteered. “The suit, I mean.”
“Figured you’d say that, but do not do anything heroic. You have no idea how the suit works, and odds are it’s going to be much too big on you.”
“Hose is ready,” I called out as I came back. “Where you going?” I asked Tallow as he was coming toward me.
“Ceed says Porter is going to run out of suit juice or whatever the heck it uses. I’m going to pull the hose in with him on it, once he’s done. Stop looking at me like that. I know that it’s in the airlock. There’s extra suits in there too.”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” I told him.
“Why do people keep saying that to me? And if we’re being honest, this whole thing is stupid, so there’s that.”
I kissed him.
“No time, lover boy.” Cedar was looking back. “Get suited up. Porter says the damage is getting worse.”
I helped Tallow as best I could, tucking, pulling, and locking buttons until I was fairly certain he was ready to go.
“We’re good!” I yelled up front.
“Big green button on the side of his helmet—press it!” Cedar ordered.
There was a loud hissing and a small alarm rang inside Tallow’s suit.
“No pressurization.” Cedar was moving quickly toward us. I did not like the idea that no one was flying this ship or the sky drone, either. “Gloves aren’t on right. You going to be able to use your hands?” She was looking in his faceplate. He nodded.
“I’ll be fine.” I was scared; he sounded so far away, though I was standing right next to him. Cedar smacked the button again; his faceplate lit up.
“There a funny little symbol…looks like a fat buffalo…on your righthand side?” Cedar asked.
Tallow turned. “Nope.”
Cedar’s head bowed. “Inside the helmet.”
“Oh yeah, there it is.” He smiled.
“You’re ready. I’m tethering you to the ship, okay?”
“Gotcha.” He tried to do a thumbs up; didn’t work out so good as the entire hand part flopped over.
Cedar found a thin metallic rope and latched it to a loop on the back of Tallow’s suit.
“Why didn’t Porter use that?” I asked.
“Not long enough, maybe, or he forgot. Alright, come on. We have to get out of here.”
There was the cautionary light for the airlock being opened; we watched as the hose and Tallow were pulled to the exit. The hose continued where Tallow’s flight was cut short. The hose looked much like a light pole for a moment; it was so straight and rigid. Within a few more seconds, it began to drift in the airless environment.
Once Cedar was certain everything had worked correctly and Tallow was fine, she raced back to the front.
“Hose is in place.”
“On my way,” Porter told her.
“He’s moving too fast,” Tallow said through his headset. Cedar didn’t think he realized he was coming through the comm system. “He missed.”
“I have him on the drone. How you doing, Tallow?”
“Oh hey, I didn’t know you could hear me. I don’t think Porter knows what he’s doing.”
“I also can hear you,” Porter replied.
“No offense, but you’re zipping around like a bumblebee that drank turned nectar.”
“Are you saying I’m inebriated?” Porter asked as he grunted. He was coming back the way he had gone.
“Less thrust, Porter. Ease up.” Cedar was trying to calm him down.
“Gonna be close,” Tallow said. “Ooh…” I could hear him wince. “He bounced the nozzle off his face and the hose has wrapped around his neck. Other than that, he’s got it.”
“Porter, are you alright?”
“I have a spider-web crack in my faceplate; it should not impede my mission.” He was grunting as he wrestled with the trajectory of his suit.
“This is painful to watch,” I said quietly to my sister, having joined her back in the cockpit. She had multiple camera angles up, including one in the airlock. It was somewhat comforting to be able to hear Tallow talk.
Cedar leaned over and switched off the comm. “I have a feeling all of his knowledge of that spacesuit he got from a book. It’s terrifying that right now he’s our best chance of getting out of this mess.” She flipped the switch back on.
“Turning hose on in three…”
“Hold on Porter!” Cedar exclaimed.
“You didn’t tell me this.” She was looking at a row of switches. “I can remotely take control of your suit?” It came off as a question, but it wasn’t.
“I originally thought it for the best if I was the master of my own fate.”
“How’s that working out for you?” Cedar asked him. “Alright, I am now controlling your suit. I’m going to get you closer to the damage. Make sure your spray is directed correctly; we’re going to barely have enough fuel for you to do this. When I say stop, you have to do as I say, no questions asked. You hear me?”
“It would be difficult not to,” he responded.
“Yeah, everybody hears Cedar for miles around,” Tallow said, I guess forgetting she was listening to him as well.
“Alright Porter, I have you in position. On my count of three, you start spraying, and I’ll do my best to move you along the damage. And remember, my worst is better than your best,” she told him.
“Ouch,” Serrot replied.
“One, two, three.” Cedar began to control Porter’s suit. He was moving forward quickly, not having turned the hose on. He was very much in danger of smashing against the hull. “Porter!”
Brown foam shot out and splashed across the wing an instant before he was to collide. He began to move erratically as Cedar struggled to find a balance to the forces being applied to him. I was worried that the foam would hit and go flying off into space, but it clung tightly wherever it struck. Porter was doing an admirable job of holding on to the pressurized fixture.
Cedar’s head was shaking. “Move faster, Porter, burning through fuel.”
“It does no good if I don’t smother the damage.” He was breathing heavily.
Cedar kept shaking her head as Porter moved methodically from section to section. He had just got to the final portion as a small buzzer sounded and a red button on Cedar’s controls began to blink.
“You have two minutes,” Cedar said through pursed lips.
“Push me closer,” he panted.
Cedar did as he asked. My eyes kept shifting from my sister, who was concentrating and looked extremely worried, to Porter, who was moving far too slowly.
“Twenty seconds, Porter. You have got to stop before we run out. Tallow, be ready to reel him in.”
“Ceed…not so sure how I’m going to do this. The hose feels like a tree trunk.”
“Once he stops pumping it’ll soften up.”
“Ten…five…two! Stop now!” The small jets on Porter’s suit flared and then sputtered and still he sprayed.
“Porter!” I yelled as he flew backward at an accelerated velocity. He was in danger of coming around and smashing against the hull on the other side at bone-breaking speed.
We could hear Tallow grunting as he tried to pull the apparatus in. Porter turned his head, knowing that if he held on to the hose, he might not survive the contact.
“I did it,” he sighed as he let go of the hose.
“Nooo!” Cedar cried out as Porter flew off into space. She spent a moment desperately trying to squeeze more power out of his dead suit.
There was a thud in the airlock as Tallow, who had been straining against a weighted object, now found that he was pulling on air and had fallen into the wall. “Where is he?” he cried out.
“You fool!” Cedar spat as she pushed the suit controls away and grabbed the sky drone.
“I saved you; I can join my kin in celebration of my deeds,” Porter said.
“You can join them at a later date.” The drone took off toward him.
A Genogerian chant came over the speakers; it sounded like a final prayer.
“Not yet, Porter. I’m sending the drone. You grab a hold of it or I swear I will imbed it into your thick skull and fly you back here that way.”
“I believe her,” Lendor said.
I could only nod, as I did as well. “That going to work?” I asked, hopeful.
“I don’t know. The drone doesn’t have much power, or fuel, for that matter. But I’ve got to try something. Getting the drone to him and matching speed so he can grab it is going to be tricky. Then getting his momentum changed…I…I just don’t know.” Her forehead creased deeply, bringing her brows together as she concentrated on all the moving variables she was dealing with. I felt as useless as the cookbooks we found in the library. Sure, all the recipes looked delicious, we just didn’t have any ingredients to make them with.
“Sorry Porter,” Cedar whispered as she made the small flying machine accelerate.
He grunted heavily as the machine struck him somewhere in the chest/stomach region. He coughed and groaned at the same time, but his arms did wrap around it. He was still rapidly fading from our view as more red buttons lit up on the new display.
“Fuel again?” Serrot asked me, not wanting to interrupt Cedar, who looked like she could chew through bone.
“Come on, come on.” Her hands were steady on the controls, though her whole body was tense. We could hear the struggled whirring of the drone as it fought against forces it wasn’t designed for.
“Broken rib,” Porter coughed out.
“Do not let go!” Cedar implored. “I’ve got this Porter, I’ve got you.”
Later, when I reflected on this moment, I truly believed it was Cedar’s sheer force of will that created the successful outcome. She was her own destiny and those around her had no choice but to comply.
“I think I’ve stopped moving!” Porter sounded as excited as someone could, speaking with a broken rib.
The light on Cedar’s panel had gone from blinking red to a solid, ominous color. “One last push,” she said.
“It’s working, it’s working!” Cedar and Porter said together.
“Cedar, the drone is no longer functioning,” Porter told her, “but I am headed back your way.”
Relief flooded through the cockpit. If there had been room, I would have melted into a puddle on the floor, my legs were so weak. It was five minutes longer. Cedar was looking at the controls when another alarm sounded. Lendor was onto something; never got all those menacing sounds on the ground.
“No, no, no!” Cedar was frantically checking and rechecking.
“What’s going on?” I asked, not sure if I could handle more stress, especially when I could do nothing about it.
“Tell them,” Porter replied.
“You, you stop talking.” She flipped off the comm. “He’s going to run out of oxygen before he gets here and even if he doesn’t, he’s not on a trajectory to bring him back to the ship. At his closest, he’s going to miss by about a hundred feet…might as well be a hundred miles.” Her head fell against the console she was sitting at. It was the first time I had ever seen my sister’s unflagging optimism not only wane, but completely falter.
“Yee-haw!” Tallow shouted.
Cedar’s head came up fast, as did mine.
“Tallow, what are you doing?” Cedar asked before she realized he couldn’t hear her.
“I see the big lizard! Going to go and get him!” Tallow sounded like he was having the time of his life.
Cedar flipped the switch. “Tallow, you have no idea what you’re doing!”
“Don’t be mad, Ceed! You’re not the only one that can fly! If I’d known how much fun this was, I would have stayed with you at the shuttle!”
I ran to the airlock. I saw the retreating back of my boyfriend as he headed out into the abyss of space. “Get him back, Cedar!” I yelled, never tak
ing my eyes off him.
“I can’t manually take control of his suit without him allowing it, and Winter, he’s Porter’s only chance,” Cedar said.
“Tallow!” I shouted, slamming my fist up against the small window. Of course, I was concerned about Porter’s wellbeing, but Tallow, he was the love of my life, the light that kept me going when all around was dark. I could not lose him; I could never lose him. I smacked the window two more times in frustration. I ran back to the cockpit to get a better idea of what was going on.
“Whoa!” Tallow was laughing; he had started to spin in place, the tether going with him. If he didn’t correct it soon, he was going to end up hog tying himself and be no help to anyone.
“I’m going to ‘whoa’ up the side of his head.”
“I heard that!” Tallow said.
“What’s going on?” Porter asked.
“Porter, don’t speak. You have about a minute of oxygen. At the speed you’re traveling you’ll be flying past Tallow in three; we’ll have you back in the airlock in four. You can do it.”
“Three minutes without breathing?” I asked in hushed tones. The incredulity of that hit me hard. Must have done the same to Tallow.
“Ceed, no way. No way can someone go that long without breathing. I’m going to undo my tether and I’m flipping control to you. Get me to him and get me back.”
“Don’t you dare take that rope off!” Even as I shouted, the cable lazily drifted away from him.
“I’ve got this, Winter,” Cedar told me. If she was trying for comfort, it fell short. Nothing short of having him in my arms again was going to make me feel safe.
We could hear Porter taking small gasps of air. Didn’t need to look at his vital signs to know what was happening. At a time when he needed to be calm and focused, he was likely the most panicked; not being able to breathe is a primal fear and my heart went out to him.
“Tallow, you’re going to get some warning signals; it’s only because of the acceleration, I’ll slow you down in time.”
“This seemed like a better idea when I was attached. Alright…get me there. Damn—he’s huge! Am I going to be able to heft him up?”
Cedar smiled. “Of course! You’ve got superhuman strength right now, and plus, he weighs as much as a feather out there.”
