Well, impossible for me. Apparently not so much for my engineering friends. And yet, they felt that they needed me, so there was that.
I didn’t have much time to contemplate whether I was overestimating my worth or not, because soon they were hauling me toward the engine room. From there my day devolved into a frenzy of sealing leaks, setting up oxygen tanks and emergency suit repair kits. From there it was making sure that our enviro-suits had every possible nick or tear patched up and reinforced.
By the time we were ready for the big shutdown, it was somewhere around ten o’clock and I was excited and nervous and all sorts of conflicting feelings combined into one little body.
Or maybe that was the caffeine. I had never been allowed to have it when I was younger and now I remembered why. It made me…twitchy. Like all of my nerves were standing on end and my fingertips were about a half inch longer than they should be.
“You wanna go get your BFF, or shall I?”
I looked up from the gap I was sealing to see Gonzales standing over me with another coffee in hand. “You sure?”
“Yup. Grab both your suits and haul your hindquarters down to her. Once she’s in here, we’ll do the final seal and then turn off the engines and have a go at this very dangerous plan of yours.”
“I don’t know about it being my plan.”
“Hey, take credit for your accomplishments,” she said, helping me up and handing me the warm drink. “This is a good idea, friend. And one we probably wouldn’t have thought of on our own. Sometimes you need to think outside the box and that’s exactly what you did.”
“You really think so?”
“Of course. I never say what I don’t think. That’s why I have eleven write-ups on my record and get paid ten thousand credits less than the coin twins.”
“That seems excessive.”
“And so is my attitude, apparently.” She patted my back while simultaneously shoving me out of the room. “Now go, get sleeping beauty and make sure she’s suited up before she withers away. I’ve always wanted to save a damsel in distress, and this is the closest chance I’m ever going to get.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” I murmured before turning and going to do as she said.
“Are we ready?” I asked, probably for the fifteenth time as the five of us stood in a semi-circle, the engine controls in front of us.
“I mean, as ready as we could ever be. You’ve got the most out-of-ship experience of any of us,” Gonzales said.
“Yeah, don’t remind me of that. I’ve been on a handful of hull cleanups and that’s it. I haven’t even repaired a rupture from the outside.”
“Shush, positivity only please.”
“Actually, we want to retain a neutral state as much as possible, lest we spark some sort of reaction in our vacuum,” Bahn laughed.
Gonzales sighed. “Your puns are as amazing as ever, Bahn. At least if we all die in a horrible explosion, I will never have to hear one again.”
“Just for that, I’m specifically going to haunt you.”
“Does it work that way? If we’re both dead, you can’t, like, attach your spirit to mine, can you?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to many dead people.”
“Guys, back on topic.” I took another deep breath. “Ready?”
“Ready. Kill the power, Higgens.”
I reached over to the side of the console that was my responsibility and turned several dials to the settings Ciangi had made sure were drilled in my head. The rest of the team did so as well, with only Mimic not participating.
No, she was strapped down in a corner with several fire extinguishers beside her in case of an emergency. I hoped that she didn’t feel left out, but she was so weak, and so tired, we thought it was the best way to keep her both occupied and safe.
I felt my weight start to shift almost immediately. It wasn’t full-on, gravity-less floating, but there was a certain feeling of constantly tipping forward. I also heard the fire doors closing all around us, sealing off the engine room from the rest of the ship.
And finally, there was the steady hiss of air as Bahn set the environmental controls to flush the atmosphere of the room.
We stood there for several moments, waiting for everything to be just right before we moved into action.
Once our feet did start to lift from the ground, Ciangi hit a button on the large countdown holo-screen we had set up on one of the data-logs, and we got to work.
First was pressing the code into our enviro-suit’s number-pad on the arm which would engage the magnetic function of our boots. Once we were all safely adhered to the floor, we went about doing our parts.
For once, I didn’t let my anxiety or self-doubt distract me. I had a job to do and I was not going to be swayed.
“Welder.”
I crossed to one of the tool stations we had set up, grabbing the tool and getting it to Gonzales as quickly as I could. She took it and started setting one of the capacitors, the tip glowing ionic-blue.
“I need a sprocket clamp.”
I bounded over to the table once again and fetched that tool too.
“Welder done.”
Back to Gonzales to grab the tool and put it on the table for the next person who needed it.
The next five hours dissolved into a sort of dance as I moved between the three. I had to be careful not to knock anything or get them the wrong tools, lest someone make a mistake that ended with the death of everyone.
There wasn’t any talk beyond the orders for tools and various swears as close calls or drops happened. It was tense, it was nerve-wracking, and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when Bahn uttered an actual sentence. “Did you finish the dampener installation over there?”
“Just completing it now,” Ciangi answered, standing up from where she had been crouching.
“Gonzales, how are those sprockets coming along?”
“On the last one now.”
The tallest of the engineers took a deep breath, then nodded. “I…I think we’ve done it.”
“What? Really? You finished installing all the new crystals and making sure the system hasn’t rejected them?”
“So far, all of my tests are coming back successful. The only thing left to do is power the system and see if it works.”
‘Really?” I asked worriedly. “Just power on the system? Isn’t there a safe way to go about this that doesn’t involve all of us exploding?”
“Sure, but usually it requires remote activation while we stand on the deck of a comfy space station. You see any of those around here?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“Right. So, this is a kind of do-or-die thing, but I’m putting my money on the do part.”
“That’s an easy bet to make. If you lose, no one can collect the bet from you.”
“And that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it?”
“Alright then,” I said, cutting into what I sensed was another round of banter. “Let’s bring the systems online.”
“Right-o.”
The four of us lined up in the same order that we had started this whole project with, each pressing the dials, punching in the codes, or raising the levels of whatever it was our responsibility to do. I watched the others out of the corner of my eye and I had to admit that I had never felt so much like part of a team. They really had needed me for their plan to work. Well, my plan, apparently.
But still, even with those pleasant feelings and affirmations flowing through me, I couldn’t help but feel like we were counting down to our possible demise as soon as a single spark of energy shot through our jury-rigged system.
What happened before played in reverse, with our weight returning to us in waves, air hissing back into the room, and then the fire walls slowly sliding up until the engine room was back to its proper state.
“Should we be raising those so soon?” I asked. “Seems a bit self-assured, don’t you think?”