The door to the maintenance room opened with a mechanical whirr. I recognized it even before stepping in, because it was pitch black and lined with blinking LED lights, like a torn fragment of the night sky.

One of the three lights across it powered on when I stepped close enough. Unlike the amber emergency lights, these were a blinding white and would power off as soon as I got away from them. When I studied about this concept, I thought it was a very clever compromise between saving power and having enough light to get work done.

“Here’s hoping the generator isn’t busted.” I said to myself as I went right into the room, as I had done the last two times.

PSSSSH! The door across the hall opened, and my entire body went into overdrive. I jumped out of sight as soon as I could, and a bolt of pink fire barely missed me. The door closed again and I heard the sound of laser fire two more times. Seeing that the heat didn’t cut through the door, I rushed to it and put my welding torch to the locking mechanism.

“ERROR!” A big red cross on the panel to its side let me know the person outside had just tried to open it. I stepped away from the door as the heated metal cooled, fusing in place. I heard banging and a muffled yell. I looked to my left, checking the room’s machines.

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He had a laser gun and I didn’t. I needed to bridge the gap somehow. I rushed to the life support panel and pulled open the lid. A warning flashed as I dislodged its algae canister and placed it in a spot meant for spare ones.

“I’ll drown him out. If he’s not wearing a spacesuit, the oxygen will...”

I stopped myself.

“Damn! What if he is? I haven’t seen the airlock room yet. He might even have time to go get one now.”

Thinking of something else, but not giving up on this idea, I placed my hand on the control panel that had automatically powered, and commanded to pull all the air back into the gas tanks. The sound of depressurization surrounded me as the air quickly became lighter.

My mind raced, as my thoughts became a highway and the distracting ones stung like spikes. I hadn’t felt like this since I arrived late to my Electrodynamics final exam and had to finish it in fifteen minutes... Which is also a distracting thought! Fuck!

I turned my head to the panel next over. “Shields. Won’t do.” I looked again. “Heating...? No, that’ll cook me too.” And then I laid my eyes on the Gravity Control panel, and my expression changed ever so slowly...

“Oh, I’ve got it.”