It felt odd approaching the Salvation in a similar fashion to the Dominus, though this time we were circling much closer while trying to find a good point of entry into the Salvation. Even in our zippy little recon craft, the Velox, it took some time to cover the Salvation due to its sheer size — it was a massive ship compared to the Dominus.

Being completely dark, we weren’t even allowed to talk, the only noise were my shallow breaths as I sat to the rear of the cabin in a jump seat while Jeremy and Ro had main pilot controls at the front.

They manoeuvred the Velox making sure to avoid any of the main viewing platforms, however, someone would have to be playing close attention to pick out the stealth craft against the black backdrop.

Jeremy slowly brought the craft from the rear of salvation to near the bridge before bringing it to a hold, with only the slightest hum heard, and vibration felt. It would barely register on Salvations sensors that we were there, but my anxiety was peaking.

I slowly floated out of my Jump seat as the buckles released. As did Jeremy and Ro, with Jeremy signalling that it was time to move.

It was still dead silent as I slowly followed Jeremy towards the airlock, using my arms and legs to manoeuvre my body carefully down the small entry way.

The airlock area for the Velox was tiny with only the tiny hallway between the exterior airlock door and the Interior cabin door used. Once the interior door was locked, the 02 sensor in my visor started to blink as Jeremy began the decompression process and oxygen started to be pumped back into the tanks of the ship.

The exterior door slowly extended down and opened, offering a peak at the exterior of the Salvation, its dull metallic grey being the only thing visible.

Along the exterior, amongst all the instruments that lined her were a series of anchor points, with the main routes on the exterior already having steel lines across them.

“Okay it’s time to make the jump,” Said Jeremy as he activated a secure channel between our voice-links.

“Jump?” I asked with a shaken voice, my mouth was starting to dry out from the nerves.

We were close to the Salvation, but not that close. Although the exterior stretched for what seemed forever in every direction, I started to panic that I would somehow mess up my jump and float away into the endless nothing of space.

Jeremy laughed it off and pushed a large loop of rope over to me.

“See that,” he said as the rope gently floated over to me.

“That’s how it will go. Just a nice push off the Verox and we’ll float on over.”

I grabbed the rope and attached it to my suits tool clips without saying another word. I was that scared that I had lost the ability to talk.

“Relax Carter, you’ll be fine” said Ro as Jeremy positioned himself to jump first.

He grabbed a rail, positioning his legs underneath while looking across at the Salvation. He released his grip and pushed himself off.

It seemed as if he was still, suspended in the same position, stuck in that point of space forever as I watched him float away — an illusion of sorts as there wad no reference for his speed or distance from where I still floated on the Velox.

Next up was Ro. Following Jeremy’s movements from earlier, she pushed herself off and away, leaving me lucky last and dreading it.

I positioned myself as they did, looking across and prepared to push off. It was quiet and still. Jeremy and Ro still appeared stuck between the Verox and Salvation, but at least they were starting to appear smaller.

Oof It’s fine. Totally fine. There’s no way I could miss it. Just push and float over.

It was like experiencing weightlessness all over again as I pushed myself off the Velox. It was one thing bobbing around in a ship in zero g, but a whole other level propelling from one ship to another without any lines or safety in place.

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At first it felt like I threw myself off a building. A sense of panic from falling, making me swing my arms around to stabilise myself. Then it felt like I was floating across a body of water. Just nice, still, and relaxed looking up at the stars.

—-

I was still slowly approaching salvation but I could see that both Jeremy and Ro had made contact with the exterior hull and were attaching themselves to anchor points with their lines.

“Carter, when you touch down on the hull I’ll grab your line and help anchor you down,” said Ro as she waited for slow and steady approach.

Ro extended out her arm to grab me as I got closer but let out a panicked scream as the distance between us grew larger.

“No. Carter!”

“Fu—

“What’s happening?” I yelled as I started to tumble against the hull.

Every small impact made pushed me a little further away until I was gliding a foot above the exterior. Except I wasn’t moving despite the feeling of free-falling. It was the Salvation that was moving and I was stationary.

“Carter you’re going to have to try and anchor yourself,” said Jeremy in trepidation.

I quickly grabbed the rope I attached to my suit before the jump, tethering one end to the clips on my suit and tying off a big loop on the other.

I pushed the rope so the loop gently floated to the hull to capture any protruding

It hooked but the slack was still there when one of the larger exterior devices decided to show up. The impact was hard, knocking the wind out of me while pushing me up and away from the hull. In seconds the slack got snapped and gave me a jarring pull - I was being towed.

The line held, giving me an opportunity to get my bearings of how far removed I was from Jeremy and Ro. It wasn’t good.

Due to the curvature of the Salvation I couldn’t see them at all, even being fifteen metres off the ship at the end of my line gave me no clue at how far I tumbled my way down.

“Guys, do you copy?” I called over the voicelink while I slowly heaved myself along the rope.

No answer. Shit.

I got myself against the hull and set up on one of the main lines, carefully pulling myself toward the front of the ship where I guessed Jeremy and Ro would be. I periodically checked the comms but there was no return call and it started to play on my nerves.

At the time I thought I might have been going crazy, I was certain I could feel a rumble or two as I scaled Salvation. That’s when my voice-link began to crackle with static.

“Carter?” … Static… “Are you there?” … Static…

It was a female voice but it didn’t sound like Ro at all.

“Ro is that you? Who is this?” I asked.

There was no response only the crackling static for the next few minutes as I picked up my pace.

In my heightened state of panic I kept making mistakes, one of which sent me flying out again, using the whole length of my line.

“Get in the ship,” said the unknown voice.

“Quick,” said a voice that now sounded like Ro.

There’s a hatch fifty metres ahead of you,” said a voice that now sounded like SecMajor Henderson.

I turned myself around and looked out toward open space. I couldn’t see the Mortifera or the Medical ship, but I could see the planet that the Salvation was suppose to be orbiting.

“SecMajor Henderson?” I questioned the voice.

“Yes you fucking idiot Carter. Get to that airlock hatch now, Salvation has burnt out of orbit and heading into an anaomly.” Said a sarcastic and angry Henderson.

As I went to grab my line I noticed little waves in the rope making their way to me, followed by larger ones — all the same height and symmetrical.

The static in my voice-started to pick up again but in a more flowing in and out kind of way. It was matching the waves of slack in my rope.

It was too late. I was already starting to feel the oncoming pressure, was still at the end of my line, and the airlock hatch was fifty metres away according to Henderson.

“Woah” I said in awe.

A calm washed over me. Witnessing a thing of such beauty apparently removes all sense of peril.

Several mass clusters of stars, colours, and light appeared toward the front of Salvation — like planet sized snow globes.

The centre of them looked clear, as if you were looking at a speck of space through a telescope back on Earth. It had clusters of stars and a multitude of coloured spiral galaxies that all distorted out of shape as they reached the edges of their containment.

The slack waves in my line started to whip my around more aggressively and the static on my voice-link started to pick up with the addition of a high pitched squeal.

The Salvation was navigating by a few of these cluster globes and everything was getting more erratic.

These must be the anomalies I thought as I started to hyperventilate. Panic was back in my mind as well as intense pressure — we were about to jump.

Light started to stretch all around me, bending in the most curious way, though everything felt still.

I was out of breath, my own vision started to tunnel, and my visor alerts were going haywire.