“Braking maneuver complete,” Rachel Zhu called.
“The drone has successfully matched the pod’s speed,” Cenz said.
“Preparing to deploy docking clamps,” Sulp said. “Cutter, you ready on your end?”
“Prepared,” the Bicet said shortly, all of its focus on the task at hand. He was wearing an entire headset that gave his spectacularly complex and precise eyes a fully-realized view from the drone’s cameras.
The lightlag did not help, but he was only supervising the drone’s own computer as it carried out the complex maneuver.
“Have not yet matched pod’s rotation,” Cutter said. “Require more rotational thrust.”
“Synching drone to pod now,” Ji-min Bin answered.
It had been hard to be sure they had the right data for the pod’s rotation, the interference from debris had made the measurement difficult at the distances involved.
The pod was visibly spinning, the view of it now on the main screen. Slowly the drone was matching the spin, but they were still getting a full view of the side of the craft as it turned.
“Look at that whole side,” Sulp said, in horrified awe.
One full third of the side of the pod was warped, the heat having melted the plates. They’d re-set in space, but were heavily warped.
“Incredible that the pod did not break apart,” Cenz said.
“They were built to survive,” Brooks replied softly.
“Rotation matched,” Zhu announced. The view of the pod had stabilized over one of its intact faces. They could not risk cutting into the melted plates; the warping might have rendered them brittle and they’d end up venting the whole craft to space.
“Preparing to connect,” Cutter said tensely.
They held their collective breaths as the pod grew in the view. Out there, where it was, was three seconds ahead of them, the entire endeavor already either succeeded or failed, but they could not even know.
The view shuddered.
“We have contact!” Cutter said. “All arms secured.”
Brooks found himself breathing again. He said nothing, just watching. His officers were the experts here, and he could only let them work.
“Deploy drill head and connector sleeve unit,” Sulp said.
There was a long pause. The view from the drone shuddered once, then after a few moments shuddered again.
A red light began to flash on an instrument panel.
“What’s happening?” Kai asked sharply.
“We are having difficulty deploying drill head and connector sleeve unit,” Cutter said. “It is registering mechanical error.”
Sulp let out a string of curses. “They were housed near where that bloody debris hit.”
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“Restarting system,” Cutter said. “Remote connection re-established. Attempting to deploy again.”
There was no shudder of the camera this time, and Brooks looked from Cutter to Sulp, hoping this meant something positive.
Sulp’s head tilted down and he sighed.
“Attempting again,” Cutter said.
The feed flickered.
“We have Main Bus B failure,” Cutter hissed. “Battery problems registering. Internal heat rising.”
“We have counter-measures to fire!” Sulp said. “Deploying!”
“No effect!” Cutter said. “No effect. Internal heat rising to dangerous levels. Damage to drone too severe.”
“Detach, detach!” Sulp said quickly. “Before she takes the pod out with her!”
The view feed suddenly cut, replaced with a simple telemetry that showed the drone moving away from the pod.
It winked out.
“Fire spread. Ruptured internal oxygen storage tanks.”
“Is there damage to the pod?” Brooks demanded.
“Unknown,” Cutter replied. “Unlikely.”
“Long-range scans show no change in pod’s velocity,” Cenz said. “No unexpected change in its albedo. It appears that it is still intact.”
Brooks breathed a sigh of relief, but it was brief. He looked to Ji-min Bin. “What is our ETA on the second drone?”
They had launched it some time ago, and Bin put it up on the screen.
It had barely gone a third of the way to the pod.
Kai had her headset on.
“Lily, this is Kai. Are you there?” she called out into the dark.
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Lily saw a bright flash outside her tiny window.
The stars had largely faded, but she still looked out. The view was comfortable and she was happy to think she was facing them.
They still had so much to tell her, she thought. It brought her peace.
The flash . . . had it been one of them?
She didn’t know, but she liked to think so. Soon she’d be another star among them. That had been a story she’d heard once.
Or maybe she’d imagined it . . .
Memories, dreams, fantasies, all of them seemed equally real and plausible to her. Thoughts from childhood were coming back to her, sparks of a pure joy that almost brought tears of happiness to her eyes.
How had she ever forgotten these things? They were the parts that made life so beautiful. Almost as beautiful as those stars out there, glowing for ages upon ages, longer than humanity had existed or likely would ever exist.
At this moment, she felt like she was one with them.
One of those lights might be the Craton, she thought. She felt a pang of sadness, thinking of how hard they were all working to save her.
She could imagine the distance, for the first time she felt she truly could feel just how vast they were in space. She could feel that distance. It took light seconds to cross the gap. She was an insignificant nothing in this endlessness.
But it would end when she was dead. She knew she was dying, that the gas was leaking in here and killing her. That she would not be rescued. She’d accepted that.
It did not upset her. She just hoped they wouldn’t take it too hard.
Maybe it was the gas itself that was making her so accepting of her fate. Probably.
But that didn’t make her acceptance any less real. It didn’t make her memories or fantasies or dreams any less real to her.
It was funny. She’d been afraid of death.
But it was everything leading up to it that was hard.
Dying was easy.
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Captain’s Log:
Escape Pod 57 was recovered six hours after initial launch from the Maria’s Cog.
The second drone was successful in attaching to the pod and penetrating the hull to begin scrubbing the air of toxic gases. Concentrations, however, were by that time above lethal limits. Medical drones deployed within the pod found that both Lily Brogan and Davyyd Pedraza were dead.
Their bodies have been recovered, and will be returned to their families.
All other personnel from the Maria’s Cog that have been recovered are in stable condition. We are en route to Medical Base 17 for their further treatment.
Further investigations have confirmed our earlier theory that the Cog had been hit by a piece of space debris moving at an unusually high velocity. Notations of this particular danger in this region have been sent out to all Union vessels and independent ships.
The known flaw in the escape pods that allowed the release of engine coolant gas under certain circumstances has been elevated in importance; all current models of that pod in service will undergo revision to help prevent such future incidents.
Finally, Commander Kai Yong Fan has requested a leave of absence of three days. I have granted her request.
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FINIS