"The Morning of a Space Cadet"
As Mark, the space cadet, opened his eyes for the first time aboard the training ship Maxxis One, he was greeted by the sight of people in white suits floating in the vastness of space outside his window. A smile crept across his face as he watched helmet after helmet bump into each other like billiard balls. Pushing off from his sleeping quarters, Mark entered one of the ship's corridors, which was packed with cadets who had yet to hook up to the stability lines.
Just as Mark reached for his safety line, a booming voice rang out, "Cadets, hook yourselves up to the stability lines!" A grumpy-looking sergeant barrelled down the corridor, prompting all the cadets to scramble and hook up. Mark started floating down the hallway, and as he passed the sergeant, a voice grumbled at him, "Cadet Mark."
"Yes, Sergeant," Mark replied.
"After you have had breakfast, you will head straight to the airlock dock for final EVA training with me," the sergeant ordered.
"Yes, Sergeant!" Mark shouted with a smile. He gleefully followed a group of new cadets down the corridor until he reached an intersection. Taking out a second stabilizing hook, he connected it to the new stabilizing line and disconnected the old one. Mark repeated this action at every intersection until he came to the entrance of the canteen, where a female voice rang out, "Cadet Mark, head to the end of the line and get your food."
"Yes, ma'am," Mark replied.
"It's Captain Janet," one of the other cadets said with a grin on her face. Mark followed the line of people receiving their breakfast. After reaching the counter, Mark grabbed a fast-make soup packet and added the required amount of water through the eating tube on the packaging.
"Cadet Mark, move to the safe wall and stay there until you have finished eating," Captain Janet ordered.
"Yes, ma'am," Mark replied. He disconnected from the stabilizing line and flung himself towards the safe wall with his arms stretched out and a hook ready to be attached to one of the many attachment points. With a soft thud, Mark grabbed one of the handholds on the safe wall and connected his hooks. He then pushed the retract button, which pinned him to the wall.
"What do you have in your training schedule this morning?" one of the cadets asked as they took a sip from their soup.
"I've got final EVA training, then reactor control training. How about you?" Mark replied before sloping down all of his soup in one big gulp.
"Oh, that's not fair. I have to do reactor pressure regulating training, then reactor control training," the cadet said.
"Well, I guess I will be seeing you at reactor control, then," Mark replied before disconnecting from the wall and reconnecting to the main stabilizing lines. He pushed off, scrambling down corridor after corridor until he reached the inner door to the airlock room. He pushed his hand on the hand scanner to open the inner door, and as he did, a loud hissing sound and clonking of the door locks could be heard while the inner door began opening.
Mark disconnected himself from the stabilizing line and pushed off into the airlock room. Standing inside was the sergeant from earlier.
"Cadet Mark, you are late. Get your EVA suit and come over here," the sergeant said.
"Yes, Sergeant," Mark replied, floating over to the storage cabinet that stored all of the suits. Mark struggled to put on his suit, as it was a difficult task to do without assistance. Eventually, he managed to get it done and returned to the sergeant with his helmet in his hand.
"Cadet Mark, do you remember the four safety systems of your space suit?" the sergeant asked.
"Yes, Sergeant," Mark replied.
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"Well, can you speak? What are they?"
"Safety system one: oxygen supply, backup lasts one hour. Safety system two: the gas thrusters run off of the backup oxygen supply, so don't use them too much if you find yourself being disconnected from the umbilical thread. Safety system three: the radio has a short-range antenna and a manually activated beacon located below the cadet's left shoulder," Mark recited.
"Cadet Mark, how do you activate your beacon?" the sergeant asked.
"The beacon is activated automatically upon moving beyond the range of the suit's antenna," Mark replied.
"Good work. Don your helmet and get ready for final checks," the sergeant said. Mark placed his white helmet on his head as the sergeant connected the oxygen hose to the chest plate of Mark's space suit. After connecting the hose, the sergeant plugged in the cable to Mark's helmet.
"Cadet Mark, check your oxygen status," the sergeant instructed.
Mark looked down at his hand mirror to see his chest plate. "Oxygen supply 100%, backup supply full. Cadet Mark has a good oxygen supply, Sergeant."
The sergeant donned his helmet and checked his oxygen supply. "Oxygen supply all good," the sergeant said.
"OK, cut it, Mark. Clip on to my safety line," the sergeant said. The sergeant clipped his safety line to the inner wall of the airlock and then released the outer door to the airlock, which has an automatic system that sucks all the air from the airlock and installs it in reservoir tanks so that in an emergency the airlock can be re-pressurized fast. The airlock, now a vacuum, forces the airlock door to lock so that no one can enter until the outer door is closed.
"OK, cadet, walk to the door and hold on to the handrails while you get your bearings before pushing yourself out into the blackness of space," the sergeant said. Mark stepped up to the door and looked out along the hull of the ship. He could see multiple tethers running along the hull's outer service lines. Moments later, there was pressure in the center of Mark's back, getting more and more forceful. Mark turned his head to see what the pressure was. As he moved his hand, the grip he had on the handles of the airlock loosened, and his body started to float out into the void. Looking back, the sergeant had his foot up at where Mark was just standing, a grin on his face as if he were a mischievous child who had just stolen a cookie from behind his mother's back. Slowly, Mark began to tumble as the safety tether started to reach the maximum range.
"I need to stop my momentum and stabilize myself," Mark said. As Mark attempted to reorient himself, the safety tether tightened, arresting his momentum. The radio in Mark's helmet crackled to life.
"Cadet Mark, use your thrusters to reorient yourself to the ship and bring yourself over to connection point alpha two," the sergeant ordered.
"Yes, sergeant," Mark replied. He flipped open the thruster control stick on his left arm and fired the thrusters. Plumes of white gas started to be expelled from the front and the rear of Mark's space suit. As Mark oriented himself in the direction of the hull of the Maxxis One, he gave one quick burst from the rear thruster to push him back toward the ship. Just as Mark started to get closer to the ship, his radio crackled to life once more with an area-wide alert.
"Abandoned ship, abandoned ship, reactor controls inoperable, reactor overload imminent. The Maxxis One is in distress, need immediate assistance," the announcement repeated three times before Mark could see panels being blown off the ship around the reactor core. Mark's radio crackled to life once more.
"All cadets conducting EVA training, detach from the Maxxis One and move to emergency rally point two," the order came.
Upon hearing this, Mark was just about to attach to the ship. Mark hit full reverse thrust on his space suit, with his tether still attached, providing much-needed oxygen. As Mark reached the extreme range of his tether, Mark pressed the emergency purge button on his chest, and the tether lines snapped back with tremendous force, leaving Mark heading out into the darkness of space. Mark looked around to see if any of the other cadets were near him. Seeing none, Mark looked at his wrist to locate the whereabouts of rally point two.
"Rally Point 2 is 1000 meters aw...." Mark never got to finish his sentence. At that moment, the ship Maxxis One exploded, sending shrapnel in all directions. Mark checked his suit and found a tear above the left elbow, with air escaping from his suit. Mark quickly patched the tear with tape, hoping his repair would hold out until rescue arrived. Mark checked his oxygen supply, noticing that he only had 15 minutes of oxygen left. Knowing that his oxygen supply would run out before he reached rally point two, he decided that it would be best if he arrested his momentum and stayed in position. Mark gave one quick burst of thrust to arrest his momentum. As he did this, he watched his oxygen supply start to dwindle faster than it was supposed to. Mark floated in space for what seemed like an eternity. As he gazed upon a little blue orb in the distance, his oxygen supply started to get lower. Mark noticed a small silver spaceship flickering across the bright blue orb, the ship slowly getting closer. Mark started to calculate how long it would take for the ship to get to his location. Hope faded from his eyes as he looked at his oxygen supply, noticing that it had already gone through yellow and was now well within the red.
"Well, this sucks. My rescue ship is right there, right there. This sucks. Mom, I'm sorry, your son will not be coming home." These were the last words Mark muttered before his oxygen supply ran out.