As the next four minutes ticked by, the station slowly stopped spinning. The astronauts felt the centrifugal force slowly decrease until they all began to float. Each time this happened, the station used numerous gyros to counteract the orbital effects of the change in spin velocity. Reece remembered reading about the automated system, marveling at the mathematical equations it took to enable the station to keep its stable orbit.
During this time, Angel opened the compartment near the airlock and removed two EVA suits for them to wear. Angel gave the pre-walk safety briefing while they donned the suits and positioned themselves at the inner bulkhead. Reece nodded along with the instructions. The inner and outer bulkheads were just over a meter in diameter each, with a small rectangular window filled with a ten-centimeter-thick glass polymer.
They were each operated by a Control panel on the outer wall and the outside of the station near the outer bulkhead. In case of electrical failure or short circuit, they each had a manual hand crank and a local lockout capability to disable the control panels. Each checked the other’s suit for rips, tears, or cracks and that they were adjusted correctly. Once finished, Angel opened the bulkhead. They both entered the airlock by pulling themselves through the opening.
With their bulky EVA suits on, there wasn’t much room to spare across the bulkhead’s passage, but they both managed to squeeze through just fine. Once the bulkhead was closed and secured, they each attached their harnesses to clip points within the airlock with a specialized safety rope. The airlock was about two meters high and roughly circular, about three meters in diameter. Each checked the other’s harness and safety rope, ensuring they were secure.
Trying to suppress the excitement and anxiety surging through his body, Reece gave Angel the thumbs up. The veteran astronaut nodded and expertly opened the outer bulkhead to the empty blackness beyond. Angel exited the station first, pulling himself out of the airlock and attaching a second rope to an external clip-point. Reece mimicked his movements and clipped in next to him. Angel indicated a button on his forearm panel and pushed it. Then he pointed at the one on Reece’s forearm. Catching on, Reece pressed his and could hear Angel’s voice inside his EVA suit.
“Welcome to space,” said Angel as Reece took in the inky blackness speckled with countless pinpricks of light while an immense glow from below demanded his attention. Looking down, he saw the planet on which he had spent his entire life from a vantage point that few would ever experience. At that moment, he felt very fortunate for this rare opportunity. Struck with awe, he floated there and watched while the moon slowly peaked out from behind Earth as the space station revolved around the planet. The sight made for an incredible experience.
A blaring in his ear told him that his life support monitor had begun alarming. He looked at the readout on his arm and was informed that his oxygen levels had dipped. He chuckled as he realized that he had forgotten to breathe due to the magnitude of the experience and sucked in a deep breath. He basked in the new world that had just been revealed to him. He felt the profound change in himself that he was sure the dream he had just experienced had only hinted at.
He knew he had a job to do. However, this would be the only ‘first time’ he would walk in space. He was going to get the most out of it. He looked to his left and saw the sun in all its glory while his helmet’s visor instantly darkened to shield his eyes from its harmful ultraviolet rays. On Earth, the sun looked more like a yellowish ball of light in the blue sky. Here in space, it had more of the appearance of a ball of fire. The whole experience was incredibly surreal and just overwhelming. He didn’t know when, but as he felt the tickle of tears winding down his cheeks, he knew he was weeping at the experience. After giving him a long moment, Angel resumed speaking. Angel’s words finally snapped Reece out of his reverie.
“Uh, yeah…sorry about not mentioning the communications link between the suits. I know this is a little old-fashioned, but I only trust people who’ve taken a leap of faith with me. The biggest leap of faith that a person can take is a shared spacewalk. This particular comm link isn’t hooked into the main feed. So, it isn’t monitored by Control or anyone else. Now, we can speak freely.”
Angel’s statement sent Reece’s mind twirling through several different thoughts. They culminated in a single notion; “What in the world is going on up here that Angel felt he couldn’t trust his fellow astronauts?” He decided to keep his response simple and unassuming. “Okay, why do you say that?”
“Say what?” asked Angel. He wasn’t going to make this easy.
Reece chose his words carefully and delivered his question with an air of innocent confusion. “Well…did you have something you wanted to tell me that you didn’t want to be overheard?”
Angel smiled at him and motioned for him to follow. Angel started moving away using the ladder rungs positioned all over the outside of the station to use as handholds and tie-off points. About five meters over from the hatch, they came to a panel.
“This is the access panel for the carbon dioxide scrubbers. These are part of the backup system in case the plant life was to die for any reason. The system malfunctioned last year, but I was able to restore it. It has enough air for about two months with no assistance from the fauna. No one else knows there is a set of spare scrubbers that can be swapped in and will buy us another two months of air if necessary. Of course, this time would be extended with a smaller crew breathing the air.”
“Okay, either Angel is paranoid, or he knows something strange is going on with this crew and station,” thought Reece as he contemplated Angel’s odd explanation.
To Angel, he replied, “Alright, show me how it works.”
“Okay,” replied Angel with a smile.
Angel explained the entire scrubber system with Reece for the next ten minutes. Once he had exhausted his knowledge of that system, he spent an hour on the rest of the life support modules that could only be accessed from the outside. There were important reasons why each system had outside access, mainly due to the station’s design. It wasn’t physically possible to have inside access to the numerous systems required to run all of the station’s functions. Luckily for them, only life-support backup systems required external access. Reece found that to be a poor design choice.
When Angel finally finished instructing Reece on the final life support system, water filtration, he looked at Reece as if considering something. Just as Reece was going to say something, Angel spoke in a hushed tone and asked with an odd intensity,” Hey, do you wanna see something seriously freaky?”
Maybe because they were floating many kilometers above the planet, or he was already on edge, but a cold shiver ran down Reece’s spine as Angel spoke. It took Reece a moment to respond.
“Like what?” asked Reece tentatively, almost not wanting to know.
“Come on,” said Angel seriously. “You need to see this, but you can’t tell anyone what you saw or even that you saw anything. Deal?”
Reece narrowed his eyes, but curiosity got the better of him. “Okay,” he replied even more nervously.
“Good,” said Angel, breathing a sigh of relief. “Now, try not to freak out too much.”
Now that he had Reece anxious, he motioned for him to follow and began making his way to the underside of the station to avoid the few windowed modules on the station and any prying eyes that may be peeking through at them. They came to a nondescript square panel. Angel indicated that they tie off near it. Once they both secured themselves, Angel carefully undid the panel’s fasteners. Then he slowly pried it open, revealing the secret within.
“Okay, so…this panel here isn’t one you normally need to access. This is one of those that was left over from the initial module assembly. Only if there’s a specific type of malfunction would you ever need to access one of these. This panel here gives access to part of the science module. Notice how it has motors attached to it like it can be opened and closed from inside the module,” explained Angel, as if nothing was out of the ordinary before he backed out of the way for Reece to look inside. “Now look inside and tell me what you see.”
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Reece swallowed dryly and took the bait, peeking his head into the uncovered opening. Instead of the typical controls, cabling, and structural components that Reece had expected, inside was the back of a very thick glass polymer box. It looked much like a terrarium to hold pet lizards or snakes. Inside was what looked like a typical lab rat. Except this one looked dead and decomposing. The entire bottom half was missing, as was the right eye and ear of the tiny critter.
What made this extraordinary was that the rat was still ‘alive’, crawling around on its front claws. A few chunks of formerly white hair stuck out from it, except for the places that were entirely missing the skin. The entire creature was covered in coagulated blood and viscera. Its remaining eye was a dark, cloudy red.
As it dragged itself around the cage, its innards trailing behind, Reece noticed it open its mouth, seemingly trying to squeak. It was an eerie sight, especially because he couldn’t tell if it was making any noise. The rat noticed Reece’s movements as he leaned in to inspect the creature, and it launched itself at the cage wall. Failing to get through the thick polymer, it began biting the air and trying to claw at him futilely.
Reece immediately looked over at Angel, “What the fuck!?!”
“I know, right?” laughed Angel nervously. “I don’t know what in Inti’s name is going on here. I’ve kept my eyes and ears open since I found this thing. I know the current biologists and Commander Taylor are involved in something sinister. And for all I know, there may be others as well.”
“If that’s true, how do you know that I’m not one of them?” asked Reece in shock and confusion. “And again…what the fuck? Is that a freakin’ zombie rat!?! It seems to want to give me a few love bites.”
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“I can’t be sure whose side you’re on,” answered Angel. “But I think I’m a pretty good judge of character. Besides, I don’t think anybody will be sitting on the sidelines for long.”
“Uh, what do you mean…and who’s Inti?” asked Reece.
“Inti…Incan god of the sun, dude…,” answered Angel. “Anyways, I recently heard Aldo speaking with someone on the ground. He was talking like something big was about to happen. He said that everything was almost prepared. Now…Aldo was wearing a headset, so I could only hear his side of the conversation…and not very well. After all, I was listening through one of the maintenance panels for the power distribution system. Luckily, Aldo has a distinctive voice. Plus, he sounded excited and was speaking louder than he intended.”
“Okay?” prompted Reece, wondering where Angel was going with this.
“And here’s the scary thing,” continued Angel. “The last thing he said… he’d begin house cleaning soon but would need help to finish the job. And the way he said it was chilling, my new friend. I’ll be leaving soon, and Aldo’s coming along. So, I think something will happen in the next day or two. But even if nothing happens, you watch your ass up here.”
“I’ve heard enough to know something is off on this station. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But… hey, you don’t have to take my word for it. Just be careful and keep your eyes and ears open. I like you, so I hope it turns out to be something that isn’t too bad, and I’m just making a mountain out of a molehill.”
Reece’s heart sank at the possibility of something sinister happening on the station. He hoped it was nothing more horrific than the zombified rat. He wanted his first mission to be a typical one. A tour of the station came with a great many risks as it was. Reece had several things to worry about now. With his new duties, the rat thing, and Angel’s conspiracy theory; Reece’s life was about to get interesting.
“Well, I’d better learn everything I can. I’ll also need someone to watch my six once you’re earthbound,” replied Reece as he decided to roll with it. “Please, do your best to train me on everything you can before you leave… officially and otherwise. I wanna be able to fix this thing in my sleep.”
“Okay,” replied Angel with a relieved smile on his face. “Perhaps there’s hope for you yet.”
With an hour and a half left in their spacewalk, Angel closed the panel over the horrific sight of the struggling rat. He resumed training Reece on his maintenance responsibilities, showing him the station’s quirks and ways to use them to his advantage, if necessary. Reece did his best to change gears and pay attention to his temporary mentor while pushing away the fears and plaguing questions that floated through his consciousness.
By the end of the spacewalk, Reece had a pretty good idea of his job. He was glad for the months of training he had completed on the ground. That had given him a good understanding of exactly how all the systems on board the station worked. Now, Angel had given him a solid working knowledge of the systems, common issues with them, and a few bugs that he needed to be aware of, not to mention a quick primer on zombie rats.
“Thanks, Angel. You know, you’re a great trainer, especially considering the circumstances. You ever think about becoming an instructor?” asked Reece once he had collected himself. “By the way, I’ll keep everything you’ve told me about this zombie rat plot to myself. Who’d believe me anyways? And trust me… I’ll be vigilant. But what about you, you’re leaving in two days, right? Are you reporting any of this when you reach the ground?”
Angel looked at Reece and slumped his shoulders in defeat.
“Nah, I’m no hero. Besides, if this is as big as I think it is, they’d probably just cover it up if I tried to report it. The public these days doesn’t know who to trust. I could contact a reporter, but even they don’t have the public’s trust anymore since information has been so completely politicized. And I don’t know enough to make any substantial claims anyways.”
“I hear ya,” replied Reece in sympathy as he considered the unfortunate truth of the man’s words.
“I’ll tell you what, though,” replied Angel, “I am looking at becoming an instructor after this tour, and I’ll continue to pay attention to what goes on around me. Maybe…if there is an opening, I’ll say or do something. If not, that’s okay too. I’ll still be able to train the next batch of engineers. Maybe some of those will become astronauts. Hopefully, the next generation will do better than us. Our politics have gotten out of hand. Maybe not so bad as the past…remember all the smog and unregulated pollution?”
“Are you talking about government corruption?” asked Reece.
“Partly, it just seems like our society’s moral compass went awry a while ago, you know what I mean?” replied Angel. “I normally keep my head down and do my job, but it still gets to me sometimes. And, only a few years ago…all this corruption led to a division within our country which allows for all kinds of sinister crap. Just like what I just showed you. I wonder how much of this can go on before it starts affecting all of us. The garbage crisis wasn’t that long ago.”
“You’d think we would have learned something from that mess. I was fairly young, but I remember heaps of garbage piled up everywhere before the government instituted mandatory recycling. And, even then…nothing was done. It wasn’t until the Turkish flu wiped out a third of the Earth’s population that we collectively decided to do something about it. Everyone is looking one way at the latest scandalous headline, and no one notices the whole planet getting screwed over by those in power.”
Reece couldn’t deny what Angel was talking about. Part of the reason he wanted to be an engineer was because of how straightforward it was. It’s not like there were two sides to how a capacitor worked or debate on the definition of current draw. Engineering was as close to politics-free as you could get for a profession. While things in the country got worse, he sometimes felt guilty for not joining the fight, but he always doubted if he could have changed anything.
“Huh, it sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought,” Reece replied after his moment of introspection.
“Heh, yeah. Sorry for getting up on my soapbox,” said Angel. “Let’s get back inside, and I’ll go through a couple more systems after lunch.”
“No worries,” replied Reece. “At least you care. That’s more than can be said for some folks. While most people are just trying to get by, some just don’t seem to give two shits, so long as they get theirs. So, good on you.”
“Thanks, man,” replied Angel, somewhat placated. “Let’s get that lunch now.”
“Sure thing. Sounds good to me.”
Angel started working his way back toward the EVA port module while chatting to Reece about the airlocks. It was one of five external portals on the station and the only one not set up for vehicular docking. The others were dual-purpose if necessary, but this was the only one expressly built for EVAs. The others were only to be used in the event of an equipment malfunction with the EVA-only airlock. Reece figured that was why the station rarely had four shuttles docked at any given time.
They’d lose airlock redundancy. That would force them to send a shuttle back to earth to free up another airlock. It would be costly just to perform external work if the EVA airlock malfunctioned, including having to repair the airlock itself. Things could get interesting if that happened. It was enough to make an engineer’s head hurt.
Once back inside and with the airlock secured, Angel got on the intercom.
“EVA complete. Go ahead and put us back on spin cycle. Over,” said Angel.
A voice came over the intercom in response. It sounded like Aika, the network technician.
“About time. Did you two have fun out there? You’re lucky my diagnostics tests don’t require gravity, or I’d be pissed. On that note, I’d avoid the biologists for a while. They ARE pissed that it took you guys so long. Over”
“Copy that. Sorry, my dear,” answered Angel. “There were a lot of things to go over. You don’t want me leaving you up here with an engineer who’s only half-assed trained, do you? Over.”
“Good point,” she acknowledged just before she flipped the intercom to broadcast. “Everyone, we’re ready to re-engage the gravity system. Call it off by the numbers. Over”
Once everyone had responded that they were all set, the station’s gravity loop motors began to whine as the station resumed its spin. Within ten minutes, gravity had been fully restored. The two men quickly removed and stored their EVA suits in the nearby storage locker.
“It takes the station longer to get going than it does to slow down, in case you hadn’t noticed,” Angel informed Reece. “Now, let’s go and get something to eat. We were out there a long time, and I’m starving.”
“Lead the way,” replied Reece. “Just no rat-tartare today, okay?”
Angel noticed Reece’s grin and cocked an eyebrow.