Reece awoke with a start. The first thing he noticed was his splitting headache. The next was that Naeva was still curled up on top of him, and they were both completely nude. The room had cooled considerably, so Reece looked up at the digital readout near the door. The time was 07:13. The shuttle, Hermes, was scheduled to launch back down to earth in twenty-seven minutes, and there was no way he would miss seeing Angel off. He was also sure Naeva wanted to see the outgoing crew before they left, so he gently shook her and called her name.
“Huh, what? Oh, hi handsome,” answered Naeva groggily as she looked at him through eyes narrowed to slits. “What time is it?”
“A quarter after seven!”
“Shit!”
Naeva’s eyes got wide as she looked at Reece.
“We’ve only got a few minutes to see them off before their shuttle leaves.”
“I know. We over-slept.”
“Well, it was worth it, don’t you think?” replied Naeva as she pulled herself off of him and shakily stood up.
“Most definitely, but we’d better get a move on if we want to catch them.”
“Of course, and we both need a shower. I guess we’ll have to share one since there isn’t time to take one separately,” said Naeva as she winked at him and turned the shower faucet on. Stepping in once the water had heated up, she looked back at Reece with an approving nod, smiling appreciatively at his nakedness. Stepping into the shower with her, Reece’s eyes feasted on Naeva’s gorgeous body. Joining her in the welcoming warmth of the falling water, he took a moment to let the spray wake him up. They both quickly soaped up each other as Naeva gave Reece an amused look. Her hands on his body were like magic, and his body began to react.
“I’ll take care of that later for you, big guy,” she said, smiling wickedly. “But we simply don’t have time right now.”
Her face turned into a mock pout as Reece looked down and saw what she was talking about.
“I’ll hold you to it,” he said, looking back up with an evil grin.
“Oh, do,” returned Naeva with a sly smile.
They rinsed, and Naeva turned the water off. They both got out and quickly dried off with the towels from the floor. With no time or way to get to clean clothes, they were forced to put on the same clothes they wore the night before. Luckily, they were in adequate condition, if a bit wrinkled. Naeva took a minute combing her long hair as Reece cleaned up the mess of towels. The pair hurried to the launching module, where everyone was sure to be.
They were greeted with different looks, ranging from mirth to disgust, but all of them were ‘knowing’ looks. Reece was embarrassed. He imagined Naeva was as well, though she didn’t let it show.
Everyone quickly went back to exchanging hugs, handshakes, and farewells. Solomon gave Naeva a long hug before offering Reece a handshake. He spoke with Thato for a few moments. They ended the goodbye with a firm handshake and a half-hug. They stood that way, sharing the moment before Solomon let go first. The moment showed the camaraderie the two men shared. Turning, he entered the airlock and joined Aldo, who was already in the shuttle. Reece noticed the man hadn’t said much to anyone.
He chuckled inwardly as he thought the man was at least consistent with his detachment from the rest of the crew.
Angel had just finished giving Naeva a long hug, so Reece extended his hand toward him. Angel batted it aside and gave him a big bear hug instead. He took the opportunity to whisper in Reece’s ear.
“I’m afraid you may have just made your time here very interesting. Take care of yourself, the crew, and my baby. I’ve got your word. Oh, if things go south, you CAN trust Naeva. You may need to. Trust me.”
[https://editor-cdn.reedsy.com/books/60330dd17ad8747238ff91c2/images/04ecdad61dc3531ba9174f24c9d1577e.jpg]
Naeva Amari
After the cryptic comment, Angel released him from his grip and crawled into the airlock after Taylor. The outgoing commander had completely ignored Reece for some reason. That reminded him of the man drunkenly following Aika out of the dining module. That made him wonder what had transpired between him, her, and Solomon. With the two of them leaving, he may never know the whole story, if there was one to know.
He looked over at Aika. She had tears silently trickling down her cheeks. Of course, she wasn’t the only one with sadness in her eyes. The Beckers both looked sad to see their coworkers and friends leave. Commander Alex Rogers, now the newly minted Station Commander, leaned in and called one last time through the airlock to the outgoing crew. “Godspeed.”
He stood back up, shut the airlock’s inner door, and secured the latch. Reece could hear the Hermes crew doing the same with the outer latch. Once they could no longer see the outgoing crew members, those who remained went to control to observe the shuttle’s descent to the earth and stand by to assist if necessary. Within the control module, Thomas sat down at the comm channels and donned a headset. “Shuttle Hermes, do you copy? Over.”
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“We copy you, Station,” came Taylor’s voice from the shuttle. “All systems are green. We are ready to disengage at your mark. Over.”
“Copy that. Stand by for the countdown. Over.”
Thomas looked at Pasha as he furiously typed away at the navigation computer. He hit the enter key pointedly and waited for the computer’s output which displayed across the screen after a few moments.
“Okay,” said Pasha to Thomas, “We have a solid window in fourteen minutes.”
“Roger,” returned Thomas, and over the comm link, he said, “Okay, Hermes…release will commence in just under fourteen minutes. Over”
“Copy that. Ov…,” came back Taylor’s voice, followed by a grunt of pain over the communications link.
“What was that? Over,” asked Thomas over the link, concern in his voice.
All was silent, so Thomas called out again with no answer.
“Danielson… go down and check it out,” ordered Commander Rogers.
“Sir,” answered Reece as he turned and headed to the airlock.
The static of the intercom flared on again.
“Zzzzt…All…good…just bad comm, swapping…bzzzt…you bastard!”
Reece recognized that last voice as Angel’s. What was going on? Was this the beginning of the big move that Angel had been talking about, or was it just a comm problem? That seemed unlikely at this point. He sprinted down to the airlock. Before he could get there, an explosion rocked the whole station, throwing Reece to the floor. He swiftly jumped back up and saw through the bulkhead window that the airlock was just gone. The inner bulkhead seemed intact until Reece approached it and looked through the small window.
He could barely make out the shuttle as it fell away towards the earth, but the cockpit looked heavily damaged. No one onboard had much of a chance of survival under those circumstances. The hairs on the back of Reece’s neck stood up as he heard metal bending directly before him. The metal of the bulkhead began to warp. That caused cracks to spiderweb across the small window Reece was looking through.
“Oh, shit!” thought Reece. He spun around and rushed out of the module. Once he cleared the failing module compartment, he turned back and shut its emergency bulkhead. It was just in time. The airlock bulkhead ripped out of the module’s wall, leaving a gaping hole and sucking all the air from the compartment. The wrecked bulkhead bounced off the shuttle docked nearby. Then it clipped one of the station’s modules on the other side of the ring before hurtling off into space. There it joined the rest of the space debris circling the planet.
As the atmosphere was sucked out, Reece saw the door on one of the storage lockers fly open. It was on the opposite side of the compartment from the bulkhead and wasn’t empty. Three EVA suits clung tenuously to their hangers before getting sucked through the ragged hole where the airlock had once been. A couple of tool bags, rags, and some parts also flew out, followed by the suit’s matching EVA helmets. Reece mashed the buttons on the intercom near the door.
“Control!” exclaimed Reece. “The airlock access compartment is compromised, and airlock one is just gone! Also, Wisdom looked like it took heavy damage. We also lost a bunch of gear, including all this section’s EVA suits. They all got sucked out of the breach. Over.”
“By the gods, can you determine what happened? …over,” came Commander Roger’s reply.
“Impossible to say, sir. However, the inner bulkhead for airlock three ripped loose and hit the second shuttle, Wisdom, and a module on the other side of the station, possibly the lab or the garden. There’s a big breach where the door used to be. Over.”
“Okay,” Rogers replied. “Return to control. I’ll check out the module damage around the garden and lab. Over.”
“I can check it if you’d like, Commander. I’m much closer. Over.”
“Do as I say, Reece. I won’t lose any more crew today. Do you copy? Over.”
“Copy that, Commander,” replied Reece before adding, “Oh, and Commander… you should check our orbit. An explosion like that could have thrown us off course. Over.”
“Good thinking, Danielson,” replied Commander Rogers. “We’re checking it now. Come on back to control. Over.”
“On my way. Over and out,” replied Reece.
Double-checking everything, Reece ensured that the bulkhead between his module and the airlock access module was secure. Once satisfied that the inner emergency bulkhead was intact, shut, and sealed, Reece quickly returned to the control module. He arrived out of breath and looked from one face to another. Aika was crying. Zia and Stephanie looked mortified, and Naeva shook her head meaningfully at him. No one was saying it, but they all dreaded that their crewmates may have been lost.
“Did you see anything down there?” asked Thomas, his voice thick with concern. “We felt some kind of explosion.”
“I arrived too late to see exactly what happened, but I did see that Hermes’s canopy was shattered, as was the entire airlock. It looked like the shuttle rammed into the airlock. I didn’t see the explosion, but the entire airlock access module is compromised. Did you pick up anything more from the intercom?”
“No, nothing,” sighed Thomas.
“Is there any chance of survival?” asked Aika.
All eyes turned towards Pasha.
“None,” stated Pasha. “Even if they managed to avoid getting sucked into space, they couldn’t pilot the shuttle from the cargo hold.”
Reece just shook his head.
“What in the abyss could have happened?” asked Reece to no one in particular. I swear it sounded like a scuffle during those last two transmissions.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too,” agreed Thomas. “Something strange is going on.”
The Commander’s voice sounded over the intercom. “I found the bulkhead’s trajectory. It smashed into the garden module, but luckily, it didn’t completely penetrate it. We have some repairs that need to happen sooner than later, however. Have we heard anything from Hermes? Over.”
“Nothing, sir. However, we were able to determine that we are in a slightly expanding orbit, but the computer has determined that a slight change in spin should correct for it,” replied Thomas. “Do I have your permission to proceed? Over.”
“Copy that, make it happen,” replied Commander Rogers. There was a long pause before he addressed Reece, “Alright, Danielson…I need you down here for a damage assessment. Over.”
Reece gave Thomas a knowing look which Thomas returned. Then he turned and headed out to the garden. Reece could tell from that look that Thomas shared his concerns. Something wasn’t right on the station, above and beyond the strange experiments in the bio-lab.
“He’s on his way. Over and out,” relayed Thomas over the intercom while Reece made his way across the station.