Mirakus Station was an interesting spectacle as a space station. Operating over a gas giant was both ludicrously profitable and dangerous. Extremely inventive engineering was required to mine the gases free floating in its atmosphere. When in standby, the station was little more than a floating dome in the thermosphere. It had the ability to raise or lower itself as needed, even breaking into higher orbit with some stress. It was the mining process that changed Mirakus station from a floating dome to a Lovecraftian abstract. First, the atmospheric nets emerged from the perimeter in long silvery skirts, protecting the equipment at the center. Once the nets were in place, collection chutes and flexible tubes descended to collect the gases. Fully deployed, it appeared as a titanic jellyfish floating through the heavens.
The inventive solutions also came with disturbing problems and dangerous side effects. The dome had to be layers of forcefields because the weight of a physical dome would be too great. Depending on the position of the station, the weather could change from bone breaking cold to annihilating hot. The absorbed gases came in the same temperature range which all had to be regulated. Mirakus Station had multiple power cores because they could never all go offline at the same. So many critical systems had fail-safes that could protect one vital system by putting another in danger. It was a process that had to be monitored every second of every day because a group of minor errors could cascade into catastrophic failure.
And today was one of those days.
*
Scruffy had been a maintenance engineer for the past decade. Before that, he’d been a plumber, an extremely difficult and valued profession among the oggy. Given an oggy’s proclivity to drip and ooze, their toilets and showers couldn’t be as simple as every other species. This meant with all his experience, if it was in a pipe and could boil, bubble, or leak, Scruffy was the oggy for the job. So when an alert reached one of the computer boys that said pressure was dropping in one of the coolant lines, Scruffy was on the way.
Due to the nature of his job, he was one of the few oggy that was covered head to toe. His jumpsuit was extra absorbent on the inside and his boots and gloves were lined to capture moisture. Eventually they became so crusted over from his leaking wounds that they had to be discarded. But all of this was necessary so when he investigated a leak, he didn’t mistake his secretions as the problem.
None of that was a problem today as a bright blue liquid was dripping from an overhead pipe. Scruffy radioed in that he had the problem in sight and it was under control. A quick examination of the system and from what he knew already told him a nozzle must’ve broken further down the line. The coolant was funneling to multiple locations instead of one. All he needed to do was activate a backup line, shut down this one, and then find out how far back the break was. With any luck, the whole job would be done in a few hours.
Scruffy’s long ears were tied back in a pouch as a part of his headgear. It covered his forehead while providing a row of angled lights that were great in tight spaces. Leaning up, Scruffy saw the pipes here were all stained blue. He scrubbed one with a cloth and found the color unchanged. That meant the leak had been an ongoing problem for some time. Worse, he could see the metal brackets were corroded in areas. There went his dream of it being a quick job. Someone else had either been incompetent or ignored the problem until it was serious. Now it was serious, and it was his problem. All of this would need replacing. He followed the mess over to the main pump, examining it for damage. He gave it a tap to get a feel for the sound. It burst instead.
Oggy are made for hazardous work. They ignore bruises and cuts, and any damage to their skin usually only killed overgrown, infected areas. Some even joked the occasional chemical bath or fire improved their complexion. When the main pump burst, it sent a hail of shrapnel in the form of broken screws and seals. Scruffy probably wouldn’t have recognized he was hurt, but a single piece shot through his right eye and into his brain.
The monitoring systems showed the pressure was relieved, but the temperatures were beginning to rise. Systems keyed Scruffy to let him know they saw his progress and to let them know if he needed anything. Scruffy lay face down in a blue sea.
*
One of the screens turned on at Ravi’s workstation and a shrill alert started. Ravi was already dropping his tea on the table and rushing over as additional holographic screens formed. A piece of the station was highlighted with a big red circle and what looked like bar charts started to shift.
“Tower, this is System Analyst One, we have an unacceptable level of overheating occurring in the refinery, sections one and two.”
“We are tracking Ravi,” said someone over the radio while trying to clear a wad of phlegm from their throat. “Coolant leak. Plumber is taking care of the problem.”
Ravi was multitasking now, bringing up additional windows. The coolant readings weren’t low, they were nonexistent. “Last progress report, Tower?”
“We said the plumber is on it. Take a knee, Ravi.”
“It’s not coming down, Tower. It’s going to flip the breakers and force a full system shutdown.” Cursing when they didn’t respond, Ravi continued to tap the keys with delicate intensity. A window showing cameras started to flicker by, shifting pictures so fast Sadie couldn’t keep up. Then both Louis and Ravi sat up straighter and Ravi tapped the screens back. It showed an oggy down in a pool of blue liquid.
“Tower, plumber is down and non-responsive, Sector Forty-Two Oscar.” Ravi let go of the mic. Then he cranked a dial and the screen of personnel on the call widened. “Attention ground crew! Report to emergency stations! Contaminant team to Sector Forty-Two Oscar and bring medical. Electrical and chemical get ready to respond to system shutdowns and possible toxic spill. This is an all call and not a drill. Move your asses.” He toggled the switch and hit a button to cause an alarm to blare out across the city. It said everything he just said. Get to your posts.
“Louis, get below deck and join the ground team. Take my suit, it should fit. I need eyes and ears outside I can trust.”
“Thought you’d never ask commander.”
“Shut up and move.” Louis gave a quick salute and hightailed it for the door. “Sit down and be quiet Sadie. This will take as long as it’s going to take.”
“Louis needs us.” Sadie stood up, looking glassy eyed and distant. “He needs our help.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
Sadie wasn’t listening. She grabbed her rebreather mask and was out the door before Ravi could say anything else.
“Sure, why not?” He shrugged. “A normal human girl with no training, experience, and without a spacesuit. I’m sure she can help.” There was a blinking blue light on his console. He pressed it with contempt. “Tower, no I will not recall. We’re not destroying half the station just because you don’t want to move. Now listen. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
*
It was easy for Louis to find his way to the lower deck. A large group of burly and ugly, even by oggy standards, workers were heading for the elevators. He joined them, getting a few harsh glances, but nobody said anything. It wasn’t like he took up space compared to the foul behemoths.
They moved in a clump to a massive room. Thankfully none of them stripped but the smell of twenty oggy in their locker room was impressive even by Louis’s standards. They were pulling on cheap blue atmosphere suits that looked closer to trash bags than futuristic suits made to survive hostile environments. Oggy were hard to design for. Their bodies ruined a lot of complex material and had a tendency to clog up vital tubes for little things like oxygen. All of their suits were disposable, probably only made to last for a single event outside.
A couple grunts and pointed fingers and Louis found Ravi’s locker. It was locked. Probably to keep sickly hands off his nice gear, but Louis wasn’t feeling patient today. He took hold of the handle and pulled until the lock broke and the door fell free. Inside was a real environmental suit that could probably survive deep space. Its royal blue armor looked brand new. Ravi had probably only had a few occasions to wear it, and he always had a habit of keeping his uniforms pristine. Shrugging off his jacket, Louis hurried to don the suit. In a last minute thought, he took the laser pistol from his clothes and attached it to his right hip. It came as no surprise Ravi had multiple spots to holster weapons.
“Some habits die hard,” whispered Louis, clicking the helmet shut.
“You outside yet?” asked Ravi.
“If you know I just put on the helmet, then you know I’m still inside.”
“Move faster. We have problems.”
“Moving.”
The first group of oggy was already through the rotating airlock and outside. Louis took his place with the second group, just barely able to squeeze in. He took a few deep breaths as he looked at the storm outside. The station undeniably had something to dampen its effects, but it was raging today. Cackling orange clouds swirled as fast as starships, throwing lightning bolts big enough to be seen from space. The door flared green and they rushed outside.
They were on a metal gangway filled with holes for air to flow through. Louis wasn’t thrilled to see a catwalk that didn’t look greater than ones he’d seen in warehouses three hundred years ago. The wind was pulling at them, but it couldn’t have been worse than a tropical storm under the dome. Enjoying the future for a minute, Louis pushed his way forward to an arguing group of oggy.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
*
Sadie had no intention of going outside. She had no idea what the oggy were doing or how they even survived. Something told her the right place to go to was the docking bay, which was shockingly empty. Maia must’ve seen her coming because the ramp was already down.
“Maia! Louis needs our help.”
“He is fine,” said Maia in her most soothing tone. “He is outside with the oggy checking the collection tubes.”
“How is he outside? The storms here can rip an oggy in half!”
“I suppose a lesson is better than sitting on our hands.” A screen turned on with Mirakus Station shown from the side. “Mirakus Station floats above the planet, pulling chemical elements from the gas giant for a variety of purposes.”
“To the point! Please!”
“Fine,” huffed Maia. “We are in the upper station here. Below is the refinery with dozens of flexible tubes that dip into the air currents. These are protected by an outer net of cable on the station exterior. These cables emit electrical disturbances in the air that destabilize nearby storms. They keep the worst effects at bay, limiting the air stream so the tubes can collect.”
“We need to get out there,” insisted Sadie.
“There is a storm the size of a continent at this time. The Seraphin is not rated to fly in such conditions. It is a refitted mining vessel.”
“If this ship is a mining vessel than I’m a bug,” snapped Sadie, causing Maia to laugh.
*
“What’s the problem?” asked Louis. The oggy ignored him and kept shouting silently in their helmets while waving gorilla arms at each other. “Ravi, what’s happening?”
“The system overheated and caused the breakers to flip.” Ravi’s voice added a silent duh to that. “The gas is backing up in the tubes and we have to do manual shutdowns.”
“Who requires anything to be manual these days?”
“I can do an automatic shutdown, but that requires me to reverse the flow and blow every tube. A forced evacuation can damage the station. Or we can do manual shutdowns at the source down the lines and bleed the pressure.”
“Still sounds like an automated task.”
“If you have patience. But after too many lazy incidents caused the tubes to rupture, they implemented manual overrides for safety reasons. This is not my design.” It sounded like a corporate design that worried more about station costs. “I need you to go down the line in front of you.”
“Why not these fine gentlemen?” The oggy must’ve received the message that Louis was going down because they waved cheerfully, chortling behind their masks.
“The support platform blew a link. It’s holding on by three supports now instead of four. It won’t hold an oggy.”
“Lovely.” Louis looked down. The platform wasn’t just down, it looked to be almost a kilometer down. It was swinging in the wind, connected to four tubes on each corner. “How do I get down?”
“The cables are mag linked.”
“You want me to power slide down an unstable support over a gas giant?” asked Louis, incredulously.
“Knew you’d remember why you stopped working with me.”
“Why did we ever stop!”
Louis wrapped his hands around the metal line that was groaning in the storm. Before his hands could latch on, the gloves clamped to the magnetic strips. Swinging his legs over, he felt his thighs and feet attach themselves. The worst part was how the designers decided mag links should be operated. Louis had to look straight down and his suit plunged in response, trying to get him where his eyes were aimed.
He was almost to the bottom with probably ten other oggy sliding down additional poles when the storm picked up. One minute it was a casual descent into death and the next, the wind was trying to strip him free and hurl him across the planet. Only the mag links and his considerable strength held him in place as the platform swayed dangerously. The sound of something cracking through the air like a whip caused Louis to scan the area around him, causing his descent to slow. The storm settled and they rocked back into place.
“Ravi, what was that?”
“Fluctuation in the storm and the net didn’t compensate in time.”
“You didn’t sound very convincing right there.”
“It’s the best I’ve got. Shut down the tubes and give me eyes.” Louis nodded and slid the rest of the way down. With only three support cables, the platform was tilted, but not enough to make him lose his balance. There were levers on each tube along with gauges for pressure.
“Maia.” It was so low that the microphone would’ve barely caught it. There was a click in his ear.
“Yes, boss?”
“I don’t like whatever that was.”
“Running analysis on your helmet and the station cameras. I’ll let you know when I see something.”
“Thank you.”
Louis grabbed the rusty handles and began to yank them down. This was definitely not a human friendly station. These things weren’t coming down without hundreds of kilograms of pressure. It was designed for a ham fisted oggy. It clicked shut and the gas began to return to the storm. Then something caught his eye on the black tubes. They were designed that way so they contrasted against the storm. And the base of one not far from him was on fire.
“Ravi! Fire!”
“They can burn to assist in venting.”
“Not like this.” The bottom of the massive tube was tearing and fire was trying to move up it in thin streaks. It looked like the insides of a tree after being struck by lightning. Ravi must’ve finally seen it through Louis’s helmet.
“Louis, the system isn’t detecting the fire.”
“It’s bloody there!”
“No shit. The system won’t eject until it sees it.”
“And by the time it sees it?”
“Trying to override it. Do you see the white lines on the tubes?” Louis saw the white bands used as markers.
“Yes.”
“Shoot just under the marker three up from the fire please.”
Well that sounded like a terrible idea, but Ravi was full of surprises. Louis pulled his pistol without even thinking about the order and blew the area full of holes. They immediately began to tear open, glowing red from his shots. Whatever damage he did, the system appeared to see it. There was a series of loud clacks as it disengaged in a circle before jettisoning part of the tube.
Then the storm came back. Louis nearly lost his pistol as the platform was shoved almost vertical. His feet automatically gripped the floor and his hand on the railing kept him from falling. Something whipped through the air again and Louis felt another support snap. Tubes near him were sliced open, spilling noxious gas as they ruptured. Hanging on by only mag links, Louis saw more tubes beginning to burn. He started firing before Ravi said anything.
*
“Now can we go?” demanded Sadie, as they watched Louis’s platform almost detach entirely.
“Put the jacket on, grab the helmet, and sit in the pilot’s seat,” ordered Maia. There was no more friendliness in her voice.
Sadie grabbed a white jacket off the wall that was too big for her and wrapped it around her chest. Something automated inside tightened the jacket to her body. Not really sure how the helmet was supposed to work, Sadie stuck it over her head, feeling hair get stuck in the back. The face helmet clicked noisily before refitting to her smaller head and attaching automatically to the jacket collar.
“That’s neat.” Sadie sat in the pilot’s chair and strapped in just as the Seraphin lifted off. “What are you doing?”
“Emergency evacuation is authorized. Hold on.” Sadie tried to ask what that meant when the ship blasted backward.
Normal space stations had a forcefield and a physical barrier to keep space out. Since Mirakus Station was a refinery floating in a gas giant, it had two layers of forcefields and physical barriers with a whole bay of space between them. This helped ensure pilot or industrial errors didn’t turn the entire station into a fireball. They were barely to the first set of barriers before the forcefield deactivated and the wall retracted so suddenly Sadie felt it slam against the station. They didn’t have time to close before the second barriers dropped. The Seraphin along with half the bay exploded out of Mirakus Station. The six wings expanded along the dropship and it plunged into the storm.
“Maia?”
“Yes dear?”
“The station didn’t authorize that, did they?”
“No dear.”
*
“Ravi!” demanded Louis.
“I’ve got it!” exclaimed Ravi. “The power shutdown affected part of the net. There are cables that are switching between on and off. When the power goes off…”
“The cables come through like Cthulhu on a bad day, got it,” finished Louis. “What do you want me to do?”
“Get out of there. You’re right in their path.”
“No shit. What can we do?”
“There are tens of thousands of cables. We’ll never be able to identify the exact ones in time. I’m having the secondary net brought down so we can retract the first. It’s going to take a minute so I need you to get out of there.”
“If those cables come through here again, they could cut half the tubes.”
“And you. Move Louis.”
Louis placed a hand on the mag line while looking at the nets he could see. They had to be coming from that direction if they were hitting his platform. Then the wind began to buffet him and he saw it. Cables that stopped hanging in place and began to draw inwards as the wind pushed. Smiling, he lifted the pistol.
“I’ve got them.”
“No!”
Ravi’s cry was the last thing Louis heard before he sent out a perfect line of laser fire that cut the cables off at their base. The system detected their failure and ejected them before their remnants could cause any damage. The protective field from the good cables moved to cover the gap, but for a short moment, a small piece of the storm’s strength roiled through the underbelly. And with only one hand on the cable, Louis suddenly found himself tumbling through the clouds.
*
“Hang on!”
Sadie was holding on. She wasn’t screaming and it wasn’t for lack of trying. The Seraphin had artificial gravity, but Maia had punched the throttle down. Sadie was glued to her seat and her vision was beginning to blur.
The planetary storm shrieked with delight over their entrance. It was adorable for a dropship to assume it could operate in these conditions. It wanted to play with its new toy, throwing it around before ultimately burying it in a crumpled heap. The pressure would cause the ship to crush like an egg before it ever reached the ground.
Maia and the Seraphin said no. The six wings rotated to have three on each side, flaring them out like the all powerful angel it was. When its engines burned, it formed a halo in the clouds. As the storm attempted to swipe it from the sky, its wings and engines rolled and adjusted, keeping it level. When the wind challenged it to a contest of strength, the Seraphin didn’t even bother to acknowledge it. It flew with the grace and power befitting of its name. It was new to these skies and they already belonged under its rule.
“Hands open Louis!”
One second there was nothing but the storm and then there was Louis. Maia intercepted him in midair and he thumped loudly against the hull. She’d done a good job matching his trajectory and speed, but to Louis it must’ve felt like catching a speeding train. The magnetic suit clamped onto the Seraphin and even then, he began to slide. Maia compensated, rolling the ship and changing trajectory to shift Louis back up the ship. A few more rolls and Louis stabilized, giving the suit time to gather a stronger attraction to the dropship.
Maia accelerated them hard straight up. The ship swayed back and forth just enough to keep Louis’s suit from losing grip until at long last they were above the clouds and into the night sky. They were almost into space. Louis lay against the hull, taking deep breaths.
*
Louis struggled for breath. It felt like he’d grabbed the speeding train, then been blown into the next track over where he got hit by the next train. Zero gravity eased his body up, happy to take him away from the Seraphin. The magnetic locks kept him in place.
“Louis! Come in Louis!” demanded Ravi.
“I’m here.”
“Thank the various gods. What happened?”
“My guardian angel was looking out for me again.” Louis crawled over to the cockpit and peered in. A very queasy Sadie was looking back at him from the pilot’s chair. “I think there’s a woman I owe my life to.”
“You are one daft bastard. I’m glad you’re still alive. You may have just helped save the station.”
“Good. They can pay for tonight’s drinks.”
“Drinks are on me. You’ll have to explain what happened to the docking bay later.”
“Worth it.” Louis waved at Sadie and crawled toward the ramp. “Start pouring. I’ll be there before you finish the first round.”