Intergalactic

„Micah!“

The single lamp illuminated broken metal and gaping holes, a chaotic mess of sharp corners and the hot reddish glow of metal heated to hundreds of degrees. The suit was protecting her from the heat radiating away from it, as long as she didn’t get within touching distance. She knew that in the vacuum of space, it could take hours, even days for this to cool down.

Valarie was limping, the low gravity a boon now. She couldn’t feel her right leg. The suit on that leg looked beaten but not broken. Crawling and floating, she made her way through the wreckage. There had been no sound, but a lot of vibration. Binary Bloom had been hit by something powerful, and the glowing metal indicated it wasn’t a meteor.

The green light in her helmet, the status of the wireless communication, had turned green again. The thin cable that had connected her to Micah was torn. He had vanished right in front of her in a blinding flash of light, and when the anti-flare dimming of the helmet switched off to let her see again, there was this hole and the jumble of metal and the glow.

„Micah!“, she shouted again into her microphone, „It’s Valarie!“

There was static in her earphones. That was weird. The system was digital, how could there be… then there were knocks or something that sounded like it. Interrupted by pauses, sometimes long, sometimes short.

„That’s morse code.“, a male voice appeared in her helmet, it sounded vague familiar. She had heard it before, but couldn’t quite place it.

„I’m Elias. I’m coming over.“

She had heard the name before, but had no face in mind. Her leg hurt. „That’s good“, she thought, „It means it’ll be ok. I hope.“ - she dimly remembered from her first responder course years ago that a person in pain is better off than someone who doesn’t feel an injured limb. She couldn’t recall why that was, though.

„The morse code“, the voice of Elias returned, „says ‚Stuck. 2 down‘, I think. Micah, is that you knocking?“

Knock, knock-knock, knock, knock.

„It’s Micah“, Elias confirmed.

Valarie turned off the magnetic boots on her right foot to relieve the leg. It helped a bit. She stood, or rather: floated, in place now. Her vision became slightly blurry and she realized she was about to pass out. She forced herself awake: „Do you know my position?“, she asked.

„I’ve got a bearing and a rough distance.“, Elias responded, „I should be there in a minute. There’s a lot of new holes in the structure, some of them are pretty big. What happened? Bloom’s alarm went off.“

Valarie pressed out an answer, focussing on speaking in order to blend out the pain: „No idea. Our comms were down when it happened.“

„You injured?“

„Yes“, Valarie said, clenching her jaw, „Leg“

„If you’ve got a flashlight, wave it around. Makes it easier to spot you.“

She did that. An eternity passed, as she was slipping in and out of delirium. Then, Elias’ voice came again: „I see you, Valarie. Almost there.“

She turned around and saw another space suit like hers floating towards her, the maneuvering thrusters doing small course corrections. With a metallic reverberation that she could feel as vibration in her left leg, the magnetic boots of Elias planted themselves next to her.

He looked at her through the visor. She recognized him from the marketplace, and passed out.

„No, no, no!“, Elias exclaimed. In a suit he couldn’t do anything if Valarie vomited or her tongue fell back and blocked her airway.

„Micah“, he said into the microphone, „Can you hang on for two minutes or not? Knock once for yes, twice for no.“

One knock in his earpiece.

„Roger. I’ll be right back, need to get Valarie into an atmosphere and recovery position.“

He pressed the unlock button on her left boot and picked her up. Then he pushed away and floated back towards the airlock.

„Micah, I’ll keep talking to you so you stay awake. Knock from time to time, ok?“

Knock

„Good. Give me some info. Always one knock for yes, two for no. You’re stuck, right?“

Knock

„Will I need tools to get you out?“

Knock-knock

„That’s good. Are you injured?“

Knock

„Seriously?“

Knock

„Damn, why didn’t you say so? I could’ve gone to you first and… Alright. I see the airlock already. What the heck were you two even doing out… No, that’s not a question. I was just wondering.“

Elias floated towards the airlock he had come out. He had been in the warehouse section of the station when the shutters came down. One of the 4D alien signatures had been lingering around that area. Elias knew of the maintenance exit and the space suits, part of his constant efforts to scout out the station for anything that could be useful. The shutters would only come down if there was a hull breach or one was immanent. Elias could guess which it was, so he had put on a suit, just in case. That’s when he heard Valarie. He had seen two suits missing, so it was clear two people were outside at the worst possible time.

„At the airlock now.“, he said as he passed through the outer door. Valarie became heavier as they entered the gravity field of the station. He pushed the button that activated the airlock, and as soon as the display showed normal atmospheric pressure, he opened her helmet, made sure she was breathing normally, and dragged her inside the station. He quickly put her into the recovery position and went back outside after grabbing the toolbox that was standing on a shelf next to the space suits, just in case.

Three minutes later, after a climb through the treacherous wreckage and still glowing metal, he reached Micah. The man was in a worse condition than Elias had expected. His left arm was gone, the stump sealed off by the suit’s emergency sealing foam. His legs and right shoulder were entangled in bent pieces of metal. He could move his remaining arm, but not enough to pull on the metal pinning him in place. Smaller pieces of shrapnel had penetrated his suit in several places, the sealing foam showing the spots.

Elias started untangling the metal pieces, some of which required him to pull with both arms and both legs, pressing against a solid beam that ran across this section. But Micah had been right, the work required strength and angles of attack that the engineer couldn’t reach, but no tools. After a few minutes of pulling and pushing, Elias pulled Micah out of the final pieces and immediately moved him towards the nearest exit. He left the toolbox behind.

The unnatural angles told him everything he needed to know about the other man’s legs. Micah was bigger and heavier than Valarie, and while weight is not an issue in zero gravity, mass and inertia are. That and the fact that Micah had been deeper inside the wreckage made it take much longer to get him to the airlock, but Elias managed. As the pressure normalized and the inner door opened, he rested against the wall, exhausted.