Walk In The Park

Posted on Sat Aug 26th, 2017 @ 3:10pm by

995 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Unknown Life, Unknown Dangers
Location: Outer Hull - U.S.S. Dreadnought

I never liked EVA's, some may find it fun and enjoyable with the freedom of open space, no bulkheads and naked stars but I always had a problem stepping outside a functional ship. With me I carried a bag of nearly 30 small relay senors with mag plates on the back of them. The idea was to put them dotted around and about the nacelle strut and link them so that we could have accurate real time information about what the hell was going on.

"Come on Mio, lets get this done and back inside the ship." Mio was my EVA partner, tethered together we'd walk up the strut placing sensors down.

The walk from the airlock to the base of the strut would take 20 minutes, the one time a large ship would prove to be a disadvantage to the average 'joe'. I placed the first sensor and activated it and moved up the strut, from the perspective of me this ship was monolithic in scale. The pair of us moved up the nacelle in a zig zag pattern because this way we'd have overlapping sensor ranges and signal strengths.

Things seemed to be going alright until about 40 minutes into the walk we started getting some very strange readings. We knew what it was because we heard the reports, read them and in some places effected repairs but the horror stories that were coming out would send chills up any spine. As we walked towards the nacelle we could see some buckling of the hull, bulging more like, it was at junction 17, where the emergency sealer door severed the warp conduit. On the other side of it was a mass of strange readings and I didn't want to get much closer. Mio on the other hand, had.

"Mio, back away."

"I've got 2 more sensors to place." He replied, both in his hands.

"Mio, back away." I heard static and alot of it, I started pulling on the tether, but his mag boots stopped me cold. "Look around you, the deformations, the hull has been compromised."

It was as if fates had heard me, like a cruel joke or the punchline to one as no sooner had Mio lifted his foot from the hull a score of blue vine looking tendrils burst from the hull around him. It was like something out of a horror flick which turned ugly when one of them snagged the tether and wrapped around it, pulling me towards the scene. Mio started firing his phaser having tossed the sensors aside to drift into open space. Mio was a good shot by any standards but his efforts earned him some unwanted attention as some of the smaller tendrils wrapped around arm, leg, body and neck.

I pulled out my phaser but just as I was about to start firing the vines pulled Mio from the hull. The worst part was the boots remained on the hull, the EVA suit tore and exposed his feet. Like an entry way small vines wormed up his legs and I watched as his suit bulged and moved with them under it. I aimed the phaser at the tether, I had to get free or I'd become the next meal of what ever that thing was. Looked like that pissed something off because I saw the hull bluckling more and towards me as the tether rattled around on the hull before being pulled away with Mio.

I saw one of our fighters helpless to do anything but watch and what ever it was coming after me it was quick. I had a worse call than I thought I'd do, I turned off my mag boots and leapt from the hull towards the fighter. No way in hell I was becoming a snack to what ever that was. I tried to contact the fighter but all I got was static, I sure as hell hoped that this was worth it because one was dead over it.

Zan watched as the scene unfolded before his eyes, it happened so fast, so suddenly. He'd just armed the weapons systems of his fighter when he saw James leap off the ship towards him. "Ballsy move." Zan rotated his fighter to present the largest surface area to land on and used thrusters to slow the rate of which James was floating towards him.

=^= Bridge, CAG we have a problem. One of the EVA Team is dead, what ever it is has breached the hull on the nacelle strut, I'm recovering the survivor now and heading back to the hanger. =^=

As I floated towards the fighter I saw it turn, I knew this was going to hurt to some degree, even if everything was slower the only thing that would stop me was hitting the fighter. When I landed I groaned, less than pleasant or comfortable. I engaged the mag boots and while crouched I held onto my boots. A ridiculous position to be in I knew but it if kept me stable, I'd take it.

Zan slowly moved his fighter away, very slowly. He knew that any sudden moves or jolts of speed would snap James in two. It took nearly 30 minutes of slow rotation and curved trajectories to get back to the hanger and even then things were not out of the woods. With James still on top of the craft Zan moved the ship so that his wing tip was just off the deck outside the bay doors. From there he'd be able to step off and walk in.

I was glad to be back in some form of relative safety but even that was a gamble, this thing was in the ship and while for the most part it was contained within the strut, it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Zan docked his fighter knowing he'd have to make a report not only on what he picked up on sensors but also observing the death of a fellow officer.

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