Chapter 7

Levi

It seemed as though every alarm the station possessed, other than containment and atmospheric, were sounding. “Somebody shut the damn alarms off!” Levi bellowed over the din. Ara ran over to the console and started manually overriding the control systems. The alarms slowly silenced, replaced by a multitude of beeping from the master control panel. “Can’t hear myself think.” Levi muttered, taking a slow look around.

Like the audible alarms, every warning light the command console possessed was going haywire. Paper-work and loose items on the table were still there. There was no internal wind revealing the existence of a hull breach, so that warning light appeared to be malfunctioning. Just how many of the others were malfunctioning. “Ara,” His wife looked over. “Run a full diagnostic on all systems. Ash, start a full internal audit. Check all seals and welds. I want a status update of the internal structure. Let your mother know of any damage you find. Millie, Zoe, rig up. I will join you outside and we will see what damage we have sustained.” Nods all round.

Levi made his way to his rig and suited up, slipping the VR helmet on last before activating the suspension system. Levi felt his feet leave the deck and the visor spring into life. A diagnostic check. All okay. The view changed to that of the external station. Levi moved his head, the view changing as the optics on the remote also moved. Happy, Levi disengaged the Clamps and pushed the remote away from the station.

: Millie. I want you to check the communication and external sensor suites. :

: Okay dad. :

: Zoe, check the manoeuvring thrusters. :

: Okay dad. :

Levi looked at one of the strange craft clamped onto the side of the station : And stay clear of those craft. Especially their thruster plumes, we can’t afford to have any of the remotes slagged. : Levi manoeuvred his remote away from the habitat to the reclamation yard. How those ships hadn’t ripped the facility apart was beyond his ability to understand. Even the smallest discrepancy in the timing of the jump would have ripped them apart. But, here they were.

Levi didn’t know of one instance of dual transit that hadn’t gone badly, let alone one involving six separate craft. Seven if you counted the station, eight if you included their docked tug as well. The torsional flexing on the superstructure alone must have created a nightmare of micro fractures throughout the ribs. They might be quicker replacing every single one than trying to repair them. Data coming in from the main habitation informed Levi that they were still moving, though he could already guess that by the drive plumes from the attached ships that he could see. He didn’t bother reminding his two daughters to keep an eye on their thruster power. They were experienced enough pilots to know that they were still under thrust. Levi activated his drive and headed out to the reclamation yard. The superstructure appeared intact, and not the tangled mess of beams that he had been expecting. Their tug was still safely moored inside, which was a welcome bonus. He left the tug for later. No doubt Zoe would make a full inspection of it when she had the time.

Approaching the first beam. Levi actuated the remote sensors and started scanning the metal as he slowly guided the remote along the spur.

: How is it going out there? : His wife asked on the open channel.

: Station and yard look visibly okay. Not sure about the structural integrity of the station. : Levi answered.

: I’m reading no problems so far with the thrusters. All housings are stable and secure on number fifteen. Nothing untoward. So far... : Zoe chimed in.

: We’ve lost the main communication dish. It’s, like, gone, completely. The brackets have been torn off the anchorage points and most of the positioning motors are gone. Some bare broken cables from the dish are shorting against the outer hull. I’m making them safe now. : Millie added.

A new window appeared on Levi’s HUD. He enlarged it. It was footage from Millie’s remote, showing the brackets for the dish. The brackets were stretched and distorted. The size of the dish had obviously fallen victim to the jump forces and had been ripped entirely from the hull, the ends of cables drifted dish-less out from the hull. As damage went, it was negligible when so much else could have gone wrong.

It would also mean that they would be long range communications blind. Depending on how far away the nearest communication satellite relay was, they might be able to use the short-range, with the tug out in space as a relay. Not ideal, but it would suffice until a replacement was sourced and delivered.

Leni followed his beam all the way to the shredder. Both beam and shredder were in good condition. He followed another beam back to the main habitat.

: I’m reading radiation damage to some of the communication equipment, : Millie continued. : It will need replacing, though without the dish, it’s all pretty much useless anyway at the moment. :

: Okay. Help your sister with the remaining positioning thrusters and then start on the habitat. I’ll join you when the reclamation yard is done. :

: Station diagnostics are complete. Other than the communications errors, which we now know the cause of, all is good. Ash and I will start on the internal seal checks. :

: Okay, thanks love. Any idea yet as to where we are? : Levi asked of his wife.

: Nothing coming up on the stored maps. We need access to the outer-net to upload new star maps, and without the dish... : Arabella left the obvious unsaid.

: I think we have just made history. : Asher said, finally breaking his silence. : The first successful jump transport of a structure using multiple independent jump drives... :

Zoe groaned : I’m glad they never told us first, otherwise I would still be in the toilet wondering if the flow of shit would ever end...:

: Like that time you tried to make a Ragmurian curry? : Millie teased.

: I told you to never, ever, remind me of that again... :

: Violent propulsion from all three orifices... : Millie continued.

Zoe shuddered in her harness. : Just stop, really, just stop.. :

: That’s quite enough of that girls... : Ara chastised her daughters. : Levi, short range is picking up a ship. :

: Any details? :

: It’s not answering hails. And without the dish, I can’t access the shipping register. :

: Is it moving towards us? :

: Doesn’t appear to be, though we appear to be moving towards it. :

: Okay, keep me posted if the situation changes. :

Levi stretched his back before he sat down, listening to the multitude of cracks that started at his shoulder blades and raced down his spine.

“Urgh! Dad! I wish you wouldn’t do that!” Millie complained.

Levi pulled over a meal pouch and uncapped the end, squeezing the contents into his mouth, before turning his gaze to his wife. “So, what’s our situation?”

“Internally we are in good shape. All systems, bar coms, are working and we have stable atmospherics, no pressure loss, though Ash says there are a few couplings and seals that will need to be replaced, but nothing major and some sections will need to be de-pressurized to carry out the repairs. Though I recommend we don’t start those repairs till we are stationary.”

“Any idea as to where we are?”

Ara shook her head. “Apart from the other ship, which still isn’t acknowledging hails, there doesn’t appear to be any other infrastructure in sight, or sensor range, and we are a bit closer to that sun than I would wish.”

“So we are on our own?”

“It would appear so.”

“How close to that sun?” Levi asked, concerned.

“Close enough to start being concerned about long term hull radiation degradation should we drift any closer.”

“It’s an old s7377teve.” Zoe said looking down at her tablet.

Ash laughed. “A what?”

Zoe spun her tablet round, which was currently displaying a poor picture of the other ship taken from their stations ocular sensors. “An old S class smelter ship.”

Ash cast a dubious glance down at Zoe’s tablet. “I’ll take your word for it, you geek.”

Levi spun his empty food pouch in the air in front of his face, changing the rotational axis with gentle pushes of his finger. “Okay, are we still heading towards it?” His wife nodded “Well, it’s going to be a few hours before we reach it and it’s been a long shift, so get your heads down.” He snatched the pouch out of the air and stood. “You did well today kids. I’m proud of you. That doesn’t mean that you can slack off next shift though. Get to bed.”

Levi expected to struggle to get to sleep, but as soon as his head touched the pillow, he was away. Next to him, Arabella watched the lines around his eyes soften and the years of toil seemingly disappear in a moment. Her ears were attuned to every noise the station made, and it was making many, as her own sleep evaded her. No matter how hard she tried, her mind kept going back to the jump, picking at it like a scab on her flesh. Cold fear lingered in her body, as she tried to avoid thinking of all the ways they could, should, have died. Yet they hadn’t. She should be thankful, yet, even now, she worried at the stresses being applied to the station. She could feel the station’s pain with every sound, every creak. So many new sounds as the station passed through unseen gravitational waves. Ara worried. This was her home, her family.

When he awoke, Levi felt refreshed and invigorated like he had as a child. No worries of debt to grind him down, it truly was a new dawn in more ways than one. He was alone in his bed, no sign or sound of his wife. He unhooked the blanket from its restraining clasps and sat up, fighting the unseen force that wanted to pull him back down. The station had full gravity again, so that meant they had stopped.

He dressed in a clean ship-suit and listened to the ambient noise. The noise of their transit had stopped, the strange reverberations replaced with the more familiar rattle and hums. He could almost pretend yesterday had never happened. Almost.

In the command room, his wife was hunched over the command consoles, an old fashioned notepad and pen in one hand as she made notes. Levi came up behind her and enveloped her in a tight hug. She turned in his grasp and gently placed her lips against her his. It was a long slow kiss that neither was in a hurry to break.

“Ugh! Get a room will you!” Zoe grumbled as she slouched into the room. “We have stopped then?”

Levi let his lips part from his wife, but they didn’t break their embrace as he continued to stare into her eyes, years of intimacy carrying words that didn’t need to be spoken within that shared gaze.

“Like, seriously? We could be moments away from death and your, your...” Zoe waved her arms in the air.

“There is only one individual in this room that is in severe danger of death, if she doesn’t find something else to do, or be...” Ara said, letting Levi slip from her.

Levi looked over at his daughter who looked every bit as invigorated as he felt. “Zoe, check over the tug and take it out for a test flight,”

“Yes!”

“But not too far, stay within remote range, should we need to recover you both.” Levi added as he caught his wife’s look.

“Yes dad!” Zoe bolted from the room.

Levi rested a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

Ara waved at the screen in front of her. “It’s just a lot to take in. So much needs doing, needs to be done...”

Levi stepped close, rested his face against the back of her head, smelling the scent of her hair. “‘One step at a time... ‘“

“Don’t you dare quote my sayings back at me...”

Levi let out a little playful laugh. “Yes dear...”

In the distance there was a clang as an airlock hatch was shut.

“Go, keep an eye on our daughter.”

Levi headed to his remote chamber and suited up, donning the helmet and activating one of the remotes. : How’s she looking Zee? :

: All systems green dad. Permission to release mum? :

: Permission granted. Take care, no funny stuff Zoe. :

: Roger that mum, no ‘funny’ stuff... :

Levi piloted his remote over to the tug and focused on the clamps holding it to the station. There was no telling what damage, if any, they had sustained.

Zoe couldn’t hide the eagerness in her voice. : Releasing now. :

Levi felt more than heard the clamps retract, the vibration running through the station. In his HUD screens, the clamps retracted smoothly, had they been damaged they would have done so jerkily.

: Dad? :

: You’re clear. : Levi visually confirmed. He watched the tug slowly move clear and moved in to the vacated spot to physically check the clamps. The metal readings came back clear, no sign of stress fractures or other internal/material damage.

: Wohoo! :

Levi wasn’t worried about Zoe damaging the tug, as she cared more about it than anyone else on board. So much so, that had anyone else taken it out for its test flight, she would have vociferously complained about the fact for days after. Levi turned the remote away from the rapidly departing tug and continued on with the exterior examination.