Chapter 355

Selina and Diana’s Mission

Their consoles showed air and normal temperature in the rest of the vessel, but trusting nothing at this point, Diana and Selina closed their faceplates again before Diana opened the blast door that had automatically snapped closed when the ship lost air.

As soon as the door was open, the Second looked at the readout on the lower left of her helmet display. “We’re good,” she told her commander. “Temp and pressure are normal.” Keeping her suit sealed, though, she checked the tiny galley and engine room, and even the storage areas as she made her way through every part of the little vessel in search of the reason for the air loss, but found nothing out of order.

Where did our air go if we weren’t holed?

She manually checked the reading on the liquid oxygen and nitrogen tanks, knowing that the bridge readings were correct, but she had hoped, anyway. Discouraged, she let out a quiet sigh as she thought, Replacing the whole vessel with air after being in space so long has reduced our already-low primary reserves dangerously. Our CO2 scrubbers need to be flushed, and that means we are using more air that could be saved with better efficiency in our recycling process. But we need to have an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere to flush the scrubbers. Crap. If we lose our air again, we’ll be in real trouble.

Satisfied that the little ship was not holed, and that a floating patch had not stopped a leak, which would have required a more permanent repair, Diana gathered up the equipment she would need to replace the command circuit. After informing her commander, she stepped into the airlock. While she was waiting for the air to be pumped out, she checked yet again to make sure she had everything she would need. I passed my suit test after being dropped in an unknown system, and I eventually found the ship after performing the tasks assigned, but I never want to do that again. I feel naked when I’m outside the ship in space. Dammit, every direction seems down, and worse than that, down is into what seems like a bottomless pit. Frowning, she continued to herself, When we get back, I’m going to have a chat with Maintenance. They should have replaced the whole friggin’ drive pod. There obviously has to be something that is stressing the command circuit in that pod for the circuit to continue to malfunction even after it had been replaced by a new one.

After snapping her safety line to a toggle just inside the lock, she cycled the outer hatch. There was the expected slight puff of remaining atmosphere that the pumps had failed to recycle, and that air had instantly changed to a faint white vapor as the moisture in it froze when the air expanded into the nothingness.

After re-securing her line to a recessed stanchion just outside the hatch, she eased farther out as her safety line smoothly spooled behind her. As usual, she felt the mental tug of the seeming vast hole beneath her, no matter where she looked.

“Keep your eyes on the ship,” she heard her commander say.

Again, Diana was glad that she had Selina for her superior. She knew Diana’s weaknesses, and tried to help compensate for them. Likewise, Diana tried her best to take up the slack in Selina’s very few shortcomings.

Fuck this, Diana told herself as she cleared the ship and activated her propulsion unit to glide smoothly around to the starboard side of the vessel. Just don’t drop anything. I have tethers attached to the bigger items, but I can’t secure every little thing. I darn sure don’t want to go chasing after something out here, she thought as she secured herself to the starboard nacelle.

“Ready,” Diana said.

“Safety locks engaged. System secure. It is safe to begin extraction of the circuit,” Selina commented as she began verbally working Diana through the checklist for replacing the command circuit.

Despite Diana’s hurrying, it seemed to take twice as long to replace the circuit as it would have on a planet. Here, there was none of the diffused light that made seeing everything so much easier in atmosphere. The object was more than amply lit on the side facing her light source, but the unlit areas were in total darkness, and the thick gloves didn’t help with handling the delicate parts she had to remove, then replace. And ... if she happened to glance toward the nothingness around her, she would instantly feel as if she were falling toward some star in the far distance.

Other than Selina, she had not told anyone about her unease in deep space. Inside a vessel, she was totally relaxed, but outside, she felt vulnerable and a bit fragile in this vastness that would take her life if she made the slightest mistake.

Finally, she snapped the new control unit into place, tested the circuits, then quickly buttoned everything back up, lastly sliding the armor back into place.

“On my way back inside,” she told her Commander.

“Twenty-two minutes to replace a control circuit in a power unit while in space. That may well be a record.”

“Well, being scared shitless is a great incentive,” Diana responded with a chuckle.

After removing her suit and storing it at the back of the bridge, she slid into her seat. Selina smiled at her. “Well done, Second. Shall we test it?” Not waiting for a response, she went quickly on, “Your ship. Test the inertialess drive.”

“My ship,” Diana acknowledged. Grinning, she seated herself and maxed the drive out, bounding in every direction she could think of. She imagined that the ship looked like a ping-pong ball bouncing at high speed around a room.

When she finished, she turned to her commander. “The command circuit, as well as the overall inertialess drive, is functioning at one hundred percent.”

Selina glanced at the AI’s pickup. “Initiate the course I have laid in. We shall determine if that planet has the air and materials we need to replenish our supplies.”

Thirty-two light-years wasn’t next door, but they were in a deep space vessel capable of vast distances in a relatively short period of time. Consequently, a few hours later, they were in low orbit above a blue/green planet.

Selina read from her sensors. “Gravity slightly more than one and a half normal. Nitrogen/oxygen mixture that is almost identical to our home worlds, with low percentages of several inert gases. Our pumps can easily replenish our tanks.”

A green circle adorned the top left of their screens. “There are several major rivers in the north quadrant where we can replenish our water supplies, and there are heavy metals not too far underground that will provide power for the converters to operate our engines, as well as a source of energy for our food replicators,” the AI announced.

“Commander?” Diana asked.

“Do it,” Selina responded.

Dropping from orbit, they sliced through the atmosphere as their defensive screens bled off the small amount of excess heat that the inertialess drive allowed through.

“Almost looks like home if you squint your eyes and pretend the vegetation isn’t a blue/green,” Diana said with a chuckle.

“I doubt if I could ever squint my eyes that much,” Selina returned, “and if you should step outside, the extra weight would certainly inform you that you were not home.” Then as they circled lower, she continued, “The water, however, is a welcome sight – provided it does not contain anything anathematic to human life. Of course we shall have to examine a sample of the water, but so far I can detect nothing in the air that seems harmful to us.”

Selina pointed to a section of the screen. “Sit us down in the shallows along that wide bank there. While we are resupplying our tanks with oxygen, nitrogen and water, the Scavengers can burrow after the heavy metals our sensors are showing in the mountain range to the north.”

“Affirmative, Commander,” Diana responded as she turned the ship in a wide arc, before eventually coming in at a steep angle and setting down in the shallow part of the wide stream. “Scavengers away,” she announced as she turned on the outside sound and they watched the beautiful scene on the main screen. “That stream certainly looks inviting and the temperature...”

“We shall remained buttoned up throughout our stay on the planet. The scans show nothing, but we cannot risk taking a virus or something similar back to base with us.”

As Diana unconsciously scratched an armpit, she knew Selina was right, but the water in the small river looked sooo inviting. Even though she could not bathe or swim in it, she could shower after their tanks were full again, and the water would be sterilized as it came aboard.

“Spoilsport,” she said as she grinned at her commander. A few seconds later, after glancing at her console, she noted, “Our Scavengers have reported strong returns from veins of several heavy metals, and have started sinking through the surface. Within the next ship day we should have sufficient materials for our converters. In the meantime, we can begin the process of clearing our CO2 scrubbers.”

Twenty-four hours later, Selina and Diana were seated on the tiny bridge, both women having showered and donned fresh uniforms straight from the replicator. “We do not stink anymore, but the ship does. Suit up. I want the ship’s air flushed and replaced with new. And make it an extended flush. We can top the tanks back up when we’re done. I want a fresh-smelling vessel as we attempt to find the base,” Selina instructed.

Diana let out a ladylike chuckle. “I never dreamed a shower could feel so good. I’m glad we didn’t have to recycle that water.”

“Well, it is no worse than drinking our own recycled pee, which we have been doing for most of the trip,” Selina reasoned.

“You just had to remind me,” Diana grumped.

Forty-eight hours later, they coincidentally lifted with the dawn, the AI now piloting, their tanks full and the converter’s storage stuffed with enough heavy metals to keep the inertialess and warp drives operating for a considerable length of time. “Course, Commander?” the AI prompted.

Diana was inclined to put in a smart comment, but waited for her commander to respond.

“Have you been able to detect any star system that matches your data, even in part?” Selina asked.

“Negative, Commander, and I have scanned my data twice before we found the planet, and yet again just now.”

“Then that leaves only one obvious conclusion – we are not in our galaxy.”

Diana’s heart seemed to skip a beat. That had been her conclusion as well, but she had been hoping that Selina would come up with another reason the AI couldn’t find home, because ... no one had ever recorded visiting another galaxy and returned. There had been efforts, but the gulf between galaxies was vast, indeed. With a sigh of exasperation, she murmured, “Even if we should manage to pick our own galaxy, we’ll run out of energy, water and consumables long before we span the gulf between.”

Selina patted back a yawn as she responded, her voice positive. “We accomplished it when we warped away from the black hole. If we did it once, we can do it again.”