Symbiotic ship

Current objective: Asteroid removal

“These things are uncomfortable.”

“Well, they didn’t have a shell walker in your size.” Tyrone said, suiting up. His shell walker was sheer gray, with the symbol of a wrench on the chest. Thick darker gray boots and gloves were on his feet and hands, each with magnets so tools wouldn’t float away, and so he could walk on the ship. His helmet was dark gray with orange markings and a light built in.

“But really?” Tyrone glanced at Sarah’s suit. It was rubber jacket yellow with an orange lightning bolt crossing the chest and down the arms. Instead of gloves the suit had mittens with the pointer finger left separate. The boots were orange and clunky, and there were large wrinkles in the legs and arms where Sarah’s limbs were not long enough for the suit. The helmet had a large infused glass bubble, rather than the infused glass goggles Tyrone’s had. The large pair of antenna, which didn’t actually serve a purpose, didn’t help matters. “I look like a mascot for a battery commercial.” She paused. “I don’t even know what a commercial is.”

“Tyrone.” Both heads turned to James. “Why is Sarah in that ridiculous thing?”

“It’s the smallest suit we have.”

“That’s because she isn’t cleared for a spacewalk.” James replied. “She’s 14. The captain will have my head if I let her go out there.” He paused and motioned towards the door. “I think you have some maintenance to do. I’ll keep an eye on Sarah.”

Tyrone nodded and left the room. Sarah knew it would be only a short walk to the airlock, and then the vacuum of space.

“You should probably take the suit off now.”

“Why?” Sarah asked. “I want to know what’s going on out there, and it’s hooked up to the WiFi radio.”

“Suit yourself, just put it back when you’re done, and don’t do anything foolish. James walked out of the room. Sarah held out her arm and a holographic display appeared over her arm.

The hologram wasn’t really there, just projected on her helmet, but it read where her gloves were in relation to her eyes, so she could enter commands. The display shifted to a camera feed. The view was of stars, uncountable stars, constellations and galaxies of them, galaxies that couldn’t be seen from earth. It was quite likely she was the first, second, human to see some of them. The view shifted back to the ship, which was illuminated by the lamp on Tyrone’s helmet. In the distance, Sarah could see other helmets shining on the ship.

“Glad you could make it,” Janet said. “What took you?”

“Tried to find Sarah a suit. Apparently they don’t make shell walkers for teens. So, where’s this rock?”

“Over here.” A virtual line appeared in Tyrone’s, thus Sarah’s, helmet. Taking large quick steps, Tyrone followed the line along the dark silver of the ship’s hull to a crater where Janet, Howard, Edward, and Andrew were standing around the asteroid. Three large metal crates full of equipment were sitting 20 meters away from the asteroid, ready to be used. “What do you think.”

“Are you sure that’s rock?” Sarah asked immediately. The asteroid was lumpy, flattened, and tear shaped. In the ever-shifting light from the other engineers’ headlamps it almost looked like it was moving.

“We’ll know for sure once we open it up.” Andrew said. He held a hand out to the crate and a tool jumped to his hand. While it appeared magic, it was really magnets and a WiFi signal. Nice trick. The object was a long bent rod with a large tank on one end. Another signal went from the man to the machine, and a tiny blue flame appeared at the tip of the device.

Heat, danger. The feeling washed over Sarah.

“Don’t do that!”

“What’s with Sarah?” Janet asked. “Girl, you al-“