Xenos

ii. Discovery: June 27, 2126

"Anyone?" Usually other members of the twelve person crew were hanging about the bridge but ever since they'd put the Ekhi on cruising mode the day before they'd been able to relax. Twenty-seven days of work with no downtime meant that everyone disappeared to their rooms, the library, or the recreation room the moment that they were released from service.

"He's not there?" Drake asked, the lines of a frown cutting across his forehead.

Cin shook her head awkwardly, habit making her forget that the material restricted her movement. "Galen," she called again, their combined annoyance making her snap.

"There should always be someone on the bridge," Drake groused, echoing her earlier comment to herself. "What if something happened out here?"

"They'd have to learn to make due without their Communications Officers, wouldn't they?" Cin said lightly as she snapped a photo of the panel.

"Not exactly something to joke about when we're out here," Drake said, his exasperation cutting across the line.

"Sorry," Cin said, poking at the black stuff again. Some of it splintered off and floated just above the panel. She waved it away impatiently.

"This isn't something that can go on," Drake said.

"You be sure to tell them that when we get back. Disrupt their lounge time."

Cin couldn't see it, but she knew that earned a scowl from Drake. "Is anyone there yet?"

"No. And I think we should finish up here." Cin disconnected the link to the vid-screen in the bridge. "We shouldn't be exposed to the rays for this long." ESC scientists had learned how to prevent most of the harmful radiation from affecting those on missions, but most of them were built into the ships, not the suits. Money better spent elsewhere, according to those who were not spending their time on missions. They spent the majority of their time on the ship and not on walks, after all.

Drake agreed and said that they could at least bring a sample of the substance back to the ship to show everyone. He pulled a small, clear vial with a twist top from the pocket of his suit. He used the blunted scalpel to scrape at the material, depositing it into the vial.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Cin joked as she watched him. "Could be dangerous."

"Naw, it's just some gunk that accumulated during takeoff, probably. It's our duty to study it for future missions."

"Yeah, yeah. For the good of the ESC." Cin said dismissively, looking back toward the hatch. She couldn't wait to get back inside the Ekhi.

Drake finished his business and capped the vial now half full of the strange substance, the motion awkward due to bulky gloves. He put it back into the suit's pocket, zipping up the compartment to keep the vial from floating out. He took the scalpel again and used it to chip the rest of the substance away from the panel. "Just in case it wasn't just the wiring," he told Cin. It floated around the panel, the ship freed of its grip. Drake waved the rest of it away with a hand as he leaned in to close it. "It looks good on this end. All of the connections are solid."

"Great." She gave one last look to the black pieces floating around them. They'd be lost to the expanse of space. "Let's head back."

Drake gave her a thumbs up and started floating back to the hatch, following his line. She matched him stride for stride, pulling herself along her lifeline toward the door.

"You think that communications will be up again?" she asked, her eyes on the hatch. Being out here was getting to her; she could feel the hitch in her breath as the emptiness of space pressed down on her. It wasn't so bad in the Ekhi, where the walls kept the press out and she could almost pretend that she was on Earth were it not for the glimpses outside of the windows and the slight difference in gravity that made it easier to move throughout the ship.

"Someone will have to go out again if they're not," Drake said.

"One of us should stay on the Ekhi next time. Just in case. We don't want to lose both of our Communications Officers."

"I guess that would be for the best. We need at least one of us to survive to run the communications center."

They reached the hatch and pulled themselves inside, the lack of gravity causing them to float near the top of the cramped chamber. Drake pulled himself down to the buttons that would close the double doors. He placed the vial from his suit in a small box for decontamination and latched it as Cin pulled the remaining line inside the chamber. Only once the last of it was in did he push the large button that closed the doors. Warning lights flared, yellow lights whirring quickly in a circle that changed to red as the doors began to close. With a boom that she felt in her body rather than heard, the doors clamped shut, their double seal protecting them from the outside.

Drake floated over to the door that gave them access to the equipment chamber of the Ekhi. Pulling down on the large lever next to it caused gusts of air to jet into the chamber, clouds of white that equalized the pressure and mimicked the environment inside of the Ekhi, namely reintroducing gravity back into the chamber. Slowly both Cin and Drake floated down to the bottom of the chamber. When their feet were solidly on the ground a blue light turned on, indicating the inner door was unlocked. Cin breathed a sigh of relief. The doors slid open silently, Drake grabbed the vial from the decon box, and they went into the equipment chamber. The access doors closed with a click behind them and Drake pushed the locking button. Only then did they begin to remove the bulky suits.

They'd come a long way from the original, heavy space suits that the first spacewalkers used. The Earth Space Corps had created and refined a better version, the dark grey material strong against tears and lighter on the body, so they didn't get exhausted on spacewalks. The only problem was that it was difficult to move in due to the stiffness of the material. But Cin would take a little stiffness over a bulky suit any day.

Cin pulled the helmet from her head, the coupling at the neck and base of the helmet releasing with a hiss. The hair that had come loose from her ponytail was plastered to her neck. While the suits were better in many respects, they still hadn't integrated a cooling system that was able to completely vent the heat created by the person stuck inside the suit. Quickly she removed the rest of it, shivering when her bare feet came in contact with the floor, the cool air chilling her as it hit the sweat on her skin.

All they could wear while in a suit was a pair of tight black pants cut off at the calf and a black shirt. She shivered again and reached for the thermal sweatshirt she'd left in her locker purely for this purpose. Pulling it on, she zipped it up before turning back to Drake who was still struggling with the suit.

"Zipper stuck," he said to her unspoken question.

"God, we gotta get some better suits," Cin griped as she went to help him.

The ESC was notorious for holding the purse strings tight, despite evidence that they needed to update their equipment. The crews on short missions, like those on the Ekhi, were often given subpar equipment because the longer missions needed the better stuff. Since the mission to Xenos didn't require them to go into hypersleep, the ESC didn't think they needed to give the crew newer equipment. They wouldn't give them anything that was broken of course, but that didn't mean that the equipment wasn't on its last legs. It wasn't uncommon for someone on the crew to be fixing something. Constantly. As long as it didn't cause more harm than what was usual—there was some danger to space travel, after all; that was why they were required to space out missions—the ESC thought that it was fine.