The virgin & the bad boy (Gravity)

B2/Chapter 23/Aftermath

Outside the abandoned town of Five Dogs

+ 15 minutes after first nuclear blast. 

It had taken me what seemed like ages getting the second rover going. I drove in the direction Catz had driven off.  It was hard to be sure as all the tracks had been wiped by the blast. Soon I was near the general position of the mine entrace.  I had found Kentro next to the knocked over remains of the Catz's rover. I had tracked his WiFi signal, while Kentro had to spend time to search I had followed straight to Catz's rover.

"CATZ! How is she?" I asked as soon as my suit had a wifi connection with his brain.

"She is alive, but barely so," said Kentro. I couldn't see him he must be in the first rover by now.

I looked out of the rover. Then I saw Kentro walking out carrying the body of Catz in her 'casual' space suit. The point of the casual suits is you could walk around comfortably in full pressure but if you had a pressure loss you could survive. Catz looked like a Michelin man a bloated version of her self. Kentro opened the mars rover door. I had driven in the near vacuum of mars with my suit recharging down a tube feeding me directly from the second rover supplies.

I could feel my suit relax as the cabin pressure changed. I rushed to Catz and unzipped her plastic hood/helmet.

"What the fuck was that. I knew you had a temper like a galaxy 7 but that was extreme" said Catz weakly. I smiled. Kentro had put her down on a wide seat behind the driving station. I knelt beside her. She was bruised and coughing blood.

"It was a Nuclear blast. I think someone looked at the plain and said you know what this needs? A crater, Yakwim." I said cleaning her face.

"Shit it was true," said Catz "They had talked about the nuclear option but I thought it was them passing stupid rumours around to catch me. I never thought they would do it. I mean they have the trackers in people's arms right? Why bothe..."

"Don't talk we are going to Slyslish [ Science the shit out of this - old Martian saying ] our way out of this," I said.

I stood up and went to a corner to talk with Kentro. I needed to plan fast and hard. This was when living in a remote unregistered dome went to being a nightmare. I didn't have any emergency services who would come.

"I've been computing supplies Madam it is with regret I believe we need to kill Miss Catz" said Kento plainly. "The nearest auto emergency Medi-doc station or indeed any registered supply is a two hours drive north. We only have enough oxygen in this vehicle and your suit for two people for one hour and thirty minutes."

The martian landscape was littered with emergency bolt holes. People liked to go on long hikes. Medi-doc stations were spaced out in case you got into trouble out in deep desert. If that was our best option things were deeply deeply bad.  

"That's not happening," I said. "What about at FiveDogs?"

Kentro spoke quickly. "I was in communication with the emergency assessment functions of the dome. It was fully breached. The mechanical regenerator never worked. Your air was being regenerated by the plant life. Before you ask the opening to the mine was covered. There is a small chemical storage space next to the entrance of the tunnel which is accessible but the automatics there indicate it can pressurised with nitrogen, but otherwise it can do nothing. The other rover has lost air and pressure. I have explored other routes - your only option is to regrettably kill Miss Catz and breathe her air to the auto-doc."

My heart sank. This sounded like an early colonist movie. I knew Kentro wasn't saying this maliciously he had gone in toe stylish mode. Looked for an option where we could both live. Failing this he had looked for option, were one of us would live.