The L.S.C. Project

Void

The things we had thought about space, the impossible beauty and peacefulness of it all, changed after that. 

Even the white noise of our own breathing fell silent as the massive tube slowly fell in the wrong direction.

It was heading for Preston.

Eva quickly turned to Josi. "What do we do‽ " She urgently whispered over the radioset. 

Josi said nothing as she saluted the man in danger.

They could do nothing. Since this was such a new terrain, they were trained to not go after ones that have over a fifty percent chance of death, interference would lead to a potentially of more casualties. Life was nothing they could spare, millions of miles away from the place they used to call their home.

Silently and hesitantly Eva saluted the man.

Time seemed to slow down. The edge of the colossal tube crushed down on Prestons left arm. 

Though it was silent, they could all hear the screams.

"Pres," a static voice from inside the ship called through the radio. "See if you can put it back on course while you're over there." 

That was another thing they were trained for. If you are going to have your last seconds, make them count.

You could see the pain in his eyes as the small man tried to push something that weighed thousands of pounds off of him. Not that weight mattered. No gravity. 

When Preston finally did get the massive object off of him, you couldn't tell his arm was, well, an arm.

Bolts of electricity went from the ship to the opening of the tube, meaning the magnetic tractor beams were getting it on course.

And solemnly they dropped their salutes.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

They were sitting in the kitchen area, waiting on the status update from the computer about Preston. 

"Do you think he's gonna be okay?" Eva asked Jayden. He was the one monitoring the mission, so he saw it all.

"I dunno honestly. His arm got banged up pretty bad mate." Normally pretty upbeat, the Australians grim tone worried them.

"Did it rip his suit?"

Alexi sneered. "What kind of stupid question is that. If his suit rip, then he would be dead."

"Oh right.." Now that it was explained, it did seem like a silly question. "Why did they send all of us up here so quick?"

"Do you not shut up?"  The Russian man shook his head. "That is obvious. We are running out of room on earth. They are needing this colony to shove the excess into." 

Jayden pushed up his glasses. "That's one way to say it, but yeah ever since Mars failed we've been needing a last resort."

"Wel-"

Josi's sentence was cut off by a buzzing noise. 

PROCEDURE COMPLETE. SPECIMEN REPAIRED. 

The loud robotic voice pierced their ears. Nevertheless they all got up to check on Preston.

They all stared at the injured man.

"Hey there mate, need a hand?" 

Preston glared at the bad pun, then glanced down at where his arm should be. He winced at the sight.

"Get to bed. It's past curfew."

One by one, they trailed to the small rooms, Preston in the back.

The lights turned off once there was no more movement in the room. All the lights but one. It glowed bright red in the side room from where Preston came from.

'AMPUTATION COMPLETE'