Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 3 - Gravity

"What's holding up Walter?" asked Megan.

Both Megan and Aron were already in their bulky E.V.A. suits but, unlike Megan, Aron also had his helmet securely locked into place. Aron had both visors clicked into the up position so he could talk. Megan's helmet was currently attached to the nearest wall panel by the powerful magnets in its base.

Aron was performing some final checks on her E.V.A. suit in the Exterior Operations Room, some ten decks below the Control Room and just one deck above the Hatch Room which was the both the lowest deck of the Command Section and the main airlock for the vessel. They had brought down two of the large, tablet computers from the Control Room and attached them to a blank area of wall.

"He's going through the airlock controls with Meera," Aron replied. "She's never done a real E.V.A. before."

"If everything goes as planned she won't do one now either," replied Megan.

"I'll head down and see how they're getting on," he said, moving carefully towards the oversized hatchway in the floor. Unlike most of the other deck hatches, this one featured a single, sliding door that travelled on tracks inside the thicker deck floor. When closed it formed the inner door of the main airlock and was one of the few hatches with a window built into it.

As he reached the hatch, Aron turned his back to the hatch and gingerly dropped one foot through the gap as he stepped backwards. Due to the shape of his suit, it was impossible to see directly downwards so he was forced to poke about with his foot until he found the top rung of the ladder. Moments later, he was padding carefully down the ladder.

He was almost out of sight when he suddenly swore and reversed direction. Worried that something was seriously wrong, Megan left her station and came to help him climb back up.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"We're walking!"

"What do you mean?" she replied, perplexed by his outburst.

"We're walking around! Think about it! We've missed something massive."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said quietly, shaking her head.

With her help, he heaved himself back onto the deck and moved quickly to the two tablets. As soon as his glove touched the touchscreen, the tablet detected it and scaled up the controls to suit the gloves chunky fingers. He immediately set about pulling up several screens of technical readouts.

"Look at this!" he pointed at one of the displays. "We did all those tests and diagnostics but none of us noticed the obvious discrepancy!"

"Aron, I still don't know what you're talking about."

"The engines are off. They've been shut down for hours."

"And...?"

"And we have 80 odd percent gravity!"

"So?"

"Currently we're drifting through space at thousands of kilometres per minute. No engines means no force applied to the Arcadian and thus...no GRAVITY!"

"Yet we're walking around as normal...how?"

"I have no idea," he shook his head. "Something else must be pushing against the back of the ship. Something has to be applying a force somehow."

"Does that make any difference to this E.V.A?"

"It makes it easier, if anything," Aron replied, still ploughing through readouts on the tablet. "We've never trained for zero-G E.V.A.s so this is good for that. Tethers will be important. My biggest worry is not knowing why we have gravity right now."

"My dad always taught me to deal with one problem at a time. Let's find out why so many of our sensors and instruments are not working, get those running again and maybe that will shine some light on the gravity issue?"

"And why it's so high?"

"Well, our engines can't generate eighty plus percent of a G of thrust."

"It also means that we're still decelerating?" she suggested, hopefully.

"A reasonable assumption, but until I know the nature of the force, I can't be sure."

"Okay, let's focus on the sensors for now."

- - -

"Pumps running now, Commander," announced Walter over the radio.

"What's the pressure reading outside?" asked Megan, subconsciously dipping her chin closer to the microphone inside the collar of her E.V.A. suit.

"Got some anomalous readings on that, Commander. The primary pressure sensor is reading fractionally above zero, essentially a vacuum, but the backup sensor is showing almost twelve kilopascals and seems to be slowly increasing."

"Increasing?!"

"I don't know what's going on. It's almost touching twelve kilopascals now."

"And the primary, still reading near zero?"

"Yep, still negligible, but a little higher than before."

"Best go with the primary," Megan replied.

After a momentary crackle, she heard Aron's voice through the speakers. "I'd recommend taking the average of the two readings, Commander. That way, whichever reading is correct, we shouldn't get too much of a kick either way."

"Airlock pressure down to six kilopascals," reported Walter.

"Suit pressure stable. Suit life support active and comms showing no interference," Aron announced. "Ready to open the outer door."

"Take care out there, guys," she replied. "There's no rush, so don't take any risks. Open the airlock door when you're ready."

"Door opening now, Commander," replied Walter.

The previously amber lights on the inside surface of the inner door began to strobe rapidly in red to indicate that the outer door was now in its open state. Almost immediately there was a subdued explosion sound followed by a scream on the radio and an almost simultaneous forceful impact on the inner airlock door.

Megan hit the talk button on her microphone again, "What's going on? What happened?"

She immediately released the button so they could reply, but all she heard was a very faint hiss from the speakers.

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