Robert was teaching a young hot-head woman about mending space station tears that day. Roxanne was assigned to the maintenance detail as a community service for vandalism, and was not at all excited about having to actually work. Robert was always incredibly patient, almost to a fault. He insisted on taking Roxanne to do this repair, confident she could do it, and expecting that seeing the fruits of her labors would give her life a positive spin.
The repair was textbook, and the module was an auxiliary storage container, currently only holding maintenance equipment, so there was neither a sense of urgency nor accuracy required for this job. Robert's usual partner, Enrique, had gotten sick - some weird new strain of the flu - and so rather than wait, Robert opted to take Roxanne by himself. Kissing him on his way out of their dorm was the last time Bao ever saw Robert whole. After the accident, Enrique inspected the failed repair, and reported that Roxanne simply hadn't seated enough of the rivets firmly into the ship's skin before applying the epoxy. With the epoxy messily sprayed over the rivets, Enrique guessed that Robert couldn't see the rivets being installed too far away from the seam, but must not have been concerned about them. The fact that he called for pressure from Central Control, indicated that Robert felt confident in Roxanne's work.
Even though she only watched it once, the video still plays through Bao's eyes, one painstaking frame at a time - the puff of atmosphere venting through the epoxy, only a few frames of the razor sharp projectile growing larger, and then the jolt as the metal sliced Bao's heart cleanly in two, right below the ribcage. Robert's legs must have floated away, as the camera didn't capture them, and Roxanne's bloodcurdling screams making it clear she was no longer in any position to assess the situation. Robert's funeral had been a closed casket, of course, and his torso cremated two short days later.
Bao smiles ruefully, remembering how Roxanne's life has done a complete 180 degree turn - turns out that causing someone else's death has a way of bringing the rest of your life into sharp relief. That was just like Robert, even in death, to help move someone's life in a positive direction.
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Death Opera
Sci-fiCooperating space stations, thousands of years post-earth, have come to use music as a drug - where the performers have become street dealers, and the troupe owners are the kingpins. A new source arises, and is stolen at a moment of weakness. The en...
