On the High Frontier

5. Nothing Special (part 7/10)

What? Kimiko turns and bounces back towards the now closed hatch. The voice continues. "If you are an innocent scavenger then you have my commiserations." The inside of the hatch is solid and someone has welded plates over the controls. "Otherwise this is a terminal lesson in not interfering where you are not wanted." The automated message has a neutral system voice, but she recognises Kervin's tone behind it. "I wouldn't try cutting through to the explosive packed controls." That superior attitude is unmistakable. "And I doubt you're carrying anything capable of breaching this titanium tank" This has been carefully planned. "Enjoy your last hours of ..." Now it's just gloating so Kimiko mutes the comms.

She's getting careless, and Kervin is a lot more ruthless than she'd appreciated. Well whatever happens she'll make him suffer. But to do that she'll have to get out.

She came here to do a job and there's a relay to trace. The lining comes away to reveal the unit. The scanner shows encryption gateways on the links, so she can't use them to communicate. She can at least get routing patterns so they can continue the trace if .... when she gets out.

Putting the tool back in its box, Kimiko takes a long slow look round the bare walls of her prison. She'd need to breech this Faraday cage to get a signal out. The sheath's scrubbing and oxygen recovery systems mean the mask gives her over four hours. What are her options? With all these guns you'd have thought James would have put a cutting torch option on Noriko. She could swap to Sayoko, though the few seconds exposure to vacuum wouldn't be good. That might let her hack the encryption on the links or the door controls. It's not like she can just blast her ... damn. She hates it when James is right, and he'll never let her forget it. Something else Kervin will pay for.

The overload cannon options sit smirking at her from the weaponry interface. It's her best option but she's nervous, she's never done it before. The system transfers all the stored power from the main cells into the shield reservoir. From there it flash discharges through the sheath reversing the adsorption process of the energy armour. At maximum it preserves only enough power to maintain core sheath functions. No comms or other systems for about ten minutes as it recharges to minimum levels from the singularity. The focusing allows anything from a diffuse globe of energy to a tight beam. She sets a large enough beam to give a hole she can fit through, if it penetrates the shell.

After breeching the energy mustn't hit anything else. Down is best, away from the station, and nothing should be flying above the array. She clears the lining, no need to burn through more than necessary. There's short delay as the power is transferred to the fast batacitor storage. A countdown appears as she targets the floor just in front of her feet. She braces herself, she doesn't know what to expect. The suit counts the last few seconds out loud. "Discharge in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ..." And the world goes white.

Kimiko picks herself up from where she's thrown, and tries to focus. The pulse winded her like a blow to the chest. The HUD comes into focus and there are red off-line tags on most systems. At least she's still breathing. She struggles over and checks the ragged hole in the floor. It's large enough to fit through, eat that Kervin. She shakily swings through, careful to touch her feet to the outer surface. However, when she lets go she falls off the station.

Damn, titanium. Forgetting it doesn't take a magnetic attach is a fail on the VSC test. Great, flung into L-space without comms. She tries to use the mobility pack, but it suffered in the discharge and doesn't respond. She notices the mask is also down, she's running on vapour. She has maybe three minutes air left in the suit reservoir, and no radio for about eight minutes. Not a great way to go.

She can't afford to panic. How does it go? Stay calm, work the problem, small steps. What's still working? As she starts a visual scan something hits her from behind, knocking her breath out again. Debris? Then she notices a black clad arm around her. The suit's preventing sheath to sheath contact so she reaches round to put her hand on the face behind her. "... happening? Kimiko! Are you alright?"