Captain
Calhoun and Captain Grind were relaxing on either side of the conference table,
looking out of the viewport toward the front of the station observing
operations on the asteroid while sipping some scotch from Captain Calhoun’s
private selection. The chit chat was
light as the two captains let off some steam and had a few laughs with their
feet kicked up on the table. This was a
luxury neither man got very often due to the responsibilities of command.
They both
saw the cloud of ice erupt from the far end of the asteroid.
“What the
hell was that?” Captain Grind was startled.
“Not good.” Captain Calhoun sat up in his chair and looked around toward the information console on the rear wall.
“Not good.” Captain Calhoun sat up in his chair and looked around toward the information console on the rear wall.
The klaxons
and emergency lights kicked in.
“Oh Shit!”
Captain Calhoun jumped up and bounded to the space suit locker followed very
closely by Captain Grind.
The two
quickly donned their suits, activated their enviro-packs and ran through the
safety checks on each other’s suits with quiet, smooth precision. These two were so incredibly familiar with
this procedure they could do it in their sleep and not miss a step. In this case they were far from asleep since
they both saw the threat, but that didn’t hinder them in the least as they were
absolute professionals.
“Alright
Captain,” Captain Grind spoke up “What next?”
“We can’t
risk moving through the station right now.” Captain Calhoun moved to the
conference table. “So this compartment just became a command deck.” He pressed
a button and two command consoles opened up on the conference table.
“Has my ship
undocked yet?” Captain Grind moved to one of the consoles and strapped into the
chair.
“That would
have been the second step after hitting the panic button.” Captain Calhoun
strapped down into the chair at the other console. “So I expect you will be our
guest for a while.”
The two
captains frantically started checking status of their respective commands and
the projected trajectories of all of the vessels in motion.
“This isn’t
looking good.” Captain Grind looked up “I think my ship will get out of the way
but I’m not sure about this station.”
“That is
what I am afraid of.” Captain Calhoun didn’t bother looking up, he just kept watching
status reports from every department.
Previous Next
Beginning of Story
No comments:
Post a Comment