Malagan

The sudden blaring alert resounding through the bridge sent Mirry jostling from her slumber. Kicking her heavily booted feet off from the top of the command console she flailed clumsily for the acknowledgement response, setting the flashing overhead warning lights from a horrifying red to sultry yellow. Mellow yellow, she thought to herself as she flicked through the feedback on her screen, Just another day on the asteroid miner Malagan. This was Mirry’s fifth rotation on the Malagan, each trip a four month sojourn into deep space. Although the vessel was designed to be manned by a single crewmember the work was no simple matter. 

The vessel could easily be damaged or fall into disrepair if crewed by somebody inattentive, a symptom of the long, unbroken monotonous stretches wherein the vessel stripped an asteroid clean and the only concern of the solitary miner was the remaining space in the ore hold. That, Mirray mused, or the lasers malfunctioning as well as the gravity beam becoming blocked. These rare events aside, her trips were usually without incident. As long as one avoided the standard spacial anomalies there was little to worry about and although Mirry’s posting was solitary she at least was not lonely. She had Cel for company. The ringtone of her A.I. partner thrummed in her earpiece, a repeating triple beep. Mirray tapped the device, causing Cel to immediately break into his artificial baritone: ‘Miriam, there appears to be a coupling failure in section D6’. Concise as always, Mirry quipped silently ‘Thank’s Cel. Please call me Mirry, I keep asking and you keep addressing me like you’re my father’. There was a slight pause before the response, ‘Miriam, you need to replace that coupling. I am a little worried due to your innate clumsiness’. Mirry ground her eyes shut in annoyance and rubbed them aggressively with the ball of her palms, ‘Cel, it’s fine. Coupling in, coupling out, No biggie.’ As she snapped back at the A.I. her screen scrolled automatically to a highlighted section of feedback. ‘There is a problem Miriam. Please note your monitor’. Bleary eyed she scanned the screen hurriedly, then in a fit of panic jerked herself into a more upright position and examined the data more closely. Shit, she thought as the weight of the problem dawned on her, Not good. 

The asteroid that the Malagan had been stripping contained a sizable node of Jraskin. This particular ore was quite dense and generated a gravitational field in large quantities. A gravity field which they were now being steadily pulled into as the mechanical failure had directly affected the portside stabiliser, which had now failed entirely. ‘Cel, how long?’. ‘It will be approximately fifty three minutes before we are unable to escape the gravity field Miriam. After which we will suffer a fatal collision. Please hurry’. She jumped to her feet, causing the remainder of a cup of cold tea on the dashboard to go clattering across the room and leaving the contents splashed under her chair. Scowling, Mirry headed straight for the ladder to exit the room, snapping into her earpiece as she went, ‘Cel, bite your tongue’. The response was terse: ‘Miriam, I do not actually have a tongue to bite. Please remember to clean that up when you get back’.

Traversal of the Malagan was achieved through a series of tunnels that measured five feet high and 3 feet across, just large enough for most people to catapult themselves through unhindered in zero gravity. Mirry had no such advantage at present. Without knowing the extent of the damage she was not willing to risk turning the artificial gravity off, which necessitated an awkward clamber through the cramped access way to her objective. Pallid grey walls were the order of business for the mining vessel with warning signs and section notations marking the walls in bright yellow at intervals. Every ten feet a small overhead lamp glowed ponderously giving just enough light in order to provide full visibility for any bypasser without ensuring the full comfort of total illumination. At present Mirry was clambering through the main corridor that ran the length of the vessel from the bridge. This corridor further broke away at intervals into similarly proportioned capillaries denoted by sealed doors. The bridge was designated section A with the very rear of the ship designated E, each having its own numbered subsections like capillaries from a vein. Mirry Stopped outside C1 and unsealed the door with a button press. 

Inside was a room of tightly packed shelves containing various pieces of equipment and spare parts with a workbench covered in various detritus and scrap set against one of the walls. She grabbed a backpack hanging up next to the doorway with a toolkit already sequestered within and grabbed a replacement coupling from a set of shelves. D6 was a noticeably warm location and Mirry would need to work quickly. Stripping her black overalls to half way down her body she tied the sleeves around her waist leaving her upper body protected by only a black tank top. She also stripped a rubber band from one of the broken parts on the workbench and proceeded to tie back her neck length ginger curls. As ready as ever, she thought whilst climbing through the doorway, sealing it carefully behind her. The last thing she needed was a gravity failure sending equipment scattering throughout the ship. Mirry was already sweating when she arrived at D6. A triple beep in her ear instinctively sent her hand answering,‘Cel, how are we doing?’. ‘You have forty two minutes before the point of no return is reached Miriam. I see that you have reached D6. The coupling is located behind panel 11A4 at twelve feet down’. 

Mirry sighed, ‘Copy that. Remain on comms please Cel, I may need live intel’. There was no response. Taking this as an affirmative, she unsealed the doorway before her and was immediately battered with a blast of heat akin to a solar wind. Such was the ferocity of the heatwave that she had to step back into the main corridor and catch her breath before proceeding. ‘Miriam, is there an issue?’ Cel queried. Inhaling heavily she chimed back ‘Negative, just acclimating to the heat. I don’t recall it being this bad before. Is it due to the failure?. Cel’s replied swiftly, ‘Affirmative, the coupling failure has resulted in a temperature spike. The coupling itself also appears to be overheated. Please be careful as you work on it ’. Once more into the breach she mused as the door sealed shut behind her. The panel was indeed located twelve feet down as Cel had said. As soon as Mirry stooped down to examine it the heat emanating from within became extremely obvious. With a sigh of resignation she unsaddled her bag and went to work. Withdrawing the toolkit she halved the clam shell design on the ground and withdrew a socket wrench and a claw pliers. First were the bottom two nuts, then the top two. 

The oppressive heat was taking its toll now and the sweat on her hands caused a slip every few seconds, as well as the occasional slip of a swear. ‘Miriam, is everything under control?’ Cel asked over the earpiece. ‘It’s fine,’ Mirry barked back ‘I’m just trying not to die of heatstroke. Time?’. ‘Thirty three minutes’. The lack of panic in the A.I.’s voice was odd but comforting. Setting the last nut within the toolbox she reached for the handles on either side of the panel then suddenly withdrew. The temperature was blistering at this point and she had elected to not wear gloves in order to spare mobility as she worked. Instead, Mirry hooked both tools into the handle pieces and yanked hard. The panel came away immediately, however the thousand suns that greeted Mirry nearly knocked her out. Setting the panel on the floor face down she set her back against the opposite wall and used her overall sleeve to wipe the sweat from her face and the tears from her eyes. The coupling that linked the power conduit in this section and acted as a regulator was glowing slightly at the edges from the heat it was absorbing. Leaning forward she set her knees apart and grasped the coupling with the claw pliers at top and bottom, then pulled hard. There was no give. Instead her hands slipped from the handles and she tumbled back against the opposite wall. ‘SHIT,’ she roared ‘FUCKING TYPICAL’. Cel was quick to respond ‘Mirry, is everything alright? You have twenty minutes and thirty seven seconds remaining.’ She gritted her teeth before answering ‘I’m working on it, OK?’, then stalled and bleated out ‘Wait, did you just call me Mirry?’. ‘As repeatedly requested,’ Cel droned in return,’You appear to be in distress and I believed it would assist in calming you’. ‘Are you afraid that I might get us killed?’ Mirry laughed. 

It took a moment before Cel responded ‘Negative. I simply wish to keep you attentive’. ‘Fair enough,’ she scoffed ‘Hold one. I need to apply some force here’. Setting her back against the wall and her fists into the floor she then began kicking the broken device with the sole of her boot whilst blurting out a string of particularly vile expletives. After about 2 minutes of this repeated abuse there was a shifting movement beneath her foot and she withdrew, ignoring the pain now throbbing up her ankle. Reaching out once more with the claw pliers she set herself in place and pulled. This time the coupling gave way and absconded from the power line with a satisfying clank. Grinning, Mirry set it aside before once more using her overall sleeve to soak up the river that was now running down her face. Reaching into the bag she withdrew the spare coupling and moved to set it in place. Suddenly the entire section rocked violently from side to side, sending Mirry slamming against the opposite wall and the broken coupling ricocheting into her upper arm, causing her to let out a bloody scream of anguish as she rolled away from it. 

Looking down at where the red hot coupling had made contact she saw that it had left a long strip of raw blistered skin. Grinding her teeth together against the pain she screamed into the earpiece ‘CEL, WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!’.  Cel’s retort was concise ‘There was a sudden uptick in the strength of the gravity well due to proximity. We are running out of time. Are you injured?’. ‘Not significantly,’ Mirry responded with an exasperated sigh, ‘Give me a number’. ‘Eleven minutes’ Cel responded curtly. Nodding to herself she grabbed the replacement coupling off the ground, steadied herself once more and carefully slotted it into place, careful not to come into contact with the power line. As soon as the part was slotted in, a sudden thrumming began to bounce off the walls around her and CEL piped up on the earpiece ‘Well done Miriam. The gravity stabiliser is now fully functional and our descent has been stalled’. ‘I had you worried, didn’t I?’ She cooed into the microphone. ‘Miriam, please return to the bridge and see to any injuries before we proceed’ The A.I. answered tersely. Mirry rolled her eyes and set the panel back in place sealing in the nuts.

Returning to the bridge and getting out her first aid kit, Mirry deftly grabbed the tin cup from the floor and set it upon the dashboard. Having wrapped her wound she sat herself down and tapped the earpiece once more. ‘Yes Miriam?’ Cel intoned. ‘How may I assist?’. She threw her legs over the console ‘Hold space remaining?’. ‘At present it is twenty two percent’ Cel reeled off. Grinning, Mirray bounced back ‘Alright then better get back to work’. ‘Understood’. ‘Oh, and Cel?’. ‘Yes Miriam?’. ‘Stop fucking well calling me that please’. Mirry almost heard him sigh.