"Make sure to aim your
jump carefully, Lieutenant," Jensen said. "You miss that port
and—"
"—I'll bounce off
and end up floating around the docking bay until I can maneuver back to Odyssey,
or be rescued?"
Jensen gasped.
"Right."
"How tall is this
docking port, Lieutenant Commander?"
"One thousand
meters."
—Great. Aaen thought.
"Also, keep in
mind: there's no atmosphere in here. Your helmet gets damaged, your suit will
depressurize in under two minutes."
"Any more good
news?" Aaen said.
"Just reach that
hatch, Lieutenant."
"Copy."
"Just jump!"
said the Captain.
Aaen took three deep,
paced breaths—focusing on the destination barely visible. "One. . .two.
. ." DO IT!
Aaen disengaged his
suit's magnetic boots, slowly crouched, and then quickly pushed against
the Odyssey's hull.
"I can't feel
the Odyssey's hull under my feet!"
"You're floating
towards the hatch! You're on target!—" Jensen shouted.
"Calm down,
Lieutenant!" said the Captain.
Wide-eyed, Aaen remained
focused on the hatch, looking through the edge of the face shield and the neck
support on the back of the helmet. Aaen found his breathing pace had nearly
doubled in the last two seconds. C'mon—c'mon! C'mmmon! His
heart started pounding. He could hear himself breathing more loudly with each
passing second.
Fifteen hundred meters.
. .
One
thousand meters. . .
Eight
hundred meters. . .
"Stay calm,
Lieutenant. You're almost there! Arms out!—"
Duh! I remember my
training! Don't quote to me what I already know!
Five-hundred-meters!. .
.
TWO-HUNDRED-METERS!
The hatch's side hand
grips were more visible now. Aaen reached both arms forward, fingers
extended. Port-side! Port-side!
FIFTY-METERS!
"You got
it?" Jensen asked.
TEN-METERS!
"Ugh!" Aaen
hit the hatch face-first. Aaen gasped, recoiling violently, fingertips scraping
the edge of the hatch. Aaen continued to gasp, feeling himself drifting away
from the hatch. He snapped, reached out with his left hand.
"Did you make it to
the hatch?" asked Communications.
Aaen took two deep
breaths before responding. "I made it!"
The rest of the away
team followed like a game of barrel of monkeys until the away team was safely
surrounding the mouth of the hatch.
"Move aside,
Lieutenant. I'll open the hatch. Away team, remember: main power is still
offline. The only light is going to come from your helmet mounts. Those lights
aren't going to light up more than ten or fifteen feet in front of you,
depending on how dark it is in certain areas of the Starbase. Stay
calm. Stay together."
"Uh. .d'. . .d'you
really thing there's Borg on the Starbase? What if they've
assimilated everyone on the Starbase? What'f
they're waiting for us?" said Sensors.
"Stay calm,"
Aaen said. "We need to get inside and investigate before we can assess
what's happened, or who or what's responsible. Take a few slow, deep breaths.
Stay with the group. We'll be fine." Let's hope.
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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