Eye of the Needle: A Paradisi Short by Bill Patterson

Author:Bill Patterson [Patterson, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PMOArgus Press
Published: 2017-06-29T18:30:00+00:00

* * *

The lights went out, and plasma discharges arced through the close confines of the Control Bridge. Something flashed past the windows, and muted thuds from Topside spoke of disaster there.

“Status!” shouted Gus, above the brief roar of automatic extinguishers operating inside the electrical panels.

“Unknown, sir!” said Mai Izumi. “Position unchanged, we are not maneuvering.”

“Comms out throughout the ship,” said Nishikawa.

Emergency lighting cut in, a dim red light filling those spaces far from the sunlight streaming in the windows.

Gus ran over to the electrical panel, felt the metal cover carefully, and pried it open. The circuit breakers were all thrown. There was some soot, but it did not look like there had been a fire. He located the section powering communications and slowly engaged the breakers, one at a time.

“That did it, sir!” said Nishikawa, and bent to the task of collating damage reports. “Engineering on the line, sir. Topside still out.”

“Machiko, get into the Ready Room and suit up. Get Topside and tell me what's going on.” Machiko Ozaki jumped up from her position at an engineering console and raced to the Ready Room door. She looked carefully at the gauges, especially the small latex balloon, before undogging the hatch and stepping inside.

“Koji,” said Gus into his communicator. “What's going on down there?”

Engineering Chief Hirano's soot-stained face appeared on the small monitor. “I was going to ask you what was going on up there! Looks like we got a massive static discharge through the tow cable. Reactor's fine, it's isolated anyway, but the Peltier converters all blew their breakers. Two are fused and worthless, but I can give you two thirds power in ten minutes. We're on batteries, about fifteen minutes of power at this level. Try not to turn anything else on.”

“Captain, Machiko here. Everyone's down up here.” Machiko's voice faltered. “I count five suits.”

“Who's missing?” Gus's heart started pounding. Knew it. Knew it.

“Looking now. Shorter seems to be coming around.”

“Hurry! Before they fall out of range!” Not her. Please, not Yuai. Gus shook himself. “Nishikawa! Anything on the suit radios?”

“Scanning. Nothing, sir. Just breathing and a little moaning.”

“Put that channel on speaker. Kishizuna calling Topside crew. Count off!”

“Shorter. I was furthest away.”

“Away from what?” Gus wanted to swarm down the microphone up into Michael's suit and shake him.

“Machiko, sir. It's Yuai.” Machiko's voice sobbed. “Her tether looks like it melted.”

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