The Furnace by Timothy S. Johnston

Author:Timothy S. Johnston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

Part Four: Amplification

Investigator’s Log: Lieutenant Kyle Tanner,

Security Division, Homicide Section, CCF

As soon as Bram and Brick escaped, I knew we were in major shit. I should have anticipated it, dammit. I’d suspected the nanos were in Brick—his blood sample in the life-support module should have made that obvious to me. And Bram? I’d known they had infected him too. And yet because Rickets had taken my pistol, the two had escaped.

It was the beginning of the end of the investigation, and of the station.

I was now on my second spare oxygen bottle; only eight hours remained. I had managed to shield myself from the radiation, though not completely. I continued to cough up blood, but there were no new symptoms. I was pleased about that.

But I was still going to die.

I had finally managed to convert my comm to a unidirectional transmitter, but I still had no idea where Mercury was. I didn’t even know the comm’s range.

My current velocity was three kilometers per second. I had launched myself from SOLEX using the mass driver some seven hours earlier. After a quick calculation in my head, I figured I had traveled 75,600 kilometers. And how far away was Mercury? Sixty million kilometers. I wasn’t going nearly fast enough. And there was no way my comm signal was going to make it that far without breaking up into unintelligible static.

Eight hours of oxygen left. A weak unidirectional comm. Maybe if I could amplify the signal. But where could I get more power? The comm drew a steady amount from the suit, and if I increased it much more, it would most likely burn out. Maybe I could add a bit more without causing too much damage...

What were the other power drains on my vacsuit? Life support, of course. The fans and cooling unit. Maybe if I took power from those, I could funnel it to the communit. I would have to be careful, but it was an option. Maybe my last one. If I shut down the suit’s life support, however, how long could I last? Maybe ten minutes, max. The sun would broil me alive.

I hit on a sudden idea: what if I turned off the life support and funneled extra power into the communit for only a minute at a time? Then restart the suit’s essential systems to keep me from burning up, then wait five minutes and repeat the process.

It might actually work. It was impossible to know for sure how far the transmission would get, but I had to try. There were no other options.

I started to work on the suit controls, and as I did so, continued to record my story. I had to get it finished before the end, which was coming awfully fast.

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