Home > A Complicated Love Story Set in Space(3)

A Complicated Love Story Set in Space(3)
Author: Shaun David Hutchinson

“Right,” I said. “I can definitely maybe do this.”

“That’s the spirit!”

“And if I can’t, then we both die in a fiery explosion and it won’t matter anyway.”

 

 

THREE


I DIDN’T WANT TO DIE, even though I might have said I did.

Look, I was dealing with some stuff, okay? I was walking home in the rain with a milkshake in one hand and a bag of Dick’s burgers in the other, and some oblivious ass in an SUV, who was too busy texting to be bothered with paying attention to the road, rolled through the crosswalk and nearly hit me. Yes, I lost my temper. Yes, I threw my milkshake at him as he shrugged and drove off. Yes, I yelled, “Why don’t you just kill me next time?!” at the sky and started to cry, while strangers on the other side of 45th pretended not to stare. It’s not like I actually meant it.

After that, I gave the burgers to the homeless guy who was always hanging around the bus stop, went home, and crawled into bed. But, honestly, I hadn’t been serious about wanting to die, and I hoped that whoever was out there making those decisions understood that I’d just been having a really bad day.

Not that this day was turning out much better. Though, I supposed if I managed to make it back into the ship without suffocating, I’d count it as a win.

I trudged along Qriosity’s hull, following the path on my hud, taking careful, measured steps like I was crossing a tightrope over a pit of vipers. It was eerie not hearing anything outside of my own breathing inside the suit. I could feel the impact of my boots attaching to the metal hull, and my brain expected to hear the sound of each step and didn’t know what to do when it didn’t. It left me feeling unsettled and anxious.

Adding to my disquietude was that I couldn’t see much of the ship beyond the globe of light radiating from my suit. The path on my hud disappeared into the darkness, and it could have led me right over the edge and I wouldn’t have known until it was too late.

“How’s it going with the reactor?” I asked when the silence began to get to me. It had probably only been thirty seconds since I’d last heard DJ’s voice, but it felt like forever.

“I’m not real sure yet.”

“That’s not reassuring.”

DJ’s sigh carried through the speakers inside the helmet, bringing his weariness along with it. “I don’t know this computer, so I’m going through everything hoping I find something that says ‘shut down reactor.’ ”

“Sounds fun. Trade you?”

“Does it make me weird if I would?” he asked.

“A little,” I said. “I don’t know why you would want to be out here, though. Every step might be the one that sends me hurtling off the hull into space, where I’d slowly suffocate and die in the icy embrace of the frigid void.”

DJ hesitated a moment before saying, “I’d still do it. I always wanted to be an astronaut when I got older.”

“How old are you?”

“Sixteen,” he said.

I stumbled. I threw my arms out to steady myself, but that was pointless in a zero-G environment. Thankfully, my mag boots held their grip. It still took me a second to regain my balance.

“Noa?”

“You’re sixteen?”

“Yeah, but—”

“So am I.” I should have been moving, following the path to the coolant conduit, but finding out DJ was my age had shaken me. “Don’t you think that’s messed up? Who the hell kidnaps a couple of sixteen-year-olds and sticks them on a spaceship?” My voice rose an octave and cracked.

“Everything about this is unusual,” DJ said. “I don’t think us being sixteen is more or less weird than the rest of it.”

Maybe DJ was right, but that didn’t stop my brain from spinning. “Why us?” I asked. “And why here? What do they want from us, and how come I can’t remember how I got into this damned suit?”

DJ’s voice was like a soothing hand between my shoulders. “Whoa there, Noa. Slow down.” His words cut through the anger and fear. “I want answers too, but we’ll never get any if we blow up.”

It was terrifying logic, but it made sense. I needed to move. I focused on putting one foot in front of the other, marching toward my destination. “Hey, DJ?” I asked. “Where are you from?”

“Small town in Florida called Calypso. You’ve probably never heard of it.”

I hadn’t. “Is everything people say about Floridians true? Do you ride alligators to rob banks and whatever?”

“Heck yeah,” DJ said, though he sounded a little distracted. “You’re not a true Floridian until you’ve committed at least one stupid crime from the back of a gator.”

Anyone who could crack jokes while the specter of death hung over them was okay by me. “So what do you really do?” The path on my hud finally reached an endpoint a couple of meters ahead. “Wait, don’t tell me. You’re a surfer. You’ve got a perfect tan, a sunburned nose, and blond hair because you spend as much time as possible catching waves in the ocean.”

Up close, this section of the hull looked similar to everything else I’d passed. I saw nothing to distinguish it from the rest. But my hud had me kneel in front of an access panel and then offered up a helpful set of instructions. Step one: Open the panel.

“You got the blond hair right,” DJ said, “but I’m about as white as Wonder Bread, and I definitely don’t surf.”

“How do you live in Florida but you don’t surf? Isn’t that against the law?”

“Don’t know how to swim.” DJ sounded a bit sheepish. I kept trying to picture what he looked like, but he remained a pale, blond blob in my mind.

I opened the panel and immediately spotted the problem. “Damn.”

“What?” DJ asked.

“You should see this pipe,” I said. “The thing’s as big around as my thigh, and thick, too, but it’s got a raggedy hole in one side. Looks like it was burned with acid or something.”

“Can you fix it?”

My hud had outlined a pouch attached to my belt, and the instructions told me that the next step was to smooth the surface of the conduit before applying the sealant patch. In the pouch, I found a sponge-shaped object with a side that was rough like sandpaper. “Yeah,” I said. “I think I can.”

“You sound like you believe it.”

“I guess I do.” I started grinding down the rough edges around the hole in the conduit. I didn’t know anything about DJ, other than that he didn’t know how to swim, but I was grateful that he was on the other end of the line to talk to. I tried to picture Becca in the reactor room, and no. She would’ve demanded to speak to the manager and then probably set the place on fire. And Billy?

Nope. Billy was the last person I wanted to think about.

“What about you?” DJ asked. “Where’re you from?”

“Seattle.”

“Guess that means we weren’t abducted from the same city.”

“We weren’t even on the same side of the country,” I muttered. “Wait. When you say ‘abducted,’ do you mean by aliens?”

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)
» The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash #4)