Extra-Vehicular Activity

by alamais

In The Black

high-speed transport ‘The Fennel Frond’

crew: 6 Equus biosapients + XK-class automatics

mission: transport envoy and attendants to diplomatic talks

course: cepheus system, 323 ly out

---

Complete nothingness. Not sleeping, not dreaming, not sitting with your eyes closed—just a complete lack of sensation. No sound, no smell, not even the taste of your own tongue. No limbs, no breath, no heartbeat. Cut off. Can't run can't scream can't—

Your lungs seize, and you can feel again.

Coughing, each breath drawing in a hint of smoke and a heavy tang of ozone. It takes a few minutes for your lungs to adjust, your body violently objecting to the air as you cling to the side of the open stasis pod. Finally, you open your eyes, blinking tears away.

The only lighting is the dim, red-tinted stuff coming from emergency lights. There's still a hint of smoke. Oh, and that panel over there wasn't sparking when you went under, was it? Yeah, that's not right. What the hay happened?

You pull yourself more upright, and croak out, "T-Twilight? …Anypony? What happened?"

No response.

You heave yourself out of the pod, dropping to the floor and spreading your wings to stabilize yourself on your still-shaky legs. You've never felt so bad after stasis—this must have been a fast wakeup. A shudder passes through your chest, and you stagger as you hack up a blob of something awful, spitting it to the side.

"Rainbow dear, please. Do try to keep a modicum of poise here, despite the situation." The voice is a synthesized reproduction, but still recognizable.

"Rarity!" You look up, towards one of the sensor eyes in the upper corners of the room. "What the hay is going on?"

"Can't hear you, love. You'll have to go to the comm panel in your section and connect manually—the automatics are a mess."

You pace over to the appropriate panel, and wake it up. It initializes to a ship status report, and you wince at the red-covered diagram. A few taps bring up the ship-wide emergency chat channel.

"Rainbow Dash, finally! Are you okay?"

"H-hey Twi." You cough again. "I guess, but the air's really bad in here."

"Drat." A pause, then she sighs. "I'm afraid it's the best we can do right now. Our hooves are tied until Rarity gets more of the automated repair drones back online. Fluttershy's coordinating a bunch of marginal life-support systems, and just barely keeping any air at all going to you and Pinkie Pie. Everyone else is still in command-level stasis, working through drones and magic."

Your butt hits the floor as you ask, "What the hay happened, Twi?"

"I don't know yet." Another sigh. "We hit…something, and it collapsed our void bubble—violently. Even with the inertial dampeners in the stasis pods, we're lucky we weren't pulverized."

"Ugh." You rub your face. "Must have done a number on the ship."

"It's bad. I doubt she'll ever be truly flightworthy again, and right now we don't even have a beacon. The emergency beacon was sheared off by a gravitational discontinuity, and the backups and mains are all lacking power."

"Crud." A frown draws over your face. "Wait, then why wake me up? I'm no engineer—you should have AJ or Rares helping Pinkie out!"

"Having Applejack would help, yes, but her section has a breach right to vacuum. She's stuck in her pod. You're also the only one whose pod got completely disconnected from your command interface, and I wasn't about to leave you in the dark."

A shiver crawls up your mane, as you remember the sensory deprivation. "Oh, that's what that was." How long were you even in there? "Yeah…thanks."

"Mhmm," Twilight says, sounding distracted. "Okay, so, your section isn't survival-essential, but that just means we can tear some parts out of it for the others. Ready to get to work?"

"Sure thing!" you say, standing up. "Uh, just…Twi?"

"Yes?"

"Just make sure I don't disable the lights in here, okay?"

"Of course."

You stand, and start following your friends' directions. Under your breath, you mutter, "Let's all go on this diplomatic trip! We'll get together, have a few laughs…"

Comments

[Kadigan]

XK-class automatics

That's some hefty automatics, eh?

Why does this remind me of SCP, now?
Yes, yes, I know, XK-class scenarios.