27 Minutes Earlier...
Prism Dash grunted a 'hello' to one of her associates as she trotted up the steps to the space center's mission control building. A giant wall of glass and steel marked the entrance to the famous building, the afternoon sun glinting off it in a way that demanded she squint her eyes. Stepping through the doors she came across a large central desk and dozens of doors off to both sides. Moving with purpose, she trotted down one of the many adjacent hallways towards the 'original' mission control.
Mission control was, in actuality, home to a number of rooms calling themselves mission control. The space program in recent years had grown to such sizes that one room was not enough. Now the ESA's hundreds of missions and assets were split up between half a dozen control rooms. The stuff in orbit around Equestria proper was enough to demand a dedicated room all to itself. Despite all this allocating, the very first mission control room remained as a place for the highest ranking members to keep an eye on the grand scheme of things, although very few missions reported directly to it.
Down the hall, round the corner, round another corner, and through a set of double doors was Prism's destination. She smiled to herself as she found herself in a room akin to a giant theater, with computers and chairs lining each level up and up towards a glass-encased room in the very back. The exact opposite wall was dominated with massive computer screens projecting all sorts of maps and data that only someone like her could hope to decipher. She was not here for any of that though; instead she clutched a wrapped object close to her chest as she made her way up the steps to the control booth where a certain somepony was said to be right now.
"Hey hey, Prism! Fancy seeing you here," a cream-colored earth pony stallion spoke up as Prism entered the control booth.
"Afternoon, Skywatch," Prism smiled. "And you Reverie," she added, turning to the bat pony at Skywatch's flank. "Glad to see you're back on the ground in one piece."
Reverie scoffed. "Please, I'm only here per doctor's orders. I'd still be up there if it weren't for silly things such as 'maximum cosmic radiation dose'."
Prism chuckled. "Well I hope the doctor didn't say anything about your drinking habits. Figured I'd bring a little something to celebrate your first day back in months," she said, jiggling the wrapped box in her hooves.
"Ah, about time I get to taste some real booze again," Reverie grinned.
As the present exchanged hooves, Prism turned to Skywatch. "So, what've you got on the roster this evening?"
Skywatch yawned. "Whole bunch of routine. Crew transfer to Canterhorn station soon, Draconequus arrived at Polaris station about an hour ago. Got a satellite at Thraxis to deorbit as well. Not much, but I've still been going since early this morning."
"Heh, that's what we all signed up for, huh? Anything I can stay around to watch, I did just come all this way..."
"Yeah, that deorbit should be happening any moment now, let me pull it up on the screen."
Skywatch tapped away at a nearby computer, bringing up a screen showing some orbital lines around a massive red-brown circle, and lines of data being vomited in a separate tab every second. The trio watched with mild interest as one of the orbits labelled 'TOM' turned red and began shrinking before their eyes.
"Thraxis Orbiter Mission...how long has that been up there?" Prims wondered.
"Two or three decades now, surprised it took this long to decommission it," Reverie commented.
"Hang on, something's up," muttered Skywatch as the orbit stopped shrinking sooner than expected. "Hey Weaver, what's up with TOM?" he yelled at the ground crew below.
A black-haired mare looked up towards the control booth. "That's all the delta V we have boss! Propellant's probably gone stale after all those years!" she yelled back.
Skywatch groaned. "Ah well, it still intersects the atmosphere, it might just take another orbit to..." his voice trailed off as he noticed something on the screen. A moment later his eyes shrunk to pinpricks. "Oh no," he whispered.
Reverie frowned. "Uhhh, something the matter?"
Skywatch turned to face her, a grim look on his face. "The new orbit intersects Polaris station. High likelihood of a collision. WEAVER! Transmission delay to Thraxis?" he yelled again.
"Little over half an hour boss!"
Skywatch, Prism, and Reverie all stared in abject horror at a tiny set of specific numbers displayed on the screen: 26:37, 26:36, 26:35, and counting.
=====
"Nngghh..."
When Starry came to, the first thing she noticed was the hissing. The second was the splitting headache, and the third was the fact she couldn't see out of one eye.
It didn't take long to put it all together. Horrified, Starry's good eye settled on the metal spike that had punctured her helmet and jammed into her left eye. Small beads of crimson floated around her helmet, some drawn to the spiderweb of fractures in the helmet's glass, which accounted for the hissing of air leaving her suit. Oh fuuuuck... An absolute doozy of a feeling washed over her as she realized just how ungodly lucky she was her helmet hadn't shattered. Although given her current situation, maybe a relatively quick death would've been preferable.
As the gravity of her predicament kicked in, Starry took a deep breath and screamed. "OH SWEET FUCKING CELESTIA I'M GONNA DIIIIIIE!" she wailed, kicking and screaming for several seconds until the little pony in her head reminded her this would just use up her air faster.
"Dammit dammit, dammit! Not like this. C'mon Star, you're still alive..." For now... As adrenaline kicked in, Starry forced herself to take a few deep, shuddering breaths, and began to take stock of the situation. She was floating around in space, Celestia knows how far from the station, which had just suffered a collision AND an explosion, with one good eye left, and her suit punctured and leaking air. None of this was good, but that seemed to be the worst of it. Now, what to do to start improving her situation...
"Ok uhhh, air, yeah. Please tell me there's something," she told herself, rifling through the tool belt built into her suit. She hadn't needed to so far, but she knew it was there, and could potentially hold something she needed. Finding only tools, she was about to despair until she pulled back something labeled 'Puncture Repair Kit'. "Ohhh thank you Celestia, they really do think of everything..."
Inside was a set of white, adhesive patches, instructions printed on each individual one. Following them to the tee, she prepared the synthetic patches one by one and carefully applied them to the area around her helmet puncture. It was clumsy work, and at one point she bumped the metal spike on accident, causing her to howl with pain as she felt the result deep inside her skull. Blinking through tears in her other eye, she forced herself to apply more until the faint hissing disappeared. Half of her helmet was now covered in the white square patches, but with one eye left it wasn't obscuring much anyway.
Starry released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Okay...that's one thing going my way now. Bring a hoof up, she lifted a cover on the hardsuit to expose a small screen with some basic info on it. "36 minutes of air...better than I thought," she told herself, trying not to think about the digital gauge telling her that was less than a fifth of its normal capacity. She stared at the screen until she noticed a different, more sobering reading. "No fuel remaining? But...how," she mumbled, looking behind her.
On the back of the hardsuit was a small squarish backpack containing fuel, some thrusters, and other equipment. A small part of hers was no longer there, having been sheared through by a piece of metal and cutting just deep enough to empty the fuel tanks. "Ohh no no no no, you're telling me I'm gonna FUCKING DRIFT TO MY DEATH OUT HERE?" she screamed, despair once again washing over her. She sobbed quietly to herself as she slowly drifted away, watching the station shrink from her view.
"H-hey, is this Starry's channel? Starry you there?"
Starry froze, hearing her headset crackle. The voice was faint and fuzzy, but not unintelligible. "Whah? Yeah, YEAH! I'm here!" she yelled, waiting in tense silence for a response. Seconds passed. No response. "Hello? B-but I...oh right I'm an idiot, the microphone." Starry floundered for the button to switch it back on, hoping that hadn't been severed as well. "H-hey you still there? I'm here!"
"Oh thank Celestia, you're alright," the voice huffed. "Where are you?"
"Floating away into the abyss," she laughed grimly. "No fuel, and barely any air left."
"WHAT, r-really? Shit shit shit, you're kidding me."
"Afraid not. Who is this anyway, I can barely hear you."
"Oh uh, it's Wind."
Starry sighed. "Glad you're alright at least. What about the others? Chart? What about the station? What in Celestia's name even happened?" she fired, voice growing steadily more frantic.
"Mint and Countdown are here with me. Whole station is basically huddled up in the living quarters. No sign of Chart. As far as we know something collided with the station and now half of it's destroyed or depressurized."
Starry felt her throat seize up with every word. It took a few shaky breaths before she could respond. "That's...fuck," she mumbled. "Can you guys come get me somehow?"
"Uh, we would," he was quick to respond, "but uhh, we're still trying to figure out the situation and find some spare suits. It...might be tight," he hesitated to say.
"I...see," she replied slowly, quietly despairing. I'm on my own here, aren't I?
"Hey, hey Starry, how far out from the station are you?" a new voice asked, though she still couldn't tell who.
"Uhhh." Starry looked around. It was hard to gauge, but the station still filled her field of view. "Hundred meters maybe? Why-"
"Ok ok good, do you have any heavy objects on you?"
"I...think? Who is this anyway, what are you getting at?"
The voice snickered. "It's Countdown. Star, don't you remember Neighton's third law?"
All of a sudden it came back to her. All the way back in grade school it was taught to her, but it was pushed to the back of her mind until she went through astronaut training. There it had been drilled into her mind again, but with no need to apply it, her mind once again shelved it. Until now. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction," she muttered, realization dawning on her.
Ignoring the subsequent chatting in her earpiece, Starry's hooves rushed to her toolbelt and grabbed the first thing they touched: a flashlight. She checked behind her at the station, and after triangulating her position in her head, she drew her hoof back and threw the light with all her might.
The effect was immediate. Starry whooped with joy as she felt herself start to slowly tumble backwards, and she turned to see the station inching ever so slowly towards her for once. Yes yes yes, keep it up! she told herself, retrieving another object: a welder. She considered the object for a second, figured this was a better use of it, and tossed it as well. Her rotation sped up, but so did her trajectory toward the station.
"I take it you figured it out?" Countdown's voice crackled.
"Y-yeah!" Starry yelled excitedly. "I'm floating back now!"
"Ah, phew, finally some good news."
A different voice chimed in. "Hey Star, it's Mint. I know you probably have bigger problems right now, but it would help us a lot if you could get eyes on what happened out there."
Starry pursed her lips, checking her readings again. Down to 29 minutes of air. "Uhhh, probably," she muttered.
"We're gonna go dark and try to help out here, "Wind said, "but I'll keep this radio on me if you need or find anything. Good luck Starry."
"Yeah, sure. Love you guys," she replied, just before the radio cut out. She was left alone in deafening silence, nothing to do except watch the station draw closer.
=====
"At least these still work," Starry muttered, relief washing over her as her magboots contacted and firmly connected with part of the station. She found herself below it, in a nest of antennas, exposed wires, pipes, and maintenance hatches. She had barely found a big enough sheet of metal to place her hooves. Throwing objects until she was back where she wanted to be was wildly inaccurate, but she thanked her lucky stars she didn't miss her goal completely.
Her eye still stung, worse than before now that she'd calmed herself down and some of the adrenaline had worn off. The pain was a constant sharpness that refused to get better, even if the bleeding had stopped. Like having something in her eye, only a thousand times worse. For now all she could do was try to bear it and get back to an airlock in one piece. Having such a massive blind spot was just as annoying as the pain, but at least she'd be coming up on familiar territory soon.
Now with room to breathe (19 minutes of it exactly), she let herself hang there and formulate a plan. Okay, I don't know anything about the station's layout from outside, but I saw the Draconequus parked to my right,maybe twenty meters. If I can get over there, maybe the airlock's still working. It's close to where they want me to look anyway. It being near the site of the impact didn't fill her with much hope that everything still worked, but it was the best she had right now. With a glance around to get her bearings, she put one hoof in front of the other and started making her way over.
Slowly but surely Starry made her way towards the edge, and peeked up and over. The station's side was now apparent; a mostly featureless wall. Pressurized tubes and struts jutted out towards the hull of the Draconequus, sitting there mostly unharmed. Her eye drifted down towards the fuel tanks. The hose was still attached, floating limply. There were several gashes in it and the tanks as she peered closer, and a cloud of gaseous hydrogen hung in the area immediately surrounding it. She gulped, wondering what other destruction awaited her if the ship was in this bad a state.
Like a ping-pong ball she kicked off, bouncing herself off the girders, walls, and parts of the ship as she moved towards her goal. A thought entered her mind as she saw the ship's gravity ring sitting there motionless, and diverted her course for it, grabbing onto the outside of it. Shimmying her way up towards a better vantage point, Starry finally turned around and surveyed the damage.
To say the part of the station she had been near was destroyed would be an understatement; it looked straight up disintegrated. Through the clouds of gas and shards of metal floating about, she could make out a gaping hole in part of the station, its guts exposed. The power had cut out, but it looked like it was a cargo room. Debris was everywhere inside, chunks of pallets and crates drifting out into the void. Beyond it was where the station's fuels were stored, though there wasn't much left of that. Few tanks remained intact, most of them disintegrated or clearly blown apart. There was an odd, faint glow below it all, but she didn't have a good enough view to see it, and the sight was distressing enough already. She moved to turn on her radio and report what she found, until an unnatural movement caught her eye.
Starry squinted, looking down at the spot near the destroyed cargo bay where she noticed it. It was hard to make out amongst the shadows, but when it moved again she was sure of its location. Part of her wanted to ignore it, mentally write it off as a trick of the light so she could be clear in her goal of getting out of here, but that idea didn't sit right with her. She needed to investigate. With a glance at her hardsuit screen (15 minutes of air), she kicked off towards it.
As she drifted closer, Starry managed to make out finer details from what little light shined on it. It glinted in the light with a gold color, and when she got even closer she noticed a distinct pattern and...Wait...that's a pony!
Starry balked. It was a hardsuit, clear as day, and the movements had to be from somepony operating it. She grabbed hold of the nearest object and let it stop her movement so she could stay frozen and watch it. When the figure turned around, she nearly gasped.
Chart Topper's red eyes immediately met hers, and grew wide. A moment later he smiled, and Starry felt herself do the same. She waved and quickly floated over. Chart motioned for her to come closer, until he suddenly lurched forward and touched his helmet to hers.
"Well I'm glad to see you're in one piece...mostly," Chart chuckled. His voice was faint, but Starry could feel it reverberating through her helmet just enough to be legible.
Starry sighed deeply. "As am I," she replied, raising her voice as she realized how this was working. In the absence of a radio, she'd been taught pressing helmets together was enough to carry sound waves in an emergency situation. "The others are alright inside the station, but none of them saw you, so..."
"Good to hear," Chart said, glancing to his side. "Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm sure you noticed we have some rather huge problems on our hooves. Until you came along I figured i was the only one trying to make sense of it."
Starry grimaced. "Yeah, no shit. Something collided with the station, saw it myself, and then a moment later it all just kinda...exploded."
Chart muttered something inaudible before raising his voice again. "Star, what's your radio frequency? If it still works we need to trot and talk here, I'm gonna need your help."
"Uhh, 103.5," she replied. Chart pulled back and dialed something into his hardsuit screen before switching something on his helmet.
"Can you hear me?" his voice came through in stunning clarity. Starry nodded, switched hers on, and told her hardsuit to connect to Chart's frequency.
"Loud and clear, how's this?"
"Perfect," Chart replied, immediately turning around and heading towards something. "Okay listen, whatever hit the station didn't just tear through the bay and fuel tanks, it also clipped the station's reactor."
Starry felt dread wash over her. "You mean?"
"Yes, we have an exposed nuclear reactor core just a few meters below us. I think a hot chunk of fissile material is what set off that explosion as well." Chart settled on a chunk of twisted metal. Starry could see the glow from before below them, and her suit produced a faint ticking.
"What do we do about it?"
"Well the vacuum of space will cool it eventually, but that's not the problem. That thing is pouring forth a ridiculous amount of radiation right now. The station's shielding isn't meant to handle that much. It'll slowly irradiate anypony close enough and fry the station's electronics so we won't be able to call for help. One of us has to find a way to eject it."
Starry said nothing, instead slowly peering over the edge towards the glow. As the ticking in her suit grew louder and more frequent, she pulled herself back and it faded. "How do you propose we...do this..."
Chart sighed. "That's the question, ain't it? There's a way to purge it if you get up close, if you can stand the thought of being horribly irradiated in the process. I don't recommend that and I wouldn't let you anyway."
Starry glanced around at the pieces of shattered station around her. "Isn't there a way to purge it without getting that close?"
"Yes, that's what I've been trying to find, but it's damn near impossible to tell if it's still here with half the room missing."
While Chart went back to searching, Starry checked her air once more. An agonizing 12 minutes remained. Chart would understand if I went back...but then I'd basically be out of action with the station slowly dying anyway. She bit her lip. As long as I have air, I can help...
As she pondered her predicament, Starry noticed a sizable chunk of station plating drift near her. Irregularly shaped, with frayed edges, blackened from the explosion, and not much bigger than her, it nevertheless gave her an idea. "Hey Chart...station walls are lead lined, right? For cosmic radiation?"
"Yes, what are you..." Chart turned to look in her direction, his eyes falling on the piece of metal Starry was inspecting with a hoof. "You're damn crazy."
"Do you have a better idea?" she gulped. "I forgot to mention, but I'm kinda running out of air here."
From what she could see through his helmet, Chart was visibly conflicted. His body remained rigid for a few seconds, until he audibly sighed. "Well...it will help a little. If you think you can get there in time," he sounded uncertain, but Starry could tell he didn't have any better options.
With his help, Starry grabbed the chunk of shielding and maneuvered it into a position they calculated was right in front of the open core. With a deep breath, she floated down, her heart rate spiking as her built-in geiger counter did the same. Though much less than before, she wasn't about to waste any time. Firmly planting her magboots on the makeshift shield, she immediately kicked off.
Starry had no way to see where she was going, all she could do was trust she was en route to the core, and would only know when she hit it or floated past. Sure enough the ticking in her suit intensified, growing louder and more frequent as she neared her goal. She did her best to block it out, focusing instead on the walls of the partially destroyed engine room.
Within seconds the ticking was no longer distinct, just a constant buzzing sound in her ear. To her horror, she began to notice a faint metallic taste in her mouth. Don't think about it, just hurry up. We have the technology to treat radiation poisoning, just don't stick around long enough to get cancer...
With her left eye out of action, Starry didn't notice the pipe sticking out of the ceiling. Her makeshift shield clipped it, and all of a sudden she felt herself lurch and partially change course. Feeling herself turn, she glanced to her right and felt her stomach drop as she was met with the sickly orange glow of the exposed reactor core staring right at her.
"NO NO NO, FUCK!" she screamed, her own panicked cries barely drowning out the sound of her geiger counter completely losing it. She frantically tried to bring the shield to bear to cover her again, but it was heavy and she had no way of controlling it without working thrusters. Abandoning all reason, she flung herself at the core, frantically glancing around for something, anything that might put an end to this. There were easily dozens of labeled buttons and levers, and she knew there was no time to read them all. As she began to sweat from the warmth of the radiation attacking her body, her eyes fell upon a large red lever. Encased in glass that had been shattered from the collision, bold yellow text marked it as 'EMERGENCY CORE DUMP'. She didn't think twice as she grabbed it and pulled with all her might.
Starry clung on for dear life, hoping desperately it did something. Only when she noticed her geiger counter dying away did she finally dare to open her eye and gaze at the place where the core once was. She looked down and saw an orange light rapidly growing dimmer. With a long, shuddering sigh she let her body go limp and drift aimlessly until Chart's voice brought her back. "Holy shit Star, are you okay?"
Starry wearily raised a hoof to her headset switch. "I think I'll be lucky if I survive the month, much less have foals...but the core's out."
Chart muttered something about her being crazy. "That's good to hear. Are you gonna be alright?"
Starry waited for her heart to stop pounding before swallowing deeply. "I...p-probably, yeah. What's next?"
"I was going to go inspect the Draconequus, see if it's in ship shape in case we need to evacuate. If you need to head to an airlock you should, but before you do that can you call up someone inside the station and see if they need anything?"
In the excitement, Starry had almost forgotten to report her findings back to her friends. At least with the core dumped she'd have some good news to go along with it. Switching her radio frequency, she opened her mouth. "Mint? Countdown? Wind? You guys still there?"
Mint's voice came back, sounding a lot clearer given Starry's much closer proximity to the station. "Star? You good? What's the situation out there?"
Starry glanced around the remnants of the station around her. "I'm still breathing. Something collided with the station near the cargo section, wiped it out and half of engineering. The reactor core was exposed so I had to dump it—" Mint briefly interjected with a "you WHAT?!" while Starry continued, "—Chart's here with me, I found him in a hardsuit trying to make sense of this as well. You?"
Mint remained quiet for a second. "That's...wow. How's Chart doing?"
"Ask him yourself, his frequency is uhhh, 101," Starry replied. "Listen, I'm running low on air here and we're trying to do everything we can to help, what's the situation in there?"
Mint's voice turned grim.. "I don't want you to panic too much, but from what I've seen and heard I think we're running out of air too."
"Eh? What's going on?" Starry felt a spike of fear.
"Station air alarms are starting to go off. We're losing air faster than we should be, even with the backup generators on. There's got to be a leak somewhere, but we're lack the tools to find and deal with it."
Starry quickly checked what was left on her suit's toolbelt. A welder was not among them. Oh...right... "I don't think I have the time for that, even if I, uh, had a welder. What are you guys gonna do? Any way I can help?"
"From what I heard I think the captain wants to evacuate, but nopony can tell what ships, if any, can still fly. If you take a look around..."
Starry looked behind her. Chart was already inspecting the hull of the Draconequus. "Chart said he was gonna inspect the Draconequus, that might be our best bet. Can you guys still make it on?"
"I think so, I'll tell the others. Let us know first thing if that changes," Mint said dutifully, and with a quiet pop, she grew silent.
Starry tuned her radio frequency back and kicked off towards the ship. "Hey Chart, it's not looking good. Station's running out of air and they think they'll have to evacuate. is the Draconequus good enough to fly?"
Chart looked over his shoulder until he saw her, then back at the ship. "Could use a second pair of eyes here, but I think so. No serious damage to the gravity ring or any of the crew compartments. Doesn't necessarily mean she's ready to go though."
Starry chewed the inside of her cheek as she surveyed the damage. In several places there were scratches, dents, or small holes, but she agreed that none of it looked serious. She understood what he meant though: in the case of the small holes it might've damaged some surface-level electronics, but there was nothing that could be done about that besides hope it wasn't serious. What concerned her more though, was the state of the engines, having been closest to the explosion. "i think it'll be fine, but I don't think that's what we should be worrying about. I'm going to go check on the engines," she replied, boosting herself off the gravity ring to float down towards the rear of the ship.
The Draconequus, as she'd found out days earlier, had a cluster of five engines at the rear of the ship. High power plasma engines that demanded lots of electricity, but provided decent thrust with excellent efficiency. So long as at least one was working they stood a chance of getting out. She could make some incredibly basic repairs if need be, but the engine design was too complex for her if anything more serious had happened. There wouldn't be time anyway; as she checked her air again, her heart sank to find she was down to 5 minutes.
The engines were spaced well apart from each other in a cross formation, and as Starry approached, she could see the two closest to her were damaged beyond her understanding. She bit her lip, hoping the central one might still work. As she came to a position where she could view all of the engines, she looked closer. The central engine was clearly damaged, not to the degree of the others, but it still made her heart sink. As if a cruel joke, the remaining two looked perfectly fine; they would work, but the thrust would be uneven enough that it would be too risky to fire them at all.
"Bad news Chart," she started. "The only engine without damage is unevenly placed."
Chart sighed. "Dammit. What of the others?"
"Outer two are clearly destroyed. The middle one I might be able to fix—"
"Then by all means do it!" he cut her off. "We're running out of options here!'
Putting her head down, Starry took a closer look at the middle engine's damage. After surveying it for a bit, she determined the damage, at least externally, was contained to the engine's nozzle and one of the magnetic coils. The nozzle was heavily dented and the coil was exposed with its copper wiring hopelessly frayed. Both would need to be replaced, but it just so happened the other engines functioned just fine as spare parts. All that was left was to figure out how to disassemble them. "Chart I think I can salvage the middle engine with parts from the others," she informed, before getting to work.
First, Starry closely inspected the damaged sections from some sort of attachment point, but there weren't any obvious ones. Biting her lip, she checked further up at the base of the engine, where she finally found it bolted to the ship, with metal fuel lines leading in. Alright that's not ideal, but if I can replace the whole engine that'll work too...Just gotta hurry...
Starry checked her toolbelt, taking stock of what was left. A power drill, a small box full of different heads for it, a crowbar, and some spare coils of wire. Yes, this would do. Retrieving the drill, she squeezed her hoof in where the engine was attached and began undoing each of the bolts keeping it in place. She panicked a little as they began floating off into space with no way for her to keep them stored, but there'd be plenty more she could salvage from the other engines once the hard part was done. She glanced at her air meter. 3 and a half minutes. Plenty of time, plenty of time...
Starry finished with the main bolts, and started on the fuel lines, having to switch the head out to do so. Once the engine floated freely she moved to push it out of the way, to find she moved before it did. She tried a better position near the base, bracing her self against the ship with her forelegs while her back ones pushed. Even in zero gravity this thing felt like it weighed a ton, and Starry grit her teeth and strained as she felt it start to budge. "Cmoooon! Nnnnnghhhh!"
Nearly slipping and losing her grip as the engine finally floated away, Starry caught herself and watched it go. The engine port was exposed now, revealing all sorts of electrical coils and wires she had only a cursory understanding of. "Alright, halfway there..." she muttered to herself as she began unsecuring the undamaged engine. Less than 3 minutes of air left, she could do this.
A minute later the other engine was unsecured, she just needed to push it into position. The problem now was that it was still extraordinarily heavy and she had even less to grip onto. She settled on grabbing a hold of the exposed engine port and hoping she didn't damage anything by doing so, and pulling with her free arm. Earth pony strength don't fail me now...
"HhhrrrrRRRGGGGG!" Starry groaned, pulling on the engine with all her might, only to feel it barely moving towards her. She keep it up, feeling blood pound in her head and in her injured eye socket as she willed the heavy piece of machinery to move. When her strength had nothing left to give she snapped back in exhaustion, but the engine was finally coming towards her. Ah, finally...wait, wait SHIT!
Starry tried to stop the engine where she wanted it, but being as heavy as it was, she was unable to stop it from sailing past the engine port towards her. Realizing she needed to move or get squished between two engines, she propelled herself up, but not fast enough. Her rear left hoof was caught between them, and she screamed as she felt the engines crush her hardsuit and the leg underneath. "AHHHHHH FUCK!"
"Starry are you okay?" Chart's voice came back full of worry.
Starry looked down at the damage. The unsecured engine bounced off, leaving her room to pull back her leg. The hardsuit was folded and cracked, and she could feel her leg getting cold in between the stabs of pain. A warning on her hardsuit's display screen told her she was losing air again. "I a-almost have it, b-but I could really, nngh, use s-some help."
Chart said he'd be there and the connection cut, but Starry wasn't about to wait. I'm so close, I won't have enough air to wait for him to get here. Gotta finish this now! she told herself, blinking through the pain as she moved to try pushing the engine again. One good leg was still enough to get good leverage.
While the parts of her leg that weren't numb rapidly grew colder, Starry frantically moved the engine into the desired position, forcing herself to go slow enough so as to not have to repeat this again. When it was finally lined up she snatched up one of the bolts that was floating around and slammed it into one of the holes before going at it with the drill. She continued nabbing as many bolts as she could until she came up short and resorted to cannibalizing one from one of the destroyed engines.
Soon the engine was firmly attached, and all that was left was to connect the fuel lines. Almost...there...Her leg had grown almost completely numb and her chest was starting to feel painfully cold as well. She ignored the warning alarms starting to go off inside her suit as she finished one of the two fuel lines and started on the other. Out of the corner of her remaining eye she could see a figure floating towards her. She sucked in a breath through her teeth as she drilled another bolt into place, but her lungs remained unsatisfied. Just...a little...
Clunk! The final bolt stopped snugly in place. Starry leaned back in relief, turning to wave at Chart rapidly heading towards her. "It's...it's good," she gasped, kicking over towards him only to cry out in pain as she used her bad leg on accident.
"Damn crazy pony, you've saved us all. Cmon, let's go home," he replied, grabbing a hold of her and helping guide her back towards the airlock with his working thruster pack. Starry would've replied, but there wasn't enough air left in her lungs to do so. She gasped for another breath, to find there wasn't anything to breathe in. All she could do was will him to go faster as she dangled in his hooves.
The airlock slowly drifted into view, but it seemed to take an eternity to get there. Starry wearily looked up, trying to keep her eyes locked on it as darkness swam in the edges of her vision. Her lungs hurt and her whole body felt cold. As the airlock's details began to grow larger, she raised a hoof, ready to undo the airtight clasp around the base of her helmet.
Floating into the airlock, the doors shut behind them. She didn't waste time and undid the clasp, hearing a faint hiss as the airlock started pressurizing. Her vision almost completely black, she started gasping for any scrap of air to replace the feeling of hot pins and needles in her chest. it took ages, but the pain eventually faded. As feeling returned, the fading adrenaline, wounds, freezing temperatures, and radiation sickness finally caught up with her. Starry unceremoniously vomited all over the inside of her helmet and then passed out.
=====
Starry opened her eyes, to find a bright light shining on her, and closed them out of pain. She felt completely and utterly wiped out, but the pain in her head was mostly faded. Cracking her eyes open a tiny bit, she slowly opened them as she adjusted to the light. Her head felt like a lead weight as she lifted it to look around. A hospital setting, machines and equipment everywhere, with herself hooked up to a few. She crashed back onto the pillow with a loud sigh. Well...I'm still alive at least.
Lifting her left hoof, she found it lightly bandaged with an IV needle inserted. Carefully she brought it to her face and poked around her left eye socket, to find there was still nothing there. A shame, but at least the rod was gone. She checked her rear hoof as well, finding...nothing. "Huh?" she whispered, straining to lift herself up and get a better look. She pulled back the covers to find half ot it missing, a bandaged stump halfway down. She gasped, her eyes remaining locked on the sight until she lost track of time and slumped back down in defeat.
The sound of hooves approaching prompted Starry to lift her head, just in time to see a nurse walk through the door, a blue unicorn in bright white scrubs. The two locked eyes and the nurse smiled. "Ah good, was wondering when you'd wake up."
Starry blinked. "Ugh, where a-HACK!" She coughed loudly for a few seconds, before groaning and taking a breath. "Where...am I?" she rasped, throat feeling like sandpaper.
"Let me get you a drink first," she offered, filling a cup from a nearby sink. "This is Ursa Minor station, in orbit around Mephisto. As of, uh, a few hours ago, we're the only orbital station around Thraxis with working medical facilities."
Starry carefully took the cup and drank deeply and greedily. She cleared her throat a few times, and when she spoke again it was a lot less gruff. "I...see. Wh-what all happened? How long have I been out?"
"Not sure, six hours maybe?" the nurse explained. "i heard your ship evacuated that long ago. You in particular have been in surgery for about two of those."
"I can see that," Starry said neutrally with a glance down at her leg.
The nurse's eyes followed her gaze. "...Yeah. Compression fracture combined with prolonged exposure to a vacuum. The frostbite burns will heal, but there was no saving that part of the leg. I'm sorry."
She blinked. "And the eye?" Starry wondered.
"You're very lucky the metal bar we removed didn't go deeper or shatter your helmet. The eye itself is gone though." The nurse chippered up suddenly. "On the positive side, prosthetics for both are an option once you get back to Equestria. We would, but even if we had the prosthetics, we don't have the equipment for that kind of surgery."
Starry raised an eyebrow. "Back to Equestria? Aren't there other stations that would have that?"
The nurse bit her lip. "There are, but you also received a hefty dose of radiation back there. Not enough to be lethal, but you've more than fulfilled your tour's maximum dose so you'll have to be groundbound for a few months."
Starry deflated. A few months? "Huh. O-okay then," she replied, her voice cracking a little.
"But beyond that," the nurse smiled again, "you have a clean bill of health. You'll be transferred out in a week. In the meantime your friends were wondering about you, want me to send them in?"
Starry finally cracked a tiny smile. "Sure."
As she waited, Starry resumed taking stock of her surroundings. She managed to locate a switch on the side of the bed that when operated, lifted the headrest so that she could comfortably sit up in the bed. Once she had it where she wanted it, she reached for another swig of water and put the glass down just as Mint, Wind, and Countdown filed through the door.
Starry locked eyes with them for a good few seconds until Mint finally decided to break the silence. "You look like shit!"
Starry chuckled a bit. "Heh, I'll bet I do. Kinda feel like it to, though not as much as I thought I would at least."
Wind just gawked. "You didn't mention losing an eye!"
With a frown, Starry brought her hoof to the empty socket. "Sadly. Chart didn't tell you?"
"Too busy filling us in on all the crazy stuff you did, probably forgot to mention it," Countdown chimed in.
"Where is he anyway?" Starry wondered, craning her neck to look behind them."
"Waiting out in the hallway," Wind answered with a point of his hoof. "Told us to go in first."
"Wants me all to himself, huh?" Starry grinned. "Looks like I'm gonna get chewed out guyyysss..."
"After the crazy shit you pulled? You serious?" Mint exclaimed, narrowing her eyes. "...They got you high on morphine or something?"
Starry grinned even wider. "Damn I wish! Oh yeah, if he forgot to mention the eye, then..."
Yanking back the covers, Starry revealed the bandaged stump that was her leg. Wind and Countdown visibly recoiled. Mint stared at it with disturbed fascination. "Horseapples, Star, how'd that happen?"
"Wellll..." Starry started from the moment she'd gone out the airlock to start pumping fuel, and recollected from there. Her trio of friends remained close by the bedside as they listened to her first-hoof account of the disaster that had befallen them. Occasionally one of them would interject with a question, but otherwise kept silent.
"—and then, well, I woke up here," Starry finished, with a wave of her hoof. She let herself lean back and relax as she waited for them to respond.
"Well that's...wow," Wind finally said. "You really did save all our hides back there."
"You seem pretty upbeat for somepony that just went through all that," Mint added. "You sure it's not the morphine?"
Starry shrugged her shoulders. "Guess I'm just happy to see you guys. And to be alive," she replied, her face falling a little.
"What happens now?" Countdown wondered.
"Transferred back to Equestria proper. I'll get a prosthetic leg and eye. Something about being grounded for a few months cause of all the radiation I soaked up." The mood in the room fell as Starry drew quiet. The three across from her exchanged nervous glances.
"I'll be fine guys," Starry tried to sound a little cheerier. "It's...just gonna suck not being up here, even after all that happened."
"There's always video calls," Countdown offered. "If you don't try to hit us up, we're gonna be the sad ones here."
Starry smiled softly. "I will."
Wind reached into his saddlebags, retrieving a small wrapped package. "Well, I think we should finally let Chart in, but here. Figured we should get you a little get well gift," he said, depositing it on her bedside table.
Starry waved goodbye as her friends left the room, then quickly took the package in her hooves and opened it up. Inside was a freeze-dried ice cream sandwich, with some writing on the paper. Get well soon messages from her friends, plus a small note from Mint:
Best thing I could find in this place's cafeteria. Nurse said you aren't allowed to have it, so we smuggled it in. IOU the real deal when we get back on shore leave. - Mint. Starry smiled to herself and hid both the package and note away, just in time to look up and see Chart entering the room.
"Looking a lot better without that rod sticking out of you," Chart chuckled.
"Feels a lot better too," Starry replied. "Still feel completely wiped out though."
"Reckon that's normal after what they did to you. Thank Celestia you're still here though, I doubt I would've lasted if I went through what you did."
"Earth pony genes I guess," Starry smiled. "Say, did we ever figure out what exactly happened back there?"
Chart's face fell. "Around the time everything was going down we picked up a warning from mission control. Something about trying to deorbit a satellite but it accidentally ended up on a collision course with the station, and we needed to evacuate if we were still there."
"A satellite?" Starry whispered. "Hard to believe it caused all...that."
"Aye. There was one casualty, some poor sap hanging around in the cargo bay when it all went down. No serious injuries at least, except for, well, you," he said with a light jab at her. "But otherwise the worst is past us."
Starry glanced up at the ceiling with a quiet 'mmm'. "So...what happens now?"
"Besides your extended shore leave?" Seeing Starry's wide eyes he added, "Oh, the nurse filled me in. Shame you won't be flying with us for a while. Not much you'll have to do though besides help me with a mountain of incident reports."
Starry groaned. "Here I thought I'd be able to escape the paperwork."
Having stood near the foot of her bed so far, Chart finally pulled up a chair closer to her. "It's unavoidable in a situation like this, but don't worry, I'll help you through it. If it's any consolation I was actually meaning to float the thought of a promotion by you as well."
Starry blinked. "A promotion?" Equestria's space program didn't have much in the way of ranks, merely occupations, though certain management positions required a lot more experience.
Chart nodded. "Well, sorta. Basically I could use somepony with your tenacity to accompany me on future missions. That means putting in a good word with command and a pay raise. Spots for your friends too, if they want it, if you don't want to spend too much time away from them."
"Really? Wow..." she whispered. A special spot in Chart's crew just for her? Was she even qualified? "I'll...have to think about it. Gonna be a while before I'm flying again anyway."
"If you so desire. In the meantime I have a little get well soon gift of my own," he said, reaching into his saddlebags and pulling out a familiar bottle.
"Is that..."
Chart grinned. "Luna station's private stock. I am most definitely not allowed to give this to you right now, so don't say anything." He telekinetically grabbed a glass from across the room and floated it over, then popped open the bottle of wine and slightly filled each glass. "To a...mission I guess. Not a successful one, but we're still here, and I think you deserve it after all you've been through."
Starry took the glass in her hooves and gulped down what little was there. The taste was subtle, but sweet, and tasted mainly of grapes. She wasn't much of an alcohol drinker, but enjoyed it all the same. She motioned for more, but Chart shook his head.
"Don't think I should give you that much, gotta save some for the rest of the crew anyway. There'll be plenty of time for more when you're out of here," he said.
Pouting, Starry set the glass back down. "Fair, I'll hold you to it though."
"Before I head out of here," Chart started, retrieving a slip of paper and a pencil from his saddlebags, "I wanted to ask your opinion on a song I'm writing."
Starry raised her eyebrow. "Eh? A song? About what?"
"You," Chart smiled.
"Ehhh?"
"Aye. A lot of those space shanties are fictional, but a few aren't. Not everyday I get to write one about a living, breathing hero," he winked.
Starry's heart fluttered and she blushed a little. Me? A hero? "Well, alright then...l-let's hear it!"
Chart smiled and cleared his throat, scanning his lyric sheet for a moment before bursting out into song. It wasn't the best thing she'd heard, certainly not sung solo like this, but she could tell it was the start of something great.
"It started one fine day on a simple little fuel run,
On out to a planet where quite a few had gone.
We didn't expect excitement, a thought that seemed quite fair.
But our hides remain intact because of just one spacer mare..."