Extra-Vehicular Activity

by alamais

Openings

At least, it's shaped like an egg. Pretty big, though—several times larger than even the largest dragon egg you've ever seen. It's a dark greenish-grey color, and has a strange, shiny look to it, somewhat dulled by age. It appears to be stuck to the ground by some sort of…goo? Twilight would probably have a better description for it, but it looks like dried snot. The snot is all over the floor in this tight intersection of paths between lockers, and you notice it's all over one set of lockers, really built up. Almost looks like some sort of nest.

The top of the egg looks like it was cut open in a cross, and peeled back. You gingerly peer over the edge, but it's empty. The light poke of a hoof sends cracks through the egg's surface—obviously it's been here, empty, for a long time. You huff in confusion, then start making your way through the maze of lockers, to the pressure door.

As you get closer, you find more evidence of fighting. Scorch marks again, and the same weird melting of metal. What kind of crazy weapons do these guys use, and on an already damaged spaceship? In some places the floor is melted straight through into the crawl spaces below, revealing a surprisingly large gap between this deck and the one below. There's all sorts of machinery, as well as tubes and wires to support the cryotubes, though most of what you can see is pitted and scarred by the melt damage. Unlike on Deck 2, there's broken and empty weapons lying around, and as you approach the open pressure door, you even see what looks like a partially-melted knife.

As you pass through the pressure door, you look back, and evaluate. This…looks like a fight to the end. Like they were trying to get to this airlock. What for?

The doors are in the same configuration as for the starboard airlock. The lights in the airlock chamber were all shot up in the fighting, and the pressure door forward is sealed and locked. You glance through the tiny window, but it looks like most of the lights up there are dead as well, though one big one is visible near the other side of the room…it looks like another cryovault. Finally, you turn to the airlock, shining your light on it.

Right on the door are the 'airlock' and 'hazard' symbols. To the right is what appears to be the control panel, with a bunch of rectangular buttons, some of them lit, and three bigger, round buttons. Most of it is labeled with text, though there are a few symbols above, on a small screen: the 'pressurized with artificial gravity' symbol is showing on the left, then tiny version of the 'airlock' symbol, and then just the 'pressurized' symbol. You stare it at, then the door, then back at the panel.

You shrug. The three big buttons are red, green, and black. "Okay. Uhh…green means go, right?" You push the button.

Nothing.

"Red then?" Poke.

Nada.

You snort at the panel, then stare at the buttons, and listlessly poke a few more. You blink, then look at the in-ship pressure doors. Next to each is a small control panel, now active. The only difference between the two is that one button is lit on the closed door, and not on the open, and a different button is the opposite.

Okay… You tap your helmet against the wall a couple of times, then stare at the lit button on the closed door, find the similarly marked button on the airlock panel, and push it.

Zip.

With a growl, you smack the big red button again.

Zilch…wait. That wasn't always there. On the small screen above the panel, a couple of characters have appeared over the tiny airlock symbol. The characters change, and suddenly your overlay pops up, showing '60'. Then it changes to '59'. Then '58'. Oh. At '50', two yellow lights over the airlock start flashing, and you back away.

It's only because of that distance that you see a flicker of movement through the window of the forward pressure door.

It was just the flashing lights, right?

You see another flicker…something moving in front of the light in there.

In a flash, you slink back through the open door, then peek back around the corner, looking for more movement through the window. You can still see the countdown. '29'…'28'…

The pressure door unseals, the emergency release lever on this side popping out just as its counterpart on the other side was pulled.

You back away, past a row of lockers, and duck around the corner. Why are you so afraid? You're not sure. I'm sure nothing is alive over there, Rainbow Dash. Right, Twilight. You keep backing up, putting more of the room between you and the door, until your rump bumps into something, and you jerk around.

Another egg. Okay, no big deal, except—

It's open, like the other, but something's different. You poke it, and it doesn't crumble. It feels soft, disturbingly so. You peek above the edge, and it's empty, but still…moist.

You hear what must be the airlock doors opening, and as you glance that way, a shadow flashes by at the corner of your sight. You look around wildly for it. You can't see anything, but hear a skittering noise.

You start to move away, to go, uh, somewhere—anywhere—when you see the movement again. You turn, but it's too late, and something wraps itself around your helmet.

Comments

[InkingWell]

Oh no, a face hugger!