They don't come any closer than that....

Posted on Sun May 30th, 2010 @ 9:18pm by Jan Valentine & Walter Jones

1,118 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Session 3: Fear of the Dark
Location: Warden outer hull

ON:

Jones was carrying what looked like some rags, a fish bowl and a small pack down towards Jan's quarters. There were some repairs on the outside of the ship that could only be done there... From the outside. He knew Jan wasn't going to be happy of the state of the EV suit that he was bringing him but it was the best he was going to be able to do on such short notice. Jones banged heavily on the door and waited to hear back from him.

"It's open." Jan shouted, downing a shot of vodka.

Jones stepped in smiling then tossed the suit on one of the tables in the room. "Seems a little stuffy in here, ready for a walk?"

"What the fuck is that? That's the EV suit!?" Jan said, mortified at the site of the antiquated space suit.

"I'm going to need another drink if I'm wearing that halloween costume." Jan said, pouring out and downing another shot of 100 proof vodka.

"It was the best I could do on short notice, there is a money back guarantee on it, the Ferengi I got it from said that if I wasn't satisfied he'd throw in plasma coupler for free."

"Ooh, a useless coupler, give me a break." Jan said, grabbing the suit and gear.

"I hope this is the last time I have to repair those bulkheads." Jan said.

"I'll suit up and head into the decompressed area in 10 minutes, I transported the tools and scrap metal into a relatively intact area there, don't want to waste air shifting junk around." Jan said.'"

"Good idea, I'll send out the little robot unit with you, I picked it up with the suit and I can control it from the bridge." Jones smiled at him. "Unless you want me to come out there with you."

"Nah, there'll be enough idiots out there, as long as that robot isn't a toaster, I'll be fine." Jan said.

"Actually I'll head down to engineering and control it from there." Jones reached into his coat pocket and took a swig and headed out the door. "Let me know when you are at the hatch and I'll decompress you... well the door and we'll get this show on the road."

"Right." Jan said, removing his overcoat.

:several minutes later: Hatch to decompressed area:

"Alright Walt, I'm at the hatch. I had to use a whole roll of duct tape to patch up this suit. It had more holes in it than a colander." Jan said.

"It could be worse, at least we had some duct tape" Jones started the decompression sequence to open the hatch. "Alright should be safe to go out, head to the port side lateral plating, it looks to be the worst right now."

"Uh yep, it looks pretty bad." Jan said, staring out of the gaping hole in the side of the ship.

"Fuck, all the bolts are sheared, I'll have to cut the whole section of plating out." Jan said, grabbing the plasma torch.

Jones launched the small robotic bee from the cargo bay and carefully swung it around carrying a mishmash of plating and bulk heads hastily scavenged from some of the freight they were carrying. "I'm bringing around some parts for you. How does the structural integrity look? Fortunately for us they built these things like tanks or else we probably would have been space particles by now."

"Yeah...Structural integrity looks okay, once I cut out the damaged stuff, it should just be a matter of welding some new panels in, reinforcing them, and sealing the gaps up." Jan said, scanning and slicing the twisted metal fragments out from the bulkhead.

"Sounds good, the old girl is tougher then she looks." Jones smiled as he watched the work from the robot.

"Judging by these scans, I'd say structural integrity is really 75%, there must be a malfunction in the internal sensors somewhere." Jan said, making the final cuts to the ragged metal.

"That is the first good news I've heard. Hold I'm bringing the bot around for some extra lighting for you."

"Nah, I'm fine, this EV suit's flashlights are doing a pretty good job of..." Jan started to say, when he heard a loud spark and smelled burnt wiring in the suit.

"I must be cursed or something...on second thought, maneuver the 'bot about a meter from my position.

Jones moved the bot as instructed and hit the flood lights to iluminate the area that he was working.

From the port stern the tell tale streak of a ship could be seen popping out of warp, a vessel about a third of the size of the warden but very sleek. It started to quickly move towards the ship.

"Jan, I'm picking up a contact coming towards us, can you give me a visual ID? I haven't been able to bring those systems back up yet."

"Huh? Uh...Can't tell yet, it's too far away...it seems to be kinda large....just a second.." Jan said, struggling to identify the incoming ship.

"I didn't send a distress call out, unless Kyle was able to get one out."

"Strange...it's a Bajoran assault vessel, but I've never seen one painted bright red like this one is." Jan said.

Jones stopped for a moment, going through his memory of different things. "Jan, get back in here quick, forget the repairs for now, if they are who I think they are we are in a mess right now.... Damn Shiva... she probably sold us out."

"Don't have to tell me twice! They're charging weapons, can you buy me some time to get out of this section?" Jan said, scrambling over debris and twisted panels toward the hatch.

"umm... ummm.. weapons are probably going to fry the board... give me a second... adjust your grav boot frequency to -.352 I'm changing the modulation of the outer hull to hopefully repel them long enough for you to get back in here, and... well... I hate to do this since she is paid for but watch." Jones spun the robot around and had it speed off towards the oncoming craft, it sped up fairly quickly and impacted square in the bridge of the oncoming craft, temporarily preventing it from moving forward."

A small chunk of debris from the robot whizzed past Jan's helmet and embedded itself into the wall.

"Whoa shit...that was close." Jan said, climbing through the hatch.

"I'm clear Walt, take the cost of the 'bot out of my pay." Jan said.

"If we live through this." Jones flipped off the comm and grabbed 2 phaser rifles off the wall and headed towards the airlock.

 

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