Space Walk

Posted on Sat Nov 26th, 2022 @ 6:24am by Lieutenant Xavier Leiko

Mission: Scylla and Charybdis
Location: USS Avalon, Engineering
Timeline: At the same time as "Target that explosion and fire…"
1080 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Xavier could tell that Finn wasn't happy about being made to leave with the others back to the Athena but she couldn't argue with his logic. She was way more valuable than him right now and she was needed back in engineering An experimental ship, a Romulan attack, a radiation-filled nebula, and the ship in MVA mode, the ol' girl really needed her chief engineer right now; besides, it wasn't like he was planning on staying here, he would be right behind them, once the job was complete of course.

He moved over to the terminal marked Auxillary System Operations and logged in, after giving it a few hits with his gloved hand when it threatened to power down during the process. Extending the docking collar was a simple process, though doing so would have been much easier had the main computer been online. Every engineer was trained how to do the process manually of course, and he was a good engineer if he thought so himself, but it didn't mean it wasn't a pain in the rear.

Thankfully the power held and Xavier watched on the screen as the Athena manoeuvred into position, bridging the gap, and allowing the two ships to become one. Though considering the Athena was only one-third of a ship at the moment, did that make them a ship and a third? He shrugged the thought away as this really wasn't the time or the place to be stalling. He tried to pull up the internal sensors forgetting they were currently offline, well semi-offline. Either way, not a reliable way to track anyone at the moment. Instead, he pulled up the EV suit tag information, a less accurate way of tracking the crew and no way of seeing where the Romulans were, but it was the best he could do. He saw Keating and the others head into the Athena, the security officers huddled in a corridor where he guessed the Romulan main forces were, and Zora's team leaving deck one.

After alerting Zora that the ships were docked, Xavier made his way to the access port. He held his phaser in his right hand and a tricorder in his left. He really didn't fancy being ambushed by any Romulans, not today, but if he were he would be ready for them. There was a brief moment when he thought he had found a stray Romulan officer but it turned out to be fluctuating readings from his tricorder and nothing more than background noise. He eventually arrived at the port without seeing a soul and carefully stowed his phaser back in his holster. As he headed along the catwalk he knew he would feel much better once he was out of this EV suit.

That was the last thing Xavier thought before the explosion.

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It took a moment for Xavier to realise what had happened. The catwalk was gone, engulfed in a blaze of orange flames and green disruptor fire. The explosion had thrown him just outside of Athena's airlock hatch, which was now sealed shut to save the ship from a massive decompression that would have destroyed most of the deck. He was stood in the shattered remains of the docking collar which was now only slightly wider than he was. The irony wasn't lost on him that he had been saved by the very suit he was so eager to take off.

The suit! He thought to himself, panic quickly sinking in. A quick check of the system readouts told him he was losing oxygen, fast. He took a few deep breaths as he allowed his training to kick in, now wasn't the time to lose himself in what might happen if he didn't calm down. He fruitlessly tried the exterior airlock controls, but nothing happened. They must have been damaged in the explosion. He magnetised his boots and felt the usual pull to the metal hull of the airlock. The last thing he needed was to float away in the middle of a battle with the Romulans with no air. He also knew that standard protocol was to jettison the damaged docking collar, no one wanted a metal shard protruding out of the side of the ship in a situation like this.

The next thing would be to find the hole in his suit but he was fairly sure that it was on the back, which had taken the brunt of the explosion during the attack and there was no way he was going to be able to repair that himself. So he needed to be rescued, but typically coms were down and his power reserves were depleting rapidly.

No air, no coms, no power, is this how it ends? Xavier thought as he could feel the panic rising again. Stay calm Leiko, you still have the emergency transport beacon, just not enough power to activate it. So maybe this is how it ends? He knew he had two options, wait it out and suffocate or direct all power (including his failing life support) to the emergency beacon and pray that the Athena wasn't too damaged to be able to pick up the signal. Both options were risky, but only one wasn't guaranteed death.

With a final gulp of fresh air, he pressed the controls on his arm, transferring all power to the emergency beacon right before his HUD died. If this really was going to be his final resting place at least the view was spectacular, disregarding the grey hull of the ship of course. The blue-purple swirls of the nebula set against the deepest black of space made for an awesome sight. Even the flashes of green, blue, and orange of weapons fire made the whole experience rather exquisite; a place someone could really find their peace with the universe before their light faded forever. His thoughts drifted to his family, in particular his mother which took the young Betazoid by surprise. They had never been particularly close and he never would have dreamed that his dying thoughts would be of her over his dad. The mind was a wild, untamable thing and he respected how it conjured fond family moments as he died in space.

The last thought he remembered before his light faded and merged with the blackness of the universe was the blue glow that surrounded him, as his body transcended this plane of existence.