A Complicated Love Story Set in Space - Shaun David Hutchinson Page 0,2
nor did I care. I wasn’t alone anymore.
“What the hell is going on? Where am I? Did you do this to me? I swear to God when I find you, I’m going to make you wish—”
“I didn’t do this.” DJ’s voice cut through my rage. “I’m somewhere called Reactor Control. That’s what’s stenciled on the door, anyway. There’s a huge chamber with a bunch of pipes running out of it that I think might be the reactor, but I’m just guessing here. I was kind of hoping you knew what was going on.” He sounded a bit winded.
“Oh.” I felt like a jerk for losing my temper, especially since DJ and I seemed to be in the same screwed-up situation. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m clueless. I mean, I’m smart, except when it comes to math. I’m awful at math, but I’m decent at everything else. Anyway, you said something about blowing up, and I’d really like to not do that, so how do we keep it from happening?”
DJ was quiet for a moment, and I worried that he’d decided to abandon me. I found myself desperate to hear his deep, soothing voice again. There was something familiar about it. The tenor and tone wrapped around me like a hug, and I was incredibly grateful that DJ hadn’t actually bailed. “The note on the computer says there are a couple things we need to do to keep Qriosity from exploding.” He paused. “Qriosity’s the ship, I guess.”
“Yep,” I said. “Got it. We’re on a spaceship. What do we have to do to prevent the ship from blowing up?” I wanted out of the vacuum suit so badly that I was willing to do just about anything to make it happen.
“Uh, so the instructions say we have to patch a leak in coolant conduit F-dash-519 and then shut down the reactor.”
“Sure, sounds easy.”
DJ hesitated before saying, “I know my way around computers some. Mostly taking them apart and putting them back together, and I know a handful of programming languages too. I also spent a summer rebuilding the engine of a ’62 Mustang, but I don’t know how useful that’ll be in this situation.”
A buzz like an electric current began pulsing through my brain.
Warning! Your heart rate is exceeding the maximum recommended beats per minute. Please attempt thirty seconds of relaxed breathing.
I had to get out of the suit or I was going to die. The idea began small but swelled in size until it had shoved my other thoughts aside. I couldn’t think about anything other than getting out of the damned suit. I reached for my helmet, my clumsy fingers searching for the latch that would release me from this smelly, canned-air prison.
“Hey? You still there?” DJ’s voice squeezed in. It was a gentle tap on the shoulder that pushed through the nonsense and noise and stalled my hand.
I stopped, suddenly aware that I had nearly removed my helmet in an unpressurized airlock. If it hadn’t been for DJ, I would have done it and died.
“I’m here,” I said.
“You okay?”
A manic, frantic laugh escaped my lips. “Of course I’m not okay! I’m supposed to be at home in my bed, but I’m in space. I’m in space, DJ! Nothing about this is okay!”
“There are worse places to wake up.”
“I doubt it.”
“Stuck in a slimy cocoon spun by an evil alien that tortured you with bad jokes until it was time to eat you?” DJ said. “Snuggled up in the guts of a tauntaun? In the hallway at school, late for first period, wearing nothing but your socks?”
“Fine!” I said. “You win. There are worse places to wake up.” I shook my head and smiled in spite of myself. “You’ve put way too much thought into this.” Talking to DJ like we were friends hanging out helped me regain some sense of calm. He had a comfortable ease about him. Talking to him made me feel like it was possible we were going to survive this. Whatever this was.
“You got a name?” DJ asked.
“Noa.”
“Cool,” he said. “Hey, so, I know this is a lot to ask, but there’s a countdown in here saying we’ve got about seventeen minutes before the reactor overloads—”
I shut my eyes, ignoring the rest of what DJ said, and breathed until I was completely calm. Okay, fine. Mostly calm. The low-level panic and feeling of impending doom were going to stick around no matter how many breaths I took.