Kai's Story Snippet 4

Sitrep:

Still puttering around with the graphic novel. I am experimenting with grass and render settings now.

I also just received Kai's Story back from Rea. I'll be going through it, adding the final bits and then sending it off to Goodlifeguide sometime today or tomorrow.

On to the snippet!

Still in chapter 3:

Twinkle Hooves felt the fear, no, smelled it as she tried to figure out what to do. Tried and failed she thought for the umpteenth time. She tugged on a long ear then winced when she accidentally hit her earring.

The brothel was in the rock and therefore lacked an independent life support system. Her pimp had one in his inner sanctum but the bastard had disappeared within with one of the girls he favored. It was locked from the inside, with all the equipment including a small generator inside too.

She cursed him but then got the others out to figure something else out.

She was surprised that the other girls took direction from her. Then she realized they were so scared they'd take direction from anyone who showed an inkling of having a plan to get out of the mess they were in. She was just shooting for one more day. At the moment that was all that counted, one more day. Give them that.

In the main concourse panic ruled. When some of the leadership had fled many of the residents had stampeded for locks. Not that it had done them any good; there weren't any ships worth using. Those that were had been locked down or were low on fuel or range. Their owners took some people with them as they left but not many.

Too many, all too many were left behind. In desperation she turned to Kuatha. She found him in his shop. No surprise there. And she wasn't surprised that he had worked out a crude life support system out of parts. “How long will it last?”

“Not long on just batteries. Definitely not long with the people we've got here,” he said, looking at the herd around them. “Did you have to bring everyone?”

“More hands. Tell us what we need to do. We'll help.”

“It's more than that. We need help to get power into the rock. Or someone needs to go outside and figure out what is wrong and fix it.”

“Outside? In the storm?”

“It is most likely a one way trip I know.”

“Can't you... I don't know; cobble a robot together to do the job?”

“We had several. Operative word, had. They are fried. Anything we try to cobble together won't have shields to be able to handle the storm. And have you ever tried to make repairs remotely?” the mechanic demanded. She shook her head. He snorted. “Well trust me, I have. It's no picnic with a bot built to do the job let alone something I can cobble together out of this mess,” he said, indicating his cluttered workshop.

“So we're screwed?”

“Not necessarily. We'll keep trying to do what we can. Molly got a mayday off. Right now we just need to wait the storm out and hope help will arrive in time.”

“Great. Who will help us?”

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Kai found himself trying to rally the tug pilots and nearest mines to the plight of the rock. Trying and failing he noted as some signed off after saying the rock was on its own.

“What do we do?” Mel asked.

“What we can,” Kai said.

“We can't evacuate them. You know that, right?”

“I know. But Kuatha is there. A lot of our friends are there. We have to do something. Save whom we can,” Kai said almost desperately as he shed the material he'd tacked onto the tug for additional protection. His Geiger counter started to climb but he ignored it. He had other concerns at the moment.

He warmed up the ship's drive and then set a course for the rock.

“Who will pay for it?” Mahisha asked.

Kai grimaced. Good question, he was headed to the rock with little in the way of mined material. He was also going to burn through a lot of fuel, not to mention rads. “Worry about that later. If we don't do something a lot of people will die.”

“Not to mention we'll have one less place to base our operations out of.”

“They better give us free drinks for life for this shit,” Mel grumbled.

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Kuatha and Twinkle Hooves did their best to rally the people within the dark and dying habitat. Twinkle Hooves nipped out to gather resources that Kuatha said he needed. Sometimes that meant going perilously close to the hull and risking doses of radiation.

Along the way she found out that several people had died or evacuated. Old Toby the Barber as well as the mayor died when their independent life supports failed. Constable Jones and the old assayer Piemur had tried to flee but they died when their escape pod failed. They'd failed to maintain it and it had been used as a source of parts too often.

No one was in charge which was both good and bad. She had no one to get in her way and tell her she couldn't take things or do things that were necessary. But it meant people were running around like headless chickens which was a problem all in itself. It seemed like it was everyone for herself.

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To Kai's surprise and dismay, not many of the tug pilots stepped up. Resentment was deep for the port fees and costs of services and gear the stationer's charged. One other icon appeared on his HUD after he'd set course. A quick interrogation of the computer told him it was Mel. Trust Mel to come in behind him if only to save the damn beer he thought with a snort.

It took precious hours for Kai to dock with the station. Mel was only a few minutes behind. Once they docked they were quickly swarmed at the lock by panicked people wanting off the rock. Kai ordered the people back. “Kai, damn good to see you,” a familiar voice said. He looked over to see Kuatha and some of the employees of the brothel, Twinkle Hooves among them.

“What can we do Kuatha?” Kai asked. When in doubt ask the expert. “How can we get the life support going? There is no way my tug can get these people off. I've got enough life support for me and maybe one person, but not enough to go far. I drained my life support waiting out the storm.”

“Has it passed?” Twinkle Hooves asked.

“Yes. But everything has been dosed with radiation so watch it,” Kai warned.

“Well, that's a relief,” Kuatha said as Mel joined them. “I kludged together what I could with some assistance. But we need power. I was about to go out and check the solar panels.”

“Power we can arrange. We'll need fuel,” Kai stated, looking around for the mayor or someone to step up.

“That we can do,” Kuatha said. “Once you've got power, run your life support but leave the lock open. It won't do much but it'll keep people around here alive.”

Kai hesitated but then nodded. Kuatha was right, the life support wouldn't do much but it would help a little. For morale at the least. “Roger that,” Kai said, looking over to Mel. Mel nodded.

“We'll need to get power lines to the ship,” Kuatha said. He pointed to several people. “You lot, unplug the lines going to this lock and the others. Kai, plug them in to your ship so it will act as a power source. I'll rewire the other end.”

“Gotcha,” Kai said, getting to work. He made sure to lock his computer down though so no one could hot wire his tug and take off with it.

Using the tugs to provide temporary power to the rock allowed them to get some of the deeper life support modules back up and running. It wasn't enough though. In order to get the rest of the life support going, as well as the reactor and other equipment they needed to do some major maintenance.

“We need parts,” Kuatha said tiredly. He felt like he'd done a complete tug tear down and rebuild. He was getting too old for this shit.

“Where?” someone asked. “How?”

“There are some in Kali's spare warehouses. He left so he won't be needing it anymore,” Twinkle Hooves suggested.

All eyes turned to Kai. He nodded, giving them tactical permission. “Start there. Then hit the others. We'll get this rock back up and worry about the bill later.”

There was a lot of grim agreement over that statement.

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