vignette

“Katie, did Corwin tell you what time he was going to come in today?”

Startled, Katie dropped the U-screw she’d been trying to work into the screw hole and watched as it drifted away. Damn it! She was in trouble now. Those screws were hard to come by and if it floated into the mesh Small Net Sensor System, it would blow it out, to say nothing of scaring everyone in the dome. Hell, she just had to hope her luck held out and that the screw would drift close enough to the energy generators that the magnetism would capture it benignly to the partial-metal surface.

“Katie, did he tell you?”

“Sorry, sir. No. He didn’t talk to me, but I think he was scheduled for his service re-check so he might be late.”

The chief walked away mumbling about service re-checks and the difficulty of finding replacements when someone was re-upped. Katie waited just until he had gone inside the airlock, then unhooked her safety tether and worked her way in the direction she’d last seen the screw. You’d think I be able to spot it since it is ult-orange, after all. Suddenly she did see it and froze, watching in stunned horror as the screw slowly made contact with the SNSS mesh. That simple little touch set off subterranean alarms, plus-gaged all airlocks, and was going to set the perimeter guard in 10 seconds.

Without thinking she slammed into her survival routine, bounding straight up as far as she could manage, twisting herself so as to be pointing towards the mountains on this little planet, then releasing the tiny burst of em-air which should propel her far enough away from the dome that she wouldn’t be picked up on the laser and vaporized.

Damn damn damn! She scanned the surface as it slowly unrolled, trying to find the emergency hut that had been set-up for just this scenario. It was disguised, of course, since they weren’t the only intelligent beings in the vicinity, which was the reason for the SNSS after all. Well hell! She was gradually slowing and if she didn’t locate it pretty quickly, she was sunk.

She reviewed her options: (a) Find the hut. (b) Die. Well, that’s concise. Hmmm, I think I’ll choose...(a)! The sound of her giggle brought her back to reality and grimly she focused on scanning the entire area as far as she could see. There! She spotted what she was sure was the hut and was relieved that it was almost directly in her path.

Finally she was close enough she could radio the rescue net, which shot into the air and deployed nicely just ahead. She watched herself drift into the net, then grabbed with both hands and started pulling herself down toward the hut. Just before she reached the tops of the mountains she glanced in the direction she had recently come from. Bursts of light? The lasers are active ... that can’t be ... unless ... Oh hell, she was still in trouble. A light show like that one didn’t happen by accident; there was something bad going on.

Fairly quickly she reached the hut, engaged the net retrieval system, secured herself inside, and sank to the floor. That ... was unbelievable! She started laughing, then promptly burst into tears. After a little bit she was done with that, and got up to blow her nose and wipe away the tears. Now! She took a deep breath and checked out the hut -- comm system...functioning, perimeter guard...turned on, hut maintenance...functioning, surveillance...beeping. Beeping? Crap! Now what?!!