Sliding her bare ass into a stranger's long-distance flight seat--moons knew who and what had sat there before--was hardly on the top of Alex's bucket list. No, that dubious honor belonged to her present ability to shut down the alien scout ship's security measures before passing out from holding her breath. Or worse.
She frantically maneuvered through the screens but ten seconds later the intuitive pathing of controls led straight to red lights bathing the room and turning the green smoke a hazy brown.
"UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS. UNAUTHORIZED--"
Alex slapped her palm over the comm to kill the warning. Yes. Pretty fraggin' obvious that's what we've got here, isn't it? She barely stopped herself from spouting the gripe aloud, remembering as her lips had begun to part that she'd have to breathe in afterwards--and that the gas was descending at a rapid rate. She could do this--she WOULD do this, the first task she had an opportunity to prove herself to her new captain. Moons anyway but deactivating the ship beacons was my own blasted plan! Five more seconds slipped past as she dropped to her knees in front of the panel. Come on, come on, come on...where's your override, you star-drecked space slug!
Ten more seconds of rummaging through wires, tracing back-paths to ports this pilot had clearly cared about. He'd been the leader, no doubt about it. Maybe even had some fancy medals back home--or whatever his people's equivalent is. Color-coded things linking to non-color-coded things and he thought he was clever, did he? Not against Alex's measure. She found the beacon override before the gas cutoff, higher than the other ship's had been given the rewiring job and extra security. No matter. Wasting more precious seconds dismantling it as she had the other ship, Alex grinned, her cheeks puffed out like some small old Earthen woodland creature. There. Mission complete. Captain will like that. Maybe space me later rather than sooner.
Too bad she wasn't out of those woodland creature forests yet. She ran her gaze back over the panel and this time the right color combo jumped out at her. It wasn't perfect, but those wires would indeed get the gas out of the room. With a short exhale, her small hands fitted into a tight crevice under the control board and she wrapped two cords around her index fingers. One good pull...aaaand they were free. Dragging the wires with her, Alex groped along the floor for the helmet. A sharp blade among her tools came up and she stripped the coating in a rush. Splicing the wires together, she jammed the twisted mess back into a different board altogether--the vacuum tubes. The gas would still be pumping, but it would be jettisoning out into space, not into the cabin with her.
Sparks, hot and angry, sizzled around her hand.
It had never been in Alex's skillset to be able to hold her breath. Probably because to do so, she'd actually have to keep her mouth shut for an extended period of time. Even on a calmer day, that wasn't a reasonable request.
So when she yelped and jerked her hand back to suck on her palm, it was typical that she'd top off the mistake by sucking in a lungful of air. And while the hissing that had been bombarding her ears had turned into a low hum, the gas hadn't yet left the room.
"Oh, frell. That hurt," she grumbled, reaching a hand up to pat the panel. "But we got it done, didn't we, you lovely piece of scrap--" An unhealthy bout of coughing seized the rest of her words and clamped down on her throat. More air pulled painfully into her lungs. "Frrre--" Wounds she'd tried to forget about wrenched at her muscles as her body wracked with coughing again. Her eyes watered until she couldn't see, and she found herself driving her small fists onto the panel buttons overhead at random, trying desperately to find something that would open a door, speed up the air cleaners, something.
Anything, as her lungs turned as molten as the sting of a whip across her tortured shoulders.
She frantically maneuvered through the screens but ten seconds later the intuitive pathing of controls led straight to red lights bathing the room and turning the green smoke a hazy brown.
"UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS. UNAUTHORIZED--"
Alex slapped her palm over the comm to kill the warning. Yes. Pretty fraggin' obvious that's what we've got here, isn't it? She barely stopped herself from spouting the gripe aloud, remembering as her lips had begun to part that she'd have to breathe in afterwards--and that the gas was descending at a rapid rate. She could do this--she WOULD do this, the first task she had an opportunity to prove herself to her new captain. Moons anyway but deactivating the ship beacons was my own blasted plan! Five more seconds slipped past as she dropped to her knees in front of the panel. Come on, come on, come on...where's your override, you star-drecked space slug!
Ten more seconds of rummaging through wires, tracing back-paths to ports this pilot had clearly cared about. He'd been the leader, no doubt about it. Maybe even had some fancy medals back home--or whatever his people's equivalent is. Color-coded things linking to non-color-coded things and he thought he was clever, did he? Not against Alex's measure. She found the beacon override before the gas cutoff, higher than the other ship's had been given the rewiring job and extra security. No matter. Wasting more precious seconds dismantling it as she had the other ship, Alex grinned, her cheeks puffed out like some small old Earthen woodland creature. There. Mission complete. Captain will like that. Maybe space me later rather than sooner.
Too bad she wasn't out of those woodland creature forests yet. She ran her gaze back over the panel and this time the right color combo jumped out at her. It wasn't perfect, but those wires would indeed get the gas out of the room. With a short exhale, her small hands fitted into a tight crevice under the control board and she wrapped two cords around her index fingers. One good pull...aaaand they were free. Dragging the wires with her, Alex groped along the floor for the helmet. A sharp blade among her tools came up and she stripped the coating in a rush. Splicing the wires together, she jammed the twisted mess back into a different board altogether--the vacuum tubes. The gas would still be pumping, but it would be jettisoning out into space, not into the cabin with her.
Sparks, hot and angry, sizzled around her hand.
It had never been in Alex's skillset to be able to hold her breath. Probably because to do so, she'd actually have to keep her mouth shut for an extended period of time. Even on a calmer day, that wasn't a reasonable request.
So when she yelped and jerked her hand back to suck on her palm, it was typical that she'd top off the mistake by sucking in a lungful of air. And while the hissing that had been bombarding her ears had turned into a low hum, the gas hadn't yet left the room.
"Oh, frell. That hurt," she grumbled, reaching a hand up to pat the panel. "But we got it done, didn't we, you lovely piece of scrap--" An unhealthy bout of coughing seized the rest of her words and clamped down on her throat. More air pulled painfully into her lungs. "Frrre--" Wounds she'd tried to forget about wrenched at her muscles as her body wracked with coughing again. Her eyes watered until she couldn't see, and she found herself driving her small fists onto the panel buttons overhead at random, trying desperately to find something that would open a door, speed up the air cleaners, something.
Anything, as her lungs turned as molten as the sting of a whip across her tortured shoulders.
Dreams come in a size too big so we can grow into them.
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