Instance 68 - Pt. 1
Instance 68 - Pt. 1
The tether unspooled behind Nelson as she pushed off. She didn’t like it out here, not the way some of her crew did. It was dizzying, stomach churning. The hull of the ship extended out into the distance in front and behind her as she ran, but in nearly every other direction there was only space. There was nothing firm for your eyes to hold onto in that distance. No matter how still you stood on the hull, the ship was always spinning, moving relative the starfield around it, and you couldn’t hold a single point of light fixed in your gaze for long enough to get any real bearings.
Nelson stared at the hull below, guiding herself to a landing, then pushed off again. Jumping and dashing got you across the hull a lot faster, and she was in a hurry, and even though it wasn’t inherently any riskier than just walking, she wished she had the luxury of taking her time.
“She’s crying now,” the voice in her headset informed her calmly, “she’s gonna let go soon.”
“Why didn’t this show up in the last diagnostics?” a second voice, agitated and nervous.
“Save it for when we have her back inside, then we’ll figure out what went wrong.”
“If we get her back,” the first voice again, still calm. Dein had been through this before, had been there when they’d lost the last SPIDER. He knew losing his cool wouldn’t help now.
“I swear I checked the emergency clamps.”
“No one is blaming you,” Nelson said into her headset as she skipped off the hull again, “Aragog is in shit shape, Reggie, even for a SPIDER. Even I can’t get my head around the nest of programs that make up her operatings system.”
“Nelson,” Dein’s tone had an unsettled edge, not a good sign, “she’s letting go.”
“Shit!” Nelson landed and took off again, pushing harder, the tether seemed to whine in protest as is unwounded out the back of her suite, “I’m nearly there.”
“If she’s detached, you have the slack to go out and grab her.”
“I know, I know,” she grumbled to him as she landed hard. She’d do it if she had too, but the idea of floating off into open space with just the tether to pull her and the SPIDER back down made her stomach turn over.
She could see Aragog clearly now, four legs up off the hull, floating, the other two still holding on. She pushed off hard and landed just a foot away, but the impact shook the hull plate and one of Aragog’s legs came loose.
“Shit!!”
“What?” Reggie cried.
“Just one holding on, but she’s still here.”
Nelson was panting, heart racing as she took out a clamp from her belt and hooked it around the first leg she could reach.
“I have her,” she said, still out of breath, “she’s tethered to me. I’m gonna take a quick look out here, then haul her in.”
A pair of relieved sighs filled her headset.
“Told you you didn’t need to worry,” Dein said.
“Thanks,” came Reggie’s voice, and she exhaled heavily.
“Have the bay ready, we can’t afford to have Aragog in repairs more than 4 hours.”
“Nelson, I’m not sure that’s -”
“I’m sorry Dein, but you saw the latest readings, we have five more microfissures on the dome, and Anansi can’t get to all of them on her own. We patch Aragog up and we get her back out.”
“Okay, four hours, I’ll be ready.”
The gloves made it hard for Nelson to open the panel. If a SPIDER was truely out of commission, it was best to repair them inside where you could do the work unencumbered, but if she was getting the SPIDER inside, she needed to turn the magnetic systems completely off so the SPIDER didn’t keep trying to take hold of the hull as they went back.
Aragog was acting up more and more, the least reliable of their SPIDERS. Maybe in a few weeks they’re be a break in the repairs, and they could afford to pull her in for real maintenance. Anansi was their best SPIDER, the oldest and somehow still in the best working order. She took commands better than the others, stayed on task, and even sent back reports on schedule half the time.
“You do your best, don’t you girl?” Nelson patted Aragog’s panel cover after she’d switched off the magnetic systems. “We all do our best.”
At least she could walk back to the airlock, though it would take more time; it would be too risky to try jumping all the way back with the SPIDER.
The tether unspooled behind Nelson as she pushed off. She didn’t like it out here, not the way some of her crew did. It was dizzying, stomach churning. The hull of the ship extended out into the distance in front and behind her as she ran, but in nearly every other direction there was only space. There was nothing firm for your eyes to hold onto in that distance. No matter how still you stood on the hull, the ship was always spinning, moving relative the starfield around it, and you couldn’t hold a single point of light fixed in your gaze for long enough to get any real bearings.
Nelson stared at the hull below, guiding herself to a landing, then pushed off again. Jumping and dashing got you across the hull a lot faster, and she was in a hurry, and even though it wasn’t inherently any riskier than just walking, she wished she had the luxury of taking her time.
“She’s crying now,” the voice in her headset informed her calmly, “she’s gonna let go soon.”
“Why didn’t this show up in the last diagnostics?” a second voice, agitated and nervous.
“Save it for when we have her back inside, then we’ll figure out what went wrong.”
“If we get her back,” the first voice again, still calm. Dein had been through this before, had been there when they’d lost the last SPIDER. He knew losing his cool wouldn’t help now.
“I swear I checked the emergency clamps.”
“No one is blaming you,” Nelson said into her headset as she skipped off the hull again, “Aragog is in shit shape, Reggie, even for a SPIDER. Even I can’t get my head around the nest of programs that make up her operatings system.”
“Nelson,” Dein’s tone had an unsettled edge, not a good sign, “she’s letting go.”
“Shit!” Nelson landed and took off again, pushing harder, the tether seemed to whine in protest as is unwounded out the back of her suite, “I’m nearly there.”
“If she’s detached, you have the slack to go out and grab her.”
“I know, I know,” she grumbled to him as she landed hard. She’d do it if she had too, but the idea of floating off into open space with just the tether to pull her and the SPIDER back down made her stomach turn over.
She could see Aragog clearly now, four legs up off the hull, floating, the other two still holding on. She pushed off hard and landed just a foot away, but the impact shook the hull plate and one of Aragog’s legs came loose.
“Shit!!”
“What?” Reggie cried.
“Just one holding on, but she’s still here.”
Nelson was panting, heart racing as she took out a clamp from her belt and hooked it around the first leg she could reach.
“I have her,” she said, still out of breath, “she’s tethered to me. I’m gonna take a quick look out here, then haul her in.”
A pair of relieved sighs filled her headset.
“Told you you didn’t need to worry,” Dein said.
“Thanks,” came Reggie’s voice, and she exhaled heavily.
“Have the bay ready, we can’t afford to have Aragog in repairs more than 4 hours.”
“Nelson, I’m not sure that’s -”
“I’m sorry Dein, but you saw the latest readings, we have five more microfissures on the dome, and Anansi can’t get to all of them on her own. We patch Aragog up and we get her back out.”
“Okay, four hours, I’ll be ready.”
The gloves made it hard for Nelson to open the panel. If a SPIDER was truely out of commission, it was best to repair them inside where you could do the work unencumbered, but if she was getting the SPIDER inside, she needed to turn the magnetic systems completely off so the SPIDER didn’t keep trying to take hold of the hull as they went back.
Aragog was acting up more and more, the least reliable of their SPIDERS. Maybe in a few weeks they’re be a break in the repairs, and they could afford to pull her in for real maintenance. Anansi was their best SPIDER, the oldest and somehow still in the best working order. She took commands better than the others, stayed on task, and even sent back reports on schedule half the time.
“You do your best, don’t you girl?” Nelson patted Aragog’s panel cover after she’d switched off the magnetic systems. “We all do our best.”
At least she could walk back to the airlock, though it would take more time; it would be too risky to try jumping all the way back with the SPIDER.
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