Station Breaker

78 Death Spiral

Sanjay is about ten meters ahead of me in the wreck of the alien spaceship. His bubbles hit the ceiling and roll backwards like a level trying to seek the higher ground.

Somewhere behind me Bennet is taking the rear, letting the two of us be the first to explore the crashed Xixanox alien battle cruiser.

That is, the first non-actors and crew to explore the set.

Built in an unfinished nuclear reactor cooling tank in North Carolina, for the last three months it'd been home to a massive movie production shooting underwater scenes on one of the largest sets ever built.

"Don't let your man get too far ahead of you," Bennet says on the underwater radio.

Sanjay is like a kid, eager to explore this new terrain.

Vin heard about the set and had us drive up from the Cape to see if we might be able to use it for space training.

While it sounded cool to me, Bennet thought it was a waste of time. The Xixanox cruiser looked nothing like anything we could expect to encounter on the US/iCosmos station or anywhere else; unless steampunk aliens influenced by H.R. Giger invaded.

Still, it was fun to explore something that didn't look like it was built on the Boeing factory floor.

It was easy to pretend we really were on some alien ship about to make contact — and probably not in a happy way.

When Sanjay reached for the handle I sensed it was a bad idea. This part of the set seemed more flimsy than the rest and was already deteriorating. Pieces of Styrofoam bobbed on the ceiling and curlicues of paint that never dried formed in the corner.

I tried to stop him but was too late. As he pulled on the door, the whole wall collapsed and Sanjay was quickly covered in a cloud of debris.

"Shit! Sanjay is down!" I kicked forward to help free him when another wall collapsed on me.

A metal truss pinned me to the floor, knocking the air out of my lungs. I could spot Sanjay's terrified face just a few inches from my own. His air hose had been severed and was flapping around like an angry serpent.

"Hold…" My words were choked off by a spray of water as a crack in my mask let in water.

I took a deep breath and shut my mouth.

Sanjay reached a hand towards me. I snatched his wrist and pulled him out from under the truss using all my strength.

I was still stuck but managed to get to my knees, lifting the wall on my back.

I tugged Sanjay by the belt and pushed him past my body, shoving him out of the collapse.

His fin kicked my mask, almost knocking it loose as he swam back down the corridor, leaving me alone.

I tried to inch my way free, but the weight of the wall was too much. I felt my thighs ready to give.

The weight was too much and I fell to the floor of the pool. Water trickled into my mask and everything went blurry.

Fuck, I thought, this is how I die. Underwater in a pretend spaceship.

As I resigned myself to my fate, a powerful hand grabbed me by my ankle and yanked me away.

It was Bennet to the rescue.

The entire rear section of the set collapsed and a cloud of dust rolled past us.

Not waiting to see what else was going to go wrong, he pulled on my shoulder and pushed me towards the way we came.

He followed me all the way to the edge of the concrete pool and waited until I rolled onto dry ground before getting out himself.

Sanjay was already out of the tank, helmet off, hands on knees, coughing out water.

I ripped off my mask and took my first breath in what seemed like forever.

I laid on my side, the air tank still stuck to my back, catching my breath.

Bennet climbed out and leaned over me. "What the hell, Dixon?"

"COUGH… set collapsed."

"No kidding." He reached down and picked up my fractured mask. "What about this?"

"Must have been rebar or something."

I was too confused to understand what he was angry about. "I had to help Sanjay."

Bennet shoved the cracked mask in my face like I was a dog that pissed all over the rug. "What about this?"

I shook my head, not getting it.

Disgusted, he yanked the other mouthpiece from my chest and waves it in front of my nose. "What is this?"

"Back up," I said between exhausted breaths.

"Why didn't you use it?"

"No time." I made my way into a seated position and pointed to Sanjay. "What about him?"

"He's dead," said Bennet.

"What?" Sanjay blurted.

"You left this idiot down there."

"I had a torn hose!" Sanjay protested, understanding that Bennet was talking more than metaphorically.

While this wasn't an official astronaut training test, it was clearly enough of a trial by fire for Bennet to see what we're made of.

Bennet shrugged him off and turned his attention back to me. "How did you fuck up, yoga boy?"

"I saved Sanjay."

"I would have made it," said Sanjay.

"Go back to fantasyland," growled Bennet. "Dixon. Tell me how you fucked up?"

"I needed to secure my own air supply first."

"Why?"

"Because I'm under extra stress and increased exertion. Not doing so could kill us both."

"If this had been a…" Bennet glanced over at the underwater set and rolled his eyes. "A goddamn whatever, you'd be dead because you panicked."

"I didn't panic."

"Oh, you didn't? You acted perfectly calmly and rationally?"

"No…"

"You goddamn panicked." He shoved a finger right between my eyes. "You acted, but you didn't think. The impulse was right but the instincts were all wrong."

"I'm sorry…"

"Get this gear loaded up in the truck. I'm going to go call our boss and tell him this was a stupid idea."

When Sanjay and I finished loading the equipment, Bennet was standing in the middle of the parking lot with a cigar in his mouth staring up at the night sky.

I left Sanjay to sulk by the truck as I walked over to Bennet.

The only light was the stars and the orange glow of his Arturo Fuente, a rare indulgence. I stood there in silence, letting him have his moment of peace.

"Do you want to die up there?" Bennet asked.

"You mean like of old age from a heart attack as I have zero-g sex with a couple of space hookers?"

This got me a blast of blue smoke in the face. "Let me rephrase the question. Do you ever want a chance to go up there?"

"Yes. Hell, yes. Without a doubt."

"Then next time you do what you're trained. Not what your little impulses tell you. What were you trained to do?"

"Secure my own air supply any way I can."

"Then what?"

"Lend assistance."

"Then what?"

"Get to safety."

"What happens when you skip step one?"

"I jeopardize the mission?"

"People die, David. People die."