Station Breaker

81 Adrift

I brace my gun against the side of the spire and take careful aim. Not at Yablokov, but the canister at the back of the EVA pack with all the warning stickers on it.

Sparks fly an inch from my head as Yablokov fires a round straight past Domnin and almost into my head.

The two are about to collide.

I squeeze my trigger.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

I hear every shot because the only place for the vibration to go is into me.

It's the last one that sets off the explosion I can see, but not hear.

Domnin's EVA pack rips apart in an orange ball of flames that swallows Yablokov.

Parts of Domnin and his suit fly off in a dozen directions.

Yablokov spins wildly out of control, but somehow manages to stabilize himself. His jets fire and he rotates towards me.

As the flames die down I can see that his helmet is cracked and his face charred.

I can't tell if the burnt thing looking back at me is alive or dead. All I know is that it's filled with fury.

His thrusters blaze and send his carcass directly at me.

I unload the rest of the magazine into his chest. A pointless effort. He's already dead.

I try to jump out of the way, but the edge of his EVA hits me hard in the shoulder.

Tendrils of blood and fuel flow from him and his pack as his furious trajectory sends him into a solar panel.

Blue and black glass panels break apart and shatter into thousands of pieces.

I feel the station shake and try to cover my face plate from the debris. Tiny shards rain against my suit.

There's another impact and I look below as the burning corpse smashes into Ivanka.

The impact is followed by an explosion and the entire docking section lights up in an orange ball when his exploding EVA pack sets off the fuel on the other craft.

BOOM!!! The sound makes its way through the station and into my suit through touch.

I feel the station rattle and lurch as the explosion tears the lower section away.

My grip is knocked free and I go flying — choosing to hold onto the nuke instead of trying to make a futile grasp at the rail that's now too far away.

As I drift helplessly away from the K1, the wreckage of the docking section floats off like a severed limb in the ocean current.

"OPS… holy shit. Can you reach the K1?"

"Patching through," says Baylor.

Tense seconds go by as the K1 grows smaller and smaller.

I try my suit jets, but they're all spent.

"David?" asks Sonin, sounding far away.

"Thank god! Are you okay?"

"The hatches are sealed up. What about you?"

"I got the nuke. We should be able to find it from my suit transponder."

"Wait, why don't you bring it back to the K1?" asks Baylor.

Sonin swears in Russian. "We don't have any EVA suits. We don't even have any working spacesuits. By the time a resupply makes it here…"

"I'll be out of oxygen," I reply.

The K1 is already a small dot. It's like a little jewel. A deadly one, like any interesting gem, but beautiful no less.

I hear Laney protest in the background, "Let me talk to him! David?"

"What's up, Glitter Menace?"

"What about your reserve rockets?"

"Used them to tackle Domnin."

"Okay… maybe we can improvise something? What about the EVO's?"

"They have to be initiated from outside the station."

"Damn it. What about… there's got to be something!"

"Kiddo, all that matters is the mission. I've got the nuke. The bad guys are dead. We'll be able to retrieve this thing before I become a shooting star and all will be right with the world."

"No, it won't. Don't give up." I can hear her sobbing on the other end of the comm.

"I'm not. I'm just accepting the idea that there are no more alternatives. Make sure that Vin finds those kids in Rio that helped me. If that happens, I'll die a happy man."

The earth is so big and beautiful right now. I'm on the day side and night is approaching — It's such a wonderful metaphor for what's happening.

Bennet, Peterson, Tyler, they all died for an important reason I get now. I know why they did it.

I can hear the static of the open channel, but neither Laney nor I know what to say.

"David," says Markov. "You've done an admirable thing."

"Thanks. Look after Washburn for me."

OPS goes quiet as they try to figure out what you tell a guy about to die.

Finally, I speak, trying to put a brave face on everything. "Hey, Laney, it's so beautiful up here. I can't wait for you to see it one day."