《The Nightcore Trilogy》Chapter 7: Explosion
Advertisement
Naeva Amari
He awoke with a start. The first thing he noticed was his splitting headache. The next was that Naeva was still curled up on top of him, and they were both still completely nude. The room had cooled considerably, so Reece looked up at the digital readout near the door. The time was 07:13. The shuttle, Hermes, was scheduled to launch back down to earth in twenty-seven minutes, and there was no way he wasn’t going to see Angel off. He was also sure Naeva probably wanted to see the outgoing crew off as well, so he gently shook her and called her name.
“Huh, what…oh, hi handsome,” answered Naeva groggily as she looked at him through eyes narrowed to slits. “What time is it?”
“A quarter after seven!”
“Shit!”
Naeva’s eyes got wide as she looked at Reece.
“We’ve only got a few minutes to see them off before their shuttle leaves.”
“I know. We over-slept.”
“Well, it was worth it, don’t you think?” replied Naeva as she pulled herself off of him and shakily stood up.
“Most definitely, but we’d better get a move on if we want to catch them.”
“Of course, and we both need a shower. I guess we’ll have to share one since there isn’t time to take one separately,” said Naeva as she winked at him and turned the shower faucet on. Stepping in once the water had heated up, she looked back at Reece with an approving nod and smile at his nakedness. Reece admired the view as well before he too stepped into the shower. Joining her in the welcoming warmth of the falling water, he took a moment to let the spray wake him up. They both quickly soaped up the important areas and rinsed off as Naeva gave Reece an amused look.
“I’ll take care of that later for you, big guy,” she said smiling wickedly. “But we simply don’t have time right now.”
Her face turned into a mock pout as Reece looked down and saw what she was talking about.
“I’ll hold you to it.”
“Oh, do.”
Naeva turned the water off and they both got out and quickly dried off with the towels from the floor. With no time or way to get to clean clothes, they were forced to put on the same clothes they wore the night before. Luckily, they were in adequate condition, if a bit wrinkled. Naeva took a minute combing out her long hair as Reece cleaned up the mess of towels. The two of them hurried to the launching module where just about everyone was sure to be.
They were greeted with a myriad of looks from jovial to disgusted, but all of them somehow 'knowing' looks. Reece was embarrassed and imagined Naeva was too, though she didn’t let it show.
Everyone went back to what they were doing, which was exchanging hugs, handshakes, and farewells. Solomon gave Naeva a long hug before offering Reece a handshake. He spoke with Thato for a few moments that ended in a firm handshake and half-hug that spoke of the comradery the two men must have shared. They stood that way, sharing the moment before Solomon let go first. Turning, he entered the airlock and joined Aldo, who was already in the shuttle. The man hadn’t said much to anyone as far as Reece noticed.
Advertisement
He chuckled inwardly as he thought the man was at least consistent with his detachment from the rest of the crew.
Angel had just finished giving Naeva a long hug, so Reece extended his hand to him. Angel batted it aside and gave him a big bear hug instead. He took the opportunity to whisper in Reece’s ear.
“I’m afraid you may have just made your time here very interesting. Take care of yourself, the crew, and my baby. I’ve got your word. Oh, if things go south, you CAN trust Naeva. You may need to. Trust me.”
After the cryptic comment, Angel released him from his grip and crawled into the airlock after Taylor. The outgoing commander had completely ignored Reece for some reason. That reminded him of the man drunkenly following Aika out of the dining module and he wondered what had transpired between him, her, and Solomon. With the two of them leaving, he may never know the whole story, if there was one to know.
He looked over at Aika who had tears silently trickling down her cheeks. Of course, she wasn’t the only one with sadness in her eyes. The Beckers both looked sad to see their coworkers and friends leave. Commander Alex Rogers, who was now the newly minted Station Commander, leaned in and called one last time through the airlock to the outgoing crew. “Godspeed.”
He stood back up and shut the airlock’s inner door and secured the latch. Reece could hear the Hermes crew doing the same with the outer latch. Once they could no longer see the crew, they all went to control to observe the shuttle’s descent to the earth and stand by to assist if necessary. Within the control module, Thomas sat down at the comms channels and donned a headset. “Shuttle Hermes, do you copy? Over.”
“We copy you, Station” came Taylor’s voice from the shuttle. “All systems are green. We are ready to disengage at your mark. Over.”
“Copy that, standby for countdown. Over.”
Thomas looked across to Pasha who was furiously typing away at the navigation computer. He hit the enter key pointedly and waited for the computer’s output which displayed across the screen after a few moments.
“Okay,” said Pasha to Thomas, “We have a solid window in fourteen minutes.”
“Roger,” returned Thomas, and over the comms link, he said, “Okay, Hermes…release will commence in just under fourteen minutes. Over”
“Copy that. Ov...” came back Taylor’s voice, followed by a grunt of pain over the communications link.
“What was that? Over,” asked Thomas over the link with clear concern in his voice.
All was silent, so Thomas called out again with no answer.
“Danielson...go down and check it out,” ordered Commander Rogers.
“Sir,” answered Reece as he turned to head back down to the airlock.
The static of the intercom flared on again.
“Zzzzt...All…good…just bad comms, swapping...bzzzt…you bastard!”
Reece recognized that last voice as Angel’s. What was going on? Was this the beginning of the big move that Angel had been talking about or was it just a comms problem... which seemed unlikely at this point. He sprinted down to the airlock. Before he could get there, an explosion rocked the whole station, throwing Reece to the floor. He swiftly jumped back up and saw through the bulkhead window that the airlock was just gone. The inner bulkhead seemed intact until Reece approached it and looked through the small window.
Advertisement
He could barely make out the shuttle as it fell away towards the earth, but the cockpit looked heavily damaged. No one onboard had much of a chance of survival under those circumstances. The hairs on the back of Reece’s neck stood up as he heard metal bending directly in front of him. The metal of the bulkhead began to warp which also caused cracks to spiderweb across the small window Reece was just looking through.
“Oh, shit!” thought Reece as he turned and rushed out of the module. Turning immediately once he cleared the failing module compartment, he shut its emergency bulkhead. It was just in time, as the airlock bulkhead ripped completely out of the module’s wall, leaving a gaping hole and sucking all the air from the compartment. The wreckage of the airlock bulkhead bounced off the shuttle docked at a nearby airlock and clipped one of the station’s modules on the other side of the ring before hurtling off into space. There it joined the rest of the circling space debris.
As the atmosphere was sucked out, Reece saw the door on one of the storage lockers fly open. It was on the opposite side of the compartment from the bulkhead and wasn’t empty. Three EVA suits clung to their hangers for a few seconds before getting sucked through the ragged hole where the airlock had once been. A couple of tool bags, rags, and a few parts also flew out, followed by the suit’s matching EVA helmets. Reece mashed the buttons on the intercom near the door.
“Control!” exclaimed Reece. “The airlock access compartment is compromised and airlock one is just gone. Also, Wisdom looked like it took heavy damage. Additionally, a bunch of gear including all the EVA suits in this section got sucked out of the airlock breach. Over.”
“By the gods, can you determine what happened? ...over,” came Commander Roger's reply.
“Impossible to say, sir. However, the inner bulkhead is missing for airlock three and it hit the second shuttle, Wisdom, and a module on the other side of the station, possibly the lab or the garden. There’s a big breach where the door used to be. Over.”
“Okay,” Rogers replied. “Return to control, I’ll go and check out the module damage around the garden and lab. Over.”
“I can check it if you’d like, Commander. I’m much closer. Over.”
“Do as I say, Reece. I won’t lose any more crew today. Do you copy? Over.”
“Copy that, Commander,” replied Reece before adding, “Oh, and Commander... you should check our orbit. An explosion like that could have thrown us off course. Over.”
“Good thinking, Danielson,” replied Commander Rogers. “We’re checking it now. Come on back to control. Over.”
“On my way. Over and out,” replied Reece.
Double-checking everything, Reece ensured that the bulkhead between the module he was in and the airlock access module was secure. Once he was satisfied that the inner emergency bulkhead was completely intact and properly sealed shut, he rushed back to the control module. Reece arrived out of breath and looked from one face to another. Aika was crying. Zia and Stephanie looked mortified, and Naeva shook her head meaningfully at him. No one was saying it, but they all dreaded that their crewmates may have been lost.
“Did you see anything down there?” asked Thomas, his voice thick with concern. “We felt some kind of explosion.”
“I arrived too late to see exactly what happened, but I did see that Hermes’s canopy was shattered, as was the entire airlock. It looked like the shuttle rammed into the airlock. I didn’t see an actual explosion, but the entire airlock access module is compromised. Did you pick up anything more from the intercom?”
“No, nothing,” sighed Thomas.
“Is there any chance of survival?” asked Aika.
All eyes turned towards Pasha.
“None,” stated Pasha. “Even if they managed to avoid getting sucked into space, they couldn’t pilot the shuttle from the cargo hold.”
Reece just shook his head.
“What in the abyss could have happened?” asked Reece to no one in particular. I swear it sounded like a scuffle was going on during those last two transmissions.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” agreed Thomas. "Something strange is going on."
The Commander’s voice sounded over the intercom. “I found the bulkhead’s trajectory. It smashed itself into the garden module but luckily didn’t completely penetrate it. We have some repairs that need to happen sooner than later, however. Have we heard anything from Hermes? Over.”
“Nothing, sir. However, we were able to determine that we are in a slightly expanding orbit, but the computer has determined that a slight change in spin should correct for it,” replied Thomas. “Do I have your permission to proceed? Over.”
“Copy that, make it happen,” replied Commander Rogers. There was a long pause before he addressed Reece, “Alright, Danielson…I need you down here for a damage assessment. Over.”
Reece gave Thomas a knowing look which Thomas returned. Then he turned and headed out to the garden. Reece could tell from that look that Thomas shared his concerns. Something was not right with the station, above and beyond the strange experiments in the bio-lab.
“He’s on his way. Over and out,” relayed Thomas over the intercom while Reece made his way across the station.
Advertisement
- In Serial96 Chapters
Epic Tales Variation: Aegis Kan
[Winner of the 2021 Writhathon Challenge] Volume 1 Powerless - without ability, influence, or power. That's what Aegis Kan previously known as Terrence Brown, felt when his world was invaded and his soul has whisked away to Gaia. Born as the firstborn of a Powerful Duke, Aegis finds himself in an entirely new world with magic and different paths to power; however, Aegis Kan is tasked with a mission as a Harbinger by the being, [Beyond], who invaded his world, took his soul, and chucked him and others out into the universe. Their task? Spread the System to the myriad races. This is his story, his Epic Tales. Volume 2 Syn Aegis and his cousin Amaya find themselves sent to the world of Prima on one mission and one mission alone. Conquer the world and add it the dukedom and Empires ever-growing resources. However, something weird happened to the planet right before their arrival. An overlap of the same world but darker and a merging caused by the shifting of realities have caused a nightmare Aegis has long forgotten to reappear. They... tHey... THEY... THe NOX ARE COMING! This story can be considered a slow burn and the everything is explained as the action commences and the story moves along. It is mostly told from Aegis perspective however there are several times when a side character perspective of an event matters so I'll put it in. Btw the first volume is a bit spotty as I am a new writer and still trying to find my rhythm. I believe it picks up speed around chapter 13-16ish Release Schedule: 4 chapters a week Wed-Sat 7AM GMT -6 Chapter length between 2000-3500. I try to stay around 2500-3000 but somethings the chapter just doesnt have a good cut off. Not all tags will affect the first volume and more will be added as the world is expanded. If you want to show support join my Discord or read 8 chapters plus get access to side stories on my Patreon!
8 131 - In Serial64 Chapters
Legend Land: Tale of the Nameless God
The sprawling city of Malor is filled with dead legends and gods. It is rife with possibilities, and this has not gone unnoticed. Amongst the gang wars, budding revolutions, and toppling monopolies, one item sticks out: a job. Break into a heavily secured vault to steal Amaterasu's three heavenly regalia, items that can destroy the gods themselves. A suicide mission.Namonai is a budding thie...mercenary. He isn't well known; most forget his name as soon as it's said. But if you want a job done, and can stand his attitude, Namonai is your man. There are some suicide missions, though, you just can't do alone.Along the way Namonai will get help from some of the unlikeliest of allies. Wikolia, the Wyvern, a former guard and interrogator for the Underworld. Esilea, a disgraced warrior and dethroned queen of the Amazons. Icarus, genius prodigy and mechanical inventor. Together, these four have the skills to accomplish the impossible. If they don't kill each other first. Legend Land: Tale of the Nameless God is a companion story that runs alongside the original Legend Land. Full of pulse-pounding action, twists and turns, it takes a unique approach to retelling myths and legends. A story about trust, danger, intrigue, and impossible odds. Purchase a signed copy of the original Legend Land. Unsigned copy on Amazon.
8 153 - In Serial29 Chapters
The Story of KED
A chance encounter with a resistance fighter catches a group of Orphans up in a galaxy spanning battle for freedom from a millennia old Empire. Meanwhile heroes and powerful figures within the Empire struggle to preserve their way of life amidst their crumbling regime.
8 179 - In Serial10 Chapters
Seduce Me
Lillia was not with anyone and had started to live in her own place for almost a year.One day their was a event happening downtown and she went 'cause of the excitement and how much it interest her.What she wasn't expecting was to meet a charming and dashing man there.
8 77 - In Serial11 Chapters
Kissing School
"Alright. I got this far. What next Mr. Teacher?" He laughs at me. Actually laughs at me! If he thinks that just because his laugh is one of the sexiest sounds ever that he can get away with laughing at me, he is so wrong. My anger is lost the second his fingers start caressing their way up my leg, landing on my hip which is where they stay. "First lesson: the art of teasing." I can do this one. It'll be just like the other night in his living room. Give him just enough to leave him wanting more. However, even though I know a lot about teasing, I think I'm about to learn a whole hell of a lot more. Looking directly into Cameron's eyes, I see how they are twinkling with the excitement of this lesson. I have a feeling I am in way over my head.--Cameron is Amanda's best friend's brother. After a night of restlessness, Cameron agrees to teach Amanda how to kiss her way to a boyfriend, but there is only one tiny problem. She doesn't want just any boyfriend. She wants the guy she has been in love with for years, and he just agreed to take her to Kissing School.
8 92 - In Serial9 Chapters
Baby Brother With A Past
Tyler with a. Rough past gets adopted by a new mom, his brother is over protective and they soon get feelings for one another, the feelings they shouldnt be having.
8 96