T-Plus 15

Oliver forced his bleary eyes to keep open as he handed another set of pliers to the Chief. The older technician had looped himself to the hatch’s handles, keeping himself anchored as he mulled over the intricacies of the solar panel before them. From the start of when the Chief stepped out of his passive state, he’d been hunched over the panel, glaring at the parts that needed repair, muttering curses under his breath at every inconvenience, each audible through their constantly open radio link. Even with all his harrumphing, he still remembered to order Oliver around, making the younger technician remember his days and nights as an intern.

“Hensley, give me the 35 milimeter wrench.”

“Get me my screwdriver.”

“Come hold this down for me.”

“Go get those extra glass panels from inside.”

“Where are my pliers, Hensley?”

Sometimes, Oliver would help the Chief rotate the panel inch by inch, so he could inspect another section of the panel. Other than the orders that were barked straight into his ear, Oliver had nothing better to do other than watch and learn. Although doing that for hours on end was more than tiring, and his inability to help at the moment definitely reminded him of his interning days. And here he thought after receiving the orange sash that signified his Senior status, that’d be the end of that.

Speaking of the intern, Daniel was certainly keeping him on his toes. Occasionally, they’d see Joey scurrying by to grab materials for the other repair station. He’d come by and ask for tools to borrow, hurry inside to grab some of the spares, or float leisurely to relay a message since the radios couldn’t connect at this distance. Despite this being only his second excursion outside the Station, he’d already mastered maneuvering in zero gravity, and relished doing flips and somersaults before he landed. He spun as his landing finish this time too, and he turned back to them.

“How was that?”

“Six points,” Oliver answered. “Go get what Daniel needs.”

“Only six? Come on, that definitely deserved at least an 8!”

“Any more dilly-dally and I’ll make you feel 10-point pain,” the Chief warned, straightening from his posture.

Joey headed straight in, rushing out minutes later with a panel in hand. He scurried out of the hatch, zipping along the rungs back to where Daniel was waiting for the next part of the transformer. Oliver watched him go before turning to the Chief who was still stretching out his body from being hunched over too long. He could imagine the amount of joints popping as he watched him, since he’d been in a similar position before.

“How’s the panel looking, Chief?” he asked once the other had moved onto swinging some feeling back into his arm.

“Just need to make sure the internals in the center are okay and the junction that hooks up to the Station is working,” the Chief replied, moving his head side-to-side.

He finished relieving himself of the kinks in his joints. The Chief undid some of his anchors, gliding out to the middle of the panel and peering down on it. Oliver came closer, holding the panel as still as he could with only himself, which wasn’t very stable. The Chief continued calling out his needs, his arm outstretched behind him in wait for Oliver to hand him his requested items and tools. For the sake of convenience and to keep himself from falling asleep by floating around doing nothing, Oliver followed him out there with the toolbox, keeping the box and himself from touching down on the panel by accident.

“Bolt.”

“Wire.”

“Move, you’re blocking the light.”

“Hammer.”

“No, not a hammer, give me a screwdriver. The smallest one!”

“But Chief, you said hammer,” Oliver protested as he rubbed the spot on his arm where the Chief had smacked him with the hammer’s handle.

“Think, boy! Does it look like I can hammer something as delicate as this? I’d shatter the glass panelling I just installed!” the Chief scoffed, taking the screwdriver that was handed to him instead.

Oliver put the hammer at the bottom of the toolbox before closing it to prevent all the small pieces from floating out. As the Chief went back to scrutinizing the panel, Oliver spotted Joey’s figure propelling himself over with the rungs at a faster speed than usual. When the intern got close enough, he slapped his chest, and Joey’s out of breath voice called over through the radio.

“What’s the rush for, Joey?” Oliver asked as the intern huffed and puffed right within the range.

“Chief! Mr. Hensley! We got the transformer fixed! But uhh...”

“What complication did you run into this time?” the Chief asked, looking up from his own work.

“Mr. Jiang told me to come help over here, since he’s going to go check on the connecting wires to make sure he doesn’t have to repair those either.”

“And you were so happy to leave him that you rushed over here?” Oliver teased.

“What? No! Mr. Jiang told me to hurry over, so I did!” Joey protested as he came closer to their work site.

He paused at the edge of the panel, hesitating to float over the delicate repairs the Chief had just finished. Even after all his confidence in twisting and turning in space, evidently the intern wasn’t arrogant enough yet to assume he could move around without accidentally hitting something he wasn’ supposed to. Instead, he clung to the rungs off to the side and continued to observe the Chief’s work.

“Is there anything I can help with?” the intern asked before he completely settled himself in.

“I need both of you to shut up and hold the panel as steady as you can,” the Chief barked in his usual manner. “Hensley, pliers.”

Oliver handed the Chief his pliers, accepting the screwdriver in return. Joey had released himself from the rungs, looping an arm through the hatch’s handle and tugging with all his weight to keep the drifting panel from moving too far. Once the Chief didn’t ask for any other tools, Oliver reeled himself in and helped the intern keep the panel steady. Other than the occasional tool needed, soon the Chief came over to them with good news.

“Alright, boys, she’s good to go. Intern, go get Jiang so get some shut-eye before we haul this over to his contraption later,” he said as he held onto the hatch handle.

“Yessir!”

Joey monkey barred his way back over to Daniel, disappearing around the bend of the Station at top speeds, maybe even a bit quicker than how he arrived here.

“Hensley, let’s anchor this before you fools have to go retrieve another one.”

Using the extra rope they had on hand from their earlier mission, Oliver and the Chief wrapped it around the edges of the panel which were made for hauling the panels and tied it to the rungs of the Station just below the hatch entrance where it was less likely to bang into something and ruin the Chief’s arduous work. As they were stabilizing it, Joey returned with Daniel in tow.

“Need more rope?” the other senior technician asked from the hatch’s entrance.

“Maybe one of the longer ones,” Oliver said.

Daniel disappeared inside for a few minutes, returning with several cables he grabbed from the nearby crates. With his help, they wrapped the panel by connecting the cables together and latching it beside the tether they’d used to dock it. Once they double checked it was secure, the four went inside and closed the hatch behind them, using their usual method to find their way to the inner doors. Inside, they finally took off their helmets, flicking on the flashlights they had handy by the doors.

“Alright, boys, get some rest and we’ll reassemble here in five hours time,” the Chief said. “When the time comes, get one of the lab coats to come help out too. There’s one extra suit, right?”

“Yessir!”

Five hours didn’t seem like a lot of sleep, but it was about the average amount among technicians. If anything, there’d been situations where Oliver only had enough time to close his eyes for one or two hours before waking up to handle an emergency situation, often something related to Lab 5C’s shenanigans. If anything, Daniel was the unluckier one as he and his usual team were responsible for the Station’s power distribution and infrastructure. Only Joey was muttering complaints about the five hours, but he was there on time when it mattered.

The Chief had woken up first and was already geared up and waiting by the hatch when it was time. Stepping into his suit next to him in a daze was Joey. As they approached, they could see he was yawning and rubbing his dark eyes, the black bags under them as obvious as theirs. Oliver grabbed his suit with Soup, who had woken up with them and was voluntold to come along, mirroring his actions. Daniel was the last to show up.

The flashlight that signalled his arrival bounced up and down and approached them quickly, like he was being chased by something. The four of them stood, ready to close themselves in the hatch if it came to it, only for Joey to point his light behind Daniel and see Toast had latched onto the technician wailing about something.

“You didn’t tell him he’s not allowed out here this time?” Oliver asked Soup.

“You woke me up before I could tell him, what did you expect?” the engineer replied with a dry laugh. “Sorry about this. I’ll go tell him off.”

“No need,” the Chief decided. “If he wants to help so badly, he can come. Switch suits with him, Dr. Kuznetsov.”

The engineer could only acquiesce and retrieved the one leg that was already in the suit, handing it over to Toast once he chased Daniel all the way over.

“Wait, is Toast coming out with us?” Daniel huffed, his hands on his knees as he recovered from the chase. A look of defeat crossed his face. “Then why was I running?”

“Come on, Dr. Vaughn. We don’t have all night. Get in the suit. You too, Jiang,” the Chief said.

He turned over to Soup who was now watching the proceedings with bleary eyes, looking ready to go back to sleep.

“Dr. Kuznetsov, I need you to make sure the tethers remain stable. We’ll be moving the solar panel over to the pipelines, and I don’t want all of us drifting off into space because we let an untrustworthy lab coat be the anchor.”

Toast turned to the Chief, suited up in everything but his helmet. Said helmet was in his hands, just above his head where it had paused when Toast turned a hurt look over to the Chief.

“Are you saying I’m not a trustworthy person?” he complained.

“Yes,” was the honest reply. “If you two are the only ones awake, I’d rather have you where I can see you, so I can fix whatever you end up making a mess of.”

Soup patted his fellow engineer.

“Look at it this way: would you rather be here or out there?”

“Out there!”

“So what are you complaining about?” Soup laughed as he shoved his boss’s helmet on him. “Look, just try not to actually get in their way. This isn’t like we’re racing drones, okay?”

Toast batted Soup out of the way, crossing his arms. His helmet turned away from both the Chief and Soup, and he stomped over to where Oliver was helping Daniel suit up. He stood next to the two of them, turning his back on the others.

Ignoring the engineer that was in the middle of a tantrum, the other four equipped their helmets, gave Soup a thumbs up, and opened the hatch. Shimmying to the other set of doors, they forced it open and checked under them for the solar panel. In the five hours they’d been gone, it’d remained where they left it, although from what Oliver could tell, it had shifted maybe a meter or two away from the Station.

With Toast watching, the four technicians undid the binds that kept the panel connected to the Station and took up positions around it. Oliver and Joey were together behind it, while Daniel and the Chief were on the side that was closest to the Station.

“Alright, Dr. Vaughn, you’re going to help out Hensley and the intern over there. Usually, we’d use the drones to deliver this, but we don’t have that luxury at the moment, so we’re just going to have to do this ourselves. They’re going to shove off, and we’re going to pull it along over to where it belongs. Got it?”

Toast’s helmet nodded in response, and he took his position between Oliver and Joey, who made space for him. Oliver patted his chest.

“Is everyone ready?”

“Get going, Hensley.”

On the count of three, they pushed the panel away from the Station, using the rungs as their anchors. As they made it around the bend of the Station, Daniel and the Chief kept it from slamming into the Station, pulling it so it would turn with them. With breaks in between, they pulled and shoved the panel over to where the repaired transformer was sitting.

“You checked the pipelines, right, Jiang?” the Chief asked.

“Yes, sir! The emergency ones are all up and running, for the most part. There might be some sections where it won’t work because the interior’s been damaged or something, but our immediate area should have light again.”

“Get to work then. Dr. Vaughn, Hensley, make sure this doesn’t drift off. I’m going to help Jiang turn the power back on. Intern, don’t wander off.”

Daniel and the Chief dived beneath the panel, sometimes giving instructions to push the panel down a bit further so they could work on different areas. Joey kept nearby, his arms wrapped on the rungs a bit away so he could keep an eye out. For what, Oliver didn’t ask.

“One more section, guys,” Daniel reported. “Usually, we’d anchor the panel directly to the column, but it’s too damaged to do that, so we’re going to have to tie it to it again. Joey, go get the extra rope.”

The intern hurried back to the hatch, while the other four completed the repairs and maneuvered the panel as close to the Station as possible. With Daniel’s callouts, they rested the panel against the damaged column where it originally fit and waited for Joey to return. Once he did, the five of them wrapped the panel to the Station, keeping it secure.

“Are we done?” Toast asked.

“Let’s go see.”

The five of them returned to the open hatch doors. As they stepped in and pulled the doors closed after them, waiting as the light from outside became thinner and thinner. Oliver stared at the line of light right as Daniel and Joey slammed the remaining centimeters of the doors closed. It disappeared, but seconds later the floor lit up in a dim yellow, announcing their successful repairs.

***