A Tentacle to Far

Even through the deep bass of the warning pulse echoing through the ship, Gelt could feel the pressure wave of Shelia's approach. The speed of it hitting him actually made the panicked colors on his skin grow more vivid, until he forced himself to calm. It couldn't be that bad, could it? But he knew it was.

She knifed through the door, effortless in the low gravity, two of her tentacles securing themselves just inside, two more cushioning her body as it drew a perfect arc towards the wall, and the last four already working the controls for her monitors, one eye already taking in the displays. Her other eye took in Gelt's workstation, and perhaps noticed him looking at her, so graceful, precise and shapely. A scent drifted to him, she was actually aroused. And a touch of fear, fear which she was ignoring in herself just as he wished he could ignore his.

The turbulence hadn't completely disappeared when her colors changed. "Report."

Gelt needed six tentacles to work his monitors, showing her even as he answered. Her arousal had aroused him as well. It was more difficult for him to hide, but he tried to, embarrassed as if he had leaked ink.

"Two of the engines have failed, both read open to vacuum now, but no explosion. The third engine is fine." The third engine was actually number two, nestled in between the others. A single meteor couldn't have hit two and missed the third, and the chance of two strikes within micro seconds of each other were so small Gelt wasn't sure he could do the math. And if one meteor hadn't don't done it, and the odds of two hitting were astronomically small, then the likely cause had to be. . .

"We are under attack?"

There was only a touch of the inquisitive in Shelia's color, but Gelt signaled the affirmative. "It would appear likely, or other options seen very unlikely." Another warning light appeared on Gelt's display, a fainter ringing undercutting the louder bass of the master alarm. He silenced both with a spare tentacle. "We are losing velocity."

"What? How?" Shelia worked her monitors confirming Gilt's reading. Her colors showed a flash of fear, before returning to calm. The arousal scent was still there, stronger perhaps. Did the mission planner know how distracting that would be? He didn't recall Shelia ever exuding it before, at least not where he could enjoy it. Perhaps the alarm had interrupted something. She turned turned to the intercom. "Control room to engineering."

The voice that answered, Radlt the engineer, sounded perfectly clear, unnaturally close despite coming through the speaker. "You know, Shelia, there are only three of us here. I'm betting Gelt is there in the control room playing with his switches, and you are talking to me. I think you can just use my name." There was a relaxed, languid note in the voice, which was out of place among the flashing lights on their displays.

Gelt saw Shelia's colors flash with irritation, and tried to appear not to have noticed. Had been a touch of something else, pride? Of course, that didn't make any sense at all.

"We have a developing situation here, what is your status?" The words were bit off. Shelia's colors were definitely just irritated.

"Engines one and three are off line. Most of the pressure lines are reading open to vacuum. Engine two is functioning normally, at 65% thrust. It is also still providing power to the fuel cells for power and life support." There was a pause. "Apart from some repair work outside I don't see much of a crisis."

This time it was Gelt whose colors became irritated, he wanted to head back to engineering and hit Radlt over the head with something. Something heavy.

"We are concerned about the nature of the failures," Shelia said. Gelt was impressed with her restraint, though her colors were still mostly irritated. She seemed about to say more but Radlt cut her off.

"Probably mechanical." Radlt answered.

"In two engines at once? They read open to vacuum now, and no explosion." Shelia was cycling through her displays, Gilt watched her readouts on his own monitors. They were still losing speed.

"I'll know more once I go outside and take a look." Radlt's calm announcement actually brought a moment of stunned silence to both Gelt and Shelia.

"You are not going out there." Shelia said. There was actually something like panic in her voice, and Gelt refocused his other eye on her. She wasn't showing irritation anymore, Gelt wasn't sure what to make of her colors. Gelt was surprised by her tone, and even she seemed a bit surprised. She settled all her tentacles on the panel before speaking again. "Radlt come to the control pod, we are going to see what we can with the remotes before I allow you to leave the ship."

There was a long pause, long enough Gelt was beginning to suspect Radlt had already started to suit up and was going to leave anyway. Shelia looked as if she was about to go get him herself when his voice came back over the speaker. "Acknowledged, on the way."


The control pod was designed for two occupants at a time. With all three of them it was definitely crowded. Gelt felt uncomfortable with Radlt hovering just over his shoulder, One of his tentacles lightly wrapped around one of Gelt's holds, watching the displays as Gelt worked the controls for the remote cameras on the hull. Shelia could not control the cameras herself, but had a duplicate of the display and didn't have to crowd the workstation. Gelt was glad for that. The scent of arousal still hung faint in the air. He thought it became stronger when Radlt had floated in, but decided it was his imagination.

The camera lens moved another jerk, refocused, and moved again. Gelt was looking along engine one, checking for damage. He also wanted to look for something venting, causing them to lose velocity, but Radlt insisted the engines came first. Shelia hadn't spoken, but her colors showed agreement, so Gelt had started with engine one.

Another jerk, another refocus, and there was something other than yellowish hull on the screen. A neat hole had been punched through the metal. "What is that?" Gelt asked leaning his eye closer. Looped through the hole was a gray cable, stretching off the screen. With his other eye saw Radlt and Shelia. Radlt didn't show any color change at all, which seemed surprising, but Shelia's colors were a mess of excitement and fear, though she was trying to hide it.

"Follow it up." Shelia said

Gelt worked the camera lens, following the cable up into space. Jerk, refocus. Jerk, refocus. It was several minutes before the camera refused to focus anymore, the cable lost in the darkness of space.

"Check the other engine." Shelia said.

Gelt was already swinging the camera around. Another neat hole, another cable stretching back into the darkness. Gelt didn't even have time to start panning along it before Radlt headed for the control room hatch.

"Where are you going?" Gelt asked.

"To get those cables off the engines. I can probably repair them at the same time. Then we get out of here."

"But...how..."

"Laser cutter should do it." and he was through the hatch.

Gelt looked at Shelia. She was looking after Radlt, still excitement and fear on her skin. She was obviously not going to stop him, and Gelt didn't have the authority. He wanted to voice an objection anyway, but Radlt was already gone. After a moment Shelia slid out of the control room as well, the current pulling at Gelt slightly until he firmed his grip on the panel.

Gelt knew 40 minutes were needed to suit up for space walks. A few more minutes were needed to establish the proper internal suit pressures. It was possible to do it alone, but help was nice and shaved a few minutes. He passed the time watching their velocity drop. It was almost 90 minutes before the lighted indicator showed the lock cycling. Shelia, her scent of arousal now clear to Gelt's smell and her colors more muted, drifted back into the control pod. Her skin showed calm but flashes of anxiety crept across like a rash.

It was only moments before Radlt appeared on the camera. He moved with fluid ease, the tether trailing out behind as he moved to engine one, working his way along the hull using all his limbs and moving with a grace near Shelia's. Not quite that smooth though, Gelt thought. The gray cable was much thicker than Gelt first thought, Radlt giving it scale on the monitor.

Radlt first moved around the cable without touching it, opening acess panels near the hole and probing into the engine. But it wasn't long before he had out a laser cutter, lining up a place to cut. Gelt flinched when the laser cutter's beam struck the cable, but relaxed when nothing happened. Shelia was forcing calm, her colors shifting without anything like a pattern. Gelt knew he was showing fear, but didn't even try to get it under control.

A red line appeared on the cable, Radlt moving quickly. There was a sudden blue flash, bright enough Gelt had to close both eyes. When he reopened them control room was dark.

"Shelia to Radlt come in!" Shelia's voice broke into the silence. It had a note of hysteria in it.

"Communications are down, we don't have power." Gelt said, feeling for the controls. There was a switch for back up power....

"Shelia to Radlt."

"He won't be able to hear you." Gelt found the switch and activated it. Dim lights came on in the control room, and a few displays came back to life. "We don't have communications at all."

"Radlt, this is Shelia, please respond." She didn't seem to notice he was speaking.

Gelt took a moment and focused his other eye on her. Her colors were mottled, gray. Gelt had seen it before, on the very old or the very sick. Ones who where about to die.

His turned his attention back to his displays. Even the auxiliary power was fading. Power levels were dropping even as he watched. He played back the display of Radlt cutting the cable. An energy pulse had come down the cable, striking the engine. Radlt was vaporised, lingering on the monitor as a faint mist before disappearing forever.

"Radlt is dead." Gelt said to Shelia "Some sort of energy burst down the cable. Took out most of our onboard systems as well. We have about two hours of life support left."

"Shelia to Radlt, you are ordered to respond."

"He isn't going to answer, Shelia, he's gone."

"Radlt respond at once."

Gelt turned his other eye back to her again, hunched over the intercom, starting at the screen, dark now that the camera was off line. Her near eye was unfocused. Only two of her tentacles showed purpose, one for the intercom, the other holding her in place, the rest simply drifting on the faint current. It seemed odd to Gelt that he had once thought her so beautiful.

"Shelia to Radlt, please respond."

The current caught Gelt's attention. Faint, drifting towards the front of the ship as it was slowed, dragged, pulled back by something. Something that had killed Radlt, something that was killing him, though more slowly. He looked at another display. The velocity was dropping faster now. The last engine was no longer providing thrust. And when it was zero, what then? What then...

Gelt moved out of the control pod. The next area was a common room, where they had prepared and shared their meals. The three of them. Shelia was still alive, technically. Radlt wasn't. Gelt wasn't actually sure what his status was. Alive or dead? He was still technically alive, but death was coming, and at what point did he stop being one and start being the other?

His looked into his small living area. He hadn't brought many belongings, none of them had. Weight had to be kept under control. A picture of his friends. To them he was dead, he had been when he left on this journey. He wouldn't have seen them again in any case. They might even already be dead themselves. Gelt didn't know.

He moved away. Through another hatch. Shelia's voice crackled through an intercom. "Radlt, please...answer...Radlt..." Gelt wondered how she had gotten the intercom to work. Maybe hitting random controls? the emergency lighting flicked, absolute darkness wrapping itself around Gelt for a few heart beats at a time, preparing for when it wouldn't have to let him go again. Time was short.

Gelt was the pilot and navigator, and had spend his training time learning how to control all the various ship systems and how to avoid getting lost in the vast emptiness of space. He had only a passing knowledge of the interiors of the engines, and hadn't spent any time training on repairing them.




He reached the spacewalk staging area. One of the hooks was empty, where Radlt's suit had been hanging. Empty forever, now. Gelt moved to his suit and began to put it on. He was half done before he even noticed what he was doing.

The last part of the suit fit into place just as a stale scent became strong enough for him to notice. Shelia may have done something to shorten how much life support was left. He couldn't hear her anymore. To Shelia, he was dead. Radlt, to her, was still alive. Where was the difference? His suit light indicators came on. Greens and yellows, he didn't have as much time as he wanted, but there was no way to get more. His suit thought he was alive.

He set the lock to cycling. Back at home, the first telemetry signals from the initial attack would be reaching mission control. To them he was still alive, but it wouldn't last. He was further ahead in time than they were. Was he already dead? A moving corpse?

Outside the ship, he didn't bother to close the lock. He held the end of the tether for a moment, before letting it go. He watching it drift away in front of him, moving the same speed as he slowed. Moving forward while his life slowed, stopped.

He moved over the hull. It wasn't far to engine one, and he could see the cable before he reached it, stretching back into the void. Gelt took his time. One of his green lights turned yellow before he reached the engine. His suit was revising its opinion. When he reached the cable he looked at it closely for a minute. The faint scar from Radlt's cutting torch was visible, but didn't seem to have had any real effect. Gingerly, Gelt reached out and lightly touched the cable with the tip of one tentacle. Nothing happened, and Gelt let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He wrapped the tentacle around the cable, and then reached up and wrapped another around, further up.

The cable was as solid as the ship's hull. Not slick. Climbing it was easy. Gelt fell into a simple rhythm, four or five tentacles on the cable as he rotated his way up, his eyes switching their views, one seeing the cable stretching up and up, the other the ship getting smaller and smaller, then reversed. He had several red lights before he couldn't see the ship anymore. The cable was hard to see as well. Gelt turned up his small work light, and another light went red. Only one yellow left. Back home they might be starting to wonder if he was already dead. He was wondering as well. The edge between life and death seemed more blurry here. Perhaps he had already crossed it and didn't want to believe.

One of the red lights went out. The last yellow light turned red. He kept rotating his way up. The work light dimmed and went out. Gelt continued, just feeling his way up the cable. Two more of the red lights turned dark, there was just one left. Gelt tried to remember which lights went out in which order. He knew there had been a briefing on that, somewhere. He stopped for a moment on the cable, suddenly confused. Where was he again? What was he doing? Just climbing the cable, he had wanted to reach to top. He wasn't sure which way he had been going.

The last light started to flash. A tentacle tip tapping on the edge of something, thinking. The suit trying to decide if he was still alive. He wasn't sure himself. It was getting harder to breath, each breath an effort. Gelt was unsure if starting the next one would be worth it. He paused for a moment to look up. He couldn't see far, the cable stretching into blackness. Blackness all around him. Stars, steadily Staring at him all around. Alive, or dead. He struggled to get another breath into his lungs. There just didn't seem to be any thing left in his suit, nothing to draw in. he slid up a bit farther on the cable, the effort making his limbs burn, his vision blur. But there were stars all around, looking down or up at him. It was quiet, peaceful in a way. Gelt didn't remember why he had started climbing. He struggled in another breath, the let go of the cable. It drifted away into the darkness, leaving him alone. He decided the next breath was just too much effort, and let his eye close to the stars.