Soon, a total of four Plus-wing fighters were ready to convey our mission teams to the Ark, as every other Earth Force and Terrian fighter was being readied to intercept and shoot down debris approaching the planet or entering its atmosphere as needed.
I ended up having to carry Kila in my arms once she was inside her doctored-up, teal-colored human space suit, as it proved to be too heavy in Terrian gravity for her to float normally in. As we didn't have time to tailor a customized suit for her, I just ordered one leg cut off at the hip of the smallest suit we had with the opening fused shut, with the other leg of it cut off below the knee to accommodate her tail and fused closed as well. Kila just had to wear the suit's arms bunched up so her hands could reach into its gloves, and we hastily attached a Terrian air pack and breathing apparatus to it, all while I had a technician quickly reprogram the suit's small onboard computer to account for these changes. My wife was a good sport though, just floating there in the room while the rest of us, even me, worked furiously as we basically assembled the suit around her, all within twenty-five minutes.
Now though I was dashing across the hangar wearing my own space suit and open helmet with my breathing apparatus on, while cradling Kila and her first aid shoulder bag, as both of us made it to our fighter just in time ahead of my departure target.
"You two must really like space trips together," Mike sighed behind his air piece, shaking his head as I boarded our craft with Kila and proceeded to strap her and I into the same standing restraint together again. I just decided to brace Kila's medical bag between my feet, while Mike and Izumi strapped themselves in as well.
"Mike," Kila replied, "I'm the only living and breathing trained field medical professional you humans have now. Robots can't patch you humans up out there amid all that flying shrapnel like I can, especially while in space suits. Plus," she then said looking at me, "with what happened to each of us in losing our mates, I think John and I have earned the right to go on this mission together. Besides, this is my world, too."
"I've learned not to argue with her," I shrugged with a smile as our pilot fired up our engines and closed our cockpit visor. "Okay, Stewart," I then said. "Let's ride."
"Yes sir!" the pilot said. "Elder Control, Terra One requesting clearance for departure," our pilot radioed in Terrian as the cockpit once again rotated us upward into flight position.
"Terras One through Four cleared for departure," the cockpit's loudspeaker announced.
Stewart then pushed his control sticks forward, causing us to rocket upwards through a hole to the planet surface above us. "Elder Control, Terra One now airborne," he followed up.
"We show Terra Units One through Four now airborne and en route. Good luck," we heard on the cockpit's loudspeaker as the pink and blue skies of morning now faded into the perpetual blackness of space in front of us.
"Switching to Earth atmosphere," our pilot noted as we four humans went through the now familiar routine of dropping our respirators while Kila once again started using hers.
"One of these days, we should add Terrian air systems to these craft," I sighed. "Sorry, Kila."
"Hey, Earth Force craft, Earth atmosphere. No problem," she assured through her mask.
"Nice touch though," Mike admitted, "naming our craft for this mission in honor of the planet we protect now."
"We're all in this together," I replied. "Stewart, patch me through to the other Terras for the mission pep talk," I then instructed.
"You're on, sir," our pilot replied.
"Terras Two through Four," I now said, "you each know your objectives. Terra Two, your team will try and open the Docking Bay on J Ring if you can. If you can't, then we'll each make our way through the debris to airlocks near our assigned reactors, or other openings if the opportunity presents itself. I remind you safety is paramount. It does us no good if you get injured or killed before reaching your objective. Report any injuries to Med Tech Kila, and we will get her to you as quickly as possible. As to remaining safe after reaching your objectives . . . I'd rather celebrate with friends, than honour and remember heroes, okay?
"We've got just three hours now to get this job done," I concluded. "So let's do it carefully, but deliberately. We have no second chances now to get this right. Good luck, and we'll see you all for a hot tub party after this at our house, alright? Meyers out."
"Stewart," I then said, "patch me through to Elder Control."
"You're on, sir," he replied again.
"Elder Control, this is Meyers," I said, remembering to use Terrian this time, but also using my last name, as there was more than one John in Earth Force, even on this mission.
"Elder Control, go ahead, John," they replied anyway.
"We are approaching the edge of the Ark's debris field," I replied. "We will be occupied with priming the Ark itself, so interception of any debris that endangers the planet is under your operational command as of this moment, as are all Earth Force assets not engaged in this mission."
"We understand, John," I heard Doron reply himself over the comm. "We are launching the first wave of Earth Force fighters now into a protective orbit around the planet, as well as deploying our own warships underneath them in the atmosphere. We will be ready."
"Once we have signaled, or you have confirming telemetry, that the Ark is primed," I continued, "just ensure our forces are clear of any blast zone."
"We will, John," Doron commed back. "You have my word, we will protect your people, too."
"That's all I ask," I said more quietly in Terrian, wishing I could make the same pledge to my own teams on this mission. "Good luck, Doron. John out."
"Take care, all of you," the reply came back as Kila turned her head and looked with knowing concern at me. "Doron out."
"Approaching the Ark, sir," Stewart now reported as the three other fighters in our mission force came into sight on either side of us. "Computer, activate cockpit shield," he added, instructing our fighter's computer.
The dark, splintered mass of the Ark now began to fill the shielded cockpit windows in front of us, amid a jumbled morass of its debris that was spinning in random directions and orbits around it. I was glad I wasn't touching Kila directly at the moment . . . she just didn't need to be sharing my inner fears here, even though she seemed to be anyway just by looking at me.
"Terra Two, proceed," I commed again, as that craft now moved forward into the Ark's debris field.
"The debris is really thick already," the fighter radioed as it almost disappeared amid the dark and randomly flying pieces of metal ahead of us. "Receiving significant impacts." We could even hear chunks of metal banging against their shielded ship over the comm. "Attempting to trigger remote opening of bay doors." There was static as we waited. "Trying again," came the call. "Datalinks report inadequate power on the Ark. The batteries appear to be exhausted."
"Terras Two, Three and Four, deploy near your assigned reactor spaces and find an alternate way inside. We will do the same. It's just unfortunate they put all the airlocks around the rings, while clustering the reactors and engines around the central hub," I commed. "Feel your way in, Stewart," I then directed our pilot. "Helmets closed everyone, in case we hit something hard."
Kila pulled the Terrian mouthpiece she was breathing through off and strained from inside her helmet to give me a last kiss. With a smile, I met her halfway.
Be safe, I thought to her. And remember, I'm not nearly done with you yet. I love you, Kila.
"Love you, too, John," she whispered as we finished our kiss. "And ditto on everything else." Both our segmented visors then closed over our faces. I could just see her face through her visor's mirrored surface, her large eyes still looking at me. Suddenly I felt so isolated from her, even though she was physically still strapped right in front of me. What I wouldn't have given now to share a touch, or even a thought with her. All I could do was wrap my suited arms in front of her, giving her a gentle squeeze. She just held my arms against her, gently patting and rubbing my gloved hands with hers.
"Kila, your Terrian air working in there?" I now asked her by comm.
"Working fine, John," I heard her report back. "I don't need to wear the mouth mask, and the air status is even showing up on my helmet displays in here."
I just gave her suited midsection a couple gentle pats in acknowledgement, before I glanced next to me at Mike for a second with his mirrored helmet visor now shut. I was sure he thought Kila was a distraction for me on this mission, but I would have been thinking about her even more if I had left her behind. I just lowered my head inside my helmet in silent prayer for both of us and for all our teams.
"Watch out!" we then heard via the comm speakers in our helmets before a bright flash erupted not far from us as we approached the Ark.
"Terras call in!" I directed on the comm.
"Terra Three here . . . Terra Four here . . ." we heard the loudspeakers in our helmets respond.
"Terra Two, respond! . . . Terra Two!" I radioed, looking out our front windows.
"This is Terra Three," we heard back. "Approaching Terra Two's last position . . . I'm seeing small fragments, but that's it . . . No survivors."
"Acknowledged, Three," I sighed with regret. "Continue with mission. Approach your target areas slowly, and watch your peripheries."
Making our own way through randomly moving masses and chunks of metal within the Ark's debris field as pieces banged against our ship, we slowly made our way towards our target airlock.
"I'll get you as close as I can, sir," I heard our pilot radio inside my helmet.
"Mike, you and Izumi take charge of priming Reactor One," I decided, radioing new instructions through my helmet comm. "I'll take on Unit Two. Kila will be able to help me."
"You sure, John?" Mike radioed back as he turned his helmet towards me. "We can probably blow up the Ark just fine with three of the four mains."
"Given this ship's history, would you trust all of those other three to work? Even while going critical as programmed?" I posed.
"Welcome to the Engineer Corps, Kila!" Mike radioed.
"See? You guys needed me after all!" I could hear her smiling back on the comm. I just gave her another warm squeeze from behind.
"Okay, Stewart," Mike then radioed. "This is our stop. Open the hatch please."
"Be careful," our pilot replied as the cockpit's visor now rolled up in front of us as Mike and his assistant now floated out of the cockpit and toward the airlock they were aiming for, with the aid of handheld thruster units.
"Wow, we've got serious radiation leakage around here from somewhere," Mike said on the comm as static already started to cloud his transmission. "The Geiger reading on my heads up display in here is really spiking."
"Sounds like we're going to have serious comm interference then," I replied. "Let's switch to time mode. Keep trying the comm every once in a while, but otherwise get your job done, and return to this pick-up point by the assigned time. If you can't, find your way outside the ship near the pick-up time wherever you can and use hand rockets."
"Gotcha . . . J––n . . ." the comm speaker in my helmet replied with heavy static as the cockpit visor closed again, and our pilot gently backed our craft away and pivoted towards the airlock a quarter of the way around J Ring to drop off Kila and myself.
"Stewart, pressurize the cockpit again for a minute," I requested via my helmet's mike. "I need to teach Kila a back-up language for any emergencies with all this static."
"You can open your helmets, sir," the reply came back inside my helmet.
"Giddy," I then said as soon as I opened my helmet to our onboard utility robot magnetically attached to his perch near the top of the cockpit's aft bulkhead. "Teach Kila and I standard sign language."
"Why?" my wife asked as her segmented visor now opened in front of her face while she donned her facemask once again.
"If our comms go out in this heavy radiation environment," I explained, "hand gestures may be our only way to communicate."
"Organic data download commencing," the small robot said from his perch as he oriented his twin optics towards my wife's face. "Kila, don't blink."
My Terrian wife kept her large eyes wide open as twin beams of blue light from the robot's optics then streamed a compressed knowledge of that form of communication directly to her optic nerves and brain.
"Okay . . ." Kila sighed looking down in wonder as the beams from the robot ceased.
"Now you, sir," the robot continued, now aiming its optics at my eyes. Suddenly, there it was . . . a full working knowledge of sign language, ready for me to use.
You understand this? I now silently gestured to my wife with my hands as a test.
Got it! Kila silently gestured back with a smile using her hands. Kiss, her hands added.
I just moved my head in as she dropped her facemask again, while I then gave her a quick scorcher of a kiss before shutting my helmet's visor, and giving her another squeeze around her space-suited midsection from behind, hoping our pilot didn't notice.
"Here we are, sir," our pilot commed inside my helmet. "Fortunately, the area around your airlock here looks fairly clear. Radiation levels appear somewhat lower, too."
"Open the hatch and let's go Kila," I said, unfastening our restraints but then snapping a short length of tether between us.
"What? You don't trust me out in space?" she queried as her helmet looked at the line connecting us.
"You've never been out in space before," I replied. "I don't want you drifting off. There's nothing for your tail or energy to push against out here. And if you lose your thruster, that's it. You'll just keep drifting."
"My energy can push against metal, see?" she countered as she now seemed to push herself away from the cockpit's rear bulkhead without moving any limbs.
"Okay, I was wrong . . . about that," I admitted as I now picked up her bag for her and shoved myself off, too, floating out of the cockpit over the head of our pilot.
"I'll be back at Two's assigned time," Stewart radioed as he closed the cockpit visor behind us again. "Take care, you two. I want that hot tub party later!"
"You're on, Stewart!" I smiled as I now turned with the help of my hand thruster towards the airlock hatch.
As we now moved slowly though space towards the hatch, both Kila and I briefly looked back as our fighter now withdrew away from the Ark.
"Wow . . ." my wife said, then turning and taking in the amazing views around us as we arrived at the airlock hatch. "You ever just look at all this, John?" she radioed to me.
"Could you take your bag please, Kila?" I replied, passing it to her before I set to work with a powered wrench from the tool belt I was wearing around my suit to manually open the hatch. "I've spent my life out here," I continued as the tool now slowly caused the door to open. "Including more hours of EVA or Extra-Vehicular Activity outside the ship here than I can count . . . Okay, the airlock door is open, ladies first," I gestured.
"Always such the gentleman," she smiled back on the comm. "It's why I married you."
"We better minimize the pleasantries on this main comm channel in case the others can hear us," I cautioned as I followed her into the chamber.
"Well, where's that private channel you mentioned?" she asked.
"Tell your suit's computer to switch to comm channel two, and I'll monitor both one and two," I replied. "That way you can talk about whatever you like. Computer," I then said, "monitor comm channels one and two. Set default broadcast on two."
"Compliance," I heard my suit's computer respond back. "Comm instructions carried out. Settings established."
"Kila, you hearing me on two?" I now tried as we both entered the airlock.
"Loud and clear," she replied.
"Well, you're even picking up the lingo," I admired.
"It's all been there for the taking inside your brain," she seemed to smile, patting my arm with her gloved hand.
"Well it doesn't look like there's any atmosphere on the other side of this inner airlock door," I then noted, powering up the inner airlock door panel with a mobile battery pack from my tool belt and reading the status display. "So, we might as well just override and open it."
I now switched to my rotary wrench to manually open this door as well, and sure enough there was just more of the vacuum of space on the other side of the door.
"Okay," I then radioed to my wife, "save your hand thruster for when you really need it and just pull your way along the hand rails here. We've got a ways to go up the spoke here to the central hub to get to Reactor Two."
"Would this be faster?" she replied as she just seemed to 'swim' quite normally along the passageway right past me, undulating her space-suited tail as usual.
"How are you . . . ? Never mind," I sighed.
"Energy pushing off metal," she reminded me as she turned around and came right back. "This place is full of it . . . works right through the suit, and no air to slow me down now. Want a 'tow'?"
"Just don't tell the rest of the guys, okay?" I sighed as I now let go of the railing and grabbed onto her waist with both hands.
"Why not?" she quipped. "They'll all want Terrian partners for their next space assignments when they hear we give great tows."
"Kila," I almost groaned.
"You're no fun in space," she continued as she now began to pull me along the passageway up the spoke towards the central hub at a fairly fast clip. "You need a good zap to lighten you up."
"Give me one when we get home," I replied as viewports and everything else just seemed to zip by. "Just don't mess up our suits' electronics out here, okay? But whoa, whoa, whoa! You're about to shoot us right past the turn to Reactor Two here! Next left."
"Hang on!" she warned as she now banked us into a hard left turn at a corridor junction, almost slamming me against the corner bulkhead. "Sorry!" she apologized as I fortunately bounced off it without hitting it too hard.
"Remember, things like momentum and inertia work a little differently up here in space," I cautioned.
"I've got some kind of alarm going off in my helmet," she reported.
"Me, too," I replied as I now heard a beeping sound in my helmet. "It's the Geiger radiation alarm. Tell your computer to silence it but maintain visual. Actually, I can do that for both of us if you don't want it cluttering up your view. Just tell it, 'Discontinue Geiger Alarm.' Computer, silence Geiger Alarm but maintain visual."
"Compliance," my suit's female computer voice cheerily responded.
"John, it's discontinued on my end," Kila reported as well.
"Okay, with these radiation levels, we only have a couple hours tops to work in there, but we should need far less than that," I said as I now moved to the reactor room door to manually open it. "All I need to do is attach a battery pack to power up the main panel, warm up the systems I need, remove the manual safety overrides, set the hydrogen reactant mixture at the right rate to go critical after we get clear, and we can head back out again to our pick-up point."
"Sounds easy . . . kind of," my wife commed next to me as I now opened this door as well. "What do you want me to do?"
"Maybe tow me around," I admitted. "It'd take less time than me trying to tell you where all the manual overrides are that need to be pulled. Take me over to that main panel first though," I then pointed.
"Give good tows . . . in space," she reminded me with some hopefully playful annoyance as she first towed me across the massive reactor chamber to the main control console.
I briefly looked around as we crossed. I had worked in this and the other engineering spaces for years, even decades now. I knew most every system, even every pipe I saw. These compartments had once been lit up and full of life, noise and activity. Now all of it was just dark and silent. It felt like we were working inside death itself.
We arrived at the main panel though and soon I had it back online from the mobile battery pack that I would leave attached to it. Even the holo-displays above it seemed to work fine. Too bad we were about to blow it all up. I proceeded to power up the auxiliary and then primary systems I would need, all from that battery pack, allowing them to warm to their operating temperatures again while I then turned to remove the safeties around the reactor itself.
"Ready, tow-lady?" I asked.
"For you . . ." she quietly grumbled.
"Kila, I'm sorry. I was wrong, okay?" I apologized. "You can tell the world you towed me."
"You are so easily played!" she now laughed. "And I don't even need to be touching you."
"Kila, mission," I sighed.
"Alright, alright," she now apologized. "Sorry, but I've never had this much fun and excitement before. This is all—"
"I know, new," I interjected as I grabbed hold of her waist again with both hands. "We're on a schedule here though, and those safeties gotta get pulled."
"And you said you couldn't read my mind," she playfully chided as she nonetheless now hauled me across the large room over to the cylinder-shaped reactor that filled one side of the chamber.
"It's called 'marriage'," I almost laughed. "It allows you to start predicting and anticipating a mate's behavior when you've seen it enough times. Stop here," I then said, reaching for the first red safety lever near one edge of the reactor that I had to pull.
"So I'm getting predictable," she now sighed.
"Okay, this is where husbands start to get into trouble," I replied as I finished pulling that lever. "Take me on around the edge here to the next red lever, please. And you're not getting predictable nearly as much as comfortable and nicely familiar."
"Boy, I can just keep stringing you along all day, can't I?" she warmly replied as she towed me further around the reactor.
"Hey, I take you seriously, okay? Stop here, please," I said as I let go of her to reach and pull at another handle. "I just presume that there's a problem, or a concern or hurt you have when I'm not sure about you, until you assure me there isn't. I have had some practice at being a good husband, you know. On to the next one, please," I continued as I grabbed her waist again. "But I thought Terrians didn't practice deception. You seem to be getting this 'bad girl' thing down perhaps a little too well."
"The ideas are just all right there in your mind," Kila replied as she began towing me again, "and it's so much fun."
"Kaila was a fun 'bad girl' at times," I allowed myself to reminisce. "It's what made her even more beautiful to me. Stop here."
"You're doing better about her, John," Kila praised as we halted. "But I'm sorry. I'll stop tapping those memories if you don't want me to. They made you happy though. I just wanted to make you happy, too."
"Kila, you are making me happy," I assured, feeling moved and giving her a quick hug around her waist from behind with my suited arms before reaching for another lever. "I just hope I'm making you happy, too."
"You are, John," she warmly replied. "I've had the best talks with you I've ever known, and so much more."
"You mean better than . . ." I said as I pulled the lever.
"Yes, better than with Jorn," she replied. "He let his energy do the talking right from the beginning. You and I are kinda getting that way, too now. But our conversations are still so good. They really are. They're even allowing me to be glad everything happened the way it did, because not only do I love you, John . . . I love our marriage—aside from our one screw-up so far . . . my one screw-up."
"Kila . . ." I said as I finished pulling the lever, turning to give her a real hug, space suit or no. "It was a beautiful screw-up though, you know? It brought us even closer."
"Yeah," I heard her admit, "it has, hasn't it?"
"But I am coming to deeply love our marriage, too," I continued. "And the energy sharing with you, it's . . . it's . . ."
"Say it," she challenged.
"Okay, better than sex!" I smiled. "There, I said it!"
"John," she replied back in an oh so sultry way, "to us, that is sex . . . Well, it's more than that really."
"It has kind of been feeling that way, hasn't it?" I admitted with a smile. "But what about procreation then?"
"That's procreation," she replied. "To us, they're two different things. One is the sharing of essences, of souls out of love—literally making more love—while the other is the sharing of bodies to produce children. But we have definitely been sharing souls. Surely you've recognized that's what we've been doing, even early on, haven't you?"
"Well, I did think we were a little held back in that department, since I couldn't really give you energy," I admitted.
"What have I told you before?" she quizzed me.
"I think, I feel; therefore I have energy," I recited, almost like a student.
"Also hands, John. Hands," she seemed to smile, gripping both sides of my helmet with her gloved hands. "When I zap you, I feel it right back through your hands, too, remember? But you know, I've been lying to you in a way, even lying to myself . . . because you have been giving me energy—such a subtle, sweet energy that I didn't sense it at first. Been drowning it out with my own for the most part, loudly. But even my energy has been feeling different coming back through you. You want to know the real reason I couldn't bring myself to procreate with that other Terrian? It's because I discovered my energy had changed. It wasn't pure Terrian anymore. You talk about your heart being 'Kila-shaped' . . . well, my essence had indeed become 'John-shaped'. You have an energy signature, John . . . and it is the most subtle and beautiful I've ever known. Jorn was a great and wonderful mate to me, but you . . . you're even better."
"Kila . . ." I sniffed, moved in wonder as we continued to hold each other in our space suits next to the reactor. "Ohh I want to merge souls with you some more when we get home," I sighed, squeezing her even tighter.
"We will, John. We will," my wife assured. "But let's get the job done here, and pull the rest of those safeties, so we have a home to go back to."
"My anchor, my life . . . my wife," I admired.
"And always will be," she assured, before turning around. "Grab on. Next lever coming up!"
— — — — —
Before long, we had a smooth system going together, and had all the safeties around each end of the reactor pulled. Kila was right at my arm as I then programmed the final reactant injection sequence back at the main panel.
The structures all around us suddenly quivered with a sharp jolt.
"What was that?" Kila wondered on our comm as we both looked around.
"Computer, broadcast channel one," I then urgently instructed. "Mike, Izumi . . . anyone, are you there? What's going on?"
All I got back was loud static. "Computer, broadcast channel two," I selected again. "Kila, I'm not getting any response . . . Kila?"
She was now tapping me on the arm, signing, I can't hear you anymore.
Electro-magnetic pulse, EMP, I then signed back to her. Blocks comm signals. An auxiliary reactor must have blown someplace. If it was one of the mains, we wouldn't be here. Fortunately, these controls and our suits are hardened against EMP. I am setting reactant sequence, then let's go!
I furiously keyed in the last command sequence into the panel.
Take us out that upper exit, near the central hub, I then signed to her, pointing to a doorway above the one we had entered through. I want to have a look and see if there's damage to the other reactor spaces. I then grabbed on to Kila. Fortunately, her own energy and ability to propel herself seemed to be unaffected as she now pulled me towards that doorway. She was right—her energy was not conventional electricity. I would never doubt her on that again.
I soon opened that upper door and we emerged out into the inner hub passageway. I then looked up through the series of inward facing viewports across the Ark's central hub to see holes on the opposite side around Reactor Room Four that now had plasma fires burning out of them.
Figures, I now pointed and signed with my hands and fingers in frustration as I looked up at it. Lost that engine during the last orbit burn. God, the people in there . . . they didn't have a chance.
Let's go, Kila signed back to me.
I reluctantly nodded, pointing in the direction we needed to go, and then grabbing hold of her waist as she started propelling both of us along the passageway towards the junction with the spoke passage that would lead back to the airlock pick-up point on J Ring. Suddenly, everything around us silently shook again. I looked up through the viewports to see another explosion at Reactor Room Four, with large parts from there now heading straight for us.
GO! I signed frantically to Kila, pointing again where we needed to go, as she then began to propel us both along the passage to the corridor junction. Suddenly, a huge, jagged chunk of metal silently tore into the passageway ceiling right in front of us. Kila tried to stop and shove us both back with her energy as the wreckage plowed downward across the passage into the deck grates. I turned and reached behind me to avoid us both being slammed against a wall, briefly letting go of my wife as the invading mass now ricocheted in slow motion and began moving back out into the black void. Before I realized it, the wreckage had severed the tether between my wife and I, snagging Kila and sweeping her out of the passageway along with it. I pulled myself to the jagged edge of the now severed corridor, and saw her floating and spinning helplessly off into space.
"NOOO!" I violently screamed inside my helmet as without hesitation I then launched myself out of the hole at Kila, praying I would catch her.
Fortunately I now had greater momentum than she did, and to my great relief, I caught her as I passed, holding her tightly for dear life as I rotated around her to face her helmet. I remembered the emergency comm cable these suits carried as I fumbled at my waist for mine, and then plugged it into her suit's receptacle port.
"Kila!" I said. "Can you hear me?"
"John, thank the gods!" I heard her reply to my relief as I now felt her embrace me as well.
"How are you?" I urgently asked.
"I've got alarms going off all over the place in here," her voice replied with concern. Even I could hear them through the cable. "My air supply is going down, air pressure's dropping, power's dropping. One alarm says I have a leak in my suit, 'second quadrant, rear', it's saying."
"That's your back," I replied, quickly moving around her to check. "Can't see any leakage . . . wait, there's a rip. Placing my hand over it to slow it down."
"I'm getting a couple more minutes here, but that looks about it," she replied.
"Oh no," I now said, feeling around my waist.
"What?" she asked.
"My tool belt. It got ripped off me amid everything," I said. "I have nothing to fix your leak with."
"My first aid bag, it's right behind you," she said, pointing over my shoulder. I looked behind me to see it spinning off just a couple metres away.
"Hold my feet, but do not let go!" I said urgently as I turned and tried to push off her a little and reach for it, feeling the comm cable stretch to its limit from my waist as well. My outstretched hand stopped less than half a metre from Kila's medical bag and its strap as I watched it continue to spin away from us now.
"I don't have my hand thrusters," I heard her say through our cable.
"Me neither," I sighed, feeling around my suit as well. "Can you push off anything with your tail?"
"Trying," she said as she undulated her tail behind us both. "Are we moving differently?"
"No," I sighed, sensing no difference in our shared trajectory or rotation as we continued spinning slowly in open space and drifting away from the Ark, fortunately seemingly clear of any debris as well. I looked once more at her first aid bag . . . containing just what we needed to seal her suit . . . as it continued to float away. "Kila . . . pull me back," I reluctantly decided, knowing that if I tried for the bag now, I wouldn't be able to reach her again.
"Any communication?" she then asked as she reoriented me in front of her again.
"Let me try," I replied. "Computer, broadcast channel one. Mayday! Mayday! This is John and Kila Meyers. We are adrift in space and moving away from the Ark, Central Hub near Reactor Room Two. Can anyone hear us? Over."
There was nothing but static in reply.
"I repeat, Mayday! Mayday! Can anyone hear us? Over," I reiterated. "I'm getting nothing back, Kila," I sighed. "Can you hang on with me?"
"Not unless something shows up within three minutes," she said quietly.
I pressed my hand against her back even harder, twisting it around on her a little.
"Any difference?" I said.
"Three minutes, thirty seconds now," she sighed.
"Wait, my emergency umbilical cord," I remembered, unzipping a pocket on my side. "It will allow us to share power and air."
"We can't share air, John," she quietly replied.
"No, Kila . . ." I began to sniff, now dropping my hand from that pocket as the gravity of what she was telling me suddenly hit me. "You gotta hang on."
"Tell this suit that," she sadly laughed a little.
We both now held each other tightly, with me pressing my one hand as hard as I could over that tear in the back of her suit.
"I don't want to go . . ." she now sniffed. "It's just getting good with you."
"Kila . . . no," was all I could say, now putting both my hands around her back over that spot and pressing hard.
"Well, I'm back up to four minutes now," she sniffed. "Let's make 'em count."
"What do you want?" I asked, now just focused totally on her and treasuring the padded feel of her form against me at every point we touched.
"Well, I've told you the most important thing, about your energy," I could hear her tearfully reply. "This is so unfair."
"God, I want to save you," I wept.
"I wish you could," she now cried, too. "I am so wishing that."
I looked at her bag again as both we and it rotated in space. It was even further away now. For an instant, I was really mad at myself for not turning and reaching for it when I had the chance . . . but that wouldn't do us any good now. Kila and I then just held each other silently, slowly spinning together in space for a moment as the reality of what was about to happen to her sank in further with both of us.
"Kila," I sniffed now, " . . . I can't let go of you."
"I know, John," she empathized.
"No, I-I want to go with you," I continued.
"What do you mean?" she sniffed as well.
"Go across the end of life with you," I calmly decided. "We die, together . . . through a kiss. I promise I won't let go, and it'll be the last thing each of us feels. I want to do this, Kila . . . with you."
"But John, your suit's not damaged," she sadly replied. "You could still live a long life after this."
"Not without you," I calmly answered.
"Part of me wants to ask you to go on living," I heard her sniff over our emergency comm cable.
"Not without you," I repeated.
"John . . ." she hesitated.
"My heart is Kila-shaped," I sniffed.
"John, no," she tried to reply.
"We don't have time to argue," I said. "I can't argue with you now, and I do not want to live without you."
I now felt her embrace me tightly through our suits. "John . . . if you want to join me in death," she sadly hesitated, " . . . I won't refuse you. I would welcome your companionship, and love."
"I couldn't stand to just watch you die here," I tearfully decided. "I'd rip my helmet off anyway, because I couldn't stand seeing you suffocate and freeze in my arms, isolated in that suit by yourself. I want to come with you . . . to join with you forever, through a kiss."
I could hear Kila break down in tears inside her helmet as I felt her arms grip around me more tightly.
"Are those tears of sadness or joy?" I gently asked as I held her.
"Both," she quietly sniffed. "You just twist these helmets off, right?"
"Correct, a twist to the right," I gently confirmed.
"John," she wept again, before trying to recompose herself.
"It'll be alright, Kila. I'm coming with you now," I assured her, now focused on nothing but loving her. "You're not alone. We're going together, right together."
"Two minutes, thirty seconds," she then reported. "How do you want to spend them?"
"Telling you how much I love you, Kila," I wept as tears now floated around within my helmet.
"I love you so completely, too, John," she replied as we held each other and almost seemed to slowly waltz in space now. "You wanted wide open spaces, my love?" she tried to laugh. "Well, here it is."
"You are all I want, all I will ever want," I assured. "I've missed nothing with you."
"I want to touch you, John," she requested, " . . . to share thoughts and energy with you so badly."
"We're about to," I said calmly now. "It's the last thing we will know together. You are my one though, Kila . . . my one perfect, true love."
"You are my one total love in my life, too, John," she replied more calmly as well. "Thank you for coming with me through this though. I'd be so scared otherwise," she nervously laughed a little.
"It's alright," I soothed her, squeezing her tightly while my hands remained in place over the tear in her suit. "It's alright."
"You're with me," she tearfully marveled some more, " . . . you're going right with me. I couldn't ask for more than that. One minute, thirty seconds."
"We'll have anywhere from ten to twenty seconds of consciousness once our heads are open to space," I noted. "Then we'll start to freeze while the fluids inside us also start to boil from the lack of pressure."
"Sounds like fun," she sniffed with a slight smile in her voice now. "As long as my lips freeze to yours, I'm happy. Sixty seconds, let's get it on. Oh, and I'll give you a surge of voltage I've always wanted to, but never dared. I'll try and black us both out okay? So we'll feel nothing."
"That's my Kila," I smiled. "I'm ready to start this journey with you. I love you, now and forever."
"I love you, too, John," she agreed. "Now and forever. Just think, no more barriers between us. We'll breathe, even make love, with total freedom."
"Can't wait now," I smiled within my helmet.
"Let's go," she said with a smile as well. "Each other's helmets on three," she then coached as we both took hold of one another's helmets.
"Wait," I then said, pausing both of us. "The last thing I want to say, and to hear with you, is 'I love you.'"
"Yeah," she said with such joy in her voice.
"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" I hesitated again.
"I'll tell you on the other side now," she said. "Give us both something to look forward to here."
"Kila . . ." I couldn't help weeping with bittersweet joy.
"Thirty seconds of air left in here," she said, beginning to cough a little.
"Okay, let's do it," I calmly replied, not wanting her to begin slowly suffering and getting a grip on myself as my hands gripped her helmet.
"Okay," she confirmed as she coughed again and began gasping a little.
"One . . ." we then slowly said together, "two . . . three . . . I love you . . ."
We then twisted each other's helmets and released them. Alarms went off in my helmet but then soon faded out to silence as air rushed upwards out of our suits past each of our faces. I then saw Kila's round head and face again, right before me in space. The light of the Terrian sun brightly illuminated her features as we gently turned. She was so beautiful to me, so very beautiful. I couldn't help smiling at her. She was smiling, too, so joyful at seeing my face again as well. Slowly, silently, we took hold of each other again as our helmets started drifting away, and brought our lips together in the sweetest kiss I had ever known. For the first time, we were truly equal. Neither of us could breathe out here.
As our faces began to touch, there was that energy of hers . . . that delicious energy I loved so much. I kissed her hard this time, the hardest I ever had. I began to give her one more sensual massage on the back of her head and neck with my gloved hand, as I knew she loved. I even breathed into her mouth this time, as my nose tried to draw in the vacuum of space like it was air. I didn't care about the loss of feeling in my ears, the growing pain in my brain, nothing.
I sensed Kila quickly removing her suit's gloves as her arms encircled my neck. Her bared hands then beginning to possessively roam across the back of my head and neck as I could feel my hair, made sweaty by the warmth of my helmet and the humidity of my breath, now start turning to ice. I now joined her, removing the glove off at least my left hand, before that hand gripped the back of her head and neck hard while the other gripped her back and held her suited body against mine.
As our mouths continued to move hard against each other, our tongues reached together as well, first tentatively caressing, and then seeming to hook around one another in their own unique embrace. I squeezed and pulled my tongue hard around her hooked tongue, and she did, too. It was an incredible French kiss now, one that made me smile even more amid our all-consuming passion. I was savoring all of it, every single last sensation.
Kila's energy then washed through our kiss and our bared hands into me as I felt the oxygen begin to leave my lungs.
Do it, I now thought to her as I felt frost stinging my cheeks. Pour it on, Kila.
She then began surging her voltage powerfully through both of us as our faces began to feel like they were fusing together. I was now seeing a kaleidoscope of bright and changing colors inside my mind as her voltage began to feel like it was sweeping me out of myself. It wasn't painful . . . it was bliss, a consuming ecstasy that rocked me to my core.
Even though we were both on our way towards death, beginning to suffocate and freeze in the icy vacuum of space . . . there was nothing but the deepest love and joy between the two of us now. I could not be happier with Kila than I was in this moment. I knew that soon, even our bodies would be swept away, hopefully vaporized in the coming devastating explosion of the Ark's main hydrogen fusion reactors. Kila and I just wouldn't be around to see it . . . or perhaps we might in a sense, from a safer realm.
Bring it on! I eagerly thought as I now welcomed death with my mate.
Suddenly, a green light began to surround us.
Heaven, I thought as we remained locked in our kiss . . . our mouths, tongues and hands now becoming stilled. Kila, we're making it to heaven . . . Kila . . .