DISCLAIMER
The story idea rightfully belongs to whoadrep08
WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton.
Gofer hurryingly shuts off the launch alert system, not wanting to draw attention to a jettisoned escape pod. All is quiet as he takes one last look at the escape vehicle shrinking in the distance of the void. Just a little bit longer and his task will be complete, the pod needs to get out of plain sight before that happens though but he can't stay here to watch it, should the captain take notice in the BRIDGE or any passengers or crew watching outside. They hardly ever do, but better safe than sorry.
He turns to leave, but freezes. Did he just hear a sound? He runs out of the launch bay to avoid any witnesses. Eve emerges from behind cover, too worried to be relieved of avoiding detection after calling out to Wally.
"Oh, no," she dashes over to the viewport hatch and looks on in horror to see Wally rapidly dwarfing and disappearing into space. She tries to think, what should she do? He's getting farther and farther by the second, what should she do?
Eve looks around in desperation, her mind too stressed of the situation for quick coherent thinking. She spots the service airlock. That's it! She must go after him! As fast as she can move, Eve accesses the extra-vehicular survival gear, Eve frowns when she sees there's nothing but bulky spacesuits.
No, too time consuming to put those on, and not very useful. She begins to panic.
Come on, Come On, COME ON! Hurry! her mind races for another answer. She finds that other answer. In the stock of the Axiom's Extra-Vehicular Activity equipment, were…aha! Flickinger Field generator gloves, small plasma-window emitters built into a special glove that create an invisible energy shield around a person's body, enclosing a breathable atmosphere and allows the wearer to operate in the vacuum of space without a full-body pressurization suit.
Eve dons one of the gloves and activates the force field, a faint aura of energy surrounds her body, sealing her from the outside and equalized with normal air pressure. Not wasting any time, she enters the service airlock, bypassing the depressurization sequence and, without a moment hesitation, manually opens the outer hatch.
She blasts out of the instantly decompressed airlock, the escaping air catapulting her into the vacuum of space at high velocity. Eve straightens her body like a skydiver, her nano-suit's spaceflight mode automatically activating. Her heads-up device shows the escape pod is already twenty thousand meters from the Axiom and is rapidly accelerating at an alarming rate. She neutrally diverts more of her suit's power to the antigravity boots, leaving a contrail of blue light in her wake.
She surpasses the escape automobile's speed, slowly gaining on it. Nineteen thousand, five hundred meters, then nineteen thousand meters...eighteen thousand ...
She pursues him like a bat out of hell bent on saving an innocent victim…
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
Wally had no idea what just happened, one second he was closed off from Eve and now he was pinned to the hatch, screaming his head off as the escape vehicle rocketed away, almost snapping his neck from the g-forces of sudden speed burst.
The Axiom Escape Vehicle's onboard computer decelerates the pod.
"CRUISING SPEED, YOU ARE NOW FREE TO MOVE ABOUT THE CABIN."
Wally falls to the deck, the least too relieved. He's still gathering his situational awareness.
"Uh, oh," as he sees the great flagship star liner begin to dwindle in the distance, he realizes he was launched and getting farther and farther away from the Axiom, from Eve! He has to do something!
He scrambles to his feet, looking around for what to do. Wally sees the control column and looks back at the Axiom. He dashes for the piloting controls, he has to get back to ship. Wally grabs the steering yoke, it won't bulge. He pulls harder, still nothing, after slamming the controls it still doesn't respond to any of his commands.
"Come on!" he fights the controls, realizes Gofer must've set them to autopilot.
"Dang it!" Wally looks around the controls to regain steering. He has no idea how to fly this thing. The control column displayed incomprehensible amounts of useless information. No overrides, no communications, or manual controls displayed on the touch-sensitive panel. Gofer really screwed this thing up and he obviously didn't want this thing to return, but why?
An alarming instrument screen caught Wally's attention. He looks closely at it, an already pressed button surrounded by a red pulsating dial counting down from sixty to zero, already approaching twenty. Wally's expression freezes in terror when the computer reads it out.
"SELF-DESTRUCTION SEQUENCE ACTIVATED, T-MINUS TWENTY SECONDS."
"Aaaaaaah!" Wally's heart pounds like a jackhammer in his chest, he was going to die! He frantically presses the button, trying to stop the sequence, nothing happens.
"Uh-Uh-COMPUTER, DEACTIVATE! DEACTIVATE IT!" That doesn't change it either. In desperation, he presses every button he sees, there's got be a way to shut it down. All it does is launch flares, inflatable rafts, parachutes and windshield wipers. Nothing can stop it. The sequence is set in motion and irreversible.
"DANGER: T-MINUS TEN SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT."
Wally is beyond terrified. Only ten seconds left…Wait! There's still the Extra-Vehicular Activity, he can jump into space!
"Ten…nine…eight…" Faster than he's ever moved before, Wally grabs a Flickinger glove from the spacewalk equipment and feverishly slips it over his hand and activates it. He grabs a Halon fire extinguisher and prepares to exit.
"…seven…six…"
Wait! The plant! Wally whips around and grabs the most important thing he came for. Not bothering to put it in his bag, he dashes for the hatch with the fire extinguisher at the ready; with any luck, he should clear the blast radius in time.
"…five…four…" Luck takes a turn for the worst, as Wally can't pry the hatch release open, he pulls with all his might, nothing. He bangs on the hatch with the extinguisher, screaming. No dice, he was trapped inside!
"…three…two…"
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
...four hundred meters…
Eve's nano-suit diverted all its circuital energy to propulsion, her antigravity servomechanism beyond maximum capacity but she soared through space at a thousand meters per second. She's gain on him.
...three thousand meters…
Her hope building as she gets closer and closer.
...two thousand meters…
The pod is clearly within a few second's reach.
...one thousand meters…
Eve is ecstatic she can save him.
Yes! Almost there!
A flash of bright light stops Eve dead in her tracks. Eve's eyes wide in shock and despair not believing what she saw.
The Axiom Escape Vehicle has exploded.
Now if anybody who have come across this story instead of the original, you may have noticed the words Flickinger Fields. Allow me to explain, Flickinger Field is a fictional invisible force field but can be seen as a faint aura in the right light that projects just above the user's clothing except for an extended bubble in front of the face for breathability. These fictional force fields are used by the author Jack McDevitt, an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races along with archaeology or xenoarchaeology. They are mentioned in the novels The Engines of God, Deepsix, Chindi, Omega, Odyssey, and the short story Oculus.
A little bit more will be explained in the following chapter.