A Robinson Tale

Part III

Tempus Fugit

Chapter 2

Sensations returned to John's body, a slow drop by drop of sharp pains and burning needles. The nausea that had afflicted him earlier in the day, prompting him to skip lunch and take a nap, brought bile to his mouth again. He curled into a ball. He hated feeling like he was floating above the bed. His mind drifted in the darkness when a dissonant screech sent his heart rate sky high.

A bright light exploded and he dropped like a stone.

John was on his feet before his eyes opened. The airlock. What was he doing in the airlock?

Heart racing, he staggered over Harris's backpack and mattress to the internal door and stared at the empty corridor. He punched the intercom button.

"Anybody hear me?"

The ship did. And its answer sent cold shudders running down his spine. John leaned his forehead against the bulkhead, took a deep breath, then repeated his call.

"Dad? What's going on?"

"Penny! Where are you?"

"The robot locked us in the hub. I'm with Will, Judy, and Harris."

Jude... "How is your sister?"

"I think she's asleep. What's going on? Where are you?"

John let out a deep sigh and silently thanked god. "I'm stuck in the airlock. Can you see inside the cockpit?

"No. The blast doors are shut."

"Alright. Listen, you stay in the hub. No matter what happens, you stay inside, Penny, do you hear me?" he said while he entered his emergency code in the computer terminal. Nothing happened.

"We're locked in anyway. How are you going to get out?"

"I'm working on it."

John released the button to end the communication and slammed his fist into the bulkhead. Blood dripped on the floor. The gauze wrapped around his injured hand was soaked but there was nothing he could do about this unless– His eyes trained on Harris's backpack. Relishing the opportunity to search through the woman's belongings, John groped inside the main compartment and retrieved her pad. But no surprise, it was biometrically locked.

John took out his usb drive from his pocket and plugged it in. While the hacking software collected Harris's data, he assessed his options. They were only two ways to exit an airlock. The internal door was sealed. That left the E.M.U.. Now, that was an idea he didn't like at all.

The lights flickered and died.

A sudden dizzy spell seized him. John raised his hands over his head just in time to cushion his impact with the ceiling. No light. No gravity. No ventilation. What was going on?

Power came back without warning and he crashed to the deck.

For the second time, he pushed himself back on his feet, cradling his left arm. But a violent shock jolted the Jupiter and sent him bouncing between the bulkheads like a pinball.

Once more, the lights died and gravity ceased to exist.

In the darkness, a small red light turned green.

John reached into the middle of Harris's floating belongings to grab her pad, unplugged his usb drive, and slid it back into his pocket when a darker shadow outside the ship caught his eye.

For the next minute, John stared outside while asteroids of all sizes swirled around them. A small one grazed them. The nail-on-blackboard sound it made on the hull made all his hair stand up. What the hell was the robot thinking? The Jupiter wasn't built to fly through asteroids fields. It was only a matter of time before one caused a major breach.

A clock of doom began ticking in John's mind.

He couldn't stay here.

Gravity wasn't coming back and his breath produced a thin fog. The temperature was dropping.

John opened the E.M.U. storage compartment, grabbed a suit, and dressed up. Providing his emergency codes hadn't been revoked when he'd been thrown into the airlock, he could access the ship through any hatch. But how was he going to take back the Jupiter? A direct confrontation with the robot was unlikely to turn out well for him. One problem at a time. First, get out and reach the bottom hatch without being smashed by an asteroid. Once in the garage, he'll reassess his options.

Fifteen minutes later, his suit's computer announced that the depressurization was complete. John strapped himself on the e.m.u. control platform, grabbed the joystick, and pushed the button to open the airlock door.

A boulder-size asteroid passed right in front of his eyes. His throat dried faster than a water drop in Death Valley.

Using the joystick, he deployed the arm outside the Jupiter.

The arm was the only safe way to reach the lower hatch but it had been designed for careful inspections and repairs. Normally speed wasn't an issue, but right now it felt like driving a wheelchair in a NASCAR race. Sweat broke on his forehead.

He was finally reaching the hatch when a deep soundwave whacked his back and ripped through him.

John coughed and drew a raspy breath. His pulse pounded painfully in his ears. What had just happened?

Grunting, he pushed himself away from the hatch when a spasm flipped his stomach. Bile and blood flowed into his mouth. Great, his nose was bleeding. The tingling sensation and searing pain in his right ear left no doubt about the state of his eardrum. That wasn't an asteroid what had hit him. But what was it?

Shaking from head to toe, John glanced above his shoulder and felt his guts liquefy instantly.

What the heck was this hellish thing doing here?

A dark ship, the same as the one that had flown over him and Don while they were orbiting the planet in a piece of the Watanabe's Jupiter, was hovering behind a cloud of dust, remnants of a stadium-wide asteroid.

John felt like a deer caught in headlights.

They were in the asteroid field to hide from this ship. And they'd just been ferreted out.

The robot had locked him in the airlock so he wouldn't interfere, and shut off all systems. The ships were like two submarines in a seek and destroy scenario. By sneaking out, using the arm, he'd revealed their location.

Just when John thought things couldn't get worse, his senses detected something weird in the cloud of debris. Something moving toward them. Something moving fast, jumping like a spider from asteroid to asteroid. A robot.

John entered his passcode on the external hatch access panel.

Denied.

Come on!

He pressed on the keys again, not daring to look behind his shoulder because he had no time to waste and only one way to defend himself: take cover.

Denied.

He didn't know what would kill him faster: another soundwave burst or the killer robot swooping on him.

The wheel on the hatch turned counterclockwise and a regular, controlled stream of air blew out.

John unhooked himself from the arm, opened the hatch, slid feet first into the dark and narrow shaft. As soon as the door sealed shut, the re-pressurization initiated. A soaring pain shot through his burst eardrum. John yelped but forced himself to keep moving. He grabbed the internal door, pushed it open, and let himself float up the shaft. A violent shock jolted the ship with the metallic resonance of a torpedo. A fury of hail hit the hull. John pressed his feet against the shaft and closed the internal door.

He was resuming his ascension toward the main deck when the ship lit up, gravity came back, and the alien screeching noise burst into his injured ears.

A dark veil fell over John's eyes before he hit the garage floor.