Hello thank you so much for the reviews and favs so far - your very kind and i'm glad you enjoyed the opener. Here's the next installment, Merry Christmas everyone!
2
"Three minutes!" He froze, trying to conduct a quick mental assessment. He needed to prep for immediate evac but not before he worked out a way to save five. She was vital to operations; without her they wouldn't be able to pick up distress calls from the whole globe. He spanned his hand across his forehead.
"Think John think! Right my best option is to vector her out of harm's way." He brought up the data once again quickly determining the velocity and trajectory of the incoming debris. "Okay….so by my rough calculations I need to vector her 326 metres down and it should all sail above my head….in theory." Half a minute expired. John skidded across the deck to his spacesuit on the wall before punching the emergency comms link. "Thunderbird five to Base." He hopped into the interior of his suit, hoisting it quickly over his waist then shoulders. There was a reason they did bi-weekly drills. Getting into a spacesuit at speed was an art form. He linked up his life systems before shirking on the exterior suit. "Thunderbird five to base – are you receiving me?" John veins strained in his neck along with his tone, why weren't they picking up? He needed them to vector five remotely so he could evac to a safe distance in the escape pod. He clamped his helmet down and switched to internal comms in the suit.
The line just wouldn't connect. John felt a horrible sinking feeling in the very pit of his stomach. Communications had failed which meant no one was going to be vectoring her remotely and he couldn't do it in the escape pod. He'd have to do it himself at Five's helm. The controls could only be managed manually on five – there would be no escaping if it went wrong. Alarms started to flash, bloodshot lights flooding his periphery. He glanced at his watch. Two minutes. Warning! Warning! Evacuate, close proximity alerts triggered. A clinical female voice announced. He felt his adrenaline start to spike; his heart beat jittery
"Two minutes, plenty of time. Don't sweat it." He stated with more confidence than he felt. No longer able to dash at top speed suited up, he treaded to the controls and started imputing the commands, his hands flying over the keys. He set the thrusters in motion straight away. It would take sixty seconds for her to move to her new position in orbit then he would need to switch the thrusters in the opposite direction to bring her to a halt in her new orbital position. He prayed it would work. He jammed on his gloves. Warning, impact imminent, warning the voice repeated.
Thunderbird five shook beneath him, the klaxons seemed to heighten in intensity. John looked up to the panoramic window. He watched on in horror as bits of shrapnel started to pepper the window, he saw the cracks begin to web their way across the glass. "Oh Boy!" John watched in horror as the shields began to come down. If the debris hit the solar arrays in the same manner, then he really was up the creek as he'd have no renewable power and the satellites' ability to move itself out of danger would be greatly reduced. Manoeuvres complete, He scrambled under the desk for shelter and tried to use his watch. "Thunderbird five to base, this is a distress call. Immediate assistance required." Static. He winced as he felt something else detach outside. He could feel the tremors through his fingers, almost as if his bird was afraid as she was torn apart.
Realising his chances of rescue were slim he tried to make his way to the pod. His fingers inching along the walls, sweat drenching him in his suit. He was shaking with exertion, pushing into his toes to propel himself along. The suit was cumbersome and not helping his situation. Just when he had convinced himself he was going to die (On Christmas of all days) the shuddering stopped. He slipped down the partition, panting from the panic and wearing the suit. The amber light from the beacon above continued to roll across his pale features, red alert had become amber. John tried to calm his heart that was doing its best to smack itself to death against the cage that was his ribs. Mustering his last reserves, he pushed himself up, clutching at the stitch in his side. That was right when his head flipped to where his feet should be. John looked up as the ceiling came to meet him, his body rotated round. "Ahhh come on give a guy a break!"
Warning. Electrical systems compromised. Reduced system capacity. Emergency energy saving protocols indicated.
"And the good news?" he threw in hands in the air in consternation. "You know what? don't answer that." He propelled himself towards the main control room. "If I survive this, emergency warnings and protocols are going to get a little rewrite. Something that's actually useful rather than stating the obvious."
He gravitated along the corridor recoiling at every corner for the fear of what he might find. The emergency lighting casted a sickly halo wherever he went making it very difficult to assess the actual damage in the gloom. He glanced at the window that took most of the assault from the parts that would have been flayed off the Elon satellite as it broke up in orbit. The shutters had automatically slid down cutting off his view of space which meant the window had been compromised and was no longer air tight. Not good. If no damage had been sustained the shields would have come up with the amber protocol.
After what seemed like forever, he finally came back to the bridge of the control room. He grabbed onto the desk near the one remaining operational control monitor. He growled as he kept floating away - he was sick of anti grav already. Feeling behind his back he flourished a carabiner from his suit. His other fingers felt under the desk for the loop he never had to use. "Aha! There you are." His thick gloves made his movements clumsily but after the second attempt he felt it snap on. Now he had both hands free he punched in the commands to run the systems diagnostics. The tether pulled at his waist as he waited in suspended animation. He glanced up to take in the view as he always did when waiting for results but was jolted back to reality by the grey steel reinforced wards that were still in situ. He could no longer see Earth. It was at that point his predicament started to sink in. For the first time, he felt well and truly alone in space.