CHAPTER 14 – THE SPACE WALK

Elizabeth waited until long past midnight for Jack but he didn't come back from his meeting at the Control Center where he had been called to discuss the strange grinding noise which had disrupted their evening. She finally turned off her light after Seth had kicked out Carl's female friend, who didn't see any reason why she couldn't spend the night.

"Because it's a small room. I don't want to hear you making out. And this isn't college," the geologist had informed the woman as he picked her shoes up off the floor and threw them out of room. "Now go."

"Thank you, Seth", a grateful Elizabeth said. "Good night, Carl."

"Good night, Elizabeth", her roommates replied in unison.

It was three o'clock in the morning when Elizabeth woke up with a start.

The room was dark and uncharacteristically cold.

She shivered and pulled her blanket closer. After another five minutes of chilling temperature, she unzippered her blanket, crawled out of her berth, and walked the few paces to her locker. She lifted the metal latch quietly, trying not to make noise which might wake her roommates.

Fumbling in the darkness, she found her sweat pants and sweat shirt and pulled them out of the locker. She was pulling the pants on over her shorts when the door to the living quarters slid open and a beam of dim light entered the room.

"You're still up." Jack said quietly as he walked in.

"I was cold. It's freezing", she replied with a shiver.

"There's a problem with the heat. They're trying to keep it at sixty degrees."

"What happened? Why did you have to go to the Control Center? What was that weird noise?" Elizabeth whispered loudly.

"We'll talk in the morning. It's late", Jack replied as he took off his shoes and went into the bathroom.

Elizabeth climbed into her berth and listened for the sound of the water turning off which would signify that Jack had finished brushing his teeth. When Jack walked to his berth, she leaned up and rested on her elbow.

"Everything's okay. Go to sleep", he encouraged her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure. Now get some sleep," he said quietly so he didn't disturb Seth or Carl.

"Okay. Good night. . . . And Jack, I had a really good time tonight. Thanks."

A tired Jack smiled in the darkness. "I had a good time too. Good night, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth lay down and pulled the curtain closed around her.

"Jack?" she whispered as she heard him crawl into his berth.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad the power went out at the party," she said quietly.

"I was going to kiss you anyway," he replied with a smile.

"For that long?"

Jack let out a laugh. "Probably not if the lights were on. We would have drawn a crowd. So, I'm glad the power went out too."

Elizabeth tried to fall asleep after that but she was too busy smiling. Her mind running away with happy thoughts.

"Don't run!" Elizabeth called to her students as they ran down the corridor after she had released them from their morning class to go swimming.

It had been a week since the talent show and she was still on cloud nine. Unlike the series of problems on the ship with broken parts and frequent flickering of the power, she and Jack weren't having any problems; they were getting along perfectly.

Last night, he had taken her to one of the large windows on Level 3 for a picnic dinner while they gazed at the stars. As they sat on pillows which they had taken from their berths and looked out the floor-to-ceiling piece of glass that was eight feet wide, Jack had made a casual suggestion that they should kiss each time they saw a shooting star.

"They're actually not stars," Elizabeth had noted. "They're small pieces of rock or dust – basically meteoroids – hitting the atmospheres of other celestial bodies and burning up. And they can be pretty rare."

"Uh huh," Jack had replied as he absently-mindedly traced a pattern on her arm with his finger. "I still say we kiss if we happen to see any."

The way his finger moved on her skin, made Elizabeth feel a tingling in some places far removed from her arm.

The couple's basket of food had been largely left uneaten due to unusual frequency of shooting stars which had taken Elizabeth by surprise. Elizabeth wondered if it were possible to live off of kisses rather than food; it was much more enjoyable and she found Jack to be absolutely delicious. As Jack had held Elizabeth's hand and they had walked back to their living quarters, he had silently reminded himself to thank the ship's Chief Astronomer for her forecast that they would be going through a meteoroid shower that evening.

"Willie, Patrick, I will meet you in your living quarters in two hours! Don't forget to get lunch!" Elizabeth yelled out to the brothers as she now returned her thoughts to the present.

Elizabeth smiled at her students' exuberance and wondered how she would handle them for the next twenty-four hours. After hearing that the parents of the two boys were both feeling ill and had been sent to the Infirmary, Elizabeth had volunteered to babysit them and spend the night in their room.

In addition to babysitting, Elizabeth was also doing a chore she had rarely ever done in Hamilton. Laundry. The boys' parents weren't the only passengers to become ill over the last few days. Several crewmembers and other passengers had been plagued by headaches, fatigue, and nausea rendering them barely able to crawl out of their berths to perform their duties. Yesterday, Elizabeth – who had not been affected – had volunteered to help fold laundered towels and deliver them to each set of living quarters.

As she had told Jack, the transporter was her home and the passengers were her family. She was going to help anyway she could.

It was only after the crew had done a floor by floor, room by room inspection, that it was finally discovered that a leaky pipe had allowed gas to escape and slowly creep into several living quarters and office space, making the occupants ill. Most, including the boys' parents, were now in the infirmary recovering.

"Careful, boys!" Elizabeth flinched when the children almost knocked over two crewmembers who were walking in the opposite direction down the hallway.

The two women didn't even seem to notice the rambunctious students as the taller of the females put her arm around Star, the cute woman with the pixie hair-cut, and spoke sympathetically to her.

"It's okay to cry."

"It was awful!", Star moaned as she wiped her nose and her shoulders shuddered.

The two, caught up in their own drama, walked past Elizabeth without even paying attention to her.

I wonder what that's all about?

As Elizabeth entered the cafeteria, she shivered and her thoughts were consumed with having a warm bowl of soup for lunch. I should have brought my ski jacket! she grumbled.

Elizabeth hadn't even gotten to the line of food at the far end of the room when she sensed it. Everyone in the room was tense. Mumbling. On the verge of tears. Anxious.

She looked around and didn't see one smiling face.

Twenty minutes later, an emotional Elizabeth headed to the security office.

Jack was sitting with one hip on the edge of his desk and was concentrating on the laptop in his hands when the door slid open and Elizabeth walked in.

"You heard?" he asked when he looked up and saw her expression.

He had wondered how she would react when she heard about the tragedy this morning. Even though he didn't think Elizabeth had ever had any contact with the man who had died, his death was still traumatizing.

"Come here", Jack said when she nodded sadly at him. He put both feet on the ground and held out his arms for her to walk into his embrace.

"I just want to go home," she mumbled into his chest while he held her. "What was I thinking? Coming on a transporter. Going to another planet. Thinking it would be one big fun adventure. I was a stupid naïve fool".

He pulled her back slightly and looked her in the eye. "You were not a fool. And you're not stupid. You are at times beautifully naïve. And there's nothing wrong with that. I like it."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better," she responded as she buried her head into his strong chest again. Despite the drama of the day, she couldn't help but find pleasure in inhaling his smell and feeling his strong arms.

She didn't want to think about what she had heard in the cafeteria as the tearful passengers had relayed how one of the crewmembers, on a space-walk to fix a broken piece of the transporter, had somehow become untethered and jettisoned away from the fast-moving ship. Unable to get back to the ship, he had floated away, knowing that his oxygen would run out in an hour and then he would die alone and frantic.

Jack took a deep pause. Wondering how much to tell her.

"If it makes you feel any better it was his own doing," he finally said, causing Elizabeth to look at him in confusion.

"What do you mean? Did he not attach himself right? Because even if he didn't, he didn't deserve to die like that. Drifting off into space," Elizabeth declared. "Someone said he was screaming in his helmet, and it was horrible to witness," she added uneasily.

"He chose to associate with the wrong type of people."

"Jack, what's going on?"

"I need you to stay away from some of the people on the transporter. We can't trust everyone."

Elizabeth barely paid attention to the boys she was supposed to be watching as she sat in their living quarters listening to them read from their schoolwork as they simultaneously kicked their feet back and forth hitting the lower edges of the berths.

Jack hadn't gone into too much detail when they had been in his security office; just enough to worry her. He had only begun to tell her that there had been too many problems on the transporter for it to be just coincidence, bad luck, or faulty workmanship when he had been summoned to the Control Center.

Elizabeth had a hundred questions to ask him but they would have to wait until he had time to talk to her.

She wrapped a blanket around her shivering shoulders , anxiously looked at her messenger bracelet, and needlessly shook it to make sure it was still working. It had been several hours since Elizabeth had seen Jack in the security office and he had promised to stop by and see her when he had time.

"Boys, let's go to dinner", she declared.

"Is Officer Thornton going to eat with us?" the younger of the brothers spoke up as he closed his computer program. "You spend a lot of time with him."

"He's my friend. And no, he's not going to be there."

"Why not?"

"He said he had some work to do and for me to go ahead and eat without him."

"Are you going to marry him?" the older brother asked with a teasing grin.

"That is a very personal question. Too personal to ask your teacher when she is hungry and cold. Now let's go."

"Hi Abigail, it's a small crowd tonight," Elizabeth remarked as she greeted Abigail in the cafeteria which was less than half full.

"Still a lot of people sick. How are the Smatters doing? I see you've got their two boys under your wing." Abigail nodded to the boys who had hurried in line ahead of Elizabeth and were grabbing plates of cherry pie and then heading to the ice-cream dispenser without bothering to get dinner first.

"They're doing better in the infirmary. Hopefully, they'll be released tomorrow morning. Boys, get back and get real food", she called down the line.

"I'm surprised that you're not nervous."

Elizabeth smirked. "Why would I be nervous? They're just boys. I'm a teacher. I can handle watching two boys."

"Not the boys. I was talking about Jack."

"Jack?"

"I know how much you care about him."

"What are you talking about?" Elizabeth casually questioned as she eyed the steaming chili Abigail was ladling into a bowl for her. "I saw him earlier today. He's not sick. Our living quarters weren't affected and neither was his office."

Elizabeth carefully took the bowl of hot bean chili from Abigail and set in on her tray. "Can I get a roll, too?"

"I know Jack's not sick." Abigail looked curiously at Elizabeth as she handed her a roll and then a second one.

"Then what are you talking about?"

"I meant his space-walk."

Elizabeth raced down the hallways. Blindly going around the corners unconcerned if anyone was coming in the other direction.

She had left her tray with its rolls and bowl of chili on the metal rails in front of Abigail and sprinted out of the Cafeteria. The two boys, sensing something exciting was happening, had run down the corridors following her.

When she got to the "air box" – the nickname for the small room which served as a transition between the transporter and space, it was too late.

Jack was already locked inside and preparing for the outside door to open and leave him exposed to the vast, quiet, deadly black nothingness that made up space.

"Why?!" she pleaded to one of the crewmembers whom she recognized from the Cafeteria and the Fitness Center.

"Half the crew is sick. The other half needs to do their jobs so that Thornton can do what he needs to do. Now, please stay out of the way, Ms. Thatcher."

"But why Jack?" she whined. "He's in the Defense Force. He's not an astronaut!"

"He volunteered", Seth said as he came up behind her. "They needed someone to replace the broken part and close the flap left open after the guy became untethered this morning. If someone doesn't fix it, this ship is going to become one big metal freezer and we're all going to die."

"I can handle a little cold!" Elizabeth wailed. "It's not that bad!"

"Elizabeth, It's minus four hundred and fifty-five degrees in space. They've been trying their hardest to keep the temperature on this ship up but they can't do it anymore. It's been steadily dropping all day and will continue to drop ten degrees every hour if we don't do something."

"But what can he do? He's not trained for this!"

"It doesn't take any scientific knowledge. He just needs to be able to get out there, replace the piece, and handle the tools."

"How does he even know what to do?"

"They're talking him through it. The man over there", Seth nodded to a balding man wearing a set of headphones. "He's going through each step with him."

"Why didn't he tell me?!"

"Because he didn't want you to worry. Which is one of the reasons I'm here. Not just because I'm concerned and he's my friend but because he asked me to stay and look after you if you found out and raced in here. Which apparently you did."

"Well, of course I did!"

Seth tried to smile. "i guess he knows you pretty well."

"Why couldn't another passenger or crewmember do it?" Elizabeth asked on the verge of hysteria.

"It needs to be someone who is confident and has steady hands. Someone who won't freak out under pressure. I volunteered but he wouldn't let me because I've got a wife and kid. And we want the crew members here in the cabin making sure that everything's going right. They're monitoring his vitals and oxygen. Manning the hatch and pressure. Keeping him tethered to the ship."

"But what if –" Elizabeth stopped herself. She couldn't say it.

"Don't worry. He's got two tether lines on him."

Telling Elizabeth not to worry was like telling her not to breathe. She couldn't stop.

She watched out the window, and when Jack was out of sight she watched on the camera screens as he slowly moved along the side of the ship. She tried to make sense of the monitors and the beeping sounds but they meant nothing to her. She listened tensely to the balding man giving Jack instructions.

"You need to twist it to the left. Just like back on Earth. Lefty loosey. Don't take your hand off either part or they'll float away and can hit another part of the ship. We don't want any more damage", the man said into his headset. "Put your tool in the left leg pocket. Velcro it closed."

"You're breathing too hard, Officer Thornton. You need to calm down. Pause. We've got time. I want you to pause for five seconds. One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand. Four one thousand. Five one thousand. . . . "

Elizabeth silently counted with the balding man and tried to slow her breathing. Hopelessly praying that somehow Jack would sense her rhythm and they would match. As if she could make them breathe calmly together.

" . . . Okay. Your gloves will be bulky but you need to maneuver your hand in and snap it out. . . . . . Good. You're doing fine . . . .Now place it in your top right pocket. Close the Velcro. Open your top left pocket. Take out the piece from your upper left . . . . "

Elizabeth wrung her hands together, nervously fidgeted, and followed the balding man's commands to Jack while she stood out of the way. Mimicking what Jack was doing in space. Going through each motion with him as some kind of teammate or partner.

"Grasp it with your right hand to steady yourself. Now turn it three clicks. . . . . Slow down, Thornton. Don't get frustrated. Your heart rate is going up. . . ."

It took forty minutes for Jack to replace the part and close the compartment and another five minutes to get out of his spacesuit once he was in the airbox.

When he exited the transfer room, Elizabeth watched as he got congratulatory pats on the back and handshakes from the crewmembers before she threw herself into his arms.

"I'm glad you're back safely," she whispered.

Jack chuckled. "Were you worried I wouldn't be?"

"No", she lied.

He smiled with his boyish charm. "Yet you're out here in the middle of the night waiting."

"If you must know, I was just watching for Halley's comet", she again lied unconvincingly and hoped that he wasn't embarrassed by her emotional welcome.

"Halley's comet? We're nowhere near Halley's Comet," he laughed loudly as he held her tightly.

Jack looked over her shoulder and noticed the two young brothers watching them. "What's with the kids?"

"I'm babysitting them." She kept her arm around Jack's waist but turned to the children. "Come on boys, let's get you into your beds. It's late."

As Jack and Elizabeth walked down the corridor holding hands and following after the skipping boys, Elizabeth had no idea that Jack was thinking about how much the four of them looked like a family. And in that moment, he knew what he would say to her tomorrow.

Up Next: Chapter 15