Chapter Four: The Antenna
There's something alluring about the darkness of space. Something animal, and aware. Much like the abyss, the immensity of it wrapped itself inside Bellamy long ago. He carried it with him, heavy shouldered, ever since.
"Earth to Bellamy!" Murphy prods and Bellamy snaps his eyes forward to the large ring like structure beneath them.
"What?" Bellamy replies, irritated.
"Did you not hear me calling you?" Murphy asks.
"I heard you fine."
Bellamy moves, grabbing onto one of the metal rungs that leads them to the antenna.
"Choosing to ignore me then?" Murphy adds. Bellamy can feel sweat collecting in the hollow of his throat. The spacesuit is unbearable.
Raven crackles over their comms, "Almost there?"
"Almost, there's a lot of rungs." Bellamy replies and she sighs, "just take it easy on the breathing. Nice and slow. You are burning through your O2 a little faster than you should be."
Bellamy takes a slow deep breath to calm his heart and slowly releases it. "Alright…"
Murphy is already ahead of him and he can finally see the antenna. "I can see it, Raven." Bellamy reports.
"Good. Murphy still alive?" She asks, begrudgingly.
"Yep. Fraid' so." Bellamy replies before moving further towards the center of the bottom of the ring. There's something about this whole thing that left him uneasy but maybe it's just the void of space itself that's making him paranoid.
Murphy reaches the antenna first and impatiently adds, "Go any slower and five years will be up and we won't need to do this."
Bellamy doesn't bother with a retort and it seems to disappoint Murphy but he still manages to throw a smirk his way once he reaches him.
"We're here, Raven." Bellamy reports.
There's silence.
"Raven?" Bellamy attempts to hit his helmet as if that would help.
There's static and then "see…..box….the...ant—"
"Sorry Raven, we can't hear you, the connection is bad." Bellamy adds and looks to Murphy who shrugs.
Bellamy notices a small square white box below the antenna and he guesses that's what Raven meant. He bends down, blinking away the sweat from his eyelashes. He uses the mini screwdriver they brought with them to remove the white panel. He slowly lifts the lid and hands it to Murphy.
"We have the panel open, Raven. Can you hear me?" Bellamy tries.
There's nothing, not even static.
"Dammit…Raven? Can you hear me?"
"Well, this is fantastic." Murphy unhelpfully replies.
"Maybe there's something blocking the frequency?" Bellamy quietly says, more to himself than to anyone.
There's static again and then the line comes through clear, "Hey, you hear me?"
"Yeah, we hear you, what happened?" Bellamy asks. A bead of sweat runs down the side of his face. He feels like he's cooking from the inside out.
"I'm restoring power in other sections of the ring and I'm guessing something interfered with the signal but we're back now." Raven says and Bellamy bends down towards the exposed panel.
"I got the panel open, the white box below the antenna."
"Good. I'm…..shit." Raven breathes and the sound of a muffled alarm comes over their comms.
"What? Raven?!"
There's a sudden violent jolt that sends Bellamy and Murphy off balance. Bellamy slams into the bottom of the ring and Murphy is flung forward towards space. "MURPHY!" Bellamy screams.
The sound of crushing, contracting metal, resounds from above them as if something slammed into the ring. Bellamy quickly moves forward, further down away from the antenna to reach a free-floating Murphy.
"GET BACK TO THE AIRLOCK NOW!" Raven yells and a static screech rips through his ears. He can hear Murphy yelling his name from afar. Bellamy moves fast, hugging the ring, as he makes his way towards Murphy. There's another loud crash of bending metal from above and the ring shakes. It sounds like it's tearing apart. He pushes up from metal ground, and uses the momentum to force himself forward, straight towards Murphy.
"BEL—MY" He hears crackle over the comms.
"Murphy is free floating, Raven! I can't get back to the airlock!" Bellamy tries, his breathing is erratic, he knows he's blowing through his O2.
"THER-FIRE IN…." The comms crackles out again.
"GODDAMMIT!" Bellamy screams and quickly grips onto the nearest rung before he's flung into space himself. He grabs the tether belt on his suit and pulls it forward before pushing himself off the rung again, gaining on Murphy. They're running out of time and getting too close to the edge of the ring.
He's close enough to hear Murphy scream a set of expletives at him. Bellamy grips onto another smaller rung and uses his tether on his belt to latch onto Murphy's. The force of it sends them crashing into each other. Bellamy kept his grip on the rung, luckily, and he pulls them back towards the direction of the airlock.
Getting this antenna working meant everything to Bellamy but he couldn't think about that now. He had to get back and assess the damage.
"I almost got floated!" Murphy yells into his comms. They were moving in tandem now, tethered to one another.
"You're welcome." Bellamy breathes.
Murphy bumps into him, "What the hell happened?"
"Raven? We are headed back now. Can you hear me?" Bellamy asks.
There's just static.
Murphy fiddles with the tether before gripping onto another rung, "Did something hit us?"
"I don't know. Raven said something about a fire." Bellamy says. They're taking too long. He'd suspect their O2 is running low. He grabs the nearest rung and pushes off from it, eliciting a yell from Murphy when he's pulled along with him.
They pass by the antennae and Bellamy avoids glancing at it. He hopes they'd be able to get back out here again. He'd do everything in his power to fix it.
"Clarke's fine. We'll be down there in no time, even if we don't get that piece of shit to work." Murphy says, oddly reassuring.
"Raven? You there?" Bellamy tries and there's no answer.
They finally reach the open airlock and climb inside. They float forward and collide with the wall, uncoordinated. With a grunt, Bellamy reaches for the seal for the door, pulling it.
"We're in the airlock! Can you hear me?"
The large door shuts behind them and static pours from their comms. Bellamy breathes slow, trying to conserve the O2 he has left but it's Murphy's O2 tank that begins to beep.
"Raven!" Bellamy yells.
"If I didn't suffocate out there, I'm going to suffocate in here. Good job." Murphy supplies.
Bellamy bangs on the door with his fist. The door beeps and then they are immediately slammed into the floor from the pressurization.
Bellamy's vision is blurred, he's disorientated. He hears the doors open and Monty appears above him. He's yelling but Bellamy couldn't hear him. The sound has evaporated. Monty grabs his shoulders and begins dragging Bellamy from the airlock into the hallway. Harper is beside him and she pulls the helmet off of Bellamy's head. He gulps in the air. He turns and coughs against the cold metal floor. His hair is stuck to his sweaty forehead.
The sound comes rushing back. "It was one of the dead antennas that crashed into the ring. Raven thinks an explosion was caused from restoring the power." Monty says.
Bellamy sits up, dizzy and delirious. "An antenna?!" He grips onto Monty's shoulders. He could feel the desperation spiraling out of his throat.
"It's not connected to the main comms. As I said this one was dead from the start." Monty reassures and Bellamy breathes.
"Well that was fun." Murphy says, muffled from his rumpled space suit.