Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 07:01:31 -0400 From: Sarflin Moonwalker (by way of hess@access.digex.net (Paul Hess)) Subject: The lowest Bidder! Here is my fist story ever. Hope you like it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Lowest Bidder. copywrite (c) 1994 by Robert Babiak Cooling Tower #2 02:13 Sept 10 2259 Rob thought to himself that with thirteen years as an environmental engineer, that someone should listen to him. He and Joe were replacing the circulation pump AGAIN! This was the fourth time in the last six months that they had replaced the stupid thing. It was probably just a coincidence that the stupid thing liked to give out in the wee hours of the morning, but they fixed it and then it broke and sat quietly spraying coolent out into space until the pressure dropped and shut the whole thing down. Joe was under the cover connecting the control cables when it all happened. All of a sudden something came out of nowhere and Nailed my shins it also sent me sailing out into space spinning. Sinclair's Quarters 02:15 Sept 10 2259 With a jarring thud, he found himself on the floor in the corner of his quarters. Then the emergency alarm sounded meaning that something major which would affect the station's operations had occured. Sinclair while throwing on his pants and grabbing his shirt, jacket, and commlink and heading for C&C, yells, "What the Hell?" Upon entering C&C, Commander Sinclair asks,"What happened?" "Major structural damage in Grey 17 Support 15. We are losing atmosphere, Commander", responds the duty officer. "Very well, I am assuming command, log it!" While Commander Sinclair is assuming command, the Tech reports, "Emergency hatches 14, 27, and 34 have failed to close, Sir." Looking at the comp display, Sinclair realizes that about 150 square yards of hull were blown out into space and that the Red Lines on the display repersents air blowing out into space with the force of a huracane. Thank God that the Grey section was an undeveloped section. Taping his commlink, "Sinclair to all sections. Anyone have any personnel outside?" Behind him, enters Garibaldi and Ivonava. Garibaldi looks like he has not yet been to bed whereas Ivonava is a lot more bedraggled. With a smirk, Garibaldi realizes that Ivonava is not wearing a shirt under her uniform jacket. At this moment over the com panel comes, "Enviro control. We have two men out on Tower 2 doing repairs." Sinclair responds and asks, "What frequency are they on?" "Channel 14E" Tower #2 02:15 Sept 10 2259 Being knocked out into space didn't bother him much. Using the attude jets, he straightened himself out and headed back to the tower. "Joe, are you o.k.?" Rob calls out as he sees Joe floating limp in the access panel. Reaching Joe, he pulls him out and looks in Joe's helmet. Joe is bleeding from his nose and eyes. Checking Joe's chest display, he notices: Pressure - OK Temperature - OK O2 - OK Life Signs - OK Well, Joe is alive. From Rob's radio comes, "C&C to repair crew. What is your status?" Rob wondered what C&C was doing calling him. He responded, "Repair crew. Joe is unconscious and bleeding. Am returning to lock." "Negative. Tether him and head for Grey section. We have to close Emergency hatch 27 and you are the closest!" It then hit Rob that it was Commander Sinclair that he was talking with. "Roger. You mind telling me what happened?" asked Rob as he tethered Joe to the tower and set his emergency beacon. "Be advised that we only have 10 minutes of O2 left." "Roger. We have crews suiting up now. They will bring spare O2 tanks for you." Setting his thrusters, he gave a burst of maximum thrust and was off. Ahead of him, he could see a stream of air spewing out of the station as it rotated. "Holy shit", muttered Rob and then he reported to C&C, "ETA to hole is three minutes and we have bodies out here." C & C 02:17 Sept 10 2259 "Must have been down belowers.", mutters Garibaldi. Sinclair asks, "What is the estimate time untill the central core is totally evacuated?" "The security says they don't think that they will get them all out before all of the air is depleated. That will be in less than ten minutes.", responds one of the techs. "How many are there?", questions Sinclair. "Approximately about 30 thousand.", responds Garibaldi. Sinclair responds with, "Oh God." Grey 17 Outside 02:20 Sept 10 2258 "Oh shit. How am I going to get in there?", ponders Rob as he looks at the blast of air coming out of the hole. Talking to himself, Rob ponders the situation. "Hmmm. If I use the emergency graple, I might get an ancor in there." Setting his magnetic clamp, he pulls a small metal tube from his tool belt. Reaching into the stream of air, Rob triggers the rocket. "It must have caught since the end didn't come back out." With a flick on the winch, Rob starts to pull himself into the stream of air. The roar is so load that he wouldn't have known that he was down to two minutes of air if it wasn't for the visual indicator. The warning alarm is REALLY loud but Rob couldn't hear it over the roar of the blasting air. Pulling himself up the cable, he sees that it is ancored near the hatch. Reaching the wall, Rob sets his magnetic graple. Thank god that the wind was not as great there. Grabbing the prybar from his belt, Rob starts to pull the access panel from the wall. Inside there should be a manual pump for closing the hacth yet with a jerk, the hatch comes lose and is sucked out the hole. Rob grabbed the handle and starts pumping the hatch closed. It started to close but the pump goes dry after only a foot. Swining his feet up, Rob braced himself and pushed on the stupid door. Muttering to himself, Rob asked, "Why doesn't anything around here work?" C & C 02:22 Sept 10 2258 "I have the hatch closed. You guys had better get out here with the O2. I'm out.", Rob said across the com. Looking at Garibaldi, Sinclair sees him shake his head and say, "I hate this." "Hang on. They are almost there.", lies Sinclair into the com. Sinclair's Office 10:00 Sept 13 2258 "The Techs have found that it was the substandard materials in the supports which gave way. They were amazed that it held this long. Also they have found several stress snsors that have been riged to give faluse reports. when they where connected the boards lit up like a chrismas tree and the records show it was all one construction company. Joe has come around and is doing well. Dr Franklen is releasing the last of the people from the central core today. We lost a total of 32 people, the Engineer, 15 yet to be identified from space and 16 from the core. Most of the deaths were from other people trying to get out of the core.", reports Garibaldi to Commander Sinclair. "I am going to recommend that charges be brought against the contractors, and a complete inspection of all structural materials be done. We were lucky. It could have been a lot worse. Also the Senet has released 5.6 million from the emergancy budget to make repairs and replace lost equipment.", states Sinclair. "What lost equipment?" sayes Garibaldi with a quizzled look on his face. "You know the Docking equipment that was beeing stored there till it could be repaired." smiles Sinclair. "You could get into alot of troble if that comes out but the dock workers will be happy and probably keep there mouths shut." As Garibaldi turns to leave, Sinclair says, "Now I have to do the two things that I hate more than anything else." Garibaldi turns and asks, "What are those?" Reluctantly Sinclair states, "Writing the families and recommending Rob Tarlin for the medal of Valor" "postumosly"