7. The depth may stare back into you

As Dan floated toward the exit from the infirmary filled with terrified muffled screams, crescendo of exhausted gasps with an undertone of arrythmic wheezing, a doc in white robe splattered with red all around grabbed his shoulder:

• “…” — the doc’s barely could talk, his eyes stared long, chin slightly dropped, eyelids falling and rising slowly — “We need gravity, or many of us won’t survive the next days” — Dan looked around the infirmary for the first time.

Dozens of people stuck to makeshift beds, a few straps holding them in their frenzied, shocked states, one of them trying to open his strap again and again. His slipping hand could not make a grab, his foggy mind could not understand why pushing it down does not open it. Dan could not hear him, just saw his mouth slowly forming words. A drill screams in another corner, a nurse holding it with trembling arms, slowly pushing it into a skull of a catatonic woman letting dark gluey blood out. Dozens others passed out and just floating around as there is not enough beds even, most have blue colored skins here and there, mostly on their abdomen, small signs of internal bleeding.

• “I’ll see what I can do” — the scene reminiscent of old war movies, Dan never expected to witness in reality, though the weight of it did not really sink yet — “Where are we exactly? Deck, sector?”
• “Deck 7, gray sector, turn left on the corridor and you will face an elevator shaft”

Dan and Ava left the room without anything else said, no time, no mood for chit-chat. The shaft wasn’t far from them, while inoperable, still the fastest access route to anywhere on the ship during zero gravity. The manual safety release in the panel was working smoothly, the light sound of the compressed air escaping confirmed the doors unlocked. Old, cheap and reliable solutions never go out of style.

• “We need to get to deck 150, three of four hundred meters toward ship center”
• “How do you know that?” — wondered Ava
• “Well, when I worked in the docks, we got our assignments from the engineering rooms that are placed midway of ship center to side, they experience only moderate gravity allowing easier work while we could station there for months, bunk beds are not fun though for the spine even in lower gravity” — a bit of monologue took Dan’s mind off of the recent memories.

The remaining of their ascent spent in silence broken by the occasional push to maintain their momentum, the cracking of the metals they used. Shrapnels torturing the metals around them got less prominent as they progressed, meaning they got further away from the source.

• “Aahh” — Dan muffled a scream of his
• “What happened?”
• “I am okey, just touched a live wire, be careful”

Some of the wires were cut and dangling around, Dan touched one of those during his next push and the short circuit punished his inattention. They quickly arrived on the expected deck, used the manual release and forced open the elevator doors. So far the emergency lights gave enough to see contours, even some colors too though the grayish metal walls would not give much interesting view anyway. But on the other side of the elevator doors they found only darkness. A bunch of dangling cables at the entrance, no further details could be seen.

• “Do you have any flashlights?” — asked for just in case while Dan was checking his clothes and pockets — “My watch almost out of battery”
• “Nope, nothing like that, any emergency kits around?”
• “Usually one was stored under the engineer’s computer desks, if it wasn’t used or stolen”
• “Going in blind?”
• “Well, do we have other choice? People dying with every minute, and my bleeding doesn’t get better either. Let’s go, I will only use the watch’s screen every 50 meters” — Dan just felt his burnt hand — “First let’s use our sleeves for grabbing, don’t want to feel electrified again.”

Ava grabbed Dan’s arm as they entered the darkness, her scent and touch, Dan still could not remember exactly while he felt somehow familiarity of both. For a few minutes they could still see the sparkling spot, the last lights of the elevator shaft before they were fully embraced by the dark. A faint whisper like a howling ghost:

• “Ava, what did you say?”
• “Nothing, why?”
• “I thought… nevermind”

The last drops of energy from the watch at least showed them the right door, the engineering room just in front of them, slightly deformed from its hinges. Dan pried it open with his bare hands, the almost broken screws let way as they met with the final force they could not handle.

• “Who are you?” — a faint question came from the darkness, the new movement picked up by one of the sensors making an emergency light flicker to life making the questioner’s silhouette visible.
• “I am Dan Loukas, used to work in the docks, you?”
• “Brad Holloway, second grade engineer.” — still talking slowly and quietly.

Dan slowly adapted to the new light source, he did not notice any injuries on Brad beside his slow talk may be signs of shock. In front of Brad, the computer showed part of the ship’s structure in different colors, most layered in orange and red, while a bit more green were visible at the back of the ship. Two distinct lines of red drawn along the ship top and bottom.

• “I can’t reach main engineering, nobody responded” — told Brad without any prompt — “Two of my colleagues left to go there, one by one” — his sight looking empty on the screen.
• “We need to do something, Brad, the ship is clearly in deep trouble, and we need gravity now.” — Dan had no idea how to bring someone out of shock so tried his usual go to solution, logic and sell an idea. — “Now Brad, if you can spin up the ship, you can be the hero of the day”
• “But… but… we tried, computer should have done it automatically… we can’t access the thrusters” — he pointed to the red lines on the structure.

8. In the pale moonlight

“So if we restore connection to the thrusters, we can make gravity?”