You have about three minutes to live, if you fuck up and get your suit punctured.
The old engineer fussed over a few tal toolboxes on his bench, pulling out the contents, explaining as he went. First few seconds, frostbite sets in the local puncture area. After that, the freezing temperature leaks in and overpowers the suit's rebreather, usually around the one minute mark. Better be holding your breath by that point. You die the mont you can't."
It was hard to see what he'd been doing, since the workbench was made for grown-ups. I craned my head over the lip of the table, to get a better view.
He pushed the toolbox away, "Most human adults can hold their breath about two minutes while under stress. Factor that in and that's why it's roughly three minutes before lights out."
He brought his elbows on the table, lowering his head so that he was more at eye level with . "See why folks beat around the snow telling you kids what's out there? You're ten, they'd rather you go be a brat and play with your friends. Leave the worrying to the adults."
Everyone said it's really bad if sothing happened outside the heated clan bunker. And then they'd shoo away when I'd ask them how bad.
Anarii was, as he put it, 'too old to care about keeping secrets' - he'd tell about whatever I asked. So, ever since I found him, I'd been sneaking past the house guards and making my way to his workstation, deep in the bowels of the colony.
"Now, here's a challenge for you," Anarii grinned. "How would you patch up the environntal suit fast enough to beat the tir?
I frowned as I thought. A couple ideas floated to my head but none of them seed to fit. So I did what I do best: I looked for a way to cheat and get an edge.
Im betting hed pulled everything out for a reason, the answer is probably on his workbench.
A square piece of suit fabric caught my attention. A patch? That didnt seem right, sewing took a long ti. Also I didn't see any needles or thread anywhere on that table. "A patch with a sticky surface?"
Youre close, but theres so issues with that answer. His hand picked up that piece of fabric along with a spare knife. Imagine you're having a nice stroll outside and your suit gets a rip, like this. The tough material took him a good mont of struggling to tear through with the knife. Now in most cases, youll be panicking and not thinking clearly. A patch needs too many steps for your groggy mind to handle. We need sothing faster and easier.
He set down the knife and picked up a strange fat gun off the table, flipping a switch on it. Thats where this cos in. Catch.
I caught the heavy gun-thing with a slight fumble. Welding lines held together different parts and string tied a circuit chip to the side. The barrel was way too fat compared to sidearms and rifles.
Looks weird. Does it really shoot bullets?
Nope. It has been modified to fire out superheated glue. It's a hot glue gun! He cackled, as if this was the world's funniest joke.
Youre going to glue the suit back together? I said, stunned. Thats stupid!
He ruffled my hair with a wide smile and took the weird gun back from my hands. Well, if its stupid, but it works, then its not stupid. And boy does it work. Fast on his feet, he turned on his chair and fired a snotful of glue at the rip, almost point blank.
All done. He patted the cloth, where the glue had sunk into the tear, already hardened over. Easy see? Thatll hold off the environnt for a few hours, more than enough ti to limp back sowhere safe.
While I poked the strangely repaired rip, Anarii got out of his chair and reached for sothing big, at the top of the shelf.
A spare environntal helt. It had been built oddly - a glass do acted as the faceplate for the massive helt. Normally helts were made with goggles instead, harder to break than a massive glass do. I think he kept that defunct model because it looked weird.
When he lifted the helt off the shelf, the bulky thing knocked down a small avalanche of tools. Ahh, ratshit... Eh, Ill clean this later.
Then he paused, as if an idea crossed his mind. Actually, He said, rubbing the white whiskers of his beard like a villain would. I think Ill apply my gods- given privilege again as the only adult here and have you clean this ss for . He chuckled darkly.
Last ti, that lazy adult had tricked into cleaning up the workstation for him in 'exchange' for lessons on welding. But I'd had a lot of ti to stew in my bed and prepare. A well designed plan was put into action.
Wait, wait! I turned and scrambled on top of a stack of crates. Once stable, I positioned my hands imperiously at my waist, my back straight and regal, like the captains of the clan did when they wanted soone to pay attention. And standing up on these boxes let properly lord over him. I took a deep breath and puffed out my chest. I am Keith Winterscar, of House Winterscar! By authority invested in my caste as a knight retainer, I shan't do your bidding!
The engineer stopped in his tracks and gawked up at .
Yes, take a good look and tremble. House Winterscar only had a few hundred mbers, but we were still an entire rank above engineers and scientists. From my boxy throne with the full authority of my venerable house behind , I must have been a terrifying sight.
Anarii broke down laughing, which was absolutely nowhere in my design docunt.
Ah, but there's one flaw in your clever little plan: Whos going to enforce it? He lifted up his hands and grabbed off the stack of crates, slowly bringing back down on the ground, next to the helt hed pulled down from the shelf.
The guards would back up! I only need to tell them youre making clean things up. They'll shake you down for it, old man!
And if you tell them, youd be admitting that you snuck out to an engineering bay again. Theyre not gonna like that, Id be betting. Scandalous for a noble knight retainer of House Winterscar to be visiting little old . That brought out another fit of chuckling from the old man, especially when he watched squirm around trying to think of a counter to his point.
Before I could co up with another way to escape clean up duty, the helt was plunked on top of my shoulders.
Whats this for? My voice echoed inside the helt.
Well, what about other problems besides hard punctures? Like suit failures or leaks you don't know about? Youll have to deal with those too when youre out there. The glass muffled his voice.
A few button presses later from him and a banshee-like wail rang out in the helt. The high-pitched alarm hamred frantically in my ears. The air instantly started getting chilly at the sa ti.
This, little man, is the ergency warning. If you ever hear this - you need to move fast.
I get it! I get it! Can you turn it off now?? I yelled at him, the siren almost drowning out my voice. It had gotten uncomfortably cold. A leak? My breath ca out as mist.
I already did. Anarii frowned. You're still hearing it?
Yeah! And its getting really cold too!
He glanced over at his instrunts, puzzled. Oh! Cant believe I forgot about that detail. His hand lood over the glass do and tapped on it loudly. Youre going to have to fix this one all on your own, just like a real grownup."
I nodded back at him, a bit worried now.
Dont worry, its easy. He smiled, and drew closer to the glass. You just need to wake up.
Frost blood on the outside, coating the glass. The temperature continued to drop and danger flared in my heart in response. I scread and clawed at the straps. It didnt budge. Too heavy.
The weight dragged onto the floor, my hands still unable to pry the thing off. Everything was getting so cold. The alarm continued to ring in my ears, louder than my cries. The ice expanded over the instrunts, breaking system after system in bursts of shattered glass. Needles and gauges froze in place instantly.
Wake up, Keith. Or youre gonna die. Anariis features blurred from the ri. Now, only unfocused blotches of color diffused through the ice.
The helts protective faceplate finally started to give in, massive cracks appearing on the do, small pieces of glass snapping off and falling down on my cheek. The cold squeezed through those cracks. Reaching for .
Reaching to kill .
"Wake up, Anarii said. Wake up or die, boy.
The do shattered. Ice lunged for my throat.
I woke with a gasp, my eyes flared open, hyperventilating. I was back in my full adult-sized environntal suit complete with intact goggles - Anarii nowhere to be seen, no glass do helt, no workbench. No more mories of my childhood.
Cold reality again.
The shrill alarm in my suits helt continued to beat into my ear, refusing to let drift back to sleep. Sothings wrong... with the suit. I need to I need to move fast.
My chest constricted when I tried moving. The cause was easy to spot: Soone had applied glue in half a dozen places. And still my teeth clattered and shivered. My skin - ice cold. Theres a leak that got missed. Im freezing to death.
It was a struggle to lift my numb arm. Sohow I got a visual on my wrists instrunts despite the shaking. The gauges were still working, the nightmare frost nowhere to be seen. The reading on the needles snapped a spike of adrenaline through my heart that finally shook fully awake.
The rebreather read as offline. No one could live without reheated air on the surface. I should be dead. How was I breathing?
I shut my eyes and on a leap of faith... inhaled.
No uncontrollable coughing. Pain didn't flash through my throat, either. The air wasn't cold enough to kill.
Soone had turned off my suits heating systems, knowing it wasnt needed here. This couldn't be the surface then. My goggles restricted my field of view, but what little I could see... this must be the underground.
No. Panic later. I needed to plug the leak. I could worry about exactly where I was later.
An analog switch on my arm controlled ergency temperature, and with a flick the backpack humd to life. Lukewarm air flowed through the entire suit from tubing under the cloth, like a second set of veins. It burned everywhere it touched.
Everywhere, except for my left lower rib, where the heat was being sucked away.
Found you.
My scavenger kit clicked open at a touch, still on the side of my belt. The field repair gun inside looked to be in working condition. It took three tries and twenty wasted seconds before my frozen hand finally wrapped around the handle and lifted it out. The charge switch was large, like everything I owned, made to be used by thick gloves. It started humming in my hand the mont the flip was switched.
The leak was a five inch rip in the cloth, hidden away on the left side. No wonder itd been missed.
Pain seared my skin as the glue sunk inside the open tear. It hardened instantly, doing its job as expected, holding fast to flesh and fabric alike. I slumped back down, too cold to care about anything else.
Soon enough, the suits basic sensors hit nominal. The warning siren promptly shut down along with the heater and everything was suddenly quiet again.
That let hear what I hadnt been able to before.
Sounds of tal clinked softly nearby. The source of the noise ca from a man sitting nearby on a concrete block, tending carefully to an old rifle. Armored in plate with a single blood red sigil on the shoulder pad. A faceless helt turned my direction.
The last ti Id seen that armor, it had been falling down into an abyss.
Father.
User Comments
0 comments from readers