The suit was a little tight as Aurelius finished fascining. Despite the tightness, it seemed he and Jenkins must have had a similar build.

“Generally speaking, these slush suits are designed to keep the person in and the harshness of space out.” Chief Marcus said, monitoring the team of three as they suited up, “But these here, on this ship, are far stronger, more versatile, and easier to move in than standard suits. These suits can be pummeled by debris like a cosmic punching bag and rarely rip or tear. The suits are so strong that the person inside usually dies from untreated impact trauma before than anything else. They’re just as good at keeping the void of space out as they were at keeping all of your bits in. Hence the name slush suit. Nowhere are they more important to have than on the governor’s ship. These are the top-of-the-line prototypes. The entire Service-Corp only has a half dozen of them in total. They’re worth orders of magnitude more money than the three of you are so I want them all returned in one piece.”

“Is that his way of telling us to be careful?” Aurelius asked Paul under his breath.

“Mostly you I think.” Paul said; “We’re a bit far out to be replacing you at this point.”

“Good I wouldn’t want to be someone else’s Jenkins.” Aurelius said.

Aurelius stepped into an airlock with the two other engineers, Paul and Nyreen. Between the three of them, they carried a toolbox and laser cutter. The thing looked like a cross between a rifle and jackhammer. A button on their collars caused their helmets to seal up tight.

“The utility craft has just finished up cutting away the bulk of the debris. Your guys’s job is to dislodge the rest. I want this done clean and by the numbers.” the chief said over the comm. “Depressurizing now.”

There was a rushing noise as the air evacuated from the airlock. A moment later, the outer door unlocked and slipped open silently. Paul pressed a button on his forearm. “Magnetizing…” His boots became fixed to the floor. Aurelius and Nyreen followed. Now they could step out of the airlock and onto the hull. Aurelius knew his steps had to be slow and deliberate. If one foot wasn’t on the hull at all times, they ran the risk of breaking contact and flying away.

Paul led the team, one foot in front of the other. Aurelius couldn’t help but gaze out at the expanse of emptiness around him. There was a strange loneliness to it. He couldn’t tell if the tiny twinkling lights were all stars or far-off ships.

Jerula’s voice came over the comm. “All right, boys and girls. Looks like this is going to be nice and simple. We’ve still got a good chunk of another ship lodged in us, but if the three of you can get that dealt with actually fixing the steering strut should be child’s play. The captain has positioned the ship to hopefully protect you guys from the worst of the gates effects, but be careful, get the new guy killed and I’ll have no one to drink with.”

“I’ve got better things to do tonight than die.” Aurelius replied.

“You really don’t if you don’t get moving. We’ve got a job to do, and right now I don’t see anyone doing it.” Came the chief’s voice cutting over everyone else, “So if you’ve got a moment, maybe you could attend to it please.”

Aurelius pointed his hand at Paul making a little gesture that resembled a squawking bird. Both Nyreen and Paul cracked smiles.

“Ok guys let’s be careful going forward.” Paul said, “Your mag boots are going to hold you to the hull, but we’re going to have to make several short jumps to get where we’re going. Your suits have a jetpack for these sort of situations, but you only have a little bit of fuel and you’re going to need the pack to both go up and come down, so let’s not waist any of it. Jerula, can you give me and Nyreen readouts on Aurelius’s fuel gage, I’d like us to be able to keep an eye on it while he’s still learning?”

“No Problem” Jerula confirmed.

Paul lead the way out across the hull. He advanced them around antennae and over vent panels and protrusions Aurelius couldn’t put a name too.

“We can see the damage, sir.” Paul said.

There before them, down the length of the ship was the massive stanchion that held the ship’s steering fin out from the hull. It had a sizable impact scar with a car sized piece of sharp, serrated, steel poking out from the wound.

“The utility craft got as much as it could… “Chief Marcus said, “but we’re going to need you guys to dig out the rest before we can assess the damage.”

Eventually Paul, Nyreen and Aurelius came to a break in the hull. They wouldn’t be able to continue forward without the use of the suits jumpack systems.

“End of the road guys.” Nyreen said, dangling a foot over the gap before letting the magnets in her boots snap her footing back to the hull.

“Alright, Aurelius. The pack boots when your suit does. The systems on board scan the local area and can tell when you’re adrift.”

Paul stepped forward to the very edge of the gap in the hull. He pressed a button on his forearm and his boot unsnapped from the metal beneath him. He used his feet to push off from the contour in the ship in the same way a swimmer pushes off the side of a pool. The jets on his backpack fired up, pushing out a little jet of hot plasma before dieing back down.

“See! It’s just like swimming! If you want to go faster you stretch out like this” Paul said before stretching his body out a little into a pose a comic book super hero might recognize. The jets on his backpack fired up and began carrying him forward faster and faster as he began to stretch out into a planking position.

“If you want to slow down you just pull your legs forward.” He said, swinging his legs back underneath him.

“Those are the basics.” Nyreen continued, “Oh and you lean your body in the direction you want to go. It’s a lot more intuitive than it looks at first.”

At this point Paul was a good hundred or so meters down range. Nyreen stepped to the edge of the hull and followed him, demagnetizing her boots, pushing off from the ship and letting her momentum carry her along for a few meters before letting her jets take over.

“Just like swimming…” Aurelius said under his breath as he stepped to the edge of the gap in the hull. Nyreen and Paul had clearly done something like this before. they seemed oddly at ease with the idea of floating around the outside of this behemoth of a ship. Aurelius had been waiting for an opportunity like this but it was remarkable at how small he felt right now. It brought a unease to his stomach that was made of both nerves and excitement. Not wasting another moment, he stepped to the edge of the hull and followed Nyreen and Paul. He felt a vibration in his boots as they demagnetised. A second later he pushed off from the hull as gracefully as he could. After just a short drift he realised that he might have pushed a little to hard with his right leg as he noticed his drift was becoming increasingly off target.

“Just stretch out a little bit. Keep your eyes focused on the strut at the back of the ship. you have to look where you want to go.” Paul said, pointing to the massive series of cross bars sticking out of the back of the ship. From their point of view the scaffolding that held the steering fin seemed more like a massive tower sticking up out of the ground.

Aurelius tried to follow Paul’s example and began to lean forward. his jetpack fired more abruptly than he had anticipated, throwing him forward. He panicked a little flailing his arms trying to stabilize himself as he wobbled. He was still off course and now was drifting downward toward the ship and its massive rotating center column.

“Keep your eyes on the end of the strut and stretch out.” Paul said sensing his panic. Aurelius couldn’t help but look directly at the hull beneath him, that was his first mistake. The second one was stretching out like superman. His suit reacted and blasted his jets sending him flying toward the hull.

“Shit!” the chief barked, monitoring the entire situation from inside the ship.

“Don’t stretch out that much!” Nyreen called out.

“Look at that strut!” Paul barked.

Aurelius had to fight his natural instinct of keeping his eyes on the hull as he flew closer and closer to it. It pulled his head up and locked his eyes on the steering fin on the end of the scaffolding sticking out of the ship. His pack continued to fire and pulled him away from the vessel. It rocketed him toward their destination.

“See! you’re getting it!” Nyreen said watching his flight stabilize.

“Strifer…” Jerula’s voice came over their radios, “You’re going a little fast.”

“How do I slow down?” Aurelius asked trying to keep any hint of nerves out of his voice.

“Pull your feet back under you then turn around and lean forward.” Paul said.

Fighting all of his natural inclinations to actually lose sight of where he was heading he followed Paul’s advice. He pivoted around and faced his two companions and leaned forward slightly. As his suit was designed to do, his pack fired and began slowing him down. That’s when he noticed the little speedometer in his hud. He had been going over sixty five kilometers an hour, relative to the ship, and was now slowing. He watched the holographic needle in his field of view drop to under ten kph.

“You’re now going slow enough that you should be able to catch the hull under your feet and remagnatize.” The Chief said.

“Don’t forget to turn around!” Paul reminded him.

Aurelius pivoted around. Rather than hoping to catch the hull with his boots he was close enough to the base of the scaffolding to grab it with his arms and pull himself in. Once he had a firm grip he activated his boots and again and for the second time today he was standing on the outside of the ship.He let out a long sight has Nyreen and Paul landed next to him.

“See. Not so bad.” Nyreen said patting him on the backpack.

“Don’t. You might send me off into space again.” he said, mostly joking.

“Okaaaay... Not exactly how I planned to get us here, but here we are, you two ready to get to work?” Paul asked, starting to unpack the laser cutter and gesturing for Nyreen to come help him.

“After that I feel like I’m ready for anything.” Aurelius said.

“Good. Nyreen, you’ve got better aim than I do, come guide this thing as I direct you. Aurelius, I’m going to need you to start pulling away the chunks as she cuts them free.” Paul said, stepping away from the controls so Nyreen could take her place.

“Got it.” Aurelius and Nyreen said almost at the same time.

Aurelius hadn’t expected to see the beam of the laser, but never the less it was a little surprising the first time the metal Paul was pointing at turned phosphorescent white before a seam became visible.

“Grab it!” Paul yelled snapping Aurelius back to the reality of his task. With a quick lunge he grabbed a chunk of metal about the length and width of his forearm.

“We keeping this for something?” Aurelius asked holding up the chunk.

“No, just throw it away from the ship, eventually the star will get it, I just don’t want it floating around us while we try and work.” Paul answered.

“Got it.”

The next half an hour went by more or less smoothly, Paul pointing out a chunk to cut free, Nyreen lasering it with almost surgical precision, and Aurelius pulling debris free as gently as possible so as not to damage anything anymore than it already was.

“So I’ve got good news.” Paul said looking into the hole, “The damage doesn’t look so bad. It looks mostly structural. With a little spot welding we should be able to get underweigh and fix this thing up proper once we’re not approaching the corona of a star.”

 “That’s good, get the plate on quickly then, and get back to the ship. I’ve just been informed that a large cloud of debris is heading our way.” the Chief’s voice responded in all their helmets.

“Big enough that you’re worried about us being out here?” Paul asked.

“Big enough that the ship is going to have to get moving or get hit with larger chunks than the one you guys just cut loose.”

“Alright guys, you heard the man. We’re working on a time limit here. Jerula can you give us a countdown display and prep the airlock for us?”    

“Already there, the door will be open for you, and you should be seeing the countdown till impact… now.”

The countdown appeared in Aurelius’s hud showing the time remaining before impact. The timer had just over ten minutes on the clock.

 “Ok guys, getting the panel down should take no time at all, so let’s get to work. Nyreen head up toward the bow end and work our way back. Aurelius head stern and work your way back here, I’ll secure everything while you two weld.

Aurelius walked along the edge of the hull plate as fast as he could, he wasn’t aiming to do a good job. Right now fast was more important than good. Good could come later when good wouldn’t mean painting the new hull plate with their insides. Right now it just had to hold long enough for more standard repairs.

As Aurelius’s path finally intersected with Nyreen’s he checked his countdown timer.

“All right, we’ve got three minutes until it starts raining sharp heavy metal things. We need to get to the airlock.” Aurelius said.
“Nyreen, If I lead the way, can you guide Aurelius and take him tandom on that jump?”

“Sure, but I think he’s got it.” Nyreen replied.

“I’m sure he does, but with everything going on, let’s not chance…” Aurelius would never hear the rest of Paul’s sentence as it was brought to an abrupt end as a large object slammed up against Aurelius and broke his boots grip on the hull, carrying him away in a tumbling spin away from the ship.

“Aurelius!” Paul yelled as pieces of debris began to rain down and smack against the ship like a hail of bullets.

“I can get him!” Aurelius heard Nyreen say.

“No! You two get back to the ship! Jerula is that lock ready for them?” The chief came through his voice louder than anyone else’s.

“But chief…”
“Nyreen, listen to me. We’re already taking small impacts all over the ship. I don’t like the idea of leaving him out there but recovery is not an option at this point.”

“I am still here.” Aurelius said, the horror of his situation not quite sinking in. He knew he was heading away from the Freedom’s Reach at an astounding velocity, and he could hear them talking about his recovery not being an option, but something about it just didn’t or maybe couldn’t hit home. He should be terrified, or furious but he really wasn’t. Mostly he was wondering if this would count against the plaque by the chief’s office and if people would start telling the new guy Aurelius stories and more than anything else he was wondering how he was still alive and conscious after being hit so hard.

“He’s still alive!” Jerula exclaimed.

“Sit rep, Blaze!” The Chief ordered.

“Well… Well I’m alive but in pain…. Clinging to a chunk of metal... and rapidly flying away from the ship.” Aurelius said checking his ribs for any breaks, “I’ve had better vacations.”

“Roger that. Are you injured?”

“Not terribly.”

Aurelius felt a thud, as the back of his suit hit something, turning his head. He saw that it was a colossal part of a ship’s hull. It looked like a section near the center of a ship like the Freedom’s Reach. There were huge letters stenciled on the hull, but Aurelius was too close to read them. At first he thought it was a section of the Freedom’s Reach that somehow he had come full circle but he knew that wasn’t so. Out in the distance Aurelius could just make out the Freedom’s Reach.

“All right, we’re in.” Aurelius heard Paul say, his voice sounding flat and somehow numb.

“Got it. How’s Nyreen?” The chief asked.

“She took a minor hit, nothing the suit couldn’t handle. I think she’s shaken up more than anything else. Any chance of recovering Aurelius?”

“We can’t send anything out. We have to be leaving in two minutes. If he’s still out there, it’s going to be up to him to get back.”

The moment was surreal. They thought he was really gone and they were writing him off.

“But he has to be.” Came Nyreen’s voice; “We heard him transmit!”

“He did, but our trackers have him making hard impact with a large piece of a ship, and then nothing, he’s not moved, or transmitted for over a minute.” The chief said.     

“Haven’t I?” Aurelius thought; “It hasn’t been that long.” He tried to look down at his countdown, and found the numbers too blurry to read.

“Okay. Either I’ve done some serious damage to this thing, or I hit harder than I thought.”

“Jerula! Jerula!” Aurelius’s voice almost didn’t sound like his own coming over the static.

“Aurelius?” Came Jerula’s voice.

“Yeah I’m still here. You guys can still see me, right?”

“Yeah we can see you, but you’re a ways out there.” Jerula said.

“I figured. I was thinking I could try and fire myself back to the ship, any chance a full burn from the suit can get me there in time?” Aurelius asked.

“It could if you had a full tank, but you don’t, you used a lot learning to fly earlier.” Jerula said,

“What about the Air tank? Any chance that could give me the thrust i’d need?” Aurelius asked.

“I don’t… Hang on a moment, I need to do some calculations.”

“I’d hurry up, I might not be going anywhere, but i think you guys might be.”

“Okay. This is beyond a longshot, and there’s going to be no steering once you get started.

“I’m listening, right now you sound like you’re underwater, but I’m listening.”

“Ok that’s not great. You might have a concussion, so I’m going to need you to listen really carefully. I’m going to need you to point yourself as best as you can to the ship.” Jerula said.

“Then what?” Aurelius asked.

“Let’s focus on that first. you remember the position?”

“Yeah.” Aurelius said, fixing his boots to the hull that had so rudely come up and hit him in the back.

“Ok so, now I’m going to have you push off, but not yet, we need to get this just right, or… well let’s just say we’d better get it right. be ready though, I’m going to give you a countdown in a minute. When I hit one I need you to push off of the object and use what’s left of your fuel to make sure you’re pointing in the right direction.” Jerula said

“I think I got it. So do I need to be aiming at an airlock or something?”

“I think that might be a little ambitious at this point. let’s settle for hitting the ship, we’ll figure out how to get you back inside after.”

“Got it.”

“The ship is going to be making a turn shortly to face toward the star, when it does you’re going to be as close to it as we can get you. are you ready?”

“Ready.”

“Good, then counting down, five, four, three, two… Go!”

Aurelius kicked off from the hunk of hull and launched himself as best he could towards the Freedom’s Reach. Aiming was difficult though, for Aurelius the ship was a black outline against the almost impossibly bright mass of the star that outlined it. If not for the dimmers and other filters in his faceplate, Aurelius doubted he’d be able to see anything.

“Okay. You’re about to burn the last of your fuel, adjust yourself just a bit, you want to be a little more to your right, ok that’s better. When your jetpack cuts out, I want you to pull the little tab on your back, it will open your vent, and should send you the rest of the way.

“This one?” Aurelius asked, feeling around on his back until he found it.

“I guess… Yeah I don’t know, but let’s say yes, because we’re really not getting another chance at this.”

Aurelius waited numbly as he felt his jetpack sputter and finally stop. once he was sure it had kicked its last, he pulled the tab, half expecting it to be his waist collection pouch instead, but he felt the kick as his suit started venting its oxygen rapidly.

Aurelius watched as the ship got larger and larger in his view, and when he was sure he was as on target as he was going to get, turned to get a better look at the object he had impacted with.

Aurelius could just see it, hurtling away from him, a massive chunk of a ship, the lettering that was too big to read before, he could now see clearly. “Rising.” Aurelius mouthed as he read. Presumably it was part of the ill fated ship’s name and somehow it made Aurelius feel better.  

“I think you’re just about on course here. You’re going to want to brace yourself.” Jerula said.

“Why?” Aurelius asked, Turning back to the freedom’s reach, which seemed to have grown alarmingly in the brief moments his attention was diverted.

“Because this is going to hurt.”

Aurelius had felt more painful things in his life, one time as a kid he had gotten his arm stuck in the hatch of an orbital surveyor his father had been working on and it had shattered several bones and crushed the muscle, this wasn’t quite that bad, but a jet propelled impact with the back of the Freedom’s Reach wasn’t that far off either.

“He’s hit.” Aurelius heard Jerula say.

“We’ve got him, pulling him inside now.” he heard Paul say in response.

The floor of the airlock was cold as they peeled him out of the slush suit and Aurelius winced as his sore body made contact with it.

“He going to be ok?” Nyreen asked.

“His suit says he has a good number of bruised bones, and a minor concussion. He’s going to be fine” Jerla said over the radio.

“Damn dead man, you gave us a scare.” Paul said, his eyes beaming with elation.

Next Chapter: Chapter 19: The Epsilon Gateway