Sunday, December 4, 2011

Souvenir (1)

Back at the shuttle Phoenix lands on the pod near Sayer's ship. She doesn't bother decompressing her cabin before opening the hatch, and the air blasts out into space, nearly knocking her ship off the platform were it not for the mag clamps. She flies to pad 3 and quickly cycles the airlock. "Sayer. I am so sorry. Are you ok?"

He looks a little shakey and nervous. "I'm mostly just embarrassed at my naiveté. It was a stupid blunder to take off my suit there, but I saw other people without suits and thought it would be okay."

"No, it's my fault. I should have filed a travel warning as soon as I became aware of the toxin. I just didn't think about it."

"How bad is it? I was only out of my suit for about three hours. Is that enough time for me to get ill?"

"I don't know. I've only run a few bio simulations. We've done no real testing. I was busy trying to determine its source."

"What should I do now? I wasn't sure if I should go to the medical bay or not."

"No, we need to go through decon first, then get you to the medbay. Here." She steps to a nearby panel and touches a button. Several gas masks on hooks are revealed "You'll need this. I know the compound denatures in the presence of ammonia gas, but the gas itself is toxic."

Sayer takes the mask and slips it on over his head. Phoenix holds his hand, and taps a button on the isolation airlock panel "Come on. I'll go with you." she says, shutting off her olfactory system. She watches him with a guilty look as gas hisses into the chamber. "Hold your arms out so that the gas can penetrate your clothing."

Sayer does as she says and holds out his arms as he turns around slowly. After a few minutes he stops and sways there uncertain, looking lost and unstable. Phoenix touches his arm "They're coming."

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