Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
“Oh here’s another leak.” The young woman pointed, stopping and looking back.
“Dammit.” The deep voice of a man replied. “Have we got any buckets left?”
“Just the one.” The young woman replied, she help it up to the man. Both of them looked disheveled and tired. Their white pressure suits looking far from white with dirt and grime. Cassi knew the routine now, she would climb under the the cables, pipes and other stuff to reach the leak and then put the bucket under it. She would then record the location and go back to retrieve the water. Garret was to big to get down there and was better at lifting things out of the way.
Cassi crawled under, wincing at the pain in her hands, knees and back now. On top of that the cold was crippling. “There, got it in place.”
“Good, come back out.” Garret instructed.
Cassi crawled back out and Garret her her back up.
Drip
Drip
Drip
“You think that’s the last one?” Cassi asked.
“I doubt it very much. We’ve probably missed a load but we’ve done what we can. We need to seal the busted pipes to save what water we can.” Garret replied grimly. “Then we have to start the re-processing units up to make more water again.”
“We have enough to drink right?” Cassi asked.
“Drinking isn’t the problem, this whole ship runs on water. We split the atoms apart and use the hydrogen for fuel and the oxygen to breathe. If we don’t repair the pipes and start re-processing we’ll either end up stranded, freeze from the cold, suffocate or all three!”
Cassi didn’t have any words, she started crying even though she didn’t want her father the see her crying. That then made it worse and she cried more.
Garret pull his daughter to him and held her “Stop Cassi, it’s going to be ok.” Feeling quite the fraud for saying it, with only four people left there was a lot of work to be done before things got serious and he wasn’t sure it could be done.
“Where’s Nicks and Paula?” Cassi sniveled, not looking at her father.
“They’ve started repairs, we still need to identify all the leaks and save what water we can.” Garret regretted having to bring his daughter with him on missions, but what was he to do? The choices were limited in the colonies, you worked or starved. There couldn’t be any dead weight. Looking over Garret stared at a bulkhead door. “That’s the door that’s meant to have failed.”
“What was that?” Cassi asked.
Garret let Cassi go and walked over to the door, he examined it for a moment before pressing some of the door controls. “It looks like someone deliberately compromised the safety controls.”
“Why would someone do that?” Cassi asked.
“I have no idea.” Garret looked around the door. “When this door opened the air was released pulling out everyone into space and the water in the fuel pipes froze, expanded and busted the pipes. But why?”
A moment later and the ship rocked, Garrett steadied himself and looked over at Cassie, she was ok but shaken. “What was that?” He radioed through to Nicks and Paula.
A voice came back through the intercom. “One of the storage tanks blew, I don’t think we can save the ship now, I would say within the hour the water will get into the workings of the reactor regulators and this will be a giant fireball!”
“Ok.” Garret replied. “Get what things you need and get to the hangar quick!”
“Got it!”
Garret turned to Cassie and looked into her blue eyes. “We need to get off the ship, go to our quarters and get the things we need, you know them we’ve discussed this. Can you do that?”
Cassie nodded.
“Good girl, go and then get to the hanger, the one we just came from as quickly as you can and only do those things.”
Cassie ran for their quarters Garret followed then the path the the hangar split, shouting to Cassie to remind her to be quick he slid down the access ladder.
Garret was priming the shuttle for launch, it had already been twenty minutes and there was no sign of anyone. The ship was making some unhealthy groaning noises and Garret was worried, thinking over and over, they be here. Don’t worry.
A few minutes later all three of them appeared. He had to restrain his instinct to shout at them all for taking so long. Instead he smiled as he saw Cassie with far more than she should have brought. Blankets and bags of this and that, he noticed that she had brought some extra’s for him too.
Nicks looked at Garret “We found this one on the way and thought we better help.”
“Nice one, but we don’t have much time.”
“The shuttle won’t get us back you know that right?” Nicks pointed out.
“I know, but I’ve prepared the other shuttle, we can dock and share resources.”
“Nice idea.” Nicks agreed. “Who’s flying it?”
Garret stared at Nicks.
“Oh, no… err. I’m not qualified!”
“No, you’re not.” Garret agreed. “But I need you to fly it out, that’s it. I’ll do the rest. Paula will be with you. Can you do it?”
Nicks nodded, without any further delay they manned the shuttles.
“Anytime now.” Paula told them.
They looked out at the bright speck that was the ship. Moments passed and anticipation grew. Garret looked on but was distracted. Wondering why someone would over ride safety controls and kill so many like that. He remembered stories from Earth history about ships like Mary Celeste and the Great Eastern that were shrouded in mystery, this ship would be the same. The Poseidon a great ship, run by water and then then destroyed by it.
The glare was so intense it couldn’t be looked at directly and then as soon as it came, it was gone.
This was the Blog Battle Entry for January 2020 and the prompt was Bucket.
© Simon Farnell 2013 – 2023
Blog Orbit – June 2023
Hello there bloggies! Despite the weather presenting the look that it’s about April we have now arrived in June. We’ve made it this far and yet there still seems so long to go. The cost of living is still up through the roof, the backs seem forever useless and on the brink of collapse too…
Keep reading
A Lens to the Sky
I love skylines, so often a lens doesn’t do them justice but sometimes a wide lens and a moody sky can make a beautiful picture. I wish I could mount some of these at times…Enjoy the views!
Keep reading
Thinking about it makes it Hurt – The Tax System
I’m sorry, it’s me – I can’t help it. I’ve tried to keep the insanity from the door of this corner of the web but I can’t do it any longer. The world in which we live is wonderful, beautiful and terrible thing and yet there’s few – well quite a lot of people actually…
Keep readingLoading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Simon's Space 
Hello,
Usually, I never comment on blogs but your blog is so convincing that I never stop myself to say something about it. You’re doing a great job Man, Keep it up
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Simon, just to let you know your Instagram isn’t public so those that haven’t been approved to follow you cannot see your profile or pictures.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah yes… Thank you for reminding me. I should unlock it.
LikeLike
Cool one, you should use it in your sci-fi stories-collection :))
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will have to I think 🙂
LikeLike
There’s a nice use of tension as the characters race against time in order to survive. This does have the feel that plenty happened before the story setting, but I was left with the impression the characters didn’t have much story left! Once I found out Cassie was Garret’s daughter I started wondering how young a woman she was. Late teens? The mystery of why the ship was sabotaged I suppose will remain, as Garret thought at the end, a mystery!
LikeLike
The title definitely made me click on this post. Nice choice.
So you’re continuing the same story from before? The plot thickens.
I enjoyed the descriptions of bucket placement.
LikeLike
Thanks it’s a stand alone really, like all of these blog battles they give me the chance to experiment.
Thanks… it seemed silly to have a bucket used in the sotry but that was the word prompt lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
After the intro, I thought it would be about scientists collecting water samples for testing. Or maintenance people who discover something creepy in the basement. Way to surprise me.
LikeLike