The Company Strength Job

[JJRSC]

Hey guys, starting a new short story... will be adding updates as they become ready. Feedback welcome, hope you enjoy:


The Company Strength Job

Cullough fought the urge to look over his shoulder. The sound of his breaths echoed though his helmet. Each minute they seemed to get louder, the echoes lasted slightly longer.

Cullough blinked, forced his attention back to his task. He checked the head up display on the inside of his visor. “Wait, wait WAIT!”

A half dozen spacesuited men stopped what they were doing instantly.

“Everyone, hold still.” The men did just that. The flashes of three plasma torches contrasted sharply with the darkness of space. “Mr. Keppeler, please, very slowly, move your torch away from the station’s hull and power it down.” One man, crouching over the hull of the station, his feet attached to the space station with magnetic grappling boots, slowly straightened and held his torch away from the hull. The white-purple flame of the torch began to slowly shrink.

“That’s right, slowly… no sparks… good,” Cullough said. When the torch was powered off, Cullough continued, “Mr. Keppeler, I presume that your HUD is off?”

“Yes sir,” came the reply.

Cullough took a deep breath, blew it out. Keep your temper… this is not the time to lose it, he thought.

Construction workers in space frequently shut their Head Up Displays down while doing precision work, like welding. The HUD was distracting when one was trying to concentrate on such tasks.

Gently now. “I recommend everyone pull their HUDs back up and scan the specs before you begin work on a new area, not just the blueprints but the current status readout. What do you all see?”

Cullough heard the sharp intake of breath from six helmet comms. “Where you were welding was right over a temporary power line into the core of the station-”

“Sir,” Keppeler started, “that power line never should have been there-”

“No, you’re right. It shouldn’t be, but it is. And twenty more seconds doing what you were doing and you’d have blown us all to hell… in a very big explosion that could be seen from a long way off."

Cullough let that sink in.

Then he continued. “Gentlemen, I know this is a tough job and we’re all distracted. All the more reason to be extra careful. So be extra careful. This is an… unorthodox job, so take nothing for granted. Be very, very careful.

"If there are any other… developments, we will let you know. Just stick to the plan and everything will be all right.”

“Is leaving that power trunk in the middle of a welding op part of the plan?” One of the workers asked.

Cullough sighed. “No it’s not. I plan to rectify that right now.”

Just as Cullough spoke, a rapid staccato flash – like lightening – silently lit up space around them then vanished. Cullough felt his chest turn to ice. The men looked at each other. The silence was heavy, palpable.

“Captain?” one of the men asked.

“Checking now,” he answered. He opened a channel to his TL, Condeco-One. “Mr. Xu, report.”

“The sector trading station just bit it, sir.”

Surprised it lasted as long as it did. “What’s their postion?”

“Still maintaining course, sir. Same heading.”

“Okay. Tell me if anything changes, Jerry.”

“Oh, don’t worry sir. You’ll be the first to know.”

“Good. Cullough out.” Cullough's breathing was louder now. The sound was oppressive.

“Yes sir. C-One out.”

Cullough took a few steps along the hull. The men turned to face him. He couldn’t see their faces through their helmets… too much glare off of their visors. That’s probably just as well, he thought. He knew he was not terribly popular with the ship crew or the construction crew right now. “They’re holding station. Not approaching.”

“Yet,” answered one of the men.

“No, not yet.”

“What was that?”

“That was the trading station.”

“Jesus,” one of the men muttered.

“Let’s go everyone,” Cullough said softly. Can’t push them too hard right now. Cullough activated his comm. again. “Rob, come in.”

“Lannie here.”

“Rob we almost had a welding team ignite a class three power feed. What the hell’s going on in there?”

“Excuse me, Captain, but you said you wanted this job done fast. Do you want it done fast or done right?”

“I want it done without blowing the station and ourselves to kingdom come.”

“Yeah, well I guess we all want that, don’t we?”

Cullough took a deep breath. “Robbie, get this cleaned up,” he said in an even tone. If we’re gonna finish this job we can’t be this sloppy. On top of that it’s slowing us down.”

Silence. Then, “Yes, sir. Out.”

Cullough looked up at his men on the hull. They had moved away from the power line, were welding new panels onto superstructure in another area. They weren’t paying attention to him.

He glanced around quickly… then Cullough felt his gaze slowly being pulled away from the station… slowly he turned, looking over his left shoulder, past his ship, out into the darkness. He could hear his heart drumming, he could feel his blood pounding through his ears, a dull, bitter acid taste was on his tongue. Then he saw, far away across the sector, bright green and purple beams flashing, explosions following. Off in the distance he saw, almost keeping time with his heartbeat, flashes of gamma kyons slicing through the darkness, withering one of the few remaining stations in the sector.

The Kha’ak destroyer had found another target. It was just a matter of time before it found them.