The Side Effects of Progress (Part 1 / Sample)

    Sitting behind a desk in his room, Yuri Krasevec waited patiently while looking at station data. Yuri worked for the PTMC, and was stationed all alone on a small distribution center orbiting the earth responsible for storing odds and ends rather than the minerals the company was mining everywhere else in neighboring systems. Today, he was expecting a package to be delivered, unusual in nature, being that it came from a competing corporation, the CEC. He was told just to take it, no questions asked. No telling what kind of under the desk deals they have been doing recently, as a lot of packages being sent recently were classified. Yuri wanted to know what was going on, but decided to stay out, as the consequences could be much worse than a pink slip.

 

    Yuri's primary job was to oversee that everything was done correctly in accordance with the rules. Which means he sits at a desk looking at security cameras all day. He sort of also was the security team too for that matter. He got to carry a taser pistol around, and if things got out of hand, they let him bring his Makarov pistol with some cheap surplus steel core FMJ rounds. Other than that, he spent his days just sitting down at a desk. All alone. Not even a robot there to automate any tasks for him.

 

    The solitude of the station was interrupted by a series of beeps and flashing red lights at his desk. Yuri sits up in his chair and reviews the information being relayed to him on the screen. A micro-meteor storm was approaching soon. Yuri silenced the alarm, knowing the storms were pretty much harmless. Nothing beyond the size of a grapefruit was typically included. To make matters more favorable, they were usually off course by a mile or ten. Yuri leaned back in his desk, and waited for the delivery to arrive.

 

    The heaviest job load Yuri had for as long as he worked, was five packages in one week. So to kill time, he usually dozed off and slept, using an alarm clock to wake up one hour before an expected delivery. He wasn't very hungry either due to his lack of energy consuming tasks. His rations were automatically dispensed on a schedule, but during those times, he wasn't typically hungry. Because of this, there were stacks of unconsumed rations sitting in the medical bay, still wrapped in their vacuum sealed packages. He thought about sending them out the waste chute, only to find the hole wasn't big enough to fit one, and would result in a clog. The rations were okay at best, but what was he supposed to expect out of something with a 250 year shelf life?

 

    Today was a little bit different though. Since it was another one of those classified packages, Yuri thought it would be responsible of him to make sure nothing bad happened before, during, and after the transaction. Shady classified deals between the two companies could result in unwanted attention from piracy, or worse, the CED, which acted as a police force around Earth. So today, Yuri would be staying up twice as long after the package was delivered to monitor it. He would be staying up for 20 minutes this time. A small blip showed up on his radar. Yuri leaned forwards in his chair and tapped a couple of keys on his keyboard. Information was displayed about the ship, showing that it was a CEC ship on their way to make a delivery.

 

    As the ship got closer, Yuri's radio came on with a short bit of static, followed by, “This is CEC cargo dispatch five-oh-one, we're requesting drop-off clearance for delivery fifty-eight beta.” Yuri sat up in his chair and pulled it further under him, pressing his back against the back rest. He flipped a couple of switches and pulled up camera feed of an empty docking bay to one of his monitors.

 

    Yuri pushed and held down a button, talking into the microphone, “Affirmative. Deposit delivery in docking bay two. Be advised, micro-meteor storm approaching, expedite your business.”

 

    The cargo ship slowly maneuvered itself into the bay, lowering what looked like a miniature shipping container about the size of a mini bus onto the docking bay floor. The latches securing the container on the ship disengaged, leaving the container on the floor as the ship lifted upwards a couple of feet and pulled out of the bay. Yuri flipped one of the switches earlier again, causing the docking bay doors to close up. As the cargo ship left the station, the radio came on again, telling Yuri, “CEC delivery fifty-eight beta, warning, contents hazardous.” Yuri thought nothing of the warning, he wasn't planning on going near the package any time soon. According to the schedule, it wouldn't be going anywhere for a week.

 

    Yuri spent the next 20 minutes of his life staring at the dull red cargo container over the security camera. As expected, nothing happened. Once his self-imposed sentence was up, and feeling a little bit hungry from the extra effort for staying up so long, he decided he would eat something. Yuri got up from his desk and went up to the door, placing his hand on the scanner to open up the door. The door slid open, revealing what would be considered the kitchen. In reality, it was a sink with cold water only, a table, a chair, a garbage chute, and a chute that meals are dispensed automatically out of. Today's breakfast and lunch were already sitting on the counter next to the sink. A six pack of two liter vodka bottles sat under the table, one of them empty, another slightly full. It was the eighth crate since his job started. A little motor could be heard buzzing, followed by today's dinner falling onto the stack of rations.

 

    Yuri took the top ration and opened it up at the top. He placed it under the sink faucet and poured some water inside, activating the heating element. He left the ration in the sink and grabbed the other two rations. Walking out of the room, he went up to the entrance of the medical bay room and opened up the door with a hand scan. Without even bothering to turn on the lights to the room, he sat the rations on the ever growing pile of rations he decided not to eat. Yuri closed the door behind him by manually pulling down on it. Funny the way they worked that way. By the time Yuri got back to the sink in the other room, his meal was warm and ready to be taken out of their individual packages and eaten. Today, it looked like he would be having, a “Burger” and “Fries”, at least it came with little ketchup packets.

 

    Yuri sat in peace as he ate his meal. Sitting at the table and staring at an unpainted metal wall, Yuri wondered if he was living the dream. Well, for him at least. In the movies he watched while he was younger, most people who were alone in space usually had video calls between the worker and their spouse back on Earth, or whatever planet they were on. The movies made the job look okay, but Yuri was fresh out of college and wasn't seeing anybody at all. He thought he might occupy his time with a hobby like wood carving or something, but he never picked up any at all. He though he would be required to run on a treadmill every day because of the micro gravity in space, but the gravity generator kept his body just fine. Perhaps he would take out his ship, a decommissioned CED interceptor, out to the local trade hub to buy some things with his accumulating income, but there was not much to buy that interested him. Not to mention the fact he looked like a cop when he flew around in it. To his justification, it was fast, light, sporty, and reliable, but nobody would buy that reasoning. The only other thing he would do was browse the internet, but even that could barely hold his attention span unless something big was going on. Every once in a while, he'd shoot up some surplus rounds in an empty docking bay. They say the perfect job is the kind where it feels like you never worked a day in your life, and was the dream job. By definition, Yuri was definitely living the dream. A boring dream. At least the pay was good.

 

    When Yuri was finished, he crumpled up the wrappers into a big ball and tossed it down the garbage chute. He turned on the sink for a bit to wash his hands, patting them dry on a washcloth. He cut the lights off to the room and closed it as he left. Yuri did a quick scan over the station through his desk, and decided to call it a day. He walked to a door and opened it up, stepping inside the bathroom. Yuri turned on the shower to a comfortable temperature and undressed, throwing his officer uniform out the door, and his underclothes into a dirty laundry bin. He stepped back outside for a moment and opened the door to his private quarters, where his bed and clean clothes were. He grabbed some clean clothes and exited the room, going back into the shower. He set the clean clothes on the lid of the toilet and stuck his hand inside the shower to check for temperature. The water beaded up on his skin as he determined the water was hot enough. Yuri stepped inside the shower and cleansed himself of the daily accumulation of body odor. After cleaning himself up, he cut off the shower and dried off with a towel. Once done with that, he swirled a very powerful mouthwash in his mouth. He didn't even get a toothbrush as this stuff was cheaper and did a better job according to most people. And they were right, whatever it was that was in it did dissolve any tartar and plaque buildup, leaving behind regular white teeth. In hindsight, he could have saved time by using it in the shower.

 

    Yuri dressed into his clean clothes and exited the bathroom. He picked up his station uniform and dragged it inside with him into his bedroom, hanging it on the wall. Ready to go to bed, he settled in under the sheets of his bottom bunk bed. He wasn't sure why there was a bunk bed. Maybe there were two people working here originally, and due to cutbacks in the budget, they only needed one person. Or maybe it was because completed bunk bed sets were cheaper than regular mattress sets. Either way, he took the bottom bunk. The one time he slept up top, he had rolled out of the bed and fell onto the hard floor, a rude awakening. He wouldn’t be making that mistake again and played it safe by sitting on the bottom. After all, he was alone out here and had no idea how long it would take for an emergency medical crew to come and fix him up. As Yuri positioned himself comfortably one last time, he drifted off into sleep in his bed.

 

    Yuri was shaken awake through a strong vibration and a loud crash. Yuri got up out of bed, his hearing returning from the ringing noise from the crash, only to hear beeping at his computer. Yuri quickly hurried into his uniform and rushed outside. Taking a good look at the computer screens on his desk, Yuri concluded that the micro-meteor storm had in fact hit the station. The first blow had knocked out the sensor and communications relay. Meaning that he couldn't tell when the storm would be over, how big it was, along with the station being unable to send a report of the damage back to the PTMC corporate headquarters. Due to this being the first life threatening event in some time now, Yuri had no idea what to do. The shock from the situation kept him from thinking clearly and rationally as he tried to remember where the emergency oxygen masks were, in the event the station hull gets punctured.

 

    Yuri rushes into the medical bay and hunts high and low for the mask. He finds it in a drawer blocked off by the stacks of rations. He immediately put on the mask and turned on the oxygen. He wasn't taking any chances here. Yuri tightened the straps down hard, as if it were to be pulled off, he might die. Another crash sends Yuri to his knees, along with knocking out all the lights. A robotic voice announces over the intercom, “Warning: Primary Generator Offline.” Slowly, emergency low power lighting comes on, barely enough to illuminate any hallways. All the doors had also slid open in case the power failed completely. “Backup Generator Online. Estimated Time Remaining: Five Hours.” Yuri tried to get a hold of himself, despite the bad news of the situation. He grabbed the taser from his belt holster and turned on the flashlight so he could at least see something that wasn't the edges and corners of the halls.

 

    Yuri began walking through the halls of the station, with some sort of plan to keep things steady. He would hook up his personal ship in docking bay six to the station, and use his ship as a replacement for the primary generator. Then, he could leave it running as he tries to figure out how to fix the primary generator. He wasn’t sure what exactly was wrong either, as the “Generator” was merely a step down transformer connected to a high voltage solar array. He wasn't sure how durable the panels would be, especially during a micro-meteor storm that knocked out communications and sensors completely. He might have to fly back to the trade hub and ask for assistance, but he wasn't exactly allowed to leave his post without breaking the contract he signed with PTMC, which was not to abandon the station while it was damaged because someone could come in and steal everything during the chaos.

 

    Holding the taser, Yuri walked through the dark halls of the ship. The feeling made his skin crawl, despite knowing he was the only one stationed on the station. It still felt like a horror move to him, despite his knowledge. On his way to the stairwell, he heard metal clanging. He swiveled his head and body around, pointing the flashlight at every inch he could find. His nerves were really getting to him. He tried to calm down, but his heart still beat faster than it has ever done in years. After seeing nothing for the fifth check and re-check, he continued his progress to the sixth docking bay, walking down the stairwell. Yuri walked slowly, taser drawn, in the posture of being ready to fire at any minute. As he walked to the entrance of docking bay six, he heard what he though were footsteps. He quickly turns around and checks the environment. He shouts out into the darkness of the hallway, “Is someone there?” An echo being his only answer, he heads back down the hall to his ship.

 

    Yuri entered the bay and made his way to his ship. He opened up a storage compartment in the fuselage of the ship, pulling out a pair of jumper cables. He comments to himself, “Never though I'd be using my ship to start a station. Usually, it's the other way around.” He points the flashlight to the floor and eyes a panel labeled, “Emergency Jump Leads”. Yuri hooks his ship up to the station, and starts the ship. Feeling that he was being watched, every now and then, Yuri peeks over his shoulder. Yuri slowly increases the throttle, just enough to keep the gravity generator running and the main lights and computer systems to come back on.

 

    Feeling safer, Yuri takes a deep breath of bottled oxygen. The artificial light and the ability to see calming his nerves. He turns off the flashlight on his taser and sticks it back in his holster. Wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeve, he makes his way out of the docking bay and back to the main control room. On his way, Yuri sees nothing down the halls. The noises must have been his paranoia, imagination, nerves, or all three. Yuri sits back down in his office and brings up information regarding the status of the system. Carefully going over the status, he sort of knows what to do now. The station was fine. No pressure leaks or anything. Yuri deactivates his mask, and takes it off, setting it on the side of the desk. The electrical system was fine, except the output of the step down transformer was barely making a ground contact and would need to be re-soldered. Thankfully, that was located inside the station, and he had the tools to fix it. Part of his training was to fix a mock one that was set up. An easy task, but the design was flawed to fail under shock, being that there was high tension between the ground cable and the transformer, requiring the use of high strength solder. He was still not sure if the meteor shower was over yet, but he hasn't heard anything recently. Usually they are a very short single wave, but he could never be too sure.

 

    Yuri walks out of his office and back down the hall, making his way to the maintenance room to grab some tools. A hefty electrical repair toolbox was taken off the shelf, Yuri taking it with him to the transformer maintenance room on the uppermost level of the station. Entering the room, Yuri could see the cable creating sparks as it was barely contacting the ground. The fumes smelled very toxic, so Yuri backed out of the room and warmed up the soldering iron. He put electrical isolating pads on his shoes so he wouldn't replace the ground cable by accident. He found a small, mouth and nose only air filter that he would be using to make the repair. Yuri stepped back into the room, special high strength solder and iron in hand. He broke the solar input circuit, causing the sparks from the ground cable to stop. He took off strips of solder and wedged them between the cable and ground connection. With all his strength, he pushed the cable downwards, and held the iron up to the copper end of the cable.

 

    The hold was exhausting, but after about ten minutes of holding steady and still, the solder finally melted. Yuri turned off the iron and set it aside as he used the rest of his strength to bring the cable down even further, getting a better contact. He blew on the new connection, hoping it would help it cool down faster. It sort of helped. Yuri tapped the connection with the end of the iron, just to check to make sure it was solid before relieving his tension. The connection was secure, Yuri let go and worked his way around it, careful not to bump the cable. He then switched on the input again, the connection holding steady. He decided it was a job well done, so he closed the door up and set his equipment back in the toolbox.

 

    As he walked down the hall, he saw the backup lights slowly fade off as the primary generator was back online. A mechanical voice rang out through the station once again, “Primary Generator Back Online. All Doors Are Now Safe To Close.” Yuri headed back down the hallway, down a stairwell, and set the toolbox back in maintenance storage, closing the door up this time. Yuri decided to head back to the office to seek documentation in the event of a crippled communications system, as well as a quick system overview.

 

    Yuri entered his office, shutting the door behind him. He sat down at his desk and looked at an overview of the electrical system. Everything but the communication and sensors array was working fine. The only other oddity was that he left his ship on. Yuri decided it would be best to save his fuel and turn it off for now. To make sure everything was the way he left it, he decided he would change over his security feed from docking bay two to docking bay six. Before he could do that, something caught the corner of his eye and his body to chill. Delivery 58-Beta, the dull red steel container. The door to it was opened. Bent open. Other than that, docking bay two was empty. The sight sent Yuri back into his original state of fear and paranoia. He wasn't alone. Something made those noises, stayed in the shadows, stalked him, kept quiet, as he was walking around the station earlier.