The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Six

"Hurry up," urged Ellie again. She stood close to Tila, her arms folded tightly as if to protect her from some unknown fear. Both of them watched Malachi work, tool in hand and safely tethered to his suit in case he should drop it.

"Are you ok?" asked Tila, concern audible through the communicators built into the helmets of their environment suits. She shifted the pack on her shoulders, not because it was heavy, but because it felt strange in zero gravity.

"I don't like it out here. There's too much up."

"You liked the up on Parador," Tila pointed out.

"That was a nice up, this isn't. It just goes on forever."

Malachi looked up from the airlock door control he was trying, so far without success, to breach.

"Too much up?" He looked up at the emptiness all around them, and in the distance the inner boundary of the dead fleet. "It just looks like the inside of a really crappy Dyson Sphere to me." He turned back to his work, a frown settling back into place.

"Yeah, too much up. Too much nothing."

Tila tried to work this out. "Do you mean because there's no ceiling or roof?" she asked.

"Yes, exactly!"

"Really?" Tila exclaimed with surprise. "I think this is liberating. There's no boundaries here. Just freedom and sky. We can go on forever if we want" Tila looked up again to see the sphere of wreckage which surrounded them. "Well, usually anyway."

Ellie shivered at Tila's description. "Oooh, don't. I get scared I might float away forever."

"You never mentioned this before. How come you don't get scared in your racer?" Tila asked, genuinely surprised at this revelation.

"It's different in a ship. I can make it go where I want. I have control, and engines."

Tila considered this. "I feel the opposite. In a ship I always feel like I'm a step removed from a situation, like i'm acting through gloves. I hate being separated from the situation like that. I need to feel it with my hands."

Now it was Ellie's turn to be surprised. "Really? I never thought about it that way".

"That's because you fly a ship like it's just another part of you," said Tila. "You fly a ship like I use the staff. Like it's just another limb."

Malachi paused in his work. "I think I know what she means. Did you ever swim in really deep water? Like, so deep you had no idea where the bottom was?"

"I only swam for the first time yesterday," said Ellie, "And I needed Tila to help me even though it wasn't very deep."

"What about you Tila? Have you ever been in really deep water? Did it make you feel weird, like there was nothing underneath you to stop you going down?

Tila shook her head. "No. I loved it! I would dive as deep as I could for as long as possible and just hang there, weightless."

Now it was Malachi's turn to shiver "Really? That creeps me out."

"Yes, he gets it," said Ellie triumphantly. Then to Malachi she added "Doesn't this make you feel the same way?" Without unfolding her arms she pointed up with one finger, leaning to the side a little to make sure she pointed the right way.

Malachi was again concentrating on the door controls. "Hmm, no. This is space, it's different here."

"How is it different? It's the exact same thing!" said an exasperated Ellie.

"Sometimes you make no sense," said Tila, stretching her arms up and out, as if trying to reach the distant ships. "This looks wonderful to me. Usually," she added as an afterthought again.

"Deep water's creepy. Space isn't. One day we will take you swimming properly, and you can see for yourself," said Malachi.

"Jayce's pool was deep enough for me," said Ellie. "It was a once in a lifetime thing. I'm never going to get the chance to do that again."

Tila looked back at the three Valkyrie's docked nearby and rested a hand on Ellie's shoulder.

"You know, we could-" she began, but was interrupted by a rumble beneath their feet.

Malachi stood up. "Door's open," he said, "Mostly."

"Mostly?" asked Tila. Although he couldn't see her face Malachi could picture her raising an eyebrow when she used that tone.

"I might have had to break something to make the door work."

"But this is an airlock. Is it still safe?"

"Mostly." He shrugged.

"That doesn't sound very safe to me..." Ellie left the sentence hanging.

"Ok, I had to break the outer lock to get us in, so that might not seal properly, but the inner door will be fine."

"I hope so. I don't want to explore this place dressed like this," said Tila as she lowered herself into the hatch. She moved slowly, waiting for the odd sensation of the artificial gravity to take hold and clamp her feet to a surface without the need for magnetic boots.

Ellie followed quickly, shivering again as she took one last look into the nothingness of space and the strange artificial wall that surrounded them before crossing the threshold into the ship.Malachi stepped inside to join them and hit the control to close the door. Nothing happened. He tried again. Still nothing.

Tila had reached the inner door controls and waited for the all-clear to open them. "Mal?" she said.

Malachi fiddled with the controls some more and the outer doors finally rumbled closed. Flexible seals closed over each other as their window to space vanished. The light changed from red to white, signifying an air-tight seal, but they couldn't hear familiar and reassuring noise of the safety interlock engage.

"See? It's fine!" he said.

Ellie tugged at the manual release to make sure it was stuck fast. It didn't budge.

"As if you could open it with that anyway, Ellie," said Tila.

"I could if I had to."

"Be glad you don't have to. Thanks to our chief engineer, that's the only thing keeping us safe from a blow-out."

"It's fine," Mal said again.

Tila and Ellie exchanged a look.

"Maybe keep the suits on until we're inside, though. Just in case."