Chapter 2: Eight Years Later
A young woman with fiery red hair, cut to her shoulders, worked on some wiring as she reminisced about the first time she had tried to fix the wiring on this old ship.
At the time she had been with the crew for a year, Earth time, and she decided to try her hand in fixing the heater in her sleeping unit. As she recalled the memories of working with her father in his repair shop, the determined little girl opened up the back panel. For hours she worked unsuccessfully until her Darainium** alien crew member, named Kikuchi, came to get her for dinner. She was gentle and soft-spoken compared to the rest of her war-ridden species.
"What are you up to Jane?" she asked peeking over Jane's shoulder.
Being on the smaller scale she only reached Jane's shoulder when standing up. Her four cat-like eyes scanned the back of the heater, which just looked like a jumble of wires and parts.
With a wrench, Jane struggled to loosen a bolt, "Trying to fix this stupid heater!"
With a grunt, she had finally got it free but Jane touched an exposed wire. Being only 10 she had neglected to unplug the machine beforehand. Hissing, Jane shook her hand while she glared at the wire, Kikuchi, on the other hand, had gone white as a ghost. Since she was able to change her skin color it tends to reflect her emotions through color.
"Jane!" she yelled as she grabbed the girl's hand with one of her six hands, "We need to get you to the medical pod immediately!"
"Why?"
Kikuchi stared at Jane, her skin a whirlwind of color, "You...you have been shocked by the electric current from the machine! That is highly dangerous, it could have fried the nerves in your hand or your muscles!"
"No, it just burnt me a little, see." Jane said calmly as she held out her hand, "It wasn't very strong so I am okay!"
"But no matter the voltage the electrical current should have done more damage..."
"Maybe for you but us humans are pretty strong! Sometimes electricity can help us restart a heart." Jane explained proudly.
"Re...restart a heart!?" Kikuchi turned pale again.
After that Kikuchi had still insisted Jane go to the medical pod and she told the captain along with the rest of the crew what had transpired. Just like the small Darainium, all of the members were shocked at the discovery. Sure there were aliens who feed and live off of electricity but they had never heard of it being used to restart a heart.
Chuckling at the memory Jane continued the tinker until there was a violent shutter that threw her to the ground. Knowing exactly what had caused it, Jane bolted to the control platform. Red lights flashed as the mainframe warned the crew of the solar system's sun going nebula. One of the thrusters had been bent from some debris being rocketed towards them by the thermal radiation waves from the exploding sun.
"Jane!" Captain Takaak yelled threw the noise, "You know what to do."
With a salute and a yes sir, Jane ran to the hanger bay. Once she was in her spacesuit, Tallgi activated the airlock before lowering the hanger door for Jane. Giving him a brief nod, Jane floated out of the ship with her safely line trailing behind. The moment she left the protective shield of the ship, Jane was pushed back till the rope was pulled taut. Gritting her teeth Jane pulled herself back over to the ship's side ladder. Struggling against the pull of the radioactive waves and her own shaking limbs she climbed over to the thrusters. Assessing the damage Jane saw that the bent thruster was almost touching the second one.
"Jane! Progress Report" came the static voice of the captain through her communicator.
Quietly cursing to herself at taking to long she said: "The operational thruster is almost touching the damaged thruster Captain. May take a few more terins** to get it operational to some extent."
"Alright, but hurry Jane your time is almost up."
Ever since Jane almost died from staying out during an explosion similar to this one, Takaak put a time limit on how long she was allowed to stay out until Tallgi would pull her back in.
Cursing again Jane positioned herself to push the thruster with her feet. After some time of no success, she hit the thruster with her fist out of frustration.
"Okay Jane, come on! Think!" this time she hit her helmet with her fist, albeit a lot gentler than before.
While she thought a strong wave pushed Jane against the other thruster harshly. The breath was momentarily knocked out of her but it had also knocked the bent thruster over a little. Getting an idea, Jane looped her safely line around the bent thruster and waited for the next wave. Just as the captain gave Jane, her five terins warning, a strong wave rocked the ship and pulled Jame with it. She bit her lip to hold in a scream of pain as her hand was crushed from the rope circled around it, Jane was almost a hundred percent sure she had broken a few bones in her hand. The pull from the wave was enough to straighten the thruster enough for it to be useable for one hyperjump out of there.
"Captain!" Jane panted as exhaustion took over, "Mission accomplished..."
Over the comms, she could hear Takaak command Tallgi to pull her in as dark spots danced in the corner of her eyes. Not wanting to give the crew scare and get her time shortened, Jane forced herself to stay awake as she was pulled in. She must have blacked out for a moment because the next time she had opened her eyes Kikuchi was taking off her helmet. Every time she opened her eyes time had passed that she didn't even realize before she passed out completely.
~~~~~~~~~
Terins- equivalent to a minute
Darainium- a war species who are able to change the color of their skin, hight, and have arms ranging from six to twelve. The easiest way to tell their species is their four cat-like eyes and backward knee caps.
— New chapter is coming soon — Write a review
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone