Hello friends, and welcome back to the atlas.
We are nearing the end of this particular scene, a disaster scenario shown through multiple viewpoints.
Why am I spending a bit of time on this scene? This will become the crux of the mystery that unfolds throughout act 1. The starting point for the factions on the starship to slowly reveal themselves, for allegiances to be made, tested, and lost.
This one act of heroism in the water reclamation plant will set into motion a series of events that neither Lys or Dr. Hedghe could have ever anticipated.
P.s. This is a direct continuation of Chapter 006 which you can read here, or go all the way to the start to refresh yourself:
Lysander - Human - Male: Testimonial 003
I looked at Hec’ten.
“Are you ready?”.
Hec nodded and then leapt over the gantryway railing using his paw to point towards an access ladder nearby. He didn’t fall like my in-built expectations would lead me to believe, instead he whipped down between plumes of steam like a pilot in an old hollywood dogfight. I had seen rabbits in combat situations before, but their unusual skill still always surprised me, even just a quick glance let me know that Hec was a cut above the rest in the way he controlled his movements through the thickly humid air.
I climbed down, finding the ladder uncomfortably warm to the touch, and slick, after having been bathed in hot steam. Gripping it with the pipe insulation I had commandeered earlier, I relinquished grasp slightly and slid to the bottom of the ladder instead, careful not to let my hands graze the metal. My feet landed on a wide pipe many meters across. Hec flew down and gestured to me, his voice just audible over the alarm.
“This way sir.”
Together we wove further into the bowels of the water plant, around jutting corners, through access hatches and finally into a tight area between two massive pipes. Hec with his small frame was able to float down between the spaces with ease.
“It’s getting hot sir, these pipes are getting warmer and warmer.”
I held my hand near the surface of the nearest conduit, a wide metal pipe as tall as a room.
Warm, but not scolding… Yet.
I braced myself and began to shuffle down between the pipes. It was clear why an engineer in all their bulky uniforms and hover packs would not have been able to get in here, let alone when there was so much steam being vented already. I was thankful to my past self, all those years of flexibility training and careful dieting were paying dividends as I cautiously moved through this tangle of metal.
As carefully as I could I stepped over electrical wires, ducked under pipes, and managed to avoid touching the increasingly warm pipes with my chest which was only a few centimetres away from a hot metal surface at any given moment. The humidity down here was insufferable and I could already feel beads of sweat rolling down my shoulders.
Hec was only about five meters ahead now and was already trying to turn the valve wheel that would allow the water to flow again, to little effect. His paws were useless, and instead he was trying to push it by the spokes using his shoulder blades, like a man trying to barge through a wall of stout defenders.
“It’s no good sir, this was designed by humans, I don’t have a chance”.
Surveying the last bit of slalom almost made me smile, the last section was looking more like an assault course than an entry point to a critical manual overide. A ridiculous design. It briefly struck me that the way in was perfectly rabbit sized, and that the valve’s ability to turn required human strength. Engineers, for all their brilliance, are sometimes too focussed on the details to see sense.
But first things first, I had to get there. Taking one of the bits of insulating material, I placed it against my chest and pressed up against the hot pipe. It was the only way I was going to get around this obstruction. The heat that radiated outwards was just 2cm from my chest and was getting to be quite unbearable. Like pressing yourself up against a radiator. I could feel my skin prickling as pores opened and sweat beaded out in a desperate attempt to cool me down.
The shuffling was excrutiatingly slow, but finally I managed to squeeze around the last tight bend where the space opened up a bit more, allowing me to breathe an iota more normally again. Gulping uncomfortably hot air, I crouched and shimmied towards Hec’ten at the valve. The valve wheel was already searing hot to touch and Hec had slightly burned one of his paws in the attempt to turn it. I pulled the wrench I had grabbed out from my belt and jammed it into the spokes of the wheel to create leverage. Placing some more of the insulation on the end so as to protect my hand from the thin sharp metal tool. I began to heave with all the strength I had.
Hec floated up behind my elbow and pushed against my arm too, starting to lend some of his strength. It felt strange to have that extra boost come from something so small, and seemingly with no counter push of his own. By pulling against whatever way he had oriented his gravity, he was able to give me an unnatural addition of force that gave my brain an itch.
“God almighty,” I exclaimed, “this thing is impossibly stuck!”.
“Sir, by my reckoning we have about thirty seconds left”.
As if in response, the machinery around us groaned menacingly.
“Hec, can you give me more strength?” I felt the pressure against my elbow increase as Hec layered on more gravity derived weight against my arm. It was getting too hot in here now and my throat was getting sore from the thick cloudy air.
“20 more seconds sir!”
We heaved again and the metal wheel shuddered, or maybe we shuddered, it was hard to tell. I was suddenly struck by the fear of what would happen if the metal wheel actually shattered instead of starting to turn as I hoped. The pressure on my elbow increased even further and I felt something give behind me. Not in the valve, but against my arm, like something was breaking in me, or perhaps Hec’s smaller body. I grimaced at the thought.
“10 seconds.” Hec shouted as plumes of steam hissed about us, and alarms blared. The heat was unbearable now, and I felt, more than heard, the groaning and straining of the infrastructure around me. As if the pipes themselves were ready to buckle and bend. Ready to consume us both.
“5, 4, 3…”
Was that something giving way?
***
Far outside the Arcturian Water Reclamation Plant, near the monorail station, the crowd of evacuated guests and personnel waited impatiently with unconcealed fear, causing the group to writhe like a school of fish. Dr Hedghe looked at the timer on his pad and spoke aloud what everyone else was wondering.
“And now the time is up… more or less. Brace yourselves.”
But then nothing happened.
Authors Note: This is a relatively short chapter compared to some. And intentionally so. This whole section with Lys and Hec is intended to be a build up from the slow and philosophical musings regarding the birth of the AGI Sister, to the intensity of being in the thick of the action. The back and forth between different viewpoints sets the stage for 3 of the main themes in this act. Who is Dr.Hedghe talking to in his pad, and why does he hate Lys so much? Who is the dancer in the depths welding valves shut?