5

“It’s not working.”

“What the hell do you mean, ‘It’s not working?’” Malek’s voice verged on panic.

“I mean,” Lorin said with patient frustration, “it’s not working. Nothing’s happening.”

“You reset?”

“That’s what I went over here to do, Malek, so yeah, I reset, but it’s not resetting.” Lorin straightened, shook her light brown hair out of its ponytail tieback and braided it deftly.

Malek stood in a slight crouch, arms and legs spread slightly, looking to Lorin like a squirrel frozen in traffic. He gaped at her as she pinned her braid into a tight loop on the back of her head.

She saw the question stuck in his frightened throat. “I’m getting ready to jump, Malek, and I suggest you get ready, too.” Lorin didn’t wait for his reply. She zipped her flight suit and checked that all her pockets were tacked shut even as she moved towards her storage locker.

“But…we can reset…the ship can…we can’t possibly…there’s no…” his hands made limp circles as he looked from the helm to the terminal screens and back.

“Listen, if you’re not going to finish a sentence, why do you even bother starting them?” Lorin finished securing her inter-space lifesuit and paused with the helmet in her hands. “I suggest you put on your lifesuit, too, Malek. Unless you’re planning on going down with the ship? The captain’s dead. There’s really no need for you to die, too.” The helmet self-fastened as soon as it touched the top of her suit, inner atmosphere initializing. She checked the stats on the visual screen superimposed on half the faceguard and noticed Malek still staring. She selected external audio with a blink. “Malek,” she spoke as if to a resistant child, “put on your lifesuit. Now!”

Any action Malek may or may not have taken was overridden when the port side of their ship peeled open and all the air, as well as Malek, were sucked into space.

Lorin swore once. She had about two minutes to save him before the effects of the vacuum were irreversible. Hopefully, he remembered to scream to help balance his internal lung pressure, or she’d have even less time. Lorin grabbed Malek’s suit from his storage locker, disengaged the magnetic coupling on her lifesuit’s boots and launched herself after her ill-chosen boyfriend.