Distant Frontiers - chapter 12

day two

Sophie opened her eyes. There was nothing to see but blurry everlasting night, her sight still not focused after a long rest.

No dreams, no nightmares. No point of reference, imagined or real, lost in some place, no noise nor sound, above and below, left and right all black, just endless silence, darkness.

“Hello Sophie. How was your sleep?” Mir greeted her to a new day. Simultaneously, lights on the command panel started turning on, soft humming of hardware.

“Fine and ample. Situation report.”

“Body condition normal. Speeder condition normal. No deviations from flight course. No events while you were sleeping.”

My senses tell me that, my rational mind tells me that, yesterday is today, today is tomorrow. At least for a few more days.

“Time of arrival?”

“2 days, 9 hours, 41 minutes by the current speed and course,” Mir told her.

“Is the cockpit pressurized?”

“Yes.”

Sophie pulled up the vizor, removed the gloves, velcroed them on thighs and unzipped the spacesuit down to the middle of her chest. She found way through layers of fabric, each with their specific function, and removed energy stickers she had pasted on her skin before taking a sleep. She put them in a container, took fresh ones from a leg pocket and applied them on the similar spots as before. Then she chose a few more from another pocket, coloured differently, wedged them into a gap in the command panel and put one on her tongue. She closed her eyes. Saliva was slowly melting the sticker.

This time, take me to a dream land, far, far away. A land of fresh breeze and warm sunlight. A land where up is blue and down is green, left and right their merging line. Where I can see my hands throughout the whole day. Where I can take a nap without worrying whether I will still be alive after waking up, the deathly void kilometres and kilometres away above me. All that separates me from it, a few centimetres of acrylic glass and metal, flimsy fabric. A minuscule crack, a minute tear. Liquids vaporizing in my body, zero pressure, heat drained from it, cold natured killer. I wonder what has become of the Earth. It was still inhabitable, when the first frontierers left it and its orbit behind. Apart from natural disasters living was safe. Now, news only seldom reaches us, it has become a myth, an idea. For some, a model how a new world should look like, for others, a reminder what a new world should not feel like. And we roam these spaces, cladded in the protective gear, living inside metal shells, having traded safe environment for ghastly emptiness, traded confinement for freedom. It is too simple to return there, staying here exhausting. Towards the Earth, towards my spacecraft empty handed, just away from this empty place.

Sophie opened her eyes.

“Nagaiki, let’s start exercises.”

“Understood,” said Nagaiki.

A slight possibility that the spacecraft she was searching for remained structurally intact after the explosion meant that it could still generate artificial gravity. Once inside, she would have to move with her own strength. And for that she needed her muscles to be in normal condition.

“Where do you want to start?” Nagaiki asked when Sophie had not said anything for a few minutes.

“Do you have some sort of training program?”

“I can run various preinstalled programs and can create a personal one as well.”

“I think it is probably best to do a general one where all main muscles are stimulated.”

“Understood. First, you must put the visor and gloves back on and zip the spacesuit.”

Having done that, Sophie felt the suit started pressing against the body more than usual.

“I will turn on the program now,” Nagaiki said.

Electrodes embedded into the spacesuit sent electric pulses throughout her whole body.

“Tell me, if you feel pain or want to stop stimulation on a particular group of muscles,” Nagaiki informed Sophie.

After a few minutes Sophie was huffing. She had to concede that she had been in a poor physical condition even before departing the mothership.

No strength, no weapon. How will I fend against anyone I may encounter?

“Nagaiki,” she said out of breath. “You must make adjustments.”

“What would you like me to do?” Nagaiki asked.

“Please … just stop it,” she said in-between puffs. She waited to catch her breath. “I cannot do full body exercise. Just do one muscle group after another. You should have data where I am the weakest and start there.”

“Understood. Tell me when you are ready.”

“I need water first.”

She pulled up the vizor again. She felt droplets of sweat forming on her cheeks but let them be. The suit would absorb all liquid from perspiration and return it into the water supply system after filtering. A water tube extended from inside the helmet, she took a hold of it with the mouth and took a few gulps. She closed the visor.

“Nagaiki, I think I am ready now.”

She immediately felt her upper back muscles contracting.

This will be a rough day. But when all is done, will this be a relief or annoyance? The training will take some time off the clock and for a few hours I will not have to deal with nothingness around me. My body will ache after I go through the whole program. Will this even have any positive effects? I will not get in any better shape in such a short time. Only one step at a time to the desired goal.