The End of Winter -- Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Confrontation and Survival

Finally, a few minutes to think.

Wrong!

Misha’s life sign indicators were starting to fluctuate badly. She wasn’t going to freeze, but she was in serious trouble.

“Damn. Behemoth. Forgive my ignorance. Legend has it you have advanced regeneration chambers. Is that true?”

“Yes,” Behemoth responded. “We have two. One for normal size creatures, and one for Amazona size creatures. The normal one is not operational. Maybe an easy fix, maybe it’s dead. I don’t know. The large one seems to be working well.”

“OK, we need to get Misha in there. Right now. Will the large size do her any damage?”

“No, but it will waste power. The large one uses at least 500 kilowatts. At her current damage level, Misha can only use about 200KW.”

Pause.

“Where is it?”

“Over to the right, in MedLab.”

Curt moved there directly, with Amazona right behind.

Amazona said, “Have you considered how much power this will use, and how it will impact the overall survival of the crew?”

A strange scene followed. All the hair on Amazona’s back went up, and she went to full attack posture, damaged though she was. No one but a purebred Security Professional would have noticed, but for the first time since they met, Curt had moved his hand almost imperceptibly toward his blaster.

With an ice-cold voice, Curt said, “Misha is going into this regeneration chamber. I will find a way to make this situation work. Trust me.”

Amazona considered the options, and realized she did trust him. “Yes, sir,” and helped to get Misha stabilized.

Once all was set, Amazona and Curt left MedLab, and Amazona felt compelled to be direct. “Sir. I considered stopping you from doing that. I almost did.”

“I know,” Curt said. “But, perhaps I’m not quite as...slow…as you seem to think I am! But thank you. Maybe you could have stopped me, maybe not…but you wouldn’t have. Your attachment to Misha is even stronger than mine, and mine is oddly strong, considering we’ve never spoken! There was no way you were going to stop me.” Curt smiled, and scratched Amazona behind the ear in a way he should never have known how to do.

Amazona stood silent in the hall for several minutes.

A little later, Curt called out, “Amazona, come here, we need a crew conference.”

Amazona and Behemoth were the only conscious members available. An easy assembly!

“OK, we’ve got no one going to die in the next hour or two. Considering how messed up we were, that’s not too bad. The question is, what do we do next?”

“Chimera must be repaired,” Amazona said. “We will die without her. On this, all depends.”

“I completely agree,” Behemoth said. “She is both the medic and the mechanic. She must be up and running as soon as possible. She can plug any two things together--fast--and they will work.”

“Yeah, right,” Curt responded disbelievingly.

Behemoth said nostalgically, “If we had the tools and materials--but we don’t, and I will never see space again. (sigh).”

A soft, quiet comment, almost a whisper, said, “Wanna bet?”

“Chimera!” Behemoth said. “How are you, you little fur ball!”

“I suck, how do you think I am? My internal organs are messed up, I’m dehydrated, and my energy level is terrible. But….what is this contraption I’m in anyhow? It seems to transfer energy very well for a portable.  It’s not one of ours. Where did this come from? And who is that guy, anyhow?”

“I’m the one who saved your sorry ass.” Curt replied.

“Oh, well, in that case--thanks.”

Curt said, “I’ve been getting these wild stories that you can fix anything, connect anything, and it will always work. Sounds like bullshit to me. What’s up with that?”

“I am unusually talented at making things work,” Chimera said. “I am also very fast when healthy. Obviously, that doesn’t currently apply…”

Curt went into deep thought.

“So,” Curt said, “hypothetically, if I had a 50MW generator running, you could hook it up to Behemoth, and that would be useful, yes?”

“What?” all conscious members said at once.

“I was able to keep one of the engines from my TriStar running. 50MW normal power, 200MW peak power. Listening to the conversation, it sounds like this might be useful.”

Chimera: “And you’re just telling us this now?"

“Well, if I hadn’t been busy saving your furry frozen little butts, I’d be further along by now!” Curt replied.

“Yeah, yeah. OK, point taken.”

“Chimera,” Curt said. “This is important. Can you really do this? Can you hook up a completely alien power source to Behemoth and transfer power?”

“You have wiring diagrams?”

“Sure.”

“Then no problem. I can do it without them, but it does help to have them. Bring them to me.”

“Amazona,” Curt said, “I have a project for us. How much more time do you have left for hard labor?” Curt knew that this was the part that was going to hurt…

“About six hours,” Amazona said.

“Lying bitch,” Chimera chimed in calmly. “She has maybe three hours, max, for hard labor. Oh, she’ll stretch it out for six hours alright…and then she’ll be dead. With some minor patching I can do quickly, she’ll be OK until the end of the day. But we must do some regeneration by then.”

“Behemoth: What’s the closest stretch of thirty-yard cable that can be hooked into your power supply?” Curt asked.

“Well, for once, we’re not totally screwed. It ends right there at the airlock. Your selection of landing site near the airlock was wise.” Curt felt no need to point out how little choice he had in the exact landing site.

“Amazona, how long to rip some cable out and drag it to the TriStar? Cut it up all you want. We’ll make Chimera fix it.”

“Hey!” Chimera said in mock protest, knowing full well it was the right choice.

“About an hour,” Amazona said. Chimera nodded her agreement.

Curt leaned over to speak privately to Chimera. “As soon as you’re able, I need you to fix the small regeneration chamber, transfer Misha to that, and then stick Amazona in the big one just long enough to extend her life by one day. We’ll do a proper fix once we have the power. Can you do that?”

Chimera responded, “I can do all that, but it’s a question of time. I’m pulling power from this unit of yours faster than it was designed to deliver, but it seems to be holding up fine. I’ll be useful…but slow…in about half an hour. If the small chamber isn’t messed up too bad, it should take half an hour or so to fix in my current condition. If it’s completely fried, it could be quite a while. Hours.”

“That large regeneration chamber is large.” Curt said “Can we have Misha and Amazona in at the same time?”

“The regs say don’t do it, but I think they’re overly cautious. Coincidentally, I’ve studied that issue extensively, and even tested it on lab animals. It should work fine.”

"OK then,” Curt said. “Plan A is to fix the small one quickly, and do the swap. Plan B is to put Amazona and Misha in the large chamber together, and give Amazona another day of life. How long will that charge for Amazona take?”

“For just one extra day? Not more than an hour or so. She won’t be fixed, mind you, but she’ll live another day.”

“Well, hell” Curt mused “This might work after all.”