Metallic Kisses - Short Story A finish the story entry

Metallic Kisses

by @f3nix

With the passage of time, the omnipresent buzz of the generators - and God knows what else in the bowels of that cathedral of circuits - had become like a second skin. Funny how the white noise coming from the racks was indifferent to him and could, at the same time, launch its messages in the most modulated and subtle of languages, in a perfect symbiosis. After months, Ethan was instantly aware when something in the monotonous chanting cracked, foretelling one of the increasingly frequent system errors. He was developing a third ear in place of a third eye.

He just smiled at the thought, his gaze fixed on the secondary pylons n. 6 and 11, the last still working in the experimental orbital station DDG-31/DD-936 Decatur, renamed "The Decaf".

Silence was a mute vowel screaming inside him. Always. React to the atrophic thinking. Dodge the anguish, sharp like the debris of that day. The slashed modules were like scenic elements for a cheap movie. All the modules except his one. Follow procedures, rituals, checklists. All this to not raise his gaze and stare, right in front of him, the hangover of so much pain.

Castaway. At some point, he had renamed the pylons Romeo & Juliet. For each orbital period, about 90 minutes, the two arms were almost touching each other. A fleeting kiss and again far away. From the beginning of the mission, he had liked to play the game of renaming equipment and modules with funny nicknames. He allowed himself a slow sigh.

The inclination of the station displayed the earth down there. He had promised never to look in that direction again but the mauve colour, so iridescent, so alive, so omnipresent, took him by surprise once again. He thought for a moment that it was.. beautiful.. and the remorse for that thought flooded him soon after. Ethan hid his face between his hands as the tears surfaced and many names knocked on his heart's door once again. Inside him, a spark of curiosity wondered if it was possible to locate one of the 19 towers between the mauve nanoparticles' clouds.

“Ethan, I suggest that you sleep in 30 minutes. I detect slightly high levels of cortisol, are…”

“Thank you. I was going right now, old scrap”. He replied to the metallic yet familiar voice through the speakers.

He suddenly suffocated all those idle musings, it was time to rest. According to Querquobad, tomorrow was going to be the day.

He made his way to the re-charging area on auto-pilot. Perhaps for the last time, if all went well tomorrow. His thorax neatly fit in to the metallic cavity while his arms and legs aligned themselves to their slots as a dome dropped over him. The walls to his sides slid away forming a small chamber where he stood in the center He sighed or at least dropped his head and exhaled mentally. For him this was "sighing". For he had not taken a breath in almost 3 years. He closed his eyes and relaxed as his suit was zipped open by the robotic arms and his helmet taken off and stowed away. He took the three steps to the Zero- G hammock netting used for sleeping. He carefully plugged in the cable into his shoulder socket and lay down only when it buzzed OK.

It was now 1077 days since the launch of the Mars colony ships- 900 in all. Earth's greatest step into space they said, ignoring the desperation evident in the hurry with which the world leaders scrambled for an early passage off the planet. Supply carriers, Life transports, Robotic Tech support, Defense ships and the AI supported nuclear powered medical and survival modules. Everything to settle Mars twice over.

Surprisingly only 47 ships crashed and 6 were stranded in high orbit, most of them due to a small error in the booster fuel composition which caused it to explode prematurely. The Decaf was one such medical module stranded in high earth orbit with it's propulsion system more than half blown away along with the pilot. Sure he had received basic training for six months but he was a doctor- a cyber neurologist- in-charge this floating hospital.

Luckily he had survived because he could hook up to a plastoic lung and brace his chest with titanium ribs. His legs were more than half metal and circuitry. If he was on Earth or even the Moon he would not be able to move because of the sheer weight of the metal fused to his living organs. The Decaf was now his home in more ways than one. But he had not given up living.

The Querquobad was his link to the universe. An almost living network of AI modules spread over the huge distances from Earth to Jupiter. His AI also DDG -31 was linked into the Querquobad for a one minute pulse every 100 minutes. So he knew when the first 12 ships had reached Mars, he celebrated the first successful landing, the awful disaster when more than 300 humans and 2 transport ships had perished and now was waiting for the first colony dome to go online soon. The doctor in him rejoiced when he was able to diagnose and recommend treatment for patients in Mars.

But all was not well. The Decaf was deteriorating fast. It was meant to last 300-600 days in the barren void of space. This limit was crossed a long time ago. The AI was passing this information to the Querquobad, who in turn had analyzed the options and recommended a retrieval mission to Mars HQ. He had followed it up himself through the official channels. Tomorrow was the day Mars HQ would allot a ship and fix the time table for bringing DDG-31 home.

As he slept the AI injected the necessary chemicals in to him to keep him healthy and lucid. This was on Querquobad's instructions. He was considered a valued human unlike the 300 that it had liquidated to save precious resources. What the AI did not know was that Ethan had not slept in almost 3 years and his memory was still very sharp- he noticed the slight changes in DDG-31 that he had not directed. He had also noted that the 2 ships that blew up were due to AI failure.
He was scared for humanity, scared enough to survive! Alone! for 3 years.

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