Challenge #01717-D256: Show of Faith

"Shhhhh." [Name] put a finger to both of their lips. "Let's just enjoy this. Things are going to be awful in a few hours, but right now I've tricked myself into thinking we can handle this. Let me bask in it." -- RecklessPrudence

The human had a mantra for everything that was going wrong. Human Steve was multitasking. Gathering and patching and applying gum and ductape as fast as their two hands could manage. The mantra was four words, "I can handle it!"

Leaking air? "I can handle it!" Minimal food supplies? "I can handle it!" Toxic air from the outer atmosphere leaking in? "I can handle it!" But it was the repeated insistance that this situation was un-handle-able that caused Human Steve distress.

After the tenth such iteration, human Steve put an upright finger over both their faceplates. Made a repetitious and rhythmic, "Shh-shh-shh-shh-shh," noise until all were quiet. Then they made a disturbing announcement. "Let's just enjoy this. Things are going to be awful in a few hours, but right now I've tricked myself into thinking we can handle this. Let me bask in it."

Orlek had to remember his science breathing, lest he pass out. "You... are not entirely certain?"

"Listen to my words. Let's believe together, okay? 'I. Can. Handle. It.'"

"You can handle it," said Orlek uncertainly.

"Great. That's great. Add that as a codicil to every last concern we have going. Please. I think it will help."

"This shelter is far too small, but you can handle it," said Orlek.

"Excellent! We've got this. We can handle it." Human Steve passed a lush, potted plant and a vessel of water to Orlek and seated him on a swivelling chair. "Hold these. We've got this. We can handle it."

Orlek recognised the twinned necessities of hold-my-thing and look-after-this. "You have this," Orlek repeated. "You can handle it."

And then Human Steve used an assortment of tools to dig a hole, turn the large chunks from the hole into dust, and mix the dust with condensation from the walls to make a kind of mud cement. That, Human Steve urgently plastered over the debris walls to form a barrier against both leakage and incoming atmosphere.

Incredibly, by degrees, their little pocket of livable space expanded and stabilised.

The final step was dusting the mud walls to help them dry just that little bit faster, and place containers under the hand-made stalactites to catch any drips, which would go into the purifier. The excess elements were fed into the atom printer, which was 'bodged' with the food printer. As was the atmosphere scrubber.

Things were unpleasant for a few hours, just as Human Steve predicted, but they reached a point of equilibrium where the livesuits could recycle and scrub, and augment from the extant atmosphere. And they could feet 'food patties' into their suit intakes, and add the extracted water into their supplies.

Human Steve, exhausted and shaking, collapsed onto the floor of their little bubble and repeated, "I can handle it," for an hour. Building up their self-belief. They focussed on survival breathing for a further half hour. Following that, Human Steve looked Orlek in the eyes. "Good Powers, that was flakkin' rough. I need a nap."

Human Steve slumped sideways in their place and apparently fell into a minor coma.

Orlek, who had needed seven sleep cycles during the disaster, Was left alone to ponder the power of Human Belief in a disaster. If they had just given up, they would have surely perished. But, here and now, they were alive because a human believed that they could handle it.

Orlek was supremely grateful.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Vyusur]

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