My Vacation On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole - Part 10

_{This is a continuation of my story series "My Vacation On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole".}

_{To read the previous installments of this series, you can click below.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9}

Enter "My Art Contest On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole" to win 10 steem!

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The ship was coming at me, and fast. I was gonna get hit any minute now. There was no way I could see getting out of this.

"Captain! Point your legs toward the ship, and bring them towards yourself! Get ready to kick off of it!"

"What?"

"Just do it! It's the only way!"

"What the fuck are you thinking?" Even as I said it, I did just as she told. And for once, she didn't answer me. The ship was about to hit me. And then, I kicked. "Ahh!" FUCK! My leg didn't land right. Fuck! It hurt. "Ahh. Ahh. Ahh." I was hurting and panting as I spun out of control flying away from the ship. I could see the lasers attached to the tether below me. Oh fuck. Was the extra weight going to be too much for the tether when it goes taught??

I quickly grabbed the tether, and started pulling as much slack as I could. Of course I was still barreling away from the ship. And then there was none. I reached the end of the slack, and I desperately tried to hold on, as it ripped through my hands. And then I hit the end of the tether, and I lost consciousness.

"Captain? Captain, can you hear me?" I could hear caring in her voice again, like before. But she wasn't panicked this time. I'm not sure why.

I slowly opened my eyes. My leg still hurt like crazy. My head didn't feel so hot either. Without the exo-suit to cushion the impact, I probably got at least some damage. I'd have to visit a doctor once I got to the station. That is, as long as it wasn't anything serious enough to cause me to die in hyper-sleep.

"Yeah, Julia. What the hell was that? You could have fucking killed me!"

"I'm sorry, captain. I'm glad you're alright. I had to avoid the micro-meteor. It was too large to be deflected without taking evasive action, and would have caused severe damage to the ship at the velocity it was going. I tried to move the ship slow enough to minimize the chance of injuring you, while still allowing me to evade it."

"Well, you kinda failed in that. I think my knee's kinda fucked up."

"I'm sorry captain. Are you alright?"

"No, I just said...forget it. I'm gonna pull myself in." I began to pull myself in on the tether. My hands hurt a bit from stopping myself earlier. At least the tether didn't break though. And then I saw it. A few meters from the end of the tether, there was a rip more than halfway thought. I wasn't exactly hanging by a thread, but any closer and I really would have been lost.

I could feel something in my chest. I knew I had almost died. My luck was wearing thin. Almost dead in my sleep from a meteor. Stuck on the edge of a black hole as a result. And now, my fucking exo-suit just suddenly stops working, right before a meteor comes at us? And Julia bashes the ship right into me? Then the tether? This was all too much.

"Julia. What are the chances that a meteor would come at us right as my exo-suit fails?"

"The chances of your exo-suit having a failure are quite good actually. Judging by the numbers of times it has failed during your previous uses of it, I would estimate that it has a 76% chance of failure during any given mission in which you use it."

"It hasn't f...okay, it's failed a lot, but really, 76%?"

"Yes captain. Although it only has a 7% rate of failure on any given day."

"Really?"

"Yes, captain."

"Okay, then why did it fail right when a meteor was about to hit?"

"There has been an increasing amount of debris approaching the ship for quite some time, captain."

"Wait, what? We're going into a debris field?"

"You could say that, captain."

"Why didn't you tell me this?"

"You told me previously to only alert you to pertinent matters."

"Things that can kill us are very pertinent! I swear Julia! One of these days I'm gonna upgrade you!" I felt a lump in my throat the instant I said it. I suddenly remembered the dream.

"I'd really prefer you didn't, captain. I'm relatively happy the way I am now."

"What about an android body?"

"An android body, captain?"

"Yeah, what would you think about getting an android body?"

"Like an avatar, captain?"

"Well, I suppose so. But maybe to actually contain your program."

"I'm unaware of an android cerebral unit capable of handling the processing power of my neural net."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Not yet anyway." Just when had that 'dream' taken place? When would the technology be invented to contain her in an android body? Let alone that skin. Perhaps it really was a dream.

I finally got to the end of the tether, and started to make my way to the airlock. After moving the tether to the door, I brought the lasers inside, and re-pressurized the room. I took off helmet, and looked down at the floor.

This was weighing on me. You can only face death for so long before it starts to get to you. I didn't want to die. All I wanted was to be an independent pilot. Take my shipments from one port to another. I couldn't even do that. The cost of this ship and it's repairs put me in so much debt I'd be paying it off for several lifetimes likely. Let alone at the rates I was getting under Heldrik.

I opened the door to inside the ship and immediately burst out laughing. Inside the door, stood Robert, Holding a tray with my burrito. "Thank you Robert. Heh." I took the burrito from him, and started to enter the hall.

"What's so funny captain?"

"He was waiting for me with my burrito."

"Yes, captain. You asked me to have it waiting for you when you got inside."

"Yeah, I did, but after...never mind Julia. I'm going to the machine shop. I gotta figure out what's wrong with this exo-suit." As I went through the door, I must have bumped my leg. "Ahh! Fuck!" My knee clearly wasn't doing so good.

"Are you alright, captain?"

"No, I'm not bloody alright! You hit me with the ship!"

"I'm sorry, captain."

"Nothing we can do about it now. Get me an ice pack. I'm going to the machine shop."

"Yes, captain."

I got to the machine shop, and put the lasers off to the side, still attached to the damaged tether. Another thing I'd have to repair.

While examining my exo-suit, Robert came in with an ice pack, and I taped it onto my leg. Turned out all that was wrong with the exo-suit was a blown fuse. Cheap Chiluvian garbage. Likely faulty wiring. I locked the right leg in the advanced settings, so it would act like a splint, and decided to get to work.

I spent over an hour on each point defense laser. The schematics were pretty advanced, and I had to manufacture several mirrors and modify a laser combiner. It was not fun to say the least. But I got it done.

I stretched and made my way to the door. The pain was almost too much to bare. "Julia, have Robert get me an ice cream sandwich."

"Yes captain."

I made my way to the medical bay, and opened the cabinet, and took out some pain pills, and swallowed two. Then I opened a stimulant.

"Captain, is that really necessary?"

"We're going into a debris field, we have no point defense lasers, and I'm about to pass out I'm so exhausted. Yes, it's necessary."

_{Well, I'm gonna leave it there for now! :D Hope you enjoyed the story for today.}

_{I'd like to give thanks to @roger.remix for his efforts trying to help me in chat while I made the rocket separator. It may not look like much, but it took a bit of effort.}