My Vacation On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole - Part 11

_{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
Part 10}

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It's not like I had a choice, or even wanted to take the pills. There was just no other way.

I had seen what addiction had done to other pilots. There was a guy we all used to call Rounder. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it was because he always took the same routes. One mission he was in a similar situation to me. He wasn't stuck on the edge of a black hole. That's a bit unusual. He just woke up to a badly damaged drive system, and his ship flying towards an altogether unfriendly sun. He had a week's worth of work to do, and only a few days to do it.

He popped those flyers like there was no tomorrow. He said he was shaking so bad when he went back into hypersleep, that he thought he'd shake it apart. He never stopped shaking after that, unless he was on the pills. The hypersleep chamber cleans out your system every time you go in, but the second you wake up, for some reason you still gotta have it. It wasn't pretty.

He's still around, Rounder. I see him sometimes at the bar. No one really talks to him anymore. I just see him sitting there with a drink in his hands, shaking, trying to take a sip occasionally without it clanging into his teeth. It's not like I never talked to him, but I honestly don't remember the last time I did. I'd have to fix that. If I don't get this ship fixed before I get hooked on the pills though, he'd probably be my only friend.

I went down the hall, and picked up my ice cream sandwich. It's not the same as on a space station, or a planet. It's not cold. It's dry. It's a bit like eating really tasty foam, that melts in your mouth. I honestly loved it, almost more than real ice cream, in some ways.

"What do you say we get this structural reinforcing underway so we can mount the cannons, Julia?"

"Sounds good, captain."

"Do we even have the extra material to do all this?"

"We have most of it in the cargo bay, captain."

"Oh, we do? I didn't realize we had that much extra material."

"Well, some of it is extra material we have on hand for repairs, but the majority of it is integrated into the ship."

"Oh..."

"We're going to have to rearrange some of the structural reinforcement of the ship to accommodate for the cannons torsional strain. Even with the reinforcements however, I'm likely going to have to avoid moving the cannon at full speed, to lower the chance of fractures to the surrounding hull."

"Alright. Prepare a report for when we get back to base, for what we need to get to make these permanent. I don't want them ripping themselves off the ship."

I set off to the cargo bay, and opened the cargo container where we kept all the stuff too big to fit in the machine shop. Lots of girders and plates and large structural pieces filled the container, strapped together, and against the walls of the container.

I hobbled into the container, and unstrapped a girder, and began taking it out. Oh god...I was gonna need more pills than this.

"Julia, should the pills have taken full effect yet?"

"Yes, captain. They likely would have taken effect before you even entered the cargo bay."

"If I took two more pain pills, would it affect my cognitive abilities?"

"Yes, captain, that is likely."

"How bad?"

"I'm not certain that I could quantify a response to that query that would be properly comprehensible, but I believe the proper response would be 'Bad.'"

"Yeah, that's the proper response alright. What about just one? Could I still get the repairs done?"

"Likely captain, but the chances of an injury increase substantially."

"God damn, fucking...piece of...garbage...shit...mother..." I kept cursing under my breath as I brought the girders to the areas where they were needed. Eventually, it was too much though. I lowered my head and resigned myself to the fact that I simply wasn't strong enough. I could carry all the girders in the word, but the weight of the pain was too much on me. I went into the med bay, and pulled out the pain pill container, and took out two pills.

I looked down on them as they floated just above the surface of my hand. They were simple little white pills, with a company logo, the brand name, and a warning label too small to read except by microscope. They were huge to someone that worked out in space though. They could save you, or kill you, just like every other little bill people took with them. Some of them were more dangerous than others.

I brought my hand up to my mouth with the pills in them and put one in my mouth. Then I stopped. Maybe I was stronger than I thought. I put the other one back.

"I'm proud of you, captain."

I put the pill container back, and walked out of the med bay. "Shutup Julia."

I managed to get the rest of the pieces in place with minimal effort. Well, the ones that weren't already attached to the ship. Then it was on to cutting and placing them.

I got a large hand saw from the machine shop, as well as a hand drill, and some other tools, and began working. I was cutting a girder to size when suddenly Julia interupted me.

"Captain! Stop the saw."

I let go of the trigger and the magnetic stop engaged. "Julia, why..." Suddenly the ship moved, and I was slammed into the wall.

I struggled to breathe in. I hit the wall too hard. "Captain, are you alright."

"No..." I tried to breath in. "I just hit the fucking wall."

"Sorry, Captain. I had to try to avoid..."

"A meteor, yeah." It was just a reminder of how I needed to work faster. "Get me a beer."

"Captain, are you sure..."

"I don't give a fuck. I feel like I'm gonna throw up from the pain in my knee. If I'm gonna die, I ain't dying sober!"

"Yes captain."

"Sorry, Julia." I got back to work and tried to get as much done as possible. I was already placing the beam by the time Robert brought me my beer. I barely acknowledge him as I took it and took a swig. Just gave a sort of grunt and a nod.

The work went pretty quickly and silently. Then I had to start ripping pieces out of the rest of the ship. Julia helped me pick out what pieces to take. Every beam felt like I was losing a part of myself, and risking more, just to get out of here. I can't imagine how Julia felt. This was like her body. Here I was commiting major surgery on her, and she was just silently watching. "Sorry, Julia..."

"Captain?"

"Nothing. Just... Is this hard for you? Do you want me to do these modifications?"

"I don't think I have much choice, but I kind of like it. I'm finally going to have some balls."

"What?" I half laughed, caught completely off guard by her phrasing.

"I can finally defend myself. I can swing my dick around, as they say."

"What have you been processing?" I laughed incredulously.

"The same as usual captain. Whatever I can find that I deem relevant to my daily activities."

"Well, okay. Let's get you something to swing around." In a lighter mood, I found the work to go a lot easier, after a bit of music. "Julia put on some metal. Heavy lead. Somethin to really motivate me."

_{Image used under Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.* (source)*}

The sound of the screaming lead and arpeggios was inspiring. It was really making the work go quickly. Before I knew it, the mounts for the cannons were reinforced, and the cargo bay was a mess. I also had to take a few chunks from other parts of the ship, but not a lot.

Before I installed the cannons, I had to repair the tether. It wasn't fun working on it, knowing that if it had snapped I'd be space debris. It was relatively easy though. Just had to cut it and splice it back together.

I had to open the cargo bay to get the cannons out. As I moved the first out, I had a sudden realization. "Julia, you know that you can't really take evasive action while I'm out there with this, right?"

"Yes, captain."

"Are there any meteors on sensors that we'll need to avoid when I'm out there?"

"Not that I foresee being an issue, captain. There is one, but the movements necessary should not cause any difficulty. I'm already making adjustments."

"Fine. Just don't crush me...or lose me...or lose the cannon. I already had to repair the tether. I'm not sure if it will be able to take a hard pull."

"I'm sorry captain. I'm glad you weren't lost. I..." She stopped herself. She doesn't usually do that.

"Julia, you were saying something?"

"Nothing captain. I believe there are some straps you can use for tethers in cargo container 3-A26."

"Ahh, really? Sweet!"

"They might be a bit short, but they should work."

I opened the container. "Really, Julia? Bit short? You think? I'd have to reconnect these every 3 meters. We're going without them!"

"Sorry captain."

"Ehh, it's not your fault I'm lazy and don't wanna reconnect them all the time."

I attached a large drill with the appropriately sized socket for the bolts to the tether and started to head out. Then I realized how fucking hard this was going to be. I needed maneuvering jets.

"Julia, this isn't gonna work. Do we happen to have any small maneuvering jets lying around?"

"No, captain."

"What about mag-treads?"

"We have two carts for unloading cargo that might be strong enough, if used together."

"That's right, the carts!" Yeah, it was kind of stupid on my part to not think of them. But the cannon kind of dwarfed them anyway.

When I got to the corner of the cargo bay, and looked at them, folded up, and strapped to the wall, it was obvious they weren't nearly big enough. And there was no way I could maneuver them both with the cannon on top. I couldn't exactly build a bigger one though. I didn't have the time.

"Alright Julia. Take the dimensions of the scrap after my repairs, and determine if there's a way to attack the carts together to be able to use them for the cannons. Put it on my pad." I checked my pad. It looked horrible, but it would probably work.

A few minutes later, I had the carts attached together with a few pieces of girders, and a bar connecting to two handles together. It looked horrible, but it might work.

I strapped the cannon to the carts and moved it to the rear of the cargo bay. Mag-treads weren't exactly treads, in the normal sense. They more hovered the object and moved it forward through magnetics. I had some of the original mag-treads, that used actual treads, with magnetic elements embedded in them. The models these days were more effective on uneven flooring that was likely to occur on ships. Not terribly effective all the time though. One side was hanging lower than the other, and couldn't seem to react to movements as well.

I got my helmet, made sure I had all the tools I needed and opened the cargo bay. It wasn't exactly easy maneuvering the cannon, but I got it done. Attaching it to the hull wasn't that difficult either. Wiring it in wasn't fun though. That took a while.

"Julia, can you..." The cannon suddenly moved and came to life, and then the point defense cannon fired off into the distance. I could see something vaporize somewhere out in space. "...test it... Julia, was there a meteor coming at us?"

"Yes captain."

"And you didn't think to tell me?"

"There wasn't time for banter. If I had missed due to problems in the calibration I likely would have had to commit evasive actions, and try again. I would have preferred to not risk losing you again, captain."

"Um...remember when the point defense cannons kinda exploded when you tested them last time? You asked me to step back. I'm right next to the cannon."

"I determined that the risk was minimal when compared to the risk should I not fire the second the cannon was operational."

"Fine... Well, how was it?"

"It worked beautifully, captain. It appears the output of lasers is actually higher than I expected."

"That's not going to be a problem, is it?"

"No, captain, it's within the tolerances of the designs."

"Good. Well, let's get the next one out here."

The other cannon was more of a hassle. Nothing I couldn't handle. Just the threads on the bolts didn't want to go on straight. I managed to get it attached though, minus one bolt that was lost to space. Thankfully I didn't run into as many issues wiring it up.

"Okay, Julia, give it a test." It whired to life, and moved in every direction.

"Everything seems to be moving correctly. Now step back for a firing test, captain."

"Sure, now you're worried about my safety." I chuckled a bit to myself, and stepped back a ways, then remembered how much she had hassled me before, and decided to get quite a ways away. "How's this?"

"Fine, captain."

The cannon pointed in some direction, and I could see some sort of flashing. "Is that it? Is there something wro... OH SHIT!" Something the size of a small asteroid exploded and was instantly vaporized in the distance, except for a few small chunks that were quickly taken care of by the smaller point defense laser on top.

"It seems to be quite effective captain. I would calculate that it is, in fact, more effective than the original system at vaporization. It should be even more effective once we attach the other cannons."

"Do we even need them? That was insane. It blew the shit out of that thing!"

"Well, it's not strictly necessary for the majority of objects, but it should be quite a bit more effective against larger objects, or against large fields of debris."

"Fine, I can see you want it, after all of that."

I kept thinking about ways I was going to die out there. Maybe I'd be crushed between the hull and one of the cannons, or hit with a meteor, or sent flying off into space when Julia took evasive action. Now it was all over. The cannons were installed, and I was on my way back inside.

As if on cue, I could feel the ship move, and my weight pulling against my mag-boots. Then it stopped. "Everything alright, Julia?"

"Yes, captain. I had to adjust the ship slightly to give myself a better firing angle. It should no longer be necessary when you attach the other cannons, except in rare instances."

"Fine. Got it. Getting to work."

It took me another two hours to get the cannons done. I suppose it wasn't that bad, only 30 minutes each, on average. By the time I was done I was practically dead though.

"Julia, can you get on without the extra cannons, until I get some sleep?"

"Yes captain."

"Fine, then I'm hitting the sack."

Today was too long. I didn't even take off my boots. I just went into my room, strapped myself to my bed, and instantly fell asleep.

_{Ending it there. Hope you liked this issue/episode/chapter.}

Click here to read Part 12