My Vacation On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole - Part 15

_{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, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14}

I opened my eyes to a close-up view of my grey sheets. I was face down, my face pressed against my bed. I struggled to get my arm out of the strap holding me down. I felt like absolute death. I might be able to get the last things done today to get the ship repaired though, so I had to get up.

"Julia, how long did I sleep?"

"Six and a half hours, captain."

"Well, it will have to do."

I was still in my space suit, and feeling pretty gross, but I turned on my mag-boots, grabbed the modules I had repaired, and went to the airlock. I put my helmet and gloves, as well as my tool belt, and went outside. Still half asleep, I looked up at the stars. They looked so beautiful. I wondered how many I had visited. I know I had visited quite a few, but it was still only a small percentage. I thought about all those that I had visited. Brown dwarves, yellow suns, that one red giant, a purple monster, even a few artificial habitats between stars. Wait, that purple monster thing was a dream. That was a weird one. It tried to eat everyone on the space station. And it had a french accent. Weird.

I went from panel to panel, installing the modules that I had finished repairing. Then I grabbed the control modules for the thrusters that seemed to be having issues. It might not have been that hard of work, but it still took me almost an hour. By the time I was finished I was pretty hungry.

"Julia, can you make me some potato curry with veggies and rice?"

"Yes, captain. Would you like me to make it spicy?"

"Sure, but not too much." I started heading for the airlock. "Have Robert bring it to me in the cinema. Put on a short space drama for me. Something with action where the captain gets the girl."

I finally got to the airlock, transferred my tether, and pressurized the room. As soon as I took off my helmet and gloves though, I kind of noticed just how grimy I was from working the other day. "Change of plans. I'm gonna take a shower first. Have some coveralls waiting for me, Julia."

"Yes, captain. Robert should have the curry waiting for you by the time you get to the cinema."

"Thank you, Julia."

I didn't take a long shower, but it was relieving all the same. It was nice to get the dirt and grime of the day off me. Well, the grime from yesterday. I was going to be glad when I finally got the rest of the ship's systems repaired, and got back to artificial gravity.

I turned on the dry cycle, and then stepped out of the shower and got dressed. I even somehow managed to get my exo-suit on with ease. I saved putting on my mag-boots though, as I would just want to take them off in the cinema.

By the time I got to the cinema, Robert was waiting for me with a tray with a curry packet stuck to it, as well as a packet of napkins and utensils. "Thank you, Robert." I took the curry, and ripped it open, then opened the utensils, and stirred it. Steam was billowing out. Robert moved out of the room, and I strapped myself down to the chair as Julia started the movie.

The movie was funny and really cool, and the curry wasn't bad either. The movie had a sort of old-school sci-fi feel, like the old black and white shows. The science was all wrong, and the effects were so cheesy. They had these big metal laser guns that looked like hair dryers or something, and when they fired them, they made this cheesy whirling sound. The acting was over the top, but there was just something about the emotional connection developed between the captain and the damsel in distress. I felt my heart aflutter by the end. It was almost hard to get back to work, but I still managed to pull myself away, get my mag-boots on, and activate them, before walking to the machine shop.

"Julia, can you give me a projection on how long it's gonna take to repair the modules I have left in the machine shop?"

"Three and a half hours, captain."

"Let's see if I can't beat that. Also, give me projections on the systems I can repair, and get installed, before the end of the day, assuming I meet your expectations. Put it on my datapad."

"Right away, captain."

I went through module after module, systems and redundant systems, not strictly required, but extremely useful should anything go wrong. By the time I was done, I actually felt like I had just completed a race.

"Time! How'd I do?"

"Two and a half hours, captain. A full hour ahead of my projections."

"Now that's a win! Okay, let's see what else I can work on before the day's out." I checked the list. "I guess the most important thing is communications. I mean, we don't technically need full communications to dock, but I don't really like not being able to call in should something go wrong. Also would help to be able to establish a data connection."

_{Desoldering of a 1210 capacitor using no flux. by Aisart
Image used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.}

I took the modules to the airlock and tried to get into my space suit. It was amazing that I had been doing so well, especially with my knee still kind of fucked up. Unfortunately this time I wasn't so lucky. I somehow wrenched my knee while pulling on my space suit and somehow managed to hit my head on the wall in the somersault that I did as a result of my trying to grab my leg. "Son of a bitch!" I took a deep breath in, and stifled the pain through sheer force of will, grimaced, and forced my boots on. I was getting this done! I was not spending another day in this hell hole into a compacted nucleus. Fuck this black hole, and the meteor she rode in on!

Once outside, I quickly installed the modules and removed the communications module, and it's backup. The backup didn't seem to be in that bad of condition. The main communication module looked half fried and roadkill sun-dried though.

I hauled them both back inside and began work on them. Six and a half hours later, I was exhausted, and just utterly done with it all. The backup module only took a few minutes, it was the main module that was the real bitch. I managed to get it done though. Thankfully I wasn't so exhausted that I couldn't install the modules before I passed out. It was a good thing too, because I really wanted this whole thing over with.

After closing up the hull, and making my way inside, I took one last shower before preparing myself for hypersleep. "Julia, wake me up before we reach the space station. I wanna have a chance to get this crap off of me before we dock. Give me at least a few hours, if not more. I guess use your best judgment." I plugged the tubes and cables into my hyper suit, and watched as my blood began to flow through them, before putting on my mask, and closing my eyes.

Hypersleep isn't like normal sleep. Your brain is kept at minimal levels unless you have a neural interface, and it sort of feels like being in a vast emptiness. I've heard that with a neural interface it feels like you're part of your ship, and you can interact with your ship's AI while under. Perhaps I should get one, if nothing else, to ensure that Julia actually tells me next time something goes wrong. Without one, I imagine it feels much like death. I was floating in the void of purgatory.

_{Gonna leave it there. Hope you liked this chapter. I believe I'm going to wrap this up in maybe 2 more chapters. We'll see how it goes.}

Click here to read Part 16