My Vacation On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole - Part 9

_{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}

I wore a huge smile as I walked up the hall. I had just made up my mind on how I was getting out of here. Like a bad ass.

Sure, I probably don’t need two cannons that will stick out of the sides of my ship like two goiters, but I was gonna have 'em, dammit.

I walked into the kitchen, and got a package of crackers out of the food dispenser. “OH GOD! NO!” I gagged and desperately tried to find somewhere to spit it out. I managed to grab a napkin quickly, and spit it into that. I read the label. “Tuna paste and salami? Eww! On spinach crackers? Oh god. Why do we have these?”

“They were in that big box of assorted snacks you bough when we were picking up the cargo, captain.”

“Well I hope none of the rest of them taste like that, or they’re all going in the recycler.” I drank some water from the tap to try to get the taste out of my mouth, but it almost made me gag when I swallowed it. I got an orange Skuttlebutt out of the fridge and began drinking it, then grabbed a burrito, carefully read the packaging, and heated it up. Just normal bean and algae flakes with cheese-like shreds.

I ate the burrito as I walked over to the machine shop. It was alright. But I could still kinda taste the tuna and salami on spinach crackers. It tasted like a mix between stale cat food and fish food. I shuddered just thinking about it. I walked up to the large impact drill, and then I noticed my hands were full. “Julia, can you get Robert to take this into the cargo bay?”

“Captain, that is far over his weight limit.”

“Fine! Get him to take my burrito and drink then.”

I left the burrito and drink floating in the air and unstrapped the drill from the wall. It moved slow, and with quite a bit of effort. I pumped up the strength of the exo-suit, and took it into the cargo hold, then left it next to the cannon, and went back the the machine shop.

I passed by Robert with my burrito. “Thank you Robert.” I took it, took a bite, handed it back to him, and then took a drink of my Scuttlebutt. “Take that to the cargo bay, would you?” He began to go off. “Thanks Robert.”

After getting the set of drill bits from the machine shop, and the magnetic railing for the drill, I headed back to the cargo bay, set down my tools, and retrieved my burrito. This was gonna be a lot of work, but I know in the end, I was gonna end up with something really awesome.

I could have sworn Robert was glaring at me, even though his face didn’t show any emotion. He only had cameras where the eyes were supposed to be to put humans at ease. Even if he wasn’t, I took my orange Scuttlebutt from him, so he could go back to whatever he was doing, or not doing. I took another bite of by burrito, and left it floating while I took my tools up to the top of the cannon. This was gonna be epic.

And then I realize I didn’t have any clue where the holes had to be. Nothing like putting the cart before the horse. “Julia, can you check the design of the laser mounts and determine the best placement to have them center rear, and have the bolts still be fairly accessible.”

“Yes captain. How would you like me to give you the measurements?”

“I guess put the schematics on my data pad.” I pulled myself down off the cannon, and touched down on the floor before grabbing my Scuttlebutt and scuttling my butt down the hall, while drinking my drink.

I managed to find my data pad in one of the drawers, before I ended up stopping in the middle of the room. I was getting way too ahead of myself. "Julia, using the inventory of the entire ship, and any parts we can spare, create schematics for 4 lasers using the mining lasers as a base, and 2 using the point defense lasers, using laser modules rerouted from the cannons in the cargo bay."

"I already did, captain."

"Oh, well, okay. Put them on my data pad."

"They are, captain."

"Oh." I looked down at the data pad. There were two different designs for lasers, with a few variations, based on the different form factors. "Okay, how about we go with this one for the mining lasers?"

"Captain, I would suggest going with the variation just below that one, if you want the mining lasers to be the more powerful of the two. The decreased weight of the design will allow for much quicker targeting, while still being almost just as powerful."

"Oh, okay, then we'll go with that. And for the point defense cannons, we'll want something actually quite capable of point defense."

"May I suggest design C, captain? It requires an upgrade to the tracking motors by using some parts in the cargo bay, but it should allow greater destructive capability without decreasing targeting capability."

"Very good. We'll go with that then." Seems Julia was making up for my over-enthusiasm. "Looks like these still use the same mounts, so I'll go drill the holes, then get the mounts from outside. Have you worked out how to mount the cannons yet?"

"Yes captain. The modifications are on your datapad."

I clicked out of the laser designs, and saw some other designs. These were going to be some serious modifications to structural reinforcement for the area. This was gonna take some time.

I sighed and made my way back to the cargo bay, drinking my scuttle butt. Soon I was at the base of the cannon. I finished my scuttle butt, and grabbed the rest of my burrito, and made my way to the top. I attached the drill to the rail mounting, and followed the schematics to make a few holes, double checking every measurement before drilling. Soon my burrito was gone, and the hole in at least one of the cannons were drilled.

And then onto the other.

The other cannon was just as well shined, though perhaps showed a bit more wear. I managed to get it out of the container a bit easier without the other cannon wedged against the packing material inside. With a bit more effort, I managed to get the holes drilled, and honestly, could use another burrito.

Off to the mess! I made my way to the kitchen. A few metal shavings stuck to my suit. That's not good. They might get into the air filters. The vacuum attachment on the drill should have caught most of them. Well, this happens. Guess I wasn't going to the mess.

I made my way to the shower. "Julia, can you get me some fresh underwear, and a space suit? I'm gonna take a shower."

"Yes, captain."

In the shower my situation and the last few days played over in my head. It was all insane. But now I might actually have a chance to get out of this. I started laughing. I might actually get out of this. Well, if a meteor doesn't destroy my ship before that. With that somber thought, my smile faded, I turned on the drying cycle, and I got out of the shower.

"Julia, can you have a burrito waiting for me when I get back inside? I'm going out to get the point defense lasers and their mounts."

"Yes, captain."

I put on my space suit, and strapped into my boots and exo-suit, making my way to the airlock. The last time I went out here, I was very nearly lost in space. I didn't look forward to that happening again. With a heavy heart, I grabbed my tools, put on my helmet and gloves, sealed the seams, and depressurized the room.

The hull looked to be almost in pristine condition. Scrappy had really done an amazing job. Though I'm sure there were probably some system that needed repairing under the newly repaired hull. I'd have to get to those in time.

Removing the point defense lasers proved a quick and easy task. Only one of the bolts really gave me trouble, and a bit of a kick got it to budge. I strapped the two lasers and their mounts onto my tether, and made my way back.

And then my exo-suit powered down. For no reason at all. "What the fuck! Julia. Julia. My exo-suit just powered down." I began to drift away from the hull.

"Captain? Are you alright? I can't seem to interface with your suit."

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just gotta get back into the ship. We'll figure it out when I get inside."

"Captain. I'm detecting a micro-meteor. I'm going to have to take evasive action."

"What? No! No! Julia!" The ship started coming at me, and fast.

"I'm sorry captain, it will cause too extensive of damage to the ship unless I take evasive action."

"Oh FUCK!!!!!!!"

_(source)

Well, like a dick, I'm gonna leave it there!

This section of the story was really hard to get out for some reason. It took me multiple days. There are just some times when stories take longer to get out of you.

_{Be sure to upvo...ahh fuck it. Do whatever the fuck you want.}

Click here to read Part 10!