December 24, 2118
Sonus Blueray stepped into the control room deep in thought. It had been an hour and a half since the first comet sighting and things weren’t looking any better. In fact, they were only getting worse. The scanners continued to waver until they had died completely. Missy tried contacting Houston, but she couldn’t get through. All communication systems were either jammed or down. Now the lights were starting to flicker.
Annie and Missy sat near the main controls. Missy was in the process of chronicling the events thus far when Sonus plopped into a nearby seat. “I just checked the back-up generator,” he said. “It should kick in if we lose power.”
“What’s to say the comet won’t kill that too?” Annie, slumped in her seat with arms folded, pursed her lips in grim expectancy.
“Don’t be such a Grinch, Annie. Cheer up.” Sonus replied with a smile. “Tis the season to be jolly.”
Missy nodded and added, “He’s got a point. It could be worse.”
At that moment, the lights flickered before all electricity died.
Annie’s voice filtered through the darkness. “You just HAD to say it.”
A long moment passed before the hum of the generator could be heard. Lights in the control room flickered back on. Sonus realized something was off with the artificial gravity when papers, pens, and even the girls’ hair started floating in midair.
Buckling himself to the seat, Sonus booted up and accessed the station’s statistics on one of the computers.
“The good news is, the generator’s working,” he said. “The oxygen system is still running, the main computer has power, and artificial gravity is at 50%. The radio transmitter works, but the signal is still jammed.”
“...And the bad news is?” Missy inquired in hesitance.
Sonus waited a moment, checking and double-checking the information, before answering.
“According to your calculations concerning the current location and speed of the comet… If this keeps up, we’ll lose the generator within an hour.”
“Meaning,” Annie stated while pulling her hair into a braid. “An hour from now, we won’t have electricity, gravity, or oxygen.”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Sonus responded, ignoring the urge to comment on Annie’s pessimism again. Finishing off the braid, Annie gave a heavy sigh and buried her head in her hands.
“Look on the bright side,” Sonus said merrily. “We have plenty of food. At least we won’t starve to death.”
At that remark, Annie looked up with an exasperated expression. “I’ll get the emergency gear.” She pulled her feet up to the back of the chair and launched herself away from the conversation.
Sonus glanced at Missy. “Something I said?”
Missy shook her head in a “you should know better” manner.
“No worries,” Sonus said as he resumed going over various calculations. “We’ve been through worse.”
“Have we?” Missy asked dubiously as she twisted her flyaway hair into a bun and secured it.
“Sure we have!” he answered. “Remember that time you threw up during flight simulation?”
“How does that count?” she scoffed. “It’s not like it was life threatening. It was over in ten minutes.”
“You thought it was an eternity at the time. Besides,” he continued, turning to face Missy. “What makes you think this won’t be over soon?”
At that moment, a loud clang followed by a frustrated growl from the other end of the room garnered their attention. Annie was floating near a cabinet and appeared to be strangling whatever was inside.
“You’d better go help her, Sonus.”
With an acknowledging nod, he unbuckled and cautiously drifted through the room, grabbing a handrail near the emergency supplies cabinet upon arrival. “Need any help?” he asked.
“Of course not!” She replied sharply before attempting to yank a rope out of the metallic cabinet. “I’m doing just fine.”
“Mhm, I can see that,” Sonus commented as he watched her tug the rope a couple more times. As one of the small flashlights in the cabinet drifted out, he grabbed it and clipped it to his belt. “Annie,” he began. “Don’t let this get you down. We’ll be all right.”
She stopped pulling and stared at him. “What makes you so sure?”
“Remember that time you cheated in one of the mission simulations?”
“I never cheated,” she denied, turning her attention back to the cabinet.
“You hacked the program’s code and changed it. That’s called cheating.”
“I simply evened odds. They don’t have to put people in difficult situations and demoralize them with unfair statistics. They should’ve known better than to tell me I can’t win.” She glanced at Sonus and found him smirking before she stopped to think about her answer.
“Ok, maybe you’re right,” she admitted.
“That’s the best thing about having friends. They’re there for you when you need them.” Sonus said and patted her on the back. “Believe it or not, Annie, you’re not in this alone. Now then,” he pointed to the rope. “I believe there is a latch keeping that in place.”
Annie lowered her head. “Thank you.”
“Pleasure.” Just then, his watch beeped. Raising his wrist to looking at the timepiece, he muttered, “Would you look at that?” His face broke into a wide grin. “It’s Christmas day. Merry Christmas!” He floated back to Missy with Annie in tow.
“Merry Christmas, Missy!” “Merry Christmas to you too,” Missy replied. Annie proceeded to distribute oxygen masks, flashlights, and rope to the other crew members before buckling herself in her seat.
“Shall we float around the hovering Christmas tree and sing carols?” Sonus suggested as he pointed to the helpless artificial tree drifting near the ceiling.
“No thanks.” Missy turned back to the computer.
“So you’re just going to sit there and worry?” Sonus asked. He took advantage of the significant lack of gravity by performing a back flip in slow motion.
Missy thought for a moment before remembering an important detail. “Actually, I have a better idea.” She left her chair and floated to a cupboard and opened it. Three gift wrapped objects drifted out. Missy took hold of them and went back to her seat. “These came with the last cargo ship.” She threw, as best as one can in throw in 50% gravity, a present to Annie then threw one to Sonus. “Merry Christmas!”
Missy tore the paper of her present and watched a gold locket glide out. She opened it to find a picture of her together with her sister. Missy smiled and held the locket close while fond memories of her family flooded back to her.
Annie opened her gift and fought to hold the tears back when she revealed her mother’s music box. Gently lifting the lid, Beethoven’s Fur Elise softly filled the room.
Sonus waited to open his present. When Missy noticed he hadn’t opened his gift yet, she asked, “What did you get, Sonus?” Just as he was about to tear into the wrapping paper, the lights suddenly went out and the hum of the generator died.
“Well, I got to see my friends smile.”
~ SMS ~
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