Blue Horizon: Sequel of Eleven

The Girl Adrift

That cursed eye twitched in its socket, behind the space-frozen eyelids and turned to Kobo.

Kobo went pale. She gripped her seat and held her breath, but the cursed eye of the doomed spacefarer turned away.

"She... didn't see me?" Kobo gasped.

She watched tensely as the tendril pulled the spacefarer along, out of sight and deeper into the harrowing void - but suddenly...!

BAAAAAAM!

The tendril slammed into Kobo's escape pod once more with incredible force! Kobo was thrown violently off her seat and she tumbled around the cockpit.

"ACK!" Kobo grunted.

Warning lights flashed all throughout the cockpit - so many lights that Kobo had to shield her eyes. One warning in particular, however, sent chills up her spine. The holographic AI assistant on board read the message with eerie calmness.

'WARNING: MULTIPLE HULL RUPTURES DETECTED.'

'CODE RED. SYSTEM FAILURES IMMINENT.'

Under the glare of the warning lights too, Kobo saw that the visor of her space suit was now cracked.

It suddenly got harder for her to breathe.

Kobo's heart thumped against her chest, but she forced herself to focus. Her sheer muscle memory propelled her, spurring her to reach under her seat and open the compartment underneath. There, she found a mechanical rebreather mask.

She tossed away her now useless hemet, slapped the rebreather over her nose and mouth and switched on the device.

WHIRRRRR!

"Hah... hah..." Kobo steadied her breath as well as she could, regulating her inhales and exhales.

Little by little, Kobo stilled her heart and filled her lungs, but her relief would not last long. The rebreather mask started to stutter. Yellow warning lights blinked on the damn thing.

It didn't have much longer left - and neither did Kobo.

Counting her precious breaths, Kobo undid the buckles of her seat and leapt off into near-zero gravity. She launched herself towards the main flight computer mainframe and sailed through the sea of hologram warnings.

Kobo reached the terminal screen and tapped on it, but its display crackled with static.

KZZZZT~!

"Damn it!" Kobo hissed. She slammed her fists on the terminal like it was an old television until it displayed something coherent. Then, Kobo forced it to deploy a holographic keyboard.

"Activate distress beacon - all channels!" Kobo said, saying what she typed, "S.O.S.! S.O.S.!"

Kobo's frantic request, however, only yielded even more holographic error messages. Once again, the AI assistant gave its report.

'INSUFFICIENT ENERGY OUTPUT. ANCILLARY SYSTEMS OFFLINE!'

"DAMN YOU!" Kobo gnashed her teeth and typed again, "Troubleshoot! Distress beacon!"

The AI assistant answered again.

'CHECK POWER CONNECTION. CHECK POWER CONNECTION. CHECK-CHECK-CHECK...!'

The rest of the line repeated on and on and on until the AI assistant shut off on its own. Kobo clicked her tongue and searched under the computer terminal. She found the control panel and removed its protective cover with a forceful tug.