Through Dangerous Times

Temporary Fixes, Everywhere

"Oh no..." Cisco trailed off, staring at what had been displayed in front of him.

There was a brief moment of silence as Cisco observed the hologram that had been shown in front of him.

"What is it?" Barry said, sounding somewhat panicked by the reaction.

"This station hasn't just been struck by a wave of space debris, it's been hit by a small meteor. The damage that this meteor has done is awful. Damage to life support, and minor damage to the gravity field, however, both of those can be easily fixed. It's the damage to the engine that I'm worried about. As you know, the engine is what controls its orbit around the Earth, and now it's been damaged, it's... well..."

"It's what?"

"The orbit has been altered. The QAN is on a course to get pulled back in by Earth's gravity and collide with the planet. The heat shields on this thing will prevent it from burning up, and well, simply put, the size and velocity of this thing colliding with the Earth will be enough to cause, well..."

Cisco paused for a moment, taking a breath before finishing.

"Global destruction."

There was yet another brief moment of silence, both of them standing there shocked.

"We need to tell Caitlin," Barry stated, both of them leaving the control centre, heading back down through the ring and returning to the elevator, back down to the docking area.

The incredible view that appeared again was slightly taken away from now they knew what was likely to happen. The time spent in the elevator seemed to go much quicker this time around, both of them having sat in silence the entire time, before getting up and leaving the elevator as it arrived, to see Caitlin already stood there, her space suit off, simply wearing casual clothes.

"Hey you two, I checked the systems, there were a few major problems but they had a fairly simple fix, everything should be okay for the next few weeks at the least."

Hearing this, they both removed their suits, all things considered, they were just a major annoyance at this point, just a bunch of extra weight to carry around.

"Caitlin, we have something we need to tell you," Barry said, a hint of fear present in his voice.

"What is it?" she replied, sounding slightly concerned.

"In short, we are currently on course for a collision with the Earth. An asteroid damaged the engine, and the worst part is, the impact of this station with the Earth is enough to cause global extinction."

"Oh god..." Caitlin stuttered, putting her things down and standing up, looking shocked, as expected.

"Is there any way we can fix this?" Barry asked, quite worried about the circumstance.

"I don't know, I will go and check though. You two stay here, I'll go and find out," he said, walking back to the elevator, leaving the pair sat there.

"Come with me, I know a place we can stay," Caitlin said, walking through the opposite door Cisco had, Barry following. They emerged in what appeared to be a giant living quarters, complete with sofas, a dining table and chairs, a small kitchen, etcetera. 

"This should be more comfortable than the dock," Caitlin said, moving over to one of the chairs and sitting down, Barry following. 

"This is nice," Barry said, however not long after realising that Caitlin still had a tone of fear present in her voice, causing Barry to raise his concerns for her slightly.

"Are you doing okay?" he asked.

"Well, minus the whole everyone may die thing, I'm actually doing okay, thank you for asking," she said with a small smile, looking him in the eyes.

"By the way Barry, I know I haven't exactly been the nicest person in the world towards you, and I'm sorry about that. I have been fairly stressed throughout this whole mission, training and everything, and it's safe to say that I probably didn't give you the best chance in the world. I'm not taking back everything that I said or did, I'm just saying that maybe I'll give you another chance, you don't seem too bad," she said with a small smile, which caused Barry to do the same.

"Thank you, that means a lot," he replied. 

"Tell me, what caused you to become an astronaut?" Barry asked, in an attempt to start a conversation.

"Well, my parents were both astronauts, in fact, they were both some of the first people to land on and create a small colony on Mars. They grew plants there, built a sustainable place to live, and I always wanted to follow in their footsteps, and become an astronaut. However, on the trip back to Earth, my... my..."

She droned off for a second, a few tears appearing in her eyes.

"Caitlin, I'm sorry, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he said, feeling somewhat bad for bringing it up.

"No, it's okay. There was a fault in the ship, a fault in the engine severe enough that it would prevent any of the crew of 7 to get back to Earth. The only way to repair it was for someone to head outside the ship into the engine itself and replace the faulty part, however, it was a one-way job. Once that part was replaced, the engine would immediately turn back on and kill anyone near it. My mum sacrificed herself to do this. My dad got home successfully, but died from cancer a year later," she finished, a tear now rolling down her cheek, looking down at the floor.

"Caitlin, I'm so sorry, I really am, and if it means anything, I know how you feel, my mum died when I was 11, right in front of me." 

"I'm sorry as well," she said, looking up from the floor now.

"Do you need a hug?" Barry asked, noticing how upset she looked, feeling that some comfort may make her feel better.

"Yes please," she said quietly, Barry leaning in and wrapping his arms around her, the hug lasting a few seconds.

It wasn't long after they pulled away from that Cisco emerged into the room, a positive look on his face.

"Good news, I managed to temporarily solve the problem. I simply programmed the fuel tanks to let out a bit of gas on a regular schedule, propelling the station away from Earth slightly, counteracting the pull. However this will only last a few weeks, we don't have fuel to burn. Well, actually, that is exactly what we do with fuel, but you get the idea," he said, seeing both Barry and Caitlin's faces light up as he said it.

"That's great news," Barry smiled, standing up and walking over to him.

"It seems that that isn't the only thing that has been fixed, it seems you two are getting along now," he joked, causing Caitlin to send him a look as if to say 'shut up'.

"As we only have a few weeks to solve this problem, we should most likely get started now," Caitlin stated, wiping her face on her sleeve, walking over to the next room to do some work on how to fix this.

"Good plan, I'll go and explore the station for anything that may come in handy," Barry said afterwards, walking through another door and back towards the lift.

"And I shall go and... no one is here, stop talking to yourself," Cisco said out loud, causing Barry to turn around from the hallway, giving him a look as if to say 'well done'.

Cisco headed over to the storage facility, taking the three space suits along with him.