eponymous-rose:

drleonardchurch:

things to consider: niner + carolina + jetpacks

“Look,” Niner says, and Carolina sincerely hopes it’s conversational punctuation and not a command, because her helmet is pretty firmly stuck in the floor right now. “This happens to a lot of people. Out there. Somewhere in the history of all time and space. Probably at least one.”

Carolina tries to move her left arm. The armor creaks. She’s pretty sure she hears a servo whirr. “I think I hate everything about this.”

“We’ve gotta be careful, is all I’m saying. You’re doing great.” There’s a pat on her shoulder. “Don’t try to get up. Your helmet is the only thing sealing the hull breach, you know.”

“I am,” Carolina says, “painfully aware of that fact. Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, flying us somewhere with a pressurized atmosphere?”

“Ever heard of autopilot? And hey, while we’re on the subject, shouldn’t you have learned how to use your armor’s emergency propulsion system before setting off on your first solo mission with your incredibly talented and good-looking and much-too-young-to-die pilot? Oh man, I just remembered the mission cameras.”

“You,” Carolina says, slowly and carefully, “are going to delete all record of this incident.”

“What, the recording of Project Freelancer’s finest accidentally activating her jetpack aboard the Pelican and faceplanting into the deck plating so hard she breached the hull with her helmet? That’s comedy gold, my friend.”

“Your suit’s not rated for EVA. I can space you right now just by lifting my head,” Carolina says. “Don’t think I won’t.”

Niner audibly mulls it over, clicking her tongue. Carolina huffs frustration. Her neck is getting sore. Finally, Niner says, “How’d you get through EVA training without competency testing on the propulsion system?”

“New armor? New systems? New poorly placed activation buttons? Pick one.”

Niner snorts. “You forgot to switch back from inverted controls, didn’t you?”

“Just by lifting my head,” Carolina says. “Boom. Explosive decompression.”

“You’re a real scary person, Carolina,” says Niner, her voice fading as she moves away. “I can see why you’re top of the leaderboard. Ordinarily I’d let it slide, ‘cause you’re cute, but nobody sticks her head through my bird and gets away with it.”

“That sounds. So wrong.”

“Report to me this week for four hours of mandatory remedial EVA training. With a lot of luck, we’ll maybe get you to learn which way’s up.”

“I take it back. I definitely hate everything about this.”