"We should be able to still hear them, at least. And they'll be hampered by the zero G, too. It looks like they prefer bodies, right? That means we'll be more likely to come across them inside other people than floating around by themselves, and there's only so quiet they can move. So as long as we stay pretty quiet ourselves we'll --"
Several things suddenly happened in incredibly quick succession. First, a small explosion rocked another place in the section they were in. The sudden explosive decompression sucked them through a hallway junction up ahead so fast that if they'd hit the walls on the way through it, they would've been bashed to a pulp. It was only through sheer luck that they didn't knock into anything as they were sucked through the junction. The air got sucked clean out of their lungs before they could even think about making the mistake of holding it, their glitched out transuits failing to protect them.
Because the sudden pressure sucking them through lessened after the initial decompression, the zero G left them still floating in the air as they were dragged towards the hole. Then, mercifully, the hull breach emergency shielding dropped into place.
In that short moment between the shield sealing the hole and the area getting repressurized they were exposed to near-total vacuum. Pretty fortunate that people could survive vacuum if it was for a very short time, right? Fortunate but highly unpleasant. Rich felt his skin swell and his vision went black. Right as he was about to lose consciousness, air rushed into the room again as it repressurized, and he started gulping it down.
He heard the doors to the section locking down -- the computers couldn't read correctly that the breach had been fixed and started locking down the section. The gravity randomly turned on again as part of the botched self-repair process, tossing them both to the floor. Even though the section was repressurizing, they weren't in the clear. Sure, they were getting air, and they got gravity back, but because life support was so messed up, the air being pumped in wasn't heated. It was ice-cold.
Worse than ice cold. Ice was only 0 degrees Celsius. The air that was kicked out by the ship's oxygenators was usually -30 degrees Celsius before it was heated. It poured into the section unheated and the water vapor in it immediately started condensing, fogging up the air, and then flash freezing on every surface.
As soon as Rich could breathe enough to, he croaked out, "Donnie!"
His vision was still blurry -- probably from being exposed to vacuum. He'd learned about what happened to people when they were exposed to explosive decompression -- it'd come up sometimes when rescuing people. Sometimes blurry vision or blindness was a thing -- had to do with dissolved gases or something. Rich knew the blurring would go away and that he'd be able to see clearly soon enough, but right now blurry vision was yet another complication he didn't need.
"You better still be alive, kid, or I swear to God, I'm gonna murder you!" It was still dark and even forming his glowing, false arm as he knelt there wasn't enough to chase the darkness away when it was partly due to his eyes being messed up. "And, yes, I'm aware that's counterintuitive!"
Even though only seconds had passed, most of his body had already gone numb and he felt like his lungs were freezing more and more from the inside out with each breath. The only thing that felt warm was the stubby stump of his right arm, at the point of contact where Nova Force energy poured out of his body to create his false arm.
how's this for catastrophe!
Several things suddenly happened in incredibly quick succession. First, a small explosion rocked another place in the section they were in. The sudden explosive decompression sucked them through a hallway junction up ahead so fast that if they'd hit the walls on the way through it, they would've been bashed to a pulp. It was only through sheer luck that they didn't knock into anything as they were sucked through the junction. The air got sucked clean out of their lungs before they could even think about making the mistake of holding it, their glitched out transuits failing to protect them.
Because the sudden pressure sucking them through lessened after the initial decompression, the zero G left them still floating in the air as they were dragged towards the hole. Then, mercifully, the hull breach emergency shielding dropped into place.
In that short moment between the shield sealing the hole and the area getting repressurized they were exposed to near-total vacuum. Pretty fortunate that people could survive vacuum if it was for a very short time, right? Fortunate but highly unpleasant. Rich felt his skin swell and his vision went black. Right as he was about to lose consciousness, air rushed into the room again as it repressurized, and he started gulping it down.
He heard the doors to the section locking down -- the computers couldn't read correctly that the breach had been fixed and started locking down the section. The gravity randomly turned on again as part of the botched self-repair process, tossing them both to the floor. Even though the section was repressurizing, they weren't in the clear. Sure, they were getting air, and they got gravity back, but because life support was so messed up, the air being pumped in wasn't heated. It was ice-cold.
Worse than ice cold. Ice was only 0 degrees Celsius. The air that was kicked out by the ship's oxygenators was usually -30 degrees Celsius before it was heated. It poured into the section unheated and the water vapor in it immediately started condensing, fogging up the air, and then flash freezing on every surface.
As soon as Rich could breathe enough to, he croaked out, "Donnie!"
His vision was still blurry -- probably from being exposed to vacuum. He'd learned about what happened to people when they were exposed to explosive decompression -- it'd come up sometimes when rescuing people. Sometimes blurry vision or blindness was a thing -- had to do with dissolved gases or something. Rich knew the blurring would go away and that he'd be able to see clearly soon enough, but right now blurry vision was yet another complication he didn't need.
"You better still be alive, kid, or I swear to God, I'm gonna murder you!" It was still dark and even forming his glowing, false arm as he knelt there wasn't enough to chase the darkness away when it was partly due to his eyes being messed up. "And, yes, I'm aware that's counterintuitive!"
Even though only seconds had passed, most of his body had already gone numb and he felt like his lungs were freezing more and more from the inside out with each breath. The only thing that felt warm was the stubby stump of his right arm, at the point of contact where Nova Force energy poured out of his body to create his false arm.