The thing about decompression incidents was most people weren't fast enough to properly cope. That was why they were so deadly. The time of "useful consciousness" was usually mere seconds, and that was only if you weren't banged around into something and if you actually had gravity.
And now that it was after the fact, the cold set in so fast it was almost like being hit in the face with a wall of ice at fifty miles an hour.
Space sucked. It really was pretty goddamn unforgiving.
Rich heard the noise of Donnie trying to move because of his shell clicking slightly against the floor and his vision was already clearing. He finally managed to find him in by the light of his false arm, and was horrified to see him so still, unable to even get up.
If he was coldblooded, how long did he even have in temperatures like this? Rich could at least produce his own body heat. Hell, with the Nova Force he could possibly figure out a way to warm himself up with it, if he concentrated hard enough. He could last minutes -- maybe longer. An hour or two? More? He'd never needed to keep himself warm with his powers.
But if Donnie couldn't produce much of his own heat, how quick would it take the cold to shut things down?
"I've got you," he said, draping Donnie's arm over his shoulders with his good arm. When he stood, he was so tall that he simply lifted Donnie right off the floor. "I've got you, kiddo. Hang on."
Donnie was heavier than Rich thought he'd be (probably all that shell?) and it hurt his ribs like crazy to carry him like this, but his relatively small size helped make it manageable. Without his powers, Rich couldn't exactly punch a moon but he could have probably still benched-pressed the kid.
Being fueled by a jolt of adrenaline from sheer terror over the possibility of Donnie dying made the load even easier. Nova barrelled along, running down the corridor like his butt was on fire. When he reached the locked down door at the other end -- that wouldn't respond to the buttons -- he checked through the little window to make sure no one was on the other side, and blasted his way through with his glowing Nova Force arm, knocking it right off the hinges.
This section was freezing, too, unfortunately, so he kept moving, until he reached another door -- this one actually responded to hitting the button -- and on the other side was a section with air that was only cool instead of freezing. There were even functioning emergency lights. After a quick danger assessment, Rich parked them down right on the other side of the door and focused on what was most important: warming Donnie up.
Okay, okay, biology. Did he even remember any of it from school? Cold-blooded animals didn't produce much natural heat, right? Finding blankets and whatnot to prevent heat loss wouldn't do much when he was producing barely any heat to begin with. If something was cold-blooded it relied on the ambient temperatures around it, sunning itself or finding shade. That's why there weren't many reptiles that lived in really cold climates. Plenty of ways to cool themselves but not enough external sources of heat.
So he needed to provide an external source of heat, right? Except none of the life support controls were working well enough for him to crank up a heater or heat up some water. What else did he have?
Yourself, dummy.
If he could probably apply the Nova Force to keep himself warm, he could use that and his own normal body heat to warm Donnie up.
Rich sat next to him and pulled the kid in close, draping his flesh and blood arm around Donnie's shoulders and trying to make sure as much of his arm was touching Donnie's arm as possible. It was fairly easy to scoop him up, given their size difference.
"I've got you. I'm gonna try to warm you up, okay?"
Okay, what else, what else? People lost a lot of heat through the tops of their heads, right? He pulled his helmet off and threw it to the floor, then leaned Donnie's head against the crook of his neck and rested his cheek against the top of his head. There, that'd help with that.
Now this part was the tricky bit.
He was so used to just...burning. Sure, he could use the gravimetric side of the Nova Force without setting everything alight, but when it came to the hot, fiery part of the Nova Force it was usually on or off. It burned or it didn't because it was purely gravimetric. He didn't usually need to use it to just warm things.
But his body was barely human anymore. It was just a little matrix to hold energy in it. That meant, technically, that he could exert a ton of control in how he released that energy. Hell, that's why he'd been able to do little starbusts out from his whole body instead of just shooting it out from his arms and legs. And he wasn't even at full power -- that meant less Nova Force to have to try to control.
All he had to do was just...just let a little bit of that fire slip out through the edges of himself.
He drew in a few deep breaths and let them out and focused on just letting out a tiny bit of the warmth of the wild inferno of the Nova Force. Just a teeny tiny bit. He felt his skin start to warm up -- warmer than he usually ran, enough for it to be considered a fever. Then he held up the false arm in front of Donnie and made that burn warm and bright -- without actually burning.
It radiated heat like a little space heater.
"Talk to me, Donnie. Soon as that big brain of yours starts working again, I need to hear it."
One, so he knew the kid was okay just because he needed to know, Goddammit. Two, because if he was really hurt, he had to give up on heating him up and just rush him to Medbay.
no subject
And now that it was after the fact, the cold set in so fast it was almost like being hit in the face with a wall of ice at fifty miles an hour.
Space sucked. It really was pretty goddamn unforgiving.
Rich heard the noise of Donnie trying to move because of his shell clicking slightly against the floor and his vision was already clearing. He finally managed to find him in by the light of his false arm, and was horrified to see him so still, unable to even get up.
If he was coldblooded, how long did he even have in temperatures like this? Rich could at least produce his own body heat. Hell, with the Nova Force he could possibly figure out a way to warm himself up with it, if he concentrated hard enough. He could last minutes -- maybe longer. An hour or two? More? He'd never needed to keep himself warm with his powers.
But if Donnie couldn't produce much of his own heat, how quick would it take the cold to shut things down?
"I've got you," he said, draping Donnie's arm over his shoulders with his good arm. When he stood, he was so tall that he simply lifted Donnie right off the floor. "I've got you, kiddo. Hang on."
Donnie was heavier than Rich thought he'd be (probably all that shell?) and it hurt his ribs like crazy to carry him like this, but his relatively small size helped make it manageable. Without his powers, Rich couldn't exactly punch a moon but he could have probably still benched-pressed the kid.
Being fueled by a jolt of adrenaline from sheer terror over the possibility of Donnie dying made the load even easier. Nova barrelled along, running down the corridor like his butt was on fire. When he reached the locked down door at the other end -- that wouldn't respond to the buttons -- he checked through the little window to make sure no one was on the other side, and blasted his way through with his glowing Nova Force arm, knocking it right off the hinges.
This section was freezing, too, unfortunately, so he kept moving, until he reached another door -- this one actually responded to hitting the button -- and on the other side was a section with air that was only cool instead of freezing. There were even functioning emergency lights. After a quick danger assessment, Rich parked them down right on the other side of the door and focused on what was most important: warming Donnie up.
Okay, okay, biology. Did he even remember any of it from school? Cold-blooded animals didn't produce much natural heat, right? Finding blankets and whatnot to prevent heat loss wouldn't do much when he was producing barely any heat to begin with. If something was cold-blooded it relied on the ambient temperatures around it, sunning itself or finding shade. That's why there weren't many reptiles that lived in really cold climates. Plenty of ways to cool themselves but not enough external sources of heat.
So he needed to provide an external source of heat, right? Except none of the life support controls were working well enough for him to crank up a heater or heat up some water. What else did he have?
Yourself, dummy.
If he could probably apply the Nova Force to keep himself warm, he could use that and his own normal body heat to warm Donnie up.
Rich sat next to him and pulled the kid in close, draping his flesh and blood arm around Donnie's shoulders and trying to make sure as much of his arm was touching Donnie's arm as possible. It was fairly easy to scoop him up, given their size difference.
"I've got you. I'm gonna try to warm you up, okay?"
Okay, what else, what else? People lost a lot of heat through the tops of their heads, right? He pulled his helmet off and threw it to the floor, then leaned Donnie's head against the crook of his neck and rested his cheek against the top of his head. There, that'd help with that.
Now this part was the tricky bit.
He was so used to just...burning. Sure, he could use the gravimetric side of the Nova Force without setting everything alight, but when it came to the hot, fiery part of the Nova Force it was usually on or off. It burned or it didn't because it was purely gravimetric. He didn't usually need to use it to just warm things.
But his body was barely human anymore. It was just a little matrix to hold energy in it. That meant, technically, that he could exert a ton of control in how he released that energy. Hell, that's why he'd been able to do little starbusts out from his whole body instead of just shooting it out from his arms and legs. And he wasn't even at full power -- that meant less Nova Force to have to try to control.
All he had to do was just...just let a little bit of that fire slip out through the edges of himself.
He drew in a few deep breaths and let them out and focused on just letting out a tiny bit of the warmth of the wild inferno of the Nova Force. Just a teeny tiny bit. He felt his skin start to warm up -- warmer than he usually ran, enough for it to be considered a fever. Then he held up the false arm in front of Donnie and made that burn warm and bright -- without actually burning.
It radiated heat like a little space heater.
"Talk to me, Donnie. Soon as that big brain of yours starts working again, I need to hear it."
One, so he knew the kid was okay just because he needed to know, Goddammit. Two, because if he was really hurt, he had to give up on heating him up and just rush him to Medbay.