Tatum's War

“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” Flexi repeated obediently.

Tatum started awake, disoriented by the continuous yammering of Flexi nestled next to him and the unfamiliar surroundings.

“Wake up! Wake up!”

Remembering where he was, Tatum grabbed Flexi and pushed the blinking red button. “Okay!”

He dropped Flexi to the floor, moaned, ran his hands through his hair and stood. He walked over to the table, picked up a snack and chomped it down. Next, he took a sonic shower, which he found to be quite refreshing, after Flexi had explained to him what it was and how to use it. He dressed, placed the old Flexi on the table and picked up his new synthetic one. The thin skin Flexi let the light of the room filter through it. It reminded Tatum of cloth saranwrap but with a slightly flesh color and cotton feel. He laid it on his forearm; Flexi wiggled like a worm on a hook until it wrapped itself around his forearm. A momentary squeeze later and Flexi became indistinguishable between Flexi and his arm. He ran his finger along his arm, he didn’t even feel the ridge where Flexi lay next to his skin.

“Wow.” Tatum breathed. “Flexi?”

Lights lit up and looked to be nestled under his skin. “Yes?”

“You are AWESOME!” Tatum shouted. “Will this act like a bandage and make my skin turn white?”

“This model is breathable for your skin. You won’t even know it’s here.” Flexi explained. “Completely water, fire, edge, and laser proof. Your forearm is the most protected place on your body.”

“Great! At least my arm is protected.” Tatum felt that he might need one for his head at some point. “Let’s go exploring.”

Tatum moved though the corridor, weaving in and out of passing aliens, none of which seemed to fit the description of any sci-fi movie he’d seen, until he came around a corner and bumped into a large creature that looked a lot like a Wookie. He continued on towards the core of the station, following Flexi’s directions until the hum of machines began to grow. Flexi led him to a large double door made of metal. Tatum reached out and the huge door swished back quietly revealing a large room beyond.

Large clear conduits with bright red fluid ran directly from his right and away from him into the distance until he lost sight of them. Consoles with digital readouts and blinking lights pulsed regularly around the room. To his left, where computer screens that appeared to monitor the whole operation, sat unattended. He walked forward, noticing that the air began to grow hot and heavy. He moved around several large pieces of equipment that were running numbers so fast on their screens that he had to look quickly away or be mesmerized. Once he cleared the large equipment, the source of the heat became apparent. A large sphere appeared to hover in the center of the room, like a trapped sun. Through the almost blinding light, the conduits with the red fluid attached themselves to brackets at various points along the right side of the miniature sun. From the left side, more conduits with purple fluid exited and disappeared into the distance to his left. As much as he tried, he couldn’t quite grasp the enormity of the room he was in. Fighting his way around the heat radiating from the miniature sun, he made his way to a console to his left. Once behind it, the heat diminished somewhat, and he wiped sweat away from his brow.

“Flexi, what is that?” Tatum peeked his head around the console and caught a blast of heat before pulling his face back.

“Naella plasma reactor.” Flexi said.

Tatum frowned. “Can you elaborate on that?”

“A Naella plasma reactor takes plasma from Neutron stars, processes it, and uses it to fuel the plasma conduits, which produces bio-conductivity for power.”

“That’s not exactly correct.” A soft voice commented beside him.

Tatum turned swiftly, only to be taken off guard by the incredible beauty of the alien in front of him.

Raven black hair flowed flawlessly down the side of her head ending in a ponytail tied with several colored ribbons. Almond shaped, hazel colored eyes stared at him with curiosity tinged with an ever so delicate annoyance. Her face appeared chiseled from a perfect piece of flawless marble. An inner radiance delicately illuminated her thin lips, which were slightly shaded pink, and turned up in a lopsided smile, giving the observer the impression that she had a haughty smugness. Her nose appeared long and narrow, which flared ever so lightly as her chest rose and fell with each breath. As Tatum’s gaze worked its way down to her feet, he knew intuitively he was looking at someone who would make the cover of Sports Illustrated every year.

“Uhm,” Tatum started but couldn’t find any words to follow it.

She gracefully walked up to him, took his hand, and began pressing on his forearm. Warmth seeped from her fingers, and made its way into his body and down to his groin. His faced flushed a little from her tickling touch. After a few moments, where Tatum couldn’t peel his eyes way from her face, she looked up at him, smiled, and stepped back.

“Your flexipad hadn’t been updated. I fixed it for you.” She smiled her lopsided smile again.

Tatum’s body wanted to turn to water and melt away under her gaze, but he only managed a halfhearted nod of acknowledgement.

She brushed on by him with the effortlessness of a summer breeze, stopped at the panel, fiddled with some buttons and then turned her gaze upon him again. “Would you like me to explain…

Beep!

Beep!

An alarm began to sound, as red lights flashed on. She turned back to the panel, her hands moving deftly over the controls. She studied the displays. Moments passed. She turned, grabbed his hand with a strong grip, and pulled him along.

“Come on! There’s a vacuum leak in compressor Four A.” She yelled over the din of the alarm.

Tatum let himself be dragged along, his mind still grappling with the situation of a beautiful alien holding onto his hand. She moved them along narrow passages, as she barked out orders to other aliens that she came upon. Gasses shot from several pipes, narrowly missing them.

Suddenly, she stopped at another control panel. Letting go of his hand, which made him sad, she moved her fingers over the console. Clearly not happy with what she was reading, several disgusted grunts escaped her thin lips.

“What are we doing?” Tatum finally asked.

“Did you touch anything?” She demanded.

Taken aback, Tatum shook his head vigorously. “No! We just got there before you showed up.”

Narrowing her eyes, as if weighing his words, she turned back to the control panel. Her finger flew over the controls.

“Damn!” She grabbed him again and pulled him down some more narrow corridors. “Someone missed it during the attack.” She hissed.

Completely lost in the turns and unfamiliar surroundings, Tatum hoped she wasn’t going to leave him down here. They stopped in front of a door. Several Colletidae arrived. Their multi-faceted eyes reflecting eerily in the red light.

“We’ve lost a containment field around one of the void vacuum lines on Compressor Four A. Get down to Compressor Two C and One A, make sure they are not over compensating to the point of implosion. Go!”

The Colletidae turned and ran.

She pressed a button and the door slowly opened. With each growing space between the door and its seal, a high pitched whistle grew in volume. When the door was completely open, Tatum could see three pieces of equipment inside the small room. One of the purple plasma lines came in from the wall to his right. The purple plasma color was beginning to brighten and streaks of blue were starting to swirl inside the tube. The purple plasma line appeared to run through a coil of black tubing before exiting the wall to his left. The piping that encircled the plasma line was attached to a large gray box that turned out to be the source of the whistling. She moved inside the room. Tatum made to follow but she stopped him.

“Don’t come in. If things go bad, I need you hit the green button,” She pointed to the button on the wall opposite of the door control. A clear glass cover, with a small screen scrolled unfamiliar words on it. Iyara tapped the screen and the words turned to English; break in case of decompression.

“What does this do?” Tatum stared at the button.

“If I can’t get the void compressor back on-line, you’ll need to seal the room and jettison the compressor.” She told him.

Tatum’s eyes grew wide with shock. “That will kill you?”

“Better me the than an implosion. That would destroy this whole section.” Her eyes make it clear which was better.

Before he could protest, she moved into the room. Tatum watched anxiously as she began to work on the compressor and the black tubing. Several seconds passed before a large snapping noise accompanied the breaking of one of the secondary lines. It whipped back, pinning her against the wall. Tatum moved forward but she waved him back.

“Hit the button!” She screamed over the high pitched whistling. White blood began to dribble from her mouth and the impact had broken her left arm.

Tatum hesitated.

“Now!” She yelled.

Tatum’s hand hovered over the button. Next thing he knew he was leaping into the room, grabbing onto the black tube and trying to pull it off of her.

Her eyes were blazing fires of anger and she shouted at him. “Get back out there and hit that button, Cadet!”

“Shut up and help me!” He shouted back.

He tried and tried, but he couldn’t get the tube to move.

“You can’t!” She yelled. “The vacuum of the line is pressing the tubing against the wall. You have to shut it down! Ahh!” She moaned.

“How do I shut it down?!”

She shook her head. “It would take too long. Just get out of here and jettison the compressor!”

“NO!” Tatum moved over to the console. The whistling was getting to the point of almost incapacitating him. “Flexi, full 3D. Take me through the sequence of shutting this down.”

“Roger.” Flexi said.

Flexi superimposed the likeness over the console. Sequences of colored lights began playing over the superimposed image, running Tatum though the shutdown sequence. After several heart beats, the whistling lessoned until it stopped completely. Relieved, Tatum shook his head.

“That wasn’t so bad.” He turned back to the alien.

Surprise shone brightly on her beautiful face. “What have you done?!”

Confused, he pointed to console, “I shut it down. Isn’t that what we were trying to do?”

“Idiot! I was trying to get it back on line. Shutting it down with a ruptured void line will only initiate the separation sequence!” She shouted.

Suddenly, the door slid shut and hissing sounds issued from the sides of the wall that she was trapped against. As panic began to set in, Tatum frantically looked around for an override button. “Can’t we stop it?! You just said to shut it down!”

“Not from within here!” She cried.

Tatum found wiring cable that had ripped away from the wall when the line had broken free. He pulled out as much as he could and wrapped it around her.

“What are you doing!?”

“I’m not going to have your death on my head!” He finished wrapping the wire around her waist and pulled it towards the door. “Is all this stuff going?!”

She nodded.

Upon reaching the door, the wire cable came up short. Tatum pulled and pulled, as the hissing increased. He found he could just reach a pipe next to the door with his outstretched arms if he wrapped it around his wrist. Taking a deep breath and acknowledging this probably wasn’t going to end well for either of them, he felt a deep sense of regret that he wouldn’t see his family again. Then, as the wall gave way, forcing the air to rush out of the room, causing his shoulder to dislocate while his grip began to slip from the pipe, a strange sense of calm washed over him. He peered out towards the blackness of space. The wall tumble away along with the compressor and various other items. The alien woman he had just met flapped like a flag next to the far wall, seemingly unconscious. Tatum felt sad that he wasn’t going to see Alexa’s face again.

Or MeerRhonda’s. A thought that he found odd as unconsciousness took him.