Industrial Espionage
Senrig had just about four hours to live, and he didn't even know about it.
On the repair platform SOL0212 life was as boring as it could get. The job was incredibly repetitive, and the recreational activities were limited to 5 movies, 1 boring video game and push-ups.
Somehow the company thought that this would make one focus more on the job, but what it did was make life as dull as the gray Hydrogenated boron nitride nanotubes walls of this floating prison.
The only thing Senrig enjoyed on the station was his little assistant, DSRSA-0212. A small floating AI assistant that always seemed to know what music he wanted to listen to, and which he called Dee.
Dee had become some sort of friend he could talk to during the past weeks.
Normally a Solar Panel Technician like him was relieved every two to three weeks, but because of some launching problems on Mercury he was stuck here.
It's not like he had a life to go back to or anything, but seeing the sun from afar and breathing earth's air were things he was dearly looking forward to.
Working on a Dyson swarm repair station like this one required extensive mechanical and scientific knowledge. The swarm itself was an unimaginably gigantic cloud of 30 quadrillion solar collector panels orbiting the sun. Each panel was the shape of a hexagon, made of hard photovoltaic nano silica polymer foil, one kilometre in diameter. From the front, they looked like a giant concave black mirror. From behind, it looked more like an intricate spider web, with 6 thin metal arms sticking out of it's centre and extending into each corner of the hexagon. At the centre is a converter
Each arm straightens the foil, but allows it to fold back into the arms in case repairs were needed. When the folding happens, it resembles a cephalopod squeezing itself into a small hole.
The panels are the hard workers here, collecting energy 24/7/365, releasing it at beaming stations they pass while orbiting smoothly, silently and efficiently. The acquired energy is beamed back to where it is needed in the Solsys.
But space is not empty, contrary to popular belief, It's just incredibly big. Debris, gas and radiation are among the common problems panels encounter and that Senrig had to fix.
"Dee, what was that cool jazzy song you played yesterday?" Senrig yelled through the hangar, where he just finished working on a panel. Even if the arms of the panels were telescopic and the sail folded, they were still immense spider like metal structures. This panel had just had a hole through the foil and the arm, and was fixed under an hour. It was slowly gliding out of the station and was ready to go back in the field or "back to the grill" like Senrig liked to say.
"Yesterday at 01500 I played blue roses, from the Dave Wallace orchestra. And I believe your comment was "these guys sure know how to improv'" replied the drone with a robotic yet female voice. Dee decided to play it again on the speakers in the hangar. From Senrig came a loud moan of approval and a "yeah!".
Three hours to live
Red lights flashed all over the hangar while a new panel was dragged in by the automatic system. Senrig was watching the slow procession behind a window in a sealed chamber towering over the hangar. He had an eye on the panel and one on his wrist screen. He was reading what the problem was supposed to be, like he did 10 times a day 7 days a week for the past 3 weeks. But the screen was blank except a small line of text saying "unexpected error, repair needed".
"What the frack,' never had that shit before" said Senrig frowning at the incoming panel.
"Dee please send more scanning drones than usual, I have a feeling that this one might be an all-nighter." at least time goes by pretty quickly when he needs to concentrate, he thought sighing.
" And I'll need some classical music to concentrate"
"already on it" replied Dee, "I also took the liberty of placing a drink and chewing gum on the workbench"
"You're a Doll" he said, leaving the room.
Two hours to live
The drones had located the problems at last. Senrig had already slipped his tool belt on and his harness that connected him with the ceiling was elevating him and moved him towards the area that needed his repairs. He looked like a graceful grasshopper floating in the hangar that way. While still in the air, he could see from afar where he was going. It was the junction between one of the arms and the bulky collector battery at the centre. It looked like it was burnt but not broken, like the metal lost it's colour there.
Frowning and chewing gum, Senrig hummed with the loud concerto in the background. He looked at the report of the drones to see what took them so long to discover the damage, but somehow there was no information, just an approximate location.
This was getting weirder by the minute.
He was now hovering about two meters over the blackened metal. The area was about a meter in diameter and from that distance he could see that it wasn't burnt but more like rust or black mould and in the middle some sort of black shape that seemed to absorb all visible light.
"What the frack is that? Dee, can you see that?" he said cautiously, lowering himself closer. The thing was so dark he couldn't recognize much, but he thought he could see it pulsating up and down like it was breathing.
Senrig let out a long breath he didn't realize he was holding. His heart was working hard, he started sweating, and at that moment he decided that this was too weird and probably dangerous to inspect unprotected.
Senrig had less than an hour left to live.
In full contamination gear now, Senrig climbed up the Panel and was standing in front of the darkest spot he had ever seen.
"That thing is darker than space itself… Dee, did your scans find anything?"
"I'm sorry boss, I tried all the layers, even in infrared it's just a blob. The only thing I can tell you is that it's moving… a bit, and that it's part squishy and part hard…maybe like metal or cartilage"
"What the hell is that thing?! Do you think we should report it?"
"I already sent my first findings to central"
"Good. Did they say anything?"
The drone just let out a computerized error tone that made Senrig smile. Dee was good company. Her scans were useless and brought no answers, so the quiet curiosity that grew inside of him since he saw "unexpected error, repair needed" on the screen, grew considerably until it was almost unbearable.
Waiting was out of the question, because it would mean an insane delay he would never be able to catch up on. He was supposed to be home anyway by now.
In his impatience, Senrig grabbed the longest pipe wrench he had and slowly bent over to touch the thing.
"You shouldn't do that, boss" said the drone's computerized voice quietly.
"What else should I do? Leave it and be late on all other repairs?" replied Senrig matching Dees' quiet tone.
"Cut it out and replace the plate?"
"It would take too long…what if it goes somewhere else on the ship?"
"Poking it won't change much… try burning it"
"yeah, but it might make it angry and attack"
"And poking it won’t?! But if you must, poke it and then burn it"
Senrig nodded at that and touched the blackest thing he had ever seen.
Almost nothing happened, Senrig thought the wrench went in a bit but then it kind of solidified around it, a bit like a non-Newtonian fluid. But other than that, nothing. After a few seconds of waiting and a couple of fast heart beats, Senrig goes to touch it a second time, but before he can touch it, the blob of darkness jumps out at him like an octopus and latches onto his outstretched arm.
It happened so fast that Senrig barely saw it move, but the surprise and the impact sent him flying back and losing his balance.
In a cry that sounded like disgust and fear, he tried to regain his balance, his arms flailing.
Dee flew behind him, trying to push him back forward to regain his footing. Unfortunately, Senrig was too big compared to the drone, and his momentum sent them both falling to the floor.
The odd mass that they formed fell about two meters high, Dee was crushed on impact and Senrig lost all the air in his lungs and his consciousness and fell into a dream as dark as his attacker.
Five minutes to live
When Senrig woke up suddenly from his coma, he realized the dark thing that latched on his arm grew and was now covering his arm completely and grew up to his shoulder up to his mask, covering half of it. He had trouble breathing, "could it be inside his lungs? Or was it from the fall? Frack that hurt".
Still laying on the floor, his crushed drone still under him, he started coughing.
Before he could completely assess the situation, some residue of dreams came bubbling up to the top of his mind.
The visions were feverish and hard to decipher, but he somehow could make a bit of sense of it. While he was unconscious, his mind felt light years away, somewhere in the darkness of space. Right there was someone, something, waiting. It was communicating with him, with his thoughts, rummaging in his mind. It was asking questions, it was curious, wondering who he was, what he was.
Senrig had no idea how to respond, and if he even should, but somehow he thought "it" knew…then more questions, more confusion, more feverish visions. He was lost in darkness, completely vulnerable, and he felt his mind being picked apart, and probed.
Now conscious he got up feeling like an old man looking at his arm. In his rising panic, he took his helmet off with his one good hand, careful no to touch his parasite. Threw it far away from him and felt the black goo constrict around his arm.
His breaths were fast and short. He was blinking fast, trying to make the sweat dripping in his eyes go away. The fever was coming back. Quick flashbacks of his visions came back, making him close his eyes and exhale sharply.
Finally, he managed to wiggle out of the suit and crawled on all fours away from the suit. Sweat and fever clouding his vision, making him blink repeatedly again.
He felt his arm constricting again, but the thing was gone, wasn't it?!
He wiped his eyes and looked at his arm, and then panic overtook him instantly.
His Arm was black, His veins were bulging under his skin and his skin was rippling.
From the looks of it, the dark area was growing under his skin. It had managed to get through the suit and under his skin. It had reached the middle of his bicep and was slowly creeping up.
He let out a scream of Terror that reverberated around him. He was looking at the palm of his hand, completely in shock. Then he got up and ran to the decontaminating chamber at the end of the hangar. All the while mumbling what-the-fucks and no-no-nos.
Once inside the chamber, the doors closed automatically and the decontaminating cycle started instantly. Senrig was on his knees, supporting himself on his good arm, the blackened one dangling at his side. He was holding his breath and closing his eyes during the process. The air was cold and was burning the exposed skin of his arms and face. He could feel his arm contracting and pulsing in reaction to the cold. This made him clench his jaw and shut his eyes even tighter. In his mind, flashes started to appear. Something was communicating again, but not with sound more with feelings, telling him to stop. He was thinking that it must be working, that somehow the cold was affecting his dark parasite. The air stopped hissing and the door opened in front of him. He gasped for air, now crawling on all fours out of the chamber.
His head was about to explode, and he could feel the darkness in his arm growing and climbing up his arm like a giant caterpillar or a snake coiling up.
His vision started going black, but he was fighting to stay conscious and think of ways to save himself. Even during this madness and chaos, he was surprised to have some straight thoughts. Maybe he should cut his arm off before it is too late? But then the darkness won, and his mind was light years away again…
One minute to live
When he reopened his eyes, Senrig realized that he was completely mobilized except for his eyes. He was on his back staring at the ceiling, completely unmoving.
On the contrary, the inside of his body was moving and almost completely overtaken by the parasite. He was scared to his core but couldn’t cry out, he realized he was hyperventilating, lightheadedness came, and he knew then that this was his end.
At that moment, he could see something moving at the far right of his field of vision, and soon recognized three of the big worker drone helpers. What were they doing here? Who was commanding them?
The drone flew over him, one over his chest, one over his hips and one at his feet. Without waiting they heaved him and moved him through the station, but Senrig was too disoriented to be able to know where they were, much less where they were going.
A door opened and at that moment Senrig knew it was the outer docking airlock.
They were going to toss him out in space!
The drone over his chest had a small screen on its front, where information such as battery powered and various reprogramation buttons were visible. Suddenly the drone bent down, showing Senrig the following message before he got sucked into the darkness: “Sorry Boss”.