Chapter 29 - The Airlock Moment

After breakfast, Luca buried himself in the mission brief. Today they’d deploy and calibrate the infrared satellite. Once they launched it, the thing would map the whole system, and a comms satellite would follow to extend range and send a message back to Sol. The real beginning of their mission. No pressure, right?

The launch itself was anticlimactic. The ship had a deployment chute for satellites and probes, fully automated, done in minutes. They just needed to guide the ship along a parallel trajectory to keep things lined up. Luca had expected to feel something. He felt like he’d pressed a button at a vending machine.

The next step, though, was manual and dangerous. They had to get out there, manually connect an F-Type Energy Cell, and confirm the satellite was responsive. The F-Type would power it for years, but someone had forgotten to connect it before launch.

On the command bridge, Luca stood behind Zoe’s console, arms crossed tight across his chest. Emily sat at her station behind him, monitoring the satellite’s calibration sweep.

“This should’ve been automatic,” Luca muttered. “Why wasn’t the energy cell connected pre-launch? Wasn’t that on Danny’s checklist? Or yours?”

Emily didn’t look up. “Log says it was packed. Just not connected.”

“Fucking hell,” Luca said under his breath. “So now we’re sending two people out on EVA to fix what should’ve been done in a clean room.”

Zoe spun slightly in her seat, brow raised. “Welcome to Alpha Centauri.”

Danny and Ryan were already suiting up. First time anyone on the crew had to leave the ship, and it was happening because someone couldn’t follow a checklist. One snag in the tether and they’d be drifting. One tear in a suit and they’d be dead. All because of a battery that should’ve been plugged in before it ever left the bay.

---

Joey was inspecting Danny's suit while Chris handled Ryan. Joey moved fast, checking every seal, every tether, and Luca could tell he was trying not to look worried. Danny stood stiff as a mannequin, jaw clenched, eyes fixed on the far wall. He was definitely thinking about Zoe.

"Hold still, genius," Chris muttered, yanking on Ryan's harness. "Hard to believe someone who can calculate orbital mechanics in his head forgot a four-hundred-pound battery."

"It wasn't four hundred pounds in zero-g," Ryan shot back, wincing as Chris tightened the strap. "And technically, Danny was supposed to..."

"Don't you dare," Danny called from across the room, his voice muffled by Joey's fussing. "We all signed off on that checklist."

"Yeah, well, next time maybe don't let the lovebirds handle critical systems," Chris said with a smirk.

Zoe cut in from the bridge intercom: "I can hear you, Chris."

"Good. Maybe you can keep Romeo focused this time."

Luca was pacing the bridge again. How the hell do you forget the battery for a satellite? Were they too busy making googly eyes at each other? That seemed depressingly likely.

"This is the fun part, right?" Ryan said, his voice tinny over the comms. He winced as Chris tightened a strap over what was probably a tender spot from their fight. Serves him right.

"Fun, sure," Luca muttered, watching over the video feed. "Just don't screw it up, or it's going to be a very short trip."

Zoe shot him a glare from her workstation. Not helpful, Captain. She turned back to watch Danny. "You're good, Danny. Just stick to the routine."

Out there, they'd look like they were barely moving, floating alongside the satellite. In reality, they'd be hurtling through space at thousands of miles per second. One mistake and physics would handle the rest, and physics didn't give second chances.

Luca was already running contingencies in his head. That was his job now. Especially since he knew his crew was capable of monumental fuck-ups.

---

Luca cleared his throat, drawing their attention. "Alright. Let's get this done."

Danny and Ryan were encased in their hardened EVA suits, which made them look like oversized action figures. They raised the pants to their waist, lowered the top portion from the winch, and sealed it. The airlock anteroom barely fit both of them suited up.

Once sealed, they turned on their oxygen supply and ran through their checks. Chris clipped the thick tether to Ryan's harness, tugged it twice, and stepped back.

On the bridge, Luca watched through the airlock's internal camera as the door sealed shut. Ryan smiled and waved at the camera like he was on vacation. God forbid he pass up an audience. Then they turned to face the exterior hatch, hit the button, and the air vanished. The exterior door opened to nothing but black.

Luca's stomach dropped. They were actually doing this. And if they found another way to screw it up, that conversation was going to be very short and very loud.

"You think they'll be ok?" Zoe asked from her station, her voice low as she monitored their trajectory.

Emily's hand pressed against his back. He wanted to lean into it, but he didn't. She should have caught this. As his XO, double-checking Danny's pre-launch checklist was her responsibility. He'd been buried in engineering specs because she'd told him to delegate.

"They'll be fine," Luca said. In sims, they'd nailed this. They'd also nailed putting in the battery. "They've done this before," he added, and the irony tasted like rust.

Zoe nodded and turned back to her console, fine-tuning their parallel course. Her knuckles were pale on the controls. She knew the risks as well as he did.

---

Luca and Emily monitored from the bridge while Joey tracked vitals. Joey had that look on his face, the one where his jaw went tight and his eyes got too still, full big-brother mode. Danny was out there, so Joey was barely breathing in here.

Danny and Ryan launched themselves from the airlock, kicking off into the black.

“Showoffs,” Luca muttered. Their positioning jets fired as they angled toward the satellite, and within seconds they looked impossibly small against all that nothing. Two specks in a lot of dark.

"Forty meters… thirty meters… slow down a bit… twenty meters… Danny, slow down… ten meters… you're almost there," Emily called out steadily over the intercom.

She wasn't reading the screen anymore. Her eyes had gone fixed, slightly past it, and every call came out loaded before the numbers even updated. Spacing, correction windows, velocity checks, all of it landing in the exact right second. Luca had seen Emily focused before, but this was different. This was Emily running on something that went deeper than training. She'd burned an ability; she had to have.

Luca paced behind her station. "They're moving too fast."

"They're moving fine," Emily said without looking up. "Your pacing, however, is making me seasick."

"I'm not pacing."

"You've worn a groove in the deck plating." She glanced at Zoe. "Back me up here."

Zoe kept her eyes on her console. "Captain, with all due respect, you're making me nervous, and I'm trying to keep us parallel."

"See?" Emily kept her eyes on her console, adjusting something. "Danny, you're doing great. Ignore the heavy breathing from the bridge."

"That's not... I'm not breathing heavily."

"Luca." Emily finally turned to look at him. "They've got this. Sit down before you hyperventilate."

He stared at her for a moment, and something in his expression made her pause. "You told me to stop micromanaging."

Emily's smile faltered slightly. "Luca..."

"You said I needed to trust you to handle the operational details."

"I know." Her voice was quieter now. "I fucked up. I should have caught it."

Luca watched the telemetry feeds from the viewport, arms crossed.

Zoe sat rigid at her station, switching between EVA footage and navigation. Luca didn't envy her. One bad course correction and the satellite would drift, and Danny and Ryan would get dragged into the hull, so there was absolutely no pressure on Zoe at all.

After what felt like an eternity, Ryan came through. "We're here." He was breathing hard.

"Alright," Emily replied, leaning over her console. "We're going to do this slowly and take our time. No rushing."

Danny and Ryan tethered themselves to the satellite and started installing the F-Type energy cell. They moved like they were defusing a bomb, every tool change slow and deliberate. Luca's fingers drummed against the viewport. He wanted to tell them to hurry up over the comms, but he bit it back.

Behind him, Zoe hadn't moved. He could hear her breathing, slow and measured, like she was doing Joey's four-count technique herself.

After what felt like hours, Ryan came through. "The battery's in place."

"About time," Chris said from his station. "Ryan, you looked great out there. I almost missed you."

"Chris," Joey warned, still locked on Danny's vitals.

Emily leaned forward. "Alright, hold tight while we test the connections. Don't unhook yet. And Chris? Shut up."

"Yes, ma'am."

Luca almost smiled, which was about as generous as he was prepared to get under the circumstances.

Joey broke in. "Danny, your heart rate's spiking. You need to slow your breathing down, okay? In for four, out for four."

"I'm fine, Joey," Danny's voice came back strained.

"Yeah, well, your vitals say otherwise. Do the breathing thing or I'm pulling you back in."

"You can't!"

"Watch me, little brother."

Zoe exhaled hard behind him. The satellite's systems started responding to Emily's commands, and diagnostic data scrolled across her screens. Emily's whole face changed when the results came in, that grin she got when something worked exactly the way she'd planned it.

"Looks like it's working perfectly," she said.

Then her balance slipped for half a beat, just enough to make his stomach drop.

It was small, barely a hitch in her balance, but Luca was already watching her, because he always was. He got a hand around her waist before she tipped into the console.

"You okay?"

Emily braced a hand on the station and let out a slow breath. "Yeah. Got dizzy for a second."

Luca stared at her. "From what?"

She looked up at him, mouth twitching. "Operational Clarity. It's a professional ability."

That landed half a second late. He laughed before he could stop it, sharper than he meant. "Oh, now we're doing that?"

"Apparently."

"You gave me grief about my own abilities."

Emily grinned, a little pale around the edges but still very much Emily. "And I was right. You get dramatic about it."

Thank god for small mercies.

"Hell yeah," Ryan muttered over the comms, his tone lighter now. Danny let out a small laugh, the tension in his voice finally easing.

"Great work, guys!" Emily exclaimed. "Now, make your way back to the ship. Nice and steady."

On the screen, the two figures started back, positioning jets firing in short bursts. The bridge had gone dead quiet, with no jokes, no Chris running his mouth, just the sound of consoles and everyone pretending they weren't holding their breath.

The airlock hissed closed. The indicator lights turned green. Zoe sagged back in her chair. "They're back."

Ryan's voice came through one last time: "So... who's buying the first round when we get back?"

"You are," Chris called out. "Hazard pay for making us all sweat."

"I'll drink to that," Danny said, and Luca could hear the grin in his voice.

Zoe finally allowed herself to laugh. "God, you're all idiots."

Luca exhaled. "Let's head down and meet them."

"You gonna yell at them?" Emily asked, standing and stretching.

"Probably."

"Good. They deserve it." She paused, then added quietly, "So do I."

"The checklist was my responsibility. You were buried in engineering specs because I told you to delegate." She met his eyes. "I'm sorry."

Luca stared at her. She had her head tilted, that one strand of hair falling across her face like it always did when she forgot to tuck it back, and the apology hit him hard enough to take the fight out of his jaw. The anger was still there. It just couldn't compete.

"You're making it really hard to stay mad at you," he said.

Emily gave him a small, careful smile that only showed up when she knew she was getting away with something. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Terrible thing," he said. "Absolutely terrible for ship discipline."

"Well," she said, stepping closer, "maybe we can discuss my disciplinary action later."

And just like that, the anger was gone. "Christ, Emily. You're going to be the death of me."

"Better than a forgotten battery," she said with a grin.

Luca turned from the viewport before his face could betray him. "Come on. Let’s go give them hell."

---

The science lab was chaos and too damn loud. Danny looked like he was about to have an aneurysm, the vein on his neck popping, jaw tight, glasses shoved crooked on his face while the rest of the crew crowded around his consoles like it was a sporting event.

“Would you people stop breathing on my screens?” he muttered, swatting at Ryan’s hand as it hovered near one of the displays.

Ryan pulled back, grinning. “Relax, man. I’m not touching anything. Yet.”

Luca leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed. He didn’t need to be in the lab, but there was no way he’d miss this. The first scan data from their satellite was coming through, and everyone wanted to see what Alpha Centauri actually looked like up close.

Numbers began to flicker across the screen.