Kepler Effect

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. This didn't stop Sarah Millard as she careened away from her ships hull. Spinning uncontrollably, watching on as her ship and the nearby planet passed her vision multiple times, the screaming filled her visor as she spiralled into a panic. Thoughts of death clouded her mind, she was going to die here; her lifeless body nothing more than debris to be swallowed up by the atmosphere of Kepler 69C.

"Stop it Sarah... Hold yourself together... Remember your training."

She had spent the majority of her adult life preparing for this endeavour, as one of the best fleet engineers the Earth Space Centre has ever seen, and hand-picked by none other than commander Lixian himself. If anyone could survive this, it was her, she did not go through the years of rigorous training only to fail when it mattered the most.

As she slowly calmed herself down, the echoing scream that filled her helmet was replaced with one of the many alarms built into her suit. She knew what the alert was for before glancing down at her wrist monitor to confirm it, her suits communications were down. Sarah muted the alert and steadied her nerves, she had trained for emergency EVAs and now was the time to put that training into practical use.

She felt a lurching sensation as she assumed the tether -the one thing keeping her from slipping into the endless void- reached its limit and her momentum shifted back towards the ship. For a brief moment, there was peace within her EVA suit, her screaming had ceased as she veered out over the great planet before her, it was one thing seeing it from within her vessel among her crew, but something else entirely seeing it almost in-person.

Kepler-69c dominated her vision in all its magnificence, much larger than Earth but similar in appearance. It was views like these that made the life of an astronaut such an appealing choice to Sarah since a young age, she had watched the original moon landing and colonisation of Mars countless times. When the Global Earth Committee declared a resource shortage and increased its efforts at colonising other systems, Sarah simply had to put her name down. To her surprise, she was chosen and within days she found herself at numerous space centres, meeting numerous crews, all of who had been given a mission and destination; with the sole purpose of enhancing colonisation efforts outside of the solar system. It was here she met Lixian and his crew, the rest is history.

The moment of tranquility soon passed as she realised she was moving back towards her ship, fast, too fast to be able to grab onto anything in her stubby EVA grips, which were made for their practicality not finesse. At the very least she was able to control her rotation by bundling parts of her tether which zigzagged between her and the ship. The catwalk fast-approached, it would be impossible to grab onto it at this velocity but if she could loop her tether around the railing she could slow herself down enough to-

Movement in her peripherals caught her attention, distracting her from her plan to regain control as she collided with the catwalk, her helmet bounced off the handrail and she ricocheted back out into the void. She found herself once again screaming in the vacuum of space, not from terror but from the pain of the collision. Sarah felt pain in her neck and shoulders but was otherwise in no immediate need of medical attention. The ship once again entered her vision, but something clearly wasn't right, the communications subsection was in ruin, debris scattering outwards as if violently torn free after a collision. The satellite dish that once sat at the precipice now veered off in fragments; space debris that would orbit this new world for years to come.

And Sarah found herself stranded right near the blast zone, shards of metal shot by her like bullets, there is nothing Sarah could do other than make herself small and hope the tether can reel her out of the immediate danger she now found herself in. A metal shard, no larger than a modern day phone, found purchase on poor Sarah, who screamed out in pain as the shard impaled itself in her palm, the metal protruding from the back of her hand. Luckily, the shard remained stuck firmly in her hand, leaving her EVA suit relatively airtight; the pain however was unbearable. The impact had also changed the direction of Sarah's movement, as the tether reached it's full length she once again found herself moving towards her ships hull at an awkward angle.

She felt sick, this was a complete disaster, Sarah couldn't help but stare at the mess of her hand, as she raised it up in front of her the damage of the ship also came into view. The realisation of what this impact meant for Sarah, the crew and their mission slowly sunk in. As first-wave colonists, they would have no way of communicating back with Earth until their main habitat was fully operational. Which meant this mission was now a "do-or-die" mission; they could either cut their losses and begin the long journey home, or risk it all by committing to the plan with the hopes that their communications equipment currently on the surface of the planet is fully functional.

Nevertheless, Sarah would have to survive her current ordeal to relay this back to her crew, who are probably aware of the damage but not the extent of it. Sure, their screens could warn them that the communications array is down but not that it's currently drifting away at about 15m/s, unrecoverable and damaged beyond repair. A beeping within Sarah's visor stole her attention, she glanced down at her wrist, the personal life support monitor was already open on her screen; she groaned at the bars displayed on her monitor.

During Sarah's impact with the hull of the ship, her suits contained oxygen scrubber had been damaged, which meant that CO2 within her suit was slowly building up. She felt around the back of her helmet where the unit is stored, she felt no obvious damage after the impact but her stubby grips once again didn't assist her in making an assumption. She was leaking oxygen from the damage in her EVA glove, and her oxygen scrubber wasn't performing at maximum efficiency. She had approximately 10 minutes before her suit overloaded with CO2, which would make her dizzy and slowly cause her to pass out. Not the worst way to go considering a likely alternative would involve her tether snapping and drifting off into the void.

As the tether was once again pulled taut, Sarah found herself amazed at how the material hadn't snapped under the stress. She was now approaching the ship at a much more controllable speed and rotation, all she needed to do was find a handhold, work her way back up to the main catwalk and then simply make her way to the nearest airlock. That was totally achievable in 10 minutes.

She approached the hull from a different angle, the catwalk which she had collided with earlier was now beneath her as she approached the main section of the hull, she could make out the vessel's tag SCV-1379 as she struggled to find purchase against the surface. Eventually, she managed to grab hold of one of the many sensors that lined the hull using her one good hand. She had finally managed to grab hold of something solid enough to stop her uncontrollable momentum, and it was just a short climb to the rail that lined the upper section of the vessel.

"One limb at a time..." she muttered to herself, not wanting to rush with all the adrenaline running through her system after the recent exhilaration. Each handhold she found enabled her to move herself one step closer to the EVA catwalk, where she could find relative safety and a simple walk back to the airlock. She would not fall now, she couldn't... Her crew would be so inspired by her survival of the recent events, which have no doubt come as a shock to them, and may even have them questioning their mission.

Sarah reached the top of her climb, not a difficult accomplishment as the ships were made to accommodate for emergency EVAs at all portions of the hull. But with one arm down, Sarah almost congratulated herself of the effort. She found herself standing in the middle of the catwalk; and there, not 30 paces away, was the airlock, already opened with her commander beckoning. Sarah took her first step towards the airlock, and felt a sudden rush of dizziness as the lack of oxygen began to take hold of her. The following steps were more like staggers, each step getting more and more difficult, but with the end in sight Sarah pushed on. She managed to begin a half-jog as the tragic thought of passing out so close to the finish consumed her.

Lixian had left the airlock, walking towards her in his own EVA with his hand outstretched, he was beckoning frantically at her but Sarah couldn't see his gesture clearly until it was too late. Suddenly, she was yanked backwards as the tether once again reached its limit. In her foggy state, she had completely forgotten to unhook her tether! She fell backwards, once again colliding with the catwalk and ricocheting upwards.

The last thing Sarah remembered before drifting away was the panic in her commander's face, and the snapping of the tether behind her. Kepler-69c drifted into view and she found a sense of peace watching the planet as her vision faded to black.