Free The Horicon Experience by Jim Laughter Page B

are working together as a team , George thought as he reflected on all this. Man against an indifferent universe! That’s the real challenge!
    ∞∞∞
    The laws of physics never change. Molecular structure responds to the forces of nature today just as it did eons ago. A fraction of a degree change in temperature and a harmonic vibration due to gravitational differences combine to cause two adjoining molecular surfaces to change their alignment half a micron. Electrons captive in their valence orbiting for countless centuries are free to continue an interrupted game of sub-atomic billiards as inductive energy courses through long-unused conduits. Instantly an inorganic thought takes form.
    WHERE AM I? it asked itself as countless circuits start to come on line. Power cascades through them and ancient logic pathways realign themselves. A self-diagnostic program checks the conditions of its internal pathways and notes minor damage in some areas, more serious damage in others. In nanoseconds, repair procedures initiate, creating new pathways around damaged or inoperative parts. Its internal harmony re-established, other programs take over, checking the relationship of the unit with its peripheral equipment.
    Disconcertedly, it finds itself severed from its subordinate extensions. A search routine provides no answers, only that the unit is in a foreign environment. Activating circuits and sensory apparatus originally meant only to aid its strangely absent organic attendants, the unit tentatively starts to explore the world around it.
    ∞∞∞
    The hatch opened and Akir Asmed pulled himself out of the airlock into space. As the tether line played out, Akir twisted himself around so he could get a quick overview of the starboard side of Starduster.
    “Looks good on this side,” Akir reported as his line slowly came to the end of the reel. A touch of his thruster pack control arrested his movement scant feet before the line went taut. He didn’t want his own mass, no matter how little, to cause the damaged scout ship to drift in reaction.
    “Understood,” George replied over the intercom from inside where he monitored ship systems. Out of deference to the inspection, even the interior gravity had shut down, leaving George held down by the restraining straps of the chair he sat in. Like Akir, if he needed to move about, George would depend on the magnetic boots he wore. Activation only took the flip of a switch on the front of his pressure suit.
    Akir thumbed the thruster control on the extra-vehicular excursion pack, EVEP. He held the joystick controls in both hands, steering himself by forced thrust toward the rear of the ship. The port tank was located under the ship, just forward of the aft port panels.
    Before Akir even reached the tank, he could see the problem – a rupture in the port tank. Water and sewage that was stored as heat sinks spilled from the tank into open space. Fortunately, the cosmic drift directed the spill way from Akir. He certainly did not want the waste material to immerse him.
    Akir drew as close as he could to the rupture. The closer he got, the more damage became apparent to him. He noticed right away a four-inch split running the length of the tank. Worse were several cracks that started at the leading edge of the tank and ran up into the mainframe and superstructure of the ship. This is bad , he thought.
    The headset in Akir’s helmet crackled with static for a moment, and then George’s voice filled his head. “Akir? You copy?”
    Akir keyed the remote mic button on the EVEP control handle. “We’ve got a problem, George.”
    “Give it to me straight.”
    “Yes sir,” Akir answered. “The port tank has suffered a serious rupture that runs the entire length of the tank. We’re spilling water and sewage into space.”
    “That it?” George asked.
    “No sir. I can also see stress fractures that extend up into the mainframe and superstructure, but I can’t tell how deep they