(no subject)

[river_meimei]

Moon Base Station is, apart from certain restricted-access sectors, built for tourism. Some tourists, like Duo, are just killing time during a layover; others come here, to the cheap hotels or the expensive ones with a real-time video view of Earth, to spend their whole vacation within the base's walls.

There's a casino area somewhere not too far away, but River and Duo have opted for one of the more family-friendly bits instead. It's a shopping area, full of glittering storefronts and small food-court nooks, with an intricately tiled floor and fountains every few dozen meters. Tiny potted trees show off the station's opulence -- this is space, after all, where trees are hard to come by.

River's already found herself cotton candy somewhere.

Comments

[river_meimei]

River closes her eyes, and huffs out a hard breath into the sudden muffled wind of the last thin air rushing towards vacuum.

Ulrich, on the other hand, tries automatically to suck in a startled breath.

It doesn't really go well.

[maxwellsdemon02]

Choking on nothing, his hands slip from the grip, and he tumbles backwards through the (OPENING: 100%) door.

The vacuum hauls hard on them all, blood rising on the plastic around Duo's wrist as he reaches out toward the control box. Even trained, people don't stay conscious with direct exposure to space. They have maybe ten seconds. Duo fumbles with the button until through the sudden mist of water vapor, he can just see the panel: DOOR CLOSING.

[river_meimei]

You can't take steady breaths in a vacuum to keep your heart rate down; you can't do most of the physiological controls that slow your body's use of oxygen. (And this isn't hard vacuum, not quite yet, but it's pretty close. That air was thin to start with, and it's rushing out fast.)

DOORS CLOSING: 71%

All you can do is wait, and see who wins this race.

(River's not the best at waiting, under circumstances like these.)

[maxwellsdemon02]

Duo's eyes roll back in his head, his grip on the metal bar goes limp. It's only the zip tie on his wrist that holds him in place, now.

Good thing that isn't his arm with the bad shoulder, it might have dislocated again.

[river_meimei]

River's used to sedatives. (And, in a different way, used to a lack of sedatives; the Academy teaches you many things.)

This is different. The grey haze over your vision, the hollow pain in your lungs as you resist the urge to breath the air that's barely there, and give in and try anyway --

The feeling of slipping into unconsciousness, at least, is pretty much the same.

[maxwellsdemon02]

DOORS CLOSING: 100%

[river_meimei]

Things River and Duo do not hear: the hiss of air being pumped back into this airlock, the soft beep that signals a return to normal atmospheric pressure, and the automated announcement that the hull doors have closed.

It's not that long, though -- not that they're exactly keeping track -- before River coughs herself awake.

[maxwellsdemon02]

Duo gasps himself into consciousness moments later, and then laboriously hauls himself up so he's leaning against the wall, instead of bearing half his weight on his wrist.

Which isn't looking or feeling so good. Duo yanks out his knife and cuts the zip tie. He gives a little gasp as circulation returns.

Then he turns (almost tipping over), and drags himself over to River's side, reaching up to cut her free as well.

[river_meimei]

River lets herself drop to her knees instead of the sagging half-curl the wrist tie was holding her in. She curls her arm to her chest -- it's not seriously hurt, but the circulation got cut off for more seconds than is strictly ideal -- and, since there's nothing more that needs doing right this second, concentrates on breathing.

Oxygen is really nice right now.

[maxwellsdemon02]

Oxygen is awesome. Duo also revels in its existence for a minute, then hauls himself back over to the control box.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

[river_meimei]

River slides a flat palm (of the hand that isn't still all pins-and-needles) along the floor until it bumps against the wall, then up to the grip she was recently fastened to.

She takes one more deep breath and pulls herself up -- not exactly as gracefully as usual, though she's a lot steadier than she was a minute ago. "Deal," she says.

(Just a little scratchy. So's he.)

She slants a good-naturedly sardonic look at Duo. "The accessorizing is inferior."

[maxwellsdemon02]

Unfortunately, Duo's sense of humor seems to have fled with the oxygen, and the rest of the smugglers.

He doesn't even want to think about Ulrich.

When the airlock door opens on Milliways, he closes his eyes in relief.

[river_meimei]

River's sense of humor is unorthodox at the best of times; she may or may not have been strictly intending to make a joke.

When the bustle of a Milliways evening intrudes on the quiet of the airlock, River takes one more deep breath in. Her back straightens a little more -- River can't hide her feelings much, and she's definitely more battered (and more armed) than she started out the evening, but she can control some of her body language, at least -- and moves towards the door.