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Part 15 - Patrick Van Oosterwijck

A project log for A sci-fi adventure by hackaday.io

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patrick-van-oosterwijckPatrick Van Oosterwijck 07/26/2016 at 18:000 Comments

Kenta woke up with a start. Where was she? She was laying on a hard surface. It was dark and she felt horrible. Her lips were dry and she was incredibly thirsty. Then it started to come back. The attack on the habitat. Her escape, running for her life through the dust storm, for hours. Or days? She still didn't know how exactly she had managed to make her way to the old hauler, but she had somehow done it.

She got up to a crouch and felt her way around. She found her face mask, laying on the floor. The only thing she had been able to bring with her. A good thing too—she would never have made it through the storm without the mask's air filter. Her body ached all over. She noticed the wind blowing outside, but it seemed calmer now. The storm was settling down. Feeling along the bulkhead, she found the lighting control and activated it. A dim glow lit up the hallway, the main hatch to one side. In the other direction, the hallway led into several cramped service compartments that provided maintenance access to the ship's systems.

“Now what?” she thought. “It's not as if I can survive in here for long.” But first things first. Getting water was top priority. Was there any water in this old bucket that was never intended for human habitation in the first place? When she had come here before, she had always brought what she needed with her. She started checking the cabinets along the wall. No water in sight. Plenty of tools though. And a scanner! An old model, and the power cell was drained. She checked some of the other power tools and found one with a compatible cell. After swapping them, the scanner powered up.

She started to form a plan. Hab-4 was another 15 clicks north-east of the hauler. There would be years worth of supplies in its stores. She had never been there, but the scanner could help her find it. She'd never make it without water though! She was already dehydrated, the trip would be too much. She slumped against the bulkhead and closed her eyes. “C'mon, not the time to give up now”, she berated herself. “There must be something I can do. But I'm running out of time fast.”

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