Darkness pierced the infinite light. Every micron in view was packed with stars, yet the overwhelming sense of impending darkness remained. It lingered in the periphery, always darting away when one turned their eyes to catch it. A dark void appeared to separate the stars, but upon closer inspection, any single point of darkness always revealed a new hidden star or distant galaxy.
“Looks totally different from out here, doesn’t it?” The voice came from Odie’s left over the directional radio in his helmet. Nell lay there beside him. He couldn’t see her due to the limited view of his helmet, but he could feel a slight difference in his left shoulder seal pressure caused by her arm pressing against his.
“The holoscreens really remove all the depth and texture you get out here,” she continued, “and polarized glass isn’t much better.”
Odie turned his eyes to a digital dial on a screen inside his faceplate. The eye tracker in his mask picked up the motion and the dial began to turn. The focus in his magnifier pushed out, causing a new patch of darkness to light up with stars.
“Look there,” he said pointing at the cluster, “between AB90A and LS30C.”
He heard a faint tapping over the radio as Nell wrote something in her notebook. “Yeah, those definitely weren’t distinguishable last month,” she said, “first time seeing them without a telescope.”
One of her hands reached up into his view, pointing towards the group of stars. “Look at that cloud on the right side.”
Odie tried to focus on what she was looking at. “I don’t see anything,” he said.
“It’s very faint. Maybe in a few months we’ll be close enough for me to paint it.”
An orange light blinked to life in Odie’s helmet, followed by a beeping sound. The results from his equipment check scrolled across a reader to the right of his visor.
“Is everything working?” Nell asked.
“Yeah, the new panel is running smoothly. That’s…” Odie’s eyes darted across the report. “Forty-eight kilowatt-hours of energy generation per day. Seven tons of increased heating capacity. Heating efficiency is up 0.01%. Millions of dollars are saved. I’m a hero.”
Odie sat up on his elbow and turned his torso to face Nell. The bottom of his face shield cut off his vision, so he adjusted his posture until his helmet was at an angle which allowed him a full view of his wife. She looked like she was stuffed inside a giant marshmallow; her face was barely visible behind the eight by twelve window in her helmet.
“We really gotta order a suit that fits you,” Odie said, smiling at the sight of her forehead being the only part of her face poking up behind her visor.
“I’m fine!” She insisted, wiggling her arms in the air like a turtle flipped on its back.
“Then I guess you’ll be alright if I head back now?” Odie asked, “You can get up on your own, right?”
“Go ahead,” Nell replied, “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Alright, I need to go print out this report,” Odie said as he pushed himself up to his feet. There was about twenty pounds of added resistance due to the suit’s mag-grav which held it to the hull of the ship. Once he was up, Odie activated a switch in his helmet using his eye tracker. His tool case, which had been sitting beside him on the hull, snapped shut and detached itself from the ship. The container used magnetic pulses to rotate itself and latch onto the back of his suit.
“Bye!” He said cheerfully as he waved to Nell, “see you inside.”
He began to walk away. There was a rustling sound over the radio, then a few grunts, and then a defeated sigh.
“Can you help me?” He heard faintly.
Odie turned around. Nell hadn’t moved an inch from where she had been lying. He chuckled and held out a hand for her.
“And to think you would have left me here if I hadn’t said anything,” she said and gripped his hand. Odie pulled as she rolled over onto her knees, then he put his hands under her armpits and lifted to help alleviate the weight as she stood to her feet.
“I’m so sorry,” he said playfully, “I had already forgotten you were here. Probably would have been days before anyone would have found you. Maybe if another panel went out you’d have a chance.”
The top of her helmet came up to just under Odie’s chin. He looked down and saw her face sunken down into the helmet, barely poking up through the neck seal. The suit was made for someone who was between five-five and six feet. Nell was five feet tall. She looked like a balloon animal.
“You’re just helping me out of self-preservation,” she said with feigned irritation, “you’d be totally hopeless without me.”
“Well, maybe you’re right… or maybe I just like you. Hopefully next time they’ll have a fun sized suit available,” he said, grinning.
“Yeah, I am fun, aren’t I?” Nell said. Her notepad, which had drifted a distance away as she had been getting up, shut itself, floated back, and attached to her hip.
Odie offered his hand to her. “Do you wanna walk, or would you be up to try flying again?” he asked.
