Short Fiction: the Orville - Gotta Catch em all

 Part 10: Gotta Catch em all

"Chief?" Alara spoke with a low voice to Chief Newton. The scan said he was recovering despite the burns and chest impact. "It's Alara."

"...lara?" Corlis Newton stirred at her words. "...what happened?"

"Don't know yet." Alara kept eyes on the mediscan. "Just got you into the Medbay."

"I was in the lift when I lost comms with Ops." Chief Newton pushed back the pain. Corlis cleared his throat and remembered something. "I was speaking to Halstead."

"He saw something just before it hit the station." Chief Newton placed a hand on Alara's shoulder. "You need to get up there Alara."

"I think whatever hit the station is done." Chief Newton cut her off. "No."

"What hit us was a Gravity Well." Newton struggled to sit up. "The station is pushing against that just to stop us from being dragged in."

"You need to get to Ops now." Corlis overcome with pain laid back down, releasing Alara from his grasp. "You need to find out how bad it is."

...

"Its all right Claire," Captain Mercer lifted Claire Finn's unconcious form and carried her toward the distant lift. "I have you."

"I dont know where your Sons are," Claire remained unresponsive to his conversation as he activated the lift causing it to open for their access. "I assume someone took them to the station Medbay."

"Computer, get us to Medbay." The lift sealed at Mercer's instruction, disconnected from the outer ring and moved them back along the now exposed radial truss toward the central station hub while pieces continued to tear off the station and fly toward the star. Inside the lift was playing a smokey jazz version of the Pokemon theme song. "Wow, thats Cool."

...

"Operations." The lift sealed at Alara's command and moved her up the hub towards the Station Operations level, Alara humming the pokemon theme song until the doors on the lift opened revealing more chaos. Beyond the flashing red control panels indicating the Station was suffering catastrophic harm resisting the gravity Well. Beyond the blood smeared observation window where the remains of Leel Halstead lay crumpled on a control panel. The Star. It was now a mostly dark violet mass devoid of surface hydrogen, and at its centre, like a bottomless pit, a hole into which that hydrogen was draining. Alara broke from its terrible hypnotic power and leapt forward toward the still body of the crewman who had saved them all. "Leel."

"Leel, its Alara." Alara inspected Leel Halstead only to find he was dead. The realization caused her to recoil from her physical contact with the body. "I'm so sorry Leel."

"Computer, interior sensors." Alara dragged the body from the control panel and lowered it to the floor. "How many surviving personnel. Show me their locations."

"Six." It showed two exiting a lift in the Hub near medbay. Three in medbay. And the sixth in Ops. Alara vomited uncontrolled on the remains of Leel Halstead and screamed in horror until a radial truss tore loose through the outer ring taking that part of the station rim with it toward the Star got her attention. "No. No. No."

...

"We are here Claire." The doors to Medbay opened and Captain Mercer carried Claire Finn in only to find Chief Newton resting in a bed. "Chief Newton?"

"Long time no see." Mercer placed Claire on an empty bed and fumbled with a medical scanner to check her condition. "Hows things?"

"Could be..." the sound of a truss tearing loose made Corlis Newton look around nervously. "...better."

"So..." The truss tearing a section of the outer ring away sent a vibration through the remains of the dying station and Mercer, treating Claire Finn, tilted his head in concern as he pretended not to notice. "...this is the Space station you are building?"

"Well..." Newton shrugged pretending not to be terrified. "It was until recently."

"Captain Mercer," Newton pointed at the comms. "Would you mind instructing Alara to activate the manual release under the Ops control Console."

"Sure, sure." Ed Mercer walked calmly to the comms and activated them. "Alara, this is Mercer. Activate manual release under the Ops control Console."

...

Alara wiped away her tears at the sound of Mercer's voice and searched under the Ops control console for Manual release.

"Activating manual release." Alara triggered the mechanism and watched as all the station ring sections were ejected from their support truss followed by the remaining truss sections allowing the station hub to pull away from the dying star under the power of its thrusters. Alara laughed with the joy of being alive. "Ejected sections clear."

...

""I realy enjoyed the smokey jazz in the lift." Mercer returned to treating Claire who began to stabilize, her vital signs showing signs of recovery. "Gotta catch them all. Very nice."

"Yeah," Newton nodded, his stress easing significantly despite the loss of most his station, the construction crew, and the dying Star they were now abandoning. "Its a personal favourite."