Chapter 4: Galactic

2 0 0
                                    

One day John was in the bathroom washing his hands but the water in the sink was cold even dough the lever was turned right. Curious, he pulled the lever off and saw that the pipe for the warm water was dislodged and that the warm water was leaking. The supporter, for the warm water pipe, attached to the wall was broken. John ripped a piece of his sleeve and tied the pipe to the part of the supporter that was still attached to the wall. He tried to attach the pipe back to the lever part and while he was doing that, he cut his hand and it started bleeding.

"Ouch!" John said, took one of the towels and pressed it against the wound, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. A few moments later the door to his room opened, he stepped out of the bathroom and saw the medical machine come in. "Oh no! I had a deal with the godeer that you won't pester me again." John said.

"I am here to help. You have injured yourself. I have come to help you." The machine said.

"I'm fine, It's just a scratch. I don't need your help." John said angrily as blood dripped on the floor.

"I can see you are losing blood. An injury like that can become infected. I am here to stop the blood and disinfect the wound." The machine said.

"But o injections this time. Understand?" John said.

"No injections." The machine said and came closer to John. It removed the towel and cleaned the wound with gauze. It sprayed it with a white spray that turned into foam and the bleeding stopped. It removed the wound and continued to disinfect the wound. While it was doing that, John saw a dent on its left side and some wires sticking out.

"Is the damage on your left side from me kicking you?" John asked.

"Yes." The machine said.

"So why didn't they fix you?" John asked confused.

"I am scheduled for maintenance in three days and seven hours. There are machines that are more damaged than me." The machine replied. "I have cleaned your wound."

"Then let me fix you. It's my fault you are damaged." John said.

"I am scheduled for maintenance..." The machine started to say but was interrupted by John.

"Yeah, I know. But you fixed me, let me fix you. Open the panel on your left." John said and the machine opened the panel.

The damage wasn't severe, there were some loose wires and a bent plate. John looked at the wires and matched them to the corresponding ports. He took out the bent plate, put it on the floor and hit it with his shoo until it was straight. Happy with its shape he put the plate back in place and closed the panel. "So, did I fix the..." John started to say but something about this situation triggered a memory.

He was in a situation like this, fixing a machine on a ship. Yes, he remembered, he was an engineer. He was fixing a machine on a human ship on its way to one of the planets to help the enslaved aliens. As he was fixing the machine, an evacuation alarm activated. Al the people on the ship rushed to the escape pods and he followed. John got in one of them and launched immediately. As the pod was living the ship, he saw an alien ship ten times bigger than any ship they had in their fleet coming closer to the colony ship. It fired some kind of bright light towards the colony ship and the explosion destroyed the ship and the pods close to the ship. The explosion impact pushed the other pods. Like his, in different directions. The last thing he remembered was the low oxygen warning. That's when the pod probably put him into cryosleep.

"Are you alright?" The machine said.

"Yes. I need to go." John said.

"But I didn't bandage your wound." The machine said but John already left the room.

Time flies by when you're sleepingWhere stories live. Discover now