Chapitre 171: Mere Citizen
The sound of the wind suddenly disappeared, and the acceleration stopped. The gravity was long gone, and everyone in the cabin started floating freely in the air.
"Are we out?" was the first voice to be heard among the crowd, after all the screaming had stopped.
A loud bang was heard, and all people in the cabin were launched towards -what looked like- the ceiling. We were probably hit by another object that was caught in the air jet and was thrown off from the city into outer space.
"Silent!" I shouted. "Silence please, one moment."
Everyone went silent. Yet, there was not a complete silence. I could hear a very quiet sound from somewhere. I started moving around the cabin to figure out its location.
"Do any of you folks hear that too?" I asked.
"The pshhhh sound? I do." said a kid.
"Where is it coming from?"
"I think there." said the kid, and tried to kick against the wall to float towards where he wanted.
"Easy, kid, no rushing in zero-g." a man warned him.
The kid slowly pulled himself towards a corner.
"There is a tiny hole here." he said.
"Put your finger on it." I said, and started moving towards the location. "No, not like that, like... block it with your finger."
The kid put his finger on a tiny hole on the cabin to stop it from leaking air.
"We need to fix this hole somehow." I said. "We can't be having you sitting there and keeping your finger on the hole for hours."
People all started talking at once. I noticed an old woman try to stand out in the crowd.
"What was it? I'm not hearing you very clearly. Can we all be silent again please?"
And the voices died down, again.
"Go ahead, ma'am."
"I was just going to say that I could-"
This time, the silence was interrupted by some metallic screeching. The cabin started to shake and vibrate at varying frequencies.
"Wow." said a young woman. "I never imagined my first space trip to be like this."
The cabin was suddenly rotated about ninety degrees, disorienting a lot of people and causing one to vomit. The contents of his digestive system were now floating freely in the cabin.
"Everyone, hold tight. We might have been thrown towards a debris field." I said. It made sense after all, our cabin was not the only thing caught in the air jet.
"Do I keep my finger on the hole?" the kid asked.
"Y-yes." I said. "Keep your finger there until I say otherwise."
The noises from the outside of the cabin changed gradually, and became more familiar. This time, it was the noises from an electric motor.
"No." I said. "I think we are safe. I think somebody found us."
After about a minute of awkward silence and people dodging flying smelly vomit particles in zero-g, the first human voice from outside was heard.
"Hello, is there anybody in here?"
To that question, all passengers said 'yes' in nearly perfect unison.
"Okay, stay away from where my voice is, I'm cutting this thing open." the man replied.
I took a few steps back from the wall I was standing next to, and turned to the kid who was in charge of the hole on the corner.
"You can have your finger back now, kid. Thanks."
A bright orange dot appeared on the wall of the cabin, and it started traversing in the pattern of a rectangle, leaving a trail that gradually turned dark red. The wall was cut open by a welding torch, allowing us to board the spacecraft that rescued us.
I waited for everyone to disembark from the cabin, and got outside myself. There was a great relief due to handing over the responsibility of caring about the passengers to whoever the captain of this rescue ship was.
"I'm the last one here. Thank you." I said to the man with the welding torch. He took a step back and quickly changed his facial expression.
"Whoa- if it isn't the last president of Mars and everything..."
"I still get some recognition around here, huh..." I said and smiled. "Don't expect anything crazy from me, I am but a mere citizen - as I always was."
"Well, excuse me, I wasn't expecting to find you here of all places." he said. "Is it really fate that guides you into every single catastrophe the mankind faces? Because, at this point, I think you must have been just actively looking for trouble."
"Enough about that." I said. "Where am I?"
"You are aboard Delta Rubycon." he said. "A cruise ship that responds to the SOS calls from Fort Unity."
"Delta Rubycon?" I said. "What is this, are you a member of a 'Rubycon' fleet or something?"
"Rubycon Tourism." he answered. "Our company is not exactly popular... Did we encounter before?"
"No." I said, trying to hold back an inappropriate laugh. "No, it just seems like we crashed one of your ships inside Fort Unity."
"In the spaceport?" he asked. "Yeah, we heard about it."
"No, not in the Fort Unity spaceport." I said. "I mean you are not wrong, your ship also DID crash into the spaceport then, but after a while, we crash-landed Tau Rubycon onto the city in flames."
"Hold on a minute." he said. "You crash-landed ONTO the city inside Fort Unity? How did you even make it into the habitation section with a spaceship!?"
"Good question with a long answer." I said. "That is in the past, and we can discuss more about it later. More importantly right now, I have concerns about the future that I need to take care of."
"How can I help?"
"I need general comms. Sensor data too, if available."
"This is a passenger ship, those sorts of things are only available on the bridge." he said. "I can ask the captain, or actually... you could probably just walk in and use your title of first president of the Republic. I'm sure nobody would oppose to the presence of a 'mere citizen' on the bridge."
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone