Humanoids like Phares and Shoval kept the interiors stable while the miners worked. That was the intention.
However, some things did not allow for that.
Like user error.
The explosion a few days ago had triggered a cascade that made the asteroids shift their positions to unstable orbits. Unstable meant collisions, which led to more explosions and more lost lives. Phares had been assigned to re-stabilize the asteroids. He’d worked hard to get them solid, and now it seemed like it had been a waste of time.
Or that the asteroid was more unstable than originally calculated.
Phares opened his mouth to object when a large explosion nearby thundered through the chamber. The two of them stumbled as the explosion knocked the asteroid’s axis off. Everything started to tilt and he fell into the wall, the bone protrusions scraping across the stone.
He winced at the scrape and glanced at his paternal to see if Shoval was unharmed.
“What in the stars was that?” Shoval asked.
Phares shook his head. “Another explosion.”
Shoval glared. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Phares looked away as he stood again.
He held out his hand to help his paternal up, but his elder brushed away the help.
Naturally.
Phares picked up his scanner and tapped a few screens. The calibrator told him what he’d suspected. A blast just outside the asteroid had thrown off the rock’s balance. “Something destabilized the asteroid’s rotation again,” he said. I can’t get a reading. Maybe it was oxygen.”
“If it was in here, we’d be dead,” Shoval said.
Phares nodded. Of that, they both agreed. “We need to get back to the main tunnel lines. Find out what exploded, so—”
Without warning, another blast hit, this one far more than the first, sending them both flying into the wall.
Phares’s perception went black. Disoriented, sounds disappeared, and a moment later, everything burst from the shift in the pressure. Air started to suck out of the space, a powerful swoosh tugging him to the far side of the chamber. Phares forced himself to control his breathing. He had to get to his breather. He had moments, seconds before all the air would be—
Then it stopped.
Phares rubbed his head.
Opened his eyes.
His paternal had managed to shove a sealer over a small segment in the rock that had cracked through to the exterior of the asteroid. The sealer covered and bonded the pressure leak, and the chamber hissed as air flowed back inside, returning the area back to a breathable atmosphere.
“And that is how it’s done,” Shoval said, strutting over to his own collection of tools.
“Quick thinking.” Phares pacified him. As he always did when his parental gloated. It kept the arrogance at bay.
Somewhat.
“Experience,” Shoval said, as he strutted around the chamber. “I know what to do when a chamber loses pressure.” He leaned in. “Do you?”
“Hope I have someone as smart as you on my team,” Phares muttered, his head throbbing from the pressure bump.
“That’s right,” Shoval said, slapping him in the chest. “By the stars, you’re not a complete fool.” He didn’t seem affected by the change in pressure.
Figured.
“No,” he said. No, he wasn’t. “Let’s get this done.”
