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Michael headed quickly to meet with his team to begin his work detail, his trip to the bathroom will make him wait. As he was walking he began to notice his bounce became slightly slower, his strides longer, and his effort diminished. He was moving the same speed, but not nearly exerting as much effort. He stopped and looked around, everything else seemed in place so he continued down the corridor, now the bounce was more noticeable, it was almost as if he was gently lifted while walking, but not floating. Then as he took a step, he saw his id badge float upwards as he came down. He came down hard, with a slight crushing feeling, as though he had just jumped from a five foot ledge.

He rounded the corner to meet the work detail.

‘Where’ve you been?’ Asked the work supervisor.

‘Sorry, had to use the bathroom.’

‘Right. Listen here, we have a lot of preventative maintenance to get done this shift because.’

Yellow lights began rotating and flashing, the supervisor stopped, looking up analyzing the flashing lights.

There was a loud blare on the intercom followed by a static, then a woman spoke.

‘Remain calm. Maintenance personnel please report to work details immediately. All non-maintenance personnel return to their work centers or their personal berthing immediately. Thank you.’

The three men looked at the supervisor, confused.

‘What’s that about?’ one asked.

‘I have no idea.’ The supervisor retorted checking his communication device.

‘Oh shit! We have to go. The gravity regulator for the station is malfunctioning.’ He continued checking his reports. ‘We’ve been tasked with fixing it.’

‘I don’t even know what the hell that is! I mean, we’re prisoners, not engineers!’ a worker cried.

‘This thing controls gravity and pressurization across various parts of the Outpost. If this doesn’t get fixed, we all die.’ The supervisor persisted.

The men gathered their tools and began to follow the supervisor through the ship, the yellow light still flashing.

They walked silently in a single file line, moving quickly through the empty halls, only their uneven clunks of their heavy footsteps could be heard. Michael followed directly behind the supervisor, towering over him. The supervisor had been working with Michael for at least 3 of his birthdays. The supervisor, who he believed was named Levi, was a stern and brave man. Michael had once seen him suit up and do an external Outpost walk untethered and with no other support. He did this to retrieve a welder on his team who had suffered a medical emergency during his job. The supervisor using only his hands clung onto the craft and scaled it until he reached his teammate. After pulling him to safety and returning him to the ship, Levi finished the weld.

They walked over what seemed like endless bulkhead, turning this way and that, a seemingly endless labyrinth of halls. The supervisor was looking at the numbering on the walls and muttering to himself, trying to remember his way. As the group stepped over another bulkhead they heard a loud slamming noise. The supervisor and Michael turned around. There where three men on one side of the door, on the other side of the door was the single worker who protested in the beginning of their assignment. He stood there, with a one of his tools in his hands, he had smashed the door controls causing it to be locked shut.

The supervisor scowled at him, ‘What are you doing!’ He shouted, his words muffled by the thick door.

The worker was sweating profusely, shook his head, eyes full of terror, he began to run in the opposite direction. As he ran, the group watched in disbelief. The workers steps became slower, his steps became closer together and he leaned on the wall. He stumbled a few steps putting more and more weight on the wall. He looked back to the group and began to make his way back to the door, he began drooling as he fell to the floor, crawling and groaning. His nose began to bleed and his eyes were turning red, he slowly crawled closer to the door as he began to scream. He reached out, but his arm thudded to the ground. Slowly he was pressed into the ground as blood began to ooze out of his mouth, eyes, ears, and nose, his screaming had subsided now and there were no wrinkles in his clothes. Everything was pressed to the ground and his body looked less round, the excess fabric smooth as if ironed to the ground.

‘That’s what will happen to all of us if we don’t get this fixed.’ The supervisor said as he turned away and kept moving.

The group continued towards their task, with one less person to help bare the burden.

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