Grimy cables and rusty panels comprised the floor beneath Jerrek’s feet as he made his way deeper into the bowels of the station.
“God…” whispered Jerrek, “This place reeks. If you’d told me that before asking me to come down here, I would’ve just told you to shove off.”
Through his earpiece came snickers from Jana, his fellow maintenance techie working comfortably on the upper decks. “What’s god got to do with that? You getting religion all of a sudden, buddy? Should I call a head doctor for ya?”
For a few moments, at least, the echo of Jerrek’s footfalls was drowned out by his grumbling. “It’s a figure of speech, Jan, for god’s sake. Now are you gonna keep quipping, or tell me what to look for?”
“Easy there…” Always quick to pull back after ribbing, Jana cleared her throat, “Pile of reports on Allon’s desk about power fluctuations on Deck 17. He’s too busy with scheduled maintenance for the oxygen scrubbers, and I owe him a favor -”
This is where Jerrek took over the narrative. “And now I’m down here dealing with it because I owe you a favor.”
Jana tutted through the comms. “Hey, I at least pinned down the problem before I sent you in. Disconnect should be just a bit further through the access ducts, take a left and then a right.”
Finding himself at a junction already, Jerrek took the left as instructed and continued, “So, if it’s just fluctuations, probably not a breaker trip. Frayed wiring more likely, so - Ahh, dammit.”
“Damn what? Also, more religion. Gonna start calling you god-boy if you-”
“Alright, spare me, Jan. Just…” Jerrek held his nose as he continued. “For one thing the smell just keeps getting worse, but also I’m about 70% sure I left my run of power conduit back in the shop. If this is frayed wiring, I’m not gonna have a redundancy.”
“Just take it from the junction box.”
“Jan, there’s never a run of conduit in the junction box, nobody ever bothers to replace it.”
“Then keep checking junction boxes, there’s about a billion junctions down there, surely one of them will-”
“Oh DEAR GOD just kill me now.” Taking the advised right turn had brough Jerrek to a sight that moved him from holding his nose to covering his mouth.
Jana had no idea of that, of course. “…Junction boxes aren’t gonna kill you man, you’re only gonna have to check, like… three? Maybe eleven?”
“Not… that.” As he advanced to confront the small corpse before him, Jerrek explained, “Found the problem - somehow a Fedo got down here. Looks like it opened up a lubricant duct to suck on, lube spilled on a power cable, and then it opened that up.”
“Well,” Jana mused, “You definitely need that redundancy now, and probably a radiation scrub for the whole tunnel… On the bright side, that explains the smell?”
Jerrek had a hard time seeing that as a bright side.
Author’s Note: This story is definitely pure fiction and most certainly was not derived from any real-world experiences. Additionally, special thanks to one “Mister Night” for inspiring me to make the most of my word count.