The Planet 7.3

7.3 Spirits frozen

I was heaving in my breaths; hard and deep. It was not the running but the cold. I looked at the dust on the flooring. It was not moving; I knew that dust were inert unless something moved it but in the cold room, with the cold air flow breezing in, the dusts remained there. I saw small collection of it formed into little cluster of various shapes on the flooring. It was as if it was trying to group to keep warm.

I crouched down to pick up one of the shapes; it had formed into oblong design with an opaque surface. I fitted on my right palm and then I saw it moved. It was slowly spreading out on my palm. I realized then it that my palm was warm. Even with my construct parts, I was generating heat from the body due to the running and partly to my organic circulation. It was spreading to get the warmth. I immediately brushed off the dust from my palm. It fell to the flooring and tried to reform but it stopped there.

Cold was its Achilles heel.

Or was it? I stooped to pick up some samples. It was then I felt the whirring sound of the refrigeration fans were turned off.  The darned dusts or whatever you may term it as alien, I don’t bloody well cared. It had shut the system down in the section and the coldness was slowly losing its effect but the refrigeration coldness took time to disperse. I knew then I have little time. I need to get out but besides the cold room there were nothing of its equivalent. I placed my fingers on the walls to feel for the circuitries of any system. I had to interface with the main system. If you know what you want, then it’s easier to locate. 

I found it and then it was tapping into it.

It may work. I found my way out. It was a possibility. If it was cold they fear, then I will work on that. The insulated red and blue pipes were connected to the main refrigeration unit. That will take some time to shut down. The refrigeration system uses a series newly discovered of enhanced nickel-manganese alloys for the magnetic fields which could lowered the temperature by 150 degrees in seconds. Or increase it in the same space of time. The catch was the pipes may take a longer time to change.

I thought hard and work out my plan. It will be a risky one. I found the first pipe in the wall, and yanked it out. It also helped when I have a construct right arm which gave me a sinister punch. I had the pipe with the cold air still inside which I directed towards the doorway. The decompressed cold exhaust froze the surface on the doorway. I dropped the pipe before moving forward. I took a peek passed the doorway. The cold air had covered part of the outer section. I saw the dust on the flooring but it was not enough. I had to work faster. I searched for the next pipe. The schematics were on my mind courtesy of the construct. I rushed to the nearby wall and yanked out the pipe. I directed the cold air towards the other parts in the section. The cold temperature had dropped by several degrees, but it still held an impact for my purpose.

The other dust tried to compensate; it was my assumption then, they tried to intrude on the system to speed up the process of lowering the temperature. Some of the other dusts worked on the droids. I read from the system that three of those units were on course towards me.

“Freeze….” What do you termed them; alien or some more demeaning profanities. My recent views of older vids shown me some expletives that was lost in the language translation or the darned academics have removed it from our reading. Hail the better days of free knowledge which had sadly managed by idiots.

Well, back to predicament then, or in the expletive terms, I was fucked.

I directed the cold exhaust and more dusts were falling. I moved on without hesitation and with each exposed areas I yanked out more pipes to freeze the area. It worked but the cold pressure was depleting but soon I was on the corridor towards the Main Section Area.

I made it there.

They were not there; Machete nor Nguyen. So were Duggan and Dmitri. Their gears were all there including the comms unit. No wonder they did not come to assist me. There was Machete energy blade still on the flooring.