Work Text:
"Station Fran, radio check."
"Fran Station, good check, channel 109."
"Station Fran, 109."
"Fran 109 checking in"
"109 Fran check in complete, ready when you are."
Fran gave the dials a thorough look before stuffing the radio in her flight suit. She went once again over the fit and the basic settings and connections, double-checking her list to make sure everything was as it should.
"Done with flight suit checks, how's everything on your side?"
An old man was working on a spacesuit near her. It was white, bulky and heavy, and was anchored to the wall, with cables and pipes connected to it all around its front panel, a large rack of test equipment to its side.
"It's fine. Stop being so anal about everything."
"Being anal about everything is the difference between routine and shit blowing up. You better not have skipped anything on that list."
"I haven't! God damn woman, I have been doing this almost as long as you have been alive, give me a break."
"No. Tell me when you are done, and I'll go over the list myself just in case."
"It's your time, do whatever you want."
They both continued working, him checking every system in the suit, her going through the spacewalk briefing one last time, sorting he reference cards, mentally preparing and going through the motions. It would only take one hour and six minutes. She had done much worse excursions before.
"EVA suit ready, hop in and we can get this over with."
"Give me the list, I'll double check."
"Fucks sake. Here it is", the man said dropping a ring binder on the floor near the suit. "Knock yourself out."
He sat down on a bench, reading from a book and ignoring her completely. She knew she was difficult to deal with and that her crewmates were very casual about workplace safety after years or decades of routine work, but one could never drop their guard. That's when accidents happened.
She took the binder from the ground and went through the list, item by item. When she was satisfied and sure that everything was as it should be, she left the binder in its place, secured all the test equipment, and climbed into the suit through the top. She barely managed to squeeze in, feeling methodically if every part of her body was in a comfortable position once inside. She looked at the check list in a sturdy spiral notebook on the outer sleeve and connected the radio, cooling and other systems on her flight suit to it.
"Come here and help me with the helmet you lazy bum."
The man left the book in the bench and got close to the suit, groaning. He looked annoyed but worked methodically, lowering the helmet over the suit, latching it down, then double-checking the security seals. He grabbed his radio and gave Fran the OK. She insisted on a double check.
"This is why people hate working with you Fran. What's the point of having a fucking checklist if you don't trust people to follow it?"
"I just need to check it myself! Just hold it in front of me, I can follow it from inside."
"No. Fuck that. Checklist C for the suit to disconnect you from all this crap, then you can fuck off to space. You can bitch as much as you want from there."
He hanged his radio back on his belt, and worked through the checklist, disconnecting cables and hanging them in their spot on the wall. Once the were all disconnected, he returned the checklist to its place.
"Checklist C complete, signal ready."
She sighed. It would have to do.
"Fran ready."
She wanted to follow that checklist herself, but procedure was procedure. Maybe he had a point.
The man disconnected the flagged pins securing the suit's arms in place and showed them to Fran, leaving them in a small locker on the wall. She moved the big, clunky arms of the suit slowly, showing that she had a good range of motion. She repeated the process with her fingers, and gave the man a thumbs up. He replied in kind, then turned around, took his book from the bench and walked out of the room, locking the door behind him. The white light turned red, and everything stood still.
"Standing by for decompression, EVA bay C."
"Decompressing."
A hiss filled the room, fainter with every minute that passed. Fran kept an eye on the suit's data to make sure there were no leaks. It took a while for the room to reach the outside pressure. Everything was quiet, except the background hum of the station, transmitted through the suit anchors.
"Standby for release."
Fran heard a hiss through her suit and felt a slight give. The red lighting on the room reduced its intensity, and a green line on the floor and ceiling, leading from the suit to the outer door shone brightly. She tried to step forward, magnetic soles ungluing themselves from the floor and coming down with a clanking sound in front of her. She walked on the floor until she was in front of the airlock door, and went through everything again on her head.
"Fran ready for EVA."
"Opening airlock. Standing by for updates. Have fun out there."
The door opened, and she faced the infinity of the universe. That airlock was on the outer side of the station, and nothing else was visible through it. This was her favourite part. She jumped into the void, disabling the magnetic soles in the suit, floating away into space, tumbling around, the space station and the stars circling around her. Working in space was tedious and things took a long time to prepare, but the feeling of falling but staying perfectly still in silence surrounded by nothing more than compensated for it.
She eventually stabilized her suit and moved towards the station, checking her cards and making sure she was going towards the right panel. She allowed herself no mistakes, space was serious business. The suit rumbled slowly. She didn't worry about it, and kept going, reaching the panel on the exterior wall of the station. It had a big dent on it.
"I'm at panel 80781, there's a big dent here."
"Panel is correct, go ahead."
She opened the panel. Inside there were a few modules, some broken by the impact. One of them looked burned, and there was a thick coat of carbon residue around it. She examined the entire cabinet, module by module, methodically looking at every indicator light and every nook and cranny. No mistakes allowed.
"Module 3 burned, Modules 4, 5, 8 and 15 inop. Rest is green."
"Roger, 3, 4, 5, 8, 15. Standby."
She waited for the radio. The rumbling increased frequency slightly. She was not sure the suit was supposed to do that.
"EVA suit rumbling, how's telemetry?"
"All nominal, keep an eye on it. Replacement modules stored in compartment 79333."
"Roger 79333, on my way."
She pushed herself away from the station and floated to the compartment where the spare parts were. It wasn't nearby, but that meant she had extra time to enjoy the views. She was definitely noticing the rumbling by the time she got there, though she wasn't able to pin it down to any part of the suit.
"The suit is definitely rumbling, something's wrong."
"Everything looks good from here, is it a problem?"
"No I can keep going. Keep an eye on telemetry."
"Wilco."
She took a foldable box from inside the storage unit and loaded it with the modules she needed. She double checked that everything was there, then sealed the box, attached it to her suit, and closed the compartment.
"Modules 3 4 5 8 15 loaded.
"That's all of them."
She bounced off the surface of the station and flew back in the direction of the damaged panel. She noticed the suit's rumbling getting stronger. There was definitely something wrong with it.
"Suit's rumbling a lot now. I'm going back to the airlock."
"Negative, stay on task."
She'd swear she had heard laughing in the background, but she discarded the idea. It was probably her nerves about screwing things up. She didn't want to mess up in front of others. And if all the data was OK, she could be professional enough to put up with a minor annoyance until she was done.
By the time she reached the panel, the anomaly in her suit had started getting to her. She focused on what she was doing, looking forward to being done with that entire thing. With the box stuck to the panel door, she started swapping the broken panels with the new ones. She looked at her watch. She should be able to wrap things up in no more than 28 minutes. She took her time on the burnt module, looking all over the place for extra things that could have been damaged.
She was focused on one small part of the blackened module, when the suit buzzed for a moment, almost making her lose control of the part he was holding. Her heart rate spiked for a moment and she looked down, trying to see if something was wrong. He couldn't see anything from inside the suit. The rumbling continued, and she made sure the the part was clipped, just in case.
"The suit just buzzed, check telemetry. Something's wrong."
"Standby."
The suit buzzed again. She let the part go, startled. She was starting to get very nervous.
"Another buzz, something's going on."
"We see nothing in the telemetry, describe."
"Background rumbling coming from the systems pack, two short buzzes from the lower side of the suit just a moment ago."
"Understood, let us know if there are signs of malfunction. Try to get the job done."
She could get the job done. She would. That was why she was there. But she had never even heard of a suit doing something like that before. Continuing was a risky move.
She pulled the part towards her, trying to focus over the rumbling and occasional buzzing. She managed to finish the job after a few minutes. She could deal with distractions. No big deal. Everything should be wrapped up in 13 minutes or so.
"Panel 80781 repaired, systems check."
"Roger, stand by. It'll take a moment, enjoy the views."
"The suit may be malfunctioning, what do you mean enjoy the views? Please be serious and get it done."
"The suit's fine, you just need to relax. Here, we'll help you."
It started buzzing periodically, intensity fluctuating in a sine pattern. The suit was tight around her ankles, wrists and hips, and she could clarely feel the vibrations there. It took her a moment to understand what was going on.
"It was you fucks all this time? What the hell have you done to my suit?!"
"Calm down Fran, you need to relax. You are too stressed. Enjoy the view and don't come back until you've taken the stick out of your ass."
She could hear laughing and snickering clearly in the background now. The voice cackled before cutting the transmission. That was dangerous and inappropriate! What were they thinking?
"Someone's getting fired when I get back. Check panel 80781."
"Sure Fran, already on it."
The pattern changed, to on/off, alternating intensity and frequency over time. Fran started to realise how tight the suit was around her crotch. The inner suspenders were pressing her against the vibrating hub. It was pretty nice, actually. She had something in her cabin that felt similar. No Fran, focus. Focus on the job.
She tried to ignore it, turning around and looking at the stars. This was just a refueling and transfer station, so there was nothing anywhere near them. Just a million pale dots in the distance. Just her, in the vacuum of space, alone with the stars. And that stupid buzzing that never stopped.
She looked at the stars for a long time, losing herself in the beauty of the universe and the pleasure of solitude. The gentle massaging of the suit helped.
Maybe she would be able to adjust it. Just a little bit. She brought her hand against her groin, and felt the vibrations clearly. She could not pull much, and pushing only made things more intense. There was no escaping it, but rather than feeling trapped and anxious she remained calm. It was a prank, after all. Her crewmates may be jerks, but they wouldn't intentionally endanger her or the station. And it wasn't an unfamiliar sensation, so there wasn't any unknown to be afraid of.
It felt good, to be honest. And she wasn't fixing or replacing the modules, or doing a critical safety check. Maybe her crewmates were right, there's nothing wrong with relaxing once in a while. She continued looking at the distant stars, trying to relax. She was mad at them, but the vibrations all over the suit were starting to take over.
She closed her eyes. It was just a prank. Bad taste but not even unpleasant, really. And she had nothing to do while they ran the checks, so nothing wrong with trying to enjoy it. She would definitely not be unprofessional if she enjoyed it. She could even adjust her position slightly to make it even better. It reminded her to that strange vibrating chair she tried one time in that weird planet she was stationed in. She pressed slightly against it, letting the different patterns of frequency and amplitude get to her.
She was keeping her eyes closed hard and her mouth open, watching the wave of pleasure grow and come menacingly towards her. If she had any objections to that experience before, they had already vanished, as if they had never been there. She felt her tension and pleasure grow, until the suit started vibrating with maximum intensity. She came, mouth wide open but not emitting a sound, and tensed inside her suit. The rumbling and the buzzing didn't stop, gradually decreasing its attacks on her.
Fran breathed deeply. She would never admit it to her crewmates, but she did need that. She had fantasized about it before and it was just a silly prank. No need to be upset. She calmed herself, still feeling the aftermath of the recent orgasm, and got ready to ask for an update. She was at work, after all.
Before she could speak, the suit started vibrating at maximum intensity again. Her breath escaped her and she buckled forward as much as she could, almost hitting her face against the helmet. The pleasure she had felt that was already fading away came rushing back to her, more intensely than before. It was overwhelming, and soon there was nothing else in her head. She was floating in space, hearing nothing but her heavy breathing and the buzzing of the suit, the sensation of falling in weightlessness never fully going away. Fran came again, more intensely than ever before in her life, not bothering to hold back her screaming.
This time the vibrations didn't stop. She could try to keep her privates further away from the suit, but the teasing just made things worse. She squirmed inside the it, trying to find a way of making it stop so she could collect herself, but there was no escaping it. It just teased her as she got further and closer, eventually pressing it hard against her, reaching another orgasm.
She started wondering how to stop it, struggling through the pleasure, when something hit him in the back, hard. She opened her eyes, the endless sea of stars still in front of her, and tried to move the suit around. She was almost stuck to the wall of the station, near where the panel she had fixed was. It took some thrust from the suit to separate, eyes focused on the panel, making sure she hadn't damaged anything, thinking as hard and as fast as she could through the pleasure she was feeling. She must have hit a control in the suit and flown backwards into the station.
"Station Fran, accidentally hit side panel. What's the status."
She waited for a moment, trying not to think about the vibrating suit. Work was more important. She waited some more, but received no reply.
"Station Fran, that was funny but stop the vibrations please, this is important. What's the status."
No reply. The buzzing continued. The sound was starting to get to her, but with the constant stimulation it was hard to give it much thought. She had to work hard to come up with the right words and maintain a coherent thought process.
She flew back from the panel to have a better view of the area. Then she noticed it, a bright light behind that section of the station, something flying away from view. She navigated further away, trying to move so that the section she had hit didn't block her view. The station was now in full view. Or rather, what remained of it. It had broken in thousands of parts, air and gases venting to space in white jets, shards, parts and entire chunks of the station flying in every direction, explosions lighting up the insides, then quickly disappearing once the air in the compartments escaped out into the void. Panic and training briefly overruled pleasure, and she was able to ignore the buzzing for a little while.
"Station Fran, anyone in this frequency, please respond."
No reply. She didn't waste time and activated her emergency beacon, sending a distress signal across space. The FTL communications relay hadn't exploded, so there was a decent chance someone would receive that. All she had to do now is find a place to stay. There was not a single undamaged station module, and the emergency capsules had seemingly been thrown away or damaged by whatever had happened. The panic surge was starting to fade, and the vibrations were noticeable once again, hitting her harder than before. She followed the wall to a locker with emergency reserves, and anchored herself to it, connecting her suit to the big batteries and carbon scrubbers. All she could do now is wait for help to arrive. Just her, a chunk of the station that had hit her, and the stupid buzzing.
Worst thing was, her body would not stop reacting to it. She didn't exactly feel like having another orgasm at the moment, but her body didn't care. The stimulation was there and the reaction was automatic. She could smell it inside the suit, hear it at all times. She could see her breath build up slightly inside the bubble on her helmet, systems struggling to remove the humidity from her sweat and fast breathing. She'd swear she could almost taste herself in the saturated air. It was all too much, and soon enough she came again, all pleasure exploding in her, this time with a hint of discomfort in her overstimulated body. It was all too much, but it didn't stop.
The rational part of her that remained struggled to stay in control. The rest gave up to the pleasure. After all she had nothing to do but wait. How long? Hours? Days? Surely there wouldn't be a problem if she enjoyed the wait?. And if help never arrived...
She closed her eyes and came again, screaming inside her suit, space silent around her. If help never came, she could think of worse ways to go.