garrattj

Five-Minute fiction - 23:16-23:21

The heavy plasteel door hissed open and stuck.

Great. Just what I need another problem to fix, Severin Talia said. He spent a moment considering the gap in the door but thought better of trying to squeeze through it. Hed seen too many films about spaceships to push his luck. He toggled the switch by the door. Up, down, up, down, but the door remained steadfastly stuck. What? Why arent you working?

Youre the engineer, a voice said from behind him in the corridor. Why dont you engineer a solution, the voice continued evidently satisfied with its word play.

Talia turned around to see one of the pilots, though he wasnt sure which one, floating. He found the phenomenon disturbing, or at least he hadnt gotten used to the idea of weightlessness. The majority of the ship was in zero-g but elements, and the majority of the floor-gratings were possessed of some limited gravity, or other forces that simulate the effect. Magnetics for example were used to simulate gravity in the corridors. But the pilots seemed to steadfastly refuse to allow themselves to