There was a pause.

“Carly, your monitor says your helmet isn’t locked properly.”

There was a tremor in Alessicka’s voice. She hated arguing with Carly, but Jen knew her too well to think she would overlook any problem she found, no matter how minor. It was both a blessing and a curse; they were sometimes stuck in the airlock for an hour or more as she troubleshot problems… but at least Jen knew she wasn’t going to be sent out in substandard conditions.

Jen’s partner didn’t share her view. Carly let out a string of curses and kicked at the airlock doors. “We’ve been over this before. A half dozen times. It’s a problem in the feedback or whatever. I promise you, the helmet is locked.”

Alessicka stared at the readings on the screen. Jen could see sweat beading on her face as she braced herself. “I’d like to run some diagnostics on… on… it.” She trailed off at the murderous look on Carly’s face.

“I swear, Lessi, you delay this patrol for another minute, and I’ll murder you in your sleep tonight.”

Alessicka’s face blanched, and Jen decided it was time to intervene. “That’s enough, Carly. Don’t make jokes like that.”

“Who said I was joking?”

Jen held up a hand to quiet her partner then turned to the woman behind the console. “Lessi, I’m going to override you this time. We’ve checked out the helmet before, and you said it was probably a feedback glitch. Besides, it’s been months since we’ve seen anything more exciting than sludge. I doubt Carly’s going to need to test her helmet’s seal today.”

Alessicka gave a small nod and began pressing buttons on the console. “Prepare for gate unlock in twenty seconds.”

“Finally,” Carly groaned.

Jen stepped up to join her partner beside the door. They each took one of the stingers from the rack bolted to the wall and turned them on. Stingers were their main weapon against what lived outside the station. They looked like rifles with extended barrels, but the tip was shaped into a large metal needle. The idea was to push the needle into any unwanted creatures they found on their moon and pull the trigger. The stingers released a shot of neurotoxins directly into the lifeform’s body, killing it within seconds.

That was one of their jobs on Station 331: keep the moon clean of hostile beings that came off comets or space debris. Some of the newer stations got more exciting infestations of aggressive creatures like parydonas and crawling Helens and had to call for backup from their ward planets, but even though Station 331 was on a remote moon near the edge of the system, the staff rarely had to deal with anything worse than poppers and sludge.

“External gate unlocking,” Alessicka said through the helmet, and the metal doors in front of them hissed and parted.

“Yes,” Carly moaned as she sprinted as quickly as her bulky suit would allow onto the surface of the moon. She took three steps then kicked the powdery ground, sending herself flying nearly ten feet into the air before gliding down to land in a billow of red dust. Jen followed at a slower pace, enjoying the sensation of weightlessness from the lower gravity outside the station.