My first scifi short story!

Its not finished, but I've just gotten lazy about closing it off. That said the majority of the story is there, so tell me what you think!





“It's all- just a matter- of force-” he said to himself as he kicked in the rusty air grate that had been occupying the space where his foot currently was. Life in space wasn't all gravity pool and pretty moons; the amount of work required to keep even the smallest bucket of bolts running without a single leak took a legion of trained Engineers just keep it to keep it in one piece, and Kan happened to be the fortunate one assigned with to this sector of air ducts and plasma lines. It was a shame, he thought, that the prestigage of being an endoargostic engineer didn't match the quality of food aboard the USS Finite.

Throwing the rusty old grate aside, and leaning its placement against the wall, Kan began the slow crawl through the miles of ducts to the suspected location of the current leak. Of all the terribly long and _____ things that often needed fixing, crawling through ducts was actually his favorite. Once inside, the only sound made was the gentle sliding of air past him headed toward unknown quarters or the recycling unit. Everything was recycled on a spaceship, he mused, from air to piss to people. The only thing that even came close to constant was the ship itself, but even that would probably have most of its part replaced by the end of its service. Using electromagnets built into the palms of his gloves and the tips of his boot, he climbed his way forward. The computer HUD that hung over of his eyes gave him a full map of the ducts and helped keep him moving in the right direction. “Why;” he muttered aloud, “why did I have to pick this job. I could have a astrophysicist, in a nice warm room, writing holo-equations about fusion and fucking beautiful cynical woman on a soft mattress.” Instead he chose to be here, fixing things with his hand, applying knowledge instead of making knowledge.

The corner up ahead was particularly tight, and even though he wasn't a large person, he wasn't entirely a thin one either, and after a few minutes of wiggling, he managed to squeeze by it. The HUD said he was fifteen meters away from the section reporting small amounts of air loss, but the quantum computers of today never really seemed to be sure of anything despite how much they improved. Instead, Kan became quiet space, listening only to the sound of the air. He would move a meter or two, and listen. Regardless of how long he held his breath, he still couldn't hear a damn thing, despite going over the area where the leak was supposed to be three times. “Figures”, he said to the ducting, after all, when did air not sound like air, but Kan wasn't defeated so easily. In frustration he turned over on his back to think. Minutes went by, and Kan thought of his family back on earth. They were nice people, yet as far he believed there was very little that was interesting about them. His mind wandered from home he left (which he didn't miss much), to the friends he left, to the last girl he had been with. Real beauty as far he cared, with brains too, but the relationship had drifted slowly into nothing, so rather than try to draw it out by asking her to wait till he got back, he figured it was just easier to end it there. On this, he mused a while until it hit him right in the face: drifting. Of course! Since he can't see the leak, or hear the leak, why not let something drift to it for him, and he had just the item.

Bending his arm in a way he hoped not to repeat for a while, he managed to reveal a metallic tube a couple of inches long and only an inch wide. He had been saving this one for a bad day, but he couldn't think of a better solution to his thoughts and the problem. Most cigars and cigarettes for that matter were now smokeless and smell less (and in his opinion tasteless) because of all the health regulations, but Kan always managed to find someone who trade him a couple of a real cigars, and Kan not exactly being a rich man, would cut them in half and make two midget cigars for the price of one. They were hell for the air filters but he couldn't think of a better excuse to smoke one. Using his micro welder he lit one up, took a slow