Discord Space

"Welcome to Station Luna. We hope that you enjoy your time on Equestria's first official space city. Be sure to register at one of the many kiosks provided for your convenience." The docking bay spanned at least a kilometre across, and half that high. Spaceships and planetary shuttles were going in and out like ants. The view of Equestria below struck awe into many of the young engineers as they took their first step onto the walkway. Station Luna was the crowning jewel of years of research and space development. A go between for Equestria and Luna's own city on the moon.

This was Applejack's first assignment. Her tireless work back at Sweet Apple Acres had only been a tiny fraction of what it took to claim an opportunity like this. Years of training in Canterlot under the most extreme of simulated conditions had gone into this moment. "Well golly! 'Ain't she a real beauty?" She wasn't the only pony to take a moment and admire her home through the docking bay's force-field. But she certainly felt alone in that moment of peace.

"Alright, you'll have plenty of time to get a look. Your bunks and the mess hall have a view just like this one. Let's hustle over to the introduction." Applejack was reluctant to leave the railing. But making a good impression would be vital. Big Mac, Applebloom and Granny Smith were all counting on her to do well with this new job. Keeping up with the other farms had become hard enough with all the new revolutions in food growing technology, this assignment would bring in more than enough income to keep the farm going.

Her shoulder began to itch again. The shoulder mounts allowed earth ponies and pegasi to use tools without their hooves. On her right lay the empty tool slot, and on her left, the kinesis module. It was the module itself which she concluded was causing the itching. Another faulty device that would need fixing, nothing to complain about of course. Luna had the best level of technology available brought to the station for it's opening, replacements wouldn't be difficult to get.

Scratching at her shoulder proved difficult through her RIG. It was nothing spectacular, airtight and heat resistant. Her health bar was flickering slightly, probably from the itching. Everypony's RIG had a neon display of their cutie mark on the flank, it being the easiest way to identify others without words. That seemed to be flickering too. Perhaps an energy leak in her kinesis module, that would explain the itching and the power flicker.

"Alrighty, zero g's to the second on your left. All ship specialists straight at the end of the hall. Heavy duty maintenance on the right. Everypony else, wait here for your specific assignments." Applejack watched as Loud Mouth hovered away on his own personal platform before moving to the room on the left. Zero G had ironically turned out to be where she worked best, just not outside in the vacuum of space.

A hustle 'n' bustle if there was ever one. Several ponies had already found seats by the time Applejack could get in. From the layout of the room, it seemed like that it would be a regular stop for lectures. Rather reminiscent of her days back at the CEC academy. "Whew, this looks pretty cramped. I hope that not everypony will be in here for every meeting." A seat nearby caught her eye. In that moment, she just barely escaped having to stand for the presentation.

The station's computer voice took over as images began to appear on the main screen. "Welcome to the Zero G core of Station Luna. Today, we will be covering your duty rosters, special assignments, and of course access to certain recreations available to all CEC personnel." A yawn escaped her mouth, concealed by an 'accidental' activation of her helmet. Several other ponies had their's on, so what would be the big deal in taking a bit of time to rest?

As the presentation continued, her eyes continued to droop behind the neon blue screen of her helmet. Such a cheerful and bright voice was surprisingly boring to listen to. So boring, and so sleepy…

…

"And that concludes our presentation for today. Please feel free to register at the provided kiosks and familiarise yourself with the station." The rush of ponies desperate to get going caused Applejack to stumble out of her seat. Thanks to her helmet, nopony had seen her sleeping through the whole thing. She'd gone through the manual before leaving Equestria anyway. Anything that had been said in the presentation would be easy enough to catch up on.

The lines to the kiosks however were very long, to her great disappointment. She wasn't the only pony who had worked incredibly hard to get a job on the station after all. "Goshdarnit, maybe sleeping wasn't such a good idea after all." And now that she had to stand there and wait, the matter of food made itself known in her stomach. It would be several minutes at least before she would reach the kiosk.

"Attention Station Luna. The Medical Deck is entering Stage One lockdown. All civilians are unauthorized to enter, except in case of emergency, or with the express authority of a superior officer." A lockdown? On the first day for the new engineering crew? Ideas and horror stories about early space station tests began to float through her head. All manner of rumours like sounds in the vents, and rumbling in the morgue…

"Come on Applejack. It's probably just some silly medics who busted a water pipe. Nothing to do with the Zero G team at all."

*

The mess hall was far busier than she had expected. One major flaw with her locator was the inability to inform her of long lines. The scene before her made the lines back at the kiosk look tiny. Both the original crew and the new crew had to be in there at once. But at least it was a one off occasion, there had been quite some mention of a station wide holiday.

"Hey Applejack! Over here!" Two of the ponies she had seen at the presentation were waving from one of the tables. A third tray had been laid out before them, presumably for her. Maybe they were her bunk buddies. Either way, food was food, and they seemed to be offering. "Come on! Before somepony else takes the seat!" She didn't expect to be using her skills of dodging and weaving on the station, but there she was. An echo of her rodeo days.

As she got closer, it became easier to make out the nametags. Air Head and Plasma Strike, a pegasus and a unicorn respectively. "Well, this is mighty kind of you two. So, fresh out of the CEC academy like me?" As she sat down to eat, they nodded together. "Well, since you already know my name, I'll get to what I do. I handle all the tricky stuff like explosives, stasis and radiation. Takes a steady pair of hooves as you can guess, years of apple-bucking means strong legs."

Air Head seemed very excited, his pale blue wings flapping wildly for a moment. "That's awesome, handling all those cool glowing things. I work in the environmental zone, lots of replacing water tanks and stuff like that. Plants go real crazy when there's no gravity." He turned to show his cutie mark proudly, a gust of wind wrapped in vines.

"And I handle all sorts of tools, and do resupplies for the toolboxes on the outside of the station. I even made a blowtorch that can work without an atmosphere, and a grappling hook that will stick to any surface. In case you accidentally de-magnetize your boots of course." Plasma's sense of humour didn't quite agree with Applejack. Floating off into space was one of the reasons she chose to focus on hazardous materials when choosing Zero G. Her cutie mark was an arc of plasma energy.

She had to give them credit for food choice, despite their rather childish behaviour. "Y'know, I haven't tasted food like this since I first left Sweet Apple Acres for the academy. I really appreciate you two doing this." Equestrian grown vegetables, she could taste it. Most of the civilian population had station grown food, which were alright, but weren't quite the same as home grown.

"Attention Station Luna. The Medical Deck is now in Stage Two lock-down. Access is restricted to authorized personnel only. All medical cases are to report to the auxiliary hospital on the CEC deck." Applejack's appetite vanished at that moment. What was going on down there that needed a full restriction? Again, she told herself that it wasn't anything to fret about, and again she still felt uneasy.

"Well uh, maybe we should go bunk up for now. I'm sure that it's just some busted pipes. The maintenance crew are probably down there now working on it." A busted pipe wouldn't require a total lock-down of the deck. But it was a rational explanation that didn't involve horror stories, and that was all she needed.

Carrying the trays back turned out to be a challenge. Eventually she resorted to using kinesis instead of her mouth in respect to hygiene. Several signs pointed out the dangers of space germs. Without natural gravity to prevent their growth, outbreaks were a very serious risk in any extra-Equestrian situation. Air Head followed her example, Plasma had her unicorn powers as a more convenient method of carrying the tray. The line to drop off trays was far shorter than the one to pick them up at least.

"Come on, we're in Room 472 on Level Three." Applejack and Air followed their energetic friend as she led the way to the nearest lift. "Locators are cool and all, but they don't work unless you're standing still. I prefer going by memory." Not many other ponies were leaving at that point, leaving that lift empty for them. "I get the top bunk! There's more space in the bottom bunk, so you can have that one AJ."

Applejack was still distracted by the medical deck. Nopony was saying anything about it, and why hadn't there been any announcement from Luna herself? It was her space city after all. A scuttling sound above the vent caused her to look upwards. Probably just a mouse that had sneaked aboard one of the supply shuttles, nothing to be worried about.

She felt strangely relieved as the doors opened to the crew deck. The bunks lined either side of the slowly curving corridor, following the shape of the station. Some rooms were already occupied, others were awaiting the arrival of their new tenants. Plasma continued to lead the way to 472, producing her access card from the belt of her RIG. The door slid back into the walls in a silent motion, opening up the rather economically sized room to them. The view of Equestria at least made it feel a little bigger than it really was.

"Alrighty y'all. Let's get comfortable then, it's gonna be a long day tomorrow I can tell. So who wants to shower first?" Plasma was already taking off her RIG in the bathroom. While ponies didn't normally wear anything anyway, Applejack did notice Air peeking into the bathroom from the middle bunk. "Now now, I know you two are young and eager, but you'll have time for that when things settle. I'll catch some shut eye in the meantime then."

*

"Bring it up on the left, steady now." Applejack felt sweat beginning to form on her forehead. It was only her third day on the station, and already one of the shuttles had become jammed inside the transfer chute. Both the Zero G and Ship teams were now working to free it. She in particular had the very delicate and dangerous task of removing the damaged fuel cells for repair. All eyes were on her.

But it was no use, she was too far away from the fuel cell outside the radiation danger zone. "Everypony had better back off now, I need to get closer. Get those radiation containers ready." A barely noticeable burst from her manoeuvring rockets fired. The air resistance of the pressurised chute prevented her from moving more than a few centimetres. It still brought her close enough for the radiation sensor in her suit to go off.
You can do this Applejack. Just like in the simulations, you passed those ones with flying colours remember? She licked her lips beneath the protection of her helmet. Sure, this was a really dangerous task, but radiation jobs paid pretty well. With all the extra hard work she had been putting in, this would surely earn enough to pay for her own quarters. Not that Air Head and Plasma Strike were a bother to be bunkmates with of course, but their borderline adolescent flirting had already begun to get on her nerves.

"Attention Station Luna. The Medical Deck has entered full quarantine lockdown. Nopony is authorized to enter under any circumstances. This message will repeat every hour until the quarantine has been lifted." It took a lot of willpower to prevent herself from flinching at that moment. A full quarantine lockdown, right in the middle of a highly dangerous operation? The pressure had been tripled. Without the medical deck available, everypony inside the tube would be in serious trouble if she messed this up.

"Applejack, pull back, it's too risky. If you can't get it out in the next thirty seconds, we'll have to evacuate the area and vent the tube." Thirty seconds, not too hard for an farmer-turned-engineer. Until that moment, she had fought back the urge to blink. At last, she allowed her eyes to close. They had become quite dry under the intense strain put on her. Here goes... She locked her kinesis onto the cell again, and started to pull back very slowly. With the sound of her radiation sensor in one ear, and the deathly silence of anticipation in the other…

It was done. The radioactive cell was already locked into the container when she turned her helmet off at last. It wasn't until the applause from the other ponies reached her ears that she realized it had been a success. "No big deal. Just another day in the life of an engineer. Now, let's get this ship unstuck!" She came to settle down on the entry platform, where Plasma Blast attached a plasma cutter to her shoulder mount. "Thanks Blaster. Now let's get cutting!"

Lights throughout the tube went out at that moment. "Oh shoot, we can't have a power failure now! Fluro, can you take a look at the relays? I'll head down to the power core and see what's up. The rest of you, try to get it free in the meantime. But don't move it until the lights are back." By then, Applejack had already landed back on the platform. Moving around with only suit lights could be quite dangerous.

"Now remember, just don't do anything stupid with that shuttle. You never know when something like that could come in handy, especially with the medical deck on lockdown." She made a mental note to check up on what was going on down there as she left the tube. First it was issues in the hospital, now a full quarantine and power outage?

The lift wasn't far, her locator helped to prevent bumping into any walls. It took a few moments for the emergency solar panels to kick in, minimum lighting in the corridor and power to the lift itself. "If this is all just an elaborate prank, I swear somepony's gonna have a piece of my mind." Once inside the lift itself, all she could see was the illuminated part of the wall where her mask cast it's glow.

Down lower, the power seemed to be less consistent. It took a lot of effort to force the lift doors open again with her kinesis. To make things worse, as she approached the core room her radio cut out altogether. "Goshdarnit, there's no intercom in the core. Oh well, if they have anything to say, it can wait until it's fixed." No radio, and no intercom. No way of keeping up to date with that quarantine, but it wasn't a big concern of her's. All that mattered was finding the problem with the core. "Let's get to work." She peered down the hallway one last time before closing the door, effectively cutting off all communication.

"This is an alert. Medical Deck quarantine has been breached. Non-pony life forms have been detected in the power core. Prepare for evacuation. Repeat. Non-pony life forms have been detected in the power core, prepare for evacuation."