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~ The Synth's left hand was occupied with maintaining a firm grip to the control console's anchoring beam, while his right hand dashed across the buttons and touchpads. The ship had provided the warning of only a moment's lurch before a quarter of the wall of the engineering section was abruptly open space. There wasn't much atmosphere left, and the matters that the synth could hear were fading fast. Alarms ringing, the distinctive whine of a void reactor ramping into a feedback state, confused yells from the other crew members, and what sounded like plasma discharges from a ruptured axial conduit.

~ From the edges of his vision, he could see several crew struggling to open the damaged locker door that contained the emergency respirators. Math occurred, deep within the Synth's mind, and regret followed. A crack arced across his faceplate as the emergency netting over the gap failed and another pressure drop hit. Until he powered down the emotive displays of his eyes, there was a bright slash across the center of his field of vision. His hands remained busy with trying to shut the reactor down.

~ Through his feet, he could feel the rumble of the exterior blast doors grinding open against pressure, and sealing again without resistance. Someone had escaped. As if in balance luck and fate, the scram system to the reactor seemed jammed. The synth let go of the console, realizing the gravity had failed in this section, snatching the fire extinguisher from its nook with his feet as he turned in place. Two crew members drifted limply on the other side of the room; they'd passed out before getting to the door. Additional regret followed involuntary math.

~ The synth transferred the extinguisher to his hands as he flew across the open room, slamming the base of it against the control relay. Nothing clicked. The reactor casing was starting to glow. He tucked his toes into some struts for support, and brought the base of the fire extinguisher down upon the relay several times more, trying to shake the mechanism loose. Nothing changed. He glanced to the crew as he turned in place to launch for the reactor itself. Nothing had changed, the regret deepened.

~ This arrival brought the tip of the Synth's tail, and all of his mass behind it, to bear on one of the weaker locations of the reactor's casing. A moment of joy in the realization that the vacuum engine had been breached. A depth of sorrow, when the reactor remained entangled, and realization there wasn't enough atmosphere ambient to smother the coils of magnetism bound about the charge of fuel. The casing was bright, and the Synth's feet pressed against it were beginning to melt. Panic replaced regret.

~ Realization.

~ Feet welded to the casing, the Synth yanked his tail free and shoved the extinguisher nozzle into the new gap. The plates of reactor casing shuddered as the propellant smothered the confusion of magnetism and fuel. The Synth's vision flickered and greyed, as he was forced unconscious from the rippling electrics.

~ Relief in the moment, remorse in recollection and future.