The Polar Mission
an excerpt

He huddled underneath the blanket and waited.

* * *

A lone and unfortunate mechanic walked into the garage that afternoon to look for a tool. He accessed a control panel next to the door and turned on the lights. The man wore a light blue worker’s uniform and had a tool belt around his waist. He whistled as he looked on the shelves on the wall to the right. He picked up items, moved items around and reached behind stacks of spanners, welders, saws and electric tightening tools.

“I know it was somewhere around here,” the rotund man muttered to no one in particular. “Size 0.24, 0.26, where’s the 0.28? Must be – I say, what’s this?” He looked at a bright red dot of light on the shelf next to him. He turned around to see where it came from. Between the two tanks of the fueling station, he saw a bright red light shining straight at his eyes