Every muscle in my body hurt but I still had over an hour on my shift. The past 7 hours of awkwardly squirming and banging my body against the cold steel of a tank not designed for people was taking its toll.
This tank was long and profoundly awkward, ill-designed for a humanoid. It must have stretched 100 or more feet along the side of the ship. One wall was the hull. It curved downward from the ceiling until it hit the narrow floor. There was a wide I-beam hull stiffener, wide enough for a man to lie down in. The design made good use of the triangular shape of the ship’s hull after cutting out nice rectangular rooms and walk ways for the crew. Wave suppressing baffles were everywhere and no where was it tall enough to stand.
This tank was freshly painted with epoxy but not yet fully cured, so the air was saturated with epoxy fumes – deadly toxic.
I was stiff, wet, cold, sore, snot-nosed beneath all my safety gear, nearly deaf, partially blind, stuck inside of wet clothes that I could not take off. So yea – long day at the office.
I had worked my way almost to the tank end when suddenly the lights failed and complete and total darkness swallowed me whole. You have to be kidding me!
Gary A. Wilson A Dime of Time
Tales of a Family 