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Then I thought about it some more. I pictured it…
“Kelly! You and Cliff get away from the door, it might-”
That’s when Cliff pulled the i
[382] It all lasted only a few seconds, with small objects being shot through the hole by the escaping air like weird grapeshot. I stayed off to the side until the eruption died down. I pulled myself around to look through the hole, but something was blocking it.
Somebody’s spacesuit backpack.
Cliff was breathing hard. “Ma
I couldn’t see anything but the red fabric covering Kelly’s backpack. But then some snow began to drift out of the hole.
“Something hit me pretty hard in the side,” Kelly said. “I’m trying to get my hand around to it… there’s a clear fluid leaking, Ma
There she was, inches away from me, and there was nothing I could do.
“We’ll have you out in just a minute, honey,” I said.
“I’m starting to feel… kind of cold. It’s suit coolant leaking, isn’t it, Ma
“It must be. Even if you lose it all, you can’t freeze that quick, babe. I’m going to set a new Olympic hauling record. I’ll have you back safe and sound in Big Red before you know it.” But was her voice fainter? And if it was, was it because she was speaking softer… or because the air was getting thin?
“I’ve got it cleared, Ma
“Me… crank what?”
“The manual lock turner,” Cliff said, a little impatiently.
“What… where is it?”
“To your left… are you oriented with your feet aft?”
“Yes.”
“To your left, two feet away, a red arrow should be pointing to the hatch cover for the manual control.”
“Got it.” I grabbed the hatch cover handle and pulled. And I pulled [383] myself right off the ship. In free fall nothing can be pulled, twisted, raised, or lowered unless you are tied to or braced against something that will give you leverage.
I planted my feet against the side of the ship, reached down, and pulled. And pulled, and again, and again.
“Hatch cover is jammed,” I said. “I’ll try it-”
“Never mind, no time. I’m out of the lock now. Cranking it around…”
The empty hatch window rotated away from me, and in about a minute the i
… You leave the goose, then row back and pick up the sack of grain.
A fine mist was coming from a small tear in the fabric of her suit, freezing almost instantly. Now I saw some blood mixed in with it.
“I’m cold,” Kelly whispered. “I’m real cold.”
How much air was she losing? In the time I had to get her across she would not freeze to death. But she could die very quickly with no air. I looked at the system lights on the forearm of her suit. Oxygen pressure was green, but for how long?
There was what seemed like several miles of rope between us and Red Thunder’s air lock. Actually, it was three ropes. Twenty feet along the wreck from the lock to the crossing line. The line was a hundred yards long. Then there was the line from Red Thunder’s cockpit to the air lock aft, about fifty feet. Too long.
Sometimes you can’t hurry slowly, you just have to act. I worked it all out in seconds, then I planted my feet against the hull by the lock and jumped.
At first I thought Kelly’s weight on my right arm had pulled me off course. My target was the titanium thrust ring Caleb had worked so hard on, so long ago. The last of the three ropes was tied to it. If I could snag the ring or the rope, I’d have saved two, maybe three minutes. If I’d aimed badly, I had killed Kelly. If we both soared off into space, Travis would come get us. I’d be alive, but Kelly would certainly be [384] dead. I had plenty of time to work that out as we flew between the two ships.
Though it was the fastest crossing I ever made, it felt like the longest. How fast were we going? Fifteen miles per hour? Thirty? Probably not. But there was a threshold speed, beyond which my hand would not be able to stay closed when I grabbed the ring.
If I was even close enough to grab it.
Then I saw I would be close enough. I reached out.
“Try to hook your elbow through the ring,” Travis said.
Elbow… I was going to be close enough. I held out my free arm and let the ring hit me, instantly curling my arm. It was almost pulled out of its socket as my body and then Kelly’s pulled at me, swinging around the ring.
My arm was forced straight out and I lost contact with the ring. I’ve missed. I’ve killed her.
Then I opened my eyes and saw I was floating motionless relative to Red Thunder. I shoved my feet against the thrust ring and swung us both into the air lock.
“I think I’m burned,” Kelly said, even fainter than before. “It hurts.”
“Almost there.” I slammed the emergency button and air flooded the lock, silently at first, then becoming a scream, louder and louder.
I realized it was Kelly screaming, incoherent at first, holding her hands to the sides of her helmet.
“Ow, ow, ow! Hurts, hurts, it hurts, Ma
Alicia pulled herself headfirst down the ladder leading to the suit room. We both helped Kelly out of her helmet, then her suit.
The worst pain was coming from her ears. There had been very little pressure when I pulled her into the air lock. Getting so quickly to 15 psi hadn’t done her eardrums any good. But it got better quickly, though Kelly continued to yawn for the next hour.
She had first-degree burns on her right leg and arm, the parts most exposed to sunlight during our crossing. The sun is that hot out there, heating a suit with lost coolant in only seconds. Her only other injury was a gash in her side, from whatever piece of junk had slammed into her and holed her suit.
[385] “Not much more of a hole and you’d never have made it,” Travis told her after he’d examined her suit. “You were lucky.”
“Lucky to have found Ma
I was so full of myself that it was a full ten minutes before I gasped and said, “What about Cliff?” But at least I remembered. Alicia was too busy getting Aquino settled in the bed that would have been Jubal’s, but the others didn’t have any excuse.
“That’s right,” Kelly said. “There’s no manual crank inside the lock.”
“I’d call that a design flaw,” Travis said.
“Whatever, I’ve got to go back and get him out,” I said, suddenly more tired than I’d ever been before. But there it was. Travis couldn’t go. Alicia had to tend to her patients. Kelly’s suit was ruined, and Cliff was wearing Dak’s… Leave the grain with the fox, row back and pick up the goose.
I had to cross once more.