Red Thunder (49 page)

Nobody had one. But I was studying one blip we were slowly moving
away from. Actually, I was wondering if it might be more than one blip,
connected in some way, from the way the reflection changed. Stupid
idea? Well, he asked for it.

"Travis, I've got something interesting," I said, and gave him the position of the triad of blips. Instantly
Red Thunder
began to rotate again.

"I don't see it," Kelly said, softly enough that Travis wouldn't
hear. I moved the cursor over the trio and highlighted it in red. Kelly
chewed her lip. "Might be something. Can't hurt to go look."

"Bingo!" Travis called out two minutes later. "Manny, come look."

I unbuckled and floated up to the cockpit. Out the window I could
see the object, about three miles away. Actually, three objects of
various sizes, all rotating around a common center of gravity. I
couldn't see what was holding them together.

"Wires," Travis said, reading my mind. "Unless I'm mistaken, two of
those chunks are parts of the living quarters. Those two are worth a
look, don't you think?"

"Sure do."

"Okay, go below and strap in again, I'm going to get us to about a hundred yards, more or less. Take me about five minutes."

I knew that was headlong speed in space, where it typically took a
VStar several hours to close the last few hundred yards with a space
station. I also knew
Red Thunder
was not famous for fine
control. The Squeezer engines were great for raw power, but it was hard
to release just enough energy to get you where you're going without
getting yourself into trouble. But once again, I'd bet on Travis.

And because I knew Travis all too well by this time, the first thing
I did when I got to the control deck, even before strapping in, was to
incite the crew to mutiny. I quickly determined they were all with me,
so I strapped in and sat tight.

As soon as we were where Travis wanted us to be, he called out.

"Dak, I flipped a coin and you're it, in control until I get back."

"I don't think so, Captain," he said. Travis stuck his head down through the access hole and frowned at Dak.

"What's the problem?"

"This isn't right, Travis," I said. "You shouldn't be going over there."

"I've got more suit hours than—"

"We know that. And if something happened to you, we might as well
just open the hatches and suck vacuum," Dak said. "You're the only one
can fly this thing, probably, and the only one who can land her, for
sure."

"What is this? Are you saying you won't take control?"

"If you order me to, I will. But we want you to see you shouldn't give the order."

"This is what you all think?" He got nods from all four of us. For
just a moment I thought he was going to dig in his heels, but then he
swung himself down to the control deck and hung there, and rubbed his
face with his hands. He was probably feeling as tired as I was, and I
was exhausted.

"All right, I'm trapped. I think I'd rather cut off my right arm
than send one of you kids out there to handle this... but I guess it's
what I signed up for when I raised ship without a trained copilot
aboard. Alicia, you suit up, the sooner the better."

"Right, Captain," she said, and started unbuckling.

"Hey, wait a—"

"Sorry, Dak, you asked for it. You're still far too sick to go,
under any circumstances. My intention was to have Alicia go with me.
Whatever we decide, Alicia
has
to go. It's what she trained
for. If anybody's hurt over there, there's not much I can do for them.
But Alicia can. And because of the buddy system we started this
morning, Kelly goes with her."

Kelly was way ahead of him, already unbuckling. And now it was my turn to squawk. Travis cut me off just as abruptly.

"I probably like it even less than you guys do. My generation, we
were taught that it's always a man who goes into the dangerous
situation. You mean to tell me twenty-first-century men are still
over-protective of their women?"

Neither of us had anything to say in our defense. Yes, I did feel
protective of Kelly, and Alicia too, for that matter. But Travis had us
trapped. It was true, Alicia had to go. It was true, Kelly was the only
possible buddy, as Dak and I were still far from sure of our ability to
do the job without filling our helmets with vomit, though I was doing a
lot better than Dak was by then.

We all followed the girls onto the suit deck. Dak and I helped them
get suited up, Travis carefully keeping his back to us. He was putting
together a tool kit with some of the things they might need, just a
heavy-duty canvas bag with a drawstring.

"For once in my life, I'm not sure I want to be a feminist," Kelly whispered. "Manny, I'm real scared."

"Just say the word, and you don't have to go," I said, meaning it. I'd fight Travis with my fists, if I had to.

"
You
wouldn't say the word, would you? Be honest."

"No. No I wouldn't."

"And you'd probably be almost as scared as I am."

"Probably more."

I noticed that Travis was suiting up, too. He smiled at me.

"Somebody has to go outside to help them with the crossing," he
said, "and I don't figure that'll be too dangerous. But I want both of
you to suit up, too, all but the helmets, and keep those with you.
Should have thought of it before, there's too much stuff flying around
out there, we could get a puncture."

And with that, the three of them put on their helmets—a last kiss from me to Kelly—and entered the air lock.

Dak and I watched it cycle as we suited up, then hurried up to the
cockpit. We got there in time to see the three of them float up to the
portholes, tethered together and also tied to a safety line that was
attached to one of many hooks welded to
Red Thunder's
side for that very purpose.

"Kelly, you go first. I'm going to be here to belay you when you get
there. You see that shred of aluminum about twenty feet from the
biggest piece?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"That looks like the center of gravity. You get to that, you can
hook your line and not start spinning. Then I'll send Alicia over. Now,
this dingus right here."

He was holding the Space Maneuvering Unit Captain Xu had loaned us.
It looked like bicycle handlebars with a big thermos attached.

"You're going to start off with just a simple kick against the side
of the ship. You hold the SMU like this. See? Over your head. Hang on
to it, but do
not
use it to speed up or slow down. Use it for
course corrections only. You hit this button with your thumb. Don't
hold it down, or I'll reel you back in and have you do it again. Okay?"

Kelly nodded. I figured she was too scared to talk.

Travis tied the SMU to Kelly's suit so it wouldn't be lost, tied the
tool kit around her waist, then he picked her up and swung her into a
position about six feet from the side of the ship. She flailed around
in panic for a second and my heart leaped into my throat. Then she
settled down, facing Travis, and he put her through a series of
familiarization drills. At first she held the control down too long and
shot out to the length of her safety tether, which was about twenty
feet long. Travis pulled her back, talking softly and calmly the whole
time, and positioned her again. She quickly learned how to point the
thing to get to where she wanted to go.

"I never felt so useless, man," Dak said, and I could only agree.
How did this happen? Kelly and Alicia had never dreamed of space, like
Dak and I had. So why were our girlfriends out there, and us in here?

After about twenty minutes of drills, Travis judged Kelly as ready
as she'd ever be. So he positioned her with her feet against the side
of
Red Thunder
and told her to jump. She jumped.

At first it looked good, she seemed to be headed right toward the center of gravity of the
Ares Seven
wreckage. But Travis, who had a better line of sight, told her she was
bearing off to her right, and Kelly tried to correct. She held the
button down too long, and it looked like it twisted in her hands.
Whatever happened, she lost the SMU and began flailing around again.

"Oh God, oh God," she was whispering.

"Kelly, get the SMU back. Just pull in your left arm. That's right.
Now you've got it. Now aim it directly away from your chest and just
touch the button."

She was still swinging out in such a way that she'd eventually wrap herself all around
Red Thunder,
but more slowly.

"Do that again. That's right. And again. Once more."

Now she hovered motionless at the end of her tether. I checked
something I hadn't remembered up to now, which was the telemetry from
her suit. Her heart and breathing rates were way up. The heart rate
slowed some as Travis pulled her slowly back to us. I could hear her
sigh as her boots touched the hull again.

"Not bad," Travis said. "I never expected we'd get it on the first try. You want to wait a bit, catch your breath?"

"No, let's get it over with."

She jumped again. This time she looked off course right from the
start... but this time she did a lot better with the SMU, got herself
almost lined up, overcorrected, corrected again, and with about ten
feet to go was only a few feet off the optimal location. Travis snubbed
her safety rope and then coached her through the last feet with tiny
bursts from the SMU. It took her a full minute to cross that last few
feet, but when she finally was able to reach out and grab that
collection of tight cables I heard her laugh, sweet music to my ears.

"Good. Hook your second safety rope to something... that's good. Now
unhook the first line and clip it to the wires right in front of you.
Got it."

Travis pulled that line almost taut, and clipped his end to a ring.

"Now Alicia's coming over."

It was easier, because all Alicia had to do was clip her line to the first rope with a snap ring, and pull herself across.

"Just pull a few times," Travis told her. "It should take you a full five minutes to get across. Okay?"

"Got it."

One hand on the rope and one carrying her pressurized "black bag" of medical supplies and instruments, she shoved off.

"Oh, man, I don't like this, I don't like this."

"Closing your eyes might help," Dak told her.

"Dak, stay off the line, please."

"Let him talk, Captain? It helps me, some."

"Right. Sorry, guys."

"No problem."

"Dak, could you just talk to me?"

Dak hurried down to the control deck, talking all the way, and came
back again in a few seconds with a CD. He stuck it in the player and
soon one of Alicia's favorite songs was filling our ears. I heard
Alicia laugh, then she started singing along.

"Open your eyes now, Alicia," Travis said when she was almost there.
"Got it? Just tighten your grip on the rope, that should do it." It
did, and in a few seconds Kelly had grabbed Alicia's hand and they were
securing themselves.

"Now what?"

"What looks promising?" Travis asked. There was a long pause.

"Nothing," Kelly admitted. "I don't see any lights, or anything like that."

"That's okay. Keep looking."

"It's pretty dark."

"Turn on your headlight."

"My... oh, well, duuuh! Forgot all about it." All the suits had
krypton lights mounted over the faceplates, not that different from
automobile headlights, though when one proved to be defective we had to
order a new one from Russia.

We saw the lights go on from both their suits.

"I think I know where you are," Travis said. "Dak, Manny, bring up that schematic on the
Ares Seven.
Check me, but doesn't it look like they might be where C deck used to be?"

We brought it up on Travis's screen, twisted it a few times, and
then it fell into place. Dak pointed to a large oxygen cylinder on the
schematic, then to a big tank just above Alicia's and Kelly's heads.

"I think you're right, Captain. Kelly, Alicia, if we've got you
located right, the main air lock ought to be on the side facing away
from
Red Thunder.
Turn to your left a little, Kelly... a
little more... there. What you're lighting up now looks like it might
be the descent ladder and what's left of a landing strut. See it?"

"Yes. But... there's a lot of wire here, it's a real rat's nest."

"Don't get caught up in the wires," Travis said.

"I'm staying clear. But that puts the air-lock door on the other
side of all that wiring. I don't think we can get through unless we cut
some of it."

"Don't!"
we all three shouted at once. Kelly laughed.

"We're not making a move until we've discussed it, don't worry."

"Ideas?" Travis called out.

"Get them back, circle around the ship, send 'em over again," Dak said.

"Cut some wires, see if we can get through that way," Alicia said.

There was a long silence.

"I've gotta go with Dak," Travis said. "Come back to the tether rope and I'll haul you back."

"That's going to take hours," Kelly said. "If anybody's in there, they could be running out of time."

"If nobody's in there," Travis said, "you're risking your lives for nothing."

"I think somebody's in there," Alicia said.

"Me, too. And don't call it female intuition. Somebody's in there."

There was another long silence. Travis sighed.

"One wire at a time. That's a terribly dynamic situation you've got
over there. Cut the wrong wire, it could all go flying apart."

"Then you'll just come and get us, right?"

A pause. "Sure. Just take it slow, okay?"

"Got it. Now, where are those wire cutters? Oh, Alicia, can you... I
just lost that hammer with the red handle, Travis. Sorry, it just
floated up... let me see if I—"

"Let it go!"
Travis snapped. Then he muttered, "I should
have tied the damn things together.... Kelly, don't worry about it.
Worse comes to worst, you can use just about anything as a hammer."