Soon the lambent disk they were closing on resolved itself into a crusted spheroid, becoming real instead of theoretical.
“I can see where one of the bombs went off,” Robbins announced.
“Not bombs.” Brink corrected her firmly. “Attitude-adjustment devices. All three space agencies involved will be most distressed if in your continuing reports you refer to the devices as bombs.”
“Whatever,” she snapped impatiently. “Look over there.”
A deep gouge where none had been before was clearly visible in the surface of the asteroid. Since the rays of the sun struck the object at an angle, they were unable to see very far into the newly created chasm. A second, matching fissure lay somewhere farther to the relative west of the one they were hovering above.
Not only was Brink not displeased by this apparent desecration of the specimen, he was delighted. The cleft would provide access to the asteroid’s interior, something never before examined. He fully intended to explore it as deeply as their suits would allow.
Low and Borden continued the delicate task of maneuvering the shuttle still closer to the object, until they were racing along in orbit no more than thirty meters apart.
“Looks clean.” Miles played the shuttle’s powerful external light over the heavily impacted surface. It illuminated a portion of the recently created crevasse, leaving the ultimate depths inviolate. “Not much debris floating around.”
“The force of the explosions would have blown most fragments clear,” Brink declared. “Pity.”
“Compliments to the engineers who built the devices.” Low turned toward the rear of the cockpit. “You ready for your stroll in the park, Ludger?” But the scientist was already pulling himself toward the rear of the cabin and the row of waiting suits.
“Level of residual radioactivity is high, but within acceptable limits.” Miles eyed the Commander. “I wouldn’t recommend more than the one EVA, though.”
Low slid out of his chair. “That’s all right, Cora. That’s what we’ve scheduled, and that’s all we’re going to do.”
“You’re sure this is perfectly safe?” Robbins followed Low.
“A little late to be wondering, isn’t it, Maggie?” He looked over at her. “You can back out anytime.”
She flushed angrily. “I didn’t say that. Did I say anything like that?”
“No, you didn’t. And to answer your question, no, it’s not perfectly safe. Very little in science is perfect. But it’s pretty damn reasonably safe, or I wouldn’t be going out there myself.”
She nodded thoughtfully as she digested this. Behind her, Borden called out cheerfully. “See you guys in about an hour. If you happen to find a Circle-K down there, I’d like a cold six-pack and a giant bag of chips. Cajun-style.”
“Anything else?” Low asked dryly as he helped Brink with the first suit.
“Nothing that I’d request in mixed company.” Borden looked around the back of his chair and grinned. “I’ll keep the motor running.”
As expected, Robbins needed a lot of help donning her suit. How much instruction and practice had she been given ground-side, Low wondered? This was crazy, taking a complete novice for an EVA. At least her suit controls could be overridden by commands from the shuttle. He reassured himself that once sealed inside, there was little she could do to hurt herself. Her suit purposely did not include a thruster pack, so she couldn’t go shooting off toward the sun by accidentally hitting the wrong buttons.
Wickedly, he found himself speculating on what a spectacular final report that would make. On the other hand, it wouldn’t exactly enhance his record. He would have preferred to spend the time inspecting the asteroid and assisting Brink instead of wet-nursing a talkative journalist.
While they suited up, Miles continued to call out the radiation readings and other stats pertinent to their incipient EVA. The levels continued to fall, albeit slowly, as helmets were donned. Checkout proceeded to intersuit communications.
He could hear Robbins breathing hard. If she kept using air at that rate, she’d shorten the excursion by twenty minutes.
“Take it easy, Maggie. Remember what they told you in Houston. Just breathe normally, as if you were on scuba. The suit’s respiration system will supply as much air as you need. The more you hyperventilate, the faster you’ll exhaust your supply.”
She smiled back at him. Wanly, but gamely, he decided. Her breathing slowed.
“That’s better. You’ll be tethered to me at all times, so you won’t have to worry about which way to go or how to get there. Just relax and enjoy the sights.” A single nod and a slightly bigger smile this time. “Good. Don’t touch anything unless you ask first. Try to act like a passenger.”
“I’m good at that.” Her voice arrived undistorted through his helmet speakers. “I’m not going to touch anything except my recorder, and it’s pretty much automatic.” She indicated the special camera that had been integrated into the left sleeve of her suit.
For the second time in a day he found himself Outside, hovering in the shuttle’s gaping bay. It blocked most of the sunlight, which fell unimpeded on the asteroid’s surface.
He could hear Robbins breathing hard again, but as they moved toward the rocky surface, it slowed. With Brink on his right, he adjusted his attitude so that they would make contact close to the crevice they had blasted in the surface.
“How are you doing, Maggie?”
Her voice breathed back at him. “Not so good … at first. Better now. I can’t decide if I’m ascending or falling.”
“Neither term has relevance up here. Don’t worry about it. You’re going away from the shuttle and toward the asteroid.
That’s all you need to think about.” Even as he chatted with her, trying to be reassuring and comforting, he continued to check and recheck his own suit’s status and instrumentation.
Sooner than seemed possible, they were down. “Don’t let yourself be fooled by the solid surface underfoot,” he told her. “Gravity’s virtually nonexistent. You can’t ‘walk’ anywhere here. We might as well be ‘standing’ on a ball of gauze.”
“Such wonderful sights.” Brink had oriented himself with his head facing the ground and was scraping samples into a carrying sack. The fragments were removed with difficulty. “Mostly nickel-iron with a smattering of rock,” he informed his companions. “Not so very different from your usual bolide.” Using his suit thrusters, he assumed a stance with his boots facing the ground. “Some olivine, and perhaps a few surprises. We will find out in the laboratory.”
Robbins recorded Brink for a while, then turned her machine on the surrounding desolation. She asked few questions, and all were pertinent and well thought out. Low was pleased.
Time passed rapidly in space. He checked his chronometer. “Ludger? The fissure?”
“Ya, ya, I’m coming.” The scientist added something under his breath in German. Low caught a few words, but too many were of the type commonly found in scientific German—half a meter or so long.
Low heard Robbins suck in her breath as they approached the rim of the abyss. He tried not to smile. “Easy, Maggie. Remember, you can’t fall in. There’s no gravity here. You’re already falling constantly.” He peered into the dark crevasse. Their suit lights illuminated only a portion of the upper reaches.
The two men discussed the proposed descent. The only danger would take the form of a sharp projection or overhang that could entrap them or possibly puncture their suits. They didn’t expect to encounter any. The upper regions should be smooth as a result of the residual heat from the explosion. Indeed the surface in their immediate vicinity exhibited all the classic signs of having been turned molten and then rapidly cooled. It was a landscape as designed by Gaudi.
Brink was preparing to use a quick puff from his thrusters to drop down, when the unexpected happened. There shouldn’t have been any unexpected. Everything had been worked out in advance, every possibility accounted for.
That was Nature for you, Low thought. Just when you were getting comfortable with the view, she up and smacked you in the face with something. Or in this case, with an entire extraterrestrial body.
Beneath them, the ground had begun to move.
CHAPTER 6
There was no sound, only a subtle vibration that communicated itself not to their ears so much as to their very bones. Around them the surface of the asteroid quivered visibly. Loosened chunks of surface material broke free and began to drift out into space. From within the fissure more material was jolted loose and came floating slowly toward them. Small nickel-iron boulders were easily nudged aside by gloved hands. Fortunately none of them had sharp edges.
Borden and Miles were trying to talk simultaneously, filling his ears with a confused babble. Ever the journalist, Robbins had aimed her arm-mounted camera downward. Close by, Brink reached out to snag one drifting scrap after another. Most he would fling aside, while a select few would find their way into one of his collection sacks.