As if in confirmation, a stream of light glowed through the port.
“Sunrise in the swamp,” Pancho called out.
Dan felt another sideways surge of thrust, pushing from the opposite direction.
“Turnaround maneuver complete,” said Amanda.
“Flow to main thrusters,” Pancho said, working the touchscreens.
“Main thrusters, confirmed.”
Weight returned to the bridge. Dan settled back onto the deck.
Amanda smiled happily. “On course and on velocity vector.”
“Hot spit!” Pancho exclaimed. “Now let’s see how that leak is doin’.”
Kris Cardenas almost made it back to her own apartment before two young men in dark business suits caught up with her.
“Dr. Cardenas?”
She turned. The man who had called her name was taller than his partner, slim and lithe, sallow complexion, his dark hair cropped into a buzz cut. The other was huskier, blond, pink-cheeked.
“Come with us, please,” said the dark one.
“Where? Why? Who are you?”
“Mr. Humphries wants to see you.”
“Now? At this hour? It’s—”
“Please,” said the blond, slipping a dead-black pistol from inside his jacket.
“It fires tranquilizing darts,” said the dark one. “But you wake up with a bitching headache. Don’t make us use it on you.”
Cardenas looked up and down the corridor. The only other person in sight was a mousy little woman who immediately turned away and started walking in the opposite direction.
“Now,” said the blond, pointing his pistol at her.
With a resigned droop of her shoulders, Cardenas nodded her surrender. The blond put his gun away and they started along the corridor toward the escalators.
“At least this one doesn’t have a snake,” the blond whispered hoarsely to his partner.
The other man did not laugh.
EVA
Pancho felt an old excitement bubbling up inside her as she wormed her arms through the spacesuit’s sleeves. After more than five days of being cooped up in the ship, she was going outside. It was like being a kid in school when the recess bell rang.
Standing by the inner airlock hatch where the spacesuits were stored, she popped her head up through her suit torso’s neck ring, grinning happily to herself. This is gonna be fun, she thought.
Dan looked uptight, though, as he held her helmet in his arms and watched her pull on the gloves and seal them to the suit’s cuffs. “Jealous?” she teased.
“Worried,” he replied. “I don’t like the idea of you going out alone.”
“Piece of cake, boss,” Pancho said. “I ought to go with you. Or Amanda, maybe.” With a shake of her head, Pancho countered, “Mandy’s gotta stay at the controls. Shouldn’t have both pilots out at the same time, if you can help it.”
“Then I’ll suit up-”
“Whoa! I’ve seen your medical record, boss. No outside work for you.”
“The safety regs say EVAs should be performed by two astronauts—”
“Whenever possible,” Pancho finished for him. “And since when did you start quotin’ IAA regulations?”
“Safety is important,” Dan said.
Inside the spacesuit, with its hard-shell torso and servomotor-amplified gloves, Pancho felt like some superhero out of a kids’ video confronting a mere mortal.
“I’ll be fine,” she said as she took the helmet from Dan’s hands. “Nothin’ to worry about.”
“But if you run into trouble…”
“Tell you what, boss. You suit up and hang out here at the airlock. If I run into trouble you can come on out and save my butt. How’s that?”
He brightened. “Okay. Good idea.”
They called Amanda down from the bridge as Dan struggled into the lower half of his suit and tugged on the boots. By the time he was completely suited up, backpack and all, except for the helmet, Pancho was feeling antsy.
“Okay,” she said as she pulled the bubble-helmet over her head and sealed it to the neck ring. “I’m ready to go outside.”
Amanda hurried back to the bridge while Dan stood there grinning lopsidedly at her, his head sticking out of the hard suit like some kid posing for a photograph from behind a cardboard cutout of an astronaut.
Pancho opened the inner hatch of the airlock and stepped through. The airlock was roomier than most, big enough to take two spacesuited people at a time. Through her helmet she heard the pump start to clatter, and saw the telltale on the control panel switch from green to amber. The sound dwindled to nothing more than a slight vibration she felt through her boots as the air was pumped out of the chamber. The light flicked to red.