His search found the telltales on the wrists. “Eyach,” he whispered. Temperature inside the suit was acceptable, but oxygen was at 15 percent and dropping, carbon dioxide and water vapor much too thick. That meant the powerpack was operative but the air recycler knocked out and the reserve bottle emptied. “Hu,” Kaino said, “I came in time by a frog’s whisker, nay?” He couldn’t make repairs. However, accidents to recyclers were known and feared. There was provision. He reached around his shoulder and released the bypass tube coiled and bracketed on his life support module.
More cautiously, hoping he inflicted no new injury, he eased Ilitu’s torso up. His knee supported it while he deployed the corresponding tube, screwed the two free ends together, and opened the valves. Again he lowered his companion. They were joined by a meter of umbilicus, and his unit did duty for both.
He wrinkled his nose as foul air mingled with fresh. That took a while to clear. Thereafter, as long as neither exerted himself—and neither was about to!— the system was adequate.
He could do nothing more but. wait. Curiosity overwhelmed him. Although the surface was metal-slippery and sloped down, he put his head over its verge and shot his light that way. A whistle escaped him. Somewhat under the ledge, the opposite wall bulged back inward and the two sides converged. He could not see the bottom where they met, because fifty or sixty meters below him, where the gap was about one meter wide, it was choked with shards from above. Most, bouncing off the walls and this shelf, had gotten jammed there. Some were pointed, some were thin and surely sharp along their broken edges. Even here, to fall on them would be like falling into an array of knives. Space armor could fend them off. His flexible suit could not. Kaino withdrew to a sitting position.
Ilitu’s breath rattled. The minutes grew very long.
A motion caught Kaino’s eye. He flashed his beams at it and saw a line descending. The robot had been obedient to his orders. The line slithered across the ledge and onward before it stopped. With limited judgment, the robot had paid out all.
Kaino saw no stars occluded. Nevertheless the machine must be at the rim of the chasm and thrusting an antenna over, for he received: “Your commandexecuted. Pray, what is next?” On a whim, he had had the synthetic voice made throaty female. He wished now he hadn’t.
“Drag the cable, m-ng, north,” he directed. Inclined though its orbit was, the planetoid had a pole in the same celestial hemisphere as Ursa Minor. “I can’t reach it … Ah. I did. Stop.” He secured bights around his waist and, with an effort, Ilitu’s, precaution against contingency.
The program had a degree of initiative. “Shall I raise you?”
“No. Stand by.” No telling what the damage to Ilitu was. A major concussion at least, a broken back or ribands into the lungs entirely possible. Rough handling might well kill him. That would be the end. The expedition had no facilities for cellular preservation, let alone revival. Better wait for a proper rig, trusting that meanwhile he wouldn’t die or that cerebral hemorrhage wouldn’t harm his brain beyond clone regeneration.
Again Kaino composed his mind. Time trudged. He remembered and looked forward, smiled and regretted, sang a song, said a poem, considered the wording of a message to somebody he cared about. Lunarians are not that different from Earth humans. Often he looked at the stars where they streamed above him.
And ultimately he heard: “Kaino!”
“I am here,” he answered. “Ilitu lives yet.”
“Etana loaded a flitsled with medical supplies, took it down to camp, and returned to the ship,” Brandir said. “I’ve brought it here. She thinks she can land nearby if need be.”
“Best get Ilitu to .our van, give him first aid, and then decide what to do.” Kaino explained the situation. “Can you lower a pallet?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I’ll secure him well, then you winch him aloft, gently. Lest we bump together, I’ll abide until you have him safe.”
“Once you were less patient, little brother,” Brandir laughed.
“I will not be if you keep maundering, dotard,” Kaino retorted. A wild merriment frothed, in him too.