Freddy pulled a pair of eyeglasses from his shirt pocket and handed them to O’Donnell. “To look at the stars.”
They initiated the transfer procedure as the station passed out of the Earth’s shadow, to take full advantage of the light. Freddy was the first to exit the airlock. O’Donnell, with tethers attached to his suit, was second. Freddy gripped the tethers while Lance backed in to one of the six MMUs docked to ports along the outer skin of the tunnel. Then Freddy backed into one of the flying armchairs and felt its latches click into place against his suit. O’Donnell was not to be given his own MMU. Freddy and Lance pulled him along between them.
Jesus Christ don’t let go of me, O’Donnell begged them silently. He gaped at the emptiness that stretched out forever, the gleaming Earth so far below, the black infinity of space swallowing his tiny frail being. His breath caught in his throat. He could hear his pulse thundering in his ears. He saw himself spinning into the dark yawning void endlessly, spiraling out into nothingness, cast away until the end of time. For the first time he could remember since childhood, Hugh O’Donnell found himself praying.
But Freddy and Lance held him firmly for the several minutes it took to cover the two hundred meters between the raft of modules and the observatory. As they slowed to a stop outside the airlock, Freddy radioed Lance to remain in his MMU while he took O’Donnell inside. Lance acknowledged with a thumbs-up.
Freddy and O’Donnell sealed themselves in the airlock, waited for the pressure to equalize, then opened the inner hatch to enter the observatory itself. Freddy was more familiar with space suits than O’Donnell and removed his helmet quickly. O’Donnell tried to detach his own and spun into a tumble. Freddy eventually pried it off, dislodging O’Donnell’s glasses in the process.
“So this is exile,” said O’Donnell, reattaching his glasses and looking around the cramped quarters. He shuddered slightly, remembering his terror outside. “It’s cold in here.”
“I gonna level with you, man,” said Freddy. “I know you didn’ kill Weiss.”
“Thanks for your confidence, Freddy. Why the hell am I here, then?”
“Commander don’ wan’ you hurtin’ anyone.”
“Like Lance? He attacked me, pal. That kid is nuts.”
“Well, he ain’t gonna attack you no more,” said Freddy. “You an’ me got a big problem, man.”
“You’re half right, anyway.”
“I’m all right. I’m with Welch.”
“You’re what!?”
“With Welch, man. I’m supposed to watch you. Make sure you do your work. Make sure no one fuck around with you. And we both fucked up, man. You because you had that shit stuffed down your throat, me because I didn’ stop it.”
“This is a helluva time to tell me!”
“Orders, man,” said Freddy, unhappily. “They don’ want you to know you got a security man with you. They figure you give us both away if you knew.”
“Shit,” O’Donnell muttered.
“In spades.”
“What exactly happened?”
“Don’ know exactly. I found Weiss outside your lab aroun’ 0115 hours. He already dead and somebody, maybe him, tried to get in your lab by removin’ the hinges. I fix the door and hide Weiss in a canister in the logistics module until I figure out what’s goin’ on. Then I look for you. You trashed in your compartment. I din’ know why, so I fix you in your restraint and hope you wake up. Lance found the body and Tighe called everybody into the rumpus room. When you don’ show, we go look. I found you where I left you, but you still trashed.”
“So why does Dan think I killed Weiss?”
“You the best bet, far as he can see. He knows your lab tampered with and found a button ripped off Weiss’s shirt outside it.”
“That won’t hold up as evidence.”
“We ain’t in court, man.”
“So who do you think did it?”
“Don’ know. Same guy gave stuff to Russell Cramer, prob’ly.”
“How did you know that Cramer had drugs in him?”
Freddy tapped his temple with a finger. “I had a talk with Cramer before they sent him down. He wasn’ much help. I think he got it directly from Roberts. But I don’ know where Roberts got it from.”