“Airlock is open,” said Freddy. He placed his hands on Muncie’s shoulders. “Man, you don’t look so good.”
“I still feel lousy.”
“Happens to the best of us.”
“But this is happening to me.”
“You’ll shake it.”
O’Donnell followed as Freddy guided Muncie through the ribbed plastic tunnel connecting the shuttle’s docking adapter to the station’s airlock hatch. Floating awkwardly, bumping into one another, they entered the instrument-crammed command module, where a Trikon crewman hustled them through and out into the station’s connecting passageway. O’Donnell felt the amused attitude of the Trikon technicians on duty in the command module, the typical knowing smirk of veterans eyeing newly arrived rookies.
The passageway was a confusion of greens, browns, blues, and whites, bathed in intense light. O’Donnell shaded his eyes. The blues gradually emerged from the background as three figures dressed in flight suits. The middle figure was a stocky man with a broken nose and a red face. O’Donnell recognized him from his pictures as Commander Dan Tighe. The other two were a woman and a black man.
The last of the shuttle passengers floated into the passageway. Then the twelve newcomers bunched up around Tighe and the two others. O’Donnell noticed that all three of them had their stockinged feet firmly attached to loops set into the flooring.
“I want to welcome all of you aboard Trikon Station,” said Tighe. “I’m Dan Tighe, station commander. To my right is Dr. Lorraine Renoir. She’s the station medical officer, so I’m sure all of you will get to know her.”
Freddy nudged Lance in the shoulder. Lance choked back a belch.
“To my left is Crewman William Jeffries. You probably won’t get to know him because, unfortunately, he is due to leave with the shuttle. Unless you want to stay, Jeff.”
Jeffries smiled benignly.
“You will all be assigned sleeping compartments in Habitation Module Two. Hab Two is aft, behind me, through hatch H-Two, second hatch on the port side. That’s your right side as yon move aft, if your head is toward the ceiling. If you get confused about orientation there are big arrows on the walls of the tunnels at five-meter intervals. The red arrows point forward and the blue arrows point to the ceiling. And they glow in the dark.”
Tighe hesitated a moment. When he saw that there were no questions, he went on, “I want you to stow your personal articles in the rumpus room until the departing people finish packing. The rumpus room is located at the far end of the connecting tunnel. You can secure your flight bags to the walls with clips or bungee cords. You may see some funny-looking plants floating around in there at the ends of tethers. They are bonsai plants. Anyone who touches them will be summarily executed.”
Tighe smiled crookedly. A titter coursed through the new arrivals. Muncie did not laugh. Beads of sweat oozed across his brow. He struggled to loosen the collar of his flight suit.
“You all right?” whispered O’Donnell.
“I’m—” Lance Muncie’s stomach contracted with the force of a small cannon. His mouth snapped open and, with a loud retch, out shot breakfast. It looked like a large, greenish yellow worm, expanding and contracting as it flew on a perfectly straight track toward Dr. Renoir. She spun out of the way. The vomit worm continued past, wriggling until it finally disappeared into the pastel recesses at the far end of the tunnel.
“Any other comments?” said Tighe.
The new arrivals laughed.
“I never get sick,” Lance Muncie mumbled around the thermometer stuck in his mouth. Dr. Renoir’s infirmary was cramped, but his addled senses welcomed the tighter perspective.
“Please don’t speak, Mr. Muncie.” Dr. Renoir pumped air into the collar of the blood-pressure gauge.
“What if I think I’m going to puke?”
Dr. Renoir closed his fingers around the plastic bag she had given him. One of the station’s robots had vacuumed up the mess Muncie had spewed into the corridor and sprayed pungent disinfectant around the area. But the robot was too bulky to work effectively in this cubbyhole of an infirmary.
“Please be still and continue staring at that picture on the wall,” she said. “Occupy your mind with pleasant thoughts.”