Page 28 of Full Speed to a Crash Landing

“No, just don’t die,” Rian says, exasperated. Then: “. . . but yeah, if you’ve got good aim, chuck it up before you flail down.”

“Sarcasm is so sexy.”

“I wasn’t being sarcastic,” he deadpans. “Also, you think I’m sexy?”

“No, I think sarcasm is sexy. You know what else it is?”

“No.”

“Distracting.”

“Oh.” A hiss of static on the comm. “Sorry.”

“Just shut up, Sexy.” I allow myself a brief moment of triumph when I hear the soft intake of his breath catch as he forces himself not to respond and further keep me from the task at hand.

Keeping as much of my body leaned against the rockwall as possible, I unzip my front outer pocket and slide the cryptex drive inside. It takes some wiggling to get the tiny thing gripped in my gloves to go in the way I need it to be, but as soon as it’s secure, I close the zipper and grab the wall with both hands.

Tilting my head back, my helmet lets me know I’ve got about sixty-five meters of vertical climbing to get out of this hellhole.

Which isa lot.

“What are the chances you can toss down a rope?” I ask.

“We have security cable we can send down,” Rian says. “It’s the thermal flux that’s the problem, though.”

The integrity of the line is thrown off by the way the radiant heat from the lava exudes straight up. There’s nowhere else for the heat to go, after all.

“I’m tossing down the security line,” Rian calls. A moment later, I see a long, insulated cable with a claw clip dropped almost within reach. It shifts. I look up—on the ridge, I can see three people looking down at me. This endeavor’s brought Rian out of the ship, at least, and got the others to check out the show.

“But I can’t trust this,” I say grabbing for the claw and securing it at the loop harness built into my suit.

“Maybe?” Rian’s voice cracks. This line is a Hail Mary for if I slip; they can’t risk pulling me up with it.

“Climbing up is going to take a long time,” I mutter,scoping out the slick, ridged striations of the oddly formed black rock face.

“What happened to that one goal, full speed stuff?” Rian says. I can tell he’s trying to add levity to the situation, but it doesn’t help that much. I’ve still got to climb straight up a wall without falling into a river of molten rock, which isn’t exactly something I enjoy doing.

Plus it’s hot as fuck.

My hands slip inside my gloves.

I take a deep breath.

New goal. Survive.

Full speed until I do.

It’s just that “full speed” is a lot slower right now.

I look up, find a handhold, reach. Push with one foot, find a ledge to step with the other. Up. The line makes this a little easier. I know it’s just a single two-centimeter-thick cable between me and plummeting down, but two centimeters are better than nothing.

I check the read outs on my visor. The outer temperature is above what my suit’s sensors can measure, which means I’m deeply at risk for damaging my suit. But everything’s holding...for now.

Outer temperature: [WARNING]

Inner temperature: Stable

External download: 2%

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