Page 40 of Collision!
Chunks of dead rock and ice swirled past, all of it capable of puncturing his suit, as indifferent to him as he’d been to anything that wasn’t his engines and Lub.Even if Delphine’s trajectory calculations were perfect, the mere presence of the Love Boat I—its localized magnetic effects, even its comparatively insignificant gravity—would begin to have an effect.First on the dust, closing in around him, then the pebbles, then—
“So I’ve been thinking about our orgasm,” Mariah continued.“I mean the ghostform ASM, not the other kind, obviously.”
He’d been with Mariah long enough to recognize her gentle humor.To feel it through the separation.
“What if we added some pyrotechnics?”Her musing tone took the edge off his pulse.“I think we could get very rich together with a few explosions.”
He let out the breath he’d been holding, a harsh sound that fogged his visor despite the suit’s regulator.“Will it look like plasma fire?”
He didn’t sound like himself.He sounded like he was joking.
“Brighter than that,” she murmured.“So bright you might have to close your eyes.”
He did, for a moment.
When he opened them, everything was the same: dark, cold, deadly.His target was no closer.Every painful thud of his heart seemed to reverberate through his trapped quill-scales.
And she knew he was caught in this nothingness.
“What’s the next step, Chief?”The question was little more than a breath in his ear, echoing oddly, as if she were far away and yet very close.Maybe her hand was over her mouth, keeping their conversation private.“That’s all engineering is, right?Solving one problem after another.Like knitting each stitch.”
Suvan forced his gaze down from the uncaring cosmos to the close at hand.The cannon fabrication clenched in his glove was barely more than filaments of plasilk.
It did not help to picture the ship’s survival hanging on a literal thread.
One step.One connection.One at a time.
“Heading for the last install site.”He released his boot magnets and with a small flex launched away from the ship’s sheltering bulk, pushing the fake guns ahead of him.
Glimpsed through the skeletal structure, the protruding nav scope was approaching fast.He let out a tiny jet from his booster to match his aim to the ship’s rotation.
“Chief,” Griiek said on the main channel.“You’re about to reach the end of the tether.”
“I’ll switch to my suit line.”
Between his own tether and the suit boosters, he’d be fine for the brief time off the bay tether.Still, his fisted glove spasmed on the cable lock at the side of his chest.
“Power is banked and ready, per your orders, Chief,” Delphine reported.“Just need that last segment.”
As if he didn’t know that.But he heard the tension in the pilot’s voice so he did not snap back.
He kept his focus locked on the nav scope.Beyond that…nothing.
But his panic felt farther off too.As if the crew being right there, monitoring, assisting, had pushed it away.And Mariah was with them.
As the outer rim of the hull came into reach, he triggered his boot magnets and clamped to the ship, attaching his suit tether to the nearest anchor point.After streamlining his movements on the other sections, this last one slotted in quickly, especially with the plentiful latch options compared to the sleeker side panels.He released the connectors and welders from his belt, each of those on short tethers too.
All connected.
When he released the temporary fastenings on the fabrication, the simulated weaponry expanded into shape.What had seemed so flimsy when compared against the enormity of space now felt very bulky and intractable when he had to wrestle it by hand.But once all the laser relays were attached, the illusion would be complete.
He reached for the nearest bolt ring.
“Chief, we have a problem.”
Suvan bit back a sigh.When the captain used his cold command voice, it meant worse than a problem.“How bad?”
“The unidentified ship has changed course and is on parallel approach.Delphine estimates their scans will penetrate the debris field even through the obstructions.Seems they have decided we may be a target.”A pause.“Come back now.”
