We all followed the girls onto the suit deck. Dak and I helped them get suited up, Travis carefully keeping his back to us. He was putting together a tool kit with some of the things they might need, just a heavy-duty canvas bag with a drawstring.
“For once in my life, I’m not sure I want to be a feminist,” Kelly whispered. “Manny, I’m real scared.”
“Just say the word, and you don’t have to go,” I said, meaning it. I’d fight Travis with my fists, if I had to.
“You wouldn’t say the word, would you? Be honest.”
“No. No I wouldn’t.”
“And you’d probably be almost as scared as I am.”
“Probably more.”
I noticed that Travis was suiting up, too. He smiled at me.
“Somebody has to go outside to help them with the crossing,” he said, “and I don’t figure that’ll be too dangerous. But I want both of you to suit up, too, all but the helmets, and keep those with you. Should have thought of it before, there’s too much stuff flying around out there, we could get a puncture.”
And with that, the three of them put on their helmets-a last kiss from me to Kelly-and entered the air lock.
Dak and I watched it cycle as we suited up, then hurried up to the cockpit. We got there in time to see the three of them float up to the portholes, tethered together and also tied to a safety line that was attached to one of many hooks welded to Red Thunder’s side for that very purpose.
[365] “Kelly, you go first. I’m going to be here to belay you when you get there. You see that shred of aluminum about twenty feet from the biggest piece?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“That looks like the center of gravity. You get to that, you can hook your line and not start spinning. Then I’ll send Alicia over. Now, this dingus right here.”
He was holding the Space Maneuvering Unit Captain Xu had loaned us. It looked like bicycle handlebars with a big thermos attached.
“You’re going to start off with just a simple kick against the side of the ship. You hold the SMU like this. See? Over your head. Hang on to it, but do not use it to speed up or slow down. Use it for course corrections only. You hit this button with your thumb. Don’t hold it down, or I’ll reel you back in and have you do it again. Okay?”
Kelly nodded. I figured she was too scared to talk.
Travis tied the SMU to Kelly’s suit so it wouldn’t be lost, tied the tool kit around her waist, then he picked her up and swung her into a position about six feet from the side of the ship. She flailed around in panic for a second and my heart leaped into my throat. Then she settled down, facing Travis, and he put her through a series of familiarization drills. At first she held the control down too long and shot out to the length of her safety tether, which was about twenty feet long. Travis pulled her back, talking softly and calmly the whole time, and positioned her again. She quickly learned how to point the thing to get to where she wanted to go.
“I never felt so useless, man,” Dak said, and I could only agree. How did this happen? Kelly and Alicia had never dreamed of space, like Dak and I had. So why were our girlfriends out there, and us in here?
After about twenty minutes of drills, Travis judged Kelly as ready as she’d ever be. So he positioned her with her feet against the side of Red Thunder and told her to jump. She jumped.
At first it looked good, she seemed to be headed right toward the center of gravity of the Ares Seven wreckage. But Travis, who had a better line of sight, told her she was bearing off to her right, and Kelly [366] tried to correct. She held the button down too long, and it looked like it twisted in her hands. Whatever happened, she lost the SMU and began flailing around again.
“Oh God, oh God,” she was whispering.
“Kelly, get the SMU back. Just pull in your left arm. That’s right. Now you’ve got it. Now aim it directly away from your chest and just touch the button.”
She was still swinging out in such a way that she’d eventually wrap herself all around Red Thunder, but more slowly.
“Do that again. That’s right. And again. Once more.”
Now she hovered motionless at the end of her tether. I checked something I hadn’t remembered up to now, which was the telemetry from her suit. Her heart and breathing rates were way up. The heart rate slowed some as Travis pulled her slowly back to us. I could hear her sigh as her boots touched the hull again.
“Not bad,” Travis said. “I never expected we’d get it on the first try. You want to wait a bit, catch your breath?”
“No, let’s get it over with.”
She jumped again. This time she looked off course right from the start… but this time she did a lot better with the SMU, got herself almost lined up, overcorrected, corrected again, and with about ten feet to go was only a few feet off the optimal location. Travis snubbed her safety rope and then coached her through the last feet with tiny bursts from the SMU. It took her a full minute to cross that last few feet, but when she finally was able to reach out and grab that collection of tight cables I heard her laugh, sweet music to my ears.
“Good. Hook your second safety rope to something… that’s good. Now unhook the first line and clip it to the wires right in front of you. Got it.”
Travis pulled that line almost taut, and clipped his end to a ring.
“Now Alicia’s coming over.”
It was easier, because all Alicia had to do was clip her line to the first rope with a snap ring, and pull herself across.
“Just pull a few times,” Travis told her. “It should take you a full five minutes to get across. Okay?”
[367] “Got it.”
One hand on the rope and one carrying her pressurized “black bag” of medical supplies and instruments, she shoved off.
“Oh, man, I don’t like this, I don’t like this.”
“Closing your eyes might help,” Dak told her.
“Dak, stay off the line, please.”
“Let him talk, Captain? It helps me, some.”
“Right. Sorry, guys.”
“No problem.”
“Dak, could you just talk to me?”
Dak hurried down to the control deck, talking all the way, and came back again in a few seconds with a CD. He stuck it in the player and soon one of Alicia’s favorite songs was filling our ears. I heard Alicia laugh, then she started singing along.
“Open your eyes now, Alicia,” Travis said when she was almost there. “Got it? Just tighten your grip on the rope, that should do it.” It did, and in a few seconds Kelly had grabbed Alicia’s hand and they were securing themselves.
“Now what?”
“What looks promising?” Travis asked. There was a long pause.
“Nothing,” Kelly admitted. “I don’t see any lights, or anything like that.”
“That’s okay. Keep looking.”
“It’s pretty dark.”
“Turn on your headlight.”
“My… oh, well, duuuh! Forgot all about it.” All the suits had krypton lights mounted over the faceplates, not that different from automobile headlights, though when one proved to be defective we had to order a new one from Russia.
We saw the lights go on from both their suits.
“I think I know where you are,” Travis said. “Dak, Manny, bring up that schematic on the Ares Seven. Check me, but doesn’t it look like they might be where C deck used to be?”
We brought it up on Travis’s screen, twisted it a few times, and then [368] it fell into place. Dak pointed to a large oxygen cylinder on the schematic, then to a big tank just above Alicia’s and Kelly’s heads.
“I think you’re right, Captain. Kelly, Alicia, if we’ve got you located right, the main air lock ought to be on the side facing away from Red Thunder. Turn to your left a little, Kelly… a little more… there. What you’re lighting up now looks like it might be the descent ladder and what’s left of a landing strut. See it?”
“Yes. But… there’s a lot of wire here, it’s a real rat’s nest.”
“Don’t get caught up in the wires,” Travis said.