door he’d just closed. She jerked off her helmet and leaned right up against the wall, her ear millimeters away from the metal.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Listening,” Kivi answered. “Quiet.”
Tron took off his own helmet, unhooked his gloves, and started unbuckling the collar of the suit while he waited for Kivi to explain what she was listening for. He started to worry that she’d lost it – assuming she’d had it to begin with – and was about to say so, when she turned back to him with a smile. “No more hissing.”
“Huh?”
“There was hissing before. Air, leaking past the seal of the door. But now the outer door is closed and the seal there is good. So no more hissing.”
Tron felt the color drain from his face as he remembered the sound that had barely registered as he leaned against the wall outside the mess. Was it just his imagination? It could’ve been. He was upset and trying not to give himself away. It might even have been a noise he was making himself. But he knew better. No amount of rationalizing was going to make it untrue.
“ Shit,” he muttered. “We’ve got another problem.”
The Leak
Kivi kept tripping and catching herself on Tron as they went, which was doing horrible things to his balance. The suits were heavy. He almost dropped his gloves twice. Kivi slowed as they got close, until he was practically dragging her. He understood her reluctance. God, did he ever. But he didn’t want to leave her behind, only to find out that he needed her help. He also just didn’t want to leave her behind. Somehow, he managed to get them both to the mess and get himself put together.
Neither one of them had their helmets on as they leaned close to the door to food storage. Tron had barely heard it before, and they needed to make sure it was real before they went charging in. If it had been his imagination, there was nothing to worry about. Not any more then when they opened every other door in Lucy. Which, now that he was thinking about it, suddenly seemed a lot more dangerous.
It only took a few seconds to determine that it wasn’t all in his head. Tron swallowed most of the cursing, but a few words slipped out . The seals were supposed to protect them from stuff like this. The people that had built this ship were long dead. At one fifth light speed travel, every year for Lucy and her passengers equated to some fists full of decades back on Earth. He’d read the math once, but math was never something he’d cared about and so the equation was lost from his memory. Regardless, long dead. But if he could, he would go back there and pound on their bones until they were dust for being so bad at their jobs.
He took up the same position he’d used at the hatch as they both locked their helmets into place. “Ready?”
Kivi took a slow breath. “Are you coming in?”
Tron didn’t need to consider the answer. If there was something broken inside the room, something that wasn’t just a machine waiting to be poked at, there was no way Kivi would be able to handle it on her own. The girl was barely strong enough to hold her suit up. It would mean more of their life slipping out into the black. “Yeah. Wouldn’t want to miss anything cool this time.” She nodded.
Tron silently counted to three. Then he jerked the door open. Just like at the hatch, a blast of air shot past them. It pushed them both inside quickly. It seemed like more of a struggle to close it than the hatch had been, but Kivi didn’t waste any time adding her own weight to his efforts. With the suit on, that amounted to something. Once the door was closed, he turned to look at the rest of the room.
In the place they’d once stored all their non-perishable food stores, there was now nothing but space. Almost without thinking about it, Tron slowly walked to look out the gaping hole in Lucy’s hull.
The ship had always been so solid. For most of his life, she had contained his whole world. He’d hated
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Listening,” Kivi answered. “Quiet.”
Tron took off his own helmet, unhooked his gloves, and started unbuckling the collar of the suit while he waited for Kivi to explain what she was listening for. He started to worry that she’d lost it – assuming she’d had it to begin with – and was about to say so, when she turned back to him with a smile. “No more hissing.”
“Huh?”
“There was hissing before. Air, leaking past the seal of the door. But now the outer door is closed and the seal there is good. So no more hissing.”
Tron felt the color drain from his face as he remembered the sound that had barely registered as he leaned against the wall outside the mess. Was it just his imagination? It could’ve been. He was upset and trying not to give himself away. It might even have been a noise he was making himself. But he knew better. No amount of rationalizing was going to make it untrue.
“ Shit,” he muttered. “We’ve got another problem.”
The Leak
Kivi kept tripping and catching herself on Tron as they went, which was doing horrible things to his balance. The suits were heavy. He almost dropped his gloves twice. Kivi slowed as they got close, until he was practically dragging her. He understood her reluctance. God, did he ever. But he didn’t want to leave her behind, only to find out that he needed her help. He also just didn’t want to leave her behind. Somehow, he managed to get them both to the mess and get himself put together.
Neither one of them had their helmets on as they leaned close to the door to food storage. Tron had barely heard it before, and they needed to make sure it was real before they went charging in. If it had been his imagination, there was nothing to worry about. Not any more then when they opened every other door in Lucy. Which, now that he was thinking about it, suddenly seemed a lot more dangerous.
It only took a few seconds to determine that it wasn’t all in his head. Tron swallowed most of the cursing, but a few words slipped out . The seals were supposed to protect them from stuff like this. The people that had built this ship were long dead. At one fifth light speed travel, every year for Lucy and her passengers equated to some fists full of decades back on Earth. He’d read the math once, but math was never something he’d cared about and so the equation was lost from his memory. Regardless, long dead. But if he could, he would go back there and pound on their bones until they were dust for being so bad at their jobs.
He took up the same position he’d used at the hatch as they both locked their helmets into place. “Ready?”
Kivi took a slow breath. “Are you coming in?”
Tron didn’t need to consider the answer. If there was something broken inside the room, something that wasn’t just a machine waiting to be poked at, there was no way Kivi would be able to handle it on her own. The girl was barely strong enough to hold her suit up. It would mean more of their life slipping out into the black. “Yeah. Wouldn’t want to miss anything cool this time.” She nodded.
Tron silently counted to three. Then he jerked the door open. Just like at the hatch, a blast of air shot past them. It pushed them both inside quickly. It seemed like more of a struggle to close it than the hatch had been, but Kivi didn’t waste any time adding her own weight to his efforts. With the suit on, that amounted to something. Once the door was closed, he turned to look at the rest of the room.
In the place they’d once stored all their non-perishable food stores, there was now nothing but space. Almost without thinking about it, Tron slowly walked to look out the gaping hole in Lucy’s hull.
The ship had always been so solid. For most of his life, she had contained his whole world. He’d hated
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