The outer lock irised open. Whoomp. The frame shot off the platform. Air broke into a gush of bubbles and the roar carried him out, tumbling. The floaters popped free and began to swell. He spun, weightless, the fulcrum of vectoring forces as his suit creaked and his ears popped and a shower of bubbles rose around him like a flock of bright birds. Then the dark descended.
He came upright and saw the ship below, glistening. The floaters bobbed and sucked him upward. He had not thought through the balance of buoyancy and now saw he was too light.
What the—Must be a misfire Nikka go back there check the
He was rushing away from the glimmering ball of light. Farther below the smoldering fires of the stony reactor reddened the water. From this perspective they were remarkably similar pieces of technology.
Bags are free? How’d that happen must’ve been
Nikka answered, No I think wait
Ted says we should back away from this don’t worry about the equipment might be a pressure malf anyway we should get clear fast let ExoBio get in on this
He was rising too quickly. The frame would scoot all the way to the ice skin with so little weight to drag. Nigel suddenly realized that his suit could take extreme pressures, but could not adjust quickly to rapid changes in depth. If he kept rising—
Carlos where is he I can’t
Nigel’s ears popped. He stared upward at the floaters, swelling as they rose. Darkness cloaked him now as the ship fell away below. He did not dare show a light this close but he would need it to free one of the floaters. Now he could scarcely make out the bulk of them.
You mean you think he
The suit was bulky and awkward in the water and he had to search for the tabs on his left arm. He uncapped the spike and raised the arm. The third button should be—
A bright blue line sliced the water. He fanned it, leaving behind curling wisps of steam. The laser cutter boiled away a thin column and found a floater. The bag crinkled, turned brown—
Broke. Air gushed out. Nigel fired again, at the opposite floater. The beam churned the water soundlessly. It ate a thin, straight path, ghostly blue, haloed by steam. If the power ran out before—
That’s crazy! Mierda seca, the old bastard’ll That suit can take it but listen to me damn it turn on the spots we can trace him
The second floater burst. The beam leaped across the inside of it and punched a hole through the top. Nigel felt himself falling and then the frame slowed, still dropping. Equilibrium.
I’ll call Ted he’ll.
Later. See anything? There might be a suit light. Try the tracer.
Something wrong no pickup I can see
He can’t be beyond range this soon
Look for yourself his code shows nonoperational. He doctored it before he left must be
Floating, in an absence of space and light and weight. It was like the time on the slab, disconnected from the wearing of the world. Being in the high dark emptiness of space was much like the blank absorbing blackness here. His movements were sluggish, blunted by the unseen waters. No sound. When his boots struck the piping there came not a ringing but a muffled thud. He hung loosely to the frame and waited for something to come.
Look Ted’s on the line says he’s too busy to worry about this old fart there’s news from Earth-side looks bad new assembly starting in a few minutes
They can’t leave him out there call the teams on the surface get some more subs down here and
Nikka, this is Ted. Admittedly Nigel was right about one thing looks like—I mean his Walmsley’s Rule and all that. That must be a Watcher and Operations tells me it’s showing signs of life now, probably in response to our ground teams so
Then send down some submersibles damn it
Look there’s too many things happening at once Nikka I don’t have time to hunt for that bastard right now let him stew
He did it to stall for time don’t you see that
Stupid move just makes us more pissed up here
Ted I appeal to
He’s acting like a horse’s ass over nothing. I’m through with all this shit of his! Maybe he thought he’d get some sympathy support this way but it won’t cut up here, I can tell you that in spades
He sensed the running current taking him farther away from them. This was the farthest he had ever been, the natural tether. It was better to do it this way, in pursuit.
I’m pulling you people out soon as I can and if he’s gone he’s just gone that’s it
It will take hours
Okay you can search for a while the assembly starts in ten minutes anyway but I warn you—look, if he’s patched in still he can hear this. Nigel, this is it man, the last
He ignored the barking voice. Something more immediate disturbed him.
Rippling currents. He ignited a small helmet phosphor. The bars of the frame leaped into being around him, yellow and stark.
Nothing nearby. A tug, a fresh direction—
Something glimmered. It grew. A ball of ruddy clouds. Swelling toward him, coming fast—
Things moved inside. Specks in the clouds. Drifting dots. He tried to judge size but without perspective—
