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Danielle looked thoughtful.
‘There might be another way, but it could get you killed just as quick.’
‘Go on,’ I said.
‘There is a shaft that goes out from the core, not far from here, and it would come out close to the comms relay box.’
‘So why doesn’t it show on the map?’
‘Because at the bottom of the shaft is one of the vents for the attitude control jets. If the jet fires, anybody in the vent will be blown straight out into space and there’s no way to stop it. Or to get them back.’
‘How often do these jets go off?’ Pitr asked. Danielle tapped something in to the console.
‘This one last lit 97 years, 1 day, and 3 hours ago. The most likely time for any correction is just before an expected burn. Oh, and there’s no air, and no gravity plating.’
‘Then how - ?’ I started.
‘I can cap the end of the shaft with field and flood it with atmosphere. They do it for maintenance sometimes. The rest would be your problem. There is an access hatch at the bottom, and another not far from where you need to be. Thing is, I can’t disable the jet.’
‘Maybe the drone?’ I started, but Danielle was already shaking his head.
‘We’re in flight. It would need Noah and the Captain.’
I looked helplessly at Pitr, but I felt my face harden when he looked first to Alyssa before he looked to me.
‘I’ll do it,’ I said.
‘Don’t you want to know what to do,’ asked Danielle, for a moment looking smug. I tapped the drone and the grin vanished.
‘I think this can probably explain it. How long?’
Danielle shrugged. ‘Could be ready by the time you get to the hatch.’
I thought about it. The box I needed to fiddle with was over a kilometre away, and the display said I had over two hours to get there. It looked as though we still had time.
‘Do it,’ I said.
‘Your call,’ said Danielle. ‘Just remember to clip on to the safety line, and not to go too fast. It’s easy to build up too much speed in micro-g.’
‘How will I know if you aren’t done?’
‘The hatch won’t open.’
I nodded, then walked out of the control room, turning right and following the directions the drone was feeding into my eyes. There were footsteps behind me, but I didn’t turn until Pitr spoke.
‘Garret?’
I stopped, looked back. He and Alyssa were both staring at me. ‘We’d like to come too.’
‘You heard her. I could get killed.’
Pitr looked hurt. ‘So?’
‘You’d be safer here. You could sort out a backup plan if this one went wrong,’ I said.
‘What would be the point in that?’ said Alyssa. ‘We can’t get back, and if we stay here we die, one way or another. I don’t want to starve to death. Better to go with you. We might be able to help.’
Pitr nodded vigorously, and I didn’t really have an argument to put them off with. I rolled my shoulders as casually as I could.
‘Leave the bag, then,’ I said. ‘We won’t need it.’
Pitr opened his mouth to say something, but then shucked off the pack and left it on the floor. I turned away and started walking. It took another fifteen minutes to get to the room where the access hatch was. It was bigger than I had expected, almost as big as an ordinary door, but painted bright yellow and surrounded by warning signs. Hung on the wall next to it were sturdy belts with metal hoops around them. Next to them were loops of strong rope.
‘Must be the safety lines,’ Pitr said. We each took a belt and put it on, then clipped one end of a rope to the belt. I went to open the door. It looked very business-like and very basic, and a big sign in the middle said ‘Warning. Vacuum.’. Four clamps at the corners of the door were held in place by heavy handles that screwed into place. I managed to undo three of them, but the fourth needed Pitr’s help.
‘Do you think it’s safe to open it,’ said Pitr.
‘Danielle said it would only open if it was,’ I replied, and I grabbed hold of the handle and pulled. Again, Pitr had to step in and help. At first, we thought Danielle might not have finished as the door seemed unwilling to budge. Alyssa joined us and we tried harder. There was a sticky, tearing sound then a loud hiss, and it started to move. It was still hard work. The door was a plug shape nearly twenty centimetres thick, and it looked as though it was solid.
We let go and stood, bowed over with our hands on our knees as we fought to catch our breath, then I looked to see what was behind the door. A short corridor perhaps five metres long and with good lights stretched out in front of us, with another door at the end. I briefly turned back to look at Pitr and Alyssa before I walked down the corridor. This door was lighter, with only one bolt. I pulled the bolt, then heaved on the door. It didn’t move, and I cursed whoever it was had made all these doors so difficult to use. I was about to call on Pitr when I realised the handle was too small. Too small, anyway, for two people to heave on, and I suddenly felt rather stupid. As I pushed on the door and it swung open, I couldn’t help being relived I hadn’t actually called for help.
I grabbed hold of the doorframe and leaned forwards to look out. The floor of the shaft was a step down from the door, and the first things I saw were four black cones, pointing downwards and attached to a huge metal plate fixed to the floor. These must be the jets Danielle had mentioned. They didn’t look that threatening, and were no more than a metre tall and fifty centimetres across the mouth. I stepped out of the door to have a closer look.
Pitr’s hand grabbed my belt as I stepped forward and he shouted ‘Wait.’
I jerked myself free, angrily. ‘What?’
‘Danielle said to use safety lines before we went out.’
‘So? I was only going to walk over to - ’
‘I know, but she made the point there was no gravity plating, whatever that is.’
I sighed, went back to the door frame and this time looked all around it. There was a tautly stretched cable. I hooked the other end of my rope to it and gave it a tug.
I stepped out of the door and went to look at the jets.
Or that was what I planned to do. What actually happened is that as I stepped over the threshold of the door, an uncomfortable tingle danced right through my body and suddenly I was falling.