Jesse had often thought about what it might feel like to suffocate: the agony of oxygen deprivation and the clenching full body panic that came with it. Getting trapped under ice and drowning. A silent final scream of desperation as he fought to suck air into deflating lungs and instead felt the violation of freezing water rushing into his mouth. His throat sealing shut.
‘Harry!’
Harry’s smiling face lit up the porthole. His voice audible through the intercom on the side. ‘Scared already?’ he asked. What little light there was glinted off his retinas. ‘You’re not much of an astronaut, are you? I knew there was a reason you didn’t make it first time round.’
‘This isn’t funny,’ Jesse called, slamming his hand against the window. It was so thick, two sheets of bolted polycarbonate, that he wasn’t sure that Harry could hear him.
‘Being in the airlock is not half as scary as being in space. While the six of us were cramming for physiology exams, you were probably out smoking weed and contemplating cloud formations, or whatever else it is you did with your abundant free time, so let me fill you in. There is one door separating you from the hard vacuum of space, the void between astronomical bodies, the possibly infinite ocean of mostly nothing-ness. It’s a bit like death. But do you know what would be more like death? Me, out here, turning this handle and watching you float out into space. What would a place like that do to a body like yours?’
Jesse’s mouth went dry as he imagined it. The latches unbuckling, the airlock depressurizing, the door swinging open. This was the closest to the emptiness of space he had ever been. If he pressed his hand against the icy surface of the hatch he might even feel it, something of the coldness of space – around -270°C – but instead he was running his trembling fingers along the edges of the door, looking for an emergency button or loose seal – an escape.
‘Want to know a little something about surviving in space?’ Harry asked. ‘When I open the airlock and all the oxygen rushes out, try not to hold your breath. If you do, the air in your chest expands, your lungs will rupture and bubbles will spill out into your bloodstream, so your girlish scream of terror might just be the thing that saves your life. For a minute. And, out there – of course – no one will be able to hear you.
‘You’ll collapse after about fifteen seconds and begin to turn blue, although you look pretty blue to me already. No pressure in space means that, despite the sub-zero temperatures, all the water in your eyes and mouth will actually boil. Oh, and your body will swell to twice the size. Are you listening?’
Jesse was screaming for help now, banging his sweaty palms against the door hoping that someone, anyone, might hear him. His heart kicked against his chest. The air in the room was smothering.
‘One comforting thought is that a human can survive over a minute out in space before he dies. So if Dr G hauled your bloated body back inside the ship and injected you with pressurized oxygen before your heart gave up entirely, you might just make it. I mean, you’d be in excruciating pain, but you’d be alive. Let’s see for ourselves, shall we?’
The moment Jesse saw Harry’s face in the window, he knew that he was actually going to do it. Harry reached out and twisted the equalization valve. As he did so, Jesse heard the hiss as the airlock depressurized by venting air out into space. He almost thought he could see white plumes of gas bulge out into the blackness.
‘Five seconds,’ Harry called out. The little hand of the pressure gauge slid down.
Jesse clawed at the inner hatch. In four seconds the outer airlock would unlatch and he would be ripped out of the safety of the ship. This was it, he realized with a dizzying rush of dread. He was going to die.
‘Stop, please!’ Jesse screamed. He wasn’t ashamed to beg for his life. ‘Please!’
Harry’s eyes flashed, his blond lashes translucent.
‘Three…’
‘No—’ Tears filled Jesse’s eyes, and he scraped at the solid metal of the door so hard that blood bubbled under his fingernails.
‘Two…’
The edges of his vision blackened, and the muscles in his legs crumpled. He had escaped the gravity of Earth only to die in the darkness here.
‘One…’
Chapter 26
JUNO
29.08.12
WHEN JUNO AND ELIOT climbed down to the lower deck, the first thing Juno heard was Harry’s laughter echoing along the narrow corridors. Perhaps that was the reason she chose to head towards the store rooms, instead of the simulation room where she had expected to find the two boys.
Over the sound of Harry’s laughter, Juno thought she could hear the high-pitched whistle of air escaping vents. A terrifying noise that turned her blood to ice. Without a backwards glance at Eliot she began to run. The ceilings were low nearer the airlock, and she had to crouch down a little to save from knocking her head. At the end of the corridor, Harry was bent in front of the gearbox, shaking with laughter. The window into the airlock was dark, but the digital readout on the side of the wall was ticking down.
‘Five…’ Harry shouted.
‘What are you doing?’ Juno yelled. Although as she said it she knew that the airlock was decompressing. Harry was laughing so much he had to suck in air just to speak.
He said, ‘Four… It’s just some fun, Juma.’
‘Is someone in there?’ Juno yelled. A hand smacked against the porthole – from inside the airlock. Juno screamed.
‘Three…’ Harry continued. Juno lunged for the gearbox, knocking Harry out of the way with strength that surprised even her, and grabbed the handle of the equalization control. The gauge was sliding down as oxygen hissed out of the vents. If the pressure reached zero, whoever was inside would suffocate – or worse, once the doors opened they would be dragged out into the hard vacuum of space. Juno heaved the handle in the opposite direction and watched as the pressure began, again, to climb.
‘Two…’ Harry shouted, his face flushed. Juno grabbed the lever that controlled the inner hatch door and yanked it towards her, just in time to hear the locking mechanism release.
‘One…’ The hatch swung open, sucking air in such a violent slipstream that both Juno and Harry were almost knocked off their feet, and two displays tore off the wall.
The lights in the airlock activated.
‘Where is he?’ Harry’s face fell as they looked around the small compartment. Juno had never entered this airlock chamber. It was set up for spacewalks, with spacesuits plugged into ports on the walls. It was a tangle of wires and equipment, with only enough space to comfortably fit two astronauts at any one time.
Jesse was curled in a dark heap in the corner. When Juno approached him, his lips were blue and he was gaping like a fish, sweat soaking his shirt. ‘Jesse?’
Instead of replying, Jesse clutched at his chest as if he was choking, knocking one of the boneless spacesuits mounted on the wall hard enough to detach it. Juno’s heart pounded with panic. She turned on Harry. ‘What did you do to him?’
‘I-I…’ Harry stammered, all traces of hilarity draining from his face as he leant into the airlock chamber, holding the hatch open like a car boot. ‘I don’t know.’
When Juno pressed a palm against Jesse’s chest, she felt that his heart was fluttering shallowly.
‘Jess…’ She squeezed his damp hand and peered into his tiny pupils. ‘It’s okay… you’re safe.’ She tested his pulse, counted his staccato breaths.