“Ark,” said Gabe, “how did your bipeds manage assembling and maintaining these stations out here?”
Belle broke in:
Ark’s voice:
We put the lander into the cradle and opened the doors. The cradle took the lander outside.
Belle started its thrusters and it moved slowly across the open space between us and the station. The section where the door was located was bulbous. We couldn’t see the door itself. Or at least neither Gabe nor I could. But Belle was able to pin it down.
She turned the lander to port, which allowed her to align the lander’s air lock with the station’s door. she said. Then:
Ark,” I said, “go over when you’re ready.”
There were more exchanges between Ark and Sayla. Belle said she would translate if there was anything important.
“Gabe,” I said, “I wonder if this will cut off power from this place?”
Ark replied: He fell silent. Then:
Sayla said something. Ark translated: Then he continued:
He was silent for a couple of minutes. Then: Another long pause. .
We waited. Finally the inner door opened.
The next thing we heard was Sayla crying out happily. Belle translated.
said Ark, Then he and Sayla were exchanging greetings again. But after a minute it turned unpleasant.
“What’s wrong, Ark?” Gabe asked.
“Didn’t you know that before we came?”
“So what’s the problem?”
XXVII.
“Belle,” I said, “bring the lander back.” I’d have preferred getting as close as we could to the station with the ship and just jumping out of the air lock, but that doesn’t work well when you can’t see. And there was a ton of radiation.
Gabe grumbled something about how the hell did we get into this? “Will the pressure suits stand up?”
The question was directed at Belle but Ark broke in before he could finish:
Gabe smiled. “Tell her we’re happy to help.”
“What about the suits?” asked Gabe.
“They should be okay,” I said. “They’re supposed to hold up against three hundred degrees, which is more or less where we are. I’m more concerned about the radiation.”
said Belle.
“Good. Got a question for you.”
“I’m not excited about going out into all this radiation in the lander. Do you think you could line up our air lock with the door on the station?”
“If we are careful going in, even if we hit the dish, it shouldn’t do too much damage.”
“We might even be able to use the dish, if we do hit it, to help us find the door.”
“Chase,” said Gabe, “this is not a good idea.”
Belle said.
“I don’t see any options. Belle, I hate to do this, but you’ve a better sense of where things are. I have to get ready. You take us in and line up our exit hatch with their front door as best you can.”
I went down and climbed into my pressure suit. Gabe followed me and started getting into his own suit while we argued that we didn’t need two people out there. “Let’s let this argument go till another time,” I said. “Okay?”
“Would you please shut up, Chase? Do you know how to get her loose?”
“We can probably use a cutter. Sayla should be able to direct us.”
“Okay. That’s a good idea. But I think—”
“Please, Gabe. Stop. We don’t have time for this.”
He closed his eyes and turned away from me.
I’d have preferred to blindfold myself until I got inside the station. But that wasn’t a good idea since I’d have no way to remove the blindfold once I put the helmet on. So I was simply going to have to keep my eyes shut.
I grabbed my cutter and some cable from storage. Then I waited. Belle moved us back and forth, a little bit forward, a touch to port. And finally she told me to get into the air lock and be ready to go on short notice.
“That’s pretty good,” I said.
“Yes, Belle.”