"Let’s travel side-by-side for maximum coverage while not necessarily looking like we’re searching," I said.
"Since the stream view is external, they won’t know precisely what we see," Silent said. "But once we spot something, it’s going to be difficult to not draw the entire audience’s attention to it."
Nina shrugged, the movement barely visible through her suit. "We can only try. Take an image of any potential latches, and we’ll discuss them."
I walked, an exercise in concentration when every step required a pull to free my boot, an adjustment of balance, and then controlling the moment the magnetism caught my foot again. I’d reversed my sled so that I was backing it ahead of me, and felt like Frankenstein’s monster herding a recalcitrant space shopping trolley. Shuck, wobble, CLOMP.
The pitted, metallic grey of The Wreck made the search far from simple. I hadn’t heard an official age for the thing, but if it belonged to a pre-Synergis species, it had been out here for virtual centuries, and showed it. Score marks, curious black splotches, and countless minute pits gave the hull as much variation as the surface of the moon.
My initial optimism faded as we passed over the first two of Silent’s target sections without finding anything. We went on for two more, than turned, and came back over the sections running to our initial line’s right, which would make it clear we were searching the area particularly, but it couldn’t be helped. When nothing stood out, we repeated the run over the sections running to our initial line’s left.
"This one, it is different," Imoenne said, in her breathy murmur.
"How do you mean?" Nina asked.
"The sound, it is a different quality."
"Ah, she is right!" Arlen twice lifted his foot and put it down. "A lighter note."
I hadn’t heard any variation, but I was barely hearing the noise we made at all. What sound there was had to be travelling to us through our suits, rather than the vacuum surrounding us, and was far too muted for me to make out subtleties.
"That so?" Silent said. "All right—let’s finish moving across it, then cross the next one and return. Eyes peeled."
We clomped a further segment away, then paused to confer.
"Either we’re missing some difference, it’s the wrong segment, or perhaps the line of holes that all of them have will act differently if it’s an airlock?" I said.
"Amelia says there’s two teams that are heading up to check out what we’re doing," Silent said. "We’ve maybe ten minutes before they reach the hull."
"We could move down as if we hadn’t found anything, and return when they’ve lost interest," Nina mused. "But perhaps we should simply shift to our true target area, and see if there’s a different sounding segment. If there is, and there’s no obvious mechanism, we can try lan insertion in the holes and, if that fails, change to Plan B."
"Sounds the best option. Let’s go." Silent reversed his sled, and we zipped quickly away from the crater, following his projected line for placement of the vertical transport corridors—presuming whoever built The Wreck had evenly spaced the things.
"It’s tempting to try to blast in," Nina mused, as we once again began a laborious clomp across a patch of hull. "A sure way to fail, but the target I’ve painted on us makes it hard to restrain our pace."
"We’ll balance that out with strength, wit and, apparently, an ear for music," Silent said, with a little chuckle.
"If we don’t find anything, we will at least have confused everyone watching us," I said, managing to keep my tone light, but starting to wonder what we’d do if teams caught up to us out here.
We concentrated on searching, and this time it was on the first return trip that Imoenne said: "Here."
"One of the teams is nearing the rim of the crater," Silent warned.
"Let’s try lan insertion first," Nina said. "And survey the area in close detail if that fails."
"Advisable to not stand upon it, if we are opening," Arlen suggested, and we hastily moved off our hoped-for door.
"I’ll do the insertion," I said, glad I could at least contribute speedy lan manipulation. I created a comb of the same type we’d used in the gauntlet series, first shaping it above the series of holes, and then pushing it downward.
Nothing.
I could hear the tiny sighs of disappointment over our private connection, but Imoenne held up a hand before I could release the lan insertion.
"There is a new vibration," she said.
"The mechanism could be barely running, if it is at all." Silent bent, and put his hand on the panel we were trying to open. "I can feel something. Seems to be getting stronger."
"If it’s an airlock, it’d have to vent the air before opening I guess." I glanced back toward the crater. "Let’s hope it vents quickly, or we’re just going to be opening this door for someone else’s benefit."
I could feel the vibrations now, and then a series of clanks, slow at first, but then increasing in volume and pace until it felt like someone was hammering on the hull, trying to get out.
"Ominous as fuck," Silent said, and then rocked backward as the target section launched upward and slammed back against the hull opposite to us. Beneath, a far less scarred door slid quietly back to reveal a spacious opening with another set of doors on the far side.
"In, quick," Nina said, kneeling and grabbing for a handhold to haul herself downward. "We have to get down and figure out how to close it again."
This was not so easy, since we had to manoeuvre our sleds with their precious supplies inside as well, and while we all could fit with room for a couple more, it wasn’t something to try quickly. Arlen proved particularly helpful, moving like an eel and then reaching to pull and position the rest of us.
"Let’s hope this closes it," Nina said, punching buttons even as Silent and Arlen pulled me last through the hatch.
"Wait! Wait! Get the Renba in!" I said, speaking out loud in my panic.
The door was already closing. I frantically hit my [Call Renba] command, then gulped and swallowed until I saw the flash of silver zip through the rapidly narrowing gap. With the effortless speed and manoeuvrability of hummingbirds, the other four followed, the last dropping through bare moments before the airlock shut out the stars.
45
inside
[[So lucky with your group,]] Dio murmured in my ear.
I managed not to start, and then said to tem: "Are you allowed to talk to me?"
[[Snark is always permitted. I could get you disqualified if I drop hints, however.]]
"That would be annoying. And, yes, very lucky."