Arthur Clarke - Earthlight

“This is what we’re going to do,” said the small, dark man who a few months ago had been one of the best surgeons on Venus. “We can’t get at the airlocks, because there’s vacuum all round us and we’ve only got five suits. This ship was built for fighting, not for carrying passengers, and I’m afraid her designers had other matters to think about besides Standard Space-worthiness Regs. Here we are, and we have to make the best of it.

“We’ll be alongside the Pegasus in a couple of hours. Luckily for us, she’s got big locks for loading freight and passengers; there’s room for thirty or forty men to crowd into them, if they squeeze tight— and aren’t wearing suits. Yes, I know that sounds bad, but it’s not suicide. You’re going to breathe space, and get away with it! I won’t say it will be enjoyable, but it will be something to brag about for the rest of your lives.

“Now listen carefully. The first thing I’ve got to prove to you is that you can live for five minutes without breathing— in fact, without wanting to breathe. It’s a simple trick: Yogis and magicians have known it for centuries, but there’s nothing occult about it and it’s based on common-sense physiology. To give you confidence, I want you to make this test.”

The M.O. pulled a stop watch out of his pocket, and continued:

“When I say ‘Now!’ I want you to exhale completely— empty your lungs of every drop of air—and then see how long you can stay before you have to take a breath. Don’t strain—just hold out until it becomes uncomfortable, then start breathing again normally. I’ll start counting the seconds after fifteen, so you can tell what you managed to do. If anyone can’t take the quarter minute, I’ll recommend his instant dismissal from the Service.”

The ripple of laughter broke the tension, as it had been intended to; then the M.O. held up his hand, and swept it down with a shout of “Now!” There was a great sigh as the entire company emptied its lungs; then utter silence.

When the M.O. started counting at “Fifteen,” there were a few gasps from those who had barely been able to make the grade. He went on counting to “Sixty” accompanied by occasional explosive pants as one man after another capitulated. Some were still stubbornly holding out after a full minute.

“That’s enough,” said the little surgeon. “You tough guys can stop showing off, you’re spoiling the experiment.”

Again there was a murmur of amusement; the men were rapidly regaining their morale. They still did not understand what was happening, but at least some plan was afoot that offered them a hope of rescue.

“Let’s see how we managed,” said the M.O. “Hands up all those who held out for fifteen to twenty seconds… Now twenty to twenty-five… Now twenty-five to thirty—Jones, you’re a damn liar—you folded up at fifteen!… Now thirty to thirty-five…”

When he had finished the census, it was dear that more than half the company had managed to hold their breath for thirty seconds, and no one had failed to reach fifteen seconds.

“That’s about what I expected,” said the M.O. “You can regard this as a control experiment, and now we come on to the real thing. I ought to tell you that we’re now breathing almost pure oxygen here, at about three hundred millimeters. So although the pressure in the ship is less than half its sea-level value on Earth, your lungs are taking in twice as much oxygen as they would on Earth, and still more than they would on Mars or Venus. If any of you have sneaked off to have a surreptitious smoke in the toilet, you’ll already have noticed that the air was rich, as your cigarette will only have lasted a few seconds.

“I’m telling you all this because it will increase your confidence to know what is going on. What you’re going to do now is to flush out your lungs and fill your system with oxygen. It’s called hyperventilation, which is simply a ten dollar word for deep breathing. When I give the signal, I want you all to breathe as deeply as you can, then exhale completely, and carry on breathing in the same way until I tell you to stop. I’ll let you do it for a minute; some of you may feel a bit dizzy at the end of that time, but it’ll pass. Take in all the air you can with every breath; swing your arms to get maximum chest expansion.

“Then, when the minute’s up, I’ll tell you to exhale, then stop breathing, and I’ll begin counting seconds again. I think I can promise you a big surprise. O.K.—here we go!”

For the next minutes, the overcrowded compartments of the Acheron presented a fantastic spectacle. More than a hundred men were flailing their arms and breathing stertorously, as if each was at his last gasp. Some were too closely packed together to breathe as deeply as they would have liked, and all had to anchor themselves somehow so that their exertion would not cause them to drift around the cabins.

“Now!” shouted the M.O. “Stop breathing—blow out all your air—and see how long you can manage before you’ve got to start again. I’ll count the seconds, but this time I won’t begin until half a minute has gone.”

The result, it was obvious, left everyone flabbergasted. One man failed to make the minute, otherwise almost two minutes elapsed before most of the men felt the need to breathe again. Indeed, to have taken a breath before then would have demanded a deliberate effort. Some men were still perfectly comfortable after three or four minutes; one was holding out at five when the doctor stopped him.

“I think you’ll all see what I was trying to prove. When your lungs are flushed out with oxygen, you just don’t want to breathe for several minutes, any more than you want to eat again after a heavy meal. It’s no strain or hardship; it’s not a question of holding your breath. And if your life depended on it, you could do even better than this, I promise you.

“Now we’re going to tie up right alongside the Pegasus; it will take less than thirty seconds to get over to her. She’ll have her men out in suits to push along any stragglers, and the air lock doors will be slammed shut as soon as you’re all inside. Then the lock will be flooded with air and you’ll be none the worse except for some bleeding noses.”

He hoped that was true. There was only one way to find out. It was a dangerous and unprecedented gamble, but there was no alternative. At least it would give every man a fighting chance for his life.

“Now,” he continued, “you’re probably wondering about the pressure drop. That’s the only uncomfortable part, but you won’t be in a vacuum long enough for severe damage. We’ll open the hatches in two stages; first we’ll drop pressure slowly to a tenth of an atmosphere, then we’ll blow out completely in one bang and make a dash for it. Total decompression’s painful, but not dangerous. Forget all that nonsense you may have heard about the human body blowing up in a vacuum. We’re a lot tougher than that, and the final drop we’re going to make from a tenth of an atmosphere to zero is considerably less than men have already stood in lab tests. Hold your mouth wide open and let yourself break wind. You’ll feel your skin stinging all over, but you’ll probably be too busy to notice that.”

The M.O. paused, and surveyed his quiet, intent audience. They were all taking it very well, but that was only to be expected. Every one was a trained man—they were the pick of the planets’ engineers and technicians.

“As a matter of fact,” the surgeon continued cheerfully, “you’ll probably laugh when I tell you the biggest danger of the lot. It’s nothing more than sunburn. Out there you’ll be in the sun’s raw ultra-violet, unshielded by atmosphere. It can give you a nasty blister in thirty seconds, so we’ll make the crossing in the shadow of the Pegasus. If you happen to get outside that shadow, just shield your face with your arm. Those of you who’ve got gloves might as well wear them.