Майкл Бишоп - The Final Frontier - Stories of Exploring Space, Colonizing the Universe, and First Contact

As the hardsuits clumped around the corner of the locker room, their servos singing, Adel shivered and caught his breath. He thought he could hear every joint crack as he unclenched his fists and spread his fingers. When he pulled the isotherm hood over his head, he got the worst ice cream headache he’d ever had.

“This is going to be fun,” he said through clenched teeth.

The hardsuits were gleaming white eggs with four arms, two legs and a tail. The arms on either side were flexrobotic and built for heavy lifting. Beside them were fabric sleeves into which a spacewalker could insert his arms for delicate work. The legs ended in ribbed plates, as did the snaking tail, which Kamilah explained could be used as a stabilizer or an anchor. A silver ball the size of coconut perched at the top of the suit.

“Just think of them as spaceships that walk,” said Kamilah. “Okay, Speedy. Pop the tops.”

The top, translucent third of each egg swung back. Kamilah muscled a stairway up to the closest hardsuit. “This one’s yours. Settle in but don’t try moving just yet.”

Adel slid his legs into the suit’s legs and cool gel flowed around them, locking him into place. He ducked instinctively as the top came down, but he had plenty of room. Seals fasten with a scritch and the heads up display on the inside of the top began to glow with controls and diagnostics. Beneath the translucent top were fingerpads for controlling the robotic lifter arms; near them were the holes of the hardsuit’s sleeves. Adel stuck his arms through, flexed his fingers in the gloves then turned his attention back to the HUD. He saw that he had forty hours of oxygen reserve and his batteries were at 98% of capacity. The temperature in the airlock was 15.52°C and the air pressure was 689 millibars. Then the readouts faded and the Godspeed was studying him intently. She looked worried.

“Adel, what’s going on?”

“Is something going on?”

“I’m afraid there is and I don’t want you mixed up in it. What does Kamilah want with you?”

Adel felt a chill that had nothing to do with his isotherm.

—don’t say anything—buzzed plus —we don’t know anything—

“I don’t know that she wants anything.” He pulled his arms out of the hardsuit’s sleeves and folded them across his chest. “I just thought she was being nice.”

“All right, Adel,” said Kamilah over the comm. “Take a stroll around the room. I want to see how you do in here where it’s flat. Speedy will compensate if you have any trouble. I’m sure she’s already in your ear.”

The Godspeed held a forefinger to her lips. “Kamilah is going to ask you to turn off your comm. That’s when you must be especially careful, Adel.” With that, she faded away and Adel was staring, slack-jawed, at the HUD.

“Adel?” said Kamilah. “Are you napping in there?”

Adel took a couple of tentative steps. Moving the hardsuit was a little like walking on stilts. He was high off the floor and couldn’t really see or feel what was beneath his feet. When he twisted around, he caught sight of the tail whipping frantically behind him. But after walking for a few minutes, he decided that he could manage the suit. He lumbered behind Kamilah through the inner hatch of the airlock, which slid shut.

Adel listened to the muted chatter of pumps evacuating the lock until finally there wasn’t enough air to carry sound. Moments later, the outer hatch opened.

“Ready?” Kamilah said. “Remember that we’re leaving the artificial gravity field. No leaps or bounds—you don’t watch to achieve escape velocity.”

Adel nodded.

—she can’t see us—buzzed minus—we have to talk to her—

Adel cleared his throat. “I’ve always wanted to see the stars from space.”

“Actually, you won’t have much of a view until later,” she said. “Let’s go.”

As they passed through the hatch, the Godspeed announced, “Suit lights are on. I’m deploying fireflies.”

Adel saw the silver ball lift from the top of Kamilah’s suit and float directly above her. The bottom half of it was now incandescent, lighting the surface of the Godspeed against the swarming darkness. At the same time the ground around him lit up. He looked and saw his firefly hovering about a meter over the suit.

—amazing—buzzed plus—we’re out, we’re out in space—

They crossed the flat staging pad just outside the airlock and stepped off onto the regolith. The rock had been pounded to gray dust by centuries of foot traffic. Whenever he took a step the dust puffed underfoot and drifted slowly back to the ground like smoke. It was twenty centimeters deep in some places but offered little resistance to his footplates. Adel’s excitement leached slowly away as Kamilah led him away from the airlock. He had to take mincing steps to keep from launching himself free of the Godspeed ’s tenuous gravitational pull. It was frustrating; he felt as if he were walking with a pillow between his legs. The sky was a huge disappointment as well. The fireflies washed out the light from all but the brightest stars. He’d seen better skies camping on Harvest.

“So where are we going?”

“Just around.”

“How long will it take?”

“Not that long.”

—hiding something?—buzzed plus.

—definitely—

“And what exactly are we going to do?”

“A little bit of everything. One of her robotic arms gave him a playful wave. “You’ll see.”

They marched in silence for a while. Adel began to chafe at following Kamilah’s lead. He picked up his pace and drew alongside of her. The regolith here was not quite so trampled and much less regular, although a clearly defined trail showed that they were not the first to make this trek. They passed stones and rubble piles and boulders the size of houses and the occasional impact crater that the path circumnavigated.

—impact crater ?—buzzed minus.

“Uh, Kamilah,” he said. “How often does Speedy get hit by meteors?”

“Never,” said Kamilah. “The craters you see are all pre-launch. Interstellar space is pretty much empty so it’s not that much of a problem.”

“I sweep the sky for incoming debris,” said the Godspeed , “up to five million meters away.”

“And that works?”

“So far,” said Kamilah. “We wouldn’t want to slam into anything traveling at a third the speed of light.”

They walked on for another ten minutes before Kamilah stopped. “There.” She pointed. “That’s where we came from. Somewhere out there is home.”

Adel squinted. There was pretty much meaningless. Was she pointing at some particular star or a space between stars?”

“This is the backside. If Speedy had a rear bumper,” she said, “we’d be standing on it right here. I want to show you something interesting. Pull your arms out of the sleeves.”

“Done.”

“The comm toggle is under the right arm keypad. Switch it off.”

The Godspeed broke into their conversation. “Kamilah and Adel, you are about to disable a key safety feature of your hardsuits. I strongly urge you to reconsider.”

“I see the switch.” Adel’s throat was tight. “You know, Speedy warned me about this back in the airlock.”

“I’m sure she did. We go through this every time.”

“You’ve done this before?”

“Many times,” she said. “It’s a tradition we’ve started to bring the new arrival out here to see the sights. It’s actually a spiritual thing, which is why Speedy doesn’t really get it.”

“I have to turn off the comm why?”

“Because she’s watching, Adel,” said Kamilah impatiently. “She’s always with us. She can’t help herself.”