In the Quick by Kate Hope Day

Author:Kate Hope Day [Day, Kate Hope]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473558892
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2021-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

27

In the morning two packets arrived within hours of each other. Simon was still testing the seal in Cargo 2 so we had to fill every other space. The airlocks, Storage and Systems, even the galley. The interior of the station transformed. We could barely move through the tight spaces, and for two days it felt like we were moles crawling through a narrow burrow. I’d push my way into the opening of a tunnel into darkness only to bump heads with Simon or Amelia or Rachel in the middle, laugh, and have to slowly crawl out feetfirst.

I ate nothing but nut bars and squeezable milk packets for a full forty-eight hours. My arms ached from pushing crates and sacks through the station and pulling them out again. But I didn’t care. My head was clear, my body light. My nausea had dissipated; my eyes were sore but as soon as I was out of my bunk and working it was easy to ignore the discomfort. The tasks I was assigned were challenging, and it felt good to do them well.

Then there was a sudden lull in our schedule—an unexpected twenty-four hours when we had nothing to do. We’d moved the last packet out. We’d cleaned and done systems checks, and Simon had fixed the seal leak in Cargo 2 to his satisfaction. Both holds were empty and ready, and the next packet wasn’t due for a full day.

We could move freely through the station again and the space felt vast. We swam through the modules with our arms out, did somersaults in the air, and whooped. After a while we all drifted in different directions. Amelia and Rachel played a game with a ball and a storage bin only they seemed to fully understand. Simon ran on the treadmill in our tiny gym.

I floated through the station and looked out portholes that had been obstructed by cargo. I hovered outside the largest porthole—in the SM, port side—and watched the Earth’s expanse of ocean and clouds move past like a massive ball rolling in slow motion. My stomach didn’t lurch anymore looking at it. I didn’t feel out of control. It felt less like I was teetering on a precipice and more like I was standing, firm footed and secure, at the edge of an ocean cliff.

That night we all slept for as long as we wanted, and by late morning everyone ended up in the galley hovering around the food compartments. We should eat something real, Rachel said. Eggs maybe. With what? Mushrooms and hot sauce? In a tortilla? She began rummaging through the dry goods compartment.

We hovered while Rachel assembled the food. You couldn’t really call it cooking; it was more like compiling different things from different drawers. But it was good, what she put together. The eggs were crumbly but actually tasted eggy. The hot sauce burned pleasantly on my tongue.

We should eat the apples too, Rachel said when everyone was done. Before they go bad—

Real apples? I asked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.