Omega City by Diana Peterfreund

Author:Diana Peterfreund
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

16

UNDER PRESSURE

AS THE MAN FELL TO THE FLOOR WE ALL JUMPED BACK, OUR SHOUTS OF surprise echoing around the darkened room.

I’ll give Eric credit—he held on to his flashlight this time. “Wait a second.” He stepped toward the slumped figure. He shined his beam over the figure. “It’s a space suit,” he announced.

No one moved.

“An empty one,” he clarified.

We crowded around and examined the suit. Big puffy arms and boots and gloves and helmet and all. I’d seen them in cases at the Air and Space Museum, but I’d never touched one before. It was heavy and bulky, which I guess made sense, given that people would mostly be wearing them in zero-gravity conditions, but the actual material was thinner than I would have thought. Imagine having only a quarter inch of material between you and the vacuum of space.

Considering I had a good mile of rock between myself and the surface of the world at present, it seemed really minuscule.

Howard started examining all the pieces, comparing them to Z-series or constellations or I’m not entirely sure what else. However, it was clear he was much more excited about this suit than he’d been about anything since . . . well, since the last suits we’d found.

Finally, he said, “Wow! I think this is a Galaxy series! I thought they canceled this prototype because of heat transfer problems?”

“Maybe they canceled it because it was connected to Dr. Underberg, same as everything else?” I suggested.

“Maybe they canceled it and Dr. Underberg got it on the cheap,” Eric replied.

“Maybe none of us are astronauts and so looking at a space suit isn’t nearly as important as getting out of here?” asked Nate.

But no one was listening. It was a space suit! And if there were space-suit prototypes in here, then that meant the battery prototype might be here, too. I opened up the other lockers, but there was nothing more than some random tubes, hoses, and air tanks.

“Hey, Howard,” I asked, “don’t astronauts train in swimming pools?”

“Yes. They simulate antigravity conditions—”

I tapped the map. “A.T.R.: Astronaut Training Room.” Only, why would they need astronauts in Omega City? If you were worried about survival, the space program would probably be the last thing on your mind. NASA wasn’t even focusing on manned space travel these days, that’s how low a priority it was for them.

Then again, those always had been Dr. Underberg’s two great loves: space and survival. I looked around the room. If Omega City was really his, it would make sense he’d want to train astronauts. Even if we descended into the Earth, he wouldn’t want us to give up on the stars.

“Astronaut Training. Brilliant deduction,” said Nate, steering me around by the shoulders. “Now let’s go.”

But I wasn’t the problem. The rest of us headed out into the hallway, but Howard didn’t budge. He just sat there on the tile, the space suit pooled in his lap, examining every inch.

“Howard.” Nate waved at him.

He unscrewed the helmet.

“Howard!”

He paused, helmet poised over his head.

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