The Getaway Special by Jerry Oltion

Author:Jerry Oltion [Oltion, Jerry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Adventure
ISBN: 9780312877774
Google: wUopTwRzFk4C
Amazon: 0312877781
Barnesnoble: 0312877781
Goodreads: 622914
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2001-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Both hatches had already popped open against their spring-loaded gate latches. They opened inward; as soon as the air pressure outside exceeded the pressure inside, they had loosened enough to let it equalize.

“I’m going to crack the seal on my helmet,” Judy said.

Allen put his hands out to stop her. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

“We’ve already been through this,” she said, pushing his hands gently aside. “It’s either this or go home with our tails between our legs.” She twisted her helmet sideways and pulled upward on it, but it wouldn’t release. “Oh,” she said. “Of course. The pressure is higher than inside my suit.” Even air halfway up Mount Everest would have more pressure than inside her suit, but she glanced at the altimeter and saw that the needle was reading a couple thousand feet below the zero mark. There was more air here than at sea level on Earth. No wonder she couldn’t lift off her helmet; there was at least a hundred pounds of force pushing it closed.

She opened the seal on her right wrist and pried off her glove. That let enough air in to allow her to equalize the pressure, but she left her helmet on and took a couple deep breaths instead. Let the little bit of air she’d already allowed into her suit mix with the rest, and see what a small dose would do to her first.

She had to swallow a couple of times to equalize the pressure in her ears, but she couldn’t detect anything wrong with it at all. She took another deep breath and held it in her lungs for a second, waiting for the moment when it would start burning like fire, but it never came. She lifted her helmet, then set it down again and took another breath. This time she could smell living things, but none of the scents were familiar. Just green.

She felt a sneeze coming on. Was there some kind of allergen that would turn her into a sniffling blob of swelling mucus membranes until her throat closed up and suffocated her? She waited for that to happen, but the urge to sneeze went away.

Allen’s voice came through the intercom. “Are you all right?”

“Fine so far.”

“No dizziness?”

“Nope.” She lifted her helmet and took a breath straight from the tank. Now she could smell something like rosemary, probably from the plants they had crushed. It smelled wonderful, but then rotting garbage would probably have smelled wonderful after all the flatulence they had blown into the air after they had lowered the pressure.

She left the helmet off and took another breath. No allergens, no poisons, no problem at all. The air was fine.

She wished she could say the same for the gravity. Her legs were killing her. Hours of staying bent, and now full gravity—and maybe a little more, by the feel of it—were too much to bear. She couldn’t even stand up inside the tank.

“I’m opening the hatch,” she said.

Allen waved his hands.

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