Palindrome 656: DIRECTORS CUT by C. F. WALLER

Author:C. F. WALLER [WALLER, C. F.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: C. F. Waller Group
Published: 2013-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Seven years ago . . .

We get to the surface and dock on top of spial one without further complications. Winslow is quiet and we don’t speak. Once we dock, I shut down all the non-essential systems. We have about seventy two hours of oxygen left, a few bottles of water and some half eaten sandwiches Winslow brought along. This is just about enough food and water to make it until the air runs out. Sometimes a plan just comes together. If we had been on my drop ship we would have had a box full of goodies I had stowed behind the pilot’s seat. I hope Valerie found the goodies for a last meal. This thought makes me smile. I take off my safety harness and lean back in my seat stretching my arms overhead. Winslow isn’t looking my way. He peers out the side window at the icy surface of the moon.

“Sophie, I need you to pop the latches on the docking hatch,” I say sounding confident.

Winslow suddenly awakens from his pouting.

I look over. “So, you awake over there?”

He sits up in his chair and takes off his harness. Finally looking away from the window he nods in my direction without making eye contact. I am guessing his silence has been a sign of shock.

“Sophie, are you in there?”

I hear a loud series of clicks as the hatch latches retract.

“Yes, Jazz. The latches have been retracted.”

I pull myself to a standing position and peer through the small window into the cargo bay. The drop ship has a gravity bubble when the bay door is closed so nothing is floating in the bay. Blaine’s corpse is lying beside the sample cases. His skin has turned gray and there is ice around his eyes and lips. Not the best way to go I think. I try to think of a nice way to go and come up empty. Death is always ugly, no getting around that one. Let’s make that a rule. The round hatch in the center of the floor is still closed.

“What’s your play here?” Winslow finally speaks.

“It’s just a hunch,” I reply.

“I’m listening,” he says.

I turn my back to the door and lean on my hands. “When we went into the first spial there was oxygen from the algae right?”

Winslow nods. “Yes on the Seeker as well. The algae gives off nominal amounts of heat and oxygen. Unfortunately it’s unclear if we could actually get away with breathing this even if there wasn’t a vacuum between us and the inside of the spial,” he says sounding defeatist.

“We don’t have to get to it. It is going to come to us,” I say.

Winslow nods looking back out the window. “You sound like West.”

I stare back out in the bay. The hatch is still closed. Winslow gets up and squeezes next to me so he can see into the bay. I slide over to let him have a look.

“What are we looking at?” he mumbles.

“The hatch and the docking collar.

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