Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [138]
She smelled something burning. Then he reappeared. “One problem settled anyhow,” he said. “Nobody’s going to communicate with anybody.”
“Solly.” She kept her voice very low. “Why’d the power come back on?”
“Somebody turned it on.” He was holding the wrench in his right hand.
“What do we do now?”
“We’re going to get rid of our visitor.”
“How do we do that? We can’t even find it.”
They returned down the corridor and stood at the foot of the staircase, looking up at the landing. The airtight door at the top was open, just as they’d left it.
“We need to get some help,” she said.
“That might not be easy. I just finished off the transmitter.”
“You mean we can’t communicate locally either?”
“Not with anybody outside screaming range. I would have just disabled the hypercomm function if I’d known how. Takes a goddamn engineer to figure some of this equipment out.”
“So what’s next?” she asked.
Solly put his arm around her and held her for a moment. “Stick with me.”
He led the way up the staircase and with noticeable reluctance put his head through the open door and looked both ways along the corridor. “Don’t see anything,” he said.
The doors to the various compartments were all closed, save for the rec room, which was always open. They peeked in, saw nothing, and climbed to the top floor.
From the pilot’s room came the quiet murmur of the instruments. Everything was back on line.
Kim was alarmed to see that the status board was blinking red, but Solly explained it was only a warning that there was no transmission capability.
The Patrol was talking to them, asking what was wrong, pointing out they were off course, urging them to respond, assuring them help was on the way. They would be alongside, they said, in two hours.
Solly went back into the closet and showed her the power cutoff. It was a long black handle. It was up, in the white area, designated ON. “That caps it,” said Solly. “We do have an intruder.”
“No way it could trip back itself?”
“No,” he said. “It’s not supposed to be possible for it to turn itself on or off.”
“Maybe,” said Kim, “we should blink our lights for the Patrol. Let them know we’ve no communications.”
“They’ll figure it out on their own.” He slumped into a seat. “It’s invisible. But it’s solid, right? It has to be. I mean, it turns handles.”
“No,” Kim said. “We know it’s physical. That’s not quite the same thing as being solid.”
“Well, whatever, it’s time to get rid of it.”
“How?”
“Easy.” He took two pressure suits out of the utility locker and handed her one. “Put this on.”
“Why? What’s the plan?”
“We’re going to blow it out the door.”
At first she didn’t know what he meant. And then she understood. “Depressurize,” she said.
“Sure. It’s the only way I know.”
“Brilliant, Solly,” she said. “I’d never have thought of it.”
He shrugged. “I saw it done in an old video.”
She stripped off her outer clothes and got into the suit. It was the first time she’d ever worn one and she needed help to secure the helmet properly. “You okay?” he asked.
She felt as if she couldn’t get enough air.
“Just relax,” he said. He did something to her backpack. “How’s that?”
Better. “Thanks.”
“It’s okay.” He showed her the controls on her gloves, how she could adjust temperature, the air mix, whatever, and pulled on his own suit while she demonstrated she knew how to handle everything. He locked down his helmet and ran a radio check.
“Now,” he said, “let’s get rid of the pest.”
They stowed their personal gear, toothbrushes, soap, clothes, commlinks. Then they walked through the ship, all three floors, opening every interior hatch, and leaving them open. When they’d finished they returned to the pilot’s room and sat down. Kim looked around, could see nothing else that required their attention. “I think we’re ready,” she said.
Solly nodded, turned off the blowers, and shut down the air supply.
Kim punched the stud on the arm of her chair, and the harness settled over her. “All set,” she said.
Solly leaned over the console and his fingers flashed across the keyboard.
“What’s going on?” she asked.