Last Full Measure - Michael A. Martin [93]
And absolutely lethal, perhaps to all five of them, if anyone here made even the slightest mistake.
As he studied the edge of the circular, approximately one-and-a-half-meter-diameter hatch, he noticed a small detail that sent his heart into an abrupt state of freefall. Oh, shit. We may be dead after all, no matter what crazy stunt we try.
Archer turned toward Reed, who had paused to eye the hatch controls again. When the tactical officer looked up to meet the captain’s inquiring gaze, he looked decidedly unhappy as well.
“Do you want the good news first, Captain, or the bad news?”
“I think I’ve already figured out the bad news, Malcolm,” said Archer. “The outer hatch opens inward, not outward.”
“So?” said Kemper, his MACO composure clearly beginning to crack. Sweat beaded his ruddy brow.
“As you were, Corporal,” Hayes said, his words clipped.
Reed adopted a more patient, almost resigned tone. “It means that we can’t get the hatch open while the airlock is pressurized. The atmosphere inside the airlock will hold it closed.”
Hayes looked skeptical. “So we pull it open. All five of us working together.”
“The five of us might be able to generate enough force using pure muscle power,” Reed said. “But we don’t have enough door handles for everyone to grab. Which means we won’t have enough leverage.”
“So let’s just depressurize the airlock,” Kemper said.
Reed shook his head. “That would probably take several minutes, at least. We don’t have that kind of time.”
“And we don’t have that kind of lung capacity either,” Archer said. “So what’s the good news, Malcolm?”
“The outer hatch is equipped with emergency explosive bolts. I believe I can tap into the detonators and fire them from inside the airlock.”
Archer heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe they couldn’t open the hatch from the inside. They could, however, blow it off of the ship entirely. In fact, trying to open the hatch any way other than suddenly and explosively would place the entire team at risk of being injured or killed; the blast of escaping air could easily slam them into the partially opened aperture, to deadly effect.
“Assuming that everything in here is functioning properly,” Reed continued, “I should be able to blow the hatch off all at once. The outrush of atmosphere will throw the entire outer hatch assembly completely clear of the ship.”
Archer nodded. “And should give us all the momentum we’ll need to get ourselves to safety.” Momentum was all-important, because it translated to speed; Archer knew that if they were to survive this stunt, it had to be done fast.
“Let’s hope so,” Hayes said as he pulled a grapple pistol—a device used predominantly for rappelling—from his Sam Browne belt. The three MACOs immediately began securing the gun’s nanofilament line to each other’s belts, and then attached it to Reed’s.
“What about the hatch itself, Captain?” Money asked, smoothing a hank of her dark, pulled-back hair away from her eye.
“You see a problem, Private?” Archer asked.
Money stared straight ahead, at attention. “Sir, the hatch is liable to have a great deal of velocity once we blow it off.”
A stricken look crossed Reed’s face. “She’s right, Captain. The hatch could become a deadly projectile. If it slams into our shuttlepod…” He trailed off, his implication already crystal clear.
Archer smiled as he added himself to the front of the human chain, securing Hayes’s line to his own belt. “I think Lieutenant O’Neill already has that eventuality covered, Malcolm. We’ll be fine.” So long as we get just a little bit lucky, and stay that way for the next thirty seconds or so, he thought.
Reed regarded him with a gallows grin. “If you say so, sir. At least we’ll have the wind at our backs.”
Archer returned