Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [82]
"I thought I was being romantic."
"Save it for when we get to the Curiosity. Once we're away from this place, I guarantee you I'll be in the mood. Come on, get moving!"
Below, the nematodes squirmed into the lift chamber, writhing on top of each other, then using their slime adhesion to crawl up the walls. They hadn't yet figured how to get to the roof, but it would be only a matter of minutes.
BeBob gestured toward the rungs. "Ladies first."
"You want to look at my big butt during the whole climb up?"
BeBob turned his helmet away as if embarrassed. "Actually, I was thinking you'd do a better job of opening the airlock at the top, and I wanted to give you first crack at it."
"Hmmm, practical and romantic. Tell me again why I ever divorced you."
"Because we couldn't stand each other at the time."
Rlinda had divorced quite a few men, but Branson Roberts was the only one for whom she still carried a torch. "Right. I like it better this way. Why mess with a good thing?"
She grabbed the rungs and started to climb. BeBob secured the crossbar on the roof hatch, though it would take the worms only a short while to chew through the metal itself. The thought was enough to give Rlinda some incentive. Though she made good speed in the light gravity, within five minutes she was puffing loudly into the echo chamber of her helmet. The suit's recirc and cooling systems worked overtime.
Feeling vibrations through the shaft wall, she imagined Karla's continuing mayhem in the grotto below. Though the Tamblyn brothers had caused them plenty of headaches, Rlinda would have helped if she'd had the option. But this was a mess of the Roamers' own making; she and BeBob had no part in it.
High above, she could see a necklace of lights marking the top of the shaft and the waiting airlock. Huffing, she grabbed the next rung, then the next, and the next. Her muscles ached, and her lungs were on fire. She couldn't remember the last time she'd exerted herself so. BeBob climbed steadily behind her.
When she heard tinny thumps far below, she realized that the nematodes were battering against the roof of the lift chamber; through sheer numbers, they knocked open the hatch and began boiling out onto the roof. Exuding gelatinous slime, the nematodes adhered to the smooth shaft wall. They squirmed like caterpillars, circling around the borehole--and climbing fast.
She paused to glance down, saw the red nematodes gaining ground. "No need to look, Rlinda," BeBob called. "Just assume they're getting closer. If you hear my scream and then a crunching sound, you can be sure you're next."
She pulled herself nearer to the surface and freedom. The Roamer environment suit carried a kit of useful tools, but once she got to the top, Rlinda would still need time to finesse the airlock. Doubts began to pile up in her mind, brought on by fear. What if the airlock had a fail-safe system that disabled in the event the lift chamber was not sealed in place, or if the doors at the bottom of the shaft weren't properly sealed? She didn't even want to think about that and concentrated only on climbing. Climbing. Her mind was already planning how she would fudge the airlock controls. There had to be some sort of emergency egress mechanism.
Rlinda reached the top so unexpectedly that she was startled to find no more rungs. The inner airlock door was sealed, as she'd feared, and the control panel wasn't one of the standard models. She yanked out the tools clipped to her suit and went to work. When she exposed the controls, she found handwritten notations on all the wiring. "How am I supposed to figure this out?"
BeBob kept climbing, a dozen rungs beneath her. "As fast as you can--that would be my preference." Then he yelped.
The closest nematode reared up just below his leg, and BeBob kicked hard enough to knock it loose. The creature's slimy adhesion wasn't strong enough to hold, and the invertebrate dropped down the shaft. But seven other nematodes were chomping their way up after it, with