Up Against It - M. J. Locke [90]
Ian slapped Geoff on the back. “Relax, doof. Just launch yourself into the Hollow, if you have to. We’ll reel you in if you spin wry.”
“Have y’all used sticky-boots before?” Sean asked. They all shook their heads. “They’re electrostatic grips. They work like lizard feet; they’ll give you good traction on any surface. Just make sure you put one foot down before lifting the other.”
Geoff slapped the latches closed on his boots and pulled on elbow-length gloves, then zipped up the suit. The edges of the gloves and boots sealed themselves to the suit cuffs. Amaya passed out utility harnesses and coils of rope. Moriarty was using a grease crayon to sketch the exterior onto the bulkhead.
“The Hollow’s major axis is only slightly bigger than the Rim. Out on the Rim, the city’s spinning at a hundred seventy klicks. We’ll be on the Hub where it’ll be spinning a lot slower, but you three may need to take the fight up the spokeways, to draw the machines away from Kam and me, so speak up now if you’re prone to motion sickness.”
No one spoke.
“Good. Here are your weapons.”
He handed them all what looked like guns with meter-long tubes and a dispenser nozzle on the end. Geoff recognized the tubes. Metal disassemblers. His dad worked with them out at the metal refinery. At the sight, an image of Carl sprang into Geoff’s mind, lying amid the wreckage of the disassembled warehouse with gaping wounds on his face and chest. He bent over and put his hands on his knees. He thought he was about to toss.
His friends were looking at him.
“I’m OK,” he said. His heart pounded erratically. He took some deep breaths. Calm down, he told himself. Panicking won’t bring Carl back. Nothing will.
Moriarty was still speaking. “Don’t get any of that shit on you, or it won’t be long before you’re floating half naked in the Hollow without your wavegear.”
They tucked the disassembler dispensers into the pockets of their harnesses. Geoff hefted his disassembler gun, studying the settings. They seemed straightforward.
Moriarty handed three additional packs to Geoff, Ian, and Amaya. “Standard maintenance toolkit. But it has plenty of other things you can use as weapons to keep the machines busy.”
Ian poked around in his kit, and grinned. “Yep, we can do some serious damage with all this.”
“Remember, only spray downwind, or you’ll disable yourself and maybe your team mates, too.”
While they familiarized themselves with the contents of their packs, Moriarty turned back to Kam. “You and I, meanwhile, will be hauling this.” He dragged out a cart with welding tanks and gear. “The conduit and housing for the xaser and its power supply are made of buckyballs and these disassembler guns don’t work for shit on carbon. So you and I are going to have to use a cutting torch on the casing to get inside. From there we can wreak some havoc.” He showed Kam the workings, and made him set the knobs and light the welding torch, twice. “Good.
“Now, all of you, if you haven’t been out there, the wind is damn powerful, even at the Hub, due to the city’s spin. You’re all Upsiders so you don’t know much about wind, but let me just put it this way: it’s going to be hard for you to stay upright. Your sticky-boots will help, but also use your tethers. Just because the air is mighty thin out there doesn’t mean it can’t knock you down. Stay sharp. Hang on tight to your tools. Also keep in mind that the distance between the Hub and the Hollow wall is less than ten meters, and the spin generators take up a good meter of that. Don’t get cute—I don’t want to have to haul y’all back in body bags. Got that?”
Geoff and the others exchanged nervous glances. “Got it.” “Yeah.” “OK.”
“Amaya, give me one of those police radios. Geoff, set yours on frequency six point five. You three stay together, and keep the machines off us and each other. Geoff, you give me regular updates. Got that?”
“Got it!”
“Let’s move out.”
Geoff checked his watch. Barely five