Children of the Fleet (Fleet School #1)(110)

He was not headed directly for the station. It could have been worse. He was moving on a course that would take him past the station by about a quarter of its diameter. Under the circumstances, that was pretty good aim. But also under the circumstances, that was certain death because he would miss the ship and—

Monkey has to catch me, and if she’s going to catch me she has to see me. Dabeet looked away from the ship, concentrated on the SIG icon on his heads-up display and then chose ALL LIGHTS from the menu. He spread his arms and looked at them—like a Christmas tree. Like the neon sign over a bar.

If I use my suit’s directionals, I could point myself closer to the station, and—

No directionals. No! He didn’t know how to use them and Monkey had to be able to predict his course. She wasn’t supposed to smack into him directly, so even at this angle, she could probably pull the tether right in front of him so he could hug it and she could drag him in.

Except for one problem. The station wasn’t getting any closer. In fact, it was obvious that he was still moving away from the station.

Am I still attached to the ship somehow?

No, he realized. He had been moving away from the station at exactly the velocity of the ship. He took his strongest leap toward the station, but all his strength couldn’t have overcome the ship’s speed. The push that the escaping atmo gave the Juke ship was far stronger than anything his legs could have achieved. I didn’t reverse my direction of movement, I merely slowed my outbound movement a little. I’m not going to pass near the station because I’m still moving away from it.

That’s why he was supposed to leave the ship as quickly as possible. So that Monkey could outstrip his outbound movement using her directionals. He had no way of guessing if he was even within her two-kilometer range. The time it took him to catch himself in the airlock, reorient, stand on the surface, search for the station, and then, finally, leap—

I had to do all that. I had no choice. What good was leaving the ship if I wasn’t somehow aimed toward the station so my movement away would be somewhat slower?

If she can reach me, Monkey will reach me. If she can’t, then I knew this might be how I died, I knew it and I chose to do it because who else should take this risk? I’m the one that the kidnappers chose. Now they can pin the whole raid on me and I won’t care because I’ll be dead.

A light appeared in front of the station. It had to be Monkey turning on all the lights of her suit. It took a while, concentrating on that spot of light, before he could be sure that he was looking at a spacesuit moving toward him. Moving a lot faster than he was moving, so she would overtake him, she really would. If the tether was long enough.

The suit was tracking her, too, because she was in motion and he had focused on her for three seconds. It reported that she was on a good course. No, not a good course, she was going to pass behind him. She had aimed and missed!

No, fool, Dabeet told himself. Just because your head is pointed toward the station doesn’t mean you’re moving that direction. Since you’re moving away from the station, she’s not passing behind you, she’s going to pass ahead of where you’re going to be.

Only now you’re upside down, fool. You can’t grab the tether with your legs.

He scanned the heads-up display and saw an icon labeled ORI. He vaguely knew that the suit could use the directionals automatically to reorient him, and ORI seemed like the best candidate for the menu he needed. Could it reorient him without changing his direction of movement? Time to find out.

He first selected REV but all that did was rotate him on the vertical axis so now his back was toward the approaching spacesuit. REV again and he could see her. He tried INV and this time the suit spun him upside down. His feet were now vaguely toward the station and as Monkey approached, he could see that their heads were now pointing in roughly the same direction. At moments he thought she was going to miss him by a hundred meters; at other times it looked as if she was going to collide with him. How could his perspective change like that?

It wasn’t his perspective. The heads-up display showed that her trajectory really was changing, because she was using her directionals to perfect her aim.

He saw the sparkles behind her and realized that he was catching glimpses of the tether. The sparkles ran straight back toward the ship, though they looked like a series of dragonflies darting straight toward Monkey.

Don’t look at her face, don’t try to communicate, all that matters is the tether. No distraction. The tether. Wrap your arms around it and—

Dabeet pulled his arms back to his sides. In the position he was in, it was quite possible that in order to bring the tether close to him, Monkey would pass so close that his wide-open arms would touch her, put them both into a spin, and make the rescue impossible. Only after she passed could he open his arms to hug the line.

She drifted past him, slowly enough that she wasn’t a blur, he could see the elements of her suit. But not her face. He didn’t even try to see through her faceplate. His eyes were down, toward the tether.

The heads-up display was showing him the tether.

“Not helping,” he murmured to the suit. He looked past the display, through the faceplate. He couldn’t see the sparkles at all now. But she was past him, he flung his arms wide, and then he felt his left forearm hit the tether. It started to spin him but he immediately pulled against the tension and drew his body toward the tether, wrapped his arms around it. This was working. He had the tether. Still couldn’t see it, but the heads-up display confirmed that he was on the line, he was wrapped around it, and he glanced and gazed at the LOCK command. Now the suit would hold on even if he was unconscious. He could nap now, and Monkey would bring him in.