Astronauts -- Fiction; Outer space -- Exploration -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space travelers -- Fiction
Sammy Breen set the reamer in place in the bolt hole and pulled its
trigger. It cut metal. But it dragged unreasonably at him, trying to
turn him in the direction opposite its own rotation. Tiny chips and
metal dust twinkled in the fierce sunshine. They floated away. They
would never fall to Earth. Never. The reamer went through and Sammy cut
off its power. He tried to pull it out. It stuck.
McCauley watched. He'd made a rule that nobody should do anything in
the least out of routine without another man nearby. The three of
them did not work together at one spot ordinarily. In the kind of
conditions customary here, they'd be hopelessly in each other's way.
But he'd issued the order requiring two to be together on any unusual
job. Now, having obeyed his own rule that there must be a second man
at hand when anything beyond simple bolting was to be done, tact made
him keep silent while Sammy did it his own way. Too-close supervision
and too-constant instruction can make for inefficiency. Worse, on a
job like building the Platform, they can make for friction. McCauley
watched without comment. He'd have done this thing differently. But it
would be unwise to insist that it be done his way.
Sammy jerked at the reamer, which meant that he also jerked himself at
it. He slid along the girder he gripped. McCauley said nothing. He'd
criticized Sammy's horse-play a moment earlier. He did not want to make
a second criticism now.
Sammy reached out--it would not be true to say that he stood up--and
put his foot beside the reamer in the bolt hole. The position gave him
leverage. He pulled violently. It was a wholly reasonable, completely
natural, thoroughly matter-of-fact action. A man pulling something
stuck in a hole braces himself exactly that way to get a strong pull at
it. But this was on the Space Platform, where there is no weight.
The reamer gave. It came out abruptly. Sammy Breen shot away from the
beam to the full length of his space rope--and the space rope slid off
the end of the beam. He was headed for infinity with the reamer in his
hand.
McCauley grabbed. He never knew how he managed to make so swift a
motion in his clumsy space suit. But he hurled his body forward and
snatched at the same instant. He caught the rope. But to reach it he'd
had to lose his own leg-grip on the beam. The impetus of Sammy's leap
jerked savagely at him. He squeezed his legs together in a frantic
effort to hold fast by friction. He tried to turn his toes in to catch
hold before he slid completely clear. But the feet of space suits do
not pivot laterally so he could not turn them inward. Holding fast to
Sammy's space rope, he was jerked inexorably clear and he and Sammy
Breen floated away to emptiness together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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