Tool

Chapter Twelve

Legs shaking, Aurelia managed to stand and hit the power button on her breathing suit. The rush of filtered air past her ears was calming, and after several deep breaths, she took in her surroundings. The ground was not rocky or sandy, as she had assumed. The area around the dome, at least, had been carefully leveled and was hard-packed. Looking back at the dome, she saw only the black reverse side; she couldn't see in—just as when inside, she couldn't see out. There was nothing around her that even approached a road or a path, which made her assume she was not on the trafficked side of the dome. If resources and expeditions went out and back in, they certainly didn't seem to be doing so in this direction.

The light was dim. It didn't have the sharp quality of illumination in the dome or on Earth, but she could see relatively clearly. Then she looked up and gasped. All around her was the darkness of space, massive, empty and terrifying, and suddenly she understood why the dome was opaque. The thought of living surrounded by days of darkness was horrifying.

She closed her eyes and swallowed, forcing herself back into the moment. A deep breath, the feeling of the fabric of her suit moving. Opening her eyes, she scanned the horizon, looking for signs of the encampment Bryn had told her of. At first she saw nothing, but concentrating and looking again she thought she could see something far away to her right. That must be it.

With no trails to speak of, she simply walked towards what she hoped was the encampment. She was surprised at how easy movement was inside the breathing suit, and she realized that there must be something at work to combat the effects of low gravity and keep her pinned to the lunar surface. Interested in the makeup of the breathing suit, she tried running in it. She ran for a few hundred yards, and while the suit wasn't exactly sportswear, it wasn't cumbersome. The air filtration system seemed to keep up, even when she was gasping and panting.

Aurelia could clearly see the encampment now, a midsized portable dome on the horizon. She stepped up her pace a little, anxious not only to start the search for Nicholas but also to see faces again. The wide open spaces of the moon surface made her uncomfortable with a feeling that she couldn't quite describe. It was like being blind and deaf and dumb all at the same time, completely cut off. She had little experience with open spaces, nor with being away from other people, and wondered if the feeling she had was normal.

She began moving at a jog, feeling the slap of her bag on her back. It still took her twenty more minutes to reach the portable dome, however, and once there, she realized she didn't know how to get in. She wandered around the perimeter, which was about fifty or so yards wide, and eventually saw what looked like an airlock. Fine. That would do. But what? Knock? She took a closer look and saw a com system next to the door. It had only one button, so she pressed it.

She was surprised when no questions were asked. She pressed the com button again, and the first airlock hatch slid open. She stepped inside, the first door closed, and the second opened. She was about to step into the next chamber when a face appeared at the entry.

"Hood off." It wasn't a request. For a second, she struggled to remove her hood before remembering to power off the suit first. Uncovering her face, she could see that the man in front of her was holding a weapon, something like the stunner she had in her pack but bigger. "What do you want?"

He had a beard, gray and wiry, and was well-fed to the point of being stout, a belly overlapping the waist of his pants.

Aurelia took a deep breath. "I'm looking for someone, and I want information," she said bluntly.

He looked her up and down. "You alone?"

She nodded.

He lowered the weapon and stepped aside. "Come in," was all he said.