Dutchman Waiting

Spacewalk

The garage is an almost rectangular room, as large as a sports field, with arched ceilings like a cathedral, except this shape was to keep the pressure in, not support the weight. All surfaces were white and metallic, with the scent of ozone and charcoal in the air. The inner wall had two airtight hatches, one for personnel and another for oversized cargo. The personnel hatch was a two-stage airlock for added safety, given that it is used much more often. This whole setup was repeated for the outer chamber, which could open directly to vacuum.

Looking tiny in comparison, eighteen neatly stacked white crates sat alone in the middle of the massive chamber, each marked with the sun-bright orange logo of Gunawan Incorporated, a stylized outline of the central building of the Taj Mahal with flames in place of the normally white domes.

"Is this whole airlock yours?" Vadym asks. "Just for your cargo?"

"It belongs to the company, yes, but they use it sometimes. It's been ours since it was built."

That statement caught Vadym's attention. These airlocks used to hold the pleasure craft of the ultra-rich and had been reclaimed after the revolution and now belonged to the colony. How had Gunawan held onto such a valuable commodity?

"So, what is all this stuff?" Vadym asked as they crossed the chamber's steel emptiness.

"Instruments I need for my work," Lhari replied.

"Like what, specifically?" he asks as they approach the first stack of three crates. "What's this one?"

Checking the label, she replies, "Mass spectrometer."

"I know what that is. There is one on Theseus."

"Mine is better, more accurate, but doesn't work long range."

"What's the laser rating? Is this going to be a safety hazard?"

"A few milliwatts. These three crates together are a wide-band electromagnetic wave analyzer."

"Is that a fancy word for a telescope?"

"Sure... but it covers the entire spectrum, radio to X-ray." She moves on, the names getting more and more complicated as she does. Vadym is getting to the edge of his competency.

"Look, I have to know whether these things will damage the ship, life support, electrical... all the subsystems. I have to know we will have room to set them up. That you won't be leaking any viruses from that... what did you call it, RNA something something?"

"No, no viruses. It detects and analyzes, doesn't create. If there is a virus and it leaks, it will be our fault, not the machine's."

"There's plenty of room on board, but how big is this stuff when you set it up?" Vadym asks, wishing they had more time—sixty-seven hours and counting.

"A small laboratory. I looked up the specs on your ship; there is plenty of room."

"And I suppose you've done a lot of work in zero-gee vacuum before, right?" Vadym asks, knowing the answer.

Lhari shakes her head. "That's part of your fee. It was in the contract."

"User manuals?" he asks.

"I had the designers test everything twice, from setup to teardown. They have detailed instructions, customized even for your ship's model."

"They won't be; there is no ship like mine. Deep space pilots customize our ships, sometimes in port but sometimes while underway. I can print any part that I can design or download designs for. You must have had it done for the base model, the planet taxis, but Theseus is a lot more than those are. We've got a Nevin drive, for one, and I've replaced nearly everything inside the hull at some point, upgrades and maintenance."