Chewing Rocks (12 page)

“Fire ants and big buckets!” the second voice said. “Lady, we knew you needed help or we wouldn’t have come all this way for nothing.”

Sno said, “And I thank you for that.
You gentlemen are…?” She let the question hang in vacuum.

“Oh sorry
,” the voice from the suit in front of her said, “Where are my manners? I am Marlon Jackson. He is Allan Lee. We are the crew of the Blinkin.” The suit actually backed up a few steps while it spoke.

Sno asked as pleasantly as possible. “Would you unfrost your visor? I would like to see who I am talking to.”

Jackson said, “Unfrost?”

She replied, “Unfrost. Your helmet visor is set on mirror. Since we are not in direct sunlight you must have it set to stay frosted. I can’t see your face.”

Jackson said, “I didn’t know you could change that setting. We have been leaving them, what did you call it, frosted all of the time because we couldn’t work with the visor clear in the sunlight.”

Sno said, “There is a setting to have the visor automatically adjust to the sunlight. I can show you how to
-

Lee
interrupted, “Come on you two, you can have your little tea party later. Can we get this done with? I really want to get back. We are missing out on a couple of days work.”

Sno said, “Of course. I actually don’t have much time left myself.”

Lee said, “So what do you need, honey? We can sell you whatever you want and we can be on our way.”

Jackson said, “Lee! Please, there isn’t any reason to be rude.”

Sno said, “Gentlemen? Lee and Jackson, I am sorry, but unless you have a complete set of computer apps and core, Sedona is dead in space. I am going to have to ask for a ride. The Whyte Mining Corporation is willing to pay standard rescue fees.”

Jackson said, “A ride in our ship…with us?”

Sno nodded. “I know it isn’t what you planned. But I didn’t plan on being stuck out here, running out of air.”

“Of course,”
Jackson said, “I am sorry. That was thoughtless. We are just over the other side of your ship.”

Lee said “Hey! If you are abandoning this ship, maybe we can get salvage fees?”

Sno leaned down and slapped a tag on the hatchway. It was dated for a calendar Earth year. She said, “Even though I have to leave it here, it is still mine for the next twelve months. I am not abandoning Sedona, just parking it in an unusual place.” She followed Jackson around the curve of the Sedona’s hull, watching the Blinkin come into view. “If I can’t get back by then, Sedona will belong to whoever can get her into port. Although, I wouldn’t try to tow Sedona with your ship if I were you.”

She looked at the
Blinkin. It was smaller than most mining ships on Ceres. It had scorch marks where someone had ridden it into an atmosphere without regard for the heat shields or repulsar fields. There were actually dents along the garage doors leading to the rock crusher bins.

There was a tether between the two ships, although there was only a few
hundred meters distance between them. Jackson gestured for her to use the tether first. She shook her head. She flexed her knees and pushed off. She spun midway in her flight and came down next to the personnel airlock hatch feet first.

Lee said, “Okay, you keep the ship, but if we take you on board the
Blinkin we need to be compensated for all consumables you use, not just a rescue fee.”

Sno gritted her teeth. Who were these morons? “Of course, the standard rescue fees include provisions for said reimbursement.”

Lee said, “Standard? Here it is in the computer. Is that Earth standard or what?”

“Ceres standard,
Mister Lee,” she said.

“I like Earth standard better
,” Lee replied.

“M
ister Lee,” Sno said, trying to keep her calm. “I would be willing to negotiate this at a later time, but I am starting to run short on air. May I come aboard now?”

Lee said, “Sounds like a good time to negotiate to me. You need…and need bad. We got.”

Jackson said, “Come on, Lee-”

Lee interrupted, “Come on nothing, Jackson. We make the deal now or she can s
tay with her own ship. Look, with another person on board we are going to cut our mining time down by a third. We are going to lose almost six weeks time.”

Jackson said, “
It’s not that bad. We can always blend supplies from the Blinkin and the Winkin. We won’t lose that-”

Sno interrupted and addressed both men. “M
ister Lee and Mister Jackson, I understand your concerns. I am willing to offer the supplies aboard Sedona to share when the time comes. It won’t be easy to retrieve, but with our EVA suits we can get most of it off ship. I am also willing to pay double standard if that is what you want.”

Lee said, “Double? You heard her, Jackson.”

Sno said, “My suit is oxygen redlined. You name your price, do it now and let me onboard or I am going to blow a hole in the side of your ship and come in anyway. I have enough explosive putty to leave us all in vacuum. I am not planning to die out here because of your greed, but if I do, I am not going alone.”

Lee said, “Okay, don’t get your knickers in a twist. Double
fee is do-able.”

Jackson said, “Redlined
! I am sorry; I didn’t know it was that bad. Please, get into the airlock.”

Once inside
Sno watched Jackson hit the buttons to close and seal the doors. He slapped the lock mechanism as soon as the doors closed and simultaneously pushed the atmosphere exchanger. She wanted to push him out of the way and do it herself, but she refrained as he was working as fast as she would have on an unfamiliar ship. The controls were in the same place as every ship she had ever been on, but every ship seemed to have quirks and peculiarities. She did not want to bump into a quirk that shut down the air she would need; air she would need very soon.

Sno watched the atmosphere indicator for the ambient air pressure in the airlock. The inner door would
not open until the air pressure matched on both sides of the door. She glanced at her suit’s air gauge. It was not noticeably changing, but she could just imagine the air was going out of the suit faster than the air was filling the airlock.

She glanced at the door pad. The gra
vity was set in the airlock and the whole ship at standard one gravity. She almost shuttered. No one but earthers would live and work in standard one gravity. She only used that high a setting on the gravimeter when she was working out. And truthfully, she did not work out as often as she should.

As long as she stayed in the suit, she would
not have any problems. The suit’s internal gravity was set at Ceres standard ten percent. That allowed her to settle into the suit and work in comfort but still give her muscles something to press against.

She would not be able to pop open her visor; the gravity variation would be too great.

“Mister Jackson, would it be possible to dial the gravimeter down a bit? I must admit I am not used to this much gravity.”

The atmosphere ind
icator flashed green. Jackson’s suit visor slid back into the helmet and Sno looked on the face of her rescuer for the first time. It was a pleasant face. He smiled at her with a shy look. His eyes were dark, almost black, matching his skin. His white teeth stood out in contrast to his short black hair.

“Hi
,” he said.

“H
ello,” she responded. “I really need to get air into this suit, but I don’t think I can take one gravity right now.”

She saw the door numbers spin down to fifty percent and hold as Jackson pushed buttons to get the inner door open. She punched buttons on
her suit’s side control panel and raised her gravimeter to match the ship. It was higher than she liked, but it would have to do.

Lee’s voice came over the comm boom
ing in Sno’s ears. “I hate doing that. Changing gravity settings that fast always make my stomach do flip flops.”

Sno popped open her visor and gasped in the cool air of the ship. Her suit had not quite reached empty, but it was close enough that any air still recycling through the system was
not cooling down before she needed it to breathe again.

The inner door opened. Sno followed Jackson into the personnel suit area. There were wall mounts for four suits, but only
one mount held a suit. Jackson backed into a wall mount and with a hiss his suit connected and popped open. He gestured for Sno to take any empty mount across from him.

She backed into an empty mount and felt her suit connect to the ship. She pushed her helmet up and off. Her hair was matted to her head, as it often was after a couple of
EVA hours. She shook her head and felt the cool air, like gentle fingers, massaging her scalp. She breathed deeply. The Blinkin smelled different than the Sedona. She was used to her own ship, but when you are hitching a ride, you take what your can get. She could smell food odors wafting through the open corridor door. She smelled unfamiliar spices, soaps and disinfectant. She could also smell herself, as the odor leaked up through the collar gaskets to her nose.

Lee
’s voice came over the ship’s comms. He said, “You’re welcome.”

Sno
asked, “What?”

Lee said again, “You’re welcome. I said,
‘you’re welcome’.”

Jackson said, “Come on, Lee. Be nice.” His voice was muffled as he was busy unlatching his suit.

Lee replied, “It isn’t my manners that need repair. Young lady, what’s your name again?”

“Sno
,” she answered.

“Sno? That’s not a name. It’s a weather condition
,” Lee said. “We save your life and take you onboard our ship. Shouldn’t you say thank you? Didn’t your mama teach you manners?”

Sno replied, “I don’t have a mama.
You are getting paid for taking me aboard. You are getting paid at double the standard rate, plus whatever consumables we pull off Sedona. You want me to thank you for raping me on the price too?”

Lee stepped into the room. Sno
saw he was a short man, or at least very short for what she was used to. He must not have stood above five foot-four, making him more than a foot shorter than her. He had a fringe of graying hair around a bald spot on his head. His pale hair almost blended into the color of his pale skin. His belly preceded him into the room. It was the biggest gut she had ever seen on a miner. That told her he had not been mining very long.

Lee looked up at her, still enclosed in her suit with the helmet pulled off. “You don’t like it
, you can get off. No skin off my nose.”

Jackson said, “That is enough
, Lee. Please?”

Lee said, “Alright
already. What is done is done! Finish getting unsuited. Jackson, it’s your turn in the galley. I’ve already got the course laid in and we are headed back to the old salt mines.”

Sno looked across at Jackson. His suit had opened completely like a clam shell. He was wearing
what most miners called a union suit. She watched him reach down between his legs, pull the plumbing hoses free and snap shut the trap door on his union suit. He climbed down from the suit and stretched. She could see that he was not even as tall as Lee.

Earthers were often much shorter than space born. Her Dad was shorter than she was
. He had been born on Earth and immigrated to Ceres before he had his final growth spurt, so he was taller than he might have been had he continued to live in a deep gravity well. Sno remembered her Grandfather as a huge man, but since she had not seen him since she was a small child she knew it was just perspective, because all records showed he was not more than five foot-nine.

Lee looked up at her, “Well?”

Sno said, “Well what?”

He shook his head, “You were pretty anxious to get in here
, but you’re dawdling getting out of your suit.”

Sno said, “Okay by me, but just to let you know. I am naked in here. Not a stitch on.”

Lee said, “Okay by me.”

Jackson fled the room.

Lee watched him go and looked back at Sno. “I got no where else to be for a while.”

Sno hit the toggle to unsuit. The EVA suit slid open cleanly
and she felt the cool air caress her skin. With a deep breath she could feel her nipples stiffen. She was not sure about the nudity taboos of her hosts. Taboos varied on Earth from drastic paranoia to blatantly open sexuality. She was not uncomfortable being naked, although Ceres mores tended to be middle of the road.

Still, t
he man was a stranger. She felt a blush rise from her chest and encroach across her face. She reached down between her legs and unplugged from the suit’s plumbing. She caught another whiff of her body odor. She did not mind the nudity, but she hoped he did not want to watch her shower as well. She glanced up at him and caught him with an uncomfortable look on his face. She was a bit puzzled by his expression, but she was committed to getting out of the suit.

She climbed out and stood before her suit. She stretched to her full height,
reaching for the ceiling of the suit room. She twisted and bent at the waist, stretching kinked muscles that had been trapped in a suit for far too long. Her red hair flopped about in wet strands. Other than her red hair she was hairless, she used a dilapatory everywhere. It was not currently fashionable for women to remove all of the hair from their bodies, but she found that stray hair tended to cause problems for women in EVA suits. Pubic hair had a tendency to pull when attaching or unhooking plumbing systems. She did not know how men handled the problem.