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You d go down a wall like that by rappelling, I realized. It may seem ridiculous to rappel down a
half-meter door ledge, but that s just what I did, anchoring one of my safety tethers to the hole in a
vertical longeron above the door. I wrapped the line around the shaft of a universal driver from the tool
kit as a kind of friction bearing and used that to partly support my weight as I dropped one foot down to
the framework and then the other.
Next to the cabin and a cross beam, the longeron held my weight. Still holding onto the safety line, I took
a step out.
The frame bent under me, curving down over a centimeter, I guessed. The groan of composite longerons
bending conducted its way from the abused frame through my feet and bones and into my ears.
 What s my margin? I askedthe Korolev .
 The stress on the frame is over the redline limits, but still 20% below expected strength. I am
compensating for the frame distortion with active tension controls.
Okay. I told the clip on the safety line to release itself, reeled it in, and stretched to attach it to one of the
magnetic loop supports ahead of me. Supporting part of my weight with the safety line and part with my
feet, I took a first tentative step. There were guide wires, but they didn t look like they would support
any significant weight; I ignored them and hung on to the safety line.
The catwalk bent alarmingly, but didn t break. I took another step. This got me close enough to reach
forward and attach my second safety line to the next support. I had to rest after the simple act of holding
my arm above my head long enough attach the clip.
So. Half brachiating on safety lines and half walking, I got to the first retroreflector. It was a full five
meters over my head  an insignificant height on the moon, but a mountain in these circumstances.
Plan A had been to climb up there somehow and detach it with my tool. No way.
Plan B was my flare pistol. I took careful aim from almost directly below, bracing my shooting arm on the
frame. The minirocket from my first shot missed to the right and I was rewarded by a brilliant flare high
above the spacecraft.
The second shot hit the frame below the retroreflector's platform with a shower of sparks  and the
smashed minirocket fell at incredible speed, missing me by a few centimeters. The third shot hit the right
side of the retroreflectors platform and did nothing obvious. I put my arm down and rested. I could think
of nothing to do but try once more.
This time, the platform tilted, breaking free on one side.
Another shot missed. If I could just hit it one more time&
I did and was rewarded by the entire retroreflector falling down through the frame and into the plasma
ball below me. It had taken almost 45 minutes. I knew without asking that my act of half swinging on the
safety lines was too slow. I would have to risk my entire weight to the flimsy catwalk. I resolved to move
swiftly  things take time to yield and break.
Getting started was the hard thing, like diving into a cold lake. I knew it would probably work  20%
margin in theory  just like you know that, in theory, you ll survive that cold plunge into the lake. But I
didn t feel that way. That catwalk could snap, dumping me into the white-hot splash ball below me. I
stood there, frozen by doubt, and took another look up at our destination, as if that would fix my resolve
again.
It did. As I looked, Mars instantly changed from its normal bright red to an incredibly brilliant purplish
gray. They had started, damn them, and I still had two retroreflectors to disable. I turned to make my
way back to the cabin. Pete, they ve beaten you. Face it. You don t care that much. I could take getting
beaten, but did I want April to see me give up this way  with her Mom s life at stake? Tamika s words
haunted me  suppose things were the other way around? What if it were April s life at stake? Why the
hell couldn t those idiots in charge of the mass beams and the lasers see that  it could be them! What
business was it of theirs to stop me?
I became very focused. Risk to myself and others, feasibility, the whole ambiguity of my mission faded
into the background. I was trying to do something and someone else was trying to stop me. It was now a
contest of will and having come this far, I intended to win it or die in the attempt. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]