Lifeline by Kevin J. Anderson Read Free Book Online

itself, the devastation of their home planet.
    You’re all doomed, McLaris thought. Have a nice day.
    He and Jessie stepped into one of the rapid-lift shafts that led through a spoke of the habitation torus to the central core. At this end of the colony, the zero-G core contained the docking bay for the supply shuttles.
    McLaris squeezed Jessie’s shoulder. “Remember what I told you, Jessie. This is very important.”
    “Yes,” she said with a confidence and dignity that made him want to hug her again.
    Their survival would depend on it.
    As the spoke-shaft elevator took them from the rim to the zero-G core, they felt disoriented as gravity decreased. They fell half a mile in only two minutes. Jessie clung to McLaris’s side, quiet and obedient, but wide-eyed with excitement. The doors opened to the docking bay, and Jessie’s face glowed with wonder when she saw the Miranda.
    McLaris breathed a prayer, relieved that he could see no one else. Though only an hour had passed, Director Roha Ombalal had declared a holiday while he consulted with the division leaders. Unfortunately, McLaris would not be able to make the meeting.
    Stephanie Garland floated out of the shuttle, then looked at her watch. McLaris nodded.
    “Come on inside, Jessie.” The pilot held out her hands.
    McLaris picked up his daughter. Jessie giggled in anticipation. He counted, “One … two … three!” then, bracing himself, tossed her in the zero gravity toward the shuttle-tug. Jessie loved it, laughing all through her brief flight. Garland snagged her, swung her down to the hatch, and took her inside the Miranda.
    After ensuring they were alone in the bay, McLaris sealed the spoke-shaft elevator door. He heard the forceful hiss as the airlock frame set itself against the impending vacuum of space. Moving surely, he pried off the lift’s control panel plate and plucked out the operating wires. As fast as he could maneuver in the zero-G bay, he circled to the remaining five spoke-shaft doors and deactivated them as well.
    He launched himself toward the other side of the bay to where the great titanium doors stood closed against the vacuum. Feet drifting from the floor, McLaris fumbled with the control box and activated the bay door sequence. Rotating magenta lights went on at all four corners of the bay, bathing the silver walls with a flickering glow, like a rippling sunrise on Earth. Red skies at morning, sailor take warning.
    A klaxon sounded twice, paused, then sounded again. A synthesized voice blared from the intercom. “Warning! The airlock sequence has been activated. Please evacuate the chamber at once. The airlock sequence has been activated….”
    McLaris entered the control code on the wall keyboard. Being a division leader had its advantages. The main computer accepted his command. He set the airlock timer to open in one minute.
    When he pushed himself back to the Miranda, he judged his trajectory incorrectly and almost missed—which would have sent him floating to the other side of the cavernous bay. Right now, he had no time to lose on clumsiness. He managed to snare one of the shuttle’s struts, reorient himself, and propel his body feet-first through the hatch.
    He sealed the shuttle door from the inside. With a glance around, he saw that Jessie had already been strapped in. She sat rigidly quiet, looking terrified.
    “We’ve got less than one minute,” McLaris announced as he eased himself into the copilot’s padded chair.
    “One minute! That’s not enough time to depressurize the chamber!”
    “We’re not going to cycle through. I’m dumping it—explosive decompression.”
    Garland’s eyes were wide.
    “It can be done. Emergency procedure.” McLaris shrugged. “It would take an hour to drain the air out of here if we did it by the book. We don’t have that kind of time. Somebody would stop us by then. They can replenish the air from the leftover lunar rocks they’ve got floating around here. I’m just