“All right. I’m entering the code now.” There was a loud beep, and the door in front of Glass slid open.
For a moment, all she could do was stand there and stare as she got a clear view of space for the first time. Now she understood what Luke meant, when he said that it was beautiful. The darkness was rich, like the velvet her mother had made into a skirt once, and the stars sparkled against it, so much brighter than she’d ever seen them through a window. For once, the hazy gray sweep of Earth looked more mysterious than frightening. It was incredible to think that Wells was down there, walking around, breathing… if he’s still alive, the cynical part of her brain added.
“Go for it,” Luke’s voice whispered in her ear.
She took a deep breath and reached out for the first handle, forcing her gloved fingers to wrap around it and pulling herself through the door.
And then she was in space, grasping a single handhold while she stared into the dizzying sea of stars and gas just waiting to swallow her whole. Behind her, the door closed with a thud.
Glass swung herself around, briefly reveling in the thrill of weightlessness. Then she saw the path to Phoenix, and her mouth felt suddenly dry. It had never seemed that long when she was running to see Luke, but from this perspective, it looked endless. She would have to make her way around the entire side of Walden before she could even see the skybridge.
You can do this, she reminded herself, gritting her teeth. You have to do this. One at a time. She moved her left hand to the next rung, then pulled her body across. In the absence of gravity, it required minimal effort, but her heart was pounding at an unsustainable rate.
“How are you doing out there?” Luke’s voice echoed in her helmet.
“It’s beautiful,” Glass said quietly. “Now I understand why you were always so quick to volunteer for this.”
“It’s not as beautiful as you.”
Glass swung from handhold to handhold, falling into a rhythm. “I bet you say that to all the girls from mission control.”
“Actually, if I remember correctly, I’ve used that line on you before,” Luke said. Glass smiled. Back when they used to sneak to the solar fields, they would look at the stars through the window, and Luke would always tell Glass that she was prettier.
“Hmm. It sounds like you need some new material, my friend.” She swung to the next handle and risked a glance back. She couldn’t see the release door anymore. “How much farther?” she asked.
“You’re coming up on the skybridge, which means you’ll have to be careful not to let anyone see you. There’s a second set of handles under the bridge. Use those, just to be safe.”
“Got it.”
She moved steadily along, trying not to think about what would happen if something went wrong with her suit, which suddenly felt very fragile, a flimsy protection from the vacuum of space.
The skybridge appeared in the corner of her eye. It was still barricaded, with an airtight barrier between the Walden and Phoenix sections. Crowds of people still swarmed the barrier from the Walden side, helplessly pounding on it, hoping to break through. As she got closer, Glass saw the second set of handholds Luke had mentioned, the ones that led under the bridge instead of along the side. There was a significant gap between the last rung of the set she was on and the first rung of the next set—much too far for her to reach.
Glass paused. If she pushed off the side of Walden with enough force, she could throw herself in the direction of the handhold. Even if she missed, the worst that could happen was that she’d float for a few seconds until Luke retracted the wire and pulled her back toward the ship.
“Okay, I’ve got to jump to the next handhold,” Glass said. She twisted her body so both feet were against the side of the ship and stretched her left arm out so she’d be ready. She took a deep breath, tensed her muscles, and pushed off, grinning at the brief sensation of soaring through space.
But she’d apparently overestimated the force she’d needed, because she flew right past the handhold, her fingers grasping at nothing but empty space.
“Luke, I missed it. Can you pull me back in?” She’d started to spin and was losing her sense of direction. “Luke?”
His voice never came.
All Glass could hear was the sound of her own breath. She kept spinning, farther and farther from the ship, the wire rapidly uncoiling behind her. “Luke!” she screamed, flailing her arms.
“Luke!” she called again, wheezing as the oxygen seemed to vanish from her helmet. She’d taken too big a breath, and needed to wait for the ventilation system to readjust. Don’t panic, she told herself. But then she caught a glimpse of the Colony, and gasped. She’d already drifted too far—Walden, Phoenix, and Arcadia were in view, and growing smaller by the second. The wire seemed far too long. Should it have caught and snapped her back toward the Colony by now? Then another thought hit her, sharp as a knife. What if the cord had broken? Glass knew enough about momentum to know that unless she collided into something, she would keep spinning in the same direction. In ten minutes, her oxygen would run out, and she would die. And then her body would keep floating, forever and ever, into the distance.
She felt herself crying and bit her lip. “Luke?” she asked, trying not to use too much breath. Her head hurt from the disorienting spinning. Every time the Colony flashed into view, it was smaller. This was it.
Then there was a sharp, violent tug on the front of her suit, and the cord went taut. “Glass? Are you there? Are you okay?”
“Luke!” She had never been so happy to hear his voice. “I tried to jump, and I missed the rung, and then—what happened?” The wire began to slowly retract, pulling her back toward the ship.
“We had some… unexpected visitors in the control room, people scavenging for supplies. Don’t worry, I took care of it.”
“What do you mean?”
Luke sighed. “I had to knock them out. There were four of them, Glass, and they wanted to—” He paused. “They weren’t being friendly. You were in danger, and I couldn’t take the time to explain what was going on.”
“It’s okay. I’m okay.” Then she caught sight of the skybridge, and the series of handholds. She flexed her fingers in anticipation. There was no way she was missing it this time.
“I’m almost there,” she told Luke. The handhold was approaching rapidly. Glass stretched out her arm, fixed her eyes on it, and reached out—“Got it!” she shouted as her fingers locked onto the metal rung.