Free The Apprentice Starship Engineer: Book One The Link by Daniel Hanks

will allow you to work in space for twenty-four hours.” He put on his suit.
    I fumbled with the plug. Bob gave me a hand. The gloves at the end of the coveralls were bulky but useable. I picked up Margret and plugged her into the suit.
    Bob nodded in approval. “Kid, never go out alone. If your suit alarm goes off for any reason, return to ship pronto. If your buddy’s suit fails or he has to return for any reason, you’ll return with him. We’ll be in constant communication on this outing. Today you’ll stay close to me. We also are going to use the propulsion units. Stay inside the bubble. Cross it and you’ll be shredded by the warp fields. Don’t go in front of the bending ring either or the same thing will happen. Set your safety limits at seven hundred meters from the ship and the bender ring.” He handed me a helmet. “Your suit is number five. It has green strips on your arms and legs and on the helmet. Green is five. Don’t use my helmet. It’s yellow number four. By the way, Jack is brown number one. You can use his helmet as far as I’m concerned, but you might not like it. Remember the colors so you can tell who is who.” He headed toward the airlock as he put on his helmet.
    Margret called, “Bob is calling. Should I connect him?”
    “Ah, yeah, of course.”
    “Drake, did you set the limits?” Bob asked.
    “Right. Margret, set the limits at seven hundred meters and the bender ring,” I said.
    “Set,” Margret replied.
    “Keep our connection open, Drake.”
    “Margret, keep this connection open,” I said.
    “Open,” she said.
    “Drake, here is the airlock inner control panel. As you can see, these lights show the status of the airlock. This green light indicates it’s pressurized and we can enter,” he said. Bob hit the door button. I followed him. “This button closes the door, and this one starts the depressurization. Both of our AIs are talking to the lock controls, checking our suits and giving the lock control go or no-go signals.”
    I clinched my hands. The gloves felt good. On Mars, Dad and I worked outside in pressure suits, but not as good as these. This will be cake, I thought.
    “Okay, kid, we’re officially in space. Let’s go outside and take a walk.” Bob opened the outer door.
    It’s one of those things many people talk about like a sunset. I could never grow tired of looking at a working bender ring, and mere words wouldn’t give it justice. A bright spot in front of the ship emitted a continual shifting pattern of lightening with green, purple and red bands of light swirling around it. I stood in the doorway, transfixed by the display.
    “The ship’s viewers just don’t get it right, do they?” Bob asked.
    “Wow,” I said.
    “Yeah, wow says it.”
    We both just looked at the display for a few moments, enjoying the show.
    “Okay, show’s over. Jack will have my hide if I don’t get you checked out on the maneuvering unit. Drake, open your icons.” I hit a button on my left arm pad and icons appeared on the bottom of my face shield. “Hit the maneuvering unit icon. It’s the one with the man and a circle around him.”
    I tapped the icon with my glove. A display appeared at the bottom of my face shield with information concerning the maneuvering unit. A bar filled, marking the progress of the unit’s operational check. I touched my face shield and pulled the display to the far left of my screen.
    “Drake, you’re going to love this part. Press the icon for your boosters,” Bob said. The icon changed color to amber.
    “Your maneuvering unit now is active,” Margret said.
    “Now just listen to me before you do anything, okay?” Bob asked. “To use your maneuvering unit hold your thumbs to your index fingers on both hands. Now watch this. If I twist my left hand to the left, I roll to the left. To the right and I roll to the right. If I lift up with my left hand, I pitch up, and down is, of course, pitch down. Moving to the left yaws me to