Free Interzone 244 Jan - Feb 2013 by TTA Press

The first I knew was Murray shouting for
help over the open channel. The Gaffer looked round, swore once,
and headed towards them.
    Diego was without a line, moving steadily
away from the station. As I watched, Murray flung herself after
him. She got her trajectory wrong, would have missed him by a mile
even if her line had been long enough.
    “ Murray,” I said. “There’s
nothing you can do. Come away now.”
    She didn’t reply. She’d pulled herself back
in and was fiddling with her line. She launched towards Diego
again, this time with her secondary line attached to the end of her
primary to give herself more length. She’d got the reach, but her
angle was still wrong. She tried to correct mid-jump. It didn’t
work.
    She pulled in, sighted more carefully, and
pushed off. It was an elegant dive, with the heading exactly right.
Diego held out his arms. She got to within two meters, the line
snapped tight, and she stopped.
    “ Nearly,” said Diego,
softly.
    She held position, looking at him as he
drifted off. She said nothing. He relaxed his arms, but didn’t turn
away. I could see Murray reflected in his visor.
    It seemed a long while before the Gaffer’s
voice interrupted.
    “ Grace, you did good, but
pull in now. We’re going to try and grab him using R-3. I need you
out of the way. Diego?”
    “ You really think an arm
pick-up might work, Gaffer?”
    “ I’ve gone through it with
the operator on duty and she’s confident. Fifty pounds says it’ll
work.”
    Murray was shaken and wary as I helped her
back inside. I watched the footage of the rescue later – as did
most of the Earth’s population. It looked like a slow-motion
ballet. Murray’s dive turned her into a hero.
    * *
    Angela Caldwell avoided me that
evening and the next day. I engineered an encounter outside her
bunkroom, but all she said was “I’m not going to be sent Earthside
over this, Peggy,” and pushed past. A highly visible accident
wasn’t what she’d had in mind, especially as we couldn’t pin it on
Murray. Murray the hero.
    We were kept in for a shift while Caldwell
inspected every piece of kit we used, as per post-incident
guidelines. The following morning everything was back to normal – a
new sort of normal.
    “ Psych has given you a sick
note for the week,” said the Gaffer to Diego. “Why not use it?”
They were both suiting up.
    “ And let you lot mess up
the build? No chance.”
    “ Think you’re irreplaceable
do you, Diego?” said Murray.
    “ Too right,” said Diego.
“You’re barely competent with that podger, Grace.”
    Murray grinned. “At least I don’t wander off
half-way through a shift.”
    They both laughed.
    The Gaffer put his visor down. “Let’s go,
then. Diego, you’re with me to finish the central connector. Peggy
and Grace, you’re together. Secondary lines for everyone.”
    There were no complaints.
    “ Diego and I are doing
another interview tonight,” said Murray as we worked.
    “ You’re quite the media
stars.”
    “ Yeah, everyone loves a
heroic failure, especially when there’s a happy ending.” She was
quiet for a while. Then: “They love an honest whistleblower
too.”
    She hand-tightened a nut, as comfortable
with delicate movements in her gloves as she would be bare-handed.
I thought hard. I’d missed my chance to get rid of her; negotiation
was my best option. If she talked I’d be in serious trouble.
    “ The media might like
whistleblowers, but bosses don’t,” I said. “You’ve made a good
start here. Why spoil it?” She stopped working. I pushed on. “What
about Diego? If you go public tonight, he’ll be associated with
you. It’ll end his career too.” I paused to let it sink in. “How
about we increase your cut to thirty percent from the start and say
no more about it?”
    “ You tried to kill
me!”
    “ Thirty-five.”
    “ I want you out of
here.”
    “ That’s the plan.
Thirty-five, and I move groundside as soon as I can.”
    “ No.”
    I