Free Dar's Adventures in Space 1: Space Crazy by K. Rowe Page A

seen death before?”
    Dar shook his head. “No, sir.”
    “What are your feelings?”
    “Confused and a little angry. Rokit was my friend.”
    “Understandable. But you know now what it means to be part of a freighter crew…Not all is Kruelian roses in this job.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “We’ll be putting into Cataris, and they have a pretty good shopping area…How much drig do you have?”
    Dar cocked his head in contemplation. “About five hundred.”
    “Enough to get your Catarin hide clothes you’ve been wanting.”
    “Yes!”
    “I’ll take you ’round to the place I get mine…He’s a good friend, and I usually get a deal.”
    “Thank you.”
    Gwog stopped for a moment. “Continue working with Jartis. Now that I’m down an assistant engineer, he’s going to need help.”
    “Yes, sir, I will.”
    Jartis hurried toward them. “Captain, we have a little problem.”
    “What?” Gwog replied.
    “I tried to bring the warp engines on line and I got nothing.”
    “Think it was from the asteroid hit?”
    “Probably,” Jartis said. “May have damaged the external flux intake.”
    “Well, can you go out and have a look?”
    “I was hoping to avoid that.”
    Dar looked at Jartis. “Out?”
    “Yes, out looking for damage to the ship.”
    “A spacewalk?”
    Gwog studied Dar for a moment. “Might as well take him, he’s gonna have to learn some time.”
    “I get to go out in space?” Dar said excitedly.
    “Yes, yes—and it’s not just fun and games, this is truly dangerous,” Jartis stated. “Come on, let’s get going. I wanna get to Cataris.”
    Dar followed Jartis to the crew equipment room. Jartis dug around until he found a spacesuit that would fit Dar. He helped him into it, then dressed in his own. They clonked along the catwalks, heading toward the shuttle bay. There, they would leave the safety of the ship via the containment field, and make their way to where Jartis suspected damage.
    “Mark my word, Dar; one wrong step and you’ll be floating lost in space…The Ontarrin solar winds are strong in these parts, no wonder we ran into an asteroid belt, probably got blown off course.”
    “It can do that?” he asked.
    “Yes, it can. A really strong solar eruption can even knock a planet off axis or out of alignment.” They stopped in the shuttle bay and Jartis put on his helmet. “Come on, let’s go.” He helped Dar with his helmet. “We have quite a walk ahead of us. There isn’t any place to run a safety line, so you better be careful with your magnetic boots—they are your lifeline.”
    Dar nodded. “Yes, sir.” He followed Jartis to the edge of the shuttle bay. Ahead of him: the blackness of space. A few stars shined, but mostly it felt like a piece of black cloth had been draped over his face. He reached down and switched the electro-magnets on his boots.
    “Ready?” Jartis asked as he checked Dar over one more time. It was bad enough losing one crew member today, he didn’t want to lose another. And he liked the youngling anyways.
    “Ready.”
    “Let’s go.” He stepped outside of the protective force field, his boots making loud clacking noises as they contacted the metal hull of the ship.
    Dar waited a moment, watching Jartis. He didn’t want to make any mistakes. Taking in a deep breath, he stepped out. “Oh,” he said softly.
    “Feels funny, huh?”
    “I’m floating in my suit.” He took a few steps toward Jartis.
    “As long as you’re not in your suit and floating away, we’re fine.”
    Dar laughed, it felt strange. “This is so cool!”
    “Ah, ah, remember, we’re here to work.”
    “Yes, but this is really fun.”
    “No it’s not. One wrong step and you join Rokit in the frozen depths of space.”
    “I’m being careful,” Dar replied. They walked along for quite some time. “Do we have enough air?”
    Jartis looked at the gauge on his wrist. “Yes, about half an hour left.”
    “And that’s okay?”
    “Yup.” He stopped near a large